I Pray You Have No Bills Today

Please Don’t Be Bad News!

When I originally started this blog, I had (and still have) a couple hundred pictures I took of local curbside mailboxes. I wanted to share them and offered a bit of a taxonomy that broke them into various categories, e.g. Brick, stone, wood, etc. I also created a category for my favorites, which were the whimsical ones; the ones that weren’t necessarily all that well-crafted but were definitely interesting and, frequently, somewhat funny.

Then, along came Pinterest. I have found a huge collection of photographs from around the country, even from around the world, of interesting and whimsical mail boxes. I am going to share some of them as time goes by though, if you’re a member of Pinterest you can pretty easily find them yourself. Nevertheless, I will offer some of my favorites as well as continue posting some of the local ones I’ve found. Hopefully, I can pick up the pace a little. It’s been quite some time since my last post. I’ll try to remedy that.

Here’s one I found that is not local but is quite clever. Hope you like it.

 

Now These Folks Have Their Priorities Straight!

Not Sure That Trash Can is Big Enough!

I have been very lucky to receive at least a half dozen pictures from friends – and even someone I don’t know – of some very interesting mailboxes. This one actually belongs to the person who sent it to me, a friend and fellow citizen of the fair city of Simi Valley; truly a little slice of heaven here in Southern California.

This little baby was designed and constructed by the homeowners who sent it to me. I love the use of logs and stone for the basic construction and that’s a cool piece of driftwood. Check out the wall intersections and, especially the detail in the door. I think it would have been cool to plant real grass on the roof, but that probably would have involved too much maintenance, so I’ll give ‘em a pass.

I especially like the addition of the trash can. One of the reasons I think snailmail is going the way of the Dodo is represented by the uselessness of junk mail. I’m of the opinion it’s a nuisance and an incredible waste of resources, analogous to the Yellow Pages, for which I recently saw an infographic that pointed out some 70% of the people who receive the book don’t use it and only 23% bother to recycle it. I recycle ours and virtually all  of the junk mail we receive never gets read and ends up in the gray recycle can.

I asked my friend if they’ve ever been able to convince their mail carrier to actually put junk mail in the can, but was informed the can is actually sealed. I have a feeling it would be a federal offense for anyone other than the recipients to do that, but I thought it worth asking.

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If you see an interesting mailbox (suburban – actually, rural would be cool too – curbside), and you have or can take a picture of it, please let me know. I’d love to add it to this collection . . . which is no longer mine. I’m just the curator now.

 

This One Needs Some Wood

Could You Make Up Your Mind, Please?

I’ve still got a rather large number of photos and what I’m doing is going through my media here on WordPress and picking out the ones I like the most or that I think have something to say. So this one is kind of interesting in that it uses several design elements all in one mailbox.

It’s interesting to me that the ivy is climbing up the brick and has covered a considerable amount of it, but there’s nothing growing in the planter save for a couple of scraggly flowers. That little lantern also looks kind of forlorn and out of place.

I’m thinking this is all intentional as the ivy looks to be closely cropped and, presumably, well maintained. Not how clean the lines of the roof are. If they were to add just a little bit of wood somewhere, perhaps a whimsical addition like a window box or some faux shutters, they would have just about used every design element I’ve encountered. Now that would be interesting, I think. I have no idea if the lantern actually lights up, as I also have no idea where this mailbox is and I’m not going out searching for it any time soon . . . especially not at night.

 

Saguaros Can Be Useful Too!

Perfect for the Dry Climate

I know – metrics are really helpful to do that (know, that is) – very few people visit this blog of mine. Nevertheless, it solves a problem I had of where to store the numerous pictures of mailboxes I was amassing. What’s really gratifying to me is that I’ve now received pictures of interesting mailboxes from several friends and even one reader I don’t know from Eve.

This one was posted on Facebook last night by a friend and former colleague of mine at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. He tagged me to be sure I saw it and it surely is one of the more unique and interesting examples I’ve seen in a while. He encountered it in Palm Springs, CA. I don’t know for sure if he was thinking of me when he snapped it, but I’m grateful he chose to share it with me and I assume he knew I would want to post it here.

I doubt this is something you can buy out of a catalog, but one never knows. Although the area’s median income is lower than that for the entire state, there are lots of pretty wealthy people who either live or have second homes there and there are lots of retired people who likely have plenty of time on their hands to create something like this. Regardless, it’s a fine specimen.

