Here it is. Almost Spring 2022. It's all over isn't it? Pansamatic done right? Oh sure they haven't called it off yet, but our government says we don't have to wear masks but still wear masks, we can just toss them in the trash right? It seems a squirrel has set up a hammock with a carelessly discarded mask here. Spring hammock swinging. Wouldn't that be nice?

This was YEAR TWO of having a doggy scrubber wearing a mask as the top of my simulated Charlie Brown tree. My tree sheds every year where certain branches need to be faced towards the back, or MORE LIGHTS!   This is an extra mask that I wore once and it adorns the ceramic fox at my front door and for the December month, it's top of tree. Will it make it to year three?

Look at these masks. I build these, sometimes weekly. Wash and then build them.  I never saw another one like mine made with small spring paper clips. I only did that because I don't have a sewing machine nor can I sew. Well, other than the few stitches I've put in on the straps of the light use masks. (The ones where the coffee filter is exposed, can only be for short trips because breath contains spit which is why we're wearing these things in the first place. Ever taste a wet coffee filter? ) Now I can get rid of them, or not. I have squirrels. I have trees. I have squirrel hammocks.

This was my latest mask I added to my mask collection. I bought it from an independent dollar store that was going out of business. They said I'd need another item to get two for one pricing.  Yes, I'm that cheap. So I grabbed this. Yes, I did convert it to my coffee filter system but, um....I just can't go out in public with a tiger muzzle mask. It will make a nice squirrel hammock. I'll build a multi floored hammock system.  It'll be like Skipper and Lil' Buddy had on Gilligan's Garbage Scow. (Working title...)

Cornering the market on coffee filters and mini paper clips and Wally pillow case wrappers and generic black masks and elastic bands from other cheap paper masks since 2020. We're your cheesy mask superstore here at the Junk Blog. Yep. We did this for two years. Please don't let it get to 3 years.

2022. This year we need to go Farther Along. This is one of my favorite Randy California's Spirit albums. This album was the closest they came to a 1970's reunion to 60's Spirit and was way too short, but damn good. I used to be able to name all of the players, but I do know Ed Cassidy. He was the "world's oldest rock drummer" when he finally passed a few years ago. He was stepdad to Randy California and played with some jazz greats. I think one of the other guys was in soft rock group "Firefall" and then the 80's in "Heart". He was a paid player in both bands. I was a huge fan a few years ago and have everything I could get because Randy's Spirit has a ton of posthumous releases. (Randy passed in 1995.) But, when Randys mom passed a few years ago, all of the tapes "disappeared" and nothing was being released. I moved on to other bands and I found the Hugh Tube Aussies and Grateful Dead. Ahh, but the faucet was turned back on! A "expanded" re-release of a few of my favorites came out and well....

8 CDs. "Mercury Era" Box set. Yep. I'm back in. There is quite a bit of material here that I hadn't heard. Yes, more unheard live sets including one recorded on a 4 track cassette machine. It's actually the masters of the albums  on Mercury Records. Randy actually took the masters and re-mastered them using mid 90's studio tech for a planned 2 disc compilation. So, those masters he made were cleaned up and release in full length fashion for this set. The only bad thing is on "Farther Along", a few of the songs were "enhanced" by Randy. It's only a few tracks, but far outweighed by the brighter/cleaner versions. It's Randy on guitar as well. I guess when an artist gets a chance to redo something he felt he didn't do right 20 years before... Okay. I guess I'm boring you now.  I just want to promote an artist that seems forgotten.

Christmas this year was very nice. We didn't have to sit six feet apart or wear masks. Nice to see family again at Thanksgiving as well. I picked the lights up because it seems strings of lights last three years and one or two strings that I put out this year seemed to be on their third year. Of course I bought them when I could because by mid December, you couldn't get these, at least around here. I'm used to a bunch of half priced sales between Christmas and New Years. I also got the barrel of "Moose Munch" in my stocking. If I'd received nothing but Moose Munch this Christmas, I'd be like "Best Christmas Ever!"

Spoke too soon. This would be the Best Christmas Ever. BOOZE as a GIFT wearing a CHRISTMAS SWEATER. Oh, it's wearing a familiar red wax hat. Must be MAKERS!  *Snoopy Dance*  This KY Bourbon was the first bourbon I tasted when I was tasting boozes like Oban and Blue Agave Tequila. There were better beverages than Buschhhhhhhhhhh beer?  It's been my favorite bourbon forever.

