About That Time Again

 The other day my sister asked me if I was going to sign up on Bluesky.  The talk on Elon's Money Pit (aka X, aka Twitter, aka the birdy app) was this new social media site that a lot of tweety birds have migrated to.  They say its like the old Twitter, without as much politics and more fun.  A few bloggers I know have switched, in fact I've lost about 50 or more followers either because they left or Elon might finally be getting rid of bots.  Either way I considered it, but I told her that I don't want to replace one social media site for another.  I've seriously thought of leaving Twitter for a while, as its not been much fun.  I also considered creating another account and start fresh.  I haven't done either yet, and if I do, I don't know if replacing it with a similar thing will matter much.  I have a random thought I can post on Twitter, and 14 people can see it.  If its semi funny or worth anything my sister will share, if not, it will be forgotten in a few seconds.  Most of my tweets are reposts.  Through the politics and for whatever reason the k-pop crap, I can still find tweets that make it worth keeping for now.  Facebook, I use mainly for messenger, and for a few business and webpages to see when they have new information.  I rarely post on there anymore, and when I do its either to promote this blog (which shows how little I post on there), or a random thing just to make sure I'm not hacked.  At this time, I don't think I need another site to make me lose more of my mind with people's inane thoughts.  I mean a few years ago, I would have called you crazy at the thought of not wanting to post stuff all the time, either through social media, or by blogging.  Now, I can probably do without.

So you wonder why I keep blogging?  Well, hmm.  I guess part of it is I do enjoy writing somewhat, and sometimes I take pictures of stuff I want to show off.  My blog is vastly different than when I started 10 years ago.  I don't collect cards hardly at all (which in odd timing, I do have cards to show today), and I don't travel to too many places.  In fact the earlier years I took a lot of pictures when I'd go to a couple antique malls, but on those most recent trips, I forgot I had the phone in my pocket most of the time.  Taking photos is an afterthought.  These days, my photos and adventures and blogs centers around things like socks, maybe a random adventure, and/or books and movies I've bought.  Also puzzles.  Basically I blog just to show off hauls, and most of that is because my best friend and my sister is interested in what I've gotten, and instead of sending 15 pictures, I can just do a blog and show it off at once.  I still have other very loyal readers and commenters that I am very thankful for, and if they get enjoyment out of it as well, I am very happy for them.  I know my content is not the best or even the best these days, and my sporadic postings haven't helped, but when I do post, I still give 100%.  For the most part I don't pre-write stuff, though I have an outline of what I want to showcase.  When the post starts rambling or you can tell I'm hurrying along, it means I just want to finish it.  So I still enjoy it, but I'm admitting I will probably never reach the levels I once did, and if I did, I'm not sure how I could do it or sustain it.  That said, I do have 2-3 long term projects I want to work on but just haven't done.  I also would like to do custom cards again at some point, but I don't watch sports like I use to, so I haven't thought about who to put on the cards.  I never thought about it until just now, but maybe a non-sport Frankenset of some of my favorite actors and singers would be a cool custom card idea.  I will probably forget about it in a few minutes, but its something I should consider.

I think that's enough rambling for now, I guess we should look at pictures.  I don't really know what my title of this post implies, but I guess it could mean for once I have some cards to show.  It wasn't even something I expected to find.... I didn't even find them, my sister did.  This past weekend she wanted to take my mom and I to the state capital of Missouri- Jefferson City.  Well, she didn't want to take us to the capital, but to the city.  We don't go there very much, and in fact my mom and I didn't have a huge desire to go (I mean I liked going, but no plans of what to go to), but I remembered my sister has been enthralled with Youtube videos recently of stuff to find at Dollar Tree.  I mean they are kind of fun to watch, but its not an avenue I've gone down yet.  I mean I'm not judging, I subscribe to people who solve sudoku puzzles, mow lawns & sometimes power washes, a guy who buys cars (even though I'm not a car guy), a guy who shows how to fix and detail cars (again, I'm not a car guy), people who play video games, Mr. Beast, resellers, and a Japanese couple who shows off food and rates it.  Plus whatever random stuff I'll find, like Botchamania (a wrestling series that showcases wrestling mistakes), and Jim Cornette (a former wrestling manager who is a bit out of touch but has the most epic rants ever).  I have no room to judge viewing habits on Youtube.  Anyways, I knew that Dollar Tree would be on the list of places to visit in the City of Jefferson, but I wasn't sure where else.  As I do before any trip somewhere where I have advanced warning, I look at Google Maps and see where we can visit.  Jeff City has many places to go to, but being the holiday season, I didn't want to get too far into town and also there we like 700 parades in the Mid-Missouri area on that day, and I tried my best to dodge them.  I love parades, but not a fan of crowds, especially the holidays.  So going in, I found Jeff City had 3 Dollar Tree stores, one on the south side of town, so I crossed that off.  The other two was on the same road, and we very easy to get to (if I could give good directions).  I also figured we could hit the Goodwill store and possibly Five Below.  Getting there we'd go through a couple towns we were more familiar with and a few places if the trip was shorter than anticipated.  I like to plan for a lot of places then cut them out as time permits as opposed to finding 1 place and winging it.  I do this because once we are on the road, I don't use my phone (I limit it because I want to enjoy the moment, but also have a Tracfone, and don't want to use data or minutes).  Though recently I have found places that I can connect to their WiFi and Walmart has become a bit more fun.  Anyways, for trips, I don't use maps once we leave.  My sister trusts me, but also has GPS so she could use that.  ANYWAYS, RAMBLING.... As soon as we got to Jefferson City, I knew the how to get to the places, but also knew of a weird road that isn't a great interchange for people not familiar with it, and I suck at stoplight directions (I always suggest the wrong lanes).  So I took us past our exit, but on purpose and hopeful it would make it easier.  It turned out it did, though left turn lanes with no stoplights suck.  Anyways, we get to Dollar Tree #1, and its possibly the nicest one I've ever seen.  Huge, clean, well stocked, and even wide aisles.  In addition it wasn't even busy so easy to navigate through.  Since movies aren't readily available anymore at Dollar Tree's, I usually look for socks.  On this day though, after we got inside, my mind went blank basically, and I just browsed at everything.  In fact by the time I found the socks, I was like "Oh, yeah, the thing I wanted to find".  At this store, there didn't seem like very many, and the ones I had was either ones I already had or ones I wasn't interested in.  That's fine.  I still found other items.  In fact I found a Christmas gift for my mom, that she will love.  In fact she mentioned last night she debated getting the item and I had to play cool like I didn't see it.  I also found various items I've never seen at a Dollar Tree.  While not everything was $1.25, it was probably the size of one of those combo Dollar Tree/Family Dollar stores yet all had Dollar Tree tags.  Honestly, if I thought my mom could make the drive, we would probably go once in a while.  Anyways, I don't think it was this store my sister spotted the cards, but my goodness this is a lot of writing with no pictures.  Let's see them and I'll continue the story.

