Merry Christmas today! 🎄

 Season’s Greetings..! 

   I was going to post pics of all the new crashes I filmed this week, but not on Christmas Day! 

This day celebrates the day Jesus was born and it’s a beautiful, hopeful and loving holiday on every level. 

U have an excuse to contact friends and family. 

U can enjoy good food and presents. 

U can see where you’re going at night with all the fanciful and fun Christmas lights sending away just a bit more darkness for awhile. 

Be safe, and give any frustrations, negativity, hurts, or pain over to Gd for the day, He can handle it! 

Merry Christmas 

How many crashes?

 How many crashes have u seen so far? 

This was only the 2nd of the day. There wasn’t a 3rd, at least that I could see. 

The 1st truck was hit so hard, it flipped twice. The sound was loud and gruesome. 

What’s worse was that after the traffic slowed down to get around the 1st crash and pedestrians, it came to a virtual stand-still once police, ambulance, and fire truck arrived. 

I grabbed a pic of the second crash because I thought it interesting to see how many crashes per day I could record. 

After everyone drove around the 2nd crash, no one slowed down and traffic picked up as if it was nothing at all. Anyone who drove under the speed limit was honked or yelled at or both. 

  ~🏎

A New Year Soon!

 May 2022 be better and better every year

 

     

What are these called anyway?

 They are similar to BloPops, only about 1/4 the size, but here’s the thing; 

they are the tastiest little pops I’ve ever had the pleasure of sampling. 

I had picked up a handful one day in a store, I can’t even remember if it was a Walmart or a dollar store. 

Since I always try to sample a new candy before displaying them or adding them to an honor box, I tried it out and was quite amazed. 

It wasn’t your standard sugar, flavor, and candy or gum, it had real taste, and it was slippery like a real fruit! The tiny interior wasn’t a burst of citrus or sour like I expected, very pleasant after-taste. 

   The packaging around each pop simply says Big Big, that’s it! 

I’m not even sure customers will notice, but I was very pleasantly surprised. 

  Should I happen upon them somewhere, I shall stock up on them, but if they came from a dollar store, they may have been a once a year import happenstance, overage, or a one-off of some sort. 

  If u see them, give them a try and see if u don’t notice a difference either, then let me know where they are! Thanks! 

 

    

            ~

Other Ways to Help Critters

 These are just a few more ways to help critters, with and without budget constraints; 

Ideas 

Ways to give that help save lives

You can make a gift to homeless pets in a number of ways. You can create a personal fundraiser, become a Golden Circle member, make a stock donation and more.

GOLDEN CIRCLE

Golden Circle members are among the most devoted and loyal supporters of Best Friends and our mission. Through annual donations of $1,000 or more, a Golden Circle member provides the critical resources necessary to support and expand Best Friends’ programs throughout the country.

MAKE A PLANNED GIFT

By making a gift to Best Friends Animal Society through your will, trust or other financial plan, you can help Save Them All now and well into the future.

DONATE APPRECIATED STOCK, BONDS OR MUTUAL FUNDS

A donation of stock is a powerful and easy way to help the animals and in doing so, you’ll receive a significant tax break.

MAKE A DONOR-ADVISED FUND GIFT

Give a gift from your donor-advised fund to help improve the lives of homeless animals.

VEHICLE DONATION

Do you have an old car, boat, plane or other vehicle? Donate it to Best Friends through our trusted vehicle donation partner, CARS, for an easy way to help the animals.

CREATE A FUNDRAISER

Celebrate the important events, people and pets in your life by helping to Save Them All. It’s quick and easy to create your own personal fundraising page to generate donations for the animals of Best Friends. 

STRUT YOUR MUTT

When you participate in Strut Your Mutt, you can choose to support and raise funds for Best Friends Animal Society or your favorite local participating animal welfare organization. 

AMAZONSMILE

Shop on AmazonSmile and Amazon will donate to Best Friends. You can shop for jewelry, books, electronics or anything else you desire. Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Best Friends or another charity of your choice.

WISH LIST

On any given day, there are about 1,600 dogs, cats and other animals living at the Sanctuary. We regularly ask our furry and feathered friends what items would most help them enjoy their lives here at Best Friends. You can help by purchasing items from their wish list.

WORKPLACE GIVING

Donating through your employer’s workplace giving campaign is a simple way to help homeless pets. Many companies will even match your donation, doubling or tripling the impact of your gift. 

