Road trip (sort of)

After being away for almost two months, I'm finding that getting back into trying to blog on a semi-regular basis isn't quite like that old tried and true "riding a bike" analogy.

Words aren't exactly flowing well, and ideas seem to be non-existent, I guess that's what I get for staying gone so long, well, that and being of the mindset that I didn't really want to come back for so long. But alas, I will trudge on in the hopes that these things will return with time.

As a quick aside, I tried out that NEW Blogger that everyone's been talking about, and yeah, it's just as bad, if not worse, than everyone's been saying. I couldn't figure out how to do anything, literally, I mean I couldn't even find whatever you're supposed to click on to start a new post! It should come as no surprise that I've switched back to the old Blogger for the time being. I even took a moment to let Google know what I thought of this NEW Blogger, and am hoping that everyone else has done so as well. Maybe if they get enough complaints they'll let us keep our old Blogger?

Anyhoo, since card posts don't seem to be working for me today (Sunday), I'm gonna go rogue and show off the goods from my trip to McKay's (aka the entertainment capitol of Knoxville) earlier this month.

Before this particular trip, it had been over six months since I had gone to McKay's, which was quite a while considering I normally try to make it there about every four to six weeks. Not surprisingly, it's because of the Rona that I've stayed away. Although it's not any sort of fear of catching it that's kept me away, that's of absolutely no concern to me, I was actually more concerned that I'd make the hour plus drive only to find that half the store was depleted, or something similar along those lines, especially after them having to be closed for two months during the lockdown. From what I've seen online, people buying anything and everything, I just kind of assumed that when they reopened, folks would come through like a plague of locusts and clear the shelves faster than the store could replenish them.

Thankfully my fear seems to have been unjustified, as there were no shortage of goods when I went, although there wasn't a lot for me this particular time, but I did make up for that by making a few more stops on the way home, the items of which can be found a little lower in the post.

It's not very often that I come across an old horror movie that I've never even heard of, and yet I was able to so just a few minute into my searching through the $1.95 and under DVD/Blu-Ray section. Generally speaking, I'm not usually a fan of the Dr. Moreau theme, but this one turned out to be surprisingly good, although in less your the sort who enjoys old horror movies, I probably still wouldn't recommend it, of course I'd say the same for just about any old horror movie, or even just b/w movies in general, modern mindsets seem to be preventing a lot of people from enjoying such films.

"Samurai" is one of those words that'll always get me to stop and pay more attention to whatever it's attached to, case in point, Samurai Resurrection, which I hadn't been familiar with, but stopped for a closer inspection when I saw "samurai" in the title. I still haven't watched it yet, so I can't yay or nay it, but at $1 it would have to be pretty bad for me not to like it, just give me a little bit of sword play and I'm good.

I thought after I found these first two so quickly that I was going to hit the motherlode, but it didn't end up playing out like that, as these were the only two that I found amongst the thousands(?) from the cheap bins. I did see a guy though that must've had well over 100 Blu-Rays in his cart, so at least somebody was doing well in the bargain section that day.

I had the choice of getting this in paperback for $2, or hardback for $3, and while I normally prefer hardbacks, I like saving money more, so I opted for the paperback. I've sort of been looking for a cheap copy of this book for a few years now, and it was nice to finally find one. This is the third book of Simon Winchester's that I've read (technically speaking, I'm only halfway through it as of this writing), so I kind of knew what to expect from him, lots of research, history galore, and plenty of obscure facts; that being said, this one seems to be much denser than his other works that I've read, but is still really good, it just makes for a bit of a slower read.

Keep those pithy comments to yourself, please.

I read this book as a kid, but never owned it. It was fun to read it again after all of these years, and was glad to see that it's held up really well, well enough in fact that I'll now have to keep an eye out for the two sequels.

Few things remind me of childhood more than books of this subject matter from either Time-Life or Reader's Digest. I had, and still have, plenty of them, and will almost always grab any cheap ones that are new to me, like this one. Unfortunately this one wasn't very good, but it was only fifty cents, so not the end of the world.

Five items isn't very much to come away with after two and half hours of total driving, but it happens. I got out of there relatively early for once, but wasn't in the mood to go anywhere else, so I just decided to come home. The drive back went really quick (mostly due to some stretches where the flow of traffic was over 95 mph), so about thirty miles from home I decided to make a pit stop, or three...

First up was the Hilltoppers thrift store, which I hadn't been to in quite some time, I'm not absolutely sure, but it feels like I hadn't been there since Christmas. They've reduced their price on videos since I was there, but didn't have anything for me, still worth the look though. I did walk away with this nifty puzzle for a buck though, which made the stop worth it.

The second stop was just a few miles away, that being the Book Cellar, where I picked up this book, which I had very high hopes for, hopes that were dashed about two stories in. This book is sh*t, don't ever buy it, there's maybe 1 1/2 good stories in here, and I'm being generous on that half. Everyone seemed to be trying too hard to be edgy with their stories, and in my mind they come across as disingenuous at best, and pathetic at worst.

And lastly, I found this big ol' puzzle (sorry about the glare) at the Thread of Hope thrift store, which is just a couple of hundred feet from the bookstore. This is the third big puzzle (more than 1,000 pieces) that I've found there this year, which is cool, because I can never have too many. Paid a dollar for this one too by the way, but would've paid a couple more if had been necessary.

Looks like we've reached the end of the line, but there's no need to fret, as I'm planning on heading back to McKay's later this week (I thinned out the hoard some, and will be taking a bunch of stuff to trade in), and will hopefully come away with enough for another post some time in the next couple of weeks.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.