My first thought was 5 cards in a pack?  Actually my first thought was "BASEBALL CARDS AT A DOLLAR TREE?".  I noticed they were 2023 cards, but I didn't care.  I didn't need these or an overwhelming rush to open cards, but finding them was enough to make me want to get them.  This was at the second store, but here was what I found inside.  I was just hoping to find a Royals card and maybe a player I like (which tbh, in 2024 I don't know many players anymore).

The first pack wasn't bad, I have heard of most of the players, but again, 10 years ago I'd know all about them, these days I've just heard their names, aside from Justin Turner who I probably know a bit better.

The second pack I think the Michael Taylor card was the second one I saw, and was happy to find a former Royal.  Then I think the fourth card was the Kris Bubic.  Since its been so long since I've opened baseball cards, this might be my first Bubic card.  I really don't know the last time I opened a pack of baseball cards.  Overall I was happy with what I got.  I have other cards to show one day but I think most are non-sports.  I don't even know what I've shown and haven't in the last four years, so one day I might just start showing off my entire collection again.  

So I guess back to the story as it happened. That first Dollar Tree had a lot of variety, and a lot of stuff I may have bought but on this day I didn't.  One quirk I have is I don't usually eat before I go somewhere because I have I guess digestive issues (never been diagnosed, but you kinda know what I mean).  Anyways, I try not to eat before trips, but on this day I was starving.  I looked at the food but didn't want to get stuff, even for later.  Having said that I did find a couple things for other people that I thought I'd show.  I enjoy Slim Jim's (or probably more Jack Links), and I found one that I never saw before, but didn't look appealing to me.  It's a flavor that seems popular but one I never thought sounded that good.

I love dill pickles, but products like Dill Pickle chips sound horrible to me.  However my mom does enjoy dill pickle products, and will indulge in a Slim Jim from time to time.  She told me last night that she was not a fan of it though.  Besides being really hard the smell was really strong.  So I doubt I would try it.  Lately I've enjoyed Jack Links more than Slim Jim because Slim Jim either seems really hard or really greasy.  I think a year or two ago I tried Turkey Jerky or a Turkey stick, made by Butterball, I wouldn't recommend that either.

The other product I found was for a friend. He likes trying drinks.  The more outrageous the better.  While I admit in the past I did too, these days I'm much more conservative.  Especially if they are loaded with sugar.  I do remember one year maybe 2004 trying the Jones Soda Thanksgiving drinks.  It was 5 bottles and I forgot what they were.  Looking it up maybe it was 2005.  They had Turkey and Gravy, Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry, Wild Herb, and Brussels Sprouts soda. 3 were okay, 4th one wasn't good and that last one was horrible.  Anyways, these days I don't drink much soda, but on occasion drink some Mountain Dew Baja Blast.  On this day I found something I would never try.  In addition to blue flavored (usually blue raspberry which literally makes me sick), I try not to do many sour drinks.

This looked perfect for my friend, but besides being sour, I was turned off by the 62% added sugar content.  They had a red (probably cherry or punch flavor not sour but also the same sugar content).  This oddly wasn't the worst sugar drink either, they had cans of Cotton Candy Faygo which was like 68%, and another soda a punch that was like 78%.

My friend told me he actually enjoyed it and would probably get it again if he saw it.  I'm happy for him, lol.  I get enough sugar from Kool-Aid and tea that I don't need that much more.

The best part about this first Dollar Tree was my sister actually found a few items she was searching for for quite a while and never found.  So I was happy that this trip was worth it.  In fact this was the Dollar Tree we would have likely skipped if we only went to one not knowing what it was like.  The other one was closer and in theory easier to access.

After we left the next stop was the other Dollar Tree.  We spent a lot of time at the first store (maybe an hour or more) and while we could have gone to more stops, I made a judgement call to skip Goodwill and Five Below.  My mom and sister didn't care about the Goodwill on our last visit to Jefferson City, and my mom isn't a big fan of Five Below.  I'm indifferent, but also figured if we spent even half the time at this second Dollar Tree, we might hit a parade or two on the way home, and don't really want to be caught in traffic.  In hindsight, we wouldn't have and could have bypassed both parades we'd encounter.  Oh well, I don't think we missed out on anything at those stops.

The road as I said earlier for both stores was the same, but what worried me was an intersection that is a bit tough to navigate.  In fact I was worried about that and that spurred my quick decision to skip the Goodwill and Five Below.  As we approached the intersection though I realized we wouldn't have to actually fight traffic there since we was going straight.  Only turning lanes would deal with it, so crisis averted.  

I would imagine for someone not use to that intersection, that would be a bit daunting.  That was also the same one I purposely skipped past in hopes of an easier way, and it worked out both times.

So we arrived at the second Dollar Tree, and as soon as we walked in, this was what I expect from a Dollar Tree, much more cramped, older looking, small, and also very crowded.  However this one did have a self checkout, which my sister really liked.  I have nothing against self checkouts, I just don't personally use them much, unless I have like 2 items.  I'm not like those people "you should pay me if I have to do all the work".  Though I also think there should be more cashiers at checkout lanes.  Also quick rant, its dumb making people using self checkouts before a certain time (looking at you local Walmart).  I have 35 items in a cart with a maybe a foot of space to put the items  and bag it and put in my cart, then half the stuff isn't scanning, while 4 workers are standing around waiting for their morning meeting.... AHHHH.... sorry ranting, let's move on.

