Lousy Smarch Weather

I'm already sick of this stupid month.

In one of my earlier posts I hinted that I might have a bit of personal news. At my mother's urging, I followed up on a job application I submitted and sure enough, I got called in for an interview. The woman who called was having a busy week and said I could come in that Friday afternoon or the next Tuesday. I chose Friday afternoon. March 2. The day of the big "bomb cyclone" which slammed the east coast with blizzard-like snowfall and hurricane-force winds. 

I got there early for my 2pm interview. By the time it ended around 3pm the roads were covered in snow. Traffic was a nightmare because nearly everyone left work early, and the high winds were knocking down trees and power lines all over town, causing at least four detours. 

On a clear day it would have taken me 15 minutes to get home from that interview. On that day, it took me three hours. 


Amazingly, we did not lose power, phone service, or internet service. We did lose our rusted metal shed that had been in the backyard for about 40 years. The wind somehow picked it up and blew it into the big pine tree in our backyard. I didn't notice it until going to bed that night, when I heard the howling wind banging against the metal of the displaced shed. 

Last Wednesday we got another snowstorm. This was more of your standard variety snowstorm - 6-8 inches of heavy snow. No major wind. No big deal. 

That's when our internet/phone line went out. It took Verizon a week to repair the line. Good thing I'm not waiting for any potentially life-changing phone calls or e-mails, eh?



Anywho..while I was off the grid for a whole week I was able to scan a bunch of cards for future Sports Card Tour posts. And I received three trade packages in the mail, which I am delinquent in acknowledging due to said snowstorm-related outages.

The first is a one-card PWE from Henry, author of the blog Cardboard Greats. Henry is a fellow Red Sox fan and offered up some nice cards to trade, including this Clayton Kershaw Atomic Refractor from 2017 Bowman's Best:

I gave him a list of my duplicate Red Sox cards and he picked a handful he needed, including a Craig Kimbrel card for his growing collection. If you've got any Kimbrel cards to trade (or even if you don't) stop by Henry's blog. 

Speaking of collections, P-Town Tom of the Cubs-centric blog Waiting 'til Next Year has been sharing the wealth of cards from The Collection he recently acquired. I jumped on some 1963 Topps cards, which Tom shipped more than a week before the post office delivered them to my door. Here's a six-pack of '63 Sox featuring Frank Malzone:

  
Some semi-stars and others I chose for no particular reason:

Matt over at Diamond Jesters is doing a Time Travel swap meet thing based on the One Red Paper Clip trade string. I'm planning to offer up one or more of these in the near future:

Tom padded the mailer with some extra goodies, and a nice note wishing my team good luck this season.

The third trade package I received while isolated from the (online) world wasn't technically a trade package. Jon, author of the blog A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts has been beefing up my basketball collection for over a year, and had been on the lookout for some 2015-16 Donruss cards I needed. He didn't find any, but the mailer he sent was loaded with great stuff:

Shaq, Dirk, and Steve Nash are players I collect; Jon added a pair of Laker legends to the mix.

I'm so bummed that the Packers cut Jordy Nelson. Football can be cruel sometimes. And by sometimes.. I mean all the time.

 Pedros! Sooo many Pedros! Moments & Milestones was um..unique, to say the least.

A mini Ted and a Cooperstown card of the only other home the Red Sox have ever known. Up from Third Base to Huntington....they sang another victory song!

Henry, Tom, Jon...thank you all so much for the great cards! I can't think of a better way to take my mind off the crippling snowstorms, internet outage, and nearly killing myself for a fruitless interview. 

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on all of your blogs by the end of the week. And then possibly publish the Chicago post that I started teasing two weeks ago. Unless another snowstorm slams us before then...

~