DONATE CRYPTOCURRENCY

Your cryptocurrency donation can help homeless pets in need.

Shocked!

 There is a YouTube video of celebrations on Rodeo Drive in California. 

Like the old days. Santas, elves, stores open, obligatory glitter, and occasional masks. 

I’m shocked! No riots in sight!?!

Here at home, lights are up and traffic is back. 

As an essential worker, I had roads, streets and freeways to myself. 

Cars returned to the roads slowly but surely. 

Holiday traffic is back full-force! No room for wheelies now. 

Please drive safely everyone! 

Pets, books, candy

 Pets, books, and candy. 

Not at all sure that these 3 things have anything in common except this blog! 

This blog was started as a contact page for my candy route customers. 

I added a ‘books’ tab because I’ve always wanted a bookstore, the kind u see with the offices or apartments on the floors above them, local and friendly. Since I’d been selling books on eBay since 2000, I merged an information page about it onto this blog. 

I don’t really have time to list books anymore, much less read them, and I can’t review stores anymore either. The route is still here with information or updates to share. Enjoy! 

And blessings, always blessings…

Thanku to my customers!

 Thanku to my customers! 

Even tho I put this route together for the critters, 

I do this with my customers in mind, especially if it benefits their customers in any way is always good!  

Thanku! 

~

National Candy Day Nov 4th, 2021

 

So what do u do on National Candy Day? 

U can check out The Chocolate Cult’s blog for some tips, tricks, and recipes, see sidebar, 

or u can make out like a bandit for all the Halloween sales goodies! 

Four days after Halloween, you should be able to celebrate this day. 

Either you have leftover candy or generous treats.

You can also scan the sales of Halloween candy at your local stores. 

Or, invite some friends to enjoy their favorite candies with you!

Unforgettable Candies 

• M & M’s – Forrest Mars, Sr., and William Murrie developed these milk chocolate drops with the colorful candy coating following the Spanish Civil War. They stamped the new candy with the initials of their surnames. In 1941, they debuted the candies, and soon after, American soldiers serving in the Second World War received them as part of their rations. 
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – Hershey’s company first manufactured these round chocolate disks filled with sweet, creamy peanut butter filling in 1928.
• Christmas Candies – These hard candies come in the shape of ribbons or lozenges (thank you Oliver R. Chase!) and add a sweet, colorful memory to the holiday season. 
• Necco Wafers – Despite being chalky and not too sweet, this candy still tops many people’s lists.
• PEZ – Not only does this tiny candy hit the sweet spot, but it also comes with a dispenser that often represents other iconic and inspirational characters.  

          ~

Decisions Decisions

 Auto shops are hit or miss. 

Candy machines do either really well or not at all in them. 

Unless they are in a waiting room, they could still do well, just very grubby. 

I really like my current auto shop, been there for over a year, but the honor box there gets too gritty and makes very little so another location to go :-/  

  (Stock pic :-) 

     ~

No-Kill Networks

 Best Friends works towards nationwide no-kill shelters by 2025. 

There is another organization called appropriately, NoKillNetwork.org. 

Although I haven’t interacted with them as with Best Friends, I bookmarked them years ago and still check in with NoKillNerwork.org every month or so and they seem strong. 

There’s several no-kill related links on their website and even most advertisers are critter related; 

The nØkill Network is dedicated to promoting no-kill animal shelters, organizations, and rescue groups by helping people learn about and locate these organizations. 

The nØkill Network also strives to promote the no-kill model so that shelters that do not currently have a no-kill policy might take the initiative needed to gain the public, governmental, and financial support necessary to become a no-kill organization. 

Shelters that historically euthanized healthy, adoptable animals have been able to make this change - it is possible and we hope that this community can help to provide the ideas, education, and support necessary to make it happen for the rest of the shelters throughout the nation. 

Please join the community to learn, participate, and support the mission! 

A brief Thanku to one of my retailers

 

I fretted about moving a machine from one of my favorite stores 🐕 

The candy was going down but the quarters weren’t going up. 

Once I applied security tape, the candies continued going down and the quarters began going up. 

I’m very pleased to keep my machine there indeed! 

There have been locations long past where they’d cut right thru the security tape! 

Not sure how that works, but I’d always remove my machines. 

One fun irony during the history of these machines was when they had little messy tiny sticky fingerprints all over them, those machines produced the most! 

