What the Junk?!

Yes, I was supposed to post last night and give an update on how my antenna worked. I got into stuff and never got around to making a blog post yesterday. Oops! Sorry about that. I have used the antenna for three nights now. It does help! I might be able to get it even better with some work, but it had me getting clearer transmissions on several bands. I picked up a Ham radio operator in Georgia (the state, not the country) and that was cool! With the antenna off the radio, it was static and hard to make out anything. With the antenna on, I could hear him clearly. I wasn't able to pick up the people he was talking to clearly when they came on, but it was cool to be able to hear him so well. I have picked him up two nights in a row! Also, the station from Canada that I had. a hard time hearing was clearer with the antenna. I will work and make it even better as I go.  

I haven't finished listening for tonight. I took a break a bit ago to get a few things done. I plan to check back in right at ten and listen a bit longer.  A lot of programs come in then. I've even been using Google translate to get the gist of what the foreign language broadcasts are about. That is cool.  Sometimes the translations are really good and sometimes they are comical! An example:

"Let's come to the end of our grandmother." 

This was from a station I found last night that was in the Urdu language. It's a language spoken in India and Pakistan. Cool! I love being about to get a glimpse into our cultures even if it's not in English. 

My shortwave antenna came today. I will try it out tonight at the usual time. The signals are stronger in the evening so that is why I listen then. I'm hoping that tonight I'm able to pick up some new stations I haven't been able to before. I really hope so. in any case! I will post about that tomorrow. I would have done it tonight, but after I listen to the Shortwave, I'll probably not move back over to the laptop.l Since I missed last night, I didn't want to go another day without posting again. I still am not sleeping well, so I'm extremely tired. I hope that gets under control soon. I think it's a combo of my brain won't shut off and the heat. Not a good combo!

So, I promised to do a thrift finds update today and here it is! I took a picture of everything I got to share and a few individual things too. Here is the entire haul:

From top left to right on each row: Sherpani purse, Fossil purse, Uniden scanner/weather radio, Eton emergency radio, (will go into detail further down), a Starbucks mug with lid, two Starbucks tumblers, five vintage Whitman brand card games, and finally season two of the Simpsons! They also had season one, but I already have it. Fun finds. Here are some closer shots of three of the items:

This is my second Sherpani bag. I got one exactly like this in green with a different picture on the front in the Spring at another Greensboro Goodwill! I used it as a beach bag on my last beach trip and I loved it. I saw this and saw it was the same brand and the same purse so I got it. The only difference is that this one still has the safety pin tag and my other one was missing it.  The Starbucks things are self-explanatory! :p

The Eton radio was a great find! It has a crank for when you don't have power, it's also able to be charged with solar or by a USB cord and your computer. It's got AM/FM bands and all the weather bands. Very cool. Oh, did I mention it also doubles as a cell phone power bank? Did I mention the flashlight? Such a cool find. These go for $40 online, I paid $10 for mine and it was still new in the box. it had the cord, the manual, and even the registration card. :D  I love it. I noticed it in the case because it is Eton and that is the brand of my Shortwave radio.  I'm very happy with it and it works great! I will probably put it in my bug-out bag that I haven't started yet. I have several things for it and a sturdy bag for it all, I just haven't gotten around to it. Right now I only have Sterno, a multi-tool, and this cool radio. It will also be a handy thing to have if we have power outages this fall or winter. :)

I'm happy with my finds. It was a good trip. We went to eight different Goodwill stores all in Greensboro.  We also went to another thrift store we saw while we were out but it was waaay overpriced! I was disappointed, but because they had four of five Starbucks tumblers I would have liked to have, but they priced them (ad everything else I liked) too high!

My friend and I went on the Greensboro Goodwill trip today. We hit a lot of Goodwills and I got some good things, too! I will write up a post about it tomorrow as I'm behind on everything as we were gone for over 6 hours! I need to catch up on my regular stuff. I will do a post tomorrow and will share pictures. I got some goodies, so it will be fun. :)

That was me falling on the floor. :p I didn't actually fall on the floor, but I felt like it! I got two chores done today before lunch! I went out and mowed. That is never fun. I got that done and came in and got my writing for today done. Another great day of writing. I then decided to get the other chore I needed to do done. I went to the grocery store. That wasn't as bad as I was thinking. It wasn't too busy, so that part was nice. I needed to get a few things and I got them and a lot more. I'm fully stocked for a bit, so that is great.  

