Today I took a daytrip by myself to do some procurement for the shop (which fared well…good stuff coming to the shop very soon!) and a few things kind of blew me away. Let’s discuss: But, before we do, on a side note, let’s take a look at this awesome menu from the Luca Brasi deli in Hoboken. What, no Medium Petey?

1. Cherry Top – Driving all morning I was getting sleepy so when I arrived in this small town I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee, egg’n'cheese and toasted coconut donut (mmmmm…). As my eyes scrolled around the donut racks, I thought I was delirious with sleepy eyes, but it was all real. Cherry Top donut. Peanut Butter ‘n Jelly donut. Kreme D’Lite donut. I’ve never seen these before! I checked the official DND website and it doesn’t even seem like any of these are officially sanctioned. Wow, I feel like such a tourist in these small towns sometimes – they’re like some weird Twilight Zone episode.

2. Scary Mannequins – Everyone has their own taste in antiques, of course, but when I turned the corner in this tight dim lit section of this old market today, I got totally spooked out and jumped back into the shelves behind me. And what’s with the velvet rope?

3. Driving by Yourself – Now that we’re driving a lot more and longer distances, I’m starting to buy-in to the whole satellite radio thing. No good songs and when you do find one, they don’t last and get busted up by the fuzz. It’s really frustrating. Here’s a pic of me imitating a slow motion cry of “Noooooooooo!” after Van Halen’s “Panama” got fuzz-busted mid-way through.

4. Detour – I got lost on my trip (as always) and had to ask for directions. This really overfriendly woman described what seemed to be some kind of strange detour route. She was smiling really widely the whole time, describing all these offbeat landmarks. I asked her if this was the quickest way and she replied, with a pause…..”it’s the best way”. Well, I’d like to say thanks because this detour was awesome! I passed an amazing old log cabin lodge, an old Bates Motel-like “Holly Inn” motel, and these beautiful rolling hills filled with apple and cherry trees. I quickly snapped a pic and when I got home I realized that it had this weird-looking car in it. There’s gotta be some kind of word (like a Sniglet) for when people replace large pieces of the car body with unmatching colors. Anyone? Anyone? I remember that Volkswagen put out a car like this in Europe and Japan in the late-nineties. You could mix and match the colors of the various pieces of the car. Sounds like a good idea, like the Patchwork Elephant, but they mostly ended up tragic messes.