What do Steak, Rangers and MLB all have in common?

        Wow... It's hard to believe that it was over a year and a half ago when I started my journey. I have taken a few breaks in between to right myself and my goals and to realign myself with my original purpose, which was to take care of my family. I truly believe that I have honored that purpose with this journey as of late. I want you to know that I am not one... BUT TWO steps closer to acquiring my bass boat!! I am so close I can taste it! You'd think it would taste good, but it just taste like dirty lake water... I LOVE IT!

        So about a month ago I got a call from a good friend of mine. She wondered if I still had my viola. Fortunately for her, and you know this if you read my last entry, I had un-traded my viola and had it back up for trade. Her son plays in a VERY prestigious strings group at his High School and knew someone who was looking for a nice viola that would take her to musical places she had never been before! We set up a time for this lovely young lady to come try it out and ¡VOILA! (pun intended) she fell in love with it. It made BEAUTIFUL melodies and WARM harmonies... It didn't matter that it was missing a string and hadn't been played in 6 months... it was MUSIC! She had to have it. She looked at her mom with her big blue, brown, green or hazel eyes and said, "What are we going to trade the big man?" Mom thought for a second and said, "I think I have the perfect thing." I let her take the viola home. She called me up the next day and told me that she had talked to her husband and despite his war against the idea, she had convinced him to trade me some of his sports memorabilia! I had no idea what it was or what it could be worth so I visited with him for a while and came up with an awesome combo.

      When my dad was a wee lad, he was all but aware of the value of things... If he could get his hands on it, it was a toy :) Dad if you're reading this, I have no hard feelings toward the story I'm about to tell. My dear sweet granny, in her younger years, owned several rental properties in Alvin, TX and the surrounding area. She had one house in particular that has become a topic of conversation on numerous occasions throughout the years. I don't know how it happened... I don't know why he chose this particular house, but my guess is that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the house he was about to rent from my sweet little ole granny would someday be the center of a great tale of tragedy... Who is this man, you ask? Let me ask you a question... If the Ryan Express was comin' down the tracks, would you get out of the way? Who had the most epic knock out on the mound in the history of MLB? Who can have delivered to your house a perfect steak in under 20 minutes? If you guessed Randy Johnson...! You'd be way off... If you guessed the absolutely wonderful, incredibly talented, house-hold name of Nolan Ryan...!!! DING DING DING!! You'd be spot on! Nolan Ryan rented a little house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Alvin, TX. It was the early 80's and he was playing for the Houston Astros. He had been in the game professionally for some 14 years and was about to hit the highlight of his career playing with the 'Stros! I'm a little shaky on the details, but Mr. Ryan and his wife moved out some time after their stent in Alvin, but it's what they left behind that is the real story. In a box in one of the rooms, there was about a dozen soft leather, perfectly unscathed, ready for the display case baseballs, several of with a genuine Nolan Ryan signature inscribed right in the sweet spot. These were discovered by my dad and his brothers when they were in their teenage years and knowing the little information about baseball that they did... get ready for it... they played with and destroyed every...single...one...of those baseballs. Let us take a moment of silence for those, the fallen pieces of baseball history ......................................................................... ..................................................................... ok. When our family realized what they had had their hands on, the ridicule began and has never stopped! So, Nolan Ryan's name then became a topic at the dinner table, family get-together's, and whenever else we could squeeze it into conversation.

       So when the opportunity came to trade my viola for MLB memorabilia, I had no option other than to trade for a select pair of pieces. Here they are! First, I chose a 1970's Topps Baseball Card in one of his most famous and coveted poses. It has DNA Authenticated Signature on it and is in a hard plastic case for safe keeping. Secondly, I chose an autographed baseball from around 2005 that also has authentication documents.

The total value of these items was around $400! If you're thinking I got the raw end on that one think again. Sometimes you have to trade down so that you can trade up big! I am going to take a short break and when I post my next blog you'll understand why I made the swap. I had the perfect person in mind to get me to the next level, and sure enough... It happened. STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT WHAT I TRADED MY NOLAN RYAN BALL AND CARD FOR!!

So Close, But Yet... Well, Really Not That Far

Here it comes... the moment of truth. Is this thing really about to happen? Am I really this close? It seems so close that I can feel the throttle pulling me forward as I begin my venture out on the lake; the cool mist hitting my face as I try to spot the prime spot to make my first cast. I can smell the engine as it warms up and can see the smoke against the dark cool morning sky. I can feel the steering wheel in my hands; the endless possibilities of where to go, what to see, how to best experience. It's all at my fingertips. It's so close and so far all in the same moment. It's like having my favorite dessert dangling temptingly in front of my nose after two weeks of fasting... It's time... To. Do. This. Thing.

Alright! Enough of that sappy, poetic junk! This is NUTS! I am SO CLOSE! I wanted to thank all of you who helped spread the word about what I need at this point. I cannot do this without you! The only reason I'm even this far is because you all of you. Just a few stats before I get into my big news:

To date, I have had:

-over 400 unique visitors to my site
-nearly 4200 page views
-and visitors from at least 10 different countries!

How sweet is that?! And it's all because of you, my faithful readers.

So now, the moment you've all been waiting for... Drumroll please...


I have found my boat! Skeeter Edwards of Red River Boats in the Dallas area has made me a proposition I can't refuse. He is willing to make me a trade to help me reach my dream... a real life bass boat!! Can you believe it?! I'm one trade away!

