Thank you. She has been sleeping and hasn't eaten for about 4-5 days. The doctor says it shouldn't be long. We've all been taking turns staying with her around the clock. My wishes to you all for a blessed Christmas Season.

Crosscrescent, I've rediscovered a book on my Nook by Fr. Groeschel called Praying with Our Lord Jesus Christ. I loved listening to him on EWTN until he recently died. He was a priest and psychologist who worked in the very poorest section of New York, I believe. A very faith- filled man.

A small town parish priest had a man with no arms ask for work. The priest said, “I’d like to help you with employment, but I am not sure what kind of work I have that you could do.”
“I could ring the bell in the bell tower of the church.” Replied the man with no arms. “It has been silent for over a year.”

The priest was somewhat perplexed. “How would you ring the bell?” he asked.
“I will run at the bell and strike it with my head.”
To say the priest was impressed with the man’s determination, so he agreed.

The congregation loved the sound of the old bell ringing beautifully again.
Then one Sunday morning the man stumbled slightly just as he meant to strike the bell with his head. The back swing of the bell knocked him out of the bell tower.
He was killed when he hit the ground.

Two people walking by, saw the man fall, and one said to the other, “Who is that?” The second man said, “I don’t know… but his face rings a bell.”

A month later the pastor had a strange man approach him and ask to be the new bell ringer. “It was my brother that had the job until he fell,” said the man. The priest needed another bell ringer and he hired the man.

Again the local citizens were delighted with the return of the bell ringing.

A couple of years following, as the man was pulling on the rope to ring the bell, the rope snapped and he too fell out of the bell tower to his death.

The first person to find his body asked, “Who is that?” Another one said, “I don’t know, but he is a dead ringer for his brother.”

Hi all -
I'm running a library program in February 2018 around Harry Potter. Does anyone have about ten HP stamps that they'd be willing to loan me, please? I'd use them for the event, and then return them --
Thanks for considering,
paper trail

I just love this theme! Thank you Ryan.

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Timelord of Galifrey
Happy Birthday to you!!! :)

I find it tapering off in this area. I have planted several boxes and only a couple have bothered to find them. Not many people planting boxes around here anymore. It is like everyone quit. No events have been organized. Not that I blame anyone for not, they are a pain to organize and get everything done. I was going to organize a get together, but the building I was going to rent raised their prices per hour and is under renovation. Too rich for my pocket book to handle. :( I will keep trying and maybe I will organize an event in this area. Anyway, I miss all the people who use to gather.

yes, I pressed the rude button. Snow is rude. lol

That is so awful....

so painful...

so hilarious that I have to print it out and read it to everyone I know!!!

Thanks for the Friday giggle,
Yosemite

Part of the issue with declines in plants might be saturation.
We're blessed in Massachusetts to have lotsa boxes, so much so that the best places to plant (at least within a close loci for me) already have a goodly number there, and in some cases, probably too many. I find myself going farther afield to find exceptional places to plant which are not already well stocked.

Keeping your mom and your family in my prayers.

Thank you.

I was going to organize a get together, but the building I was going to rent raised their prices per hour and is under renovation. Too rich for my pocket book to handle.

You don't have to actually rent a place. An event can be as informal as having everyone show up at the local burger joint for an hour or two. =) Perhaps there won't be a lot of letterboxing at the property, but it's still a way to swap war stories, share personal travelers, exchanges and organize groups for going to a local park if weather permits.

I'm rather fond of the small, informal meetups. Ask anyone who's ever met me at Pegasus Pizza in Seattle. ;o)

-- Ryan

Being so busy of late, I may be a tad behind the times - So pleased that even though there are no current carves for Paul, some of his lovely cabinets are still available in the City for boxers to enjoy. When I first started in letterboxing ten years ago, I always marveled at his style and creativity. It is nice to see this box honored as a Box of the Week!

Wendy

I just found this one a few weeks ago, and after a few visits to the store and emails with the manager, they were able to recover it! Still working on the others - some shops where somebody has heard about the letterbox but can't find it, others where nobody working there now ever has heard about or seen it.

In the Minneapolis area, we're working on refreshing the cities, so there are more and new boxes to find, as many of us older folk have played this city out, pretty much. For us, it's become more about the relationships and what we can do together for the hobby. Pretty cool.

oh, and Ryan, we all didn't get as old as we are now by sheer luck. ;)

I've been retired since the 1990's, but SWMBO didn't retire until two years ago. I expected that once she retired our letterboxing activity would increase dramatically because we'd be free to travel when and where we wanted. Plus, she really loved travelling when we were younger. Exactly the opposite has been the result, though. She never wants to go anywhere, and if/when we do travel I feel like she's only going along with it because she knows I want to. She loves our lives here at home and sees no reason to ever go anywhere. What's more, our time is so filled with -- well, doing nothing, really, but doing it together, it's true that once you retire you don't have time for anything -- that I don't have anywhere near as much time for carving stamps as I used to. I think I've only carved one in the past month.

