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Two Goats and a Donkey!
March 25, 2024 Happy Monday to one and all! What a strange weekend it's been! Steve took his mom to see an old friend Saturday, so he and Ian didn't come down. Ian hung out with his brother Saturday, and I? Well, I intended just to stay around the house and rest, but adventure called, so before too long, I was on the road down to Marketplace Antiques and the 49 Flea Market across from Paul B. Johnson State Park. It was weird going into Marketplace. I used to work there back in the day (2012-2016), and Gary, the owner, was always a force to be reckoned with. However, when I went, he was barely getting around at all. I felt bad for him, and I wondered why his wife, nor anyone else, wasn't working. There were quite a few customers and that's a huge place for him to run by himself, even if he were his old self. I asked him about Hot Wheels, and he said he had over 10,000 Treasure Hunts, but he was trying to help someone else and said he'd show me after that. I told him I would just look for them myself, and I found at most a couple dozen diecasts, but not a single Treasure Hunt. I found a couple diecasts that I liked (one Hot Wheels and one Johnny Lightning) and I took them to the counter. He was huddled up like he was freezing and it took a couple of minutes for him to get up and come to the counter to see what I had. The cars had no prices, but he gave me a good deal (for him) on them, and he didn't even charge me tax even though I used my debit card. Very strange!Leaving there is actually when I decided I'd go to the flea market, about 12 miles south of there. So I bebopped down the highway, and when I got there, I just went straight to looking at Hot Wheels. And man oh man, I should have stayed home! One booth had dozens of them hanging from hooks. I looked through them, and all were older ones (although I didn't see any Treasure Hunts or Super Treasure Hunts), and I found several I wanted. I ended up spending all I could afford at this one booth, so I didn't even bother looking anywhere else after this. I did get the booth owner to give me a better deal on the ones I got, so there was that at least. After that, I went home. I'd tried cranking my lawnmower a couple of weeks ago, and it wouldn't even turn over, so when I checked the battery, I saw there was a lot of corrosion. I ended up using the Mr. Pibb that Ian left last weekend, since it was half a bottle and would be flat before he came down again next weekend, to remove the corrosion. I decided instead of trying to charge this battery that I would just get a new one. However, the bolt on the negative terminal refused to budge with the pliars I was using, so I was unable to get it off and realized I probably needed a socket wrench. Well, I didn't have any (I thought I did, but they may have gone out in the Purge lol), so I ran up to Tractor Supply and found a nice set, reasonably priced, and checked out through Brandon's register. Brandon is a really hot younger guy (early 20's) that works there that Steve and I have always thought was hot. So I chatted him up a bit, ignoring the people in line behind me, and then left. I attempted to remove the bolt with the wrenches, but nothing was working and I noticed the bolt head was flaking away from the rust and corrosion and rounding itself out. I tried everything, even a hacksaw, until I finally gave up and decided to remove the cable attached to the terminal from the other end and just purchase a new one. Once that was done, I removed the battery and headed back to Tractor Supply, where Noah, a little older than Brandon, more buff, and even better looking, helped me. Once I had the battery, cable, and bolts in hand, I checked out (unfortunately Brandon wasn't checking out at that point), went home, installed everything, and finally began to mow! At one point, I accidentally ran over a plastic flowerbed border, which tangled up in the blades and caused the mower to stop. I got that out, but then I noticed that the gas pedal wouldn't depress very far, so the mower was moving like Gary from Marketplace. At that time, Steve called me, so I turned off the mower and talked with him. We discussed the problem I was having, and he suggested a couple of things that ended up working (yay Steve!), and after our conversation, I finished mowing. I still need to weedeat, but the yard looks much better than it did! Also yesterday, I worked on cataloguing my diecast cars collection. It's taking a while! I managed to catalogue all the Johnny Lightnings, Maistos, and Metal Machines cars, as well as all the Matchbox cars - or so I thought! LOL Just when I thought I was done, I found 8 more loose cars that I had overlooked that weren't catalogued, so I got those in, and I was done! Right? Wrong! I found one more to add, but after adding that one, I believe I am done cataloguing those now. The number of cars I catalogued are: 5 Johnny Lightning, 3 Metal Machines, and 12 Maisto cars. I had more Matchbox cars that I thought, for a total of 112! So adding all those up, I catalogued 132 cars yesterday, as well as mowed the lawn, and washed several loads of clothes. It's definitely been a busy weekend! In the images below, the first 10 are ones that I created a long, long time ago using a program called TerraGen, which would generate a world and then I would be able to catch a small view of the world, tweak it to look how I wanted, and then capture the image. I'm sure if TerraGen is still around, it would create far more fantastic and seamless images than these, but I'm very proud of these images. It took a lot of effort to get these looking just right, and I enjoyed every second of doing it. There are only 10 because a) it did take a lot of effort for each one, and b) I think I lost several in a harddrive crash, with many other pictures. These were easily 15-20 years ago, so my memory of what may have become of them is shaky at best! The next picture is one I totally love, a replica of a Volkswagen Bug turned into an aquarium! This would look fantastic! Then is a political meme concerning billionaires and their need of other peoples' money. Next is an image of Donna and Kerri, who are cohosts of A Paranoral Chicks Podcast. They did a live on Facebook one night last week, and I couldn't watch because I was working, but I saw the "unlive" version of it later on. Kerri was having issues with her video, so most of the time she looked like she had no face, but I screenshot this image when her video briefly cleared up. They are so great! Check 'em out sometime, you'll be glad you did! Next is a house that I would totally love to have. It's AI-generated, but I still think it's feasible and could be done! Don't know how or if I'll ever be able to build it, but I would totally love to! Next is a SnapChat filter putting me in the Wild West lol. I don't know about all that hair, but I'd be a great cowboy, I'm sure! lol The next two images are from my sister in Upstate New York Saturday. It was 17 degrees with snow everywhere! I just couldn't even imagine! And then 2 pictures from the flea market, one of me with Drax the Destroyer, and another of old Chinese restaurant glasses in their original caddy! Steve used to purchase those for a friend of his, but I think she grew tired of collecting them because he hasn't gotten her any in many years now! The next 4 images are my Marketplace and flea market finds, with the fourth one being my one and only Dollar General purchase. The next 2 are a Johnny Lightning truck that I really really like lol. And then the Dungeons and Dragons calendar sheet for the weekend. Next is Steve with his garden, then me in my kitchen, and 2 pics of Maggie May, followed by 2 images of my clematis, the corrosion on the battery terminal, and then a view of my Japanese magnolia that rudely skipped flowering and just started leafing out! Next are the men of George's Boudoir (ha, I wish!). The first 2 are of Michael Yerger, then a black and white of Eric Turner and his husband, Cayman Cardman, and then one of Phil Belanger. The next 10 are of Caylan Hughes, who as many of you know, is one of my biggest crushes lol. Then one of Levi Conley, followed by 11 images of various random hot guys. Next are 3 images of my true love, Pietro Boselli, a math teacher/physics professor/model that I've followed for many years, then 7 images of Gavin Smith, a new guy that I've been following for a few months. Then the rest are just random hot guys again! And that catches us up on the weekend! Hope everyone had a great one, and that your week is starting out strong and fantastic! Until next time, my peeps, have a great day! Love you all! George |
