New Inventory and Updates

 It's been almost a week since as Les Nessman would say the "godless tornado" stuck my hometown.  A lot of local media coverage and a lot of cleanup later and things are starting to return to normal.  I did look at some of the damage three days after the event and it was still pretty bad.  The main road leading into town looked devastating on TV (I didn't make it out that way the first couple days), and even after countless telephone poles replaces and many helping community members it still looked a whole lot worse in person.  A house that was once hidden by 10 or more trees was now shown out in the open, heavily damaged and all the trees bare.  Not just the leaves, but most of the limbs gone too.  In my last post I explained my first thoughts, and I considered many people lucky and some that weren't.  Looking at more damage on Saturday I have to say I stand by it being potentially worse.  The way the tornado shifted as I said in the last post, was crazy, but looking at the main road it shifted even more sparing many more houses that were in the direct path.  Even when it lifted, it was in an area that it could have caused much more damage.  I-70 by that time likely had many motorists, and even a slight shift before lifting could have struck the overpass to our exit which is usually a haven for many truckers resting for the night.  I didn't take more pictures, but what I saw with my own eyes will be etched into my brain for a long time, if not forever.

A couple days ago I looked on Youtube to see if there was more video of the events from that day or the aftermath.  A station in Kansas City did do overhead coverage which I think I linked in the last post.  A station from St. Louis (over 150 miles away) even had a reporter cover it.  While I'm a bit surprised it didn't get more coverage outside the local area (and even some locally from some newspapers), I'm also glad it didn't.  The town does help one another, and what awareness it brought to the town did bring in more help, and that's all that matters.  Since I don't get out daily, I haven't seen what has happened in the last couple of days, but I have seen more cleanup outside my windows, and there are a couple more dumpsters for debris.

*PRE-PUBLISH/POST-EDIT: My point in that last paragraph was actually pertaining to the advanced warning.  Our tornado siren did not go off due to it being old and running on electricity.  The power went out a minute or so before the tornado hit.  As I watched a livestream days later of a storm chaser the only warning we had was a severe thunderstorm warning issued 5 minutes before the tornado hit.  About 2 minutes before the tornado hit this Youtuber wondered why a tornado warning was not issued for us.  The tornado touched down about a minute after we lost power, so no time to warn us.  It was maybe 4 minutes after the tornado touched down that the tornado warning was issued, maybe slightly sooner.  The warning was issued based on radar and they didn't even confirm a tornado did touch down at that point.  After watching it in realtime replay, I might have to give some Youtube weather people a shot next time.  I'm not saying they are better than meteorologists, but some are highly educated and are more than just "storm-chasers'.  This one in particular had a few maps and was going all through them. It may not have prevented anything, but it was interesting to see him predict the warning before it actually happened.

So with that I think I'll move on.  I don't want to keep dwelling on it, and honestly my last post I didn't even link anywhere. It was just more of something to clear my head some.  As I mentioned above, on Saturday I did look at some of the storm damage, but I also went to my local second hand store.  It wasn't really a planned trip, but my sister visited and wanted to show us around.  I made a quick run into Dollar Tree, but left empty handed.  I was only looking for a hydration drink, and the flavor I liked was out.  We also checked out Walmart, but nothing real exciting there either.  So Savvy Seconds was the place.  I wouldn't say we hit it big, but we did make some good finds.

The Michael McDonald CD is for my mom, she really likes him, and from what I heard, it wasn't a bad CD to grab.  The Lucinda Williams CD was for me, and while it doesn't have her best songs, if you enjoy her music, its good.  I enjoy her music, so I was happy to find it.  Usually I like to buy 4 CD's since they are a quarter each.  I grabbed 6 CDs, 2 were empty cases, and one was really scratched so I put them back.  The last one was a fun find.  My grandma always said she was related to Leroy Van Dyke (as I mentioned in a post long ago).  So when I found this one I was happy to grab it.  It has his one hit The Auctioneer, and other songs, which.... well, he tried, lol.  Nothing bad, but some just don't really fit his style.  That said I was happy to find it and like with all CD's I open the case to see if they are in there and to see if they are scratched.

Turns out it was signed.  That made me real happy, and even if scratched, I would have bought it.  He is still local and occasionally pops into the local record store (local as in Sedalia).  Overall I was pretty excited with just these items, but we also found more.