This second store did tend to snap me back into my senses.  With the first aisle or two pretty packed, I decided to search for the socks.  This one had a lot more variety, and actually ones I never saw before.  I have to admit I haven't hung all my recent sock finds lately.  I'm working on a better way to bag them and thought I had a solution, but the bags are too big.  So until I find a better solution, I've stopped bagging and hanging them.  I have about 20 pair I haven't hung, and at this point I'm forgetting what I have.  So I was cautious and probably passed some socks I don't have.  In the end I found some good ones, even a pair of Christmas ones.

I really like Baja Blast.  Its a good flavor, but I also realize I can't drink it all the time, so I get it maybe once every year or two.  The Cap'n Crunch one might display the name and logo better than any I've ever found, though I do wish it had more than one background color.  Having said that, I still like it.  The Bubblicious might be my new favorite.  It not only has the name and logo brilliantly displayed, it has a variety of colors and I don't think I could improve it anymore.  What is interesting is these seem like older batches of the socks because they don't have the price listed on them.  My sister told me there must have been a lot of complaints on the newer style that has the price on them, because now they redesigned them again with the price but you can tear that off.  I have all three of the looks, and I will show you more of the socks later including the Christmas one.  I took pics of all the socks I haven't hung yet, so I can remember them now.

As for anything else I don't remember finding too much more from this store aside from the baseball cards.  I mean its what you'd expect from a Dollar Tree, but I think if we went to this store first, we might not have wanted to go to the other.  Maybe next time we might venture to the third location and skip this one.

Again I found socks and baseball cards, so it wasn't a total bust.  Also next door to the location was a Natural Grocers store.  It isn't my sort of thing, but I didn't think my mom had ever been to one, and she eats much more healthier then I do, so I figured if they wanted to go, they could.  Around this time I also was started to not feel good I assume from not eating as it was around noon or later, and I'd been up probably since 4 AM.  Needless to say I didn't find much at the store, but I think I did find some crackers that I actually enjoy called Mary's Gone Crackers.  My sister got them long ago for my mom, and one night I needed some sort of snack.  Weary of them I tried a couple and actually liked them.

Found the picture on their website.  On this date I didn't get the original, but another flavor.  It was just as good.

There was however one item I found that I had to take a picture of, for a friend.  I have heard of this product before and seen pictures, but never seen it in person.  If you are a Simpsons fan, you're in luck.

I wasn't expecting the Holiday Nog version.  It has no mention of Vitamin R though.

Overall it wasn't a bad store, but I don't think my mom was super impressed.  However she was very happy to buy some Bok Choy.  I have no idea what that is, and I like to keep it that way.  I did have to find recipes for her on how to prepare it, and that was enough for me.

At this point it wasn't real late, but I didn't want my sister to hit traffic on her way home and I was also a bit hungry.  We decided to stop at McDonald's, which is something else I'm happy I don't eat much anymore.  My mom and I talk often about how thing like fast food and soda are something we couldn't live without 10-15 years ago, but now for various reasons, don't seem like anything we miss out on.  We treat it as something we enjoy every once and a while and sometimes we don't even enjoy it much when we get it.  Having said that, I would like to stop enjoying potato chips as much, but thats another story.

On the way home though there was one other stop, in hopes of finding an item that might solve my sock bagging issues.  There is a bin store that actually had a vacuum sealer, and it was $7 on this day.  In hindsight, I probably should have asked to stop there first since we passed it on the way, but I didn't and it was already gone by the time we got there. So it goes.  They had a few items that wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything we needed.  My mom always asks if I want to go there, but on I tell her I'd rather find 20 items on $1 day that I might want, then 10 items on $7 day that I really want.  I for the most part can talk myself out of buying stuff, so that helps.  I think if we lived it Tipton, where this store is located, I would go there much more often especially to find stuff to resale.  I came up empty on this trip there, but overall I was happy with how the day went, so it was time to head home.

I had a great time, but I didn't take many pictures because let's face it I went to 4 stores, not much sightseeing, and those stores were Dollar Tree's, groceries, and a bin store.  Not much to show.

However I've written a lot and I figured I would show the recent additions to my sock collection.  I also have a few books to show.  The first one is a book my sister bought me.

WHOO!  She found this on a recent trip to St. Louis.  She knows I'm not a big fan of Ric Flair these days, but I did tell her that this was a book I had my eye out on.  It's the book where he called Mick Foley a "glorified stuntman".  My interest in it is more of stories of Dusty Rhodes and Harley Race.  It is a bit concerning that Mark Madden edited it.  I'm not much of a fan of his.  I'm not sure when I'll get to this but it should be a fun read.

Yesterday I bought a few more books.  I thought of making a separate post, but eh. Let's see it now.

Books are 4 for $1 at Savvy Seconds, my local second hand store. I think my mom found a couple books and a couple cookbooks and I found these.  Cookbooks I'll show next time, along with the CD's.  The Baseball card book goes well with the Football card book I have from I think 2005 or so.  Sure the prices are outdated, but a nice time capsule to see how cheap you could have found some cards during the junk wax era, or the end of it.  The Jerry Kramer book was more of a last second add to get to 4 books. It was either that or a Tatum O'Neil book, and while I liked the Bad News Bears, I kinda felt I'd read this one sooner.  Maybe next time Tatum.  I have a feeling I'll read the Orel Hershiser book sooner than the Kramer one though.  I've always been a fan for some reason, and I was a bit excited to find it.  Having said that, I've been in a lull of reading books lately so I'm not sure when I'll read any of these.  Though if I read any of these first, either the Ric Flair book will be first, or the Johnny Cash one will.  Ever since Walk The Line was released I've really been into Johnny Cash.  I think I'll like this book.

The reason I'll skip the CD's this time is because I might talk about music and stuff more, and I've felt like I've typed forever.  I didn't take pictures of the cookbooks (yet) but I can always include it in one of the projects I mentioned earlier I want to work on. I did promise socks though, so SOCK IT TO ME!

I've stated in the past that I don't want to start collecting non-food socks.  I've been pretty good at passing up ones I've kind of wanted, but a few I can't.  It started with a pair I've shown before of Scooby-Doo.  It reminds me of my nephews and how they always wanted to watch Scooby, so non-food socks will be likely tied to memories.  The Monopoly pair my mom and sister got because it reminded them of my dad.  My dad liked board games, but the memory itself is more because of the Monopoly Nintendo video game.  The game on NES you could play with 1-8 players, and most of the time he played by himself against the computer opponents.  On occasion my sister or I would play too, but it was mostly by himself.  My dad wasn't big into video games, but the two he liked was Monopoly and Dr. Mario.  He would play in his bedroom and you would suddenly hear him cussing out Irwin.  Who was Irwin?  Well, Irwin was one of the computer opponents, and on most occasions the arch-rival of my dad.  So finding these socks is a good memory.  The Taz socks also remind me of my dad.  While he wasn't a big fan of the cartoon, the memory is that my dad was a garden tractor puller.  So you've seen or heard of tractor pulls where a big tractor would pull a sled with weights and whoever pulled the longest distance would win.  Well they did this for garden tractors (or lawn mowers) as well.  After my dad stopped competing in demolition derbies his new hobby was garden tractor pulling.  On one or two of his mowers he had Taz on the front.  After he passed away, his mowers were sold to a neighbor who ended up pulling as well (and in the last couple years also passed away), but we kept the front aluminum panel my dad had on the front with Taz on it.  It is hanging on my wall as we speak.  Since I redesign my wall hangings I think I will have a more dedicated space for my dad.  It will be on the same wall as my other sister who passed away.  They were one in the same, and it will be nice to finally have a space for my dad instead of just randomly about.

The Christmas one I got because not only did I want to have a pair of Christmas socks, I have a feeling at some point I might want to take the socks down during the Christmas season to display other stuff (not this year but maybe future years), and I wanted to at least show one pair of socks during the season.  The other reason I got this pair in particular is because of the saying.  One hobby I've picked up on in recent years has been Sudoku.  I really enjoy them but have to be in the mood for them.  However after doing them for a while, they kinda seem repetitive.  A bit like a Rubiks cubs, they are all the same, just different starting points.  Anyways about a year before Covid hit, I found a Youtube page of a couple guys who posted two videos a day (one for each guy) solving Sudoku puzzles.  The thing is though they had different rulesets for each puzzle (they never do the same puzzle, just different ones each day).  So you really need to understand the rule sets each time you watch, but after a while of watching them you understand them.  Things like black dots, white dots, Kropke circles, things like that seem common.  Anyways one of the solvers named Simon I really liked (nothing against Mark, but Mark doesn't show as much personality as Simon).  Simon has a lot of sayings and in fact there is a bot (or there was) that would tally up how many times he's say them in a video.  Since they are both British, I assumed they were British sayings, but I'm not so sure.  Anyways, Simons says things link BOBBINS! or "thats 3 in the corner, losing its religion", or others that makes it interesting.  I don't watch as much though I've started getting back into it lately, but on each video after his announcements, he reads the rules for the puzzle and then says "now I get to play, LET'S GET CRACKING".  So when I saw this my first two thoughts were "ooh, Christmas", and "Bobbins, I need that".  If you enjoy Sudoku, the channel name on Youtube is Cracking The Cryptic.  They also do Wordle in a minute, and the Sunday crossword puzzle (I think the London TImes).  Its worth checking out once.  While I'm not great at math, for a while I was doing pretty well.  These days I try to solve the puzzle without watching, but if I get stuck I can always watch to see how to solve.

Anyways lets see more socks.

These were the newest additions I just got yesterday.  Notice the tear off prices on them.  Besides the Baja Blast socks, I already have another pair of Mountain Dew socks, but I like these better.  The Hawaiian Punch one I like but seems a bit plain, and I'd prefer to have the wordset on the socks too.  Still glad I found it.  The Cheetos Flamin' Hot look real nice, but the yellow doesn't seem right for these socks.  I don't know what other color would work though since red would clash with the actual Cheetos.  There are still really cool.

I noticed a quality control issue around the time the put the price on the socks.  The Mountain Dew is the most egregious and the reason I've passed on more socks more recently.  I got them though because Mountain Dew is the one I've wanted since I started collecting.  I'm glad I got the upgrade.  The Pepsi one would look much better with the wordset being able to be seen together.  Overall though I like it.  I think the Fanta one works the best of the three.  Having said that, I've never been a Fanta fan, but they were the best of the bunch the day I bought them.

Here are more recent ones I haven't bagged yet, some I've shown before.  I'm glad I have two variations of the Reese's ones, I wish the Twizzlers ones would have looked better, instead it looks like a red pair of socks.

I really like the Cheez-It ones even without the word set on the socks.  The Junior Mints are nice too, and they remind me of my mom, she loves Junior Mints.

At this point I'm not sure what ones I'd like to find. Mountain Dew was the big one, and now they make so many I can't think of what I don't have that they've made.  Dr. Pepper?  Snickers?  Who knows.  I had a list of ones I knew existed but not sure where its at.  I also had a list of what I have so far, but now with variations I'm not sure its worth keeping up.  I think the best bet might be if I can ever seal the bags like I want to take a picture of each pair and stitch it together so I know what I have.  Maybe I'll do that.  Maybe make a pdf book of what I have, that might be fun.

For now though I think I've written enough, and I'm a bit tired so I'll wrap it up.  Thanks so much for reading, and I hope everyone has a nice holiday season.  I might have another post or two before the end of the year but don't expect it.  I might plan on those projects next year.  For now I'm still trying to find stuff on Newspapers.com, and have a few streaming services that I want to watch stuff.  When those subs runs out I might have more time to work on projects.  So maybe around April next year I might have more time to work on them.  At any rate, this blog might be dormant from time to time but it isn't going anywhere.  Thanks so much and have a great day!

