April 29

Here we've been blessed with another day to spend however we want to. And it has got to be spent today for it is impossible to save one. Now it is up to you, do you want a 'good time Charlie' or a 'good time Charlie's got the blues'.

Because I've come up empty in the head again or the thought trigger has a safety problem that won't allow it to fire, I'm going to add a short thing that I read on Boogie Jack by, I think his name is, Dennis Gaskin.

"This is who we are. A roiling river of consciousness comprised of who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become. Who we were and want to be are but a shadow and a ghost of who we are at the moment. Who we create ourselves to be each day is the master, though many give over their sovereignty of self to the shadow of the past."..

Heavy stuff huh? Well, maybe not heavy to you but it is to this sparcely educated cluck.

Now that I've gotten this far down the page, I personally believe it to be far enough for this attempt tho I realize some might think far enough was about nine lines up the page.

Only people who die very young learn all they really need to know in kindergarten.~Wendy Kaminer

April 28

Well the cat finally decided for the safer environment of his house Friday but not without a bit of encouragement. He was sitting under the porch and I tried to talk him in but to no avail. In fact, to show his contempt for my futile beseeching attempts, while looking at me he began some very deep gagging and then threw up twice. This very quickly dropped the confidence in my already questionable verbal abilities down way below the not any of my typing.

Thought about it for awhile then remembered seeing him eating an unknown in the yard, so making myself feel better, I told me that was probably the reason for his puking his guts out.

He continued to ignore me so I devised a plan. I left the door open wide and asked Glenda to sit just beyond the door from where he would come from if he opted for the porch instead of across the lawn, in hopes she might be able to encourage him thru him the door. I then went to the garage and started up the leaf blower, which he hates, and began blowing in the lawn behind him.............It worked great!

We had an enjoyable day Saturday going with the Struebbe's to their home near New Haven. Mary 'Super Lady' Jo chauffeured us, including Mikey, the two hour drive to get there. Then while Dale took us for a real nice tour of the area, Mary 'Super Lady' Jo packed a few things to bring back to the lake and mowed their two plus acre lawn. She then took a couple hours driving us back home after which she whipped up a really great grilled steak supper. . . . . . Mary 'Super Lady' Jo!!!! THANKS DALE AND MARY JO!

Yesterday was good despite the nasty weather which still hasn't decided to leave the area. Instead it is said the plans seem to be to bring back a cold temp of 29* degrees tonight.

Perplexing are the thoughts of this global warming stuff. While Al Gore is making a fortune off the improbable worst case scenario of an unproven idea we're all sitting around freezing our asses off! The man wasn't too successful in selling himself but wowee, he's a whoop-ass on this idea.

Glenda says, "as a goose this time of year goes us." We're heading north to Jeff City and an overdue visit with Lena being the goal.

"It is hard to begin to move when you don't know where you are moving, how to move, or if you are going to get there." - Peter Nivio Zarlenga

April 25

Tomi, our de-clawed 100% house cat, decided this morning to change that percentage. Slipped out the open door almost three hours ago and went exploring. Didn't seem to want me along either. Coax isn't a word that means a thing to a cat! You don't order nor coax a cat around.

He hanging around now but was up in the woods till I drove around to the other side then he came home. Can't get close enough to grab him so my mind keeps pushing the thought of a minnow throw net that I have in the garage.

I feel sure I can fight that thought off but sure would like to get him back into the house before we head out for Eldon and the big bowling blow out. Wouldn't worry so much but there are strong storms in the forecast for today. Guess I could stay home to let him in but that isn't a very strong guess.

"Most plans are just inaccurate predictions." - Ben Bayol

April 24

When I awoke this morning I found myself thrust right out into a good morning. Everyone knows that a good morning can lead to a good day. A good day weather-wise is a given while otherwise it is learned. The best intended can be swayed by the smallest things if they're not wary. I have no idea where this is going or where it came from so STOP is the word.

I did get up a little sore from all the outside work we did yesterday in the heat. The heat helped the old bodies to perspire enough that it had us working blind most of the time as it ran into our eyes. I never did notice any cooling effect that a wetted body would be expected to receive but we made it just fine. It did make the day a three 2S day, 2 shirts, 2 shorts and 2 showers.

Today is my kind of outside get wet day as we've received 1.3 inches of rain so far and it is still dribbling. The average moisture from January 1 to the end of April is 10.57 inches but I'm too dumb to find a place the will tell me what we've received so far this year. Guess it's one of those things I don't really need to know.