And I have no idea if it still applies in the industry today, but there were soda machines in some of the roughest areas of town that had to be enclosed in giant cages and the only openings were for the coins and the sodas, and those openings were badly beat up and graffitied and yet those locations were incredibly productive. It was difficult servicing the machines and a bit nerve-wracking, but with ironically pleasant results!  

Oh the stories from life on the road of life! 🙂 

Anyway, Thanku and all the best to that store for being so nice, may we continue for many summers! 

Research your charity

 Right now, I’m studying a site called  AnimalCharityEvaluators  .  I’ve only just signed up for their newsletter, and will keep u posted here. 

A few charities I was following shut down after the pandemic and many shelters suffered financially. 

Coming out of the pandemic will be tough, and it’s best to research any charity no matter how good they read or sound. My go-to charity is Best Friends, but until I’m able to make an in-person visit, one never knows for sure. 

The Humane Society is the oldest charity I’m aware of. If I remember my history correctly, they were started to help the work horses of the late 1800s/early 1900s. 

The first SPCA in the United States was the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), founded by Henry Bergh in New York City in 1866.

The HSUS-Humane Society United States is an umbrella organization for many charities, and although I wish they’d focus more on the care and comfort of animals, they do good work.

~

Thanku for Patience!

To my unofficial clients of my teeny-tiny route, thanku for your patience! 

There are maybe 4 locations that I’m very fond of, about 3 that are just fine, 

and a few that I’m letting go. 

Since I have several gigs that I work, and although the route remains very important, 

it seems to be time that is such a precious commodity today. 

One location I visited this week closed early, and it backlogged my route for the week, 

but I haven’t forgotten and will keep posted here. 

Again, thanku so much for your patience. 

Please feel free to contact me here with any questions and/or comments. 

Books, books, and more books…

 

These aren’t even the books I’ve looked thru yet! 

I have stacks and stacks of books I want to read, other stacks I’ve read that are ready to sell, and others I just can’t seem to let go. 

There is a whole shelf of reference books I hang onto for dear life, what with censorship and all those encyclopedia sets that became paperweights aren’t such a bad idea after all. 

These are a new shipment that are backlogged. They are boxed right by a doorway that I get to look at every day, wonder about and be inspired. The covers and dust-jackets alone have such a wonderful feel and sound. 

I’ve never been able to sell a recipe book, those are safely ensconced on the internet. I’ve only sold one or two romance novels, and those were historical novels. These have the look of good professional books. They sure are nice to look at and I thought to share them here. 

Always Remember, Never Forget…

Since I can’t look at those disgusting images anymore, I won’t post them here,

and yet, I don’t want to forget. 

I’m opinionated and it’s very difficult to remain neutral on such a tragic day as 911 from 2001. 

So instead, I remain positive and upbeat, oh, did I mention God, who covers all..?

He allowed 911 to happen, by religious zealots no less! 

He allowed recovery, and it’s up to us to pray for healing and history. 

May God bless the friends and families of 911, Military, First Responders, the Americas and the globe, and may we turn to Him for strength, understanding, and to continue healing. 

Never again underestimate the power of hate and stupidity, 

Look up, not down, and be grateful for life, freedom, friends, and family… 

    

  

    ~

Only Honor

 It’s such a bummer to walk thru a store of friendly faces who can’t quite look u in the eye, 

only to check machines that have been selling product yet no quarters in the till. 

Since nothing is ever broken, not even a scratch, I deduce that keys are easy to come by. 

Skimming off the top at least leaves room for profit to still be made, but not able to even make cost is hostile. I certainly don’t look forward to those visits. 

The honor boxes get skimmed as well, but sometimes, there’s overpayment (?!), always a pleasant surprise. 

I guess the machines are cursed in some way and will prolly be removing the remainder soon. 

Anyone is always welcome to donate and/or volunteer to help local animal shelters, the purpose behind the creation of this route. Anyone who loves animals can’t be all bad…

AHNOW=Animal Help Now & Rescue-please utilize them!

 Yes, they stay busy, mostly volunteers, may very well be a bit overworked, 

and oh my gosh, it seems like every animal needs help. 

It is only an information site and as of this posting, they answer phones and provide information only. 

If u are upset or stressed, they are patient, but keep in mind that they are an information hub only, and while they probably have the info u need, they stay very busy helping as much as they can. 

There is also a free app in the Apple App Store and Google Play, remarkably user-friendly.

Honor Boxes Are Better

 My vending machines which have 3 different locks on them each often have no quarters in them, yet the candies and gumballs sell out. 

