As many people tend to do, these days, I was recently surfing around through Ebay when an interesting question came to mind. I’m a rather reminiscent person, and I suddenly wondered if there were people who were placing toys on Ebay that I’d grown up with. I decided to toss out a few searches, and I was genuinely surprised by what I actually found!

This got me to thinking more and more about exactly which toys I owned while growing up and how much fun I had with them. My imagination was my best friend, being out in the countryside. I didn’t have a lot of kids nearby to play with during summer vacations. So, I’d take my toys outside in a camouflage gym bag and create adventures that might last ¾ of the day!!

My children are growing up in an “instant” world. Entertainment is provided for them without any requirement for imagination. I have to nearly force them to turn the TV and video games off and play with their toys, these days. Thankfully, they enjoy reading.

Oh, don’t get me wrong… I’m part of the video game generation. I cut my teeth on the likes of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Q*bert and Space Invaders. I’ve seen it all and played most of it. So, I thought it might be fun to throw out a few memories of mine. Who knows, you might share many of them with me.

Toys I Remember Having As A Child: (this could be a long list)
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GI Joe action figures:
1) Snake Eyes & Timber (his wolf)
2) Mainframe
3) Beach Head
4) Airborne
5) Lady Jay
6) Cobra B.A.T.
7) Gung-Ho (original)
8) Wet Suit
9) Doc (original)
10) Quick Kick
11) Grand Slam (original with silver pads)

GI Joe playsets / vehicles:
1) GI Joe L.A.W. playset
2) GI Joe J.U.M.P. jetpack pad playset
3) GI Joe Outpost Defender playset
4) GI Joe Skystriker “f-14 tomcat"
5) GI Joe Devilfish "boat"
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Go-Bots:
1) Green Cykill
2) Jeeper Creeper
3) Master Blaster
4) Dive Dive

Go-Bots Playsets:
1) Thrust-1 (evil base) playset
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Transformers: A=Autobot D=Decepticon
1) Optimus Prime (A)
2) Dirge (D)
3) Warpath (A)
4) Skydive (A)
5) Red Alert (A)
6) Jet Fire (A)
7) Blaster (A)
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Miscellaneous other toys I recall.....

- Voltron Motorized Lion Set (all 5 lions)
- “Dr. J” Wilson basketball
- Brown stopper-gun set with red, firing, stopper darts
- Lincoln Logs (logs and slats were wood…plastic chimney)
- Erector Set
- Tinker Toys
- Hot Wheels
- Stomper trucks
- Nikko Turbo-Panther R/C dunebuggy
- Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun
- Crossman AR17 combo Pellet/BB gun
- Crossman 357-6 pellet pistol
- Coleco Electronic Quarterback (handheld game)
- Simon (game)
- LiteBrite (electronic toy)
- Candyland, Sorry!, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Dominos, Operation, Clue (board games)
- HeMan & The Masters Of The Universe figures w/ Castle Greyskull
- Star Wars figures (first issue)

I warned you this would be a long list... but I think I've gone on long enough. I could recall movies & TV shows that I enjoyed, but that would be almost unbearable here. At least I'm posting entries more often!! More later.

Howdy boys n’ girls. Looks like we’re back together for another installment of the redneck’s rant. Hrmm…yea, it’s been another long gap between entries. While I do apologize, again, for the delay of new material on a daily basis… at least it does tend to give me more to comment on when I do come back to update the blog. Without further adieu, I’ll crack the old knuckles and we’ll journey down the twisted path of my mind for an insightful look into the whole “Jason Experience” as of late.

I’ve been dealing with a pinching pain in my upper back, located over my left shoulder and between the shoulder blade and spine. I’ve tried stretches, heat, a new chair, and corrective posture habits. Nothing seems to get the slight “burn” out of that area…and it even goes slightly numb from time to time. It isn’t incapacitating… but it’s definitely annoying. I think it stems from a lack of adequate support in the chair I was forced to use her at the new job, a bad habit of slouching whilst working on the PC (since most monitors are not situated at a level equal my eyes), and the fact that I’m not 18 anymore.