Happy New Years. I celebrated with my favorite brand of bottled water because of the animals they put on the bottles and a bottle of Barefoot. Yes, I know. Not the finest bubbly you could buy but at least this time it wasn't as dry as last years. Clean that stove top! I wouldn't walk barefoot on that stove top! Get that bottle of Lyslaw that you had on this blog and clean it up!  Make your stove be pH Balanced.

I asked for a "Burr" coffee grinder for Christmas. I had one grinder go bad after two years. It was a prediction I'd heard. Even if kept clean like mine was, it would go bad after two years. Yep. I needed another, so I bought another cheap one to fit the bill. "Burr" grinders are preferred by "coffee snobs" because they use gears to grind the coffee not a fast moving chopping blade. I just asked for one that was "cheap". What I got was this huge appliance. I haven't yet started grinding with it because of the counter space it will need for my daily grind of coffee. Yeah, I'll just set up a folding table and deal with it for two years. They all fail within two years.

After all, I have a ton of coffee to be ground. I loves me some Dunkin coffee. Got these for Christmas when the normal place I've been getting the coffee from stopped placing "Three pounds for 19.99"  coupons in the mail. Plus, this is about the only brand sold as whole bean at major stores and marts. Man, I miss the old Caribou coffee stores. I did try a bag of Caribou at home and well, I miss Caribou coffee stores.

Thank goodness one of the things I did of summer last year when we thought we were coming out of the pansamatic was returning to Trader Joes. They have 5-7 blends of coffee beans and I can shop there again without being paranoid that I'd be shopping on top of everyone else. I always got a sample of hot "Joe" coffee from their sample kitchen. They haven't re-opened their sample kitchen at least at my nearby Joes. So, no no "Joe" brewed in  store.  One good thing is, their "Joe" blend is as good in the store as when I make it at home. They Burr grind right? Nah, they have ground right? It's amazing that it tastes as good at home. I wish Caribou's coffees would be like that...

GAHHHHHHH! This was "gifted" to me by my mother. It was clearance priced at ALDI for $1.65. I thanked mom. After all, I love me some pumpkin pie. I love me some coffee. Two great tastes that taste great together. Right? RIGHT? My trouble with any flavor in a coffee is that when you need to flavor the coffee or put in those horrible artificial favor creamers, you end up with a coffee flavored mess. Thank you Adam Carolla. Real cream is all he uses in his coffee or even a pat of butter? Yep. No other flavors. He hates the artificial flavors of creamer that are mostly water and hydrogenated oils. When I made  a pot of this coffee, it was stunningly artificial. You could taste the coffee, but the artificial almost marshmallow sweetness just made it a drain pour. I started using 4 scoops Dunkin and three scoops this. It was better, enough to almost use up the bag but in the end... 86!

SO WHAT THE HELL IS THIS S**T???

Faithful readers of this blog know a few things about your obsolete junk blogger. One: I keep a lot of stuff for inane reasons. (Willy Wonka Fireball wrapper because it went all the way around a luggage transporter at my local airport.) Two: I'm obsessed with writing supplies. (Pen shootout and Burrows.) Three: I like music. (Repeat.) Four: I Like beverages. (Repeat.)  Five: I'm a cheap bastard. HA! Stop right there. This was clearance priced for 50 cents at my local "temporarily out of everything" store. I haven't "enjoyed" it yet, but for 50 cents... When I was younger, while visiting my local Big Lots, I purchased three cases of different "flavored" Pepsi beverages and I think paid $3 for the lot. Who knew that drinking "Strawberry" Pepsi or "Tropical" Pepsi would be something I'd enjoy about two cans each of and then... No recycling back when. "86" Yes, I will enjoy this beverage. 50 cents and I didn't have to buy a mask with a tiger muzzle printed on it.

Awww. Palmer put out a nice chocolate dog for Valentines day. I bought one because it's a dog and it's chocolate and it's ....wait for it... HALF PRICED CLEARANCE? Yep. I wouldn't eat this because it's not chocolate at all. If you could put a wick in this, it would be the worst smelling candle, but would likely go for a really long time. Love/Hate with Palmer chocolates. Love all the stuff they do for holidays, hate the waxy texture/flavor of their chocolate. Hell, kids don't care. Well maybe they do. "Hello Uber Eats? Deliver yummies to my phone post haste! Put it all on the Underhills." 

