Not an Oasis

When you think of an oasis, you may envision palm trees and lush tropical growth, shade, and warm breezes. You may even imagine exotic women with long eyelashes fanning you with palm fronds as you sip on a drink with a little umbrella in it, but that's none of my business. Whatever the case, an oasis is a respite from the harsh surroundings. The official definition is a fertile area in a desert region where the water table approaches the surface.

So, does this qualify? (I do see some water approaching the surface in the ditch.)

When I dream of an oasis, it does not look like this. In fact, freeways do not enter into my dreams ever, unless they are nightmares. Some day, when you are truly my captive audience, I will tell you all about my driving and freeway nightmares. In the meantime, if you consider this an oasis, I would love to know why.

Best Birthday Wishes

Best birthday wishes to the architect who steals my covers and occasionally leaves anonymous comments on this blog. May you have a bright and wonderful day, all the covers you need, and a year full of fun and adventure.

Here are the backs of the cards in the same order.

Thanks to All of You

I learn a lot from this blog, mostly by researching the posts and reading your comments. You often see or know things that I don't. I also learn a fair amount from Statcounter, which tallies the number of visitors per day, where they came from, and what search words may have led them here. From these numbers, I can see that there were just under 40,000 unique visitors last year and over 76,000 page views, and that nearly 60% came from the United States, but the rest came from over 40 other countries, including Bulgaria and Libya (Hi Muamar!)

Top Three Blog Posts
But those are just numbers. I'm always interested (and often baffled) to see which pages are the most popular. Alas, they are never my favorites. In fact, it's safe to say that my favorites are generally the least popular. Here are the top three most visited pages:
1. Princess Grace and Prince Rainier
2. Sepia Saturday - Vintage Bicycle Racing
3. Victor Bicycles - Overman Wheel Co.

I think it's fair to say that the Princess Grace card got thousands of views only because it was featured in the online version of Vanity Fair with a link back to this blog. I'm not surprised by the popularity of the bicycle pictures. They will always be popular.
But, if I had to choose my three five favorites,  it would have been these:
1. Tracy Has A Headache
2. Whatever Happened to Hazel Vera Holbrook?
3. Don't Tell the Beauty Parlor
4. Streetcar Sunday - Robbery in Troy, New York
5. From Paris to Miss Annette Markoe

Unusual Searches
I am surprised by some of the more unusual searches that lead to this blog, including:
How to draw the Golden Gate Bridge
Maternity corsets
and most recently, Slovak Christmas greetings.

A few other notable blog happenings of 2010:

1. Tracking the postcard story of Tracy Graham from Delhi, New York eventually led me to his daughter Bernice, who is alive and well and knew nothing of these postcards.  I was as thrilled to return the cards to her as she was to receive them. Since then, she also sent me a very beautiful serving tray with the image of a vintage postcard on it. 
2. A video production company from the U.K. contacted me and requested a higher resolution scan of the Portstewart tram to use in one of their productions.  I haven't seen it, but the film is entitled Lisbon Trams - A Driver's Eye View. Portstewart is in Ireland, not Portugal, so I guess I won't know what the connection is unless I watch the video.
3. I also received a request from a soon-to-be-opening waterworks museum in Boston for copies of whatever Boston cards I have. I'm not sure I have anything that will be useful to them, but I sent them what I had.

I hope this blog has kept you entertained in 2010, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your visits and comments throughout the year.  If there is something you would like to see here in 2011, please let me know.