More Thrift Store Treasures (MANY More)

It's been a while sine I have shared with you the great stuff I have found lately in our local thrift stores. Since I have a moment, I figured I would rectify that oversight now, so hang on to your hats, or I just might buy them at the thrift store!

First up is the great little reel-to-reel I found pushed all the way back on the bottom shelf in the electronics section of the thrift store. The poor little thing stared up at me forlornly with it's two big reels just begging me to take him home. I picked him up, plugged him in, and discovered he was DOA.

Even though I didn't get so much as a spark out of the little guy, I could sense he had some life left in him, so I bundled him up, paid the $15.00 asking price, and took him home. The first thing I usually do when I find an off-beat item like this is to see what Google has to say about it, so I plugged in "Wollensak 3M 5750", and found next to nothing. The most hits were returned from a site built by a guy who rescued a 5750 off of eBay. Also DOA, he restored his machine to it's former glory, and like me was surprised to discover the fantastic sound quality this baby packs!

It also folds up nice and compact for a groovy beach party, or sleepover.

By the way, I lucked out on my Wollensak. All that was wrong with mine was a stuck reset button. I un-stuck the button and have been in reel-to-reel aural heaven ever since.

I also dug up in a different thrift store a Hewlett Packard 4L laserjet printer for my office at work. I work for a small, family owned company, and often the budget is just as small. We have a nice fax/scanner/printer/copier up in the telephone/network closet, but I am lazy, and hated walking all the way up there from my office each time I needed to print a document, so I had been on the look out for a good printer for quite some time. The HP 4L is a great little printer, especially for the $12.00 I paid for it. It came with the toner cartridge in it, and all I needed to make it compatible with my desktop at work was a parallel-USB converter cable. Just like a modern plug-and-play printer, Windows XP found my printer, and had it printing a test page in mere moments.

When the former wife moved out she of course took her computer with her. We had bought a printer some time ago that she ended up using more often than I had, but when she moved out she left the printer behind. I called her up and asked her why she left it, and she said she thought it was mine, and never really gave it much more thought. I told her to pick it up the next time she came by because she always had used it more than I did, and besides, if I decided to get one for myself I would just pick one up at the thrift store.

Well, this past weekend that's exactly what I did...

When I saw this cutie stashed between a beat up old Cannon BJC-4400, and an Okidata Microline 300, it was love at first sight. The Hewlett Packard 1320 is a fantastic Laserjet printer that retailed around $400.00 before it was discontinued. I rescued this beauty from the thrift store for $5.99! It came with the toner cartridge and a few sheets of paper. My desktop at home includes an ASUS P5GDC Deluxe which of course has a parallel port, so all I had to do was plug in and print!

When I picked up my new 1320 treasure in the back of the thrift store, and turned to head on up to the cashier's, I saw out of the corner of my eye a JVC HR-S3500U Super-VHS tape recorder/player in like-new condition! I couldn't believe my luck..

I have a ton of old family home movies, as well as TV shows etcetera that I copied on VHS that I have been dying to put on DVD for quite a few years. I trashed my own tape machine a several years ago after it ate a tape, and I discovered it would cost more to repair the damn thing than to buy another one. The trouble was, it's very difficult to find a decent VHS player/recorder any more, and whenever I have found one I would like to buy it turns out to be too expensive. I have sorted through hundreds of VHS machines at the thrift store looking for just the right one, but more often than not the pickin's were pretty slim, and I come up empty handed.

This puppy, however, is a great find as far as VHS goes. It's playback capabilities are more than adequate for my needs, and I will be putting in a lot of hours transferring my old tapes in the days to come.

And wouldn't it be nice to add a few creative touches to those videos, for instance, say, some nice titles and maybe even the addition of some background music or narrations? Well, with this little guy, I can....

The Video Studio 500, ladies and gentlemen. This may be the one time I paid too much for something I found at the thrift store. At $24.99, I thought it was probably a good find, and later when I looked for it on-line I discovered it had sold new for around $200.00 or so. However, a quick eBay search turned up a one for 99 cents, but I am still happy with it. Besides, I sure made up for it with all the rest of the cool stuff I bought.

Like I said earlier, the Hewlett Packard 4L printer ended up in my office at work, and most of the rest of the stuff I use at home. The Wollensak reel-to-reel, however, ended up in my office. It's a great conversational piece, and I have several nice tapes to play on it as well. It all helps the day go by a little faster.

Picture Perfect Papa

Since I lost Athena I have taken literally hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of my pets. I wish I had more pictures of Athena, so I suppose that's why I take so many of Angel, Jackie, Thalia, and the rest of my small zoo. Few are really any good, and less, a LOT less, are very good. This one I just now took of Angel is very good. At least in my eyes...

I know that overall it's not a great picture, but my heart recognizes him in this picture, and that's what makes it great.

Want more great pictures of pets like Papa Then head on over to the Friday Ark at The Modulator.

Before and After

Amazig what shorter hair can do for a person....

Before...

After...

Pet Level

The other day I bought a tiny little tripod so I could take pictures of my tiny little dogs and my tiny little cats at pet level. And that's what I did...

Papa and Jackie got in trouble the other afternoon and had a time out on their pillow. The time out turned into a nap after about five minutes.

A little later Jackie wanted to play with her toy bone. But of course daddy just wanted to take some boring old pictures.

Angel sometimes thinks his pillow is a blanket...

Other times he thinks his pillow is, well, a pillow.

Through it all, though, Thalia just sits and watches the show.

I like getting down to pet level. I feel comfortable there, and even loved. After a day at the salt mines, where everyone seems more interested in pushing each others buttons, and finding new and exotic ways of getting out of work rather than doing the job they were hired for, coming home to the zoo is quite relaxing.

Of course don't forget the Friday Ark over at The Modulator. Talk about critters!