Look at that! Ketchup for your fries and Horsey sauce for your delicious Arby's roast beef sandwich. You know, when Arbys first started having those sauce pumps in their lobby, I would say they had to build on a well where they tapped the well and Horsey sauce would flow from the Earth naturally to enhance your sandwich. The Ketchup came from BIG TOMATO. You know, from SPACE? That's how my mind works once I could get all the delicious synth Horsey sauce I needed. Put it on my fries? You bet. I don't have to tear those annoying packets open to have my Horsey goodness? You bet. Yeah, this is a memory. A time where it was self serve in a lobby of all sauces we'd need and all forks, knives, spoons, napkins, mini sauce cups that we would need. No. It all came crashing down.

The weekend when our Governor X-10 decided we needed a handle on this pansamatic. I'd had been in Pitt the weekend before and they said there was now a few cases in our state and one in my town. That weekend everything stopped. 3/15/20. Close it all. "Shelter in place." (What, are we being bombed?)  Stay at home from now until infinity. Wash EVERYTHING that touches OUTSIDE AIR. Cancel your St. Pattys day plans and stay safe! We're all in this together, except if we don't agree with you. My camera was filled with memories since September 2019.  I usually clean the camera before a major event and that was when my pictures started. I took a trip to Orlando and we spent a day in Tampa. That's why I'm doing this now. Remember the Sooperdoopertoilet in 2020? We watched like nothing was going to wreck all our lives and be held hostage by a spiky thing that we can't see that kills whomever it wants. This year, Tampa hosts the dooper game with a Tampa team playing with a former Patriot at the helm. Meanwhile, here are my memories of good times from my recent BPCC.

Yep. We stayed in the glow of a big box that holds football games. We stayed at a hotel, a new hotel, that was nearly across from this big box. I remember they had really crappy parking at this hotel, but they had a bus that would take you anyplace. Park once, take the bus everywhere else.  I got a lesson that you should tip your hotel bus driver? Now I'll remember to make change while being driven to a Coffee house with no air conditioning when it was 98 degrees out and it would be raining if there was any more humidity.  Hell, it was a nice hotel and all and I was glad they gave me some basics because I'd left my toothbrush and deodorant in Orlando. The only thing I hated about the place was the soap/shampoo/conditioner dispenser that was in the shower. Not only was it not full, but it grossed me out because who knows what peeps can do to those dispensers. No thanks. I'm always going to travel with mini soap and mini shampoos from now on.

It was a week day when I arrived in Orlando. Look how empty and clean the tram system was from terminal to terminal. I love flying to Orlando because I look forward to riding these clean trams. Gee, it took a pansamatic where other " mass transit" systems picked up a disinfecting wipe to wipe the grab bar in their trains every 24 hours. MCO has been keeping their trains clean forever. With the millions of people that ride these trains all year, they always are this clean. Doors are closing. Doors Are Closing. Doors are Closing. "Welcome to Orlando. You know there is other things to do here besides Disn....*Murrrrph* *Girl From Ipanema elevator music* "

We stayed in St. Pete. When on vacation, I like to drink heavy at local bars because I don't have to drive anywhere. Also, as you might have guessed, I like the pooches. My friend did a search for a "dog friendly" bar and found a place called.... *wait for it* .... *Girl From Ipanema elevator music* THE DOG BAR. Hell I didn't care. It was a really nice place with as well as an indoor/outdoor bar. It was filled with dogs and people and dogs and dogs. Trouble was, it was all open and it was hot and humid and add in the wafting scent of all those dogs marking their territory and we blasted pretty quick. We came back later in the evening when it was cooler for a dog costume show.

Another piece of St. Pete besides every business being in an old gas station or car repair shop was that there was a lot of old video games. We went into a small beverage store with an entire other storefront filled with every chip known to the world. Indeed there were some punters in the place that remarked that this store had the snack food they had in jail. It was a fun loving crowd. I played this Apple IIc version of PacMan for 15 seconds but have never been a fan of playing games without a joystick. Remember when we could touch things like a keyboard in public and then eat prison chips while sucking down a 40 and smoking a Marlboro? Memories. Glad they had this up and running.

