Happy Halloween!

Much like the last few years, I had planned on doing some fun stuff (fun for me) here on the blog leading up to Halloween, but once again, ended up doing none of it (insert sad face emoji here). I have my usual excuses, which I'll touch on at the end of the post -- before that though, here's a few last second Halloween-ish items that I've thrown together to try and salvage some semblance of holiday spirit around here 👻.

I can't recall exactly when it was, but sometime earlier this year I bought a few items from a German seller on eBay. I think I bought four celebrity tobacco cards (German tobacco cards), and two old Ross Verlag photos/postcards, one of which featured this great image of Ida Lupino holding a jack-o-lantern. I'm assuming that most people clicking on this post either don't know who Ida Lupino is and/or don't care who she was -- so no long diatribe about her career is forthcoming. She was a fairly big star in her prime, and then had quite a bit of success on the other side of the camera later in her career. And if her with the jack-o-lantern isn't enough to be included in a Halloween post, she did appear in two horror films, The Devil's Rain, and The Food of the Gods; as well as a few horror-esque television programs, namely Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, and The Twilight Zone.

I needed a card of Clive Barker (famous writer, and occasional director, of horror) for a binder page that I'm working on. To my knowledge he's only appeared on two cards, both coming from the rarely mentioned 1992 Eclipse Hellraiser set. For page purposes, a vertical card would've been preferred, but both of his are horizontal, so this one was chosen because I think it's the better of the two. I bought a few more choice cards from this set (among other cards from this seller), which thankfully just arrived yesterday, but only felt like scanning this one for now. [Note: technically speaking, Clive had three cards in that set, two were base cards, and the third is a crazy-rare autographed chase card. Since the auto can fetch hundreds of dollars, it wasn't, and likely never will be, an option for this particular blogger; hence my only mentioning two cards during the write-up]

And finally, a recently unearthed photo of yours truly, circa Halloween 1986. This is four-year old me all ready to head out trick or treating in my Lion-O costume. I don't recall ever having seen this photo before, but I was big Thundercats fan for a few years there, and as such, am not surprised to see myself sporting one of those old Ben Cooper costumes of the lead Thundercat himself. It's too bad my bag is in the way, as it would've been nice to have a full shot of that plastic smock, especially the midsection with it's printed belt that says "Lion-O", lest anyone not know who the wearer is supposed to be. I'm guessing that I would've played in this outfit long after Halloween, or at least until the eggshell-thin plastic mask would've broke, so there's no way that I could've hung onto the ensemble for very long, but still, it would've been a fun thing to still have after all of these years. And without even looking, I'm gonna go ahead and say that packaged examples probably sell for more then I'd be willing (or able) to pay.

So there you have it, Halloween stuff! This is one of two days during the year (Christmas being the other) that I kind of wish I had little ones around, I think it would be a lot of fun for all parties involved. Aside from decorating, I don't do very much anymore and I'm a bit isolated now out here in the country from all of the festivities, but this is still my favorite day of the year, and I can't imagine it ever not being so. Hopefully if anyone reading this is doing something tonight, you'll have a spooky good time.

Now, if anyone's made it this far...

It's been a few weeks since I last posted again (seven to be exact), and much like my previous couple of few and far between posts, the usual combination of too busy/tired/depressed have been the main culprits for keeping me away. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, always leading off posts by saying the exact same thing (I don't think it counts as change if I switch things up by closing a post with the same excuses). While always true, it's growing tiresome to always be spouting off the same reasons for not being able to produce the more occasional public missive or two, and I would have to think that it's growing even more tiresome for those of you that still come around here.

Aside from the same old song, I also seem to be quite burned out on sports cards at the moment. This has made keeping up with the blogs very difficult, and commenting on said blogs even more so. I've still been doing card stuff though, including purchasing quite a few, they've just all been of the non-sport variety. Knowing that non-sport cards are like the kiss of the death for a card blog, I'm not sure how many of my recent purchases will make it into future posts. It doesn't help too that a lot of them have been a bit on the older side, so I'm not sure how much interest there'll be in paper squares featuring the likes of Rex Harrison and James Mason.

