"How do I do this again?"

My brother-in-law emailed from PEI a week or so ago. He mentioned his brother and fishing and Montague Bay, and I recalled I had a postcard with two fishermen. I thought, I'll mail him that card.

First, however, I had to find it. An hour later I discovered it in the drawer of my computer desk. I could have emailed him 100 times in that hour. But I persevered.

["Frank and Jim catchin' fish in Montague Bay"]

Next, I had to find a working pen. Easy. Same desk drawer. And 30 more were standing tall in a dusty mug on a dusty corner of the same desk.

I thought, What shall I say? This is new to me. Usually I just respond to an email with another email that answers a question or responds to a statement made by the sender. Sometimes two or three brief sentences, often 30 words or less. But the postcard had room for more than my typical response. I had to think. And I thought, I'll say something about all the work he's doing out in PEI on the new house. And about fishing in Montague Bay.

After a sentence or two I was rolling and only had to solve one more writing puzzle. Sign off with 'sincerely yours' or 'yours truly'? I wrote 'cheers', like I do in emails half the time. (For the other half I say 'thumbs up', often using a photo of a thumb in the 'up' position.)

Addressing the postcard was easy. Brother-in-law had it listed at the bottom of the email. But I couldn't copy and paste. I had to write it in the space provided all by myself. I thought, no wonder no one writes letters anymore. All this writing by hand. I wrote down the address and gave my hand a shake to get the circulation going again.

WTHeck! I need a stamp! Where do they come from? I asked.

For crying out loud. I got really frustrated. I thought, will the work never end?

PS. I found a stamp on my wife's desk. She still buys them to send off payments for bills. And shortly after the postcard arrived my brother-in-law emailed the following:

     I got my first piece of island mail yesterday, thank you very
     much for the card, Gord. I will frame that one day and hang
     it in our new old farmhouse. Have been checking the box daily
     for about a week now figuring that your sister would probably
     be the first to send me something so it was a really nice touch. 

PPS. It was worth the effort!

Photos by GH

***

Please click here to read CBC News - the best show in Canada?