Your blogger, looking out the train window

The PopCulteer
July 18, 2025

It’s time for another random PopCulteer, presented as a stream of concsiousness ramble because your humble blogger is headed out of town for a quick, fun, trip…again.

This weekend we are heading back down to Louisville for the Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo, which you can read about HERE. I will be taking plenty of photos and Mel will be shooting video and I’ll bring you all that after we get back.

Last weekend we went to the first (but definitely not last) KrugerFest Toy Show in Wheeling, and I essentially went as a civilian. So I don’t have photos or video. This was a smaller, more intimate show, and yours truly was still suffering the effects of some painful and invasive medical tests, so I decided to just keep the camera in me pocket and enjoy the show.  Next year you can expect photos and video, but this year I was not up for it.

The plan for Kentuckiana is to strike a balance between socializing with friends and documenting the event for my readers. We’re going to stay a little longer and avoid putting too much pressure on ourselves while still getting plenty of video and photos to share with you folks.

For those of you who have been asking how I’m doing…I’m almost back to normal. The pain in my arms and hands has mostly let up, save for the odd tinge in my left hand. I should be completely recovered by the end of the month.

The play we went to see, “You Will Get Sick” was amazing, and prophetic!

This summer has been a bit of a blur. From the end of May, in quick order, I saw Ann Magnuson as part of “Three Things” in Charleston, saw old friends and met the guy who built the shark in JAWS in Louisville two days later at WonderFest, hopped on a train to Chicago the next day where we saw a great play (and got to sit in on part of a tech rehearsal) and had other fun adventures, went to the Marx Toy Show in Wheeling the weekend after we got back from Chicago, visited The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, picked up a summer cold at some point, had electrified needles plunged into my arms and neck fourteen times, whined repeatedly about that here in the blog, took Lee Harrrah with us to KrugerFest, and now I’m off to Louisville again.

We’ve been to The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum in Wheeling twice in the last five weeks!

And technically, we’re not quite one-third of the way through summer yet. There was a quick overnight trip to Parkersburg/Marietta in there somewhere, too.

I think we’ve gone out of town five of the last six weekends.

We don’t have plans for August yet…However, it is a bit of a minefield of significant dates. I’ve got a birthday. Mel and I have our anniversary. And near the end of the month, this blog celebrates 20 years of whatever the hell it is that I do here.

I’ll have to do something for that. I’m also sure that another trip or two might materialize. In the meantime, I still have some photos to share, videos to edit and other adventures to tell you about.

But those will have to wait because I got places to go, people to meet and toys to buy.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content (somehow) and all our regular features.