Has anyone else noticed how many of our bloggers have been calling it a day as of late? I think that fellow from Sports Cards Ate My Brain was the last one, but he was like number five or six in the last 2-3 months. And that's just those that have officially called it quits, I'm sure there's been a few more who have made the decision without saying goodbye. It seems like that boom that the blogs experienced during the early days of the rona has ended, and rather then leveling off, is now trending in the opposite direction. I've seen a lot of folks mention that readership is down as well, and obviously I haven't been posting enough lately to add any validity to that, but if true, that combined with everyone closing up shop is only adding to my lack of desire to keep going on, blogwise that is. The prospect of typing into a void isn't my idea of a good time.

Oh, and if all of that hadn't been enough to keep me away, my printer/scanner crapped out too. It took a few weeks to get a new one, but I didn't have hardly any scans squirreled away for a rainy day, and my phone does not take very good pictures of cards. I got another cheap one, but from the couple of scans I've done already (the Clive Barker card and photo of me up above), it seems to be slightly better then my old one, which, if true, would be a nice surprise; especially given it's price.

Anyways, that's what's up, and yeah, I guess that's all I've got for today.

Vaccine troubles, McKay's, and Harry Hulk Woman!

I've been meaning to get the rona vaccine for months now, but for one reason or another, just kept forgetting to do so.

Some may wonder how that was possible, and to that I'd say it was easy. A). I've been busy all summer, B). Goldfish brain, C). I rarely pay any attention to the "news", D). I kind of live in a bubble out here in the sticks, and E). I haven't been overly fearful of catching the rona.

Despite all that, I really did think that I should get it, not necessarily for my well being mind you, but I figure that in the long-run, it would be beneficial to society as a whole for me to get it (and I don't even care about the general public all that much!).

The original plan was to get the J&J jab, but apparently I waited too long, because when I finally went to get it back in August, I was told that that particular option was no longer available around here. I could get the Moderna locally, or drive to somewhere like Knoxville or Nashville for the J&J. I'm not a big fan of needles, so only having the two-shot option at my disposal was a tad disappointing, but I also didn't feel like driving for a couple of hours just to get stabbed by a faceless whitecoat. Despite my dislike of needles, I swallowed my disappointment and went with the local Moderna.

The first shot was fine, just a sore arm for a couple of days, and I was back to my usual plucky self. Having not read about any of the other potential side effects, I assumed that I was basically in for the same thing when I got my second shot last Thursday... and I couldn't have been more wrong!

The shot itself was okay, and I felt fine right afterwards. I had the day off, and thinking that only a sore arm was coming, I spent most of the day outside hauling wood. I felt fine after that too, not even a sore arm. It was almost exactly 8pm that night when things started to go to shit.

The first side effect to come on was the chills. I went from just a little shaky, to teeth chattering in less than an hour. I could tell I was gonna be in for a long night. Despite it being over 70° in the house, I turned off my ceiling fan for the first time this summer, and went to bed wearing sweats, socks, and a t-shirt. I was wearing all that and still needed multiple blankets to fall asleep (I usually just have a sheet on my bed during the summer). I fell asleep quicker than I thought I would, but woke up two hours later amid a nuclear meltdown. I was sweating profusely, and had acquired an incredible headache. I never did go back to sleep. When I finally got up in the morning, I did so despite the headache's increase. And let me tell you, even for someone who grew up with migraines, and still gets frequent headaches of varying degrees, this was a headache for the ages!

Friday was fucking miserable. I couldn't get the headache to go away, and spent the whole day either feverishly sweating, or trying to shake out of my skin from the chills. I tried to play through it and do some stuff around the house, but I couldn't stand confidently for any length of time, so very little ended up actually getting done. I ate as little for dinner as I can remember in recent memory, and then my whole upper arm started turning red. Apparently that's not uncommon, but was still a little off-putting. Being dead-ass tired, I went to bed at the unheard of hour or 8pm Friday night, fell asleep immediately again, and slept for eight straight hours, which is also unheard of for me. Saturday was considerably better, only a minor headache, and only one bout of sweating. At least I was able to finally to some stuff again. I really hate not being able to do things!

