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I had a minor mental breakdown yesterday.

The plan was to stop at home on my lunch break and pick up some cash to get a couple gifts. Two days ago I had $80 in my wallet, but then I gave $60 to my boss for two Nintendo Switch games -  The Legend Of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (brand new/sealed!) and a Super Mario All-Stars game for my girls.

That left me with $20, which my daughter took so she could get ice cream with her friends. She did not spend it - but she didn't give it back, either. So I had an empty wallet. Fine, whatever. 

Except that this weekend was supposed to be a total washout. Nothing but pouring rain from Friday night to Monday night. I'd planned to watch a movie or two and play my new Zelda game (and some Stardew Valley, too). If I was going to shop for gifts, it had to be early in the afternoon.

It was very warm and sunny at lunch time yesterday so I tried to stop home. Mrs. Collector was supposed to be at work and I knew she'd have to be back by 3 p.m. since that's when the girls get home from school. It was 12:30 p.m. and she had not left yet. Because she was home I did not get cash because I would have had to tell her why I needed cash. Walgreens and Hallmark take credit cards, of course. But I can't use plastic, because then she'd know what I bought.

So my new plan was to forgo the rest of my lunch break and leave work at 2:30 p.m. rather than 3 p.m. (This is not an issue at all, for reasons I won't get into here.)  That way I could walk home, grab cash, and hit up the stores before everyone got home and gave me the third degree about my purchases.

I also planned to pick up some repacks for TCDB trades and a Free Stuff Friday post I planned to pen last night - had I made it to the repack source. But I couldn't get that far.

The moment I left my office (a half hour early) Mrs. Collector texted me that she wouldn't be back home before the girls got out of school. You should have gone to work earlier! They take the bus, but a) my 6th grader just started going to this school 3 days ago, and b) the doors are locked when we're not home and they don't have keys (long story). 

So that meant I had to cut my shopping short and hightail it home by 3 p.m. My grocery list included items intended for: my wife, my mom, my blogger/trader friends, and a Rosh Hashanah card for my old boss. The only thing I wanted for myself was a bottle of soda and a bag of chips. 

And that was the only thing I was able to acquire. Because the sky suddenly got dark. And this eerie wind started blowing like the beginning of a hurricane. I had to scrap the gifts until at least Tuesday and run home fast. 

I was too late.

As I'm running home carrying my feedbag like a football, my wife is texting me that I don't have to hurry because the girls don't get off the bus until about 3:30. How would I check my texts in a monsoon, you say? I wouldn't.

Anyway, my 6th grader wasn't even on the bus - her grandma (who just happens to work at that school) gave her a ride home around 4 p.m. My 8th grader got home at 3:30 and she was bone dry because the storm ended before she got home! No one got soaked except me!

This... is what I get for trying to do things for other people. 

 

Anyway, rant over. My repack connection will be there next week and I'll have some new-old cards for y'all. Giveaway to follow the conclusion of my 1956 Topps scan parade - which I hope to resume next Friday.

In other blog news, this is last call for anyone who might want to read my short story Sarah's Surf Shop. I'll be taking that down next week and replacing it with a wantlist or collection tab (1988-89 Fleer basketball?) soon.

Speaking of wantlists, I received some cards in the mail that cheered me up a bit:

Bo sent these my way in a 3-for-3 trade. I'm now one Pujols and one Yankee icon away from completing this set because... my latest Sportlots order also arrived:

Ichiro, Mantle, Mo, A-Rod, Scherzer, Chipper... lots of legends for 20 cents each. (Bummer they didn't have the base Pujols or the Jeter.)

Yadi, Miggy, and Ryan Howard are here too, along with some other cards that eluded me until now.

In more set building news, this Curtis Joseph insert from 2003-04 Topps Lost Rookie Cards is on the way:

I actually bid in an eBay auction for the first time in forever. Won this for $1.99 shipped... because no one else bid. All in all, not a bad haul for $10 if I do say so myself. Probably better than a repack box.

I've started shopping for some more Starting Lineup figures. I'll probably go with either an '88 Jack Morris or '89 Alan Trammell as my Tiger - though a Chet Lemon would be neat. Might start looking to fill in other missing teams as well. Oh! Maybe that's what my new tab will be - a gallery of SLU figures by team.

By the way, my last post got the most views of anything I've published this year by far.

 

I guess you guys really like reading about Kansas City Starting Lineups, huh? 

That's why I titled this post a little differently, just to mess with the algorithm (and to warn you about my mini-rant)

Not sure what my next post will bring, but I'm certain it will be sunnier.

Definitely...probably... hopefully... maybe.

Thanks for reading!


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