Here's how you can help. He wants something very specific, something very sought after, and something that won't be easy to find. He want a 4, 5, or 6 weight Sage SP+ fly rod. These are the absolute top of the line fly rods and this particular one has been out of production for some 10 years. Skeeter is an AVID fly fisherman and this would not only add to his fishing stock, but would also allow him a great collector rod that will only increase in nostalgic and fiscal value. I am dead set on find this rod and making the trade so that I can in turn, trade for my bass boat. It's so close, I can taste it! I'm already working out so that when I do my "master commander" pose, my arms won't look flabby...

I digress :\

If you would please do me a HUGE HUGE favor and ask anyone you know who knows anything about fly fishing where I might be able to get a hold of one of these coveted rods, you would be my absolute hero! If you so happen to read this and have one of these or can get one of these and would consider trading it to me, I would buy you... something awesome!!!... Like whatever flavor ice cream you want! And 10lbs of it if you wanted! (you can hold me to that)... If you need to contact me for any of the above reasons, please feel free to call or text me at 432-288-foursevenzerosix. You can also email me at cag04f@acu.edu.

I can't wait to get to post my triumphant post about the day I finally get my bass boat! Stay tuned!


Until next time...


-SBSB

I AM THE MASTER COMMANDER!

Okay, so I am not a morning person, but this morning I rolled over in bed and opened my eyes to see that the clock said 6:30. I groaned to myself and thought I'd try to go back to sleep. However, my brain had other plans. You know how sometimes you just can't get that thought out of your head; how it nags at you and pulls you from unconsciousness to being fully aware of everything going on around you even when you want nothing more than to drift back into sleepworld and dream of landing a 17lb post spawn bass that would have broken the lake and state records had it still been full of eggs, in 14-16 feet of water on an underwater hump on a Strike King 6XD THROUGH THE TREES ON LAKE FORK!!!!... man I need a nap... (honest to goodness that's what I was dreaming about). But even though sometimes it doesn't go exactly how you think it should, you just have to roll with the punches and swing for the fences, to kill two cliche birds with one stone. Man my writing is deep.

Hopefully you're still with me cause here's where it get's interesting. As I was lying in bed, eyes stapled open for all intensive purposes, I had a realization about my journey. It started out with a vision... No it, wasn't one of those flashes in your mind where you see a murder and save the person who's about to die... But it was equally important in my mind (okay maybe not quite). I saw myself standing on top of a bassboat in someone's driveway with my arms up in the air "Master Commander" style, so pumped up that I had completed my journey, and suddenly it hit me. I have been stuck at this level for 9 months, hoping to trade away my website developing work that I had acquired from my good buddy Bubba, and it seems that there is little interest in someone trading for something they can't see or trust is going to be there when the time comes to utilize it. So here's the moment you've been waiting for... the big revelation... Sometimes you have to take a step backwards, so you can take a step forward. I know! Life-changing. However, my disclaimer is that this is not the case every time or in every situation, meaning the key word in that sentence is "sometimes". I don't want the drug addict or alcoholic reading my blog thinking that they have to slip back into old habits so they can beat this sucker! Stop that! (like I really have that much pull anyways)

So here's what's going's down's. I was given the privileged of keeping my viola after trading with Bubba as he simply wanted to help me achieve my goal. It is time however to take that step back and try again to trade my viola for something tangible. So below you will find a description of my viola!

"It is a 1998 A.R. Seidel German made, 15" viola. If you haven't heard of a viola, it is the much unappreciated, lesser known cousin of the violin. It is known for its smoother, fuller sound compared to the sometimes shrill nature of the violin. It's the alto version, if you will. From what I have been told, there are about 10 violins in the world for every viola. So, what that means to me is that they are harder to get a hold of, thus, in higher demand.

It retailed new for over $1,700 according to this document that I found on Google. And that's just for the viola itself! This one comes with a hard case, bow, music stand and all the necessary stuff for maintenance and upkeep. Altogether, in the condition that it's in (which is immaculate), and given its age, it is priced at around the $800-900 range.

Here's a little history on this beautiful viola. Kim, the wonderful woman who traded me this for my serger, purchased it in 2000. She was a double major in music and theater and needed to learn a stringed instrument. She claimed it was the perfect instrument for her because she has small hands and it wasn't a strain to try to reach what she needed to in order to make beautiful melodies! She enjoyed it so much that she bought it after her class ended so that she could keep learning. As many of us understand, when life gets crazy, some things get re-prioritized. For Kim, that meant that her dreams of being a professional violist had to be put aside for now. So it has not been played for quite a while and is in DIRE need of someone to put it to some good use. For sure, I am not the one to do that so I need to trade it away to someone who can as soon as possible. :)"

Nostalgia kicked in a little this morning and I went back and read some of my prior blog posts, and I realized that I was setting myself up for a tough ride trying to get to $10,000 worth of something to trade for a boat. All that to say, my goal at this point has lowered slightly and is now to get something that floats and that works. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant with all the bells and whistles (unless it just so happens to have them), I just want to be able to fish out of it. :) It does need to be a "bassboat" by definition and I would prefer something bigger than 17' with a motor with 100+ horsepower. With that in mind, I think a more attainable goal will be to look to finish out this journey with a boat that is closer to the $300-5000 range. There are a million nice boats out there in that range. Trust me. I've looked.

I am more determined than ever to conclude this journey! I have a bass fishing tournament coming up the end of April which gives me two months. I am going to hit it hard, going door to door if I have to, so that when the time comes, I can raise my hands up, and in the words of the great Olan Rogers scream, "I AM THE MASTER COMMANDER!!"

If you have read this blog and are interested in helping me along my journey, I would be greatly honored if you would get in touch with me so we can work out a trade. my email address is cag04f@acu.edu or you could even call or text me at 432-twoeighteight-4706! I can't wait to hear from you!!

Until next time...

SBSB out!