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.
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| 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!
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