I received news today that our one remaining vehicle to drive is on death's door. It's not worth fixing and it could go kaput any day.
It's been two months since ice fell onto our other vehicle and it's finally being worked on, but it's probably a week away (plus any inevitable delays) from being back and driveable.
So that's where we are, two grown-ass adults with grown-ass jobs operating as if we're 18 year olds with no car. Fun, right?
But it's just the most visible example of how nothing works anymore. I sit at work in my office sometimes with no heat because the failing boiler has been turned off for the summer. And I don't need to tell you bloggers about how the blog roll isn't functioning. It takes a good 2 to 8 hours -- sometimes never -- for the latest blog update to appear in reader or along the blog roll. I'm publishing this in the early afternoon in hopes it will see eyes by sometime this evening.
But thank goodness for baseball cards. They always work.
They are not mechanical. They are not digital (not the real ones anyway). They don't require a password. They don't need to be charged, a new battery or a new app.
They won't blow a fuse, a tire or trip a switch. They aren't fragile (mostly) or breakable. The connection never goes out on baseball cards.
They don't require anti-virus protection. They won't bombard you in pop-up ads. You can read the whole card without a subscription.
They don't need a repair person that you can't get on the phone. They don't break down unless they're really, really really, knew-Woodrow-Wilson old.
You can drop them and it's not the end of the world (usually). They will never grow into obsolescence.
They don't even require an update, unless you want some update cards (these are those).
I received these 1984 Topps Update cards from Bo of Baseball Cards Come To Life! When I saw them on his blog a couple of weeks ago, I jumped at the extras. I had been looking to purchase the complete set online and had set up a watch list, but, like everything else, it didn't work so well, as I kept getting updates for stuff that definitely were not the 1984 Topps Update set.
It probably wasn't the best thing to seek out anyway because like a number of 1980s sets, the price has been inflated by a rookie card, or in this case, a pre-rookie card. Since I received these cards, an actual listing for the set finally popped up on ebay. I don't expect to win it -- that's just the way things are going now. But maybe I should be a little more optimistic.
I did just receive 43 cards from the 1984 Topps Update set ... by reading a blog ... that's on the internet ... that's on my laptop ... that runs on a battery ... and electricity ... in a heated and well-lit house.
It's great when all those things are working. When they're not ... well, there's always baseball cards.
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