The $0.05 Post Card

The five cent post card is long gone,and mailing a letter now requires a second mortgage on one's home (I exaggerate for emphasis..but I digress). As a matter of fact, just in my life time, lots of things have gone by the wayside. I remember when all houses had plaster walls and hard wood floors. Hand fashioned joinery work was the rule of the day. Those properties, unless poorly treated, are still standing and in fine shape 100 years later. Milwaukee's west and far east sides are full of them.

But there are always trade offs. Today we have clap board or, rather, plaster board homes. They go up faster and, for the most part, are easier to repair. Younger people, who have never known quality craftmanship cannot appreciate how things use to be...and will not be again.

Post cards may be far more expensive, but now we have cyberspace with essentially free pixels. No more waiting for that letter to arrive. Heck, you don't even have to leave your house to shop anymore. The WWW has changed everything...well, almost.

Blogs (news blogs, not this one) have become the source of news for many people. It's faster than a newspaper, and you don't have to go out into the cold wearing pajamas to pick it up off the lawn. Most blog sites, such as this, are free to both the reader and the bloger. The site offers the writer a place to sound off and to even upload photos...sometimes.

It seems, alas, that quality in this area is about as good as mass produced radios. Make enough and some will work. If it doesn't, junk it and replace it. It is too complicated and too expensive to repair.

So why am I not surprised to go online, bring up my posting site and find that (without explanation) there is no longer a way to upload photos? Gone. Just not there, and when it is it often doesn't work. No explanation. I even checked the outage for repairs schedule. Nada.

The 5 cent postcard is gone. We now have free electronic communications, and it is worth every penny we pay for it. (sorry for the uncentered title and small headline print...that feature seems to have disappeared as well).

Paddle safe...
DS