Quick trade with Baseball Card Breakdown

About a month ago, I puchased the 2019 Topps complete set. The set included a pack of 5 iconic card reprints which featured Chrome Refractor technology on them. I didn't know it then, but Gavin, the writer of the great blog Baseball Card Breakdown, really wanted a card of Tony Gwynn's 1983 Topps rookie featuring the Chrome Refractor hookup. Well, I just happened to pull one from the special pack, and posted it. Gavin mentioned he wanted it, and I was happy to send it to him. Shortly after I sent it, I got a pwe in the mail featuring these 4 cards. 

The Phil Clark '95 Topps had been on my Top 12 List for a while, and now it is obtained. The Juan Encarnacion autograph is the completion of a23-year quest. I lived in Lakeland, Florida in 1996, and we had a minor league team, the Lakeland Tigers, who were a high-A club for the Detroit Tigers. Juan was on the team at the time, and I was only 13 at the time, but I was smart enough to realize that he was one of the better players on the team, so I wanted to get his autograph. I was out by the clubhouse gate after one of the only games I went to that summer, and I asked if he was out yet, and someone told me he was in the shower. He must be like me, and likes to take long ones, because we waited for about 15 more minutes, and my mom told me we needed to get home, and I never got his autograph that year, or for in Spring Training for the rest of his duration with the Detroit organization. Thanks for helping me get it, Gavin. He also sent 2 Rays cards, a Clayon Henning Cracked Ice Bowman, and an Evan Longoria Prizm.

Things are finally normal again, and we've had a somewhat normal routine for about a week now, and I think it's going to do some good for me and the rest of our family. I'll try to spare all the boring details, but basically since July, my wife's grandmother has been living at our house. She was 92 and had worsening dementia and stage 4 cancer in her colon at that point. My wife quit her daytime job and started working nights at a skilled living facility when she moved it, and it just threw our lives upside down. On nights my wife would work, I would pull double-duty, taking care of our son, and her grandma. Then my wife would come home the next day and try (most times unsuccessfully) to get a few hours of sleep in the daytime. On days where she worked back-to-back days, if her grandma had a bad day and needed lots of help, she wouldn't get any sleep. It was beginning to take it's toll on everyone, but we just kept on chugging. Almost a month ago, Karen's aunt came down from West Virginia to 'help', but it almost was worse. Instead of  helping her grandmother use the bathroom commode during the daytime, she would almost always wake Karen up so she could help. In addition to that, it just seemed like she was always bringing in fast food and creating trash/dishes, and not cleaning up after herself. I'm not saying she didn't help out with Karen's grandma, but it just got to be too much for me, having a crappy day at work, and then coming home, cleaining up after extra people, and then watching grandma and my son before going to bed and doing it all over agian the next day. Towards the end of everything, we had probably 3-4 extra cars in our yard for a week or so, with hospice nurses, family, and visitors.
Karen's grandma was a great person, always giving of herself, her time, and her money, for the betterment of the family. She offered to pay for me to go back to college more than once, and she really has a hand in every custom I make, as she offered to buy me a new laptop when my old one crashed. I was really sad to see her pass away a little over a week ago, but I know she is in a better place, and isn't confused or in pain anymore. As much as I have hated having all of this extra company and extra duties during the last month, I would do it again if she could have more time as long as she was comfortable.
She had a celebration of life service this past Saturday, and our worship band at church (along with a good representation from the family) did all of the music for the service. We were tight and bringing it. I can honestly say that one of the songs we did was the best I have ever played it. No mistakes, tight with the drummer, and throwing in runs I never had before.
I guess the plan moving forward is for Karen to start a new position at her company during the daytime. That will be great for us. She will be on the same schedule as me basically, and on my days off, I can have a good amount of time to work on customs. I anticipate finishing the missing player checklists sometime in the spring, and make a ton of customs after that. During the last few months, things have been crazy, but it's over, and I think there are good things up ahead.
Thanks again for the cards, Gavin.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy