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Mail Delivery Update

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I am happy to report that we had mail delivery every day possible for the past week, and on only one occasion did it come after 8:00 pm.  I spoke with the carrier, who told me that there still isn’t anyone permanently assigned to our route, but that a couple of new Postal Service hires are making it possible for the mail for our route to be delivered on a regular basis.

We needed some good mail news. In fact, I think we need a lot more good news all around these days.

What good news have you run across lately?

34 thoughts on “Mail Delivery Update”

  1. The horticulture columnist in the Fargo Forum reported last week that Victory gardens are on the increase, and that people are planting more vegetables in previously grassy spaces like front yards. I think that is wonderful.

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    2. There is an entire organization for “green gardeners” that I belong to, but I lost the reference to their webpage. Next time they email me I will try to mark it. They encourage “victory garden”-ish kinds of activities.

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  2. In a film I saw at the Festival this weekend (FRFF), I learned that a clinic in Vancouver, BC, is having success getting street people off heroin by legally and in a medical setting) supplying them with gradually reduced doses – turns their lives around dramatically, as you might imagine.
    Could every large city do this?

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  4. Good news: For years we’ve had the extra large, metal, rural mailbox. And while the snow plow never directly hit it, the snow coming off the plow was doing a number on the box. The side would cave in and I couldn’t keep the door shut. Add to that it’s on a swinging post, so when the snow hit it and it was flung to the side, all the mail ended up off in the ditch. You know, where the snow is deepest.

    Two weeks ago I put a new mailbox up. Not quite as large, but wider. Heavier metal. Magnets to hold the door shut and I’m adding the traditional ‘clasp’ at the top so at least there’s a place to tie a rubber band if needed.
    This morning as I left home, I was pleased to see our mailbox was still shut and the neighbors smaller box had been knocked open by the snow. Yay us!

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  5. I’ll probably be remembering films all day… in another (L’eau est La Vie – Water is Life), “fierce indigenous women” in Louisiana were able to force the powers that be to re-route the southern end of the Dakota Pipeline, the “black snake” that threatened their land.

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  6. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    This weekend I was screening applicants for Iowa 4H scholarships. These kids are something else: wholesome, motivated, invested. One of these kids wants to be an animal pharmicist and educate consumers about the condition of our food. They are good news for Iowa (maybe one of them could re-organize the caucuses) and humanity. They made me proud to come from Iowa. Sigh.

    It is supposed to rain here in the desert tonight—always good news.

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  7. I know this is a bit of perversely good news, but we received about ten inches of snow Sunday morning so I’ll be XC skiing at Riverbend Nature Center in Faribault this afternoon in what I presume will be ideal skiing conditions. 🙂

    Winter in MN–love it or leave it.

    *BSP* My novel, Straight River, has “ascended” to the semifinals of the Chanticleer Book Reviews CLUE Book Awards for Suspense & Thriller Fiction.

    BUT, before you start showering me with praise, be warned that this contest, while legitimate for the most part, has interesting levels of criteria. First, there was the “long list.” Fifty-five (55) books. Okay, not bad. Maybe there were several hundred entries, so in the top 20% or so is decent.

    Then a month or so ago, I was notified that Straight River had been “shortlisted.” Woohoo, I think. But when I check the list, I see that there are FORTY-FIVE (45) books on that list. Okay . . . kind of a strange definition of “short” but at least it’s shorter than the long list.

    Then a week or so ago, I get the “SEMFINALIST” email! Wow, I think. This list must truly be down to FIVE, or maybe TEN books. A respectable list size, right?

    WRONG!!!! The CLUE Awards define “semifinalist” as one of THIRTY-ONE (31) books. Well, sure, the number of books on the list dropped by about a third. That’s pretty good, huh?

    *Sigh* (Faint praise indeed.)

    From what I understand, the next level is the winner of the category. (???? One winner from 31 semi-finalists??

    HERE’S THE CATCH. A bit of research and reading the announcements shows me that this is a thinly veiled marketing tool to entice all us authors to buy tickets for an author’s conference sponsored by Chanticleer out in Bellingham, WA in April. *LOL*

    OF COURSE, they want a lot of “semifinalists” so they can SELL A LOT OF TICKETS to the conference! Hey, it’s “only” $575 for three days, plus an awards dinner where all the “semifinalists” get their names announced at the ceremony. And don’t forget travel expenses and a hotel for three nights and car rental too.

    So here’s my dilemma: is it worth it to spend about $1500 to sit in the audience at the awards banquet on the one-in-thirty-one chance that I win the category? WELL, DUH! I don’t think so.

    For some strange reason, I’m expecting to get inundated with emails from Chanticleer asking why I haven’t registered for the conference. That’ll be interesting. Stay tuned.

    ** I’m reminded of George Carlin’s classic line about every child being “special” and the need for everyone to think they are the best at whatever the activity is. When a kid loses at something, anything, Carlin said, “No one says ‘You lost, Bobby!’ Now they say, “You were the last winner.” And say it with a smarmy, helicopter-parent tone of condescension and false pride. I’ve enclosed the youtube clip. The bit I referred to starts at about 3:30. But the entire 10 minutes is hilarious. Be warned that it’s Carlin, so it contains many curse words (most of the Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television).

    ANYWAY, I’m done. Got carried away, but on this post-Academy Award day when it seemed that every nominee in the auditorium was a winner (if all the real winners could be believed that they thought all the other nominees were just as worthy.)

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. Sounds like entering the Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes, which I did once. It was a never-ending string of “one more entry” to be included in the supposedly ever shrinking pool from which the winner would be drawn. With the tiny difference that I didn’t have to write a book first. Good luck, whether you go or not.

      That said, Chris, Bellingham is a great place to visit or live. So, if money is no object, why not? I’m sure April is a really nice time there.

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      1. Probabl nice, PJ. I’ve been there in summertime. But money’s always an object for me since I’m so frugal. Plus, I’m seriously trying to break even with this writing gig before I die and dropping a wad like that to generate maybe a few extra book sales isn’t cost effective. Plus, the writing conference workshops and sessions don’t look all that interesting to me. I go to the UW Madison conference every spring and some of those sessions are getting a bit redundant. But it’s much cheaper overall and I’ve made some great networking friends and contacts.

        Chris

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      1. Yes! He emailed me to tell me that the Antiques Roadshow broadcast out of Bonanzaville, ND had featured a WWI helmet from my home town with the name of a fellow I knew from my childhood. I let my hometown Facebook group know about it and they are excited.

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        2. Look up Bonanza farms. Huge tracts of land purchased by companies in the 1880’s or later to grow enormous tracts of wheat. Bonanzaville is a preserved park from the era.

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