Still on a cookbook kick, we found a few more.  The only one I would have got was the last one, but my mom says the foil one is pretty good.  I really need to find a way to organize all the cookbooks one day.  In the meantime, I am pretty sure I will have a project on here soon showing them off.  Then again, projects on here don't always work out.

Another project I have in the pipeline involves puzzles and my mom found a couple more.

The top one she was a little less excited after she got home and noticed it was only 300 pieces.  It's okay, the price was right and its good to have a new puzzle.  The bottom one looks blurry, for some reason my photo taking skills have gotten worse recently.  Anyways its a painting puzzle, not a photo, so it doesn't interest me as much, but my mom liked it.

Overall, I think some very solid pickups.  That wasn't all though, because my sister also brought more books for my mom.  A few weeks ago there was a massive book sale, and we almost went.  My sister and her family did go, and got some good stuff, and some for my mom.

My mom was very interested in all of them, I might check out the Crook & Chase one at some point, but I have a lot of books of my own to read first.  There was one other book she got that was pretty cool.

My mom already has this book, but not signed!  One day I really should do a post on all the signed books we have.  I think it would be a fun post.  The plan is sometime this spring my mom and I are both planning to purge some of our books.  Either ones we've read, or ones we don't plan on reading.  We had an idea of donating books and puzzles to a huge church garage sale this month, but we forgot the date and it was last weekend.  Now we might clean our storage unit up real nice then next summer during city wide sales, just have a big garage sale.  My mom just wanted to sell books and puzzles, but after I mentioned a few bigger ticket items we had that we could sale the idea shifted to having a larger one.

As for other ventures, I haven't bought a lot of socks lately, just because I want to display them better.  Until I do, I need to find a way to not buy ones I already have.  I also want to clear up some space and reorganize, which I hope to do soon.  One project I tried to tackle yesterday didn't turn out quite as I planned, but also worked out.  I'll explain in a second.  A few months ago I mentioned buying a remote from Big Lots.  Well I finally tested it out yesterday.

I bought this VCR a couple months ago and needed to test it out.  It works and so did that remote I found.  There was only one problem- the reason I bought it was because I thought the front panel had a digital display.  It does not.  However this morning I realized I already knew that.  Because I bought the same exact VCR a few months ago, and likely at the same price.  That isn't an issue because I'm glad I have a few working VCR's.  I just need one with a digital display so I can rip commercials from old tapes.  I have an even older Montgomery Ward VCR I bought maybe a year or more ago and finally tested it yesterday too.  It works.... I think.  It didn't eat the VHS tape, and it appears the channels change, I just can't really get a display.  Its an issue on my end that I just get forgetful at times on how to connect stuff.  This VCR is 39 years old, and I either need and RCA to HDMI adapter or just need to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  I have a digital tuner but also can't find the remote.  I do know it works currently as a pass through, but I just need to figure it out.  On the bright side I have 4 VCRs that all seem to work.  That is good.

Since I am cleaning up my photo files, I guess I have more to show, so let's take a look.

On the previous trip to Savvy, we found more cookbooks.  These are the kind I like, local or at least community ones.  As my mom thumbed through one she was caught off guard... WHAT KIND OF CHEESE?  I have to say I never heard of it either, but it appears its still made in Australia but around 2020 they renamed it Cheer Cheese.  Who knew.

There were a couple other books, one we got the same day, and another I won on Listia.  I rarely look on Listia these days, but I won a book cheap and one I really had an eye out for a while and currently reading.

The top book was at Savvy, and while not on my wishlist, it was one I've heard about for a while and might give it a try.  My mom didn't seem impressed with it, but after reading it a bit, she says she is intrigued by it.  I have a few other books to read before I get to it though.

The bottom book is the Listia win.  I was surprised how cheap I won it for, it somehow slipped through the cracks.  I really liked the Moneyball movie, so much so that I had an eye out for the book, even before I started getting into reading books.  So far I'm about 1/4th of the way through and it is different than the movie, but not in a bad way.  My only critique so far was this last chapter I read about Bill James.  A lot of the Moneyball concept is based on Bill James and so I understand devoting a lot of space to him.  However, it was a chapter explaining who he was, and almost an advertising section to get you inside the mind of Bill James.  My thought is they could have cut about a third of it out, and still got the point across.  He was mentioned a few times in the movie and it was enough to convey that his concepts were what helped in the evolution, and that was enough.  Otherwise the book is pretty good so far without diving much into what was presented in the movie.  I read about the 2002 draft which I the draft was never really talked about in the movie.  So I think I'll enjoy it and glad I am reading it.

