166) Bike series (15/15). Our long 15-part bike series concludes with this magnificent shot outside the Greenwood post office. Look at how all the newspaper boxes are standing at attention, ready to receive their daily orders from the commanding mailbox! Oh yeah, they know who’s calling the shots here!

165) Bike series (14/15). Faithful readers know that if I find an opportunity to grab a quick rest, I’m going to grab it! Photographing mailboxes is hard, demanding work, and I certainly appreciate it when local businesses provide comfy resting spaces for weary mailbox photographers such as myself.

164) Bike series (13/15). Isn’t this just an absolutely lovely setting? My bike, me, a proud mailbox, and a potted plant, all enjoying the early morning rays in front of a small architectural firm. This is Norman Rockwell material right here, folks.

163) Bike series (12/15). Sometimes mailboxes get a bit territorial. Such was the case with this guy, who I felt was trying to crowd out the curb cut just a bit too much. I gave it a nice shove, which didn’t budge it one millimeter, but it fully understood that I was mad at it.

162) Bike series (11/15). As my journey took me into parts of Ballard filled with low-rise apartment buildings, I realized that I should be a bit less conspicuous. After all, it was early in the morning, and Ballard people don’t like be be disturbed before 8:00 a.m. So I decided to hide.

161) Bike series (10/15). This is one of those photos where I just can lie about where I am. Seriously, if I tried to pass this off as being in Times Square, you’d immediately call me out because the window treatments in that third-floor apartment definitely do not reflect east coast stylings. Plus, the street sign.

160) Bike series (9/15). Quick, where did your eyes track when you first saw this photo? Did you look at the mailbox, or maybe my bright yellow vest? Or did you go right to the 7-Eleven in the background and think of all the delicious Slurpees lurking inside? Cold, icy Slurpees… mmmmmmm….

159) Bike series (8/15). One of the best things about this project is discovering interesting street names that have escaped me all these years. Seattle streets are about 95% number-based and many of the word-named streets are rather well known (e.g. Denny or Pike or Dexter). But then there are little gems like Vernon Place. Existing for a scant two blocks in old Ballard, what Vernon Place lacks in length it makes up for in having a mailbox. (Yes, I totally made up that “95%” part.)

158) Bike series (7/15). By now you know that my mailbox photos tend to be taken from a little ways back, so I can best showcase the full top-to-bottom glory of each box. When I came upon this happy fellow, however, I knew that I had to get in nice and close.

157) Bike series (6/15). As I duck into Ballard, I find a great example of the technique called “Using Not Quite the Right Color Paint to Cover Graffiti.” Yes, the box is blue and the paint is blue, but let’s face it… they don’t match. Maybe the paint is the official color, but the box has faded. Maybe the paint was applied by a neighbor and that was the closest they had. The question is, does it look better or worse than the graffiti it covers?