Fishing for Mr. Brown

My post last week was about being called back to work from being on furlough... to permanently close the building.  Yesterday, on Friday the 13th, the job was completed.  The building is closed and I have returned to furlough.

As the building was emptied, it became harder to do certain things without having all the "stuff" that used to be lying around.  So when I looked and saw a can standing upright at the bottom of the the 40-yard container where old furniture was being tossed, I looked for a ladder to climb down into the container to see if it was a can I needed for my collection.  

But all the ladders had already been sent away.  It's hard for me to accept something as impossible when one wants it bad enough, so I started scrounging the empty building for anything useful to reach down and get the can.  We had nothing long enough to reach that far down.  Since it was standing upright, could I fish it out?

The first thing I needed to make that possible was a "hook" and "line."  A discarded metal rod and an old microphone cable would work.  I taped the bent rod to the cable.

Now how could I extend the cable out far enough to drop down to reach the can?  A broom I had used to sweep the floor earlier could be the "pole."  I taped a roll of duct tape to the end of the broom handle and fed the cable/hook through it.  Now I could extend the hook out over the can and feed the cable through the roll of tape, slowly lowering the hook to the can.

It was a windy day, so aiming that lightweight hook into the mouth of the can was a bit of a challenge, but once it went in it caught the can and I was able to slowly pull the cable and raise the can from the bottom of the dumspter.

Once the can was high enough, I carefully pulled the broom handle in and brought the can to me.

Not only was I proud that I scraped together the parts to make a can fishing pole from a nearly-empty building, I was also able to take pics to document the process so I could write about it today.

Once the can was safely in my hand, I saw it was indeed a can I didn't have.  In fact, I've never heard of it before.  The can is strange also, the bottom is the same as a steel soup can.  And it's a non-standard 8.12 oz sized can.  This can of iced coffee was the last I would get from that building.  But what a last can it was.  Not only is it a very interesting can, but it also made for one of my most interesting can-collecting stories.

And I may have just found a new hobby for this next phase of my furlough... fishing.

A Positive End to an Era

My job is in the public service industry.  And back in March everyone in my building was put on furlough because due to COVID there was no longer a public to service.  The days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months, and in September I received a call asking if I wanted to go back to work in the building... to permanently shut it down.  "Sure'', I said.  I needed a paycheck.

After two months of distributing equipment to our other locations, taking down shelving, taking apart furniture, filling multiple dumpsters with trash, making many recycling runs, etc. next Friday will be my last day there.  We will all remain on furlough so hopefully if/when the business picks back up they will call us back.  Not to our old jobs, but somewhere else within the company. 

During one of our tips to the dumpster this week, I glanced in before we started filling it and saw two lonely cans.

Yes, I hopped down into the empty container and discovered it was a can I didn't have yet in my collection.

These were Adrenaline Shoc cans, an energy drink I've never heard of.  They were both the same, so I chose the one with the least amount of dents and rescued it.

Back in what's left of my office, I took this somewhat blurry picture of the can.  I've scored many cans from work over the years.  In fact, my collection blog started at work 9.5 years and two buildings ago with this post.

It's certainly the end of an era for me.  And I'll wait as long as I can to be called back, but unemployment benefits only last so long.  

But for now, I suppose I'll have more time to dumpster dive for cans for my collection.

Trick or Treat

With the pandemic still haunting us, it's questionable whether kids should be out trick-or-treating this year.  But there's no scientific evidence yet to support the theory that COVID affects aluminum cans.

The original can

So I chose this pitiful (no offense) Big K cola can from my collection a couple of months ago and asked what it wanted to be for Halloween.  It said it wanted to be a big, beautiful can of Coca-Cola.  Not "New" Coke, but one with the original taste.

We started on its costume back in late August.  Some parts of the costume were found in thrift stores.  Some parts were donated by family members. And the remaining parts were ordered online, which may be considered cheating.

But in the end, the Big K can LOVES its costume and we doubt anyone recognizes it tonight when it knocks on peoples' doors (socially distant, of course) and utters those memorable words "Trick or Treat."

Big K can in its Halloween costume

H A P P Y   H A L L O W E E N

COVID Surge

COVID is still running rampant in the USA.  And the latest can given to me was the 16oz Surge can below.  

It's not my fault the title of this post wrote itself.

Stay safe!

Shark Week

The skies are overcast today and an autumn wind is blowing.  Rain is headed our way.  Although rain makes a sloppy mess of the dead leaves in the yard, do you know who doesn't mind being wet?  A shark!

I received this from someone last night.  Mtn Dew Frost Bite.  Winter is on its way and soon water falling from the sky will be frozen.  But shark don't care!  He crashes thru the ice and is poised to bite your fingers as you grab the can to taste the new limited time cool icy melon flavor.