STOP comes to mind again.

Hope you daily constant changes can be happily tolerated.

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate -- that's my philosophy.~Thornton Wildera

April 23

Here I sit at this thing again! Wondering what to type and realizing that time is moving so fast we don't seem to have time to smell the flowers or enjoy our days as we should. All of this quick time stuff zooms past and things don't even have half a chance to make a memory. Makes it so we never have anything hanging around long enough to be able to type about it.

I can tell you that the fish are either not hungry or too weak from starvation to chase my lure. I made sixty one casts this morning and only got one bite and that was just above my right knee delivered by a stupid fly. She'll bite no more!

The lake is still near full and nothing much stirring to move on out some of the junk floating around everywhere. The debris makes dragging the lure through the water without snagging a bunch of stuff a pretty good challenge. Cranking the handle on the reel, trying to miss all the stuff, can end up making one cranky.

I can plainly see it's time to give up on this failed again writing attempt!

We hope any challenges you might enjoy this day will be masterfully overcome!

It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.~ Thomas Aquinas

April 21

As poor as the stuff is that comes out my mouth I still think it has a better connection to my mind than my three typing fingers. When they pose above the keyboard and reach up to the mind for something to type, mostly emptiness is what they encounter. With the desire to type something coming from somewhere, they end up picking among the dregs as most anyone who has read the results can attest to.

The problem may lie with my overly fat body along with it's undesirable, 'keep something moving,' behavioral pattern. I think it takes so much to run and operate this large body with it's little quirk, that my subconscious mind ends up taxing it's mental resource pool. That huge draw renders my conscious mind with barely enough power to connect with my, close to it, mouth but comes up a bit short extending clear down to my fingers, leaving the fingers with nothing to choose from but the lower lying excrement....er I mean crap, to type about.

So now we know.

I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches. — Alice Roosevelt Longworth

April 18

Woweee! The earth quake last night, so far as I know, hasn't caused any damage around here but would you believe that the shaking frothed the Polident up and over the rim of the container that I put my partial in at night. Sure do hope that is all over with.

You just never know what all this global warming might cause. It's too complicated for me to figure out but it must be responsible for the fact our today's forecasted temperature will be 10 to 14 degrees lower than normal. I don't know if it makes me prudent or just plain simple but I would think the temperature should be higher than normal.

I suppose an answer might be now that the trees and the rest of the vegetation is in a huge spurt of coming again to life, they're sucking in too much of that global warming CO2. This may be leaving us, at least temporarily, with an over abundance of cooling fresh oxygen which is cooling our surroundings. Fresh cool oxygen sure sounds good but we need to try slowing our breathing as much as we can, else we'll be back to too much global warming CO2 and weather that's too hot.

I can visualize those ten pins standing defiantly in the group daring anyone to knock them all down. Anyway, this is the old folks bargain bowling day. We plan to join them and accept that challange one more time.

A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.~Proverbs 14:15

April 17

Been up four hours and haven't constructed anything of value yet and even as I begin this note the doubt, created by thousands of failures in the past, stutters around that it will not be of any value either. Reminds me somewhat of the simple act of fishing, you never know when you might catch one. And never is a word that you would use about the possibility of catching a fish if you just sat on the porch looking down at the lake. You gotta wet a line to have a chance.

Today Glenda is hoping that this might be a little work in the yard kind of day and I'm not ready for that so I'm hoping the few sprinkles we had this morning might come back as a bit of rain. I was finally able to struggle through the mowing out there yesterday. It isn't a lot to mow but it's enough for me to accept that I'm way out of 'mowing the hill' shape. It liked to killed me yesterday! Half the mowing is easy and the other is not. You just need to hold on to the handle and steer mowing down the hill but then you've got to push and pull that mother back up the hill. Whew! I really don't mow straight up and down the hill nor straight across the hill but I mow cattywompus across the hill. This changes the up and down to a little up and a little down if you know what I mean.

Now I'm going to wet a line.....sure hope my mind untangles some before I get to the dock.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. ~John Muir

April 16

I think it might be all the extra weight that my little legs have got to carry that has slowed my once speedy walk down so much. But, maybe that isn't the culprit because after going outside this morning and noting that the lawn is in need of a good mow job my foot lifted way off the accelerator. The slowing shifted my transmission down a couple of gears and I can't seem to shift it back up. So here I sit in the old recliner garage typing this nothing in hopes that a repairing inspiration might float in and undo the problem.

