2026, Art, Business, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Postal Joy

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I’ve done the math before about how many cards I send out so I won ‘t bore you with the numbers again.  The biggest category is birthday cards – that averages to about 14 cards per month. 

For quite a few years, all birthday cards got the same postage stamp:

The post office also did a “Celebrate” stamp but I used those for anniversary cards and other momentous occasion cards.  Then five years ago, the postal service broke my heart when they announced they were discontinuing both those stamps.  Aarrgghhhh. 

I had a nice supply on hand and I bought a bunch of the Happy Birthday before USPS ran out.  A close friend of mine also gifted me with three sheets of them as well.  I began to use them a little more sparingly.  Six cards a month go to folks in one of my stamping groups – they got moved to the non-HB stamps right away.  Then “outer-ring” folks stopped getting my special stash.  Then the next ring in went to “regular” postage.   I limped along like this for FIVE YEARS.  I used the last one the first week in May.

So I was ripe for the on-line voting that USPS instituted last fall.  They said they were going to bring back some older stamps and let the general public vote.  The site did not have any limits about how many votes you got… .not even any limits on how many times a day you could vote; you gotta love a good loophole. I spent the entire month of September going online every morning and voting for the Happy Birthday option 20-30 times; it only took about 10 minutes a day. 

My persistence paid off.  They made the announcement the first of the year that my favorite stamp would be returning.  They released it on April 18 although the pre-sale went up in March.  The big surprise is that they did a completely new design – it’s in the header photo.  I’m not sure why – it probably cost them more, first for the design itself and then for whatever it takes to produce a new stamp.  Maybe after five years, the old design specs didn’t work anymore.  Who knows.  But no matter – the new design is fine by me.  Technically I like the old look better but I’ll take what I can get.

We won’t talk about how many of them I’ve already purchased.

When was the last time you actually went to a post office?

44 thoughts on “Postal Joy”

        2. During our winters in Arizona we found the same thing. It was hard to believe that it was the same USPS as in Minnesota.

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      3. There were a number of incidents of theft from PO boxes a couple of years ago. I haven’t heard anything lately but we were advised not to put mail containing checks into mailboxes because the stolen checks were being chemically washed to remove all except the signature and then new amounts and recipient added. There was reputedly a black market for the universal keys postal workers use to empty the boxes and some boxes were being physically cut open in the middle of the night.

        Since then, most of the boxes in our neighborhood have been replaced. The new ones lack a door for depositing packages and have only a slot, which is shielded. They also seem to be made of heavier steel.

        I still take mail containing checks to the P. O.

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  2. Last week I went in to mail a package to my sister. I bought stamps (sunflowers) a few weeks ago.

    I still use the mailbox outside the Post Office in Winona – I figure it’s safe enough now that they caught a postal worker who was stealing mail a few years ago. I should look up that story… back later maybe.

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  3. Our condo association has locked mailboxes outside – this has cut down immensely on mail theft. The majority of my mailings go here. The Post Office is only a half mile from my place so it is easy to walk there to mail the really important stuff (like property taxes, insurance premiums, etc.). I get my stamps and mail Christmas packages there as well.

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  4. My dad worked on the mail train between Mpls and Chicago when I was very young and later was a rural route carrier in my hometown for about 30 years so I still feel some loyalty to the Post Office even through all the (bad) changes.

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  5. Our mail box is across the street attached to a post, right next to the box for the neighbor across the street. They are not locked, and are just like the ones for farms. They even have a red flag thingy to let the postie know he/she should take the stamped envelope we left there for mailing. All the mailboxes on our street are on the north side of the street on posts.

    We go to our little post office at least weekly to mail things.

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  8. I went to the post office in April to check the weight on a couple of large envelopes, to see if they needed extra postage. There was no one at the counter when I got there, but an employee called from the back room that she’d be right there.

    While I was waiting I looked at the stamps they have on the display next to the counter and was attracted to the Harriet Powers quilt stamps. So I bought those.

    I have a tiny little picture frame that happened to be a perfect size to frame one of the stamps. The frame had been in a drawer for a couple of years, empty, so it pleased me to find art for the bargain price of 78 cents.