And that's the story of the new can for my collection.

This for That: A Can Trading Story

A coworker recently de-cluttered his house.  He said he would bring some DVD's, CD's, and books for me to donate to my small-town library.  He brought the tubs yesterday and it was quite a bit more than I expected.

On the left is the tub of DVD's and on the right are the CD's.  Thinking of others, I didn't want to overwhelm the library with so much media so I went thru both tubs and took a few things from each for myself.  And then I thought of someone else who might like to check it out.  He said he'd come over and look thru the tubs... he had a can for me anyway.

He handed me this can of Duff energy drink and took a few discs for himself.  I immediately recognized this as the brand from the Simpson's TV show.  On the show it's beer, but IRL it's a "wonderful orange flavored" energy drink.

So I consider this a win-win-win-win situation; my coworker cleared up some space in his house, my trader ended up with some discs, the library will have new material for the town to enjoy, and most importantly... I have a new can for my collection.

My Most Expensive Can Purchase

** I'll admit up front... the title of this post is click bait. **

Act 1 - Last week someone sent a picture of a Schnucks brand Red Cream Soda can to me.  Nope, I didn't have that can so they said they'd save it for me.

Act 2 - Next June my son is going on a school trip to Washington DC.  

Act 3 - I owed the aforementioned person money for my son's trip.  So they jokingly said they would sell the can to me for that amount... which happened to be $550.

Epilogue - I gave someone a $550 check and got a Schnucks can in return.  So in effect, this was my most expensive can purchase.  But looking at it that way, my son gets a free trip to Washington DC next June.

Polar Pepsi

No, Polar Pepsi is not a new flavor.  It's just the two brands of cans I got this week.

There's a small 7.5 oz Diet Pepsi can, a 12 oz can of Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi, and a cranberry lime Polar seltzer water.  I didn't drink any of them, the cans were just given to me.

What cans will find me this week?

Watermelon or Strawberry?

A new flavor of sparkling water last week... La Croix Watermelon.  But is it really watermelon?

This "innocent" pasteque seems a bit devious to me.  A wolf in sheep's clothing.  An undercover spy.  Whatever you call it, I don't think it's what it claims to be.

My family couldn't wait to try this delicious-looking watermelon-flavored water.  But when we took our first taste, we all had the same reaction; this doesn't taste like watermelon.  

In fact, we all agreed it tasted like strawberry.  And not the sweet, artificial candy-like strawberry flavoring most beverages have, but this tastes like the semi-tart taste of a real-life strawberry.

Regardless, it sure was delicious and I'm ready to buy more.

Yellow Week

These cans have been in my pantry for a little while, but I thought I'd highlight them this week before they are sent to the basement to be with the rest of my collection.

On the left is Walmart's Diet Mist Twst, which obviously is a take on Sierra Mist or any other lemon-lime soda.

In the middle is Pineapple Vess.  I've had this can for a while, so I'm not sure if it's still the current can design or not.

On the right is Yoo-hoo.  This can is a variation on a similar design already in my collection

And now, on to the next color...

More Water

Last week continued the trend that's been popular in my house this summer of trying new flavored waters.

The two new cans are raspberry flavored Bubly and cherry limeade flavored Clear American.  Both were good.  

And here's a teaser... there are more new cans of water to come.  Stay tuned...

Boring Cans

This week I will highlight some newer cans for my collection that have something in common... they are boring.  

Check out these flavors:

• Cola
• Cream Soda
• Grape
• Root Beer  

And the brand names are all house brands:

• Big K from Kroger
• Great Value from Walmart
• Clover Valley from Dollar General

They can't all be Gucci.  But when it comes to collecting cans, it doesn't matter if it's the most expensive brand or the cheapest, they're all cans and take up the same amount of space on the shelf.

AHA

Another new week, another new brand of flavored water.  This time I bought AHA from Walmart.

This Blueberry Pomegranate sparkling water was pretty good.  But don't try it wrapped in a soft tortilla shell.

Adventures in Water

Last week I had an adventure in this ongoing pandemic... I went to Target.  While wearing my mask, I saw four La Croix water flavors I hadn't tried yet.  Plus, I didn't have those cans in my collection.

Hi-Biscus - I believe this is the first can of this flavor in my collection.  I wasn't sure what to expect, something between the taste of a rose and a daffodil maybe?  But the smooth, surprisingly sweet taste was actually rather pleasant.  Way to not suck, hibiscus.

Limon Cello - What does that even mean?  But upon tasting it was more than just lemon, it tastes like there could be some vanilla or something else to smoothen up the lemon.  Music to my taste buds.

