When the German Mark was being devalued during and after the second world war, my grampa bought stamps, hoping they’d eventually be valuable.  These were brought over in the wooden crate they packed with their worldly goods, and were shipped along with my gramma and grampa across the ocean to Osoyoos.

As I was growing up I have memories of my grampa sitting at the kitchen table with the stamps, a pair of tweezers and his lupe.  I wasn’t allowed anywhere near them as my grampa explained any damage would ruin their potential value.

These were stored for several decades, and then I took them home and put them into the huge safe I have in the basement.  It’s actually an old vault from a bank, so will never ever leave the basement due to the weight of the thing.

But now, 68 years after my grandparents landed in Osoyoos, I’ve opened the box of stamps, and want to learn more about them.  I thought it must be kismet when I found a stamp reference book at the recent Friends of the Library book sale.

Yesterday I browsed through the book, and Luke came over so I showed him the stamps and the book.  He did some quick math and went, hey, some of these might be worth some money.  So now we’re going to digitise them and put them onto a site and sell them, if possible.

I reminded him they were left in the house in 2003 when we evacuated due to the forest fire, so I said any money made from these is found money.  Not a soul gave a whit about these stamps for almost seven decades, so whatever happens, happens.

Fortunately we’re the type of people who go Huh! when we find out the collection is worth a hundred bucks, at most.  We really don’t cry over spilled milk around here, given the gallons of it that have been splashed about over the decades.

As you know, Jan and I are off to Disneyland, and I’m quite excited about it.  Hopefully the forest fires will have died down a bit by the time we arrive, as I can’t take the stress of having to tell Jan Disneyland is cancelled due to fire.

I sent Jan a message and said now I’ll get us health insurance for the trip.  She replied so adorably, “I think we no sick we go short time, mom”.  Isn’t that cute?  I said to some friends so when she breaks an ankle at Disneyland on the first day, I’ll have to say well you’ll have to hop around until we get on the plane on Friday.

And besides that, I still need to get the three day Disneyland pass and a one day pass for Universal Studios.  The flights and rooms are booked, so now just need the passes and then get some American money, which will be a sad moment at the bank given the appalling change rate.

I’ve already got Denis lined up for December 1 because you know how strict I am about the timing of the outdoor Christmas lights.  We’ll also get the tree that day, as the next day Jan and I are off to the Happiest Place on Earth.  As I write it’s a gray, blustery November day so even the Tea Cup Ride is appealing.