Does anyone know how to stop a female cat from “yoweling” at night while she’s in heat? The constant “mmrrOOOWWWWwrrr” and trilling is driving me insane. My wife calls this cat her “purr-purr-princess”…so you can imagine how spoiled this thing is. I can’t believe how often this cat goes through menstrual cycles. Apparently I’ve never paid that much attention to it before, but they’re in heat and begging for some about every other week, it seems!!! I’ve never seen anything like it!! She’ll sit there and bat her eyes… trill out a little purr…and wiggle her ass like “I neeeeeed it!!!” Ugg…. Somebody get this cat FIXED!!!

Well, with it being practically the end of October, now, here’s an update on what the kiddos are dressing up as. My youngest son is going as the movie version of Wolverine from X-Men. There’s a cute story behind this character and my kid…but I won’t take up space here with it. He’s got the suit, the little claws, and we’ll be styling his hair and giving him a pair of makeup “sideburns”. He should be very cute. My oldest boy is going as a Star Wars “Clone Trooper” from the last movie to hit the big screen. He has a trooper suit, complete with helmet. The “blaster rifle” toy is on order and should be here in just a few days.

My wife and I are big kids when it comes to the holidays, and we want our kids to always have good memories of the things we did as a family during special times. So, she and I dress up each year to take them up to an event at our capital city’s zoo, called “Boo At The Zoo”. I’m going as the Grim Reaper… and the wife is going as a witch. We both feel that our costumes tend to represent the best of our bad side. I’m typically the harbinger of doom… while she’s typically brewing up trouble.

I’ll let you know how things go. More later.

Howdy folks. Well, I’m back again to distribute sunshine… not unlike a cow pie in a wood chipper. ~lol~ I realize I’ve been gone awhile and have left my adoring masses without anything to read. For that, I do apologize. But, from time to time, I have to attend to real life and the tight schedules that come along with it.

I’ve been well. I’ve managed to remain employed and at least marginally stable, financially. However, my money situation is tending to want to lean toward “Chronically Impoverished” if this trend continues for much longer. I’m desperately seeking some local part-time work to help shove a proverbial crutch under our budget.

After the hit my wife and I took in the pocketbook (over the job change we both were forced into about 7 months ago) we’ve been struggling against the slowly sinking ratio of income versus bills. We’re beginning to slide into the bright yellow zone, and the red zone ain’t far off.

I’ve applied at several places with only one showing any sign of interest, thusfar. The only problem is in the fact that I’ve basically had to hold their hand and coax them to contact me with information after the initial interview. I was supposed to be scheduled for a drug-screen before beginning work with the local Tractor Supply Company.

That was over a week ago. I’ve had to call the supervisor 3 times since then, inquiring about when and where this was supposed to happen. I don’t have time to sit around for half a month while people drag their feet. I have a family to support and I need the work NOW. They’re about to find me “unavailable” real damn fast.

In other news… the boys are doing well in their sports. My oldest son (Justin) is playing flag-football in a local church league, and they won their game last night. My youngest son (Logan) is playing his church league soccer game tonight. Mondays and Tuesdays are always hectic each week. I don’t know who made up the Practice/Game schedule for the church league…but they need to be flogged. Here’s what we have to contend with…and keep in mind that there are two separate locations for practice…and yet a third location for both boys to play games.

Monday – Logan’s Practice from 6:00pm to 7:00pm ~then~ Justin’s Game from 7:00pm to 9:00pm

Tuesday – Justin’s Practice from 6:00pm to 7:00pm ~then~ Logan’s Game from 6:45pm to 8:45pm

As you can see, it takes a tag-team environment to get the boys where they need to be on an almost overlapping schedule on both nights. Again, practices are on two different fields in separate locations…and the games are played at a third location. *Sigh* … the joys of parenthood.

Well, that’s all for now. More later.