Night Owl Cards

I go to the post office about once a week. It's a small office in an almost vacant business building that houses everything from a bridal store to an outpatient chemical dependency clinic. I've mentioned before that, except for Christmas time, hardly anyone knows the post office is there. So, at most, there is a line of three, and I'm in and out. It's a familiar routine. I know the two guys that work there. One, Charles,  is an older, pleasant type of few words. He walks with a bit of limp and usually prefers sweat shirts and sweat pants. The other, Dave, is flashier. He wears open Hawaiian shirts and lifts weights. Sometimes the portable radio blares behind him with a strange mix of AC/DC, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears (it's a bit uncomfortable waiting in a longer line when Britney is moaning "Gimme More," let me tell ya). But both are efficient and friendly. I put my envelopes on the counter, and they plop it on the scale, and the amount pops up ...

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how my decision not to collect any 2012 set would be fairly easy if it wasn't for this summer and Allen & Ginter . Today, with the help of some cards from madding at Cards on Cards , I am going in the opposite direction. There is a card brand that I am positively giddy about avoiding. I can't wait to avoid it. I do a good job of avoiding it now. But now I get to COMPLETELY avoid it. Forever. Yeah, I think it might be forever. I may never buy another pack of Bowman ever again. The only reason I've picked up packs of Bowman in the past was to see what the hysteria was about. Every year there was some prospect everyone was going bat-poo over. I figured I'd check it out. But with the exception of Strasmania , I always struck out. Bowman packs left me cold. Card after card of players I had never heard of and probably would never hear of again. This was no way to collect. The designs rarely impressed (yikes, I didn...

I found this card today stuck in the back of my roll-top desk where the back of the unit meets the desk shelf. The card didn't suffer any harm, because it was encased in a penny sleeve, but it was really wedged in there good. So when I went through that trade post a few days ago and declared myself all caught up, sparkly Raffy was calling in the distance "Hey! What about me? Can't you see me? I'm sparkly!" But it was Christmas and just about everything on the planet sparkles at that time of year, and Furcal was ignored like players who lucked into a World Series title should be. Apologies to Justin G. of The Hopeful Chase who sent me this card. He'll be happy to know that it is now safely in my "to be recorded" stack. Another diamond Dodger down and seven to go. While taking care of the Furcal card, I decided to scan the two packages that I received in the mail on Tuesday and post them quickly so I could be caught up AGAIN. Caught up twic...

So, it's the day after Christmas and what did I get? That's all you want to know, right? Well, I think you know my situation enough to know that there's no money to blow on hobby boxes or expensive hits. That was especially true this year when we decided to dedicate Christmas fund money to home improvements. That meant a lot less for individual gifts. But the good news is that finally -- what's this, year four that I've been begging my family for cards? -- the majority of my gifts were card related. There was a new card binder, which I've already used to replace the forlorn excuse for one that barely protected my far-from-complete 1982 Topps set. I used to dread looking for cards in that binder because I could barely turn pages, and when I did, it was a 20-minute project to get the thing closed again. There were lots of pages, too. Very useful. There were two rack packs of 2011 Topps Series 2 from my daughter. The first rack pack yielded the Campy 60...

VS. My dog has three mortal enemies. You might think I'm going to top the list with the mailman. But he's not alert enough to be aware of the mailman. Sometimes he notices, most times he doesn't. No, his enemy trio is: 1. Squirrels 2. Baseball cards 3. Christmas You can imagine how fired up he is at this time of year. There are signs of all three everywhere. Squirrels scattering every time he's out. Shiny Christmas baubles glistening before his very eyes. And the usual cards all over the place. He's a wreck. I've written before how he's gotten a hold of a few cards and left his personal touch. But the fact is, he's a lot better now than he was three years ago. Three years ago, he was a cute, little, terrifying pup. I'd come home at this time of year and didn't know what I'd find. He literally ate one-fourth of the Christmas ornaments off our tree one year. I can't even list all the things he destroyed back in hi...

I will never understand how people shop at Walmart. The shopping carts overflowing with merchandise. The people pawing through the trough of discounted DVDs. The sudden stopping in mid-aisle while hunched over the cart with PEOPLE BEHIND YOU. But the part I don't understand the most falls under the heading of "knowing your surroundings." "Knowing your surroundings" usually comes up while driving around town. I cannot believe how many people will drive down a street and turn left onto a busy street -- waiting sometimes as long as 10 minutes to be able to turn left -- when they can just drive one street over and let a traffic light speed things along for them. I don't know, maybe they don't care. Or maybe it's an excuse so they can talk longer on their phone. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. If I ever wanted to get back on Twitter, it'd be just for one minute so I could tweet -- GET OFF YOUR CELL PHONE WHEN YOU'RE DRIVING, YOU...