I was mostly back to normal on Sunday, but I'll come back to Sunday in a moment. First, I wanted to point out that I never planned on telling anyone publicly that I got vaccinated, that's not my kind of flex. I only decided to do so after I had so much difficulty with it. I think it's good for those that still haven't gotten vaccinated to know that this kind of reaction is possible, but you know what, as sucky as my experience was, I'm still alive, and if you by chance have as much difficulty with it as I did, it'll be sucky, but you'll live too! Normally I'm not one to tell people what they should and shouldn't do, but this is one instance where I think it's necessary: If you haven't been vaccinated yet, and are able to be vaccinated, STOP BEING A SELFISH PRICK... and go get that prick!

PSA over, now let's get to some fun stuff.

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As mentioned, I was mostly back to normal Sunday morning, which was good, because I had a thing I had to do in Knoxville on Sunday. It might've been able to be pushed back, but I didn't want to do that. So, since I knew I'd be able to drive, I went and did my thing. Knowing that I'd be in Knoxville, I knew I'd have to make time for a stop at McKay's (a Disneyland for lovers of physical media) while I was there too, and I did.

It's been a few months since I was last there, and I've never gone on the weekend before, so in terms of people, and potential finds, I didn't really know what to expect. My other thing didn't take too long, so I had almost three hours of time blocked off for searching.

Normally I like to save the best for last, but if your a sports card fan, and you read all of that opening jibber-jabber, I think you deserve to see what I'm pretty sure was the deal of the day first...

I'm not much of a Twitterer, and I rarely tweet about anything before it shows up on the blog, but I thought a few people might get a kick out of this, so I went ahead and mentioned on there Sunday night. Turns out, more than a few people got a kick out of it, as I think it might've been my most liked tweet ever, for whatever that's worth.

Anyway, I had never even heard of this book until everyone's favorite Owl blogged about a couple of weeks ago (sorry, I wasn't able to find the post to link up here?), but from the post itself, and all of the ensuing comments, I was able to gather that this book was kind of a big deal for a lot of people. Oh, and that it wasn't cheap on the secondary market either. It seemed somewhat interesting to me, but not enough for me to ever be shelling out big bucks for, so I basically just forgot about it -- that is until I was looking through the hobbies and collectibles section on Sunday, and noticed a massive book on one of the bottom shelves that said "Topps Baseball Cards" on the spine. I thought it might be the same book when I reached down to see the price, which by the way, going from Night Owl's post I thought would at least be $20. Turned out to be $2 (left the sticker so you could see it)! The dust jacket's seen better days, and a couple of the pages were dog-earred, but still, two bucks seemed like a pretty good deal (and the folks on Twitter agreed).

The one thing that I don't recall seeing mentioned in NO's post, was just how massive this book is, it's gotta weigh at least 10 pounds, and could easily be a murder weapon in Clue. I certainly got a workout lugging this thing around the store in one of those hand baskets for almost two hours.

I took a couple of pictures of the inside for someone on Twitter, and figured that I might as well show them here too, just in case I'm not the only one who hadn't been familiar with the book.

Anyway, I hadn't been seeking the book out, but it is kind of neat to have found a cheap copy. I have no doubt that it'll come in handy from time to time.

Everything else gotten was to appease my inner youth, and probably won't be of much interest to sports-only fans. Feel free to skip this next part.

I'm always on the lookout for cheap older film rags, and was fortunate enough to find a few this time.

This last issue here was the real prize, as I may be one of the bigger Captain Power fans you'll ever come across in the blogging world (I've got the entire toy line, all of the videos, and some other assorted paraphernalia). This issue had apparently been flying under my radar. And as a bonus, they're talking my episode of Star Trek as well.

The old 90's Marvel novels aren't cheap anywhere, and McKay's is no exception. The average price is in the $4-5 range, and as such, I rarely ever get any. I still look just in case though. Had some luck this time with one off condition book for $1.50, and...

... one nicer copy for $2.50. I'm very much looking forward to these!