Lime - It's lime.  I'm not a big fan of lime, but if I imagine the taste of lemon with this it's a pretty good 7Up imitator. 

Lemon - It's lemon.  I like lemon, and if I imagine the taste of lime with this it's a pretty good 7Up imitator. 

And those were my adventures in water in the good ol' pandemic summertime!

Good & Gather

A strange name for a brand, but my daughter recently scored these three Good & Gather cans from Target.

The Summer of Flavored Water continues.  These were pretty good and were carbonated.  The flavors are Ginger Peach (the best of these three IMHO), Lime, and Strawberry Mango.  

I rate these a "G" for "good."

Razz-Cranberry

At the store last week, I saw this flavor of La Croix sparkling water and decided to buy a 12-pack.  It's called Razz-Cranberry.

On the way home, a cranberry-raspberry flavored La Croix started to sound familiar.  Had I just bought a flavor that was already in my collection?

One of the first places I look now to see if I have a particular can is this blog.  I did a search on "La Croix" and sure enough, I found this post from June of 2019 that had this picture in it:

Yep, I already had that can.

But wait!!!  The cans featured in last year's post were Cran-Raspberry and the can I just got is Razz-Cranberry.  Then I realized how awesome that is.  As far as I know, this may be the first flavor name swap in my collection.  Sweet.

As a can collector, always look at the details.  Even something as obvious as the name of the flavor can be a variation for your collection.

More Game Fuel

Last year I posted about four Mtn Dew Game Fuel cans. 

A couple of weeks ago someone sent a pic to me from the store showing two Game Fuel cans from this year.

They were $2 each, but since I haven't bought a can for my collection in a while I told them to get them for me.  And since energy drinks aren't my thing, someone else had the excitement of drinking them.

So this year's cans are the new "Charged Watermelon Shock" (which sounds delicious) and last year's "Charged Berry Blast."  So does the Berry Blast count as a new can?  Yes.

2020

2019

Last year's can had "New" written near the top of it.  This year's can is identical except the "New" has been removed.  So they are different cans.  I call it a "variation."

Having been on furlough from work since mid-March (with no current end in site), I've been doing some extra gaming.  So it's only appropriate that I finally did a post about Game Fuel.

The Big Boys

This week I acquired two new cans.  These come from two of the big boys in the soda game.

First is the cherry vanilla Coca-Cola can.  Nice flavor combo.  Nice simple can design.

The second is a Pepsi can "Made with Real Sugar."  It has the logo from their 1940's rebranding.

These are three certainties in this world:

• death
• taxes
• continuous new Coca-Cola and Pepsi can designs

New Waters

As the heat of summer hits, water is the best thing to quench my thirst.  And lately I've been trying out various brands and flavors of water.  This week, I tried three new ones.

Bubly, as I've previously posted about, is a bit flat for my taste but that doesn't keep me from trying different flavors.  And this week's flavor was blackberry.  As usual, the flavor was a bit bland, but I'm still interested in trying more Bubly flavors.

Clear American, another brand I've posted about, was the second brand this week. It was also blackberry.  How does this flavor compare to the rest?  Not as much flavor as the others, but it was still ok.

And finally, pamplemousse flavor by La Croix.  It's been a long time since my two years of French back in high school, so I didn't realize pamplemousse is French for grapefruit.  I just thought it was a fun flavor to say.  But when I got home and tried it, the closest flavor I could guess was... grapefruit.  And the pink color on the can also made me think grapefruit.  So good job, La Croix!  Without knowing what I was drinking I assumed it was grapefruit and I was correct!

Technically summer hasn't even started, but at this rate the Flavored Water Wing of my can collection is sure to grow by leaps and bounds over the next few months.  Oui, oui!

New Cokes

Someone I know has started using the Walmart curbside grocery pickup where you place your groceries order on the Walmart website and then pull up to a designated area at the store and they load groceries order right into your car.

As a bonus for using the service, she was given a small grab bag of samples.  Included in the bag was a Coca-Cola energy drink, the can of which I didn't yet have.  So I immediately claimed that for myself from her grocery loot.

And soon after that, someone else had a small 7.5 oz can of Cherry Coca-Cola and asked if I had that can.  Nope.  So they gave it to me.

And that's how these two Coca-Cola cans came to be in my collection.

Say Hello to a Military Hero

Memorial Day was earlier this week in the US and these four cans made it to my collection.

It's hard to get a good pic without reflections, but these are the four newest Coca-Cola cans labaled USO.  I have other USO cans, including these two from last year.

The US is going through a lot right now but one thing is for sure... new can designs will continue to be released.

Coke Zero

I already have some Coke Zero cans in my collection, but these three recently came to me and they look nice set next to each other.

