Contested Shots 19: A Last-Minute Entry for P-Town Tom's Favorite Card of 2016 Contest

I kind of disappeared for the weekend. It wasn't intentional, but I had reasons. Thursday the snow was still pretty bad, so I called in to work again. I knew I would have to go in on Friday, though, as it was my National Guard weekend and we don't really get days off for that. In the morning a neighbor's moving company cancelled on them, so I went and helped them load up their truck (after helping to dig their truck out of the road). Then I spent several hours shoveling our cars out of the snow enough to back them out of the ditch and give us a better chance of at least making it onto the road. Then I did walkways and whatnot, as well as cleaning up the edge of the roof and pulling the gutters off the house. The gutters had needed attention for some time, and they were causing problems.

My wife was able to get out of the neighborhood in the afternoon. Her vehicle has a higher clearance than mine, and she got enough groceries and household stuff to get through a few days. I tried twice to get out of the neighborhood, but both times I was blocked by stuck vehicles, including a garbage truck that was being pulled out by another garbage truck, and had to turn around. I decided that instead of commuting back and forth during the weekend, I would just pack a bag for the full three days and keep trying to get out of the neighborhood until I was successful.

I made it out late Thursday night and slept in my office until work started on Friday. That was pretty uncomfortable, so I booked a room in the barracks for the next two nights. My job on the National Guard side involves talking to a lot of people (I talked to over 400 soldiers this weekend about their pay accounts), and my introverted self was too burnt out by the end of the day to blog or do much of anything but sleep until the next day. More snow fell over the weekend, and it turned to freezing rain and regular rain today. My drive home after work was pretty eventful, as I slid around on the interstate more than I would have liked. I kept the rubber side down, though, and got home without a wreck. Then I shoveled some more snow to keep my car from getting stuck again, as the snow in my parking space was up as high as my bumper. After that I was really exhausted and I sat down to work on a blog post and catch up on reading blogs that I missed over the weekend.

Just about the time I sat down, my wife told me that a friend's house was leaking and they needed some help, so I grumbled for a second and then changed my clothes to go see what I could do. My wife went, too, so that she could help out with watching their kids. I helped shovel their roof around the leaky spot and the driveway around their cars, and once they were taken care of we headed home. It's nice to help out, but I am dragging after the last few days. And that's why I am posting about my favorite card of 2016 just before the January 9th deadline.

This Bartolo Colon card from 2016 Topps NOW is probably my actual favorite card of 2016, but it's shown up on a lot of blog posts in this contest and I don't want to be that guy. It isn't a particularly historical moment, but it did set a minor record (oldest player to hit their first MLB home run) and it was one of the more fun moments in the MLB season. I talked plenty about this card back in June and a little in October, so I won't say much more about it here. It is probably my actual favorite card of 2016.

This is not my favorite card of 2016. I don't even know who this dude is, to be honest. I pulled this autograph card of Andrade "Cien" Almas from a box of 2016 Topps WWE NXT just a little while ago. I was kind of disappointed by this pull, but it turns out it wasn't that bad. I sold it for more than I paid for the box, and I used that money plus a handful of eBay Bucks to land my actual favorite card of 2016 (outside of Bartolo Colon's Topps NOW home run card).

I picked up this on-card NXT Autograph of the WWE's Bayley from 2016 WWE Undisputed. I have been wanting a Bayley autograph for a long time, and I finally was able to get one at the right price. I wanted an on-card autograph because Bayley has a big signature and her sticker signatures look squished. This is the base version, numbered # 152 / 299. I admittedly don't watch a lot of the WWE's offerings, but Bayley's enthusiasm, brightly-colored clothes, her penchant for hugging, and her persona's overall positive vibe have made me a fan.

You can't feel bad after watching that entrance, can you? One of my hobby goals for 2017 was to finally obtain a Bayley autograph, and I got a pretty good one practically before the year even got started. I probably picked up higher-valued cards in 2016 or cards that were more rare, but I think one valid measure of a card is whether you feel happy when you see it in your collection, and in that test this Bayley card is currently near the top of the list. That's why I chose it as my favorite card of 2016.