Night Owl Cards

  So, are you enjoying your 3-day, 4-day, 5-day holiday weekend? This is the time of the year that it gets quiet in my neighborhood (save for the forthcoming fireworks). Everyone clears out for the lake or the campsite or whatever people that I can't relate to do. I went for a walk earlier today and saw one guy trimming the curb and two teenage girls playing tennis. That was it. I don't have the luxury of clearing out. I am not even getting a holiday day off, just two days off this week -- if I can find a second day. There was another shake-up at the office recently and now when I step into my department, I'm talking to myself. It's weird. And I don't know what's going to happen later when schools ramp up again. The social media sites are quiet now, too. Not a lot of blog interaction. Twitter is extremely wonky, so much that I can barely use it. So, I might as well show some cards I got here. I'm not going anywhere and nobody's reading anyway so I don...

  If I ever start to think that the blogs aren't the way they used to be, and isn't that a shame and all that, Rod from Padrographs will set me straight. He's done it so many times. He did it just four months ago . And he's doing it now. Rod is responsible for so much goodness in my card room, probably more visible examples than anyone else. Let's take a look around: The fantastic Ron Cey poster Rod sent to me hangs from a wall just as you enter the card room. It used to be on a far wall next to one of my two card shelving units but I upgraded the unit, which obscured The Penguin, so I moved the poster to a more prominent spot. This wonderful poster hangs behind the door of the card room. I study it all the time. Rod once sent me an interactive children's book on Sandy Koufax, it is very cool. It is displayed high on a shelf and, yes, that clean baseball on the left was sent by Rod, too. On the same shelf is the birthday card that Rod got Ron Cey to sign for me...

  I mentioned last week that I had the opportunity buy a blaster (or blasters) of 2023 Bowman. They were staring at me from a shelf in Walmart, like five of them. I ignored their glare because they have no power over me. I haven't bought a pack of Bowman in five years and that was only to find an Ohtani rookie. The time before that was 2013 -- 10 years ago. So it's very weird that I should be the first blogger, at least I think, to open 2023 Bowman. I guess that's a commentary on the state of card blogs. I received this pack from Rod of Padrographs . it was part of a wild shipment of items that deserves its own post. I believe Rod has introduced me to the new Bowman in the past, too. So I opened the pack, and as usual knew about only half the names. Someone else really should be opening this. Here we go: Excellent. My first Bowman card out of the only Bowman pack I'll open this year is a Dodger. Miguel Vargas is displaying the same "I'm not really grabbing my c...