Soon…
Soon my friends, soon. Muwahaha.
And out they go!
All 10 boxes I had packed up are now on their way. Everyone who had requested cards in the past two weeks has a box on the way to them. I used the option on USPS.com to email each recipient, so you should all have tracking info in your inbox. It’s ALL priority 2-3 day, since those priority boxes ended up being the cheapest route, so start looking for boxes Mon/Tues. Have a great weekend everybody!
Logistics
So, first of all, a big thank-you to all you guys for your response to my spring cleaning. I’ve got a considerable amount packed up and ready to go. Somewhere along the way I realized that I’ve never really sent this many cards out before. I had to rethink the logistics of it a little bit. I had a couple 8×10 padded envelopes that went out already, and they worked well, but I ended up taping up little bricks of cards, and then finding a backing for them, and it ended up looking like I was mailing a text book to people. It was also heavy. The lightest package was 1lb, 2oz. That ended up being just north of $5 to ship, a price I’m more than willing to eat. I’m considering it the “cost of doing business” as well as a great way to make new friends and trading partners. If $5 gets me a permanent trading partner for a team I didn’t have before, that’s shipping money well spent in my book. We’re in this for the long haul people!
Anyway, my point is that at $5 an envelope, I wasn’t really saving any money over a USPS flat-rate box, which A) are free from a “supplies” perspective, and B) ship for $5.70 anyway. 8×10 bubble mailers aren’t cheap, and free boxes trump that any way you slice it. So, off to the post office I went. I got a whole pallet of them. 25 boxes, all free.
Then I started putting cards in them…
Hmm…. That doesn’t look like the safest way to ship cards. Hey, free cards are free, but I’d still like them to show up in one piece. I may not be personally interested in the players and teams on them, but the people I’m sending them too might. So, I got a little creative.
I had some old double thick foam-core sitting around from a photo shoot and decided to chop it up. I made 4 sides, all the same height, and it filled in the gaps perfectly. Now the cards are protected on all sides, the foam-core is ultra thick, they should be completely safe… hmmm…. but what about the “good” cards, we don’t want them just floating around in there, right?
There, that’s better. I wrapped the slightly above average cards in a team bag, topped it with a blocker, and set them on top. This way they’re also a little bit of a surprise too. Notice how the side flaps fit perfectly over the foam-core, holding everything together. Padding all around, especially for the good stuff.
Even the front is protected.
Overkill? Probably. Worth it? I think so. It took me 15 minutes to chop up some foam-core with an Exacto, and it’s the perfect packing material.
So, now I’ve got a big stack of these ready to go out. Of course, I also realized that this week isn’t my paycheck week, so… yeah. Not going out today. Sorry kids, the electric bill comes first. But, rest assured that these are ready to roll, and will go out at the first opportunity. The only exception being the Yankees, who, by rough estimate, have nearly 400 cards. I’m going to have to find a bigger box for that.
Have a good weekend everybody.
BMX
Last weekend I had a chance to do something I’ve always wanted to do, albeit on a small scale. I’ve always had a passion for the more extreme sports, although I’ve never attempted to actually participate in them. Skateboarding and BMX are probably my two favorite. Ever since I started photography I’ve always wanted to have a session with a pro/semi-pro in an actual skate park. Last weekend I had the chance to shoot a BMX team during a stunt show. A friend from work knew the team, and I got full access. The scale was incredibly small, 3 riders, 1 ramp, but it was a good warm up for a job I have coming up in a couple weeks. A few weeks from now there’s a full scale event here in town and my friend has insider access to that as well. I figured shooting the smaller stunt show this weekend would give me a good chance to get my timing down and try out a new fisheye 10-22mm.
Here are the results.
I’m really looking forward to the next event. Talking with these guys, and discussing angles before hand was a huge help. I can’t wait to shoot a full vert ramp.
Jury Duty
Last week I did my civic duty and headed down to the courthouse on Wednesday morning. I’ve been called for jury duty 5 or 6 times since moving to Texas (mostly due to registering to vote in new counties and updating records at the DMV… that’s how they getcha!) but never got picked for a criminal trial. Until last week of course. Wednesday, Thursday, and most of the day on Friday I was locked up in the “Jury Deliberation Room”, arguing with 11 other people.
Now that’s it’s over, I’m technically free to talk about it, but given the, umm, seemingly scary background of the defendant, I think I’m going to pass. Suffice to say, although he probably did it, the DA had zero evidence. It was actually one of the weakest presentations of evidence I’ve ever seen. This dude was serious scum of the earth, but there wasn’t anything tying him to the crime. We all wanted to put him away, he was up for 25-life, but that whole “reasonable doubt” thing weighed heavy on everyone. Well, almost everyone. We had a kindergarten teacher who refused to believe anything and held out her verdict, and wouldn’t change. We were 11-1, not guilty. Not because the guy was innocent, but because we couldn’t prove it. Which, if you think about it, is how the system is supposed to work anyway. Anyway, the jury was hung and the judge declared a miss-trial. Three days wasted.
So, if you were wondering where on earth I disappeared to, there ya go.
Lots of work to catch up on, blogging too. I’m sure there will be a flurry of posts this week 😉
Return to the Living
I’m alive, and vertical, which is nice for a change! It was a heck of a holiday season, that’s for sure.
We started with a visit to my family home in New England over Christmas. We managed to find long but direct plane routes from Houston to Boston. I knew that flying with a toddler was probably best done all at once. We normally fly South West but couldn’t find anything with less than 2 stops leading up to Christmas, and I just envisioned a battle getting her back on the plane after stopping in Atlanta or Chicago. That just wasn’t going to work. So, we paid a little extra for direct flights on United. I was actually pleasantly surprised and that flights all worked out perfectly. She slept for a good bit on the way up there, and I surprised her with a portable DVD player for the rest. She wanted IceAge and munched on Goldfish and was happy as could be.
My parents loved seeing her and we got to visit with nearly everyone. Christmas day was a blast and she was dizzy with excitement opening gifts. I got the new Roku box, she got a Lego princess castle and my aunts and uncles came for dinner. After that it started snowing and we were stuck inside for 2 days. I had wanted to go into Boston a bit, and get out and visit with my buddies in the area, but the northern part of NH got 15″ and we were good and stuck. It wasn’t until the morning of our departure that it actually stopped.
The snow let up around midnight and we had to get on the road by 3:30am to get back to Boston in time to make our 7:30am flight. We thought flying early would be good for the kiddo to get some sleep, which never happened, but catching the red-eye after a snow storm was just grueling. It was a white-knuckled drive for yours truly. We thankfully made it to the gate with about 20 minutes to spare.
Back here in Houston we were preparing for New Years when we all collective came down with some version of the flu. Our daughter was the luckiest with just a passing cough and some sniffles, she had the flu shot a couple months ago. My wife still has a cough but it never really developed into anything. I was laid up in bed for the better part of a week. Fever, chills, body-aches, the whole thing. We canceled New Years plans and I just laid on the couch drinking tea. Happy 2013!
So, after that it was just recovery for the past week. I haven’t even had a chance to play any of my newly acquired video games, or go through my retail-therapy baseball cards. I had gone to Target to find some Robitusin and game home with a half-dozen discounted rack-packs of Chrome and Platinum.
I’m back in the office today, and have a nice stack of yellow padded envelopes from ebay to open as well. The 2nd half of my December purchases have been waiting patiently for me. I’ve got some catching up posting to do.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I’m looking forward to going back through everyone’s posts from the past 3 weeks.
Matt out.
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