It wouldn't be a trip to McKay's without bringing home at least one Christopher Pike. I've had the second book in this trilogy for a while now, but have been waiting to get the first before reading it. I started reading this last night, and am a tad surprised to find that it's kind of like I Know What you did Last Summer, ten years before that was a thing. I don't know what I expected, but I didn't think it would be along those lines.

It wouldn't be a trip to McKay's without getting at least one Bobby Stine as well.

At $3.50, this was my most expensive purchase. It's okay to splurge every now and then though, especially when paying with trade credit.

Overall, it was a good trip. The next one is gonna have some lofty standards to live up to!

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I received a fun PWE from, Greg, of Nine Pockets fame, earlier this week. I'm sure that most have already heard about it by now, but Greg has started a new business venture, and was doing a giveaway to celebrate (it may still be going on, I don't know, you'll have to check). Everyone got their choice of three of his recently printed customs, and for me it was an easy choice.

I'm a big fan of the Dirty Harry series (they're more relevant now than when they were originally released), so this was a no brainer. I never thought I'd see Harry Callahan on a baseball card, but here we are!

My scanner didn't do Greg's cards any favors, so if you haven't seen one in person yet, just take my word that they look way better than they do here. 

I grew up watching both of these series', in syndication of course. 

I only chose two cards, but Greg threw in a third...

CHiPs is one of a very select few shows from the "classic television" era that I've never seen a single episode of. I have seen Erik Estrada on quite a few other shows though, and do have his Adventure Time autograph, so now my Double E collection is two cards strong.

I really dig the '74 All-Star combos that Greg put together, and if he ever revisits the theme, I'm hoping for a Steve Austin/Jamie Summers pairing. I think that would be really neat.

Many thanks for the giveaway, Greg! Hopefully your new cards will sell like hotcakes, they're certainly gonna get enough publicity in the coming weeks to do so :)

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In other news, the COMC shipment that I requested back in April arrived last Friday. It actually wasn't that far off the original estimate. I thought it was gonna be considerably later though, given that the last time I looked at the counter, it said that there were something like 140,000 items still ahead of mine -- then I got an email two days later saying that my stuff had shipped. I've got 189 cards in here, and no idea when, or how, I might start showing any of them. 

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And one other thing of small note, I can never remember exactly when it is, and I don't feel like looking it up, but I do know that this blogs anniversary falls somewhere between September 15-19. I don't plan on posting anything else in the next couple of days, so I'm just gonna go ahead and congratulate myself now on being able to stick around for 6 years. I'm haven't been posting nearly as much as I used to do, but I'm still around, and I've outlasted a number of far superior blogs, so that's something, I guess?

If I come into any sort of windfall in the next couple of months, I might try to do a belated contest of some sort, but in the meantime, this'll have to do for now. 

I think I've gone on long enough for one post, and I've got about a weeks worth of blog reading to catch up on, so until next time...

Sick mail

I realize that I'm starting off today's post with a statement that everyone knows to be true, one that doesn't need to be uttered by another living being, ever, but I'm gonna do so anyway... being sick really sucks!

Though finally on the road to recovery as of this writing, I've had a cold for the last week and change. I felt something coming on two weeks ago, and after a couple of days of minor symptoms, thought that I had successfully fought it off, but if I did, it didn't stay gone for very long, because it, or another virus, came on strong shortly thereafter -- and decided to stay for the week.

My mom has been sick too, so I don't know who gave it who, for blog purposes though, I'm gonna say that she gave it to me. Her symptoms were worse than mine, but she too is starting to get better, thankfully! 

My memory is such that I can't really remember past colds, so every time I get one, which isn't often (this is only my second one in the last 10 years), it always seems/feels worse than it probably actually is. So feel free to take everything I'm saying with a grain (or two) of salt. I don't recall ever having a cold during the summer though, it's a weird juxtaposition. I'm not sure if it's necessarily a good thing or not, but even as un-fun as they can be, it's kind of comforting to know that the common cold hasn't been eradicated by the Rona. I mean, if you gotta catch one or the other...

