Mondays aren't too bad for shopping, I guess

MONDAY... I went shopping at the Route 62 Walmart hoping they would have some things Alliance didn't, like the DiRusso patties, and..  I got my answer on that separately.

Meanwhile, I hadn't been in that Walmart for a few months & holy crap they moved around that store, too!! Like what the hell? I say they do this to confuse shoplifters.

Pet food moved to the back instead of off to the right of the pharmacy. Personal care & medical related stuff occupies that now. Toys were moved as well. Then they put some sort of fashion highlight stage in the middle of the clothing section like they're trying to be like the mid to high end stores they competed out of business against... which disrupts the walking flow.

Was hoping to grab another bag of Halloween candy but did not. Did find Con Azafran though!! 1st time finding it! I'm also getting an idea on where Pepitas are stocked & found those, too. They moved Dairy around, cookies, & snack chips like Cheezits were moved. Bread was moved. Cereal aisle completely flipped. Some places remained the same because they kind of have to. Couldn't find any 3 pound turkey breast roasts... Maybe not until November?

Also they're bringing in these new center coffin freezers which have more windows on the sides. But now with sliding doors which some people can't be arsed to close after they're done looking. Saw that happen more than once.

It was a good trip to visit another store for once. I made an effort. And I got 2 more zany Crimmas ornaments! The display wasn't as elaborate as the Alliance Walmart but still found a couple.

I once had an idea, then I got a better one

And in the span of about 2 hours, I have effected a better fix for my bed in regard to ribs which keep falling out. 3/8 inch bolts Grade 8 bought yesterday at Lowe's where I made a sizeable purchase of supplies.

The plan was to buy 12 8 inch long 3/8 inch bolts Grade 8 (decently strong! from info I had searched) & with a metal rated 3/8 inch drill bit, punch holes through the bed frame & slide them through & into the ribs which were 3/8 inch hollow. And that plan pretty much held through! I fixed the 2 most annoying ribs, including the 1st one which I had slapped a ton of Gorilla Tape on & was more or less still in place. But finally I had a better idea. The fix I put in place at the time was born in the middle of the night with the idea of getting the heck back to sleep & maybe for the past year worked well enough.

Lowe's didn't have 12 8 inch bolts but 4 3 inch ones... But I also got 6 8 inch 3/8 inch bolts of a lesser grade. Don't know how strong they are, but hopefully if I need to replace the ones now in use, they'll do until I get the 8 inch bolts.

The idea was to make it impossible for the ribs to fall out when parts of my bed frame somehow twist & bend & allow ribs to fall out of their U shaped catch supports. Punch a hole through, shove in a honking long strong bolt, & be done with it. It's a design oversight. Bad engineering.

IT'S TOO CUSTOM

Spent $128 at the hardware grocery store Lowe's. They refused to cut a sheet of wood for me saying it's "too custom." I got supplies for a few projects. Fixing my bed frame, strengthening my (not) Ikea bookshelf, fixing a storage box lid, and a craft project - making a drawer missing from a desk. My grandfather made the toy box when I was 5 and the lid broke practically in the 1st year of having it. And the missing desk drawer fell apart like over 40 years ago for some reason. During COVID I measured another intact drawer to see what it would need to make one. Now I just need to get the wood cut.

 

Dr. Demento Retired

I discovered Dr. D from records I bought while in Columbus in the mid 80s & then after coming back home found his show on late night radio on Sundays. I would get cassette tapes & record them... followed him from one radio station to another... & then suddenly he was off the air locally & then off the air period. Westwood One & On The Radio Broadcasting syndicated the show but for some reason refused to offer a list of stations carrying Dr. D. Like they didn't want anyone to listen & it was up to the fanbase to report in. Eventually he went online when he really deserved a satellite radio channel. Musical comedy & spoken word comedy along with offbeat unreleased tapes, rare 78s... His record collection is so massive, when he finally moved the floor in the rooms he had it in were discovered to be sagging! Dr. D is a rare one. Whatever happened to the movie someone was making about him?

