rockpzazz

I feel you. On April 2nd, my town of under 800 was hit with an EF-2 tornado. While it looked absolutely horrible with a mobile home that was just placed isn't even there anymore. Incredibly, there were no injuries or deaths despite the tornado warning going out after it had passed, the power going out 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, which caused the town siren to not activate (it was electrical powered from the 1940s and was set to be replaced next month). It was one of the earliest ones (around 8:30 AM) to hit the area possibly since the 1960s and the largest to possibly hit the county in 30 years. If I had to guess it passed around 500-1000 yards from my front door. If it didn't turn the first time, it would have went through the town. If it didn't turn the second time, it would have destroyed my uncle's mobile home (with him and my aunt inside). I think the timing helps prevent injuries since most of the kids were at school (who didn't even suffer a power outage), and a lot of adults on their way to work 15-25 minutes away. I have been near 2-3 tornadoes in my life, another which was a wind storm (I still believe it was a tornado) but this one was the worst. Usually I have a sense for bad weather, but I didn't feel like this one would do anything. Boy was I wrong. At least the community is safe and a cleanup effort was made today to help clean the fields and places littered with debris. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come this season. The week before wasn't much better with a water main break causing us to go 2-3 days with little to no water. So hopefully the rest of April and the year gets better.

The last week of February was very eventful. I was able to help my mom donate some books and puzzles to clear up space (which will no doubt make room for more books and puzzles), and also hit a few stores I don't normally visit. Hopefully March will allow me to clean around the apartment a little more and the weather will cooperate so the windows can be open for a few days in a row.

Checking in for the month after a long night last night. While my team didn't win the big game, I not losing sleep over it (I can't sleep as it is, so it didn't add to my sleeplessness). Though one bright spot last night though was how well Tubi presented the football game. I have an issue with my TV that is a simple soldering fix, but until I learn how to do that, I tried out Tubi's coverage of the Super Bowl. This morning I read the had the shortest delay among all streamers including NFL's own service. I didn't suffer any dropouts the entire game, and was quite happy with that. I already liked Tubi, but they were outstanding yesterday. Now its time to prepare for a snowstorm that at least has decided it knows what its doing (unlike the last one) it just needs to get the snowfall total honed in a bit. I hope its not 5-8" but as long as I have food and shelter and power doesn't go out, I'm happy. Hope everyone has a great month. I just hope this storm doesn't linger too long so I can maybe get out on my birthday on Friday.

I closed out 2024 finishing a project I wanted to get done by the end of the year, but little hopes of actually doing. Maybe that's the motivation to get more projects done in 2025. Most or 2024 seemed like I was procrastinating, but December I actually did a couple projects I didn't expect, so here's to a bright 2025 to everyone. No matter how meaningless the projects may seem, just knocking out a couple can get the ball rolling.

It does seem odd they have been so quick to remove the Christmas decorations from the store. We usually have Christmas around the first weekend of January (to coincide with my mom's birthday), so I hope they still have post Christmas sales on decorations, its the best time to find it.

Let's see if I can rebound and not miss the second month this year. Count me in.

I received my shirt on Saturday, and I love it. The charcoal gray is amazing, and I like that its not as thick as previous ones. Thanks again for the amazing contests, and for the shirts each year. I'm not sure what my favorite one ever has been, but this is definitely up there.

Nice, about to look at it, however I noticed the header says 2023. Looking through it there might be a couple things I like, but nothing I need. One day I will get a scaffold, for what reason, I'm not sure.

Thank you, this one is my favorite contest of the year. The design for the shirt is awesome, yet a bit bittersweet.

I love looking at the archives. I usually spend a lot of time there, but I've just started a newspapers.com subscription, and have been looking at old ads in the newspapers from there. Too bad a lot of the older ones are in black and white, but its still fun looking back, especially at stores I never got the chance to shop at.

I love the design of the shirt. It also makes me quite sad.

"We don't have to unlock cases for every item? Best day ever!" Cashier thinking "I hope these people leave soon, I'm in the middle of a killer solitaire game" "How did I forget the Pokémon cards?"