After I got home, put things away, ate lunch, and relaxed a bit, I wrote more! Yes, I added to my word count. I went in to just tweak a few things and ended up adding more words. I'm not complaining one bit!  It was nice to get more done. Now, I'm going to get off the M1 and relax a bit before doing my nightly Shortwave listening. I just ordered a different kind of antenna on eBay last night. I'm hoping it will help me pull in more channels. We'll see. I'll update you about how it is when I receive it. The best thing about it is that I can use it with my current radio or any future ones I get because of the way it's made. :)

I moved back to one of my other current works and the last three days of writing have been intense! There is a lot going on and it's crazy. I had to edit the works several times to get them where I want them. I have tomorrow's session all ready to go and it's going to be just as intense as the other stuff has been.  I think it's going to be great when I get done.  It was easier to go back to this work than I was expecting, so that was nice. I just felt the pull of that version of my characters. I heeded the call and they are performing magnificently! Tomorrow's output is going to be hard, but worth it. 

I'm going to do some Shortwave listening after this. Last night, I finally was able to pull in a Canadian shortwave channel. That was cool. I used to listen to Radio Canada International a lot back in my old Shortwave days. Looking at the website, I don't think they are on the shortwave bands anymore, but they are still a thing so that is nice. The station I got last night was...CFRX  I had to look at my notes. I hope to pick them up again. :)

My friend and I went on our usual Tuesday thrift, but with a twist. We went to a few other cities too. We went to Reidsville first, as always. We ate there and then went to Salvation Army. I found two mugs, one Starbucks and one vintage mug. I also found a nice black Fossil purse. At Goodwill, I found a cute Paris-themed kitchen set (hot pad and hot glove), a cute little ornament, and a small zipper pouch. I'm going to use it for earbuds.  We went to Eden and I found a pouch that was FULL of pens/pencils and various items. Just look at how much they jammed in this pouch for $4

There are so many pens and pencils. Also some tape, a glue stick, paperclips, binder clips, Post-it flags, Post-it minis, and a nice stapler. All this for $4. Not bad, eh? We also went to the Salvation Army there too and I got a Happy Planner (without the discs). The last thing I got was a 2011 Starbucks tumbler. A It was a good little trip.

I think I mentioned that when I went to the post office on Saturday, I had a yellow slip in there for pickup at the window. This could mean a package, an oversize envelope that wouldn't fit, or postage due. Guess what mine was? Postage was due. ~_~; A pen pal sent a postcard without enough postage. D'oh! It was a rather large one, so I think those actually cost the same as a letter. I had to pay .18¢. The nerve! lol

So, I drove all the way down there for to pay money to pick up a postcard. Oh well.  I am going to try to get myself down there at least once a week. I let way too much time go between visits. I also really need to catch up on pen pal letters. Soon. I hope!

Yes, it is! I am all caught up on my chores for today, too! I have my bed linen already back on the bed, I've washed my hair and it's almost dry. I wrote and I put away yesterday's laundry. Now, I'm going to relax on my bed for a bit. I'm going to read, watch a few YouTube videos, and listen to the Shortwave. Not all at the same time! :p I didn't sleep well again last night. It was really late when I got to bed and then a thunderstorm woke me up several hours before I needed to be up. I was eventually able to get back to bed, but I woke up so tired. I might even nod off on my bed. Who knows. I'm just happy my chores are done and I don't have to do anything else tonight unless I want to!

So, it's my birthday. Another year down in this so-called life. I didn't do much. I had a delivery from Amazon Prime. I bought myself some rechargeable batteries to use in my Shortwave radio and they came today. Exciting, huh? :p

I was able to get 8 AA batteries. My little Eton takes four so I can use four and have another set charging or charged ready as a backup. They were less than $10 so that was a great deal. I tried several different 6-volt adapters and all caused static so batteries were the way to go. I didn't want to have to keep buying batteries all the time, so I went for some rechargeable ones.  I can't wait to try them and see how long they go. That last set of regular batteries that I put in my radio have lasted a lot longer than the first set. I was able to turn off the lighted display when it's not in use and that helped immensely!  I've been on this set for at least a week now. The others had only lasted a few days. I'm hoping to get at least a couple of weeks' charge out of the rechargeable ones when I start using those.

I had to run out to get my birthday drink from Starbucks! I also got gas while out because I got 20 cents extra off of gas today because of the reward card I use and it is my birthday. I already get 5¢ a gallon off with them, so today it was .25¢. I washed Goontz while out and went by the grocery store. I wanted a small cake for my birthday, but like last year, all they had left was chocolate. ~_~; I got cupcakes instead. Of course, I FORGOT that I bought cupcakes when I got to Starbucks and got a lime-frosted oat bar to go with my latte. :p Oops. 

I went by the post office while out. I haven't checked my box in a while. I also needed to mail off something. Hopefully, I'll get a QSL from that soon!  I had a yellow card in my box so now I have to go back during regular hours and stop by the desk. Not sure what that is. Nothing has shown up in informed delivery. Hmm.

So, busy day, I totally forgot that I do laundry today and just put that in to start washing a bit ago. I probably will not be putting that away today! lol. Right now, I'm just trying to cool down from all the running around. I want to pull out the Shortwave and see what's going on the bands. I meant to get to that earlier but it's been a day!

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. :)