What the Junk?!

My friend and I did a quick thrift today to Reidsville since we didn't go on Tuesday. I found a small round crystal ball in Salvation Army for .50¢. I think it probably was stuck in something at one point. At Goodwill, I found three items. One was a passport holder and luggage tag gift set, one was a nice ceramic trinket box from Japan, it's coated in 24k gold. The last item was a little zip bag that was an 'apology' gift for people flying Delta for a flight delay. It hadn't been opened or used. It was a cool amenity bag! It has lots of small travel-size items! A razor, a deodorant, a toothbrush with a tiny tube of toothpaste, a small tube of shaving creme, a comb/brush (folding), some lip balm, and some cotton swabs. It's pretty neat.  It reminds me of the amenities that they gave in Japan at some hotels/trains/buses. I watch a lot of travel in Japan videos. I always love to see the amenities they get. It's neat.  So, it was a pretty good small thrift! :)

Yes, I figured I would post now so I don't forget later. I plan to get out the shortwave radio in a bit and listen at an earlier time to see what new things I can discover. I've already done my daily writing. That was pretty good, I got a little over 2000 words. I also got an idea for another story that I had thought about doing years ago. I actually did write a bit of it back then, but I think it can be re-started and done well. I'll think about it. My current story is going well, but this one popped into my head after seeing a story that reminded me of it. I am not sure. I'll have to go over it. I already know I want to change a few things that I remember from the original idea, but it's going to be the same story, only better. We'll see how that goes. For now, I'm doing okay with my current story. :)

So, my friend texted me today and asked if I wanted to go to South Boston instead of our usual Reidsville trip. I was up for a change so I said yes. We drove up and went to the Goodwill there. He also went to a few pawn shops and then we went to a local Italian place that we both like. I got a small pepperoni pizza and he got spaghetti and we both enjoyed it. My pizza was the best I've had in a while, too! So tasty. That was a nice change. At Goodwill, I found a Myrtle Beach coffee mug with a picture of the beach on it, it's pretty cool. I also found a jack o lantern ceramic tealight holder and a Silhouette Mint for $3! Score! I just need to get ink and the 'papers' for it to make the stamps, but I was able to find those online. Nice find. I was able to get the software online for it easily and it works on my current version of Mac OS so I'm happy. I was able to get a few cute free designs from them and I'll research more later. I have to get the stuff to work with first. I'll do that soon. It was a small thrift, but I a pretty good one. Plus, the food was great! I am getting out the Shortwave radio after this and scanning for a bit. I meant to do it earlier but I'm just now getting caught up on everything else. I made myself a good logging sheet that I can use when I'm listening to keep track of what I'm listening to. I will then save these and I can bind them in a booklet later on. 

So, the current story I'm working on needed some info today. I looked up a few things on Google back in June and couldn't remember/find them again. So, I went into my Google history and was about to go back to those days and search the things I had gone to and found what I needed. Yay! That is always good.  I needed the information for what I'm writing tomorrow. I'm glad to find it. Now I can write easily tomorrow with the information I located. :)

I wrote a good amount today, I hope to write just as much tomorrow. I listened to the Shortwave again last night and tonight. I got my first e-QSL! Very cool! Instant gratification. lol. I was listening to a broadcast last night and checked out their station and found that you could submit listener reception via email so I did and got the e-QSL pretty quickly. I still might send then the information via snail mail. I'd love a physical QSL to add to my collection. :)

I wanted to get my post in early as I'm about to get out the Shortwave and scan the bands. Woo boy were they alive when I listened last night. It was great!  I have all my Sunday chores done ahead of time, so I'm going to enjoy some nice relaxing time.  It's clouding up and I think it's about to rain. A nice storm would be a fun way to relax. Plus, my shortwave runs on batteries, so if there is a power outage, I'm still good. :P Thank goodness it has cooled down some here.  It will get hot in here if there isn't power, but it won't be as bad as it could have been just a week ago. I'm ready to relax and listen. :)

I got a lot accomplished today. I'm so tired and I have one more thing on my to-do list. That might just get put off until tomorrow! I got the front lawn mown, the dishes washed, and the laundry washed. It's in the dryer waiting for me to put it away. I planned to do that and then got distracted doing some organizing and cleaning in my room. I got so hot running around that I decided to sit and cool off a bit and then see if I wanted to go back and put away the laundry. It would save me time tomorrow! 

