I still worry about the post office

I DO worry about the post office. I have been trying to think of things to mail, with more frequency. I know this sounds like 'all talk' from a person who has stopped mailing birthday cards to people with birthdays in the double digits & Christmas cards all together.

About that, really when did birthdays become this THING? I used to be stunned, Stunned when co-workers would tell me that would not be in the office because they always took their birthdays as a personal day (my favorite was a roommate who thought I should take the day as well so we could celebrate; I celebrated by getting paid for my hourly job). Everyone is entitled to use their personal days & everyone should take them but really, some generic recurring day every year? The type-setter I worked with who always took Opening Day at Yankee Stadium every year made more sense & I think Major League Baseball is a scam. I was born without the birthday chip, I guess.

Sooooo, the post office. Not just to benefit the post office (I get something out of too), I organized a quilt block swap & have been really happy with how things went. Due this past week were yellow & blue w/optional white, 6.5" unfinished 9-patches of any kind. We had one person who has a different understanding of yellow & another who really needs a new ruler, but mostly it was OKay. & the post office made, by my guesstimation in the ballpark of $40. It is not much, but it is more than if we had not done the swap.

The swap went so well, actually we have another pending (due the end of April). 6.5" unfinished/6" finished) 4 patch of any kind. The colors are tone -on-tone (light blue with dark blue OR dark green with light green, etc. with white). In theory you will use at least three different fabrics but sometimes the light & dark (& white) can be found in fussy0cuts of the same fabric.

If you are interested send me an e-mail or leave a message here & I will send the complete info (where to mail, deadline etc.).

For those of you who think I am insane, the US Post Office employs approximately 685,000 people, most of them here in the US (there are a handful of employees associated with embassies & actions overseas but by & large this is domestic employment & throughout the country. The post office has large centralized hubs, but employees are spread throughout every major & most minor cities in this country). By comparison, GM (the largest employment-wise of the Big 3) employs approximately 266,000 people worldwide. I could not find the statistic for how many employed within the US, but there are at least of this worldwide count 20,000 in Ontario, Canada. I could not locate anything other than projections for GM's employment numbers in Mexico. I cannot help it, I am more worried about the US Post Office than I am GM & I think maybe other people should be, too.

& yes, I do realize one 20-30 person quilt block swap every other month is not life & death for my litle local post office, but something is happening down there; they have gotten so busy they have added extra pick-ups all five days a week, extended their window hours to 4:30pm weekdays & are getting ready for seed, chick, & other farm-type mailing that should hit the first week of March & continue to the end of May. Family farms are doing what they can for their local post office, are you?