Accomplished

I accomplished 3 things digitally yesterday:

1. Searching for liner notes on the Terrorvision Rockafire Explosion release, I ran across a listing of the vinyl edition on eBay by none other than Creative Engineering himself, Aaron Fechter! It was $700 & he sold 8 of them before it was Sold Out (which included a 2 hour tour package) - and in the gallery of images with the listing was clear images of the liner notes booklet, covers included! I grabbed them with plans to print a CD sized booklet which should have been included anyway!! I didn't really need character photos or a gatefold poster.

2. Managed to download 2 different PDFs of the October 2025 Previews order catalog... One was 20 mb & the other was much larger. Previous 2 files were almost 250mb.

3. Got Google's AI search assistant to produce a recipe for lentils in the crockpot which is much like the recipe I used months ago when I got all those bags & then somehow lost it! I don't know how it got lost when I made it over & over for like 3 months!!

DIY Laser Pointer

Tired of buying cheaply made laser pointers off eBay which go bad faster than old milk, I decided to buy the parts & improve on them.

1. AAA battery boxes with good electrical connections instead of using metallized paint to conduct current.

2. Separately connected laser diode bought in pack of 10 made for a 3V power source.

3. Only thing reused from last broken pointer was the push button switch.

Now I need a sturdy casing for this. If the diode goes bad, I have 9 more to replace it with. And yes, Poofball has missed his red dot.

I was declared CLEAR.

Had an interesting visit (announced) by Akron Pest Control. Got to me around 11:30. 3 guys show up armed with flashlights. Start looking, asking about if I'd seen any mice. Had me get off the gray chair & soon it dawns on me they're not here to replace bug traps or preventative spray. They're checking for other bugs. Bedbugs. I've been clear of them for at least 3 or 4 years now. I explain to them how that happened & maybe I should have gotten a new mattress when I moved up here.

They check the red chair & it's clean. I never thought to check the gray chair... Guy flips it over & there's signs they got under the one cushion but it's all dead. And my reaction is at first "oh shit" then "oh I didn't think to check there."

MEANWHILE, as 2 guys are distracting me, the 1 guy who went to check the bedroom proceeds to rip nearly all my bed stuff off my mattress without warning or saying he was going to. I WOULD HAVE LIKED A WARNING! Because even if they were doing their job, coming back into my bedroom & seeing a naked bed was alarming & irritating (having to put things back was irritating).

I think same guy checked out my closet... 😀 one guy had to comment about the maid outfit.

But in the end, I was proclaimed Clear of bugs. It helps I found the UV LED bug catcher on Saturday & managed to finally deal with those annoying sink flies. They confirmed with me I knew how to recognize signs of those bugs & oh yes, I certainly knew... 😰

And with the relevation of the chair cushion, I made sure to unscrew & remove it, vacuum what that 1 guy found, spray down with bed bug killer & 91% alcohol, & reglue the bottom paper back on. Chair cleaned. It's a good thing I had done all that other cleaning for stuff, like under 1 bookcase a few months ago.

Maybe now I can ask for reinstating of my laundry room privileges. 

Creamy Shicken & mushrooms with rice (not a recipe)

Today's feast from the crockpot was inspired by last week's Foosebook Memory of Creamy Chicken & Mushrooms with rice. Though with changes & maybe not the same recipe.

I bought mushrooms a couple weeks ago for this & a pack of shicken only to swap it for a pack I already have here since June & starting to look freezer burned. Which was cool since it was 2 breasts at 1.22 pounds.

Anecdotes for this recipe: I had to make my own Cream of Mushroom Condensed soup to hopefully keep the sodium down (although the main overall recipe had something...). And my milk was the mixed up nonfat dry. But it still thickened in the pot!

The other bit was needing a pouch of dry onion soup mix - which in the past I use for Lazy Onion Bread. It was only after opening the Aldi product box which I noticed it's been here so long, tiny bugs tried their best to infiltrate inside the sealed box & THEN when they did tried to eat through the paper for the pouch! This whole operation ultimately failed & signs of devastated civilizations were left in its wake.

Everything mixed up & put in the crock & on high for 4.5 hours. I plan to add 1/2 cup of rice 1 hour before done & check to see if the chicken will shred as the recipe says. Though I used to make this for mom & bake it instead. No shredding.

