Terro and El Torro

I'm not a fan of ants.  About twenty-five years ago I had a really bad encounter with them.  It was back when I was working two jobs (teacher during the day, card shop employee at night).  After a long day at work, I came home and eventually settled into bed.

I had bought a bag of powdered sugar Hostess Donettes a day or two before... and was looking forward to eating a few before bedtime while watching whatever was on the boob tube.  The room was dimly lit.  The light from the television was bright enough for me to see the bag... but not bright enough for me to see the trail of ants going into the bag.

Anyways... long story short... I popped one into my mouth and quickly realized something was wrong.  I ran to my bathroom, turned on the light, and ants were everywhere: on my hand, on my face, and obviously in my mouth.  Now whenever I see them... I kill them instantly.

Last weekend... while scanning my newly acquired flea market finds... I started noticing one every couple of minutes.  I'd kill it.  Two minutes later another one would show up.  This went on for over an hour.  The next day... the same exact thing.

The last time I had a problem with ants, I bought some Terro liquid ant bait and it did the job.  I had some leftover, so I put one on my desk on Sunday night.  The next day, I came home from work, headed up to my office to work on some stacks of cards, and was greeted by thousands of ants.

I thought about busting out a can of Raid... but didn't want to damage any cards out on my desk.  Vacuuming them up was another possibility... but I wasn't sure if the bag would contain them.  The last thing I wanted was to just transport them to another room in my house.  Ultimately... I decided to go all-in and put out three more liquid ant baits and hope for the best.

As of this morning there's still a trail of ants.  However... it's smaller than yesterday and only a tenth of the size of Thursday's trail.  I'm not sure if that's because they've eaten most of the food or if the colony is slowly dying off.  Hopefully... the latter, because I'd like to get back to cleaning my desk, sorting some stacks, and scanning some cards.

Speaking of cards... on Wednesday I learned about Fernando Valenzuela passing away from a comment left on one of Night Owl's posts.  As I left in my comment, El Toro played a huge role in getting me into the hobby.

1981 Topps #302

The year Fernandomania was born... was the year I started opening up packs of baseball cards.  I don't remember if I pulled, traded for, or purchased his 1981 Topps rookie card, but I know that was the first card I owned of his.

1981 Fleer #140

Later that year, I added the 1981 Fleer rookie to my collection when my parents bought me the complete set on a trip up to Seattle.

Over the years, I have picked up a bunch of his cards.  I may not be a Dodgers fan, but I've rooted for plenty of their players.  Fernando is right up there with my favorites.  Here are a few of my favorite cards that I have sitting in my scan folder (sorry... due to the ant issue... I cannot scan any new cards right now):

2014 Five Star Autographs #FSA-FV

On-card, pack-pulled autographs are one of my favorite things to collect and some of the cleanest looking designs were the ones pulled from Five Star boxes in the mid 2010's.

Here's another certified auto of Fernando:

2005 Sweet Spot Classic Signatures #FV

This was his first pack-pulled autograph and one of the most common and available to collectors.

Let's switch gears and check out some oddball issues:

1988 Grenada Stamps 

1986 Topps Box Bottoms #P

1991 Fleer Box Bottoms

1981 Dodgers Police #34

1982 Dodgers Police #34

 Moving along... here are a pair of base cards I really like:

1983 Donruss #1

Not sure if Donruss or Dick Perez created the Diamond King checklist each year back in the 80's... but Fernando kinda got snubbed in 1982.  Glad he got to be card #1 in 1983.

1991 Upper Deck #175

One of my favorite base cards of Fernando is his 1991 Topps card, but I don't have it saved in my scan folder.  His 1991 Upper Deck is a fine surrogate.  Who doesn't enjoy Upper Deck multiple exposure cards?

And I'll wrap things up with this cool relic card:

2002 Stadium Club World Champions Relics #WC-FV

Down two games to the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series, the Dodgers started Fernando in Game 3.  He went 0 for 4 at the plate that day... but pitched a complete game and got the Dodgers back into the series.

Unfortunately... if you look closely... Topps highlighted the 1988 World Series on this card.  The Dodgers won that series as well... but Fernando didn't pitch against the A's that postseason.

Well that wraps up today's post.  Let me know if you have any hints on getting rid of ants.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!