A Postal Relic from a Galaxy Far, Far Away

I disappeared for a few days there. It was unintentional, but I just didn't get around to posting. Wednesday was my birthday, but it was also the day before I left the office for a while, so I stayed a little late and tried to get some things caught up. My dad stopped by my office and dropped off a birthday card. My family had steak for dinner and my wife and kids sang to me.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Three of my sisters live in the same town as me, and my other sister drove out with her family, so we got five of us together with my mom and assorted spouses and children for dinner. I think we had 10 adults and fifteen kids in attendance. My little brother couldn't make it down from college to be with us, but I guess five out of six isn't bad. We dressed in matching attire that was appropriate for the holiday.

Friday I had some cleaning up and some packing to do, and I also had some Black Friday deals that I wanted to check up on. I wound up spending a little more than I planned on (one order from Blowout Cards, a couple of sketch commissions, a board game expansion, something for my kids, a COMC order, some Japanese wrestling cards), but I wound up deciding not to buy quite a few things, too. A couple of those decisions not to buy were pretty painful, but in the end there isn't anything that I can't buy later if I really really need it.

Saturday was my day to do all the packing I didn't get around to on Friday, and on Sunday I got in my car to make the several-hour drive to Utah for some work training I've got to do. On the way down, I stopped to see my grandparents for a couple of hours. At some point in the journey I had a headlight go out, so visibility got pretty sketchy for the last little bit. I got to my lodging site just ahead of a snowstorm, and by Monday morning everything was covered in several inches of nasty, slippery snow. My room is just a few minutes from the classroom, so I was able to make it to class on time (after sliding most of the way off the road to avoid a collision and missing a turn because my car just wouldn't go that direction). Several of my classmates were quite late and class started late, which made for a very long day. After class I tracked down a new bulb for my headlight and spent about thirty minutes swearing in the parking lot as I tried to contort my hand into a position that would allow the bulb to clip in. Eventually I got it all put together and headed back to my room, passing a couple of nasty wrecks along the way. I hope the weather improves from here on out, although I am grateful that the snow waited at least until I got here.

When last year's Topps Star Wars Masterwork set came out, one of the cooler inserts was the Stamp Relic cards. I never was able to track down the Leia one, but I did manage to get the Luke Skywalker card. This year I hunted down the Leia version. I actually missed out on the base # / 249 version, but a couple hours later I got this Silver # 14 / 50 card for the same price I had bid on the base. I can't complain too much about that. This year's version looks a little better than the previous set, as it features a photograph on front in addition to the stamp. All of last year's cards just had the stamp on them, if I am remembering correctly. The other difference is that last year's cards used USA stamps, while this year's cards use Royal Mail stamps.

The card backs aren't much to look at, but who looks at card backs these days, anyway? I'm glad I was able to add this card to my collection from the 2016 Topps Star Wars Masterwork set. One of the things I didn't quite pull the trigger on for Black Friday was a box of this product. It sure is tempting, but even at the sale price it's a pretty spendy gamble.