I had to run out on an errand to pick up a few things. That led to me going to pick up a handful of groceries. Not many, though. I also went to the car wash and gave Goontz a bath while I was out. I decided to stop by one of my favorite Mexican restaurants and get a to-go order. That was dinner.  After that, I got to running around cleaning and doing things so now, I just want to rest. I probably am going to go back and put away the laundry to save myself that tomorrow.  I also want to listen to the Shortwave. That, as always is fun. I meant to be doing that long before now, but I've been so busy. I am sure there are different broadcasts on the weekends. :)

My friend and I went on our usual Friday thrift trip. I bought more than I should have as I had an unexpected, but urgent, bill pops up.  We went our usual route. I found a small, cute black Fossil bag in Salvation Army along with a pouch, and a Vermiso machine like the one I found and left at the Goodwill in Walkertown last week. This one was only $7.99. The fun part begins now trying to find pods to fit it. Starbucks doesn't make them anymore, but there are a couple of other brands that make them. All expensive, of course. Ugh. Oh well.  

At Goodwill, I only found a cute notebook in a zip-around 'case', I am pretty sure I can swap any A5 notebook. I'll check tomorrow. At Walkertown, I got a few cables (They have this bin of all kinds of assorted cables. I got one that fits my little Shortwave radio, but like the one I bought on Amazon, it makes static, too. :( At least it was only a dollar! I also found a nice USB C cable.  I got a little notebook in there, it's a daily wellness journal, and I got a vintage Password game.  At Mayodan, I found a cool Starbucks tumbler with München on it! Neat!  It's a vintage city tumbler. I've never seen one from out of the country, so that was a nice find. I think that is all? Oh, I got some wet wipes in one Goodwill and some sanitizing wipes in Salvation Army, and a cute novelty pen. I think that was everything. Now, I'm going to try to wind down and relax a bit while listening to the Shortwave. I really wish I could find a power cord that doesn't make static. 

Oh, almost forgot, I passed up a Starbucks mug in the Reidsville Goodwill. I am pretty sure I have the exact one or a similar one, so I passed it up. It was $2.99. If it had been .99¢, I would have just gotten it.

So, tonight I was browsing through the Shortwave bands and found a 'new' station coming in very well. It was Radio Romania International and they were airing a music program with various songs. They were transmitting in French, too! I actually caught a few words that I understood, so that was even cooler. I'm hoping to transmit my info and get a QSL from them. That would be so neat. I haven't gotten a QSL in years. 

I pulled out the little radio a bit earlier today and scanned it a few times. I found a station in Spain transmitting in English. They did a listener letter segment and then there was some music. That was cool. A little later, I found a program from Radio China Internation in English and it was news and then a round table discussion. They were talking about water parks. Very interesting. I enjoyed listening. I'm going to check around 10 tonight to see if I can pick up the Japanese station I've gotten the last two nights on one frequency. I'm hoping that they'll do a broadcast in English. I don't understand much Japanese, but I like the sound of it. I only know some words from watching subtitled anime! :p

I didn't do a lot today. I wrote, and I watched YouTube, and that was about it. I'm still not sleeping well and it's really catching up to me. Ugh!

My friend and I went on our usual Tuesday thrift trip. We added Eden NC to the mix since we planned to eat there. I'm glad we did because I found three, yes three Fossil handbags in there. :D I also found a Sony Walman that has TV/Weather/Radio. Neat. It was a whole ninety cents. Score! It works too! The only thing missing is the little clip but I'm not too concerned about that.  I haven't really played with it a lot, but I did confirm that it works. I've only tried out the FM band. I found a manual pdf online so I am going to play with it more in a bit. Here is that little guy:

In Reidsville, I found a few cute things. At Salvation Army, my favorite was a Pac-man glass from the '80s! SCORE! It's heavy glass and it's in great shape!

Cool, yes? At Goodwill there, I found two Starbucks items. A plastic tumbler and a mug. Here they are:

All in all a good thrifting trip. :). There were other things. A scanner thing that I need to research and learn more about. (I will update if I remember), a cute leather coin purse shaped like a dog from Hawaii, and a box with a Hemmingway quote. All in all, fun finds. The box with the quote has pens and pencils on top. It's heavy, not sure what it's made of. 

Yes, regular mundane Monday, nothing exciting to post. I wrote a good deal. I was on a great roll and was in that groove when a friend called. Ugh! It was a while before I was about to get back to it and write more. I left it at a place where I could have gone on, but I wanted to leave it as a few good scenes were coming and that will be tomorrow's writing.  After I post this, I'm going to pull out the Shortwave and see what I can find. I created a little section in one of my digital notebooks to take notes while listening. :)

I ordered a retractable antenna for my radio. I have one from years ago, but I could not find it anywhere! It was supposed to be in a box with all my Shortwave literature from years ago. Everything else was in there except that! The antenna came today and I have been trying it out. I don't think it makes a huge improvement, but it does help. Of course, the ceiling in my room is low. I would like to try it elsewhere. 