I regret shopping

Thursday ended up being a day of regrets. Only those regrets came on Friday as my right hip & lower back had a severe pinch where standing up & walking was painful if my front sagged too much. Saturday morning with some acetaminophen & the chance decision to lift my right leg up off the bed (with some help) & sleep last night with hard metal items behind my back contributed to something popping back in place with residual soreness.

My goal Thursday was shopping for stuff. Groceries & other items.

- Blue dye because I splashed bleach on my blue Hawaiian shirt & as it turns out the dye in my shirt is extremely vulnerable to bleach meaning white splotches. There was no blue dye so I opted for a fabric paint pen which the blue is too bright. I need some black or a darker blue dye.

- LED light strip for under the cabinets in the corner. I opted instead for an LED light bar which looks like a Fluorescent light but much smaller.

After getting it fixed in place with easy remove adhesive strips & running it for 1 night, I find it's way too bright. So either I cover part of it up, add a timer to turn it off at midnight, or resume shutting my door at bed time. It even has the capability to daisy chain more LED bars to it.

- My project to reshell my M Network Atari 2600 cartridges progresses with the acquisition of DIY Sticker Decal printer sheets. Some fans online have made their own label designs as if they had been in Atari shells & I like the artwork. Thankfully it's gettable in decently high resolution so it will print well. But I need to get some of the games from my tubs to test if they will reshell or how to make it work.

The only thing I did not find was a Bug Catching UV plug in light as I had seen online. Walmart was supposed to have it & apparently an adhesive catcher refill kit for it. I need it for the sink flies I keep having.

Also did not find pumpkin seeds. Like where are they? Did not buy milk as I have the free packets of dry milk people don't want & I've got 6 gallons worth. I just need to sanitize a jug, add 12 cups of water, refrigerate overnight, & then add 3 4-cup pouches of dry & shake well. The single cup packets I use in making bread!

Also returned to see more free food rejects - picked up a can of tomato sauce (not salt free) & bags of dried lentils & garbanzo beans.

Though when I got back, there was some schmuck in my parking place. I should have waited because he left soon after I was sat on the bench & I was in pain but pissed off I had to move my van but weighed down with leaving my shopping trolley at the mercy of possibly getting stolen. So instead of wasting energy & losing my stuff, I went inside in pain.

Spent Friday in pain. Hopefully today is healing.

Inspection 2025

THE RESULTS:

She dinged me on the tiny gnats. Blamed it on my red cart (which didn't look clean), the cat food bowls (which they're not attracted to), & my trash... which she gave me until she left the floor to get it out of the building... I was not exactly prepared to do so & in hindsight I really should have removed it yesterday or earlier today. But with her fueling my adrenalin, managed for the 1st time in a couple years to take that bag down & around the side to put it in the dumpster.

She's telling me how my fly catching strip wasn't "good enough" & how they could "spread to other units" but later I'm thinking these ain't those bugs & how do we know these didn't come from someone else? You know?

So anywho, I grab the bag, tie it, & get downstairs. Won't fit in the trash thing by the street, so around the side I go... while needing a few sitting rests. Get back in, check my mail & food discards & back up. And I greet her at the elevator. She's likely pleased I got out & did what she asked & I'm worn out & couldn't respond when she says "Good seeing you again." Silence is golden in my case.

She didn't pick over the floors - & she better not as I wiped them over 3 times. She didn't see the cat pan bag I hadn't taken out yet - it was hidden in plain sight & thanks to Tidy Cat, wasn't odiferous. I had the mop I'd been using in the bucket with water & clothes soap in the tub because otherwise it would be stinking it up... It really needs bleached. And something I bought last week was used to hide some stuff where it wouldn't be seen.

No remark about the blind or the moved tubs. But man did she home in on the flies. The red cart got a clear & wipedown. Found mold growing under the cutting board. Bleaching the dickens out of that. It's bamboo.

I missed the empty cat food can & drip of melted cheese on the inside of the oven window & she also missed them. She looked in the fridge, oven, & I think 1 cabinet door. Did not look in any closets (dammit).

I need some red paint for the cart to repair what has now come off it. Probably a little thing of Rustoleum will do.

Had my crock pot going & ran the bread machine. She arrived by 1:14 p.m. & was done with the floor at 1:44. I held off using the toilet because of her. And she has maintained the tradition of not being my favorite person.