Map Stamps are Now Listed, My Son Turns 21 and I'm Almost Completely Beat!

On the 20th of this month, 3 days ago, my son turned 21. Gosh I miss him. He lives on the other side of the country on Saltspring Island. He's a typical 21 year old trying to figure out a life for himself that doesn't include too much of his parents in it. I respect that. I got him a phone plan a couple of months ago so that we wouldn't be completely dependent on Facebook. We have an arrangement where I text him before I call to ask him if he can talk. This way he doesn't feel put on the spot, or feel that he has to talk to me. We have had some really good conversations lately. But I still miss him - I want to have him around to do things with and discuss his life over a pint or two. Still, I know that Saltspring suits him very much and I don't think that he will come back.

These late nights spent listing material are definitely taking their toll. On the one hand is is nice to see my e-bay store grow as it has, but it is also very tiring work, especially when I see how much more material there is that needs to be listed still. I am lucky to be getting through 50 stamps a day, which is not very much when I consider that I have over 100,000 stamps. I'm hoping very much that things will speed up as I get into the modern material.

Yesterday, I completed my postings for the 1898 Imperial Penny Postage Issue. It was very labour intensive because I had to scan the stamps several times to capture all of the varieties that exist on these, and then write the very long descriptions for them. I'm hoping that the collectors who look at them will find them useful and appreciate the amount of work that went into them.

So I approach today with optimism and tiredness. I don't have any sales orders to send out and I don't have very many purchases to put away. So I think today, I'm just going to take it easy and work as much as I can on the 1899 surcharges. I want to surprise Steph today with something romantic, as she has been having a really hard time lately and its been a while since I have done anything for her.

I don't really have any more new recipes to share, as I'm just recycling old ones this week. I think on my Canadian Stamp Collecting blog, I will write about my grading system, as I can just re-produce material that is on my e-bay store pages and add a paragraph or two to explain what it is and why I came up with it.

Happy middle of the week everyone!