My cardboard honor boxes that are completely open, unlocked, and available, sell out, and the donations sometimes out-number the candies. 

I’ve always preferred honor…

More Chocolate Trivia

CHOCOLATE IS ACTUALLY A VEGETABLE—KIND OF.                        

 Milk and dark chocolate come from the cacao bean, which grows on the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), an evergreen from the family Malvaceae (other members of the family include okra and cotton). This makes the most important part of the sweet treat a vegetable. 

CACAO WAS ONCE USED AS CURRENCY.           

                            

      The Aztecs loved and valued the cacao bean so highly that they used it as currency during the height of their civilization. 

SPANISH FRIARS HELPED SPREAD THE LOVE.             

         

            After cacao and chocolate were introduced to Europe, traveling Spanish friars took it to various monasteries, handily spreading it around the continent.  

COCOA AND CACAO ARE THE SAME THING.             

                     

      The words are interchangeable, it’s all one bean.   

BAKER'S CHOCOLATE ISN’T JUST FOR BAKING.            

                  

      Dr. James Baker and John Hannon founded their chocolate company—later called Walter Baker Chocolate—in 1765. That’s where the term “Baker's Chocolate” comes from, not to denote chocolate that’s just meant for cooking.  

MILTON HERSHEY REALLY WAS A CANDY KING.             

            

         The Pennsylvania native may be best known for starting The Hershey Chocolate Company in good old Hershey, PA, but he got his start in candy long before hooking up with chocolate. He founded his first company, The Lancaster Caramel Company, when he was 30 years old. 

MAKING CHOCOLATE IS HARD WORK.                 

                     

       Despite its regal background and revered status, the cacao bean doesn’t just magically turn into chocolate—it takes about 400 beans to make a single pound of the good stuff.  

THE FIRST CHOCOLATE BAR WAS MADE IN ENGLAND.             

 

     Way back in 1842, the Cadbury company made the very first chocolate bar. The company is still in existence, and is perhaps most famous for their delightful Easter-themed treats.  

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF CACAO.                

                        

       Most modern chocolate comes from forestero beans, which are considered easy to grow—though the crillo bean is believed to make much tastier chocolate. 

CHOCOLATE HAS A SPECIAL MELTING POINT.            

           

  Chocolate is the only edible substance to melt around 93° F, just below the human body temperature. That’s why chocolate melts so easily on your tongue.  

   ~

Honor Boxes

Thanku everyone for being honorable, 

it’s very heartening and wonderful! 

Please know that I’m doing all I can for the critters, and even tho it’s not as much as I’d like, I’m not giving up. I looked into non-profit, but couldn’t stay afloat, I don’t have anyone in mind to leave my teeny tiny route to, but I have prayers and I do that a lot. 

God will provide, He always has and always will. 

Nothing new this week, just staying calm, cool, and collected, sweating thru the heat very un-glamorously, and saying my prayers just about every day. 

 

  

~

Land of the Free

 

Because of the Brave 

Joe Did It…Huh?

 It’s the strangest thing I’ve seen on YouTube and that’s saying something! 

You can feed hens live from the internet, it’s kinda fun. 

Many years ago when I had my own small space, I had chickens and they’re never like u expect. 

Did u know that chickens prefer to roost in trees? Chickens in trees! 

U also realize that they have lots of natural predators, like every living creature would like to get hold of chickens and their eggs, and then u realize just how much dear chickens contribute to us, a lot! 

And they’re fun to raise and funny to observe, so I was thrilled to find this channel and thought to share it here. 

Not sure why it’s called Joe Did It, I guess because he invented the system where a SuperChat can feed the chickens right then and there, it’s really Live! And it’s the next best thing to being live with hens, roosters, their coop, pen, and nesting box.  

  Joe Did It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0E_aZ5C0x8 

     ~

Some Favorite Pics in no particular order…

Since I don’t know how to arrange these pics by category on my phone, (example, signs, flowers, bugs), 

and since they were all taken on different days and times, I’ll just do my best to explain them individually. 

This is some sort of sign for trucks. I saw it right around the time Kamala Harris became President Vise and it seemed like a private invitation. It took awhile to realize it’s a legit sign, I think, so I grabbed a pic of it. 

What was that bug that landed on my car windshield anyway? 

That's a McD's roof in the background, sky doesn't look real in pic but that sky was beautiful blue just like the pic, and the grasshopper was totally transparent.