We also had the hurricane/tropical storm remnants roll in late Monday, and not leave until early Wednesday. Much doom and gloom was predicted ahead of it's arrival, but most of it, at least around here, ended up being more hype than not. We did get a couple of inches of rain, but that could just as easily have happened on a random day in March, so it really wasn't worth getting worked up over.

Two pieces of fun mail arrived this week, the first coming courtesy of the King of Diamonds. Kevin recently had himself a show for the ages, and amongst his swag, was an extra copy of each of these two fellas. I inquired about them in the post, but didn't know they were coming, so it made for a nice surprise. I'll talk about it at some later date, but I recently started working on small card project, and need a couple of cards from both of these guys (and those of similar ilk). I've never had very many 1984 Topps, and have never owned any 1984 OPC, so these work well, as they're something "new" for me to look at. Thanks again, Kevin! 

Speaking of bloggers, I'm sure that everyone has seen by now that Chris is trying to leave us. This announcement wasn't unexpected, but is still the shits. I have exchanged more cards with Chris than anyone else over the last few years, and he's been one of my favorite people to interact with, so his absence will be felt. The good news is though, Chris is a blogger at heart, so I fully expect him to be back doing so in some form or another after his initial respite -- even if it does manifest itself into an emo music blog for current, and former, pre-teen girls 😂.

My other piece of mail this week comes from a small Sportlots purchase:

I can't remember exactly when it was, but some weeks ago I got to wondering what Alan Autry had been up to lately, so I did a quick Google search, which then directly led me to buying this card. You see, I didn't realize that Alan, who despite his numerous roles, will always be (to me) Bubba Skinner from the In the Heat of the Night television series, had played pro football. Once I found this out it was only natural to go see if he ever had any cards produced, and he did, there's his 1977 Topps rookie here, and then he's got an uber-difficult to find 1977 Topps Mexican rookie as well. The COMC and eBay asking prices for this card are stupid, seriously, don't even bother looking. Thankfully though, Sportlots came through, and I was able to get this one for less than a buck (which is still probably multiple times higher then it would sell for at a show).

A funny thing happened too while I was waiting for this to arrive, I happened upon a Twitter discussion from some people who had also just found out about the cards existence. I didn't participate in it myself, but did find the timing to be interesting. In typical me fashion, I already have another one on the way, but am thinking that that one might get used for a TTM attempt. I haven't done so yet, but I'll have to see if he signs stuff for folks.

Since I mentioned Twitter, I might as well mention that I happened upon a weekly vintage baseball open sales thread last week, and in a completely impromptu move, put something up, and sold it within minutes. This prompted me to try again a few nights ago with two small lots and one single. It took a little longer this time, but by the next morning all had sold. Normally I don't even bother looking at the myriad of sales threads on Twitter, mostly because of the obscene prices, but clicked on this one for some reason, and am now glad that I did. I don't have a lot more unwanted baseball items to sell, but it has been nice to move a few things and not have to pay eBay fees. It's not a paid endorsement, but if you have anything you want to sell, or even if you're looking to buy (there's lots of graded cards if you're into that sort of thing), this guy runs the thread every Wednesday night. I will say that there does seem to be a lot of expensive items being listed, but unlike most open sales threads, cards actually sell. In fact, most of them seem to sell. It's probably not for everyone, but I thought it was worth throwing out there for those that might be interested.

The week that was

The feeling of days and weeks merging together seems to be the new norm for a lot of people, and I suspect too that depending on where one lives, the melding of months might not be too far behind. Hopefully some of the more dire "news" out there isn't to be believed, because if so, years could end up being indistinguishable by the time all is said and done.

Days and weeks bleeding together is nothing new to me, nor is years, those seem to be merging fairly seamlessly in recent decades as well. I believe this to be a byproduct of getting older, of course in my case it could also just be a byproduct of not spicing things up enough, I am rather set in my ways after all.

For the most part, I can usually only tell the weeks and months apart by weather changes and/or doing something/going somewhere out of the ordinary, the latter being increasingly rare as of late, that being said, last week did end up being slightly less ordinary... and now I'm gonna proceed to bore the spit out of you by talking about it!

[This first thing was already discussed, and shown, on Twitter, so my apologies if you've already seen it -- feel free to skip to the next section if you have]

I think that it was just in the last couple of weeks or so (I don't feel like looking for the post to link it up here) that I covered some of my year-long sorting project. In it I mentioned that I had run out of two-row shoeboxes, and needed another one. With everything closed, it's not exactly easy to find such things, and I wasn't about to pay the crazy prices (gouging?) on Amazon, so the only thing left to do was to make one... and I did!

Looking back at it over a week later now, I still think it looks good, although I wish I could get a picture of it without the phone camera giving it a bunch of funky angles. Nothing is glued or taped in, so if I ever want to get another "real" one, I can just take out the inserts and have my shoebox back.

I didn't really need at the time, but decided to make another one anyway, so Monday morning I played around a bit, and came up with this one:

Pretty cool, huh? I even took a few more pictures to show a fellow on Twitter...

Like the first box, nothing is permanent, but the dividers stay snug thanks to the combs. I really like this box, and now that I've started using it, I can honestly say that it works just as well as any store bought box, maybe even better? OK, it's not better, but it is just as good!

Tennessee is slated for a partial reopening later this week, so in theory I could go to the print/copy/card shop in town and get a couple of boxes, but I like my homemade ones just fine, and don't really see the need to buy any more. Besides I'm sort of the mindset now that if I ever need any more, I'll just make them, I have quite a few shoe boxes -- including one more big one, that could easily be made into another 4-rower. I'll come back to sorting in a minute or two, but I'm trying to do a linear post here today, so bear with me.

So that covers the highlights from Sunday and Monday.

Tuesday wasn't terribly exciting, but I did get a message from my friend, Marc, letting me know of incredible find that he had come across earlier that day. Since it was a private message, and I don't know if Marc shared it publicly (or wants it shared publicly), I'll have to leave out what it was, but will say that it was something that someone had offered up for free, and was something that is very near and dear to my heart. During our exchange, I lamented that such things never happen to me (especially out in the middle of nowhere), which unbeknownst to me, may have set universal doings into motion.

Wednesday was a garbage day, and even though I've mentioned it before, but for any new readers, I live in an area where there is no curbside pickup, so you've got to take your garbage and recycling to a central collection point, sort of like a dump, but not really a dump. Coming from the "big city", this took me a while to get used to, but is now something that I look forward to, if only because it provides an opportunity to find, and ultimately bring home, more junk. It's also not that far away, so it's not like I have to commit a whole morning/afternoon to doing this, which is nice.

Technically speaking, scavenging isn't permitted, but also isn't stopped if one goes about it in an orderly manner, which is good, because I've found quite a few neat things there over the years -- always from the recycling bins, not the GARBAGE garbage... that would be gross... and isn't really possible anyway.

It's not uncommon for me to pluck bottles from the glass bin, as I've always got ideas for projects involving glass, but on this particular day, it ended up being a treasure trove... of sorts!

The bins have three separate compartments, each with it's own sliding door, so if one section is full, you can move on to the next one. The only way that one can really get something is if a compartment is nearly full, otherwise it's just not possible to reach in very far. On this day, they were nearly full, and as is often the case, a lot of stuff was in garbage bags, and I am almost always compelled to tear open any reachable bags to see what's inside, which is what I started doing on this day.

The first bag, which was actually heavy duty, and double bagged. For lack of a better expression, gold, in the form of 50's era consumer glass (jars, booze bottles, etc.) came spilling out of the first bag that I tore open. These would be considered worthless junk to most bottle collectors, but not me, I love pretty much anything that's older than me, and the 1950's are considerably older than me, so I'm more than happy to bring home such things (or at least to go through them).