Odds And Ends, and Emails

 Did you know emails are still a thing?  I don't mean getting junk mail, or even work emails.  I mean actually writing an email and waiting for a reply?  I think in the last 15 years I have wrote maybe 5.  This week I think I have wrote.... 1...2....carry the 1..... UH..... shuddup, counting is hard!  5! I've written 5 emails.  I also never responded to one, sorry Jon, I should do that after I finish this.  I'll get the fun/concerned one out of the way first.  Since Jon left that Twitter/X/Elon's Money Pit the only way to communicate with him has been through his blogs.  I haven't been as active reading or writing blogs this year (nothing new on the writing, but seriously lacking on the reading others, sorry guys).  I know Jon has had a rough year, and then last week Hurricane Helene passed through his area.  I wasn't sure how close he was to the major impacts in Tennessee, but I thought I'd send a message on his blog to ask how he was.  It turns out that he hasn't had too many blogs lately either, and so it gave me a little more concern.  I knew he probably may have not been able to post recently, but I was still worried, so I shot him an email.  I have relatives in Florida that I think dodged most of the Hurricane (thankfully it was west of where they are on the panhandle).  I also have some relative in North Carolina, which I was also concerned about.  Thankfully she informed me that they were safe from the damage that devastated her area.  She was closer to Charlotte than Asheville, so besides some downed trees, not much hit them.  I was able to communicate with her on Facebook.  As for Jon, I waited a day and saw he sent me an email.  He informed me that the storm didn't affect him, but reflected on how the damage was in his area.  I am glad he is fine.  He gave me an update on how he's doing, but I'll leave that for him to tell.  I'm not one to tell people how others are doing, unless they want me to.  Anyways, it was nice to hear he'd doing good, and it made me realize I should probably do a blog as well, instead of being radio silent for so long.

A new addition to add to my (non) food collection

As for the other emails.... well.... I'm running for office and its classified information.   Just kidding, politics is too dirty for me.  No, I recently saw a killer deal on the website Newspapers.com that was half off for six months.  Normally their Black Friday deal is around 40% off, so I figured I wanted to do that this year, why not now.  So far I haven't had definitive stuff to look up like I normally do during their free weekends, but I have found a lot of information locally about business news, as well as a couple other projects I have been working on.  The goal is to find some actually good stuff before the subscription runs out in March.  In searching though, I tend to like somewhat modern history, like stuff from when I've been alive.  Stuff I've lived through.  I am going to deep dive soon probably into the 2011 Joplin Tornado, and would like to find info locally about the Flood of 1995.  The problem with the latter is that my most local newspaper only goes into around the early 1950s.  I have sent a few requests to Newspapers about adding more recent issues, but they never reply.  I'm sure they read them, but I would at least like a "we will look into it".  So I decided that I would message the State Historical Society of Missouri to maybe nudge them a little.  They have had a partnership with Newspapers and in the last couple years have added a ton of newspapers and pages.  So first I messaged them on Facebook.  I knew it was informal, but a shot in the dark.  They replied a day later giving me a person to contact.  So I figured, might as well.  So I emailed her, not expecting much and within a couple hours got a response.  She was away for a conference but when she returned would look into it.  Hey at this point I'm just happy I broke through.  GOOD ENOUGH!

However this morning, she sent a followup email, and I was very shocked at her tenacity.  As I read the email she explained they they added it to the que to add more pages, however they can only go until around 1963 or so, and then they would need publisher permission.  She suggested I email the paper to talk to them and their owner.  So I wrote her back and thanked her.  At this point, I thought I've done more than I thought and got some results, so I'm happy.  Then I thought much like Field of Dreams.... "GO THE DISTANCE".  So I kidnapped James Earl Jones, took him to a baseball game.... oh, wait sorry.  R.I.P. James Earl Jones, I'll miss you.  Anyways, I thought why not send an email to the paper like she suggested and see what happens.  At worst there is no reply, but maybe I can get something rolling.  So I emailed the paper which concerned me for a moment because they have a thin staff and I think one of the remaining staffers has a grudge against me.  Or else he blocked me on (I think I'll refer to it as Elon's Money Pit from now on) for no reason.  I never liked him anyways, so there.  Luckily he wasn't in charge of the paper or who I had to email, so I wrote them.  I just sent it and don't expect much, but maybe it will get sent to their owner who has many other Missouri newspapers and all end around the 1960s on the Newspapers site.  Maybe they will give the publisher permission and more newspapers can be updated.  I'm happy with whatever happens, because at this point I at least will get another 10 years of archives to read about local news.  Until more stuff is added, I can find other cool stuff to search for.

As I stated I have had a few projects on there that I'm saving pages for, but another thing I've done is clipped some of the business news of Columbia, Missouri from the late 90's to right now around 2004.  The paper had great business coverage and it is fun to see when stuff opened and closed.  I have also clipped other random things as well, and probably will clip more randomness along the way.  I think I will give a link in case anyone is interested.  You can view the clippings for free.  Clippings

I have been using the newspapers site to take my mind off things lately.  It seemed like every time I looked at something on the internet, a celebrity passed away recently.  A mix of actors and athletes made me not want to look at anything.  Then as I was taking my mind off that on Facebook I came across a relative passed away a week prior and I was just now hearing about.  It seemed very odd losing so many people at once, and it worried my mom.  I usually find out about a lot of famous deaths from Wikipedia.  I reminded her that once I did a rundown of all the people that passed away on like a random day.  It was like 30 or more people.  95% she or I had never heard of, but they still had a wikipedia page, so they were still somewhat important.  So at times it just seems there is a lot more names that stand out then others.  None of the recent names was a gut punch to me, but all of them made me sad.  I was sad to hear Frank Fritz from American Pickers passed, because he was the reason I watched the show.  He seemed more down to Earth than Mike and I haven't watched a full episode without him.  I also was sad to hear about John Ashton, not only because of Beverly Hills Cop movies, but I also enjoyed him in Little Big League as Mac.  I took the passing of Dikembe Mutumbo much worse than Pete Rose, but it did remind me that I had a Pete Rose autographed card thanks to that (2012?) set.  Then I saw Ken Page passed and I had to look him up.  While I never really watch Nightmare Before Christmas, I did see that he appeared on one of my favorite episodes of Family Matters.  He was (besides Carl) the last surviving member of the DARNELLS!  For whatever reason I loved that episode, and he seemed like a good actor.  I also read up on Drake Hogestyn which I knew from Days of Our Lives, but didn't know about his baseball career until he passed.  I don't know the story I read, but it was real in-depth about his playing days.  Lastly, it wasn't good news hearing about the passing of Kris Kristofferson.  I will admit I didn't listen or follow him as much as Waylon, or Willie, or Johnny, but I did like him.  I know I missed some others, but I've already had a ton of words an hardly any pictures.  I think I need to remedy that.

I haven't really read much as of late, and this year as a whole I haven't read to the level I did last year (probably because the books haven't been as good), but I have a couple to show.