I can't believe it. For the first time since the prize club began, I missed a month. I could easily blame computer issues, issues with the apartment, or any other issues, but fact is, as much as the site is ingrained in my head, I simply forgot to check in. What made me remember finally was yesterday looking on twitter and seeing "Rabbit Rabbit" trending. Since I already knew I missed January, I didn't sign in but saw I missed it. Then to make it worse I forgot my password. So I hope everyone still in the club enjoys it, and hope the reward is really nice. I hope someone will post a picture when it arrives so I can kick myself seeing what I missed out on. Here's to the next year.

After dealing with a bit of stress with a redemption site, I finally got a gift card to work last night, and ordered some Christmas gifts. Had to clear my computers cookies, and almost forgot about checking in on here for the month of December. I'm just glad the one BF item I wanted was still on sale and didn't have to spend much on it.

As others have said, the dynamic of Black Friday has changed, and I think that has altered what we see as good deals as well as store not being forced to give as steep of discounts to get people in the door. Why go to the store to get a deal when you can order from home? I actually liked the in store sales better, but the way BF has changed has benefited a lot more people even though those who liked the deal hunting is disappointed. I've never had too many items on my wish list each year, but surprisingly a couple I have this year have shown up in ads.

Not a bad ad, actually a couple items I had my eye on so I might consider getting them there. It's a little funny to me that some items are what their normal prices were like 3-4 years ago, but that's inflation.

In the 20 years the site has been around, the Black Friday tradition has changed quite a bit. What has been the best tradition the last few years has been the prize club. Sign me up for another year, While not the most active, I still love the interactions on the site but more importantly in the Club forum.

#1- You can never have enough DVD players, DVD's will never go out of style. It's not like stores will stop selling them. #2- HEY MA! Do one of these bags have a blanket and pillow? #3- I had to sell all that plasma just so you could get a TV with some in it?

October is here and the temperature is still 90. That will change in a couple weeks, and Fall will be here. It might already have occurred but temps in the 60s for the high is what Fall is to me and gets me excited to see potential deals.

Mine arrived today, no postage due. I'm loving the contents, glad I joined again this year. Now to make sure I finish out the next couple months.

The weather if finally getting a lot more tolerable, that's always nice. Also nice that I might have a couple gift cards coming my way soon from reward sites, just it time for Black Friday.

August seemed to fly by, maybe because the weather kept me a little more housebound than I expected. With the weather cooling down, I hope to get out and enjoy the beginning of Fall.

As August begins (or already begun), I was reminded that this is the 30th anniversary of the Flood of 1993. My town was safe, but the same couldn't be said for many towns along the Missouri River in central Missouri. Many towns suffered major flooding and some were so bad that the town had to be relocated (Rhineland, MO). Another (Cedar City) pretty much ceased to exist and spelled the end of the Renz Correctional Facility for Women (thought the place wasn't in great shape to begin with). It seems like when discussing the flood, the central Missouri area is often overlooked, but in fairness, many places had it much worse than we did. I am currently watching a lot of videos on Youtube of the coverage from 1993 as well as the aftermath. Its amazing how 30 years later that the same area which had a summer deluge of rain is now experiencing severe drought (which might be downgraded to less severe thanks to a few days of rain, which oddly is creating flash flooding). Its heartbreaking to watch some of it, but also a bit fun to see how some of these places which I have visited in later years looked like before floods changed their towns history. Anyways, checking in for the month, and hoping the weather is a little less cruel this month for everybody.

June was a fun month, and our town festival went off mostly without a hitch (one day was rained out and will be made up next weekend). It was my first chance to take a lot of pictures with my phone, and I took almost 1000 over 3 days. I had a blast. Looking at this month, I hope my area gets some rain, as we are in severe drought. 30 years ago we were deluged with rain in one of the worst floods ever, and now we can't even get rain when it was supposed to thunderstorm 3 days in a row. I would welcome the rain, to not only get the ground some much needed water, but a to knock the humidity down a few degrees.

I'm not use to changes, but this one seems simple enough, not much of a learning curve.