Mailbox Joys: A Fisk/Ordonez Card

2005 Donruss Elite - Passing The Torch bat card #PT-31 Carlton Fisk/Magglio Ordonez 125/250

In today's mail, I received three packages. One, eBay purchase, one contest winning and one trade. I'll get to the other two in later posts. I'll focus on the eBay purchase for this post. Rest assured, all of these packages were needed today to lift my mood. The package from Patricia and Lucy kept me going through all the running around on the weekend, but these are truly needed today.

After both of us being sick on and off the past few weeks, Tracey and I both felt good enough to see each other this weekend. It was inevitable because of the things going on this past weekend, regardless of how we felt. Saturday morning, we met her sister and her boyfriend for a late breakfast. They flew in from Decatur, Georgia. Yes, the same place Tracey and I went to at the beginning of this blog in November 2007. We had a nice time chatting and laughing together. Then there was a little bit of down time, about an hour, before our next destination.

Then, we were to make an appearance at my aunt's house. Another aunt had a 50th birthday party that the entire family was going to be at. After many stories, many gag gifts and many laughs, we got home about 6 to 7 hours later. The day may not sound like much, but it was exhausting.

Then on Sunday, we were supposed to go to a meeting of a dog club that my ex-boss started back in 1967. I got roped into the club when I worked for him and stayed after making many friends in the club. That was scheduled about 30 miles away at 11 in the morning. Before the meeting, I needed to go into a place that I worked at 5 years ago an fill out an application, but it was on the way, so it wasn't so bad. It just meant we needed to get up earlier.

We got up around 8AM and started getting ready. There were a couple of boxes that were the club's property, so I had to pawn that off to someone who had room to store them. I had picked them up from my ex-boss' house a few months ago and was just waiting for an opportunity to get them into the right hands.

I finished getting ready and decided to check my e-mail one last time before I had to brave the ice to load boxes into my car. There's usually some last minute request from someone in the club, so I always double check. I saw the e-mail I was half expecting to be there sitting in the mailbox. It usually consisted of last minute instructions. Don't forget to bring this or print this out for the meeting.

Instead, I was informed that my ex-boss passed away Sunday morning at 3AM. He was the founder of this club, so it was like a shockwave through the members. He hadn't been doing so well the past six to seven months, so this was expected, but still a shock. Plus, it was just like him to upstage anything the club had going on.

I spent about 4 and a half years caring for this man as a personal assistant. Each month was more challenging than the next. I was there more often and was required to be there at odd hours at a moments notice. It was basically one step away from being a live-in. I was only about 10 minutes away, so I chose not to sleep on the living room floor. It's bad for my back.

A great deal of my life, from early 2003 until the middle of 2007, revolved around this man. I became part of his family. I would end up speaking with his relatives more often than he did some weeks about everything under the sun. He was wheelchair bound from polio and had a laudry list of other problems. I would have ran screaming in the other direction if it hadn't have been for his attitude. I stuck with him until he was forced to live between a nursing home and a hospital.

He always bounced back before, so I was half expecting him to be back in his condo by spring. But he is in a better place now and his suffering will cease. The meeting was pretty somber yesterday, but the dog show must go on. It's in June, so the club can't exactly stop its momentum. The show will be dedicated to him and there will be a memorial trophy for best of breed. He bred cairn terriers, by the way, in his younger days.

I still had to go bowling last night. I think the hectic weekend did wonders for my game though. I had two high games (for me) last night. The other game was still above my average.

This card couldn't have come at a better time. Not only did it cheer me up, it's a Fisk bat card with a Maggs bat card on the back! The only way you could top that is if they had a Fisk/Baines bat card. Do I dare to dream?

The words on the card were a bit comforting, in a way. Passing the torch. It seems to fit nicely this week. Plus, it's a sharp card of two great White Sox players!