A couple recent additions, the top one I'd consider a coffee table book, one that is more blurbs than stories.  I details every World Series up until 2002, but at the same time, it doesn't add too much depth to them.  A couple pages per each year with a few exceptions.  The thing I liked the most about it though was the box scores from the games.  Especially the older ones.  I would have figured the newer World Series games would be more in depth but they weren't.  I mean for a quarter I can't complain about it, but I think I probably would have passed if I had a do-over.

The second book is one I'm currently reading.  I don't have a lot of knowledge of the PCL or this franchise besides knowing the Sky Sox is a cool name for the Colorado Springs team.  I am about maybe halfway through and just started the Honolulu section of the book, which I think might be what I want to read about the most.  They played at "The Termite Palace".  This book gives a year by year rundown and is much better than the World Series book, but it sometimes drags on while talking about the stats of the players.  What is odd about reading this is thanks to a book I read earlier this year I knew a little about the Honolulu teams and the Termite Palace.  Early in his career, Al Michaels called games for Honolulu and he talks about it in his book.  It is the reason why the Honolulu portion is what I look forward to the most.

I'm not sure I'll review every book I read this year, but maybe I'll have at least a list or picture of the books I've read as the year commences.  I have to remember if I took pictures of all of them.

A couple of books I recently bought I guess I'll show off here.

Books are still 4 for $1 at my local second hand store, and my mom usually gets a few and needs a couple more to make it an even buck (sure they are a quarter each, but she likes round numbers).  None of these were must have, so I told her if she found good stuff put these back.  There wasn't much to choose from so she kept them.  Tom Landry looks like Steve Martin in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles in that cover photo.  I think the Ben & Jerry book might intrigue me the most, even though I don't know if I've every had their ice cream (I like the cheap stuff).

I didn't find much else this time, so nothing else to show.

At the top was a new addition to my food/non-food collection.  I thought the Mike & Ike pen set would look nice next to the Mike & Ike lip smacker/gloss and the Mike & Ike Hand Sanitizer (which has to be well expired since I got it pre-covid).  In addition to that I found a couple pairs of socks.

Neither got me too excited, but at least I have a couple more to add to the collection.  The green on the Eggo stands out a lot more in the photo than it does in person.  I think I like the Ring Pop one more but wish their logo on the sock would have been shown more.  I do like seeing the full ring pop though.

There were a couple others but I didn't really like them at all so I passed on them.  I don't know if I'm moving on from them or they just aren't exciting anymore, but I do know there are a few I don't have I'd like to get, so I'll keep searching.

I don't have an updated picture of the wall because I haven't bagged these yet to display, and nothing has really changed since the last post.  I think I have an idea of how to bag them better though, so maybe in a few months I might have to rebag them anyways and I can take a much better picture.

Aside from that I am not sure what else to show.  I guess I can show a dumpster dive.  My mom informed me a couple items were sitting by the dumpster but I was tired and decided I'd rather sleep then check it out.  The next morning after the sun came up I decided I'd take a look.  At worst I got a few extra steps in.

*note* I use to take much better photos. *note*

She told me it was a chair stool and it sat high.  I didn't know it would look that nice.  I think it matches the table I rescued a few months earlier.  She saw the neighbor take it to the dumpster which he's the one that also had the table.  Other than being a bit wobbly, it was just fine.  In fact after my mom cleaned it up she tightened the screws and its much better now.  I does sit high, but its not a big deal.  I figured at worst I could salvage the wood from it, but I think its just fine and will maybe take it to storage to have a chair to sit on.

The exercise bike I was a little more excited about.  I thought it would be a bit newer, but even as it is, I was happy.  We have one in storage that I've wanted to bring home but it is missing the back leg/bar.  It works fine, but I'd like to find something to replace it.  When I saw this again I figured at worst I could use one of these if we didn't like the rest of the bike.  I tested it out and I like it.  The only real issue is the speedometer doesn't register a speed, but to be honest that isn't a big issue.  It is much lighter than our old one, so its easier to move.  In fact my mom told me later that he had taken them both out to the dumpster at the same time.  I did the same bringing them from the dumpster.  I think I'll keep this bike here for now and when I get into using it more maybe I'll swap it out just so I can read the speedometer.  Otherwise I'm very happy with this dive (especially since I didn't have to actually dig inside the dumpster).  I'm so glad it didn't rain that night.

So I think I'll wrap things up there.  I guess before I do I will answer one question Jon asked me in the email I didn't respond to.  He asked how my mom and I are doing.  I can say that while we haven't been motivated to do much lately we have both been fine otherwise.  Her nosebleeds haven't happened in a couple months now, not even a little drip, and her other sicknesses have seemed to gone away.  She has days where she might have a headache or a leg problem, but otherwise she's good.  As for me, I have been good and haven't had any issues aside from allergies.  I think its so odd that I never had allergies growing up but now sneeze all the time.  It never bothers me though to a point I have to take something for it, so I'm not complaining.  Otherwise no issues, and now with a bike maybe I'll get motivated to exercise a bit more.

Thanks everyone for reading and I hope everyone has a great day and a great weekend.  I never even mentioned the Royals making the playoffs and making it past the Wild Card round.  Maybe I can make another post about that.  Remember the good old days when I'd make custom cards?  Ahh, memories.  Thanks for reading!

The Evolution of a Blog

 Before I begin, I must admit I had a post in draft about a month ago.  It was a "Ranting and Raving" post, that was mostly ranting, and it was pretty long.  I wasn't even maybe halfway done and something came up and I saved it to draft.  The thing is, I don't like saving to drafts, it usually seems pieced together when I come back to it later.  So a couple days later I came back to it.  I had calmed down, and I realized most of my ranting was pointless (and far too political for my blog).  I always say I try not to get too political, but I had a breaking point before the August primaries, and needed to vent.  After the election I was fine.  For the most part.  I know the November one will be the same and possibly the results will be similar.  I don't care who people vote for (or don't vote for that matter), i just wish we as a country could unite again and while disagreeing on issues still come together at the end of the day.  Its starting to be a pipe dream though.  Anyways, just letting you know I wasn't totally inactive the last few months.