I called it a problem and it really isn't. A problem is one of those things like we went through in the wee hours this morning. Glenda had come to bed earlier with her left knee hurting some which caused some restless sleeping for her. Several hours later she finally decided to go into the other room for an Advil. Her knee wouldn't work and she wasn't able to walk on it so couldn't even get but a step away from the bed. This is her good knee that has never caused a problem before, not the knee that had the problem in the past!

We did get an Advil into her and applied a massager as close to the knee as the pain would allow. After awhile she discontinued the massager and drifted off thanks to the Advil. This morning she is able to use it and walk but it still retains some soreness.

Don't know what the deal was but she has declined a trip to any doctor at this time.

"Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that money cannot buy; therefore value it, and be thankful for it." - Izaak Walton

April 15

Gosh my muddled mind seems to be drowning any thought I might have had today. No surprise there when you realize that 70% of the brain is water. One can lose a pint or more water from his body everyday just by breathing. I guess it's possible that I've breathed a lot of my mind away and the coffee wasn't accepted as replacement. Wish I could teach my breathing where to collect the water it exhales. What with 50% of fat being water, I could breath away a couple pounds a day.

Looks like we're all nothing much more than a walking water bucket which would make me a water boy and with that comes a wonder. Is this, "If you don't like your job Water boy, put that water bucket down Ha, ha, ha, ee, ee, ha, ha, ha", some kind of gory suggestion to a disgruntled employee?

Anyway my water makes up about 19.2 square feet of my body or almost 100 pounds. Humm, if I can't breath it off, maybe full time pissed off would help. This brings to mind another little tidbit, circumcision removes and throws away almost 15 square inches of very erogenous tissue. This loss could possibly allow one a small bit of extra time to devote to other matters and might help explain why Jewish men are such good money makers.

"The management of fertility is one of the most important functions of adulthood." - Germaine Greer

April 14

WE CAN SEE THE SUN! WE CAN SEE THE SUN! Unfortunately, the wind hasn't given up the battle yet and still has some cold left in it's arsenal that it keeps pushing around to spite the sun. We're told that it will probably be sometime tomorrow before the wind will use the last dab of the stuff so a warming can begin. Sure looks nice out there but stepping out can get your fingers and nose nipped. What you see can hurt you but at least you can prepare, it's those unseen surprises that cause most of the aggravating problems.

I didn't say yesterday but the fights are real and pretty nasty where just about anything goes. One guy gave up after he broke a finger. Ugh, it lay at such a sickening angle and for a minute we thought he was going to continue anyway.

Another fight was lost when the winner was able to bend his opponent down and bang him in the face with his knee a couple times. Bloodied his face up and hurt him enough that he quit.

One fight didn't last long because the loser was kicked so hard on the leg that he couldn't stand on it to continue.

In another the referee didn't stop the fight soon enough when one had the other in a choke hold and it took quite a bit of time to revive him. He was a pretty mean looker with cornrows which may be why there wasn't much of a quieting of the hurrahing roundy crowd.

A white guy was choked until he passed out too but after a short period, where his wild eyes showed a very confused person, he was able to get up and managed to stand beside the referee while the referee held up the other guys arm in victory.

Two women fought one losing to the other when she got tied up in a choke hold in the legs of the winner. She gave up before passing out and some said that something smelled about that quick loss.

I think I've gone on about this long enough. About time now to go on with something else anyway. Glenda just told me she thought I had quit one sentence too late as it is.

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.~Psalms 118-24

April 13

It is generally accepted that an absent father usually makes for an unhappy family, and is especially rough on any children. This morning I'm saying that an absent sun can also make for an unhappy family but can also go so far as to inflect unhappiness to the neighboring families as well as to most of the families in the whole surrounding area.

This is especially so when the temperature is hanging just above freezing and the clouds are puking snow that the wind seems to gleefully blow around in an attempt to intensify the negativity of the situation, which is exactly what we have here this morning.

Not getting much sleep after standing around for three hours watching some cage fights on a huge screen doesn't help the morning much either. The fights were really good and worth our time but it would have been a lot better had Glenda won little better tickets than the $35 standup only tickets she got.

We stood behind a small barrier about 45 feet from the ring where the opening was guarded by two security guys. Just in front of the barrier there were, at my count, 120 empty chairs that our tickets came up ten dollars short of allowing us to use. We were too far from the ring to see much but there was a huge screen just behind us. That was about the only thing that kept us there.

We're not sure but we think we were probably the oldest two there. Beer was being sold for $4 a can but that didn't deter most of the younger adults from trying to turn the event into an intoxicating party.

