It was either the Thursday or Friday after Christmas that an unmistakable Christmas card landed in the mailbox. The card was addressed in what looked like familiar print, but I couldn't immediately place it. There was no return address. The postage however was from Australia, and could only mean one thing: Jen from Australia got my Christmas card and mailed me one.
What created a little excitement was that Jen's Twitter account disappeared and she wasn't heard from. Turns out I didn't have a reliable email address, nor did she have mine, so what we were experiencing was a "failure to communicate."
The Twitter account disappeared in early December. I theorized she might have migrated to Bluesky, but either I didn't know how to search that platform, or they have a slightly different way of connecting with subjects. Either way, I was in the dark until Jen's cheery card showed up and announced her Bluesky handle and a reliable email address.
Jen's a retired OR nurse, freelance obituary writer, marriage celebrant, and I've been communicating with her for several years now. I met her and her husband once in Penn Station when she came to the States while changing trains to go to the White House and and tour the press facilities.
Jen will post photos now and then of what Australia is famous for: snakes and spiders. Snakes in her yard, snakes behind the refrigerator, snakes where you don't want to run into snakes. Frogs, reptiles, and even some kangaroos coming down the block have made an appearance in her past Twitter feeds. It would have been a shame to see that kind of entertainment disappear.
But now we are reunited through Bluesky, taking her advice and registering myself. It's summer Down Under, and it didn't take Jen long to post the above photo from a story in the Guardian that reminded her to check her medicine cabinet for a fresh supply of snake bandages. Yep, something they don't advertise on New York television.
Snakes and funnel-web spiders. Make sure you're protected. Here it's mosquito bites. Itchy, but not potentially deadly.
After laying eyes on the Guardian's story for the Down Under summer health tips, Jen's Bluesky narrative went:
Ummmm, we live surrounded by snakes of various kinds in our garden, some which I've seen close up, others from afar. Will be reading this very carefully and checking that I know where my snake bandages are.
It's good to know there's something I do not have to worry about in New York.
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