Oh HELL. Look at that! Someone grilled a cow, topped it with fried pork strips and then fried up a vegetable x3 and then topped it with goop and yellow floor tile. There was another of the same vegetable on the bottom not all brown and some green stuff thrown in like the Flintstone's "Parsley" ...to throw away. The best thing about this gut buster is, I was on vacation and we got plenty of walking in to work off all the BBQ sauce. We had stopped in an art store and the food was said to be good at this particular restaurant by the store owner. Hmmm. I wondered if there was a Wendy's near by. I was on vacation. I was eating out. Remember that?

St. Pete had lots of restaurants all inside former gas stations. We had dinner at one place that was a little higher in price but had absolutely fresh food  and had a local beer with grapefruit that was simply the best beer of the style that I've had. Ahh, but we combined video games and beer and went to the small microbrew/video game place inside a house. Twice. Damn good. You know, since this all began, I've sworn off hanging at the microbrews other than the small one that mom and I enjoyed late summer when we ate in the parking lot tables the microbrew had added. It's one of the things I really miss. Ahhh, spring is coming...

We also spent a day in Centennial, Florida. Here's the train museum. Remember when we could go to museums? Yeah, bigger ones are open again.  This is a telegraph desk. Dot Dot Dash. Dot Dash Dot. Dot Dot Dot Dot Dash Dot Dot Dot Dot Dash Dot Dot Dot *Girl From Ipanema elevator music* Where's the browser? Does this thing have Pandora? 

So, after the fun that was a trip to Florida in September, I went to Pitt the following weekend to HOARD TOILET PAPER! Actually, it was a bit of a joke. I was leaving Boomer's house to drive home a few weeks before and missed one of the three steps down to his driveway and FLEW across the driveway, landing hard on the grass. I did a photo shoot with Dollar Tree's finest to indicate where I landed. The good thing? The leftover pizza I had on a paper plate survived my Dick Van Dyke moment and I had it for lunch. Good wrapping job. Tin foil. 

The other thing I did while I was in Pitt is enjoy some Caribou. Einsteins Bagels restaurants added Caribou coffee about a year before and every chance I get, I stop in to draw and write and enjoy original Caribou. Of course, the other blends of coffee simply are not Caribou even though they say they are. As someone that loved Caribou coffee shops before they pulled back from my area, Caribou NEVER had a HAZELNUT. They did at Einsteins. A manager told me it was their best selling blend 3-1. Hmmm. Same company owns all the coffee now. At least Caribou's main blend still tastes like Caribou coffee. 

Of all the places I frequented before the pansamatic, here's one I haven't been back too. Trader Joes has at least 6 different blends of whole bean coffee and all are good to great. Their Irish Breakfast tea is really tasty as well. Trouble is, the stores are not much bigger than my basement. Well, they are bigger. I didn't want to shop there even if I wear a space suit. Pretty much the only thing I got there was coffee and tea and well, maybe this summer... 

Why post this? I've posted it in previous pictures on this blog. No big whoop. Chicago beer right? Well, I decided that in 2019, I would not go to Chicago after Thanksgiving as has been my tradition for almost 15 years. Why? I just didn't want the hassle when I could get the beer I would drink there and do some other things that I would do normally if I went there. I figured I'd take a year off and go in 2020, and I'd take more time off and really enjoy my trip there. It was just one year right? Not that big of a deal. Damn. 

As you know if you've been a reader of my Junk Blog, I'm a big fan of crap nobody cares about. One of the things I did in Chicago the year before when the weather turned lousy and I stayed an extra day was to go to the neighborhood dollar store and shop for some detergent so I could wash my clothes since I didn't pack an extra day's things. I found these Prima pens that were exactly what I'd been looking for. Clear, gripper pens that fit BIC Crystal pen refills. Well, after some searching I found a generic dollar store in my area and they had the same pens. Well, as I missed Chicago in 2019, I went back to that store and bought more pens and other crap.

Geeze. I can remember when I actually had the time to give a damn about this crap. The ones I bought were different from the once I bought earlier. I made blogs about this stuff in the olden days? Yep. 

Yes! There was beer to "enjoyed". The microbrew chain BJ's opened a brewery near me and I stopped in to taste the wears.  Did I mention I miss sitting at my local microbrew thinkin and drinkin? I don't miss BJ's. Mmmm, Average. However, that's a lie. I would LOVE me some average beer and food. Summer 2021 man, Summer 2021.