So far this year I have read 3-4 books, and I'm quite happy with that.  I finally made a list of what I've read on Library Thing and maybe at the end of the year I'll talk about it on here.

Let's see what else is in my photo dump bin.

The Reese's cupcakes were at Dollar Tree.  They weren't too bad but also not sure I would want them too many times.  It was good to have since we haven't had cupcakes or cake in general in a while.  The puzzle is really nice, but I haven't worked on puzzles in a bit.  Partly because its a bit crowded in here and we haven't worked on the puzzles on the main table.  Hopefully that will change soon, as I will be rearranging stuff soon.

The bottom two photos are the progress on a Quiktrip convenience store across from the Pilot Travel Center.  It should open by the end of the month, and I will check it out when it does.  I've heard good things about it, but I don't plan on going much. 

The top item was an egg I got while on a trip to Savvy.  I entered to win an Easter basket and I got to grab a free egg.  Inside was some spiky ball which I have no use for but still it was something.  Speaking of something, that View-master sure is something.  I think my eyeballs almost fell out when I saw the price though.  If that's the going rate, I might be rich.  I have more than a few of them, a couple exactly like that.  I don't take many pictures when out shopping but had to show that off.

The DVD is the second one from WDAF TV that I own, both are still sealed.  I like local TV history, so this was a nice fine.  My friend says he actually has the same one so that was cool.  The Hot Wheels car was just something I randomly saw and decided to get.  I have a DeLorean or two in Hot Wheels form and once I get organized I think it will display well.

As for my displays, like I said above I plan to reorganize, and part of it is deciding to get rid of a few things.  I think I want to purge some stuff or at least store it before I can organize it again.  Once I do that I will display stuff again and I will take pictures.  I also hope after I do that I might start scanning a few things again, including some cards.  I actually have a few things to show off so I need to do that.  My current plans don't really involve cards or card collecting, but I'm not closing the book on it.  In fact once things seem to get organized here, I might even start going back to my roots of this blog and showing off my collection again.  Its not just acquiring new items, but its about enjoying what you already have.  So maybe the return of my card Hall of Fame, or Maddux Mania, or Complete Sets.  Maybe that will even inspire me to start creating custom cards again.  At any rate I have plans for this blog this year and maybe if I can get organize better I can start writing more.  As for now, I'm not promising anything but we'll see what happens.

As for now, I think I'll wrap things up for today.  Thanks so much for reading, and I hope everyone has a great week.  I hope the weather gets better soon and I can open some windows and do some spring cleaning.  Cleaning up old photos on here was fun, maybe I can dig deeper and find more that I should have posted 5-7 years ago (they actually do exist).  But for tonight, I might just take it easy and figure out the VCR situation.  Have a great day.

Life's Been Happening

 I don't know what to really post today, and not sure how long it will be.  I could ramble on like normal, but I'm not in the mood.  I kind of wanted to post because some of you may know where I live, and for those that don't, its a small town in Central Missouri.  I don't like giving a lot of details out about my life, but I did do a multi blog post a couple years ago about my town's 150th anniversary.  Today, started out like a lot of Spring days here, a bit windy with a chance of storms.  I don't think I have a sixth sense on storms, but I usually don't get worried about them.  When I get a feeling though I take precautions.  The storms were said to be possibly severe, but a lot of storms are like that.  My concern around 7 AM was making sure my mom took her morning pills, and she has to eat something with them, and to have breakfast before the lights potentially go out (an electric stove).  So with a small window we quickly had breakfast by 7:30.  It started getting dark, and I wasn't feeling it.  Storms are storms.  Around 8 or 8:15 I told my mom "eh, you might want to get your stuff together".  She usually packs something in case of emergency like important papers, and other stuff.  She thought I was joking at first because I was non-chalant at first.  I told her just to be safe.  I mean it looked like storms could get a little more severe than I thought.  A couple minutes later I teased her that the raggedy shirt I had on was perfect when news crews talk to storm victims. A joke like that showed I wasn't worried.  My mom worries a lot, so I always tell her that until I worry she shouldn't worry.  A tornado was spotted possibly near Joplin and they were under a warning.  They are far enough away that it wasn't an issue as of now.  There was one closer but they cancelled it before it was set to expire.

