Hi I’m Linda, or as my friends now call me, “the crazy mailbox lady”. I live in Southeast, Florida with my husband, my four year old son and two cats that I would like to drop off at the nearest Chinese restaurant.
The idea for Ugly Mailboxes has been bouncing in my head for a couple years. I would drive pass a house with a really off the wall or a just plain ugly mailbox and think, “I really need to take a picture of that and post it on the Internet”. What held me back in the beginning was the technology behind it. I had no idea how to work the interweb with all it’s tubes and such. My initial plan had been to set it up as a “Rate my Mailbox” type of website and I’m just about clueless as to how to do that.
Then I discovered the ease of blogging. Well, honestly I discovered blogging about about 6 years ago when I created a website for friends and family to track our cross country move. I remember it well, I hosted it on Geo-cities and sat there each night with my HTML for Dummies book updating our daily progress which consisted mostly of funny bumper stickers, signs and town names that we had spotted along the way.
Someone came along and noticed the website and dropped me an e-mail informing me that blogging would be a great alternative and pointed me in the direction of Xanga. I started a personal blog there, again just for friends and family. We lived far away from everyone and it was a great way to keep in touch.
Fast forward to May ‘07, I’m a stay at home mom, and I haven’t updated my blog in years. Actually, I think I stopped right around the time I discovered EverQuest… but that’s a story for later.
I realized that with my son heading off to preschool I had a little extra time on my hands and it was time to do something with it, other than play mmorpgs. And thus my blog was born. I hope you love it, or at least don’t hate it much.
What I’ve enjoyed most so far is hearing from other people and seeing what pictures they have taken. So please, keep your camera in your car so you don’t miss out on a great conversation starter!
If you have any suggestions on what could make this blog more entertaining (besides replacing me!), or if there is anything else you would like to discuss, you can contact me at lindaf@uglymailbox.com
November 10th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Phone cameras have also made blogs like yours and mine doable.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Linda, I’m so mad at myself! I was up in Northern Ontario last weekend and we were out for a drive on some back country roads – heading to an animal shelter – and I saw a mailbox you would have loved. BUT was I carrying a camera? Of course not!
This mailbox stand was inside a golfbag! Maybe it’s on the net somewhere, I don’t know, but next time I’m up there I’ll try and snap it for ya!
Kat
Poetikat’s last blog post..Svengali Approach
November 6th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
When is the USPS mailbox cleanup 2009? How can I get info now to help plan a effort to help.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Hi Linda
I belong to a group called Dana POint Coastal Arts here in Southern Caifornia. We are starting a project to beautify and bring attention to our community by creating a “create your own unique mailbox” competition!
We also want to encourage home owners to plant and care for the area around the mailbox, perhaps with indiginous plantings and such, and just generally spruce things up.
I am looking for a slogan…for us to promote this…on my street there is already a fab one in the shape of a big fat pelican sitting on a chunky chain that has been welded together to form a column. Major cooless. Any comments you care to make would be so appreciated. I am sitting here tryig to come up with a public relations platform for us. Love to hear from you.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
@Todd I’m not sure when the 2009 mailbox cleanup is, I looked on the USPS site and didn’t see any information on it
@Dawn, I used to live in Irvine and we visited Dana Point a couple times, it’s so beautiful!
I’m not sure about slogans… Dana Point Postal Perkup? Dana Point goes Postal? Whatever you decide, I’d love to showcase all the entries and the contest winner on this blog.
November 16th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Hi there. I love your site. I came across it while researching the big blue curbside collection boxes the post office uses. I am trying to find out how to buy one. I know they just retired TONS of them. Anyone have any ideas for me?