since last Saturday. It’s been a huge spend – a – thon. Last Saturday the local catholic church had their annual yard sale. it’s not in a yard though, it’s in the gym, which is a huge room with bleachers at one end. Come to think of it, it’s also a performance hall, because at the opposite end there is a stage where they put all the seasonal stuff, but I digress. The place was packed at 9.am. Because it is so humid at the moment, people were jammed into the aisles breathing in each other’s air. 12 months ago half the people would have been wearing masks. Not any more. The elderly even, were mask free. I don’t think I saw one person wearing one. So refreshing.
A good approximation of what it was like, with narrower aisles and a lot more people.
I went looking for a juicer. The week before, my neighbor had given me some vegetables and I juiced them up in the juicer that is here at the Fortress. They were delicious. I wanted to repeat that experience at the other place. Carting appliances up and down the New York Throughway isn’t something I want to do. In the middle of the room I found one right away. It was a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Pro. Jack LaLanne was was an American fitness and nutrition guru and motivational speaker. He was called “The Godfather of Fitness”. He was a great self promoter. At the age of 70, handcuffed and shackled, he towed 70 boats, carrying a total of 70 people, a mile and a half through Long Beach Harbor. He had a TV show for decades. The Jack LaLanne Show was the longest-running television exercise program in history. There is a substantial wikipedia page here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_LaLanne if you’re interested.
He’s got the juice and he won’t be stopped.
Jack’s Juicer came with a few parts missing, but it worked. The thing that pushes the stuff into the tube wasn’t there, as was the container that sits on the back to catch all the pulp absent. I found a used pusher which I definitely needed on Ebay for $9, and I figured I don’t need the other thing. The juicer cost me $3, so for $11, it wasn’t a bad deal. When I went back to see if the missing part might be laying around somewhere, I saw a Zojirushi bread machine. I’ve got a Zojirushi rice cooker and it’s much smarter than I am. It never, ever burns the rice or under cooks it, and although I already have two thrift store bread machines, I figured that for five bucks I could own one more. This one had been well looked after, and the original books and brochures that it came with, were taped to the side. I made some bread with some, probably used by date expired, yeast and flour and it turned out perfect. My favorite bread machine up until then, which I bought in a Florida thrift store, had bounced its way off the counter a couple of years ago, and although it still worked, it sat on the kitchen floor like a battered tank stranded in a Russia/Ukraine no man’s land somewhere.
It still works!
I started looking at the recipe book and saw that you could make jam with this thing. I have been having difficulty finding marmalade that doesn’t come loaded with corn syrup recently so I thought I’d try making my own. Fuck me, if it didn’t turn out better than the stuff I was buying. All it consists of is oranges lemons, peel, sugar and pectin, the stuff that solidifies the mixture. I’ll never have to buy expensive marmalade again. Some of those English brands are five bucks and up. I love church yard sales now so much it’s unreal. The other thing I bought was a synthesizer. It was today’s “Stupid Deal”. I don’t really need it, but maybe I do. I thought I didn’t need the bread machine, but I really did. I haven’t released an album for more than a year now. It’s time to put something together. I’ve got a few completed tracks here and there, but I need more. So much more..
This morning I got an email from “Service NSW”. It’s a semi regular government newsletter, to help people navigate the living hell that they have created out of thin air. There is a survey in there asking “what do you think of it” (the newsletter). Perhaps tomorrow I’ll post what I think of it here. Believe me, they don’t want to know what I think about it.
WordPress and Instagram don’t get along for some reason, but the link below will take you to yesterday’s IG post. It’s song that me and the boys recorded a while ago.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CwjSXBwpPNv/