One thing I did address in that blog that never was though, was some personal matters.  Another issue I never really discuss because I'm mostly a private person.  However this year has had some challenges.  This summer especially.  My mom has had some major nosebleeds this year, starting in April.  She was rushed to the hospital for a nosebleed!  At the time it was a one off issue.  She had minor ones for a while after, but that isn't terribly uncommon.  Then in July she had to be taken 3 more times by ambulance.  After the last visit a suggestion to her may have stopped them (hopefully).  She was taking baby aspirin as she always heard it was beneficial.  However the nurse told her to stop doing it, and it hasn't occurred since.  She had an appointment a few weeks later with and ENT specialist (Ears, Nose, & Throat), and that say curbing the baby aspirin may have cleared things up.  Her nose has felt better since.  However that last hospital visit may have caused another issue.  She was sick for a week and she had to be taken by ambulance once again to the hospital.  What we both thought may have been dehydration turned out to be pneumonia.  She was given pills and started to slowly feel better.  Then a leg issue came up and was prescribed more pills.  This gave her a horrible reaction, and once again another hospital visit (this time my aunt drove her).  They thought she caught pneumonia again. So she had other pills to take.  She started feeling better and thankfully for the past week or so she has been starting to be back to herself.  While she had her first bout of pneumonia I came down with something as well.  I don't go to the doctor much (I know I should), so I started looking up what I could have.  In the end I'm not sure what I had.  It could have been something like a stomach bug or flu, to something like kidney stones.  I had a really bad stomachache which then gave me bad back pain.  Then I felt something I thought in my kidneys.  I can't say for sure what it was but for almost a week or two I felt horrible and nearly bedridden.  I gave myself a deadline or else I'd see a doctor.  On the last day or two before the deadline, I felt like I passed something, then I suddenly felt better.  I haven't had issues since.  Well, some back pain, but I've always had back pain so it isn't related.

So as for the long intro, that's how my summer vacation went.

We both felt fine a few days ago so we made a trip to get some food and stop at our local second hand store and Dollar Tree.   As I was preparing the pictures for this post I realized how much my blog has transformed in the.... 10 YEARS??  HOLY CRAP I JUST REALIZED ITS BEEN 10 YEARS!  Wow, um... anyways... transformation, I lost my thought.  When I began this blog it was just a test to see if I could actually write on a consistent basis and talk about mostly my Royals cards and my card collection in general.  When I started the blog, I had just started to get heavily involved in collecting again after my sister passed away.  I had left card collecting sometime around 2000 or so when I graduated, and sold my collection maybe around 2003 or so.  Then in 2006, my dad passed and I was given his collection.  I spent time sorting them, but wasn't super big into getting back into the hobby.  Though I started buying packs of cards again.  So much so that my nephews would buy some wrestling packs time to time.  It never became a hobby again until around the time I hurt my back and couldn't work anymore.  Then I had time to kill and needed something to do.  So I decided to catalog my collection, and that's when I found the Trading Card Database.  It was also around that time my sister was diagnosed with cervical cancer.  For the next couple years with no job I would go with her to St. Louis while she received treatments.  After she passed I fell back hard into card collection (thanks also in part to TCDB and COMC where I could get cards cheap).  Wanting a way to show off the cards I started reading card blogs and thought I should try it.  At first it was mostly about Royals, Mizzou, and Greg Maddux.  I had some ideas for other stuff which I did a few times, but it went by the wayside.  However a couple odd things happened around the time I started the blog.  The Royals, the perennial losers started winning.  My fandom kind of gets burnt out after my teams win.  I was once a Buccaneers fan and after they won a Super Bowl in 2003, I lost interest.  I rooted for the Red Sox as a secondary team, and after 2004, I lost interest.  So in 2014 at the beginning of my blogging days (for cards, I once had a Xanga account, ahh I'm old), the Royals had a chance to be champs.  They didn't win in 2014, but they did in 2015, and honestly that was around the peak of my blogging days.  When I start something new, I go in hard.  Long story short, Royals won, I lost interest, and in an effort to drive myself harder on the blog, I wrote way too many posts and burnt myself out.  So then I started taking some breaks from blogging.  It was also around this time that I started losing some interest in collecting cards again.  Not enough to fully quit, but to a point where I needed to shift what I was showing off.  So I started showing off finds from my local second hand store, Savvy Seconds.  For a while I still had a sports theme as they did have some cards at times, and some clothing and such.  Then they started changing focus to newer items, and I needed to pivot.  So I created a series called "Savvy Loot Crate" Where I'd spend maybe 5 bucks or so and see what I could get.  It was my way of getting a Loot Crate but liking everything I got.  I was able to show off my music and movie collection more, and I didn't really lose my viewers.  Around this time my Dollar Tree stopped selling cards, but I found a new vice- movies.  I got a ton of movies from Dollar Tree, and actually started building my blu-ray collection.  I think my first blu-ray was Last Action Hero, which I bought before I even had a blu-ray player.  I have close to 200 blu-ray movies now and a majority of them were bought from Dollar Tree.  Covid hit and by this point I knew my heart wasn't into blogging or even collecting cards anymore, but I didn't want to stop doing either, just wanted to casually enjoy it, which I did.  Covid caused a rise in card collecting (and prices) and I think in the last 4-5 years I might have bought less than 10 packs of trading cards.  I don't even know when I last added cards to my collection, I know I was given some by some giveaways on TCDB and won a few on Listia, but not sure how recent that has been. 

In the last year Dollar Tree hasn't been getting movies like in the past and now charge 1.25 for items (if not more), so I needed to find something else to collect.  I got a few Hot Wheels, but I never really was a big collector of them (but do wish I could find some of the old ones I had as a kid).  But then one day I found something to fill the void.

SOCKS! (and finally a picture after an hour of typing).  This is my most "recent" picture.  If you've seen previous blogs I think the 3 newest I've added is on the bottom row, the Skippy Peanut Butter, Jello, and Dippin Dots (I didn't take a picture of the Jell-O one I guess).  For about a month I had taken all these off the wall because I had to reorganize them because I had enough to make a third row.  It wasn't until this last Tuesday that I decided to hang them back up and organize them better.  I even left room on each row just in case I added a couple more at some point.

OOPS!

A trip to Dollar Tree on Wednesday made me happy, but made me wish I waited a few more days to reorganize these.