Palm Springs holds some great memories for me. My family used to go there for three and four day weekends when I was young. We would drive there and, back then, the road was almost entirely two-lane. I would always get a horrible sunburn and have to spend the rest of the weekend in the pool wearing a t-shirt. It sucked, but I was clearly a stupid little kid who couldn’t think past the moment. I think I can reasonably assume these episodes played at least a supporting role in my recent discovery and subsequent surgery to have a Melanoma removed from my lower back (I’m fine. No metastasis – whew!)

I have some other interesting memories of Palm Springs. I think I’ll save them for my other blog – Systems Savvy – where I post far more frequently than here.

 

Typical Wooden House With Flowers

Simple Wooden House Box With Flower Barrel

This is a nice example of a simple wooden house mailbox and another of the more ubiquitous adornments I’ve found, that of the barrel or bucket filled with foliage or flowers. I do like this one’s simplicity and it’s representative of numerous others I’ve seen. If you click on the picture to see the full size version, note the way sunlight falls through the roof slats and draws diagonal lines on the face of the box.

The house itself looks a bit worn, but the barrel seems to have weathered the elements quite nicely. Not sure what kind of flowers these are. Perhaps some kind of Geranium? Maybe a Pelargonium? Wikipedia says they’re often confused and I’m certainly no Botanist. They’re a bit scraggly looking and appear not to be attended to frequently enough; possibly not watered as much as they should be.

I suppose that’s to be expected as it appears it won’t be reached by the sprinkler system they probably use for their lawn. We’re also in an area that doesn’t normally see a lot of rain and frequently experiences moderate drought conditions.

 

Hi There Local Postal Carrier Person

Hi There, Neighbor.

I received the picture I used in my previous post thanks to a reader who told me she found my blog because she and her husband had been searching online for a specific type of mailbox they’d seen down in Florida and wanted to find one for themselves. She requested my email address so she could send it to me, which she did and I posted it as my last update.

Since then, Chris was able to take pictures of the type of mailbox they had been searching for, one of which I’m sharing here. I haven’t seen anything remotely like this in these parts, and I’m grateful she sent me these photos. This one surely gets classified as whimsical.

Clever and colorful, this one obviously required a bit of tube bending and welding expertise. I imagine it extends down into the ground at least a foot to give it stability. Wonder how it would hold up during a hurricane. It is in Florida, though I have no idea precisely where in the state they were when this picture was taken.

Thanks again to Chris (Christine) and Terry for being so kind as to share this with me. I welcome any photos any of you want to send me and promise to share it on this blog within a week or two of receiving it. I would have posted this one a bit sooner but I’ve been consumed with rethinking the business model I’ve been working with and dealing with the consequences of a rather stupid mistake I made. No biggie, but I had to pay a lot of attention to my other blog and some other ancillary matters. Hope you like this.

 

Un Buzón de Correo Muy Caro

Hey! Did Anyone Force You To Buy It?

Update: I received some pictures of the mailbox Chris mentioned (see my next post) when sending this one, and discovered Chris is not a gentleman, though her husband is! Thanks again, Chris.

This is, if memory serves, the first picture I’ve received from a reader I don’t actually know. The picture was taken in Venice, FL last year by a gentlemen who came across my blog while searching for a particular kind of mailbox he wanted to get for his home. He commented on one of my posts and told me he had a picture of a mailbox I might be interested in using.

As I’ve noted before, my favorite curbside mailboxes are the whimsical ones. The mailbox, by itself, is pretty mundane. However, and I don’t have any pictures that fit this particular genre, the practice of naming the home the mailbox represents is surely another classification I need to consider. The name is definitely whimsical and, since it’s in Florida, I think the use of Spanglish makes perfect sense. Now that I think about it, seeing as how it’s in Venice, perhaps it’s fractured Italian?

At any rate, I responded to the comment, sending him my email address so he could forward the picture. Here’s what Chris (his wife’s name is Terry) had to say in a follow-up response to my asking him how he came across this blog:

Google sent me to your blog when I was searching for a certain mailbox style that I have seen down here in Florida, it’s made of bright poles of some kind, probably metal, and in a modern shape and holds the mailbox. If I see another one, I’ll be sure to have my camera ready and will send you a pic! I also thought I wanted one for home! But it’s always nice to come across an interesting blog when searching, and I did enjoy yours!

I hope you find the mailbox you’re looking for, Chris, and I surely hope you get a pic of it and send it on to me. If anyone who reads this blog comes across a mailbox they think fits Chris’s admittedly vague description, please get a shot of it and let me know so I can post it. If you comment on one of my posts, I’ll see your email address and send you mine so you can get me the file. I still have lots of pictures to share but always appreciate seeing other mailboxes that people encounter. Thanks, Chris. Much appreciated.