Postcards

Postcards from Big Bend

It has been a whole year since we were in the middle of the BKR and took a week off to visit west Texas. And it has been nearly as long that this post has been in my blog’s drafts folder awaiting completion. I don’t know why I didn’t ever finish it in the beginning, but I do know why I didn’t for the last 6 months or so, out of sight is out of mind. On the site’s backend admin page there was a spot that listed your drafts front and center when you logged in, but on one of the updates to the WordPress software that item for some reason disappeared. I recently discovered this during another update and now the drafts are listed again. Anyway…

Whenever I go on a big vacation I try and send back a postcard to each of my co-workers along the way to let them know I’m having a good time not at work while they are having a not so good time at work. This time when I mailed out the 6 cards, instead of writing something different on each card as I went, I took a blurb from the Big Bend National Park website and an explanation as to why the cards all came from the same spot this time, divided them into 6 somewhat equal chunks, one for each postcard and sent them off. I was hoping they would get the card, read the partial phrase, scratch their heads, compare notes and then put the cards together like a big jigsaw puzzle and marvel in my creativity. I put a #1 at the bottom of the card that had the beginning of the phrase to get them started.


[spoiler]No one comes to Big Bend by accident and most would say it is a big effort just • to get here. Once here, many decide that it is just big enough for them to want • to stay for a lifetime. Big Bend National Park encompasses over 800,000 • acres. You could stay forever and not see every nook and cranny. It’s a little • piece of paradise that most are unaware of. This is one of the least visited • parks in our National Park system. So even the solitude and the quiet are big here.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]We usually don’t have any • trouble finding postcards from all • the neat sights we see • on vacation, but Texas proved • the exception, so everyone gets • one from the same place.[/spoiler]

So much for curiosity and/or teamwork, each person got their card, looked at the pretty front, read the back, wondered if I might have been tired, drunk or just plain crazy from the heat, and pinned the postcard to their cubical wall. It wasn’t until I got back, gathered everyone’s cards together and showed them what I had done that they went, “Ahhhh.”

This year I may buy a post card, write out an individual sentiment on it, then cut it into 16 pieces, throw that into an envelope and mail it to them. Oooh, I just had an even better idea, but I don’t want to spoil it here…

With the Mountains and the Lakes and the Plentiful Fish

Perth Postcard FrontCourtesy of Uncle Sam’s Cruise Lines I had the chance to visit the land down under back in 1977. The U.S.S. Midway made port in the town of Perth in southwestern Australia for 7 days. Perth is about the same size as Columbia, SC, that is to say a big city, but small town compared to the big cities in the US. From what I remember of it, it was very clean and there were blond-haired blue-eyed people who spoke English, which was a rarity compared to most ports of call in the western Pacific.

Perth Postcard BackTo let everyone know I visiting such a far away land I sent out postcards. This one was to Donna’s younger brother Scott. It was mailed from the ship, hence the 13¢ US postage. Even then I cracked me up. Of course then, like now, I’m the only one who gets my sense of humor. “I have to walk around with my hands in my pockets so I don’t lose my change.” You see? I was down under, on the bottom of the world, I was upside down. If my hands weren’t in them, stuff would have fallen out the top…sigh, oh well.

This postcard surfaced today as Donna was going through another box of photos and such trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the big ol’ pile of Morrison Memories her mom left behind. The back room still has a couple of tables scattered full with images from 1890 to 1990 and she wants to try and get it sorted by sibling and down to a manageable level. I’ve told her that I don’t envy the task, I can’t even throw out a blurry, underexposed digital image of the Aiken High School Marching Band from the local 2003 Christmas parade, I don’t know how she can make the decision to toss a family photo in the waste basket no matter what it’s condition.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 55