    These are the stamps….https://www.usps.com/ecp/asset/images/488104-L0.jpg

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      1. I have learned recently that each post office is in charge of ordering their own stamps (I had assumed that some centralized computer had an algorithm or something). The two post offices closest to me do an awful job and most times when I visit, they have a pitiful selection. The Edina post office over off Metro always has a good stock but still not as good as online, sad to say. I did see the Harriet Powers stamps online just now.

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  10. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I buy stamps a few times per year and send a package now and then. Our postman, Chuck, seems to have retired. He was so reliable and helpful that I miss him a lot.

    VS, congratulations on your stamp campaign. it took a lot of determination to vote that much.

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  11. I drop off letters at the outside box at the post office fairly often. it helps that it’s on my normal route. Been a while since I actually went inside, but I do it a few times / year.

    We must have gotten a new mail delivery person. Our mail is often here by about 1:00 for the last few months. Prior to that, it could be 7PM or not at all for a few days.

    It’s interesting, there seems to be someone else who will deliver packages to the house. The regular mail is still in the box, but a large package will be brought to the house.

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  12. A couple of years ago, I went often to mail work packages. Sometimes that was fraught (how does a package going from St Paul to Connecticut end up going through Puerto Rico?).

    I’ve found ways to do almost everything online these days.

    My knitting checks were getting sent across the street for awhile, and my neighbor would just text me to come get them (bless her!) I think we have that figured out now.

    Does USPS still pick up an outgoing letter if you leave on your door? I often scheduled package pick up when I was shipping for work.

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    2. Here in SW Mpls, the postal carrier will take you envelopes. I have a clothespin that I use to hold my items onto the mailbox. But exactly like BiR, our delivery times are all over the board, so I quite often drive my stuff to the post office – the drive-thru one…. it’s right on the way to many of my other “usual” errands….

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  13. I agree the new Birthday stamp is a travesty. It looks like someone in the mailroom designed it on their phone during a 15-minute break.

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      1. I thought the old one was more “universal”. The last two weeks when I’ve been using the new ones, I feel a little funny putting them on non-blue cards. Yes, I know – a little silly. But you’re talking to a person who coordinates the color of her zorries to her t-shirts in the summertime!

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      2. If you think about it, and this also applies to the former stamp, a stamp that says “happy birthday” is out of place except on a birthday card. Unless you are Sherilee, you are unlikely to want whole sheets of stamps that only apply if you are sending a birthday card.

        If, on the other hand, the postal service were to put together a sheet of stamps with reproductions of cake art like that of Wayne Thiebaud and Maira Kalman, including some of birthday cakes, the stamps would not be out of place on any piece of mail and still would complete Sherilee’s birthday card ensemble. And they would be a whole lot classier.

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  14. OT
    Just came from viewing The Sheep Detectives.
    Okay. Recommended.
    Few laugh out loud moments.
    Left searching for all the various sheep types depicted.
    Didn’t see myself.
    The famous voices of the sheep were impossible to place.
    Watched siting in front of a group of mentally challenged adults with their attendants. One guy was great as he “baaaed” almost on cue!

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  15. For the last several years I’ve boutght my stamps online but through some third party that must have planned ahead and bought thousands of every Forever release and held on to them until they could still make money even if they don’t chareg the current rate. I pay about 45cents each and get many fun options. I was leary at first, but I haven’t had any scammy feeling and there are a lot of positive comments. I have several sheets of RBG stamps that are my current favorite. My stamp stash will most likely last longer than I will!
    I hit the post office for high priority mailings and packages larger than my kitchen scale can handle. I was astounded when I mailed a book (using the book rate) to my brother in Lindstrom MN and it cost more to mail than I paid for the book. ~Occasionally anonymous

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    1. I was too chicken to purchase from one of those other sites – I’ve seen info about a lot of them being scammers – probably not all but it made me skittish!

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  16. A few years ago the post office offered a set of stamps featuring different kinds of shark. We saved them to use whenever we paid a utility bill.

    More recently there was a sheet of stamps featuring the illustrations from Goodnight Moon. We bought a couple of sheets but still haven’t been willing to use any. Cunning move by the post office…

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  17. Interesting – just saw on FB, from an article in a Wabasha paper: “The US Postal Service released the Bald Eagle: Hatching to Adult Forever stamps during a ceremony at the Nat’l Eagle Center… May 14. Illustrated by wildlife artist David Sibley… 5 unique designs… hatchling to adulthood…”

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