The move has brought us back closer to Shandy's Parents and to mine, but it has also brought me back to being close to an old game store i used to go to as a high schooler, some 16-17 years ago.

Ben has been missing going to the game store by the old house - we were lucky in that it was only half a mile or so from home - so today I took him to the old card and game store I went to all those years ago. It wasn't like going to the other store used to be - in this case its still 10 miles and a 22 minute drive away but I decided to take him anyway. We won't go there as often as we might have the other place but I'll take him back sometimes.

He enjoyed it. I got him 3 singles and a couple of boosters.

I chatted with the kid behind the counter - a 19 year old working a summer job. Basically the same age I was the last time I was in that store.

It was very strange going back there and seeing the store looking very similar to how it used to and relatively little changed from when I used to come to play.

It is strange to do these things with Ben, thinking of doing them years ago with my mother, thinking about how like me he is / how like him I was, and smiling thinking that the kid will probably turn out okay, no matter how I spoil him or how he annoys me some days.

In other news, the Z coin submission is STILL "scheduled for grading" after 5 weeks - and 2 months after I mailed it in. I'm starting to worry it won't be finished in time for August 19th, which was the original estimate, but I still have plenty of time for them to come home before December.

Showing just how much less slammed / less busy PMG is, my submission of two notes, which was only received a week ago, is now already in "Grading/Encapsulation/Imaging." So I will probably know the results on those P-3 notes I mailed out about 2-3 weeks ago before I know the results on the coins I mailed off over 2 months ago.

I went ahead and ordered a 2015 S Pf69UC set of Presidential dollars the other week and I'll probably order a 2016 3-coin set soon just to get that set closer to some semblance of completion and closer after 14 years. I'll have moved it from 4 years to 7 years represented - from ~40% to about 70% if you don't count the reverse proofs - something I am not at all sure I care about.  

Edited to add:

Of course! Not 5 hours later he has to take all three of the singles I bought him in the car with them, puts them in a collapsible cup holder, and they all fall down and are lost in the car. No way of getting them back without taking my car apart. Of course... Because that's how things go with 5 year old kids... on one hand, "it was $5 worth of cards. Whatever." On the other hand... I'm still so annoyed.