Where's the post? Chuck and Karen save the day.

As I write this,  it is still Dec 18, about 20 minutes after I discovered that Dec 19 had no words. I've been reading all the scheduled posts to see if I missed any words and discovered that Dec 25th was devoid of both words and an image. Maybe I had something in mind. Also -- I'm reminded that I made the announcement that Hunter - my son - has gone to work for the PO. I was guessing back in October that by December, I would have some good stories about the inner workings of the post office. Actually, I have enough to start a new blog - but I am going to rein myself in on the story telling.

At some point, I will start sharing some of the information that explains some of what's going on that causes (some of) the post office customers so much frustration. But for now, I will just tell my favorite story of the season.

Hunter chose *rural* delivering rather than city delivering. He is in the heavily populated suburbs where he does not walk from house to house or business to business. He drives a truck and either delivers to mailboxes that are at the curb or fills those giant cluster boxes that you see at apartment buildings and in some neighborhoods.

One day in early December, he saw a flag sticking up on a mailbox indicating that there was a piece of outgoing mail. He opened the box and there was an envelope, no stamp, and childlike printing that said -- Santa. During his training for the job they had not covered letters to Santa so he decided to bring it back to the station even though it was missing a stamp. He figured they would just dump it in the U-dub. I think that's what they call the tub of mail that is probably undeliverable as well as unreturnable and someone else deals with it. He showed it to the supervisor who said - "Oh, we forward letters to Santa to --- "  I have forgotten what he learned -- but they do send them somewhere. I Googled and read a nice article about the volunteers who read and respond to letters to Santa. Now, I have to find out if I can become a volunteer.

https://www.insider.com/letters-to-santa-north-pole-address-2018-12

And, good ol' Chuck sent this image to me - so that I have an image for today. Next year, I hope to observe all of the seasonal holidays. The PO provides the stamps and I like the designs.

Good ol' Karen sent me some wonderful photos of a table scape. She arranged her holiday mail as well as other calligraphic work on the table, covered it with clear plastic. You may see more images at her InstaGram account. Click on this image (at her IG) and then you click side-arrows to see more shots of the table. I should have posted this earlier - but it is an idea that would work at any time of the year. How about John Hancock's birthday which is coming up in January?

https://www.instagram.com/kar_letters/