This is getting a bit long, so I'll just skip ahead a bit and say that I ended up tearing open, picking through, and ultimately taking out seven bags of glass. I was trying just to pick individual things out of the bags, especially given all of the broken stuff, but it was taking too long, so I figured I'd just grab everything and sort through it at home. I was starting to draw some stares by the time I was done, which is usually code for it's time to stop, but I was done anyways so it was okay. I had kind of been in a zone for about twenty minutes, so imagine my surprise when I started loading the first bag and noticed that a) my hands were covered with a red sticky substance, b) I had apparently forgotten to put on the work gloves that I always take, and c) that red sticky stuff was blood... my blood!

I would later find that I had about a dozen cuts, nothing too deep mind you, but still enough to spill Jon juice (how's that for a description?) all over. Thankfully I always have hand sanitizer in the car, so between that and plenty of isopropyl alcohol when I got home, nothing ended up getting infected. After loading all of the bags, I also noticed that my back was kind of hurting, and not a normal kind of ache either, but more on that in a sec. First...

Two bags were opened when I got home, this was all of the non-broken stuff.

Pretty much everything is from the 40's through the 70's. Not everything will be kept, but there were a couple of notable items, including a glass motor oil bottle (they stopped making those in the early 50's), an old embalming fluid bottle, and multiple cork-top medicine bottles. Given the dirt factor, as well as all of the crap inside the jars, I'm thinking that these might have been in either a barn or shed that may have come down in one of the recent storms.

So anyways, my back was already aching pretty good in just the time it took me to get home, so I didn't end up doing much the rest of that day. Trying to sleep that night wasn't easy, and I really ended up doing myself in when I tried to put my socks on the next morning. I felt a sharp pain, and cramping set in almost immediately, which was bad enough that I had lay right back down. I honestly thought that I might've tore something, but now I don't think so, I think I strained a muscle when getting the bags, and probably made it worse when attempting to sock myself. Thursday would be no fun at all, lots of cramping, lots of spasms, and since the strain(?) is somewhere behind my left lung, there was much pain if I took too deep of a breath.

I was really thinking that I had seriously injured myself there for a day or two, but as of this writing (Monday), things are much better, which is good, because I have way too much to do do to be laid up for weeks or months with something like this. I'm in pretty damn good shape (not bragging, just sayin'), so lifting 30-40 pound bags shouldn't have affected me like this. The only thing that I can think is that it must've been the angles that I had to twist into to grab the bags, either that or it was just simply a matter of not stretching before I started lifting them. Either way, I think I may have lucked out and avoided serious injury this time, hopefully I'll be more mindful of such possibilities in the future. And hopefully too, if I continue to get better, I might be able to go through...

... the rest of these later this week. They'll be a lot of broken stuff, old breaks, and new from either my theory of a collapsed structure, or from being tossed in the bin, but there should still be a lot of intact stuff as well.

Because of the pain I was in, Thursday and Friday were pretty much a wash.

Saturday and Sunday were better, pain-wise, but it was raining like an SOB, so I was pretty much stuck inside all weekend. I decided to make the best of this situation, and tried to get more sorting done. I had taken a few weeks off from the big sort, but before I did, I had finished both the football and non-sport keepers, which left a ton of basketball to do, and then maybe a couple of hours worth of baseball to finish -- baseball it was!

Behold... the final keepers for baseball! Other than the Junior's and Ichiro's that I still have in a binder, this is everything. I didn't count how many binders that I took apart, or how many monster boxes that I went through to get here, but I finally got here, and I couldn't be happier with the results. The whole point of this sort has been to reduce my collection to the things I care about the most, and for the most part it has worked. Even if I emptied the Junior and Ichiro binder, all of my baseball keepers would still fit into these two shoeboxes, and that's exactly the sort of thing that I was hoping for. The football keepers fit into one shoebox (sorry about not taking a picture), and the non-sports fir into one two-rower as well (yep, no picture of that one either). The Basketball keepers are gonna end up requiring a little more space, but will still be reduced considerably by the time I'm done, then I'll just have to start figuring out what I'm going to do with all of the non-keepers.

I realize that this week of mine may not have been too terribly exciting for a lot of you, but for me it was somewhat notable, notable enough that I actually knew which day was which, and can still remember what happened on each of those days! Now the question is, will I be able to say the same about this week when it's all said and done?


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.