Night Owl Cards

In what's become a pattern, I stumbled to the computer late this morning and realized I had a blog. I've always devoted my attention to this blog no matter what was going on him my life, but lately life is throwing activities at me that even I can't combat. Yesterday, life told me to drive five hours through the Adirondack Mountains (I saw my first snow of the season). I couldn't say no. I couldn't say, "I have a blog that hasn't been updated in two days, I know that doesn't seem like a long time, but I have a reputation ." It's been a month of travel and it isn't over yet. So here I am posting for the fifth time this month when once I would have posted 21 times by now (what the hell was with that?). To get back into the rhythm, I grabbed some cards sent to me by Josh of Royals and Randoms that I think have been sitting in a dark corner for weeks waiting for me to DO SOMETHING. I think Josh found my want list before it went kapu...

One thing I still can't get accustomed to with modern shopping is the sheer variety all in one place. For years I operated in a world with only four channels on my television, a handful of station on the radio and a sports magazine that arrived once a week. Much like someone who grew up during the depression (my apologies for comparing the '70s to the Great Depression), that period will be with me forever, and I'm still adjusting to the grand smorgasbord that appears before us whenever we fancy. The best example of my inability to fully grasp this is whenever I select cards on COMC. I absolutely cannot focus. I have a variety of collecting interests, so that plays a part, but I cannot commit myself to a single shopping task and finish it. There is just too much other goodness to absorb. I had a little bit of cash to spend recently and went straight to my favorite online card site. The first card I threw in the cart was the above Pete Rose In Action card from the 19...

The end of work tonight (or last night for most of you) was a frustrating lesson in what happens when incompetence mixes with unnecessarily complicated technology: Everyone within a 500-foot radius will pay. So, with much relief and clinging to a few shreds of sanity, I came home eager to tend to my family of blogs. Unfortunately, this is the only one that will receive attention. Because my scanner -- my evil, evil scanner -- is trying to finish me off. I mean it is really, really putting a lot of energy into my demise. For example: I have just completed scanning the following image ... ... for the 16th time. Yup, 16 times. Why would I ever scan the same thing 16 times? I have no rational explanation. I just like things to be straight. It's a simple request by my way of thinking. Place an object on the scanner. Line it up in a reasonably straight fashion. And, presto, it should emerge on my backlit screen STRAIGHT! But my scanner won't do this. Bec...

(You have reached the end of Cardboard Appreciation Week. I hope you have enjoyed the variety of cards displayed in the past week. I tried to mix them up as there are so many different cards worth honoring. And, here for one last time -- until next week -- is Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 153rd in a series): Wow ... another card with a monstrous title. I've got to keep my collecting to pre-1990s issues. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen anytime soon. Because I am adding another insert series to my addiction. I used to steer clear of insert series. They didn't interest me (most of them still don't) and I viewed them simply as a money grab by card companies (I still do). But I've lightened up a little bit, probably because Topps has found my weaknesses. First it came out with tales of the game , and then it came out with glow-in-the-dark night cards , and then it came out with '75-style minis . And now I'm so addicted to certain insert...