Christmas is Coming?

I got out my paints and brushes, and there's a canvas on the easel.  It's time to start on the painting that will be my Christmas card for 2026.  Of course, the subject of the painting will be a secret until December.

I know that it may seem ridiculously early to be thinking about Christmas.  But I have to paint the picture, scan it, take the image to a printer to have the cards made.  Then I have to make them out so that I have them ready to take with me when I plan to travel back to Ohio in October.  I will get stamps for them (that will cost a small fortune!) and have a friend send them out from there after Thanksgiving.

That has been the routine since I made the permanent move to Mexico.  However, the problem is that that in 2027 I do not plan to travel to the U.S.  You may remember that in April of this year I did an experiment.  I went to a post office here and sent three cards to friends to see how long delivery via the Mexican postal service would take.  

They were sent on April 15th, and the gentlemen at the post office told me they would take between 4 to 6 weeks to arrive.  One card was sent to my cousin in England.  It arrived on May 20th, so that was within the time frame that the postal clerk told me.

Another card was sent to my friend Frank in Ohio.  He has still not received the card, and it has been over eight weeks.  Even more concerning is the case of my friend and former teaching colleague Katie.  She also lives in Ohio.  In 2025 she never received the card which had been sent from a location in Ohio that was just 40 miles away!  When I found out that she had never received her card, I sent another one from Mexico City on January 16th.  She finally wrote me that she received that card on May 19th... four months later!  It only took the Mayflower two months to travel across the Atlantic in 1620!!  The Pony Express delivered mail across the country in 10 days!!  Obviously Katie has still not received the card that I sent in April.

Given the fact that my card to England arrived within the time frame I was told, but the cards to the U.S. have not (plus the fact that Katie never received the first card sent to her from Ohio), I am beginning to believe that the problem is not just with the Mexican postal service, but with the U.S. Postal Service!  The way that the current administration is gutting federal agencies, I have a feeling that the USPS is becoming worse than a third world country!