This was a walk-thru gate that said 'Gate K, No TailGating'. Okay. 

 

This was a delivery of mine to a comfy Victorian porch in the most peaceful neighborhood I'd seen in a long time. I delivered flowers but the customer wasn't home so I texted a pic to show where they were placed. Any pic u took in that area was worthy of screen-saving but I didn't have time for that and moved on. I reassured myself that HOA fees there are prolly really annoying... 

~

Happy Independence Day!

 Independence Day 

The Fourth of July—also known as Independence Day or July 4th—has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941. 

Independence Day 2021 in United States

Sunday, July 4

Public holiday date:

Monday, July 5 

Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States, on July 4, 1776.  

Please look after your pets and favorite critters during noisily wonderful times! 

 

~

Back to Chocolate

Although it makes the least, my candy route means a lot to me 

and was the reason for this blog as a form of communication for customers. 

It was once a fairly large and reasonably unwieldy route. 

During the pandemic, the route downsized to almost nothing but I kept it and learned a valuable lesson. 

 I know each of my customers now, they know me, and communication is easy.  

So getting back to the very reason for this blog, I’m including 5 more interesting facts about chocolate: 

1. Chocolate was once money that literally grew on trees 
2. Chocolate wasn’t always solid, or sweet 
3. It takes 400 cacao beans to make one pound of chocolate 
4. Chocolate contains tryptophan, very relaxing! 
5. The outer part of the cocoa bean has anti-bacterial properties.  

There u are, good stuff.  

Happy Juneteenth!

 Happy Juneteenth Weekend! 

This holiday is celebrated in the state of Texas for many years, a formal holiday now. 

Considering that America is only 300 years old, and the United States even younger, slavery wasn’t that long ago, nothing was that long ago in America. Almost all other countries are 1000s of years old. 

In terms of formative years, America is still a teenager/young adult..! 

Take care of America, raise us right, stay positive, independent and true, pray to Gd continually, without expecting results, just blessings, can’t go wrong… 

   

Just Saying…

 I love the old original apartment buildings. Big and friendly!

They have sequential numbers u can see from any angle, and best of all, they have the Name AND the complete full address on the front of the apartments, usually a sign or monument. 

So when GPS brings u to 2 driveways right next to each other, and there are apartment signs on each driveway with addresses, u know which one is which. 

There are a few that even share the same entrance, same driveway, similar apartment numbers. 

I can’t stand calling customers for directions, they are just hungry, sometimes even hangry, and aren’t interested in details at all. 

I’d rather stick bamboo shoots under my fingernails than call a customer for directions to their location.

 Only if they have done delivery ever in the past or present do they understand what it takes. 

The customer rarely puts the name of the apartments, and the apartments rarely put their addresses on the front of their entrances!

The worst are the newest apartment buildings that are giant blocks of concrete like prisons..! 

No name, no address, no signs. Totally locked down with gates on the doors that have magnetic keypads, no instructions, horrible! 

No visitor parking. Really hostile designers or planners in my opinion. 

It seems like delivery companies could work with apartment/condo builders to think of those things with residents in mind, just saying…

Free Gift this Month!

 Claim your free gift within the United States. 

eMail for details

In Memoriam

In Memory of Those who Served 

Heavenly Father, on this Memorial Day, Thank you for those brave veterans who have given their all to protect this country. 

Bless them and their families. 

And give those serving the strength to cope with life after the military. 

May they know how grateful we are for their service. 

We ask you to hear our prayer, Father, Amen. 

   

 

Apartments Designers’ Kudos & Budos

 KUDOS- to apartment builders and designers that still utilize the good old-fashioned sequential numbering system for apartment design. 

BUDOS- to designers who placed building numbers behind carports, roofs, or trees. 

KUDOS- to apt designers who not only place building numbers in sequence, but who also place permanent signage near entrances, and throughout huge complexes, directing drivers to correct building numbers. 

BUDOS- to apartment designers who think numbers are passé and no longer place addresses nor numbers on apartment entrance monuments.  

KUDOS- to apt designers who place visible lighting above each apt building number clearly at night (actually, I swear, I have yet to see this). 

BUDOS- to newer apt block building designers who have magnetic keypads at wire doors with no numbers, no keys nor speakers, no instructions, hint nor clue (I see this all the time). 

        

Kudos or Budos?

