Life is composed of peaks and valleys, one day you are up, later you can be down. It seems to be either the way we people are built, or the way the world is organized. For some time I have had my eye out for two coins, one would be a nice 1917 type 1 slq, the other was one of the new Libertads, besides that, other irons in the fire were my daughters wedding, and a neighbor boys, who has been friends with my son for over twenty years wedding, plus work has been gung ho, lots of overtime, plus we are just waiting for the house to sell to finish and close the estate. The week of my daughters wedding, I purchased two of the Libertads I had been looking for, my brother was in town, and I got the type one slq I had been looking for. Besides that, I received a large purchase of wheaties, and I won a contest. After all that, I should be glowing instead I find myself in the slough of despond. I really like the Libertads, the best I had seen them before was for 28$ I got the pair at two different dealers, one for 25$, the other for 21$, not the best deal but something I had wanted. The slq I had figured about 230 for a strong slider au with full head, I paid 180 for a coin that might have been a ms-63 if it had not been dipped one time too many, and has a distracting bag mark on a prime focal area. I try not to be but sometimes I can be hypercritical, seeing the hole instead of the donut. So for now I am rather at sea, there are no coins that I feel especially inspired to pursue, unless I can find some great deal. I think that in my case I have to not just keep accumulating out of the habit, but it may be the best time right now to start saving money for the ineveitable coin that will be offered, tho I do not know what that coin will be. In times like this, I think besides saving for the coin which I cannot name yet, it is a perfect time to build on research, looking at prices, looking at auctions, comparing different coins, soaking up the knowledge of collectors and dealers that post on coin talk. It took months to find the coins I wanted, now it might be the best time to attempt to internalize things more, to watch those collectors whose focus is great on the series they collect. When I was younger the peaks seemed much higher, and lifes valleys seemed much deeper, but with the accumulated things the peak was more than usual, and after all that the valley is deeper than what I have been used to. The last valley that I visited was the death of my father, the way I dealt with that was to throw myself into the work that needed to be done, that is a lesson I learned, once you are in a valley keep moving and do not stop.
