Cards from Johnny and a big project

 So a few days ago Night Owl posted about being busy with things and I can relate. Between a doctor appointment, the weekly shopping, yard work, and unplanned things, it feels like I’ve had things to do every day this week. This week should be a bit slower, and with it being the last week with a few hours of the house to myself before Kyler goes back to school, I hope to take advantage of it. 

It’s been a good with with everything. My doctors appointment went fairly well and I think I am going to make some good ground with getting my diabetes under tighter control. Today I helped my friend John paint a stairwell at a building our church owns, and it was nice talking with him and it will be nice to see something that I helped paint every Sunday. 

I also got to scan some cards into TCDB thanks to John from Johnny’s Trading Spot. I won last Fridays daily giveaway I believe, and got some cards in the mail this week. 

I got 4 Paul DeJong’s from 2018 Topps High Tek. Not knowing much about that set, I learned that there are 4 patterns from TCDB, so I completed the base patterns for Paul, who is now a Blue Jay. While I wish him well, I hope Tampa gets past the Jays if they end up facing them in the playoffs. Speaking of Tampa, I got 2 Rays from this years Heritage set, Luis Patino and David Peralta. I think I’m just missing the SPs from the set as far as the Rays team set. The last 3 cards are Tigers from 2017 Topps High Tek, and there was also a 1983 Tigers team schedule thrown in. I have a few different schedules in my collection, and I try to get them any time I’m at a stadium. Since I organize my binders by year, I put the schedule in the front of that years cards. Thanks John for all of the cards. Your contests have been an innovative thing for blogs, something many people including myself have looked forward to, and just showcase your generosity and how good of a person you are. 

I managed to go through 1 or 2 more teams and pull the doubles out of my monster boxes, and just have the Padre$, Giants, and Nationals to go through, and that will finish out the NL. After that, I might take a break from sorting for a month or two (although I plan on getting the 2023 Topps complete set and at least pulling out pc guys, Tigers, Rays, rookies, highlights, and sunset cards).  There was a new Sunset card added to the list today as Cole Hamels called it a career, making his 2021 Topps card a Sunset card. 

The reason I am taking a little bit of a break from the much needed sorting is that I’ve been commissioned to make a ton of customs. While I can’t go n to much detail, it’s basically 40-50 40 card sets (2,000 or so cards) front and back. I’ve been working on this project for over a year, but after not getting an email from my contact about half a year, I just figured they went in another direction. So I got an email a month or so ago, and the project was back on, and that would’ve been great, but my laptop crashed like 6 months ago. I made the entire 40 card set, and saved it on that laptop, and had templates that allowed me to print 6 cards at 2.5 by 3.5 inches, the standard card size. I would’ve just had to edit maybe 10 cards and I could’ve been on the printing process right now. With my new laptop, I have to recreate all the templates (did it), make the set (finished the first 1 cards), and make a good template that will allow me to print a standard sized card (got one going right now, but it makes them a tad short). Seems like this laptop and the version of MS Paint that it had just doesn’t want to let me copy something from an email or website and keep it the same size. 

I should have a halfway easy time finishing the final 30 cards, but I’m a little nervous at the process after that.  I need to print basically 4,000 cards (2,000 fronts and 2,000 backs), cut them out, glue them together, and then probably cut off any excess paper. I don’t know how long the process will take, and I kind of have a deadline in the next month or so. I’m also a tad nervous on how many times I’m going to have to replace the ink cartridge. While not going into specifics on what I’m being paid, I’m not sure if it will cover the ink and glue. Let’s say I can print 50 cards front and back with 1 ink cartridge, that’s still 40 times I have to buy ink. I might have to do some math when I start printing and see what I come up with but I hope I’m wrong. 

This is a big project, and it’s something I really want to be a part of, it would be something I would love to put on my resume, and it
could open doors for other projects. I’ve done a few noteable things in life that I’m proud of. I played keyboard for Kim Grieves at a Battle of he Bands at Wet & Wild waterpark, and the music was broadcast all over the entire park (probably the most people who have ever heard me play). 

I’ve performed 3 of my original songs with a band while opening for a band called Thalon in 2008.

 I played on the same stage as one of my favorite bands, MuteMath in 2010. 

I wrote a short devotional passage for a Christmas devotional for our church 2 years ago, which also contained one written by Gigi Graham (one of Billy Graham’s kids). I guess she has been to our church at various times of her life, and who knows, if she wrote for it, she probably read it, and perhaps something I tried to make a message out of could’ve touched her life. Back to the noteable things, I dated a girl who was hot and talented enough to be a backup dancer in the ‘Step Up 2’ movie. There are many other things that I’m proud of, I need to remember to write them all down. Better than all of those, I married Karen, and had a son. Other than the last 2, doing this project is big enough to maybe top those. I’ll update everyone on how it goes, and eventually I’m going to do a big post and let the cat out of the bag. I will also soon be able to get back to sorting, and it will get back to normal. 

Life has the ebbs and flows of being busy and having free time, and you just have to go with it and not freak out during the busy times. I’ll still get cards and make a little time for them, then soon enough it will be slow again, and I’ll be organizing my butt off again. Then holidays will come, it will be crazy, and by the middle of January, it will be slow. The only constants will be family and baseball cards.