Sorting

I guess I am a sucker for punishment.  This stamp business has got me in big time.
I think I mentioned before how someone at work sold me their set.  It was huge but a total mess.  I spent hours and hours working on it.  I reckon it looked pretty smick in the end.
Since then four others have given me stuff.  One was humungous.  Unfortunately it was in a suite case in a shed and water damaged.  I was not deterred though. I salvaged what I could, while keeping an eye out for cockroaches.  I only saw one, but I think he saw me first, and scurried away under something.  What I salvaged was for me a gold mine, but probably would be a source of a huge yawn for others.
The upshot is, that I would have more to do than what I did with the first lot.  Merril would testify at the number of hours I have spent soaking (stamps – not me).  I now have a box of soaked stamps, and I said to Merril last night, my sorting seems to make no impression on the box.  It does not help that my eye sight is not what it was.  I constantly use a magnifying glass with a light to determine where a stamp is from.  I then put it in another alphabetical box under say G for Germany.  However Guatemala, Guinea, Ghana and probably a multitude of others are under G also.  Canada is under C, so if I put it under G that would be wrong.
I am grateful though, that it is a constant learning curve for me.  There is trivia I have picked up, that I know is interesting to me, and at least one other person.  The book I was looking at today must have been produced before 1948 as there was no Israel or Pakistan.  Sure they had Palestine and India.  I also learned today from Wikipedia that Mauritius was the first country outside of Great Britain that was a British colony, to issue a postage stamp. The first day cover issued is called "the greatest item in all philately."  As I am not cruising the Caribbean, it is obvious I never had it.
My goal at the moment is to make it look less. I guess it is a bit like having nine pieces of paper on the desk, and making it one pile.  It sure looks less and looks like a lot has been done.  I am also making a point of not throwing stuff out just because I do not know its significance.  I sometimes find down the track, that things I had no regard for, bear high importance.  They are like a diamond, or rare gem.  Well maybe not a diamond.  Or even a rare gem.  Ok, so maybe I just go “yes” on the inside, and when I look around nothing has changed, but it means something to me.
It is no doubt sad, but I do enjoy this.  I guess it is in my nature to try and bring order out of chaos, even if it is in a tiny place.  Works for me.