Our experience enabled us to realize that the fighting atmosphere would create an aggressive attitude in most, especially with the added lubrication of the refreshment caused us to leave a little early. We just couldn't imagine being on the crooked dangerous road at the same time as another 100 plus vehicles of which many would be operated by a pumped up thoughtless aggressive body of lubricated testosterone.

"To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight to the blood." - George Santayana

April 12

Glenda was quick enough on the phone again to win 2 $35 tickets to a cage fighting event, 'Battle at the Beach II', tonight at Country Club Hotel and Spa which is just off HH on Carol Road. It doesn't even start until after my bed time so I'm not sure how it's going to work out. http://www.midmissourimma.com/BattleBeach2.html

I'm thinking of treating her to a nice dinner out before the fights but having a big problem as to where. This indecision and the memory of McDonalds dollar double cheese burger has me in a terrible fighting bout with my meager mind. Of course the old limp wallet is right out there in the middle of the fray too, which further complicates things. Glenda did fix me enough breakfast that I'm not hungry enough to think about the impending decision too much right now. All I can say positively so far is that things will work out...one way or another... and I probably won't get a say in the final decision anyway!

As always the case free will cost you one way or another and these free tickets could stick me pretty bad.

Happy is harder than money. Anyone who thinks money will make them happy, doesn't have money. — David Geffen

April 11

With the ultra hot bottle of Ron's Nutkin' Futs sauce gone I've been looking around for a somewhat milder substitute. Wednesday at our great and wonderful HyVee grocery store I picked up a ninety nine cent bottle of 'Bufalo Jalapeno Mexican Hot Sauce' that had 'very hot' written on it as well as 'Mexico's #1 hot sauces for 60 years'. Well, it was about as hot as skim milk!

Mostly because of it's lack of heat I read the ingredients. Can you believe Jalapeno wasn't listed as an ingredient at all? Chile peppers were the only pepper listed with carrots, sugar, salt and red coloring along with all the other regular crap. A partial rip from Stockton California I'd say. As I looked the bottle over another shock was discovered, the best used by date was June 2007. I believe all this would constitute a 100% rip-off! And to top that, I threw the ticket away that virtually assured my huge loss of the purchase price!

Ha! It didn't do much to mum me up and I can hardly wait for our next trip to that HyVee store.

Today we're singing the Friday theme song, 'bowling bowling bowling, rawhide.'

"Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers." - Marquis De Vauvenargues

April 10

Still raining pretty heavy here. We've received either 2.5 inches or 1.9 inches so far. There seems to be plenty of emptiness in the old cranium which should mean, room to store lots more information but for some reason, whether I dumped the prior .6 inch that we received the other day or not, didn't get registered. Either number amounts to a good bit of rain anyway and the depth in the rain gauge just keeps increasing. For some reason I can't get the Morton Salt words out of my head! Ah, everyone knows those five words by heart.

This rainy kind of day makes a good book very desirable but as it happens I've read the three best books out of the five we brought home from the library. Unfortunately, both the two remaining unreads aren't whippy enough to get through them without a constant page by page struggle just to limp slowly along.

Seems a lot of things are missing from my storage area. That could explain the emptiness as well as the nothings in these notes. You'd think after filing away things for 66 years there would be an ample supply of stuff to create something interesting from but it's failed here. The saying, "You can only get out what you put in", just worries me something awful. What the hell did I put in there the last 66 years? Makes me remorseful.

"Remorse is regret that one waited so long to realize it." - H. L. Mencken

April 9

Another day very similar to a lot of the others that we've been blessed to receive but it will be unique in it's own right as nothing ever stays the same, no matter what we think. Today the clouds are hanging around as if the plan is to prepare the lay so the bad forecast for tomorrow can be worse.

If one can waste time fishing I sure am a very wasteful person. They aren't biting yet and I'm thinking that not catching anything might be called a waste of time by more than a few folks but there sure is a powerful feeling of contentment that comes while casting and retrieving the lure over and over. This is especially so if fishing pretty early in the morning before the boats begin their nasty loud wave making sounds as they flash in and out of this cove. The drivers are all searching for some kind of pleasure that must be just around the point or maybe the next point. I don't know what drives them. They leave out of here as if they have a place to go but I know they usually come back having been nowhere. I think we used to do that but I have no idea what we were looking for back then either.