More food at a microbrew. This was in January. It was a birthday celebration with my closest family. I only post this because I was starting to eat better at that point? No really. Chicken and cheese rather than a sloppy burger? No, it's a memory that will always stay with me. The last time my family would be all together in celebration of something we did every year. The beer was really good at this place. We had a lot of beer places to choose from. Fall 2021 man. Fall 2021.

Losing track of time is also what the Pansamatic has meant. Here is the WKRP box set I got for Christmas. You know, when this show was on, myself and most of America didn't realize how funny this show was. When it was in reruns, America and myself didn't realize how funny this show was. When I got into radio, I didn't realize how funny this show was. When they finally got the rights for a majority of the music on this set, we didn't know how funny it was. When I got the full set and consumed it all in a binge watch as a document of television in the late 70's early 80's now comparing it to the mid 80's and beyond...well, this was a funny show for the future Maytag man and Burt Reynolds future wife to be on. Why aren't they wearing headphones when they are on the air? They are just that good! --- Wait....so, before this Pansamatic, what we've learned thus far is that all the fond memories I have are about as unexciting as after it started? I think so. Not much has changed other than not going to Pitt or Florida. Let's do a quick mid blog post check.

Big food consumer. Check. Actually, this pizza was a two year tradition that ended for another reason. It was from a shopping chain called Earth Fare that became my mom's favorite place to shop. They had these giant thin crust pizzas which they would sell for cheap on game days. So while my mom and I watched the Browns two awful seasons, we would enjoy great pizza. This was a "meat lovers", and really, they did come with more toppings usually. This one was sparse to say the least. Earth Fare went out of business before the pansamatic took hold. Funny, they had just opened a few years before and spent millions to remodel their store just a few months before. Hmmm, Tokyo Shapiro spent "thousands" to remodel the store I worked at only to close a few months later. Hmmmm.

Drink. Check.   Isn't it cute? A sweater for a beverage. Makers Mark already has a wax cap on it's head, but now it's got an ugly Christmas sweater. Maybe my mom was inspired by master comedian Jimmy Fallon with his 12 days of ugly sweaters thing he does on the "Do you want to play a game  and tell me about your next project" Tonight show. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit. He did get better from the tent...

CVS Talk. Pens. Check. You see, pens used to be an expensive thing. Ball points were still fairly new. You were always griping when someone stole your pen right? They would sell them at convenience stores for 29 cents a pen because someone always needed a pen right? Of course the pen you bought had been used a thousand times before to write bad checks for cigarettes but you didn't care. You had that important contract to sign for the Cleveland Browns didn't you Vinnie Testaverde? (He signed lots of contracts, but 20 years in the EnnEffEll is a career right?)

Senseless DVD viewing of old TV. Right? Yes, I asked for this set. Barney Miller. I fondly remember watching this entire set while I was drinking, eating leftover pizza from Earth Fare while consuming many beers and writing my latest blog entry about pens and how upset I was that they changed the Bazic pens from taking BIC refills to a different style. Barney Miller was a great show, one of the best to take place on the same set. Is that really how they made coffee before the drip coffee maker came out and revolutionized bad coffee? Is that a film of lard smeared on my screen to make the picture not so great on certain episodes? Why Fish...WHY? Hal Linden 10K Run?  Hal Linden up against Kotter in "Battle Of The Network Stars". Kotter cleaned up in rowing. I bet Kotter is no slouch in poker. Never count your money while you're sittin at the table. *skitch* Kenny Rodgers. Thanks. 

GET ON WITH IT!!!

Really? GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS? I Demand to KNOW!

ARRRRRRGGGGGG! *Tears Up Blog*

Thanks Daffy. Now the memory blog gets serious. There were rumblings that some thing was spreading but don't worry, it appeared it wasn't so bad. It had arrived on our shores and people started to die. Don't worry though, it was a seasonal flu. Get your flu vaccine, You'll be fine. Go on about your business. We're America. Nothing can stop us from going to where we want, when we want, and shopping 24 hours at a grocery store or participating mart right? I even liked my previous trip to Florida so much, that I made plans to go to Florida mid March. Got plane reservations and everything. I also spent the weekends I was not in Pitt driving around to favorite locations and having coffee while writing/drawing/using the web to look up pens. (Really Bic, what did you do to your website in early 2020. I couldn't see a damn thing on my cell phone. I just went to your competition.) I went to Hudson, Ohio to "enjoy" Panera's tankards of "new improved" coffee. I'd mix the dark and normal blends and get a good cuppo. Try and tell that to the counter help now. Another place I haven't been since BEFORE PANSAMATIC.

