Some Fun in Retirement

I'm trying to find some creative things to do in retirement -- especially here in a Minnesota winter!
by Charlie Leck

I've created a line of postcards. I don't think I'll ever sell them. I don't have the tenacity to sit at some outdoor market or art fair, trying to hawk postcards that I print right here in my own comfy study. I don't have the nerve either. Yet, I do have one good customer -- c'est moi, as they say in Avignon (that place has been on my mind a lot lately).

My thought is that, if I produce a number of these postcard designs, I might begin writing more notes to family and friends by hand. The art and kindness of the hand-written note seems to be disappearing in this era of email. It's ineludible, I guess. Nevertheless, I urge you to fight this inevitability.

I'll tell you one of the secrets about nice postcard notes. It's nice postage stamps. Don't just put some very unsurprising and common flag stamp on your nice postcards. Go searching for something else that's appropriate either to your message or to the theme of the postcard itself.

Do I sound at all like Martha?

This afternoon I'm going out looking for a better weight, or thickness, of paper than I have here at home among my photo stock.

So, don't be surpised if you get a postcard from me one of these days just to let you know I'm thinking about you!

Change of Subject
By the way, the wonderful Trout & Caviar Blog I've sent you to a couple of times lately has a new post today with suggestions on making a Southeast Asian style chicken noodle soup. It sounds wonderful. You might want to give this one a try. I'm doing some short ribs tonight, but I'll try this soup very soon.