Oy vey...

At first, reading this thread was a little amusing, then slightly daunting, and now I have to confess a little depressing. But nobody's fault.

My wife, Sheila, and I bought our first lighthouse as a gift for a friend. It was the HL GLOW edition of Bolivar TX. We also bought a poster that showed all the locations of HL lighthouses to date. We really liked the piece, and kept strolling back by the Tinder Box store where we saw it. Started talking to the lady who ran the place and she told us about a couple of pieces coming in. At this point, we didn't even know the difference between GLOW and the LE versions. But we "reserved" a couple of pieces and decided we would pick up maybe a few here and there.

Yeah, right.

We picked up a catalog and our fate was sealed, we just didn't know it. Ok, maybe I did.... I found the HL website and located the retired@retail list. Observant readers will immediately notice that this story occurred after the old web site, which I never saw, had become www.harbourlights.com.

The two pieces we wanted came in, yep, you guessed it 1999 new releases, and we bought them. They had company in the sack on the way home with two other LE pieces. We'd started to figure this out. (I'd even checked to make sure that I hadn't accidently given away the LE version of Bolivar, and sighed in relief to know it was the GLOW.)

Since that day in January (yes, 1999), we have bought 13 pieces, joined the collectors society (for both the 98 and the 99 year to get both gifts and society exclusive pieces), located other pieces thanks to the society, and bought a color printer to make a "brain book" to carry with me to the office and out on any trips as a collectors reference. Oh yeah, like most of you also figured out, getting the older retired@retail pieces became a compelling priority. I found ten more and put them on layaway. Sheesh!

Now I read through this thread, discovered that we definitely fit into this "club", but that we are way behind the power curve. That's the depressing part. I actually thought I might be able to ask where I could find Jupiter FL, a piece I gotta have. Along with Marblehead, St Augustine, and, and, and.... But I know where there's a Split Rock (above retail). I thought it was too much at $101. But after reading the '94 tale where St Augustine was in hand and put back down, with poignant memories that lasted 5 years. I'm hoping like hell that it's still there! Oh, and of course there's no way I'm gonna tell anyone where it is!

So, sure, I can really expect any of the other zealots here to help me find Jupiter.

But I do look forward to meeting some of you at a signing sometime.

Til then, I guess we'll all just try to keep the lights on.

Cheers,
Travis