Vacation Day Mail

My work schedule used to have me work on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  As a person who is employed as an upper elementary school teacher, it was really hard to be productive on this day.  Many students would miss school, and those that showed up were rightfully distracted.  Admittedly, as the adult in the room it was hard to work that Wednesday.

Fortunately, things have changed and all the feelings of Wednesday have now been shifted to Tuesdays.  Although, I feel a little bit more focused.  Especially since I have given up going anywhere on Thanksgiving.  It's my own five day vacation in the middle of the quarter.

I started my vacation by attending a basketball game last night.

My Wolfpack ended up winning pretty handily.  Today, I am onto other things that do not involve work.  A little time spent playing with the kids, a little cleaning before the in-laws get into town, and now I have moved onto working on some cards.

Usually when I get cards in the mail they actually sit on my desk for a few days before I actually get a chance to scan them,  write something about the cards, and post them.  Just the way things are, many other things come before write blog posts about baseball cards.  For today though, I am setting all the grown-up things aside.

Bloggers do mail day posts all the time.  I have not made one of these posts in literally three years.  I will take a break from teaching my son about Oregon Trail on Dos Box.

Let's do it.   Three packages.  First one.

Picked up a Topps Gold Label Anthony Banda autograph.  He's been my Durham Bulls player that I have spent the year collecting.  Topps put him in a Rays uniform for this card, which has been an on going back and forth this year with cards featuring him as a Diamondback.  Banda was traded to the Rays last spring, not sure why he is not a Ray on every card.  I have another Banda card on the way, released after this one, he's a Diamondback.  Quality.

Second package.  

There have not been a ton of Joey Lucchesi cards this year, probably because he plays for the Padres.  The rookie pitcher went to Southeast Missouri State, which is where I happened to go to college for my undergraduate degree.  It's a small teachers college about halfway between St. Louis and Memphis.  Needless to say, there have not been many alumni to reach the Major Leagues.  I have been following him for awhile, fun to see him finally get a few cards.

I cannot keep track of all the variations in this Topps products these days, but this is one of the Chrome Pack cards from this year's Update set.  Nice looking card.

Third package.  Two cards.  Same player.

More Lucchesi.   The top card is a pink refractor which are very common in the Topps Chrome Update product.  The bottom card is a gold refractor, which is serial numbered out of 50.  A little tougher find, but neither is very expensive.

That's it for the mail, unless someone is willing to pay my toll road bill from the state of North Carolina.