Did I mention that I went to Pitt a lot?  Boomer and I always seemed to do a slightly better show when we were staring at each other, barking to the troops on the Ray-Diddy-Oh. We rarely went to movies, but one of Boomer's favorite movie meccas was a mere bus ride away and he'd seen the Sonic movie for no apparent reason. When I was in town late Feb 2020, there were two movies of "interest" out to see. We went to the "Phoenix" theaters that took over when the 22 theater place had went belly up. IT WAS HUGE, and the new owners had sold off a big corner of the place to the local DMV and remodeling the remaining movie houses to a state of the art theaters. By this time, it was really rumbling about the pansamatic. I was a little at ease that both movies were sparsely attended.  We saw "Call Of The Wild" and enjoyed the CGI dog smiling all the time. We also saw "Dr. Dolittle" just for the unneeded "Iron Man giving a CGI dragon an enema" scene. Both were entertaining movies, but not the best cinema as the last movies we would see before you wouldn't want to see a movie in a theater...with people.. *shudder*

I was actually excited to see a poster promoting Wes Anderson's new joint "The French Dispatch" which was going to be the summer movie that I would attend several times and enjoy thusly like all other Wes Anderson pictures before it. "Isle Of Dogs" was so good, I went to Pitt on a Sunday afternoon on a whim just to go see it with Boomer. Of course, we had the wrong theater but we saw it twice the next week. Like many things different in 2020, the release of this film was pushed back, pushed back then removed from release. Shelved. YOU DO NOT SHELVE THE GREAT BILL MURRAY!! ..oh yeah, I guess you did. May 2021 is now the "planned" release. Ugh. Think happy thoughts.  *I think I will go to a theater to see it in May 2021!* Ahhhhhhh.

Two weeks before. *DUN DUN DUNNNNNN* Leon is getting LARGER! I'm a cheepdog. I was thinking on this as I couldn't fit into my jeans that well and other pairs were calling for a time out, that I'd expand into the next size up RATHER THAN LOSING WEIGHT. You see I liked beer. It's really tough to lose weight when I drink BEER. So, I thought I'd try REALLY HARD to lose weight during 2020 starting NEXT MONTH. (It's always what I said. Next month..next month...after the next trip to Pitt..after my trip to FL where I'll be eating GUTBOMBS and MICROBREWS. Next month.)

Trouble was, I'd have nothing to wear. I was at the point where I should be attending the "XL" stores. Enter Rural King. They have their own brand of jeans available in every size you could think of. Every waist, every height. They got them. Of course, you got a dumb looking sewn on "patch" on the the rear pocket. WHY? Why do you do this Rural King? You have the cheapest prices on everything from chicken coops to peanut butter pretzels. Why should you make your amazing selection of cheap fat ass wear have the RK logo on them? Can you imagine wearing these to school? I got razzed when I was in school for wearing "Rustler" jeans. (Wranglers cheaper brand...) (Oh yeah, RK carries Rustler brand as well...) AHA! Good old EXACTO knife and the patch is removed leaving a darker square on your ass. Believe me, nobody is looking at MY ASS to see what type of jeans I'm wearing.

I went to a new Bigsby coffee store that opened in an old White Castle and shared the building with a Jimmy Johns subs restaurant. I can have a great sub and awesome coffee from 5 pumps and "celebrate" the fact that I just got jeans that would fit me better. I was going to be in Florida the following weekend. Grapefruit beer. Sub Par Onion Ring Burgers. Maybe not as much SWEAT because it's MARCH. Ahhh, but now I was getting really worried that the trip my be upended by this flu that seemed to be spreading. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to fly in a tube with others who are hacking away in their Mickey ears. It was becoming very real to me. Something was different. Have another coffee fat boy.