Now, you know I love pizza. I'll eat anything from the cheapest party pizza to the super deluxe deep dish Wicks pizza from Louisville, KY. (Then I'll place it in my hollowed out Palmer bunny and light it. Actually, ever fill a broken Palmer bunny with a shot of bourbon and drink from it like a shot glass? No. Good. Bad for you. *whistles innocently*.) This was a pizza from a small local restaurant that appears to have some great reviews so when the usual pizza joint with McPizza was filled to capacity on a Saturday, I suggested we try this place. Look at that crust. Lots and lots of overdone dough. Look at those thin burnt strings that were onions.  Oh there is cheese and meat and other veggies, but don't let that fool you. It's a dough monster. Sops up the heavy amounts of grease. It has to do something. But, the sauce? They said their house sauce was "sweet". No big deal. Well if there is such a thing as tomato flavored sweet tarts, this is it. Bleah. Several errors made on the Adam Carolla pizza faux-pas scale. I  love cold pizza but WTF is this? "86"

It was late on New Years eve and I needed some popcorn shrimp that I would make during the radio show that I do on New Years every year. Supply chain issues and all that stupid stuff or everybody had the same idea so I had to settle for this. Popcorn Chicken. Look at the box. I eat Banquet's chicken strips dinner for my lunches, so these gotta be just like those right? Gee a few entries ago, I featured the box of bones that is Banquet Fried Chicken. Fond memories of a good product were dashed by how bad it was. I ventured a guess that they scrape those chicken pieces a bit to put in their other chicken products. So I thought these would be okay...

I see. They used the dough from the pizza I 86'ed to make these little pieces of loosely "chicken" flavored dough. Eating these was like eating the eraser from a #2 pencil if it is fried to mush. Hell, what did I expect. I got exactly what I paid for. It's why you have dipping sauce. So you can't taste what you're dipping. At least you can taste popcorn shrimp because they actually contain a shrimp!

See my ugly dishes? I have a set of Corelle seemingly indestructible dishes. They  last forever and long survived most of the dishes I bought from a participating Dollar General when I finally went to "Big Boy" phase and moved out on my own. I've dropped these dishes on the floor or into the dish rack several times and they come back for more. Ahh, but they are glass. When I had a fork in my sink and one of my Corelle dishes was set in such a way..  I accidentally dropped my 30oz coffee tumbler, the fork acted as a fulcrum and well... I had shattered glass plate in my sink to clean up. I went along with a set of three dinner plates but quickly ran out of plates so out to uncle Wally's place where I found that I can buy Corelle  by the dish rather than an entire 4 person setting with tiny mugs that just aren't the way we 'Mericans drink our coffee. 30 OZ Aluminum Tumblers! It's 'Merican. Made in China. I got these "industrial" "restaurant style" plates and also bought one with a actual pattern on it bringing my available dinner plate total to six. I can entertain again! Bring your own tumbler.

Speaking of cheap. Can you believe this failure? I mean you can expect coffee grinders to last two years but they are mechanical and have moving parts. Why would a $1 plastic bucket that I've used as recycling bin for the last twenty years just crack like this? I mean what kind of cheap ... Oh... Me? Yep. Put some Gorilla tape over the hole and keep it for another twenty years. By the way, yes, it is marked "VOMIT". It is a bucket I purchased in case I have Mr. Creosote over and force him to have a wafer thin mint. *Skitch* *Monty Python* Thanks*

One thing I can say about being cheap, I'll try cheap adult beverages once to see if they are worth anything. I bought a 6 Pack of beer once on the way to my brother's cabin. I remember if it was really really ice chest cold, it was just "drinkable". "86". When I saw this at ALDIS I didn't hold much hope. Generic "Hazy IPA" which is a description of a type of beer  with a hazy, dank , wet hop sort of... I have no idea what makes it a "Hazy IPA" Point? It was 8.99, which is about 2-4 bucks less than similar beverages. I had recently found that Cleveland's own Great Lakes brewery makes a hazy IPA that rang every taste bell in my head. It became my favorite beer they brew. This? It was good. Especially for the price. Maybe an "intro to the style" beer, this would be a good choice.

Ahh, but if you want to keep your head above water and don't mind swilling something "beer like" that is cold and will get you shnockered if you drink enough of them, this is the beverage for you. A twelve pack of pounders! Great size beverage for all your beverage needs. Truth? When I don't feel like shlepping to my local for a few of these, I call it a home/bar evening. I would have consumed them at the bar anyway, but I pocket the mark up of having college basketball on 17 TVS and a juke box that plays music I'd rather not hear and  peeps that constantly walk to the "tear em off" card machines for another $20 worth of hoping they will win $50 after spending $120. 

