Onisha Ellis
On the Porch
Do you still send out Christmas cards? I don’t send as many as I did in the past but I do enjoy sending them. As my mom grew older, she turned over to me the addressing of the cards. All of her family lived in another state so of course, it wasn’t just addressing, each card included a personal note. I treasure those memories.
My aunt Barbara was a faithful card sender and as she aged, her son took over writing them. Sadly her son passed way too young due to a brain tumor. I wondered if she would continue the cards. She did. She bought an ink stamp with her name on it. It made me chuckle each year when the card arrived and also touched my heart.
I enjoy receiving cards as well. It is like receiving a love hug in my mailbox. I especially treasure the photo cards. You know the ones the young families send with a picture of the family. I know these can be expensive and I feel honored. I keep them on display all year to enjo. When the newest one arrives, I look at the children and marvel at how quickly they are growing. Then the nests become empty but not for long and the photo cards have smiling babies. Memories are precious.
I’m trying to get my cards sent a little earlier this year. I don’t send a great number but I didn’t have enough stamps on hand, and since it was a cold but gorgeous day, I decided to go to the post office. Now the post office is not my favorite place but I figured they would have a self service machine and I could scoot in and out. They did have a machine, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure it out. Sigh.
I went inside the lobby and joined the line. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. When my turn came, I walked to the service window and asked to purchase one book of twenty postage stamps. I declined the Christmas one, even though the stamps are pretty, The clerk said that will be $13.20. But since I didn’t have my hearing aid in, I wasn’t sure I had heard her correctly. Bummer, stamps have gone up again, I thought. I pulled out my card and glanced down at the processing terminal to verify what I thought she said.
Shock!! The terminal flashed $1,320.00. I pulled my card back and calmly informed the clerk the computer was charging me $1,320.00. She smiled at me like I was senile then looked at her computer. Now she looked shocked. Shaking her head, she swiped the book of stamps again with the same result.
“I know I didn’t swipe it more than once, she mumbled. I would have had to swipe it 100 times.”
“That’s computers for you,” I replied.
She finally was able to convince the computer I was only buying one book of stamps. And suddenly, $13.20 cents didn’t seem as bad.
This is one time I was happy that I didn’t hear correctly. Otherwise I might have mindlessly inserted my card and paid $1,320.00 for 20 stamps with no idea until the card bill arrived. And that would be a nightmare trying to convince the postal service they made a mistake.
Old Things R New 