I've been away for a month and just got home yesterday to a TON of mail from y'all. Thank you so much! It's a little overwhelming really and it took me half a day just to work through it, so it might take a while for me to write back to y'all, but eventually I will! Thank you all so much for making my day!

• u/Libertyprogrammer: Thanks for your card from Hot Springs National Park! Please pass on my greetings to your partner, too. I hope you do get to visit all national parks (ideally world-wide)!
• u/JHs_Army: Thanks for your Heidi postcard! Amusingly I was in the Alps just recently and came across a Heidi themed hotel. Interestingly, the stamps on your card evaded cancellation - perhaps I'll post it back to myself a second time next time I'm in your country, just for fun :D
• u/Pleasant-Cranberry37: Thanks for your greeting card with a gorgeous illustration of a Kingfisher on it! They always remind me of Kingfisher Bay on Fraser Island in Australia. It's funny that you asked about summer holiday plans because your card arrived while I was away on mine! I'm not much of a beach person, I love the mountains (I wish I was fitter so I could do more walks!).
• u/Anora214: Aww, you're such a sweetheart, thank you so much for the adorable "Big hugs from Texas" card, and also your letter! I had heard of 4th of July being a big holiday, that's the day you repelled the alien invasion under the leadership of Roland Emmerich, right? :D Kidding. I hope you had a great day!
• u/amyt13: Thank you SO much for your adorable hand-made double greeting card, and so beautifully decorated! I see that you dated your card 27 June so it probably got here just after the start of my holiday, I'm sorry for taking so long to respond (I just got back last night)! Sorry to hear that you caught Covid - I'm anxious whether I might have caught it on the last couple of days of my holiday because those were the riskiest, but hopefully not - feeling pretty fine so far. I have my work cut out for me because I had SO much mail waiting for me when I got home, but I'll write back at some point! Thanks again! <3
  • u/sunfireninety9: Thanks for the cute seal card with the summer greetings! We didn't quite have sunfireninety9 over here but it was still pretty hot so far this summer (note how I'm using past tense - I'm hopeful for August to be cooler!). Wishing all the best for you and your mum, thanks again! <3
• u/Lestrangelatte: Thanks so much for your beautiful large postcard with the beautiful Pleiades! I hadn't heard of that new public holiday and next time I visit your country will probably not be in winter, but I do look forward to a visit - I'm still avoiding flights because of the pandemic (and also climate change :-( ) but I will visit some time, I hope we can catch up then! Thanks also for writing so much about the new years event that took place in a place that I have so many happy memories with <3
• u/sleepycatbeans: Thanks for your vintage greeting card of a hotel from Cuba! I looked up the app that you recommended for mood/symptoms tracking and have installed it because it has pretty good ratings, thanks for the recommendation! Your remark about causation vs. correlation remindeded me of this post, perhaps it should be mandatory reading for all users of that app :) http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
• u/Intrepid-Researcher x2: Aww, thank you so much for your fat envelope (photo) with two cards, as well as a bunch of extras: three sheets of super cute stickers that I'm going to start using immediately, another origami dove, and two bags of tea. You are so sweet! I loved the "HONK Travel Boy" penguin sticker in your card as well as the dino and cactus stickers. My trip was amazing! Know how everyone talks about how they are "recharged" after a long holiday? I'm not like that at all, I just want to immediately go off for another month! Sadly, it'll be back to work for me starting on Monday. Oh well. Sending the biggest hugs!

u/Applecritter723 x13: You deserve a paragraph of your own because you sent me THIRTEEN cards with a ton of hand-made decorations AND a bunch of extras! Dear u/AppleCritter723, you're completely insane, but also please never change :-) Oh and also, your LOTR and Ringworld inspired new address labels are so fancy! - Thank you for the hand-made card of Smaug's horde - I'm guessing you cut out the slightly burned sides with a laser cutter? So cool! Your hand-made envelope out of a map of Middle-Earth was also spectacular. Thank you so much for spending all this love and time! - Thanks for your 'Feminist' card! The situation with the Supreme Court and the world-wide is so depressing :( I bought another copy of the card that you referred to and might send that new blank card to that other RAoCer whom you mentioned (yes, we have mail-met!). Haha, your 'furious hedgehog' and 'grouchy bears' wear so cute! Can't be too depressed with those cuties around, even though the situation is serious. - Thanks for the other, err, uplifting :) card. The rise of right-wing populism and of idiots into power is just as depressing as the Supreme Court. Not unexpected perhaps given the challenges that humanity faces (climate change, the pandemic, the Ukaine war, ....) and historical precedent, but still depressing. - Aww, thanks so much for the cute rainbow card (and with watermelon washi - makes me want to get more watermelon right now, it's so yummy!). Nice that those people treated you to free fireworks (even though, if I understood it right, you didn't end up going to the main event this year but instead watched your neighbours' fireworks?) - as you have observed, charity money better goes elsewhere (have you heard of www.givewell.org ? - it's awesome, my charitable giving is strongly influenced by their research). - Thanks so much for the 'Lembas Bread' card with the recipe! I'll have to get out my imperial-to-metric converter out and try it some time haha. - Thanks for sending another one of your dad joke cards! Thanks for the sweet notes - you're impossibly sweet, please make sure you don't burn out on sending me all these sweet notes! - Thanks for the blackberry card! I approve of W's choice of books, she'll be taking over writing cards for you when you burn out haha. Have I mentioned that blackberries are delicious? I should get some and put them in a smoothie - my partner and I have decided that a good quality Vitamix blender will be a must-have accessory for our future flat so that we can make delicious smoothies out of frozen berries, milk, and maybe bananas. - Thanks for the goose card! My partner is already among your five or so biggest fans, the cute goose card just reinforced this :) - Thanks for the letter with the donkey card! OMG I want to know everything about how you met Radar, how come he's so cute, what gifts I should bring him and where he'd like to be patted while my partner hangs out with the finches. Also, thanks for including the dried flower, from W's hanging baskets I think? - Thanks for the (custom printed?) northern lights greeting card! It's so pretty. Have I mentioned that the Aurora is sometimes visible in the Dark Sky Reserve around Lake Tekapo in NZ? I love this area, I think I might have sent you a photo from the cafe on top of Mt John at some point. - Aww, thank you so much for the Koala card with a Koala sticker, Koala washi and so many Koala stamps!!! <3 Thanks for including the bag of tea - the flavour sounds really interesting and my partner immediately laid claim to it. - OMG that hand-made Capybara cross-stitch card is amazing! I think it's my favourite card of all time! Just look at this cutie! That is so sweet of you to make it for me. Have I mentioned that my partner squeeled when she saw it?!? I'm so sorry that your family members got sick but so thoughtful of you to quarantine the card in case of germs (I don't think there's a real risk of spreading anything via mail, but sweet of you anyway). I'm glad that it wasn't Covid and that they're fine again now, but please pass on my best wishes and hugs anyway! - Thanks for your 'boring' badminton card! Haha I was always the last person picked for any competitive sports in high school, but badminton was probably the one that I was only semi-awful at. I remember how at uni I thought I could give sports another go so I went to play at some 'friendly, non-competitive' basketball game; someone ended up asking me whether I was playing this bad on purpose, so I never went back...