My largest PowerUp to date!

Life is flying past at an astonishing rate. Sometimes everything seems a blur, especially when one reaches retirement age. It just seems like a month or two in-between milestones on the blockchain, but sometimes it seems like forever. Still, it is good to mark the time and the achievements, anyway, even when life is a blur. This month, I am blessed to see another major milestone in my crypto journey!

𝙳𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚛: 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 #𝙷𝚒𝚟𝚎𝙿𝚄𝙳 𝚍𝚞𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚢 𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝙷𝚒𝚟𝚎𝙿𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛 (𝙷𝙿) 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚢 𝚁𝚎𝚙𝚞𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝟽𝟶, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙿𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚄𝚙 𝚘𝚗 𝟶𝟷-𝚂𝚎𝚙 𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚗!

One year-and-a-half ago and shortly before the Hive blockchain launched from our legacy blockchain, I celebrated reaching Dolphin status with 5000 staked power in my wallet. After Hive forked, I posted to both blockchains for a couple of months in an effort to maximize my rewards for gaining more Hive Power. Once the PowerDown on the legacy chain was complete, I cashed-out all of my STEEM, buying HIVE to PowerUp. Then, I cashed-out my BLURT & WLS for HIVE and PoweredUp that, too! So, I was effectively able to double my stake, plus a little more, in a relatively short time! Many others on Hive did the same, and it was a wonderful opportunity for us!

Since that time, my account has kept growing, although slowly. My account could have grown a good bit faster, but I fell into the habit of giving-away much of my earnings in contests, tips to folks in Discord, and so forth. 100 HIVE went towards prizes in a contest, 30 HIVE was given away several times to rewards active users in the server, 50 HIVE given to someone whose phone was stolen, and so forth. It's good, I think to be charitable with our funds when we can afford it, really, but it certainly delayed my reaching this level sooner. But hey, I don't regret those things, just need to curb it a bit for the sake of my account. And, after all, I am retired and need to start watching my money closer.

Before I tell about this much-anticipated PowerUp, a little backstory is in order.

When Splinterlands first launched, I bought a bunch of cards but only played a couple of games. I had enough work to do being Moderator or Admin in a handful of Discord communities and a member of many more, in addition to blogging and other activities. Especially when TheTerminal launched, much of my time was spent there keeping the server running smoothly and answering questions. Even though it is rewarding, few people understand exactly how much work is involved in that effort! All that time, my Splinterlands cards were gathering virtual dust by sitting there.

So, earlier this year, I donated most of my cards to @ssg-community for addition to their Monster Deck, the use of which is occasionally raffled as a fundraiser for the Silver Gold Stackers community. I only kept a few cards, partly for sentimental reasons, and partly in case I ever wanted to play another game with my winning team of Summoners and Monsters. It was only after I gave away all those cards I'd held for over three years that the price finally skyrocketed. 😒

I wish to thank @notacinephile and @failingforwards for noticing that I happened to have four unopened packs of Beta Cards that I didn't realized I had! 😱 They suggested that if I was not going to play the game, I might be able to sell them on the market and make some profit on them. Furthermore, I had accumulated some SPS and DEC tokens that could also be sold. Never having sold assets from Splinterlands previously, I was a bit clueless in how to do it, but @notacinephile and @failingforwards patiently talked me through it. It was so strange to be on the receiving end of assistance in my own server-of-help! 😂

From the sale of those Beta Packs and tokens, I cleared almost 1200 HIVE. Wow! 😳 Furthermore, @stayten suggested that I could rent my remaining Splinterlands cards for a little passive income, so I did that and am watching more DEC trickle into my wallet each day — not a big amount, but hey... little bits add up over time! So, big thanks to all three of those folks for the advice and assistance! 😊

With that tremendous boost and a little swapping of HBD for HIVE, I am blessed to have a grand total of 1500 HIVE to PowerUp this month, pushing me over the 20,000 HP mark! 😃 This is also my largest PowerUp, ever! I kept a small amount in Hive-Engine and my Hive wallet, just in case I need it for something else. So, now I am 40% of the way to becoming an Orca, which is mind-boggling to me. 😮 I remember when becoming a Dolphin seemed a too-far-away dream to reach!

Of course, all of us like to see ourselves progressing upwards in life, at first one pursuit and then another. For me, though, the grandest part of reaching of this level is seeing the value of the upvotes that I am able to give to others. Hopefully, my account will continue to grow so that I can continue to spread HIVE cheer in an even bigger way through my upvotes and delegations!