 Kudos or Budos 

Kudos to the young man who walked me to my car with an umbrella during a terrible storm after a restaurant pickup. I thanked him and said, ‘Gd Bless’. I don’t know how he took it but I meant it in its most positive way. 

Boo-dos to the elderly gentleman working at the pet store who wore an upside-down flag face-mask. When I asked him why he did that, he replied that at least he didn’t salute it (?)  

This is for you; 

                               

     

Along with automated $5 donations to Dog n Kitty City, I’ve also included an auto $5 monthly donation to Best Friends animal sanctuary. 

It’s a little difficult to copy/paste it here without giving away my minuscule financial information, but I’ll try to include copies of it to the Rescue tab/page soon.  

   

    

ADOPT

Found a Donation Home

 I found a home for monthly automated donations, at least for now, to one of very few no-kill shelters. 

Best Friends pledged to make the entire country no-kill by 2025 but that’s coming up sooner than they thought! Still an awesome animal sanctuary. 

In the mean-time, DogNKitty City was created as a no-kill shelter for dogs & cats. It’s a small shelter in an industrial area but they’ve got good support and I hope they can expand. 

It’s a tiny route, a tiny shelter, and a tiny $5 monthly donation. 

 

DogNKittyCity.org

HSUS

 It looks like my monthly automated donations to HSUS have stopped. 

Taking a look, I saw that HSUS.org has changed a lot. 

For one thing, the Humane University has moved to, of all places, 

Madonna University..!?! Yep, Madonna.edu, where;  

Get your degree in a cutting-edge field connecting social justice, environmental conservation, and animal protection.  

I guess anything’s possible these days as banks, schools, conferences, and classes have been moving online. 

I’m not going to concern my work with social justice, laws, or the environment. 

Critters, that’s it, just critters. 

I realize that laws can benefit animals, social justice can help the climate which can help the animals, and on it goes, but what I found is that it ended up taking me further and further from the critters themselves. 

I should say here that it is my intention to help animals, that is, the care and comfort of animals. Realizing this can mean helping people help animals, it moves too far into a political/social realm and animals get left behind yet again. 

Real work with real animals looks more like this; 

  TAKIS SHELTER  

This guy runs his shelter somewhere in Greece, he has lots of volunteers and employees. 

If u think the New World is cruel to animals, it’s nothing like the Old World. And it’s not really cruelty so much as it is disregard. Animals are virtually things there, like furniture that eats and poops and that’s it. 

This guy sees them as beings with feelings, souls, instincts, thoughts and care. He stays on grounds with them day and night and dedicates his life to them. I couldn’t do it, I don’t know many who could, but I would if I could but I can’t so I don’t. 

I do what I can which really isn’t much at all compared to dedication such as Takis Shelter, but I try. 

I’ve long been a fan of Cesar Milan, the American version. 

I have no idea of their political leanings and really truly don’t want to know, I’d just like to see more awareness available of the healing powers of unconditional love and hope more centers like these continue to thrive. 

I’m aware of the political leanings of HSUS and try to avoid anything that isn’t directly applied to the care and comfort of animals, so with all the new information available, I’ll re-start my tiny monthly donations to one of these wonderful places and will stay posted here. 

A Perfectly Lovely Week

 I don’t get bored. 

How can u get bored when u can pick up a novel and travel to Tahiti, to return home at no cost by closing the book. 

Or u can read the Bible and be thankful for the abundance of God and man, be shocked by history of war and corruption, be moved by Proverbs, or all of the above. 

That said, and except for a flash thunderstorm on Friday, it was a perfectly lovely work-week. No drama, no chaos, no ugliness at all, just peace and pajamas. 

Enjoy it while it lasts!  

On the Road Again...

 I drive. A LOT..! 

I check my vending route at least once a week, 

I drive to stores for merchandising assignments, for errands, on shopping assignments for customers, and for courier and delivery gigs. 

Whenever I come across extraordinary experiences, positive or negative, I write reviews on Yelp.com. 

Being that I’m sometimes sent to stores that I’d never seen or heard of before to pickup items for delivery,  I’ve learned of really cool places, especially a few restaurants that have been around for decades but I’d never heard of that I found to have exquisite menus. So look for my store reviews soon! 

An experience at a tiny bar left me so flummoxed that I had to write a review of it in Yelp when I realized that my understanding of it might be the only recent one in the life of that location. In other words, did others see the same things I did? 

Even if they did or didn’t, why can’t I write about any unusual experiences I've come across? 

And so I think I might do just that. 