There's been a second factor, too. We have a pretty healthy stock portfolio and diversification is always good. She always wanted to own a lake, and every time she got ahold of a newspaper (we don't subscribe) she'd glance over the classifieds to see if any good deals on land were listed. After the 2008 mortgage crisis, real estate prices plummeted, so one day she was looking through the classifieds and I said "Y'know, if you really want to buy some property, now would be a good time." We put a couple of months into shopping around and ended up buying 72 acres with a small lake only about 15 minutes from our house. It's beautiful property and we've set up three picnic tables on it, so a coupla times a week at least we drive out there and just sit and read - or carve. I do more carving there than here. But we don't go there in the summer because it's too hot and overgrown, it's a fall-through-spring activity -- but so is travelling, we don't like to travel in the summer. So, instead of catching a flight to wherever, she'd rather just drive out to our property and relax. She no longer cares for the hassle of catching a flight, what with getting your junk fondled and photographed, and she doesn't care for motels.

So, put me down as still as eager to letterbox as ever, but nonetheless far less active than I once was.

I love the theme too but then again, I'm a lover of snow !!

...many of us older folk have played this city out, pretty much.

Geocachers are much more attuned to retiring old caches and planting new ones to always give people something new to hunt. Of course, they're not retiring a lovely stamp and log book, they're just retiring a rusty ammo can full of Happy Meal toys -- and they can reuse both with their new plants. But just the same, perhaps we should put more effort into "updating" boxes just to keep things fresh. We all know of boxes that are all-time classics that should remain active as long as they can, but we also know of boxes that are just meh. Perhaps the meh ones should be retired and new boxes planted, and perhaps we could take our time planting the new boxes so each one is really special.

I just held a Harry Potter event and have a bunch of stamps. There is someone else who wants to borrow them, if she doesn't want to during feb and you can get them back to us by when she needs them, then you can borrow them.

We put a couple of months into shopping around and ended up buying 72 acres with a small lake....

Plenty of places to walk around naked now.... AND SKINNY DIPPING TOO!!!!! =)

-- Ryan

This is another idea you'll eventually find does more harm than good. When the substrate is too soft you'll start picking up stray marks in the stamp

Interesting. I've been using foam for several years and haven't noticed this problem. Maybe I'm not applying enough pressure in the first place so that is why the images are better with the foam underneath?

I remember when a couple of years ago, Carole of DKK coordinated cards from some of us to Paul (he's living in NYC now I believe) so we could share what his beautiful boxes meant to our letterboxing careers......his are all the best of the best if you ask me and I'm glad some of them are still available.

I was really happy to see this pop up too- I'm glad you (and the shop) found it! I've had zero luck when trying for some of the others. I did speak to the manager of the bookstore- he remembered it immediately and said it was in the basement somewhere. He said he was too busy at that moment to go look, but to email him and remind him. I did, but with no luck.

but there's still a high volume of creative and clever content being produced, just in different forms and at different rates.

Oh, I totally agree. I just meant I'd like to see less emphasis on stats. There are still many great boxes out there and more being planted.

And as has been discussed before, different people look for different qualities in a box/hike/location/stamp/etc. I think that is what keeps it interesting for many people.

This is the number one rated theme.

:::::GROAN:::::

bahahahahaaaa

You need help. Is there 12-step program for this?

LOL!!!

We boxed out our area a LONG time ago and rarely are new boxes planted around here, probably because this is such a touristy part of the state; the beach & L'boxing aren't necessarily great companion activities.

That's what I tell myself anyways...

We have also noticed a definite decline in finders of our boxes which we kind of attributed to the painted rock craze over the past year or so?

Boxing is not a regular part of my daily life but we still enjoy it when traveling.

The best and everlasting part is that I have made some really terrific friends through L'boxing over the years!

Is all about ebbs and flows....we are in an ebb at the moment but hey you never know, a flow might be right around the corner.

Three Flamigos

perhaps we should put more effort into "updating" boxes just to keep things fresh

I have been revisiting all my local boxes in plant date order and pulling some of those that have grown "stale", no finds in several years, all the local boxers have found them, meh, etc. Either I'll plant new ones in the same general area or maybe another local boxer will. Some of the clues have gotten outdated and so time to spruce things up some.

PI Joe

ended up buying 72 acres with a small lake only about 15 minutes from our house.

This sounds like the perfect place to host an event. Bring the people and letterboxes to you!!

~Aurora

I can’t seem to get the clue link to work??