HOLIDAY GREETING CARDS -- EMAIL TIMELINES

Short holiday letters with no greeting cards for the first time were what I mailed this year.  I guess sending holiday greeting cards are a thing of the past for me now.   Not many left with which to engage in our traditional holiday activity with personal updates, caring messages as we caught up with each others year.  I really miss sending and receiving all those cards and letters as occurred in yesteryear but that was then, and this is now.  Actually, I've also missed letter exchanges throughout the rest of the year, though there have been a few emails, but not quite the same. 

Frank Sinatra 

"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down (And Write Myself A Letter)

Swing Easy!  Album -- 1998 Capitol Records, LLC

What is it with email that when I receive one that I feel I must respond quickly, likely even the next day, or is that just my reaction and others don't feel that way?   I can see such promptness is a good business practice, but should that timeline apply with personal correspondence?

I still remember the days before we had the internet, do you?  How did you stay in contact with friends and family who lived some distance from you?   Did you exchange phone calls -- calls that perhaps were long distance, incurring additional charges?  Did you also exchange letters written back and forth -- handwritten, or typed on those now old-fashioned devices called typewriters, manual or electric?  (I still have two.)

Personal letter exchanges were often spaced weeks or months apart.  After finding time and getting in a writing mood to respond, the letters took a number of days for the U.S. Postal Service to transport, then deliver them.    Corresponding parties were quite accepting of such a time gap in contact.  Then, we got the internet with email.  Suddenly, seems like people began expecting much quicker responses, almost to the point of being instant or, at least next day.   Just how many days can be acceptably allowed to lapse before sending a response to a friend's email?

This came to mind when someone with whom I had recent contact sent me a short email two days after receiving my email noting that life was hectic right then, but a response would be coming on the weekend.  I appreciated receiving that thoughtful note, but it did set me thinking and recalling how years ago if we'd been exchanging letters, a week, maybe two, or even more could have gone by which would have simply been not only expected but quite acceptable by both parties.  There would have been no need to write explaining a delay.  What is an acceptable response timeline now?

This was an issue for me when I first began using a computer, sending emails.  I took my cues about what the expected frequency behavior was from those who were longtime email users now emailing me.  What occurred is that the primary person with whom I was first emailing, other than my adult children, was a new acquaintance.  That person almost always responded to my emails the next day at the latest and if later apologized for the delay.   I concluded this very prompt response was the accepted timeline expected with emails and tried to do the same which often created extreme pressures for me.

Quite some time passed before I began to realize a next day response was probably an ideal business practice, but my correspondence with this person I believed to be personal, not business.  So, I didn't realize until much later I did not need to respond so promptly even though the other person continued the rapid response.    I had begun to feel like a hamster on a wheel trying to keep up before finally ceasing to  do so.  I wish I had known this in the beginning, but I had thought I should follow what appeared to me to be the expected digital internet-world timeline for email correspondence.   

Do you have timelines you follow with email correspondence?  Are they different than when you corresponded with hand-written or typed letters years ago, including business versus personal with family and friends?

HOME CLEAN ENERGY -- CURSIVE SIGNATURE -- LETTERS

A few matters occupying some of my time and attention ......

RAIN – we got lots of soaking-the-ground rain with four successive storms over almost a week to combat the drought where I live – Hooray!  No one in our neck-of-the-woods was subjected to flooding, mud or rock slides, but we usually aren’t -- unlike other areas of Southern California in the Hollywood hills, coastal Malibu area near scenic Pacific Coast Hwy, or wild-fire damaged areas. 

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LOCAL CHANGES -- possible in future for other cities  ......

CLEAN ENERGY OPTION FROM POWER COMPANY

Our city has entered into a program with our electric power company that is providing options transitioning residents power source to clean energy.   Our local newspaper, The Claremont Courier, has offered a two minute plus video link HERE succinctly explaining our choices and what appears to be nominal cost differences.  I will be making a selection.

I wonder if any of you have encountered similar clean energy programs being offered by your community electric power companies?  If not, be aware this may be the future in more communities across the U.S. – or in the rest of the world, too(?).    Your comments and observations about such programs are welcome.

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LIVING COSTS -- going up .....

RESIDENTIAL INSURANCE

After all these years, in the past two we've started receiving notices from utilities, also the city regarding sewer lines, gas lines, disclaiming any responsibility for the integrity of that portion of pipes/lines beginning at our property line to our house should they develop leaks, breakage.  We’re then informed of Insurance for these lines we can purchase and have the cost automatically added to our monthly bill – five dollars more here, and five more dollars there as this contributes to increasing the  cost of living.   We’d already had an increase in general sewage and other fees.

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CITY REDISTRICTING .....

Our city is also changing our City Council composition from electing five city-wide Council members to establishing five defined districts with a representative from each.  Seems there is a purported risk legal action could be taken by others (though presently none immediately threatened) that would cost the city considerable money in attorney fees even if we didn’t need to change.    

One of the issues will be to guard against gerrymandering.   We do have some ethnic /minority groups making up the majority of residents in various parts of our cities.  For example, the report noted a predominance of Mexicans in one area and Asians in another area.   I wonder if this redistricting will bring to the forefront more meaningful representation or accentuate, even invite, more dissension based on what can be politically dividing factors?

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CURSIVE SIGNATURE OBSOLETE – LETTERS A NOVELTY?

I received a letter from my elementary age grandson this week.  We began exchanging occasional letters when he was younger.   His first letters were pictures he drew, then he progressed to printing words, later sentences.   I’m told that he really enjoys receiving letters.  I continue to use block print alphabet letters though he’s of an age now when schools used to teach cursive hand writing.    Then, I recalled, they don’t teach cursive in most schools any more.   That’s a change to which I have not yet completely adapted in my mind. 

We can tell a lot about a person by their handwriting that I don’t think hand printed block letters reveal.  This has been one area of assessment in my professional work which reveals vital fine motor, language, cognitive and other functional skills. 

On a personal level a family member or friend’s handwriting gave even a lay person some indication of a loved one’s physical health and mental status in ways that won’t be as readily revealed with other writing.  But I guess that’s what happens with most change – we lose some features that are useful and hope those losses are offset by more but different benefits than those lost. 

I suddenly found myself thinking – my grandson will have no signature – or at least the traditional signature as I think of it.   Of course, I know credit card companies no longer require signatures on charges.   But a person having no signature – that seems really strange to me as I think of a signature as highly unique and personal that everyone would prize as part of their identity.  

He could develop his signature at any age though, if he wanted one.   Also, there are free web sites that aid in creating a signature in any desired font to use on the Internet with keyboarding which I suppose someone could even practice developing to write in cursive if they desired.   But where would he use a signature?   We no longer are required to sign items – checks are becoming obsolete for financial transactions.

Seems really strange to me that eventually, actually soon, even now, many people will no longer be able to read cursive writing.    I recently heard an anecdotal news tale of a grandmother writing her teenage granddaughter an actual paper and pen letter, but the girl couldn’t read it – thought it was a foreign language.  

Meanwhile, I’m going to continue periodically writing letters to my grandson -- hand printing in block letters as I don’t want to run them on Word and off the printer.   His parents say he really looks forward to receiving my letters in the mail.   I wonder if they are so rare as to qualify for “Show and Tell” at school as a novelty, or would they just be out-of favor -- considered ancient,  old-fashioned and of no interest?   Will they be valuable antiques some day?