A few minutes later I was being cautious like normal and checking 2-3 weather maps, a scanner, and some traffic maps.  None too close to my location, but still I had nothing else to do, and it put my mom at ease.  Around 8:30 ish, the lights went out.  It was a bit odd that happened because normally during storms, the power stays on, and after it passes the power goes out.  At any rate, with no internet and no electricity, I do what I normally do- I look out the window.  Right before the power went out, I did see we we're issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.  I'm not cool and think it won't bother us, I just didn't have the feeling.  Even when the power went out, it was like "hmm, I'll wait for it to come back on".  My mom was stationed at one window, I was at another and suddenly the wind picked up strong.  Even at that point I wasn't worried.  Though it wasn't dying down, and suddenly I blurted out, a little more aggressive than before but not concerning "get to the bathroom". Our apartment bathroom has no windows and the safest spot.  I followed her in there but unlike previous storms, I didn't stay in there more than 2 seconds.  I came back out, and I saw something in the sky 30-40 feet in the air.  My inner thought was "DUMMY, IT'S A TORNADO!". I can't tell if the howling was from the tornado or the windows that aren't installed the best.  I never saw a cloud but I had a really strong feeling.  Just as soon as I thought it, the wind died down to basically nothing.  It was either over, or the calm before.  Luckily it was over.  For the next few minutes my mom and I were cautious of more storms coming.  The brief Thunderstorm Warning was all we had, the town siren never went off.  A few minutes passed and I thought I might walk around and assess the damage and grabbed my cell phone.  My sister tried calling and sent texts to see if we was okay.  She told us they said a tornado hit just north of town.  After finding out we were in the clear, I walked around the complex where I talked to my uncle for a bit.  It looked like shingles were down, some parts of the roof fascia was off on our place, and a huge limb broke from the tree in the middle of the complex along with the door to a storage shed being blown off.  That wasn't surprising since it was already hanging by a thread.  Talking to other people at the complex, and everyone seemed okay, with everybody curious why there was no warning.  We heard rumors that the nursing home up the block got hit, and outbuildings were shattered.  Down the road a storage shed was moved from someones yard to the middle of the road.