Why not add a page to my blog that reviews my restaurant visits, or even store visits? 

Purely subjective, but sometimes I got a lot to say! 

Look for it soon!  

By the way, google is discontinuing automated email updates from blogs so I think it’s up to bloggers to manually send out updates. 

I’ll try my best to send some sort of work-around. 

Pandemic Over Yet?

 Pandemic Almost Over

   Greetings, 

My routes and I are still recovering from the pandemic, and I just wanted to let u know that I’m able to focus back onto the route. 

This means that the few machines I have left will be tended to properly now. 

An update means recovering from my supply lines coming back up so that I can get fresh candies, my current supply sat too long with too many machines that no longer exist so my supply is a toss and a loss. 

  With businesses back up and running, I’m working with new personnel and their preferences so it’s a lot like starting over from the very beginning with only a few machines again. 

 The Honor Boxes are holding up fine, I didn’t stock up on their candies as much since I wanted to get to know the new line first.  

   I’ve been taste testing the gumballs and as hoped, they always hold up and I’ll tell u why. 

   When gumballs issue straight from the factory, they are so fresh, they melt in the mouth, no ability to chew on them at all. After a few weeks, they firm up but only a little bit. It takes a good 3-6 months to get a good solid gumball with fresh flavor that doesn’t melt away. After this, they gradually firm up more and more, but never have I ever seen nor experienced a gumball that won’t soften up after a bit, and flavor diminishes but doesn’t disappear ever. 

   I honestly believe, and there’s no way to test it, but I believe the better made gumballs, usually by Double Bubble, stored in an unchangeable environment, no heat, no cold nor moisture, just a constant room temperature in medium light, would be able to last with flavor and effectiveness for a few generations. 

    The only problem I have seen so far is that the Jelly Bellies took on flavor from the machines themselves. 

   Jelly Bellies are of exceptional quality and are known for their accurate flavors, which lasted protected in the machines thru the last several months but had taken on a plastic aftertaste from the machines, so I’ve changed them out for gumballs, which never take on any stray flavors or tastes. It’s really too bad, too, because Jelly Bellies are very popular but difficult to vend and maintain. 

   So I’m back on it, I haven’t forgotten the machines or customers, and thanku for your patiences!  

   

Let’s Not Forget the Chocolate

 

Altho I work mostly with bubble gum and hard candies, let’s not forget the chocolatiers and the history of chocolate in all its variations. 

I realized I was moving away from my candy route simply because it had been downsized so much from the pandemic, and especially since opportunities have opened up for my books business, I’ve been focusing on that, but let’s not forget the chocolate! 

Returning to M&Ms for some of my machines, I noticed that they do not have the metal spirals in them that the gumball turnstile machines sometimes have. Was that some sort of design flaw? I don’t think so because M&Ms vend naturally quite well and the metal springs that rotate in their canisters might break up the small candies. Gumballs are much hardier and are able to aerate easier. That’s why I fill gumball canisters to the top while keeping M&M canisters, both peanut and plain, half empty (or half full if you’re an optimist :-) 

So those of us working hard to survive the pandemic, or working hard to survive, let’s not forget the temporary pleasures of chocolate for the body and the permanent joy of God for the soul. 

eBay Lets PayPal Go

 Okay fine, eBay doesn’t transact with PayPal anymore. 

Did they come up with their own payment system like maybe ePal, eBayPal? 

No, they are demanding access to your checking account..! 

This is horrendous. 

One of the 1st rules of Financial Peace University is to never ever give credit card companies access to your checking account. Debit cards are okay because those are treated similar to credit cards, but eBay expects full access to your hard-earned CASH..? No interim steps, arbitrator, 3rd party with no hands on your cash, just unadulterated access? Nope, I don’t think so. 

People are already investing in invisible cash, cyber money, no hard copy, just a click of a button and ‘it’ comes or goes 💸 

I can’t even sell my books on there anymore. 

eBay is awesome but not that awesome. And I can’t in good conscience promote debt cards, I mean credit cards. 

I’m sure it will be wildly popular to trust Big Brother with your wallet but my books are outta there. 

I’ll post my new site soon. I never made that much money from books anyway, it’s always been from sheer love of the written word, on paper, cloth, cardboard, any hard-copy, but not invisible digital cyber-books that can disappear with the click of a button on a whim. 

So far, I’ve never had any purchased books on my Kindle disappear from me, but I’ve had saved books that I had planned to purchase later disappear...

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