I did all my usual Sunday chores and wrote a bit between all this.  This evening, I was scanning the bands and was delighted to find some classical music. I stopped and listened. The announcer came on and he was British. I listened until the broadcast stopped. It was an hour of Classical music from a station in the UK! It seems that this program, Encore, is aired over a Miami station here in the states. Very cool. I'm glad I caught it! I have found several stations in Spanish, and I'm really hoping to run across a French one.  Also, a station from anywhere in the world with an English speaker would be cool, too. The Spanish stations are fun, but I have no idea what anyone is saying. I have pulled in several clear English language broadcasts but they are religious. D'oh! I'll keep the search going. That is the fun of SWL (Shortwave listening)

I didn't write as much as I planned today, but I got 1300 words and I set it up for tomorrow's writing so that is great. The rest of this evening, I'm going to try to relax. I'm still not sleeping well. I hope to change that tonight!  

My internet has been being screwy tonight so let me type this quick so I can put the laptop away for the night. I hope this will post. I've been on my phone because my home wifi is out, but of course, I still have data. Slept horribly again and I've been exhausted all day. I did manage to write, but that is about all I did. I have laundry in the dryer and all clean and ready to go, but I'm not ready to get it. lol

I am so sorry for not posting yesterday. I had a horrible night's sleep and I was so tired all day yesterday. I didn't really do much of anything! I did write, and that was good, but I wrote a ton, today!  Today, I also went thrifting with my friend. We did the regular Friday route. Reidsville, Walkertown, and Mayodan NC.  I didn't find any huge finds, but I found some goodies. Here is a picture of my finds:

Items from the top left are a sleep mask, a puzzle, a Harry Potter sign, a red planner with carrying handles, a small vintage key wallet, a Happy Halloween sign, some striped socks, a Moleskine, a Starbucks mug with a lid, and a Starbucks VIA tumbler. Not a bad haul, eh?

The planner thing is cool. There is an A5 size binder in there with actual planner pages. It was in the purse section! It does look like a purse, so I can see why they did that.  When I got home, my replacement radio had arrived. Yay! This one was brand new and it came safely. I put some batteries in (I'll get an adapter later) and turned it on. It's going to take a bit to get used to the controls, but I've already figured out a few things. As I said, I used to listen to Shortwave in the 90's so it's not a new thing for me. I played around on the LW (AM band a bit) and I did on the SW band. I actually found quite a few broadcasts! That was fun. This radio had a ton of presets for memory, so I saved several of the channels I found. With shortwave, most stations are only available at certain times, so sometimes it's a search thing. There used to be a great publication that I bought every year that listed everything. It had information on radios too. I miss that book! It was Passport To World Band Radio  and it was great!  I have bookmarked a few sites online that have information and I'll use those. I'm very happy this little radio came undamaged. It's the smallest shortwave radio I've ever had, but I actually like the size, it's very portable and I can carry it to the beach and see if I can get more / different broadcasts there. Today I was listening to a Spanish-speaking channel. I didn't understand anything, but it was fun to listen anyway. I'd love to find a French one to listen to and see if I catch any words. :) So, here is the little guy:

The leather case that protects the radio can be removed. It has to be to put batteries in! Also, the radio itself has a kick stand so you can use that. That front panel on the right opens down and there is s dial with major cities. (You dial to the time zone you are in) and there are a few function buttons. All in all I love my cute little radio!

So, I used to listen to Shortwave radio and I really loved doing it. I thought about it recently and thought I'd like to get back into it. Well, I ordered a radio on Amazon and it came. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting and it didn't pick up anything on SW. So, I sent it back and got another brand that I had been looking at. It came today. It was an Amazon warehouse item. Now, I've gotten things from there before with no issues, always brand new, maybe damaged packaging or re-packaged. What came today just really upset me.

The little radio comes in its little leather case. It's in a box inside the display box. It has a manual and the radio in the box. Well, my package comes and I can actually FEEL the radio through the paper envelope. I open it and there is the radio, in just that inner box, the inner box is damaged and so is the back of the leather case. So, it's damaged, just floating around free in the package, no manual or anything else. I automatically set up a return. If only the box had been damaged and not the case you use on the radio, I might have kept it, I might even have then, but I was upset with no manual and the way it was sent. I already have the refund to my account as I ran out and dropped it at UPS. I ordered the exact same radio for less than $8 more brand new. Hopefully, it will come intact! Sheesh!  The radio is a lot smaller than I'm used to, my old Shortwave radios were a bit larger, but I can adapt as it's a very nice one and cute, too. Plus, it will be good for travel as it's smaller.  By the way, the one I got from the Amazon warehouse? It said, "LIKE NEW" Like new my butt! :P