I was at the dying mall which didn't have much left but a "NOT DICKS" discount  sporting goods store. I bought another pair of cheap oversized jeans and a new "winter" jacket and a replacement for the carry bag that I use for all of my drawing/writing excursions at the coffee houses or restaurants that I attended. It was handy enough to swallow all I needed and be a "MURSE" wherever I was. I'd carry an MP3 player and a comb and aspirin and a bag of extra pens and bandages. Everything. But after three years it was starting to be a little worse for wear so I found it's eventual replacement. They made a few improvements mainly by eliminating the mesh on the sides. It is supposed to be a gym bag after all. Sweat socks could breathe. Um...yah. It's sat on the same chair with the blue one since the pansamatic...wait...just....a..few...more...days....

ANOTHER BEER! LAST WEEKEND BEFORE.... Yes, come that Monday it was looking like the "mystery flu" was very real and very serious. This really couldn't be happening I told myself. I was going to Florida this weekend. I would have a good time and all this talk about being so contagious, well, it was all talk right? I really didn't want to go but my friend was expecting me. I'd get another grapefruit beer at that gas station turned restaurant right?

My friend in Florida had returned from a conference some place, knew I was worried about coming, had been keeping a running total of cases... He started feeling bad that Tuesday and by Wednesday he was in the throws of ... it was still just the flu back then right? Needless to say, I cancelled my trip. With the days off already taken however, another trip to PITT! This was taken at the superbeerstore while I was checking on the Pabst stocks. The trip had been so hastily thrown together that I forgot my camera, so these were the scant photos from my cell phone and Boomer's few pictures.  Boomer doesn't drink beer but he likes dogs. Yep.

There is a scene we'd repeated hundreds of times before. We go to a coffee shop, and sit and draw/write for a few hours.  3/8/20 is the date on the the paper  where I needed to write an intro for our radio show. Boomer had just begun to sketch on his drawing pad. I had the time off because of the cancelled Florida trip, so I was really chill about this Sunday. I could sleep in after we did the show at 3am. We could relax, but even then, we couldn't really relax as there was someone two tables away that was wearing a surgical mask. Looking back, that person had either been in New York recently or had flown back from a place where the cases were starting to mount. It was the last flash of a "normal" thing that I did, and I remember it fondly. No I don't. It was like any other time we'd done it. Oh, I haven't done it since? I send e-mails saying if we got together in the summer of 2020, we'd be sitting outside and deal with wind and smokers. (Yes there was a time in 2020 where it looked like there would be a break from....NOPE.) To this day I think this is one of the things I long to do the most. Oh sure. I don't remember it fondly.

Nancy Deckant. Life Jacket. Released in 2011. A country/folksy Nashville/Pittsburgh production. They had stacks and stacks of these CDs at a local Pitt thrift shop a buck each. It's a little country rock and she's upfront singing. You know, I always had the dream of releasing my "music" on CD. The closest I got was an actual tape my band released in the early 90's to critic acclaim. It was in the local record stores for about 5 minutes. Hell, I know what it's like to sit on 100+ copies of one's album hoping for a Kickstarter to release our music on a VINYL RECORD? Remember when you could play local shows and sell self made professionally recorded CD's at your shows... I never had that. Someone heard you in 2020 Nancy, wherever you are.

Then I returned home. Went to the bar for pitcher night. They had announced the cases that now in my city. Spent time the next weekend watching an ABC commercials commercials *content for 30 seconds* commercials commercials news special. This would be a serious event. Our Governor announced all bars would be closed to selling booze at midnight to get ahead of the crowds for St. Pattys day. I looked at my mom as I left and said "I think it's going to be awhile until we can see each other again..."  And it began....

They started by saying we were to "shelter in place" which was silly because there wasn't a tornado or a bombing but there might as well be. Quickly it became a "stay at home" order. The world went crazy and toilet paper was in short supply. No worries. I'd bought myself a few rolls for the stunt pictures I took while I was in Pitt. "How about 10,000 rolls of toilet paper I happen to be sitting on..." "No, we need a incubator..." (Dialogue went something like   that from Mash.) I usually didn't participate in St. Pattys day, but this one, NOBODY did. Ziggy Zocky 24 Oz Pabst I speak your name.  -JUNK BLOG- -Ric