William

Foraging around on a rainy day and came across some of my packed away sports cards. Used to buy the "blaster boxes", now reuse them for storage. More plastic totes somewhere downstairs...

Better shots of the stuff in the hutch...nice little mix of modern and vintage Mickey and Minnie and various assortment of animals by Fenton, Murano, Viking and others, along with porcelain, wooden, ceramic, stone, metal, and china figures from many countries (my favorites arethe raccoon, USSR; and the Fitz and Floyd Lions in each corner)

Scored this nice oak China hutch for only $150 in Houston, MN at a someone's moving sale a few months ago. Let me tell you, it's solid! Almost broke my buddy and I moving it! An absolute steal though! Love the woodwork and velvet lined drawers 🙂 It filled up quickly as you can see!

A little bit of everything....Where's Waldo? Just kidding!

You'll have to let me know where this is, after all, that means I'm rather close to this town myself. Would be fun too check this place out 👍

When your out and about and haven't scored in a while, it's rather easy for the "marbleaholic" to take over...As Chad might remember, one time I turned Green....

Since things were on a Vacor roll (just typing this when you posted Ric lol), I was thinking Vacor sunset also, but thought they were clear based glass? Kinda tough to tell but rolling with Sunset 🙂

Black and white ones are Vacor Orca's I think....

The first pic was the back garden. This one is the middle garden. I've also got the winter squash, like the watermelon, in their own patch for more running room.

Missed out last year because of my absence from the forum, but trust me, the garden was stellar! This year's goodies...not tagged are the pumpkins and squash. Also my lone Habenero.

Not too mention that Gunderson Health System reached out to me this past week asking if would be a peer mentor for an individual that just had a total larenjectomy surgery 2 months ago. I gladly accepted and am waiting for some dates in June to be set up! From what I understand, he wants to learn how to speak on his own without any artificial assistance. That's a tall order because I was told by my surgeons that it's quite rare to be as adept at esophageal speech as I am. Actually I am the only one they know of in the practice, in their experience, that can pull it off so well. "Burp talking" it's known as. Basically swallowing air and bringing it back up to vibrate off your muscles and tissues. Combined with the lips and tongue to form and sound the words. Took many months to get good at at, I just hope this fella is patient. It's a scary world too be in. What could make it more difficult is that post-surgery he had complications that required additional surgeries. Got my work cut out for me!

🙂

Quick post here with a health update....still cancer free and going strong! A little slower but it's all ahead full steam (the best that I can anyway!) 🚂

Unless Steph's Flying Tackle Hug takes me out 😆

It's great to be back! I just had to step away and regain my focus with health, work, everything life. Feeling good 👍

I'm on the left wearing the white miken cap 🙂

A group shot of the crew on April before we said our farewells to each other

Here's some pictures that I took the last few days of bat production...2nd too last pic was the very last bat I sanded.

IUpdates indeed...alot has taken place since my last post here! April 3rd of last year, the employee cuts took place, leaving only 6 employees, including myself. Helmet manufacturing continued as usual along with the introduction of "pad printing", basically stamping various logos onto Rawlings softballs. If outsourcing our bat production to China wasn't bad enough, Disaster struck again in mid October on a Saturday morning when a fire broke out in the major production building, totally destroying it. Videos of this can be viewed on YouTube by searching "Miken Sports Fire" .... I really thought this was it, the straw that broke the camels back. They won't rebuild. Easier just to move the Helmet production to St. Louis, Where Rawlings is based. Amazingly, after 2 weeks, we were called back. Helmet molding, you see, was set up in the building that DIDN'T burn. If you watch the video, you will see that an enclosed hallway connected the old production building with what is the newer building, which was built after my employment began in 2006. That enclosed hallway was ripped away by the firefighters before it could spread. We were called to a special meeting with the CEO of Rawlings, who made the trip up from St.Louis to inform us that we would be staying put with production and that they will be rebuilding on the same site, which will be a large distribution center. Since that day, Helmet production has doubled and pad printing is now beginning to ramp up again. During the months before the fire, the production facility was slowly being packed up for transportation to China. Many other pictures of equipment went for auction online and was sold. That's the hallway that connected the two buildings.

I heard the unfortunate news from Chad not too long ago regarding Ron's passing when I asked how everyone was and was just at a loss. He was almost always at the forefront of my education in the world of marble collecting when I jumped into it not too many years ago. Always the first thing I thought of whenever I held a Swirl in hand was Ron. Thank You for sharing your Opinions, Knowledge, Fire, Humor, Patience, Wisdom, everything that was your World. You were and always will be the Gandalf of my Middle Earth. RIP My Friend ❤️

Thought I would pop in and say Hi too everyone! It's only been over a year since I was last on here 😬....missed it I'll tell ya! Be back to posting soon 👍

I think it might be a Pelt, but not a Citrus..having a difficult time spotting the green your referring to....what's the size?

Love it

Of all the pictures that you have shared on these threads, this is still one of my favorites 😊

Master for sure 😊