An Orange Vanilla Coke Zero can was featured about a year ago, but these are the newest flavors to enter my collection.

Keep 'em coming...

Clear American

Some people around me have taken to drinking water instead of soda lately.  And one of the brands of sparkling water is Clear America.  This brand is sold at Walmart in these parts.

And this brand is actually really good.  I had to check a couple times to make sure the Strawberry I drank wasn't Strawberry soda.  Some waters are too carbonated, some aren't carbonated at all.  This seems to be just right.  And having zero everything (sugar, caffeine, calories, sodium, etc), I'm not sure how it doesn't end up with zero flavor.  But they did it right.

The flavors that I currently have for my collection are Black Cherry, Peach, and Strawberry, but there are others.  Hopefully in the near future some of those other flavors will make it into my collection.

Newest Big Red

Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago what brands of soda haven't really changed their can designs much over the years.  I came up with a short list off the top of my head of Bubble Up, Cheerwine, Ski, and Big Red.

And then this week someone gave me a Big Red can and what do you know?  It was different!!!

My old can

My new can

Above, on the left was the most recent Big Red can in my collection and on the right is the new can.  At first glance they may look the same.  But the old can has a circle under the Big Red name that reads, "Big Red Instead - since 1937."  The new can's circle reads, "So Sweet So Smooth - est 1937."  It's not a big difference, but it's a difference!  And the new can also has the can size and calorie marker.

My oldest Big Red can is a straight steel pull top that dates back to the 1970's.  Between that one and the can on the left above I only have three other designs.  There have been a few more designs over the years that I just don't have yet, but still, for fifty years that's not many changes.

Ok Bubble Up, Cheerwine, and Ski!  I'm waiting for new designs from you now...

The Time for Doctors

As the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic, cans are still finding their way to me.  Recently a mystery delivery appeared on my deck.  And in that delivery were four Dr Pepper cans I didn't have yet.

There were two cream soda cans, one regular and one diet.  There was also a Nashville VIP Experience contest can featuring Luke Combs.  And finally, a diet can featuring the college football playoff.

These may not be the newest cans out there, but they are new to me.  Thanks again, Mystery Can Delivery Person.

Dews and Don'ts

DEWS:
In the mystery delivery of cans I blogged about last weekend, I got one of my most-wanted cans from 2019: Mtn Dew VooDew.

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year.  And by the time I heard about this can last November, stores around here didn't have them anymore.  I could have gone on eBay and spent more than it was worth to get one, but I realized it's not the first Halloween-themed can I don't have and it won't be the last.

So even though the tab has been removed, I was more than excited to finally get one of these cans.  Btw, the mystery flavor was Candy Corn.

Also in the bunch were two more Mtn Dew cans I'm not sure I have.  In my recent spare time, I've been organizing the basement which means moving boxes of cans around.  And currently all my Mtn Dew cans are in the bottom box in a large stack. 


So I'll have to classify these two cans as "maybes."  I'm pretty sure I have the Live Wire, but I'm not sure about the Taco Bell flavor Baja Blast.








DON'TS
-Don't drink after someone who has the Coronavirus.
-Don't let anyone drink after you if you have the Coronavirus.
-Don't wait too long to look for a special holiday-themed can.

Mystery Delivery of Cans

During the current stay-at-home orders, I haven't gone anywhere but the grocery store and family and friends' homes.  I was surprised to find a mystery delivery of cans on my back deck this morning.

I think I know who put them there, but I'll have to verify that.  So now I will go through the pile and see if there are any cans I don't have.  I'll clean them up and see if any are worth posting about in coming weeks.  And then they'll head to the basement or garage to be with my other cans.

Doubly Bubly

These two cans made it to my house recently.  I've seen the bubly brand at Walmart.

Eight-packs of these were given to us from two different families because they didn't like them.  If you're looking for a sweet, flavorful alternative to plain water, keep looking.  But if you look at it as water with a slight hint of flavoring, you should be ok.  And if you're looking for a beverage that if you're not thinking about the flavor printed on the can then you may mistake it for plain water, this is perfect.

I do like the tab colors that match the flavor.  And they do have funny sayings printed on the sides...

But in my experience of drinking this "sparkling water," I didn't find many bubbles in my bubly.  It falls a little flat.


4/18/20 UPDATE

Since the original post I bought some Strawberry Bubly.  It's as I expected with a bland strawberry taste, but it's still a little better than just plain water.

And this flavor also has a funny saying...

Two New AZ

Two new AriZona tea can designs for my collection:

They are Mucho Mango with its American Southwest look and Raspberry tea with, well, raspberries pictured near the bottom of the can.

Even with stay-at-home orders, new cans are making their way to me...