Cricket
After trying to get to sleep for an hour, I spent another two hours trying to find a damn cricket last night. It took me at least a half an hour just to figure which f'in floor the thing was on. Fianlly I get the floor figured out - the basement. My basement is still unfinished so the sound kept bouncing around, I'd think I had it cornered and then the sound would move to the other side of the room.
Enough of this crap, I says to myself, I'm calling in the muscle. So I get brutus down to the basement and tell him to "get the cricket". He doesn't understand. He knows "get the squirrel", "get the raccoon", "get the cow", "get the bird", but not "get the cricket". I'll have to work on that. It shouldn't be too hard, he like to eat bugs already, so no problem there.
With Brutus calmly sitting on the cool basement floor watching/dozing off, I start moving boxes around, looking for the chirping demon from hell. After moving at least a dozen boxes, I come across one I had forgotten I had. My stamp collection. Damn, I forgot I had it. I hadn't opened that box for at least 10 years. It still had the last 3 moving stickers on it from my last 3 moves.
With the cricket still chirping I cut open the box. Damn I have a lot of stamps. The box is about 3'x3'x3', and full of envelopes stuffed with stamps, mint sets, first day issues and plate blocks. I think I started collecting stamps when I was about 10, and did it for 5 years or so. How in the hell, did I accumulate what has to be at least 40, 000 stamps. damn, thats a lot of postage.
Anyway, as I'm losing myself in my memories of the stamp rush days, a little black cricket calmly walks out no less than 2 feet in front of my noggin. DIE cricket DIE! Was my first thought. But then a sympathetic feeling enters my mind, maybe he was calling me down from my plush, warm and very comfortable bed, just to help me remember some of my childhood fun. I scooped him up, walked him out to the edge of the woods in the back of my house and let him go.
I'd been going through my stamps for a few hours, and I was now pretty tired. The clock on the wall reads 4am, uhhgg. Not that I had to get up for anything, but I usually don't like to sleep the day away. I head back up to my bed, lay down, close my eyes and start to drift off thinking of all the collections I used to acculumalte like a pack rat. I had them all, stamps, all kinds of sports cards, star wars stuff, a rock collection, coins, hot wheels, bullet collection, american flag collection, sword collection, damn, lots of others too. There all down in the basement somewhere, in some other box, just waiting to see the light of day again.
I think I must have feel asleep, only for a minute or two, then, yup you guessed it. Damn cricket starts chirping again. GGRRRRR! What the hell, I didn't need sleep last night anyway. I went back down to the basement and searched out a few more boxes to open. It was kind of like Christmas in September. But now dag needs a nap, night night.
Enough of this crap, I says to myself, I'm calling in the muscle. So I get brutus down to the basement and tell him to "get the cricket". He doesn't understand. He knows "get the squirrel", "get the raccoon", "get the cow", "get the bird", but not "get the cricket". I'll have to work on that. It shouldn't be too hard, he like to eat bugs already, so no problem there.
With Brutus calmly sitting on the cool basement floor watching/dozing off, I start moving boxes around, looking for the chirping demon from hell. After moving at least a dozen boxes, I come across one I had forgotten I had. My stamp collection. Damn, I forgot I had it. I hadn't opened that box for at least 10 years. It still had the last 3 moving stickers on it from my last 3 moves.
With the cricket still chirping I cut open the box. Damn I have a lot of stamps. The box is about 3'x3'x3', and full of envelopes stuffed with stamps, mint sets, first day issues and plate blocks. I think I started collecting stamps when I was about 10, and did it for 5 years or so. How in the hell, did I accumulate what has to be at least 40, 000 stamps. damn, thats a lot of postage.
Anyway, as I'm losing myself in my memories of the stamp rush days, a little black cricket calmly walks out no less than 2 feet in front of my noggin. DIE cricket DIE! Was my first thought. But then a sympathetic feeling enters my mind, maybe he was calling me down from my plush, warm and very comfortable bed, just to help me remember some of my childhood fun. I scooped him up, walked him out to the edge of the woods in the back of my house and let him go.
I'd been going through my stamps for a few hours, and I was now pretty tired. The clock on the wall reads 4am, uhhgg. Not that I had to get up for anything, but I usually don't like to sleep the day away. I head back up to my bed, lay down, close my eyes and start to drift off thinking of all the collections I used to acculumalte like a pack rat. I had them all, stamps, all kinds of sports cards, star wars stuff, a rock collection, coins, hot wheels, bullet collection, american flag collection, sword collection, damn, lots of others too. There all down in the basement somewhere, in some other box, just waiting to see the light of day again.
I think I must have feel asleep, only for a minute or two, then, yup you guessed it. Damn cricket starts chirping again. GGRRRRR! What the hell, I didn't need sleep last night anyway. I went back down to the basement and searched out a few more boxes to open. It was kind of like Christmas in September. But now dag needs a nap, night night.
posted by dag at 9/24/2004 01:28:00 PM
4 Comments:
What do you collect now?
I have a stamp collection that I "inherited" from my deceased grandfather. A lot of foreign stamps from the forties when he was posted overseas with the army, working as a civil engineer during the war. I never met my grandfather, so having his stamps is about the only connection I have with his past.
Oh, and I like that Brutus knows the command "get the cow." hehe
Boxes are nice. I've never been into collecting much, but I did find a box of boy scout stuff while looking for something in the basement a few weeks ago. Turns out I have a badge in leatherworking. How does one leatherwork? I have no idea. I do remember punching holes in a piece of leather with a strange hole punching tool, but does that really mean I deserved a leatherworking badge? Just takes away from the meaning of my sailing or fire building badges, if you ask me.
Ooohhh, fire building badge. Probably the most useful skill ever to have passed through the ages. Seriously. Backcounrty campfires rule.
My current collections are varied, but swords and pre 1900 weaponry has been a fun excursion. Personal armor is pretty cool. I don't try to focus on the item itself, but hone in on the design and technology of the time, the perspective on the methods and influence that the particular item or advantage gained may have given to someone. Consider it a conduit to knowledge in a different time zone. Damn, that's deep. Makes me think more. Good for the brain.
That's some pretty awesome stuff you've collected. I collect swords as well and because I live close to a Renaissance Faire I can get some pretty awesome, hand made swords. Where do or did you get your swords?
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