So now I need another row.  So what I noticed about this batch that is different is not only a could have white hangers (maybe I am getting a little OCD, but that might bug me), but these all have $1.25 price one the cardboard, something they haven't had before.  I don't mind that as much, but would prefer if they didn't.  My two favorites are the Doritos (which I've wanted for quite a while), and Planter's.  I prefer the single color background ones more than the multi color.  The Sugar Daddy one and a few others indicate that I should be on the lookout for Blow Pops, Charleston Chew, and Junior Mints.  

Here is the Dippin Dots one I got a few weeks ago.  Again, I thought I took a picture of the Jell-O one, but I guess not.  I've noticed in recent trips that they have branched out and have other types of novelty socks as well, like cartoon characters, and even movies.  I spotted a pair of Happy Gilmore socks last visit but passed.  I try to only get food related ones, because I like how I have them displayed.  However I finally bought a non-food pair which I might display in another area and will fit into my collection nicely...that or I might give it to my nephew, who will really enjoy them.

This pair also has a different hanger, which I like as its closed off so it won't fall off a tack as easily.  I really don't know what will happen when I run out of room on my wall for socks.  I like the location because it faces the pantry.

Another thing that has evolved since the blog has started is I've bought and read more books.  This year I haven't read as many, but still read quite a few.  If I remember I will show all of them I've read at the end of the year.  I figured if I buy books might as well read them.  Currently I'm taking a little break from reading, but have a few I plan to read soon.  I have bought a few recently.  I have also been buying more cookbooks lately.  Mainly for my mom, but I also like looking at them, especially community type ones.  Also the other big thing I've done and shown more on here is puzzles.  Now with over 200 puzzles, we haven't worked on as many this year, mainly because of a few issues with the apartment moving stuff around and also for lack of better word, laziness on my part.  That will change soon.

On my recent trip to Savvy though I did buy a sports related item, one that really surprised me.

A stadium giveaway hockey puck from the New Jersey Devils? In Mid-Missouri?  At any rate it was not only a bit odd, but also kind of spooky I found this.  A day before I mentioned to my mom that I have stress balls of a football, baseball, and basketball (thanks to my sister on the basketball), so it would be nice to find a stress ball of a hockey puck.  Well the next day I found this.  Which is a little spooky.  Not to be outdone, I also found a stress ball.

This is the second body part I have in stress ball form, as I also have a foot.  Now I collect things, but it was never my intention to collect stress balls.  However in the last 5 years I've have relied on them a lot more than I ever thought I would.  I hate needles so when I got my covid shots, a stress ball came in real handy.  In the last year with my mom's health issues, having a stress ball has been very good for me.  I never realized until this year how much anxiety I really have.  I know it has increased in the last 15 years, but I use to be a people person, now I get stressed over the simplest things.  So having an insane amount of stress balls isn't too bad.  Not only can I display certain ones, but I can use one when in a pinch (did I just make a dad joke?).  I don't know if I'll expand my sports ball collection (I can see soccer and volleyball as potential ones, maybe rugby, but not sure if they make stress balls for other sports).  As for body part stress (?balls?) I have a brain and a foot, I don't know what else they would make.  I also have a spine keychain which I can display next to them.  I'm not a huge fan of the human body or anything, but it is kind of a cool/creepy collection.  Once everything is organized, maybe I will show everything off.  Though I just realized its now September and around November I display all my tins for Christmas, so maybe it will have to wait.

Another item to add to my food collection, was this Hershey's coffee cup.  I don't drink coffee, but I could drink hot chocolate from it.  However I am somewhat of a germaphobe (not an extreme case), so I don't like using used mugs, cups, plates, or the like.  I mainly like to display mugs and such I find.  That said, if I ever needed to use them, I know I could clean them up enough to my satisfaction.

I mentioned movies earlier, and it looks like second hand might be where I get movies from now on.  I don't know what the future holds for movies, but I grabbed this one for a buck because not only do I not have this classic on DVD (or Blu-Ray), but I really wanted the bonus "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown".  My dad bought a copy of it on VHS from a gas station in the 90s and I think I still have that copy, but I wanted to get it on DVD.  I try not to go overboard on movies anymore unless it is a wishlist item or something I know I would like.  Since getting a Roku, I have found many free movie options and rarely have a time where there is NOTHING to watch.  That's not to say I can easily find any movie I want, but it has expanded my horizons on movies.  Maybe I can't find Days of Thunder on streaming for free, but I can watch Cannonball, a racing movie from the 70s with David Carradine.  I'll give it a shot.  In fact I never really watched a Charles Bronson movie 10 years ago, and now I've watched quite a few of his, even so much as if I ever want something on for noise I'll turn on Mr. Majestik (which you can usually find on Pluto, palie).

I think I have plenty of DVD-R's but for 50 cents for 3 I went ahead and got them.  I am still planning on ripping from VHS to DVD and have more tapes that I might be able to get commercials from (once I get my VCR working again or a remote for my VCR).  So it was a good investment.

The drywall kit, well it was brand new, and I got it for more screws which I could always use.  If I wanted I could have got about 10 or more others, but I figured one would be enough.

The four pack of bed risers I think was a buck.  I pondered if I needed them, but decided to go ahead.  In the background you can see I already have a set.  I don't plan on using them for a bed, but you can place them under furniture as well.  I have considered placing them under my TV stand, or maybe some other furniture piece. Now that I have 8, it should provide more stability for a larger piece.

I still have books to show and puzzles completed, but I've been typing a lot and think I've shown enough pictures.  I think I will stop for now and organize my pictures a bit for the next post which I hope will be soon.  I am finally getting the hang of using Google Photos for my blog and so I'm getting better at it.  Using a chromebook is still a learning experience, but I can get most stuff done.  I think for the rest of the weekend I might work on getting the rest of my stuff off my old desktop, and trying to clean files.  Its an neverending job, but since I got that 4TB hard drive earlier this year, I am making progress.

Thanks everyone for reading and for those who have been here since the beginning or at least a large part of the run, an extra large thank you for keeping me motivated to keep writing.  I have no plans of stopping, but it might be few and far between at times.  Who knows where the next ten years will bring.  I should do like a best of covering the first 10 years.  Maybe that will be in the future.  Anyways thanks again, and have a great weekend.