It is a lot like my waste of time trying to type something every day. I begin like I've got something to say, speeding along with my three typing fingers only to come clear down to the end before realizing that I had again gotten here as always the case, without getting nowhere.

"We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us." - Samuel Johnson

April 8

Yep, a little rain here again but they've taken most of the severe stuff out for today however it is back in huge capital bold letters for Thursday. You know how that goes, there are times where they say Mounds but then end up feeling like they got an Almond Joy.

Hopefully the worst of the rain will be past by noon because Glenda is going out about then. She is to pick Lena up and drive her to the knee doctor in Columbia. All we know about the purposed visit is nothing but we believe Lena wants another shot for pain.

Sorry if the little bit of song slowed things down for you but I worked an hour working to get it for free and then editing it. Anyone can send an email with a few words in it but you couldn't tell that from what we receive. Sorry, I lost my way there, even tho I've not talked to me about it, I was trying to say that I like to spice our words up a little now and then with some whatever.

"If you hear a voice within you saying, You are not a painter, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." - Vincent Van Gogh

April 7

The beginning of another exciting day has engulfed us here with it's fiery beams slashing across the heavens as they prepare the sky for the arrival of the sun. The birds are all applauding the sight as they flap their little wings and sing happily and loudly, as if trying to alert all living creatures of this wondrous happening.

The truth of the matter is, 'red in the morning, sailors take warning', and rain is in the forecast. The little birds..........they're all out at first dawn strutting around, flapping their wings with nary a thought about the sun nor the new day. Just trying to entice a female to join him so they might together, succumb to the enjoyment of one of natures strongest instincts in an attempt to insure the continuance of their species. Or in the case of the starlings that are trying to nest in our Purple Martin house on the dock, their frigging species which also works for the frigging Sparrows who are doing the same thing.

I got a BB gun to scare off both frigging species and so far have pretty well shot the birdhouse up but haven't hit a bird yet so they keep coming back. It is down now that all I've got to do is open the door and they'll fly off but by the time I sit back down they're back. I guess I'll just let nature take it's course.

I see this as a waste of my time this morning on one hand then on the other I see it as a way to make know the fact you're on our minds. A way to let you know our wish that your day be as exciting as you want.

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair. -Chinese Proverb

April 5

The big old sun is winning it's near two hour battle for supremacy as it decimates the less powerful, but very large army of fog. If I'm not mistaken the sun was somehow able to convince Mr. Wind to become an ally in this effort. Tho the tiny little breeze it brought forth strongly indicated that it's ever loving liberal heart wasn't committed to the effort, the sun was able to win the fight anyway. Of course now, Mr. Wind plainly able to see the winner, has kicked up some and seems to be trying to take most of the credit for the win.

Whatever the deal, it is supposed to get nice and warm around here today. When you put some nice and some warm together with a bright shining sun, it sure is hard to retain a hold on very much negativisms.

When you are through changing, you are through. - Bruce Barton

April 4

What a nice day here! Ooh goodness, almost choked on my tongue that I had stuck over there in my cheek. With all the wind and rain it looks like winter! The weather isn't so good but just the ability to get up and join the living automatically makes for a good day. At least that's what it takes to begin one. It's up to each individual to decide if he wants it to be good or not. Good may require some sacrifices. It's just like everything else....it's only a matter of priorities. Don't you hate it when someone says they don't have time for something? A lot of people say it but all the knowing others know it is only a matter of priorities. How can you put us so far down on your list? .....ha ha....Just kidding.....

A costly trip to Eldon may come to pass today. Gas is $3.299 in Columbia but we don't know the price in Eldon other than it's way too high no matter. We can both have lunch at McDonalds for a total outlay of around four bucks but due to the high cost of things we're planing a meal at the senior center in hopes we'll be able to cut that down a little.

Sure we want to get our weeks entertainment in at the bowling alley but if you figure that fee spread out over the week it only amount to about 54 cents per day for each of us. We will get a little rowdy, talk loud and laugh a lot about nothing just to pack as much felicity as we can into those few hours. Drink a lot of free coffee and eat several free cookies contribute a little to sweeten our time there too.

"Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance." - John Petit-Senn

April 3

Received another 1.2 inches of rain last night. Brings us up to 6.2 received in less than a week. All in all I can only think about how much it is diluting all that sewer water. It will probably thin the water up enough as to make floating a little harder this summer. Even if you do sink and need to whale away to get back to the surface, the couple gulps that you may be forced to take shouldn't cause you to get out immediately to gargle. Of course right now it looks muddy enough to walk on....

"Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life." - John Updike