A half hour or so passed and no power yet, so my mom and I decided to maybe look around town at the damage, but to stop at storage to grab a couple things.  First we wanted to check the cemetery to see if my dad and sister's headstones were damaged.  By the time we got there we noticed a lot of damage around town including the roof of a building.  And a round outbuilding that was missing.  The cemetery entrance was blocked with a couple vehicles and debris and it didn't feel safe to check it out.  We decided to next go to storage.  I was looking for my tree clippers but couldn't find them.  Rain started to return so we decided to lock up and maybe check around town a bit more.  By this time people were already helping out cutting limbs from roads and picking up debris.  A lot of flashing lights were throughout town, and then lightning starting coming so we decided to head back home.  By the time we got inside, this storm seemed to pass.  I decided to walk around a bit more, and then decided I would walk around town.  I wanted to see the building in the road.  By the time I got there townfolk were trying to move it with no luck.  I stayed out of the way but tried getting some pictures.  My photos mostly weren't worth showing, but I walked around the park with limbs down but cut up already.  At this point as others said and I saw with my own eyes, the path seemed to follow the Katy Trail.  As I walked near it I then thought of my aunt and uncle who live on the other side of the trail.  They live in a mobile home and while not worried, was curious if they were okay.  I stopped to talk to a person up the road who said lightning hit a tree next to his house which caused it to fall right unto a power line.  It was the road leading to my relatives.  I chatted with this person for a bit who despite a town of under 800, I had no idea who he was.  Just conversating.  Anyways I saw my relatives in the front yard of their place and I made my way up there.  They were fine, but you could tell they were shook.  My uncle told me he saw the tornado.  It went right through their backyard.  They had no warning and no time to go to a neighbor's cellar.  Similar to us, the power went out they heard the wind and went to their bathroom.  The door slightly cracked to see out the patio door to see the tornado.  After talking to them for a bit and my other relatives, we decided to look around his backyard.  He lives on a dead end with a ton of acreage in the back, and strewn all around were metal pieces, trees, and other various debris.  Tress were bent over if not fulled out of the ground.  He also had a view to other places around town.  A few neighbors weren't so lucky, heavy damage to homes, power lines down.  We heard a house outside of town was destroyed.  In the distance we saw a ton of debris.  Was that.... didn't they just put a new mobile home there a couple months ago?  It's not there anymore.  We made our way back to the house and my cousin decided to take my aunt and uncle to survey the damage so I went along, mostly to just head back home.  By this time a lot of people were looking around, and a lot more power & light trucks and emergency vehicles were in town.  The roads were safe, but it also could be said they should be closed.  We heard the main road was closed outside of town due to damage to power lines and debris.  Even rumors of arrest for those trying to enter town.  I road around a bit and then was dropped off.  I described what I saw to my mom, and showed a few decent pictures.  This was around 12:30 and still no power.  My cell phone which I rarely use was a communication tool reaching my sister and another aunt who were not only concerned but were fielding calls from others checking on us.  My nephew in the D.C. area was so concerned he messaged my sister and had his dad check on us.  My other nephew checked on us a couple hours later.  At this point I didn't want to disrupt the people trying to fix and repair the city and those checking on the residents so I stayed home.  It was close to 4 PM when power was restored (though some estimated it could be up to 48 hours with no power), and I was finally able to report to others concerned that we were safe.  From what I hear, nobody was killed, and its already been reported an EF-2 struck just outside of town, and traveled 6 miles before lifting.  I am somewhat skeptical it was only one, but looking at the tornado path I can see it just being one.  If there is a blessing out of this, it is two very distinct turns the tornado took.  The first one if it didn't turn, would have nailed the entire town completely.  The second one, which was shortly after the first, if it hadn't turned, it would have directly hit my uncle's house.  The non-blessing though is unfortunately two places was hit directly, one the aforementioned mobile home, and the second just outside of town when the tornado reached it's peaked and caused it to turn again.  

Honestly, I am in a bit of shock of today's events, not just at what happened, but how it could have turned out differently.  A lot of cleanup over the next few days and weeks, but the important thing is I hear of no injuries.  A new emergency siren was already ordered and supposed to be installed next month.  That is sometimes a theme in these small town tornadoes.  I was thinking a few weeks ago how blessed out town was that so many storms and tornadoes hit the area, but our town seemed to be spared.  I guess it was our turn this time.  A few more feet wide and our apartment would have been in the path.  I can think of a few other times I was dangerously close to a tornado.  Once was about 12 years ago and just recently found out it wasn't even a tornado, but it was a major storm system that earlier in the day did kill someone not far from the hospital my sister was about to be discharged from (we were on the 17th floor during a tornado).  After being discharged, another storm seemed to go right over top of us.  It was not a good feeling.  Another time a tornado did hit, but not as close as we thought.  I was working at Wendy's and I believe a tornado touched down across the highway.  Another time a tornado warning hit Springfield, MO while I was at a church convention.  I'm not sure if a tornado was confirmed but I remember standing in a long dark hallway for 20 minutes until the threat was over.

I guess the main reason I wanted to write this was to inform everyone that I am safe, and the storm passed by with a lot of damage to my town, but not to me specifically.  A giant tree limb was down and on the other side of the building, a ladder standing open was not even touched (a shovel was still leaning against it).  Aside from that, I just haven't been in the mood to write lately.  Had a few days with no water due to a water main break, and still getting over that (mentally, no damage that time either aside from a Facebook post that ruffled some feathers).  Beyond that I have been reading some books, and have a few things to post, but maybe I'll get around to it soon.  Otherwise that's all I have to really say.  Maybe I'll find some pictures to post from today.

So with that who knew that at 7:00 I would be in for such an eventful day.  Anyways thanks for reading and hope everyone has a good and safe week.  More storms throughout the country tonight and this week, so be careful.

I'll add a youtube video I found of a Kansas City station filming overheard a few hours after the storm.  KC is 100 miles away and outside the media market, but they still covered it.