Hurry up and wait

For the past week, I have had the overwhelming feeling of being held hostage, by my job, the weather and emergency home repairs.

I haven't even been able to go to the store to complete simple errands because the above three elements have been barring the door. When I do get a free moment to actually emerge into the outdoors and breath the fresh air, it's all very rushed. Because, you know, I MUST get back to work to do whatever completely pointless task a superior has dreamed up for me. They call it "busy work" for a reason.

It's another onset of "hurry up and wait." Or more accurately: "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt and HURRYUP!!!!!"

During one of those hurry-up moments this afternoon, I broke free and landed in Target. Consumed by an intoxicating feeling of being able to do WHATEVER I WANT, I ran among the retirees and Canadian shoppers (they're everywhere these days) and bought shampoo and mouthwash and paper products and garbage bags. It was exhilarating!

I wasn't even there for cards, although I somehow found myself in that certain aisle at the very end of my encounter with freedom. I grabbed a blaster to pay off a loss in a bet (.230-hitting Russell Martin still sucks) and snagged a couple packs of Lineage -- because I love paying 10 bucks for two inserts.

However, in this case, I don't mind at all, because the first pack yielded this insert:

What a delightful card.

And the second rack pack yielded this insert:

I just know he's going to be MVP now.

I now have all 3 Lineage parallels of Kemp -- mini, diamond and platinum. That was a little too easy.

I can't help but think that bit of Dodger rack pack mojo was my reward for being fastened to mundane adult responsibilities for the last seven days.

You might be wondering what any of this has to do with the Darryl Strawberry Ultra card at the top of the post.

Well, the mundane adult responsibilities (heretofore known as MAR), have also taking the ol' bank account hostage, too, and I'm entering a new No Retail Zone for the immediate future. It's not unexpected. October, November and December are the worst card-buying months of the year for me.

But less cash -- plus a looming card show for which I have yet to save -- means more appreciation for the trades I've made and the group breaks I've joined. And it should be my duty to show what will be my main means of acquiring cards for the next three months.

These '93 Ultra Dodger needs came from Cards on Cards' Fleer group break awhile back. There wasn't a ton that I needed out of all the Fleer boxes he was busting, but just enough that I thought I could finish off some team set needs.

The '93 Ultra was the most successful. With those four cards and the Strawberry up top, I moved within one card of completing the team set.

Then Steve of The Greatest 21 Days supplied the final card a week or so later:

Man, it feels good to be done with an Ultra set. They're such look-alike sets, I think they're put on this earth to confuse the hell out of me.

But I would never confuse these cards with anything else. Unless I was on the stuff that designers of '95 Fleer were on. Still need about a half-dozen Dodgers from this misguided set.

This, obviously, isn't Fleer. I'm back to Lineage again. This came from JayBee. I saw him feature it on his blog and I pounced.

The scanner is teasing me again by showing the card as a fantastic blue color, even though it doesn't look like that at all. But I shouldn't tell you that. I should just let you all be jealous.

I'm sorry for the disconnected nature of this post. But it's rushed because I have to get to work again.

I'm thinking things will slow down starting tomorrow. I hope so anyway. I hear there's postseason baseball on TV. Can someone fill me on what's happened since Saturday?