Finally, I have new junk. Planned obsolescence junk. When I had my first cell phone "gifted" to be, it was back before smart phones. It was prepaid. I paid $20 every three months. If I used it more, I'd have to top it up to keep it running but in the end, I had $120 credit in my account. When my friends were all showing me their flashy fruit phones or robot phones, I'd hold mine up and say "mine plays Tetris." A friend of mine convinced me to upgrade to a smart phone primarily so I could text peeps. I went to Wally and found one for $50 on the same carrier I had and took the plunge. Of course the money I had saved up I thought I had to use because it would not carry over to my new phone. Why then do I still have 20 cents on my new account? So, yes, I stayed with "Virgin Mobile" and I loved my new phone even though it wasn't that fast and took less than stellar pics. I got a nice rubber case for it and was ready to keep it for another 10 years of service. Then Virgin announced the were ending cell service. I was being transferred to "Boost". No problem. Everything stayed the same. La La La. Year 4 of smart phone ownership...until....  "Upgrade before your phone self destructs. This is a recording." 3G service was being shut down. Wait, I had a 4G phone. Wait. Boost was sold to Dish? Wait. Boost was moving to a different carrier making most of their phones obsolete or in need of a new sim card? Mine was one of the ones that was obsolete because my sim was Virgin/Boost Buyout. So? Hello Moto. I got a phone for free because I was willing to stay with Boost. Who know how long it will be before they are sold or they shut down and I'll need to upgrade again. Oh, did I mention that I have TWO of the Virgin Mobile LG Tribute phones? I bought the second one to be strictly a MP3 player and it does a hell of a job but it can also WiFi and take crappy photos. I think the max MP3 player sold up until two years ago was 4 Gig. Now, I got another for MP3 player . One for each ear. Yeah.

Compare. There is no compare right? One looks like an actual Motorola radio where one looks like it's a "spaaaaaaace phooone"  Bigger screen, more room to break I guess. I did buy a case for it but I need the rubberized case for all that extra bouncy goodness. It saved my other one from a fall or two. Did I mention that my previous phone cost $50 and my new one was free? I'm worried about what?

Still, the other case had a stand that broke and was fixed by Gorilla tape. It also had a nice plastic frame around it. It truly made my phone semi un-destructable. Hey, the new one barely fits in the camera case I carry it in. Why have additional...wait.. Yes, I carry this in a camera case. I don't keep my phone on 24/7 so I can keep up with the social meat-eye-uh. I don't purchase things with it. I barely use it. But damn it, I need a rubberized/protected case!

..because... I hang on to things for so long... We established how I think my new cell phone is going to be phased out in less than 4 years so I'll be left with another WiFi brick. Did I mention that LG has stopped making phones? Microsoft made their phones for a few years with their own operating system but didn't penetrate the market and stopped. However, MS's CAMERAS in the phones take some awesome photos so my friend still uses his as a camera! My LG's are bricks. I guess they did have better LGs but they also gave up on cell phones. Did I mention they work great as MP3 players? The Motorola phone however, took this picture of of the camera I have been using for a few years to produce this blog. I find something that works great and I keep using it until it just doesn't work. Then I keep it hoping one day I can fix it. It's why we're a junk blog. This is a Canon Power Shot A1100. It's the camera I found while I was buying cameras from thrift stores looking for one that took great photos in every condition. This was it. Note the fine battery door/masking tape securing system. Note the missing lens cover with the fake Sharpie marker colored tape around the exposed plastic. It says "PRO".

I took these with my New Moto cell phone. It means that well, I can retire the point and shoot camera. NO! I must keep on using it! I need yet another cable to attach it to my computer! (Did I mention that my new phone uses USB C? Yes, another cable to buy backups for.) At least now I have something that I can carry everywhere and can take pics as good as this Canon. The LG's would take pics as long as I didn't move and there was sunshine on a cloudy day.  I can't make a movie with my Moto, but the point and shoot goodness of it keeps me from having another brick in the electronics wall. Did you see that GE stereo clock radio a few pictures back? Behind it a Sony "Silver" boombox with a dodgy CD player and non working tape player? Behind that a Hitachi tape dubbing boombox with missing tape door? Junk blog. -Ric