Post by mourningdoves on Jan 28, 2018 20:56:02 GMT -5
I'm back. And I can see again. And now I know why my wife keeps complaining about how bright all these LED lightbulbs are; for who knows how long, I've been seeing the world through a yellowish haze. The cataracts were worse than I'd thought, and getting more and more worse all the time. Now I've discovered that there are like a million bird's nests in the trees around here. I guess I always knew they had to live somewhere, but I never saw the nests before.
I had about two weeks when I didn't work on stamps per se at all. That gave me an excuse to practice a little philatelic hygiene (would you subscribe to a magazine called Philatelic Hygiene? I knew you would!) and sort all the covers I've had stacked up here for years....
Magnificent, huh? The binders are from an outfit called BJ's, which is a New England-based variant on Costco and Sam's Club. Obviously, they come up a bit short in the polished aesthetics department, but they cost about a quarter of what 3" Avery binders would, and, while I doubt they'd last very long if I stuffed them with Vario sheets, they seem fairly durable and just fine for the less demanding work of holding covers in sheet protectors or 5" x 7" photo holders. There are 3 binders of Africa (how'd I do that?) and 4 of Latin America and the Caribbean, along with two of Asia, one of Australia and the Pacific, and 3 or 4 of the United States (I did those a while back). I'm about 90% done sorting covers now.
I also got about halfway through my postcards, which come from a variety of sources: Postcrossing, my wife's family (which has counted several well-traveled hoarders amongst its members), garage sales, and the occasional philatelesque purchase. Here is one of the latter, from the historic Bulgarian village of Shipka:
Pretty cool, huh? Here's the flip side, with a lovely postmark from Svischtov, a port city on the Danube:
People who have handwriting like that leave me in a sort of perplexed awe. It's kind of like people who can do pitch-perfect Vaughn Monroe imitations. I can barely imagine possessing such a specialized talent. It's like being in the Rosicrucians and the Mensa Society all at the same time!
(In a tiny little triumph over technology, I also figured out how to make my HP multipurpose printer scan at 600 dpi. It hadn't been a problem before, but I put a new computer into the basement adjacent to the stamp den, and of course I had to install printer drivers; in the meantime, HP had decided that nobody really needed to scan at more than 300 dpi, and 200 dpi was probably good enough for anybody, so they upgraded
the driver software and hid the enhanced capabilities a couple of levels down in a menu nobody would ever think to look at. The printer can actually do 1200 dpi; you'd think that they would want to brag about that, not hide it!)
I had about two weeks when I didn't work on stamps per se at all. That gave me an excuse to practice a little philatelic hygiene (would you subscribe to a magazine called Philatelic Hygiene? I knew you would!) and sort all the covers I've had stacked up here for years....
Magnificent, huh? The binders are from an outfit called BJ's, which is a New England-based variant on Costco and Sam's Club. Obviously, they come up a bit short in the polished aesthetics department, but they cost about a quarter of what 3" Avery binders would, and, while I doubt they'd last very long if I stuffed them with Vario sheets, they seem fairly durable and just fine for the less demanding work of holding covers in sheet protectors or 5" x 7" photo holders. There are 3 binders of Africa (how'd I do that?) and 4 of Latin America and the Caribbean, along with two of Asia, one of Australia and the Pacific, and 3 or 4 of the United States (I did those a while back). I'm about 90% done sorting covers now.
I also got about halfway through my postcards, which come from a variety of sources: Postcrossing, my wife's family (which has counted several well-traveled hoarders amongst its members), garage sales, and the occasional philatelesque purchase. Here is one of the latter, from the historic Bulgarian village of Shipka:
Pretty cool, huh? Here's the flip side, with a lovely postmark from Svischtov, a port city on the Danube:
People who have handwriting like that leave me in a sort of perplexed awe. It's kind of like people who can do pitch-perfect Vaughn Monroe imitations. I can barely imagine possessing such a specialized talent. It's like being in the Rosicrucians and the Mensa Society all at the same time!
(In a tiny little triumph over technology, I also figured out how to make my HP multipurpose printer scan at 600 dpi. It hadn't been a problem before, but I put a new computer into the basement adjacent to the stamp den, and of course I had to install printer drivers; in the meantime, HP had decided that nobody really needed to scan at more than 300 dpi, and 200 dpi was probably good enough for anybody, so they upgraded
the driver software and hid the enhanced capabilities a couple of levels down in a menu nobody would ever think to look at. The printer can actually do 1200 dpi; you'd think that they would want to brag about that, not hide it!)
