October 31

Well what to type? About lunch yesterday maybe. We had a nice Chili cheese steak sandwich left over from a trip to town earlier in the week that would make someone a nice lunch and it did. I'm not sure that Glenda has taking care of her man at the top of her list all the time. She took the cheese steak to her bridge game for her lunch and left me with a can of sardines in mustard sauce and a banana. Maybe she was thinking of my overweight body huh?

The can of sardines held three tiny fish that were three bites each, making me about to open another can but a heater repair person called and I had to leave to get him into Ruthie's house to repair her problem.

It turned out she needed a thermostat replaced but getting it repaired didn't do much to satisfy my hunger for food. By the time I got back home another can of sardines didn't sound worth the effort, so I just gave up the eating idea.

I'm thinking of going bowling with her and the old folks today. I told Glenda that I plan to wear our Jesse Ventura mask into the place just to see if anyone notices. She said, "oh, you want to go incognito". I said, "no, I'd rather stick with a costume above the waist."

Anyway, HAPPY HALLOW-CANDY-EATIN-WEEN!
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There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world. -Jean Baudrillard

October 30

The below was sent to me by one my near daily note fans---- err, I mean recipients. After noting my struggles and failures over all these years she finally worked up the gumption to make an attempt to help me....I think.
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In promulgating your esoteric cogitations or articulating your superficial sentimentalities and amicable philosophical or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversational communications possess a compacted conciseness, a clarified comprehensibility, a coalescent cogency and a concatenated consistency. Eschew obfuscation and all conglomeration of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement and asinine affectations. Let your extemporaneous descants and unpremeditated expatiations have intelligibility and voracious vivacity without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolificacy and vain vapid verbosity.

If you are really interested to know, the above means: "Be brief and don't use big words."
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Anyway, 'brief' should be the easy part but the 'don't use big words' is lost on me. I've never had any to not use.

Another good day going here as are all our days but today will be a little bit special because of the weather. A 73 degree spring type day is the forecast. I guess it's mother natures way of giving the flowers and other growing things a last meal of warmth and sunshine before they face the finale of their execution.

Sure hope this was brief enough!
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Death being the last thing that most people want makes it the only absolutely guaranteed want in the whole living world!

October 29

I've had five cups of coffee this morning but they are failing me. My eyes are darting around pretty quickly but the lubricant hasn't been enough for my mind, it still can't seem to shift out of four wheel low. I'd better just be thankful for any forward direction and it has helped me see what it's like to be nothing but a big lug.

You may not have paid any attention before but you know coffee makers have a number for the number of cups it will produce. Our's has 12 on it but only produces 7 of a regular every day coffee cup. A liquid cup contains 8 oz and I guess a regular coffee cup holds 13 or 14 oz. I doubt that anyone uses an 8 oz size. Wonder why they do it that way? Kinda like gasoline with the .9 cent charge on every gallon.

I had a quickened heart just while ago! I looked out and for an instant thought the fogged mind was affecting my vision. I grabbed a sheet of paper with writing on it, could read fine. I can see now, the problem was another very foggy start of the day.

Not really fog but due to the frosty conditions the last two night there is a foggy like happening as quite a bit of the lake rises in the air and floats off toward the south east and a warmer world. We're staying around here again this year which makes me think old mother nature is making this process so visible to be like a poke as she laughs at us.
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Happy sails to you! Just don't allow a fickle wind determine your happy!

October 28

A common everyday happening yesterday struck me very quickly with three things, fear, scared and worry, and all at the same time. FEAR: A feeling of disquiet or apprehension. SCARE: To strike with sudden fear. WORRY: To feel uneasy or concerned about something.

I know it isn't anything pretty to talk about but anyway. After my business yesterday I picked up the bucket of scooped up lake water and poured it into the stool to rid it of it's contents. As I sat the bucket down I looked to see if the flush was good enough and what I saw turned me white! Two little black things swimming around like mad.

Giving birth wasn't a thought but what in the world kind of terrible problem exists within me was very much a color me pale, bug eyed blood pressure raising thought!

Even after a closer inspection revealed that evidently I had inadvertently scooped up a couple small minnows didn't allow my color to come back immediately. What a terrible mind rendering happening that was doubled because what all we old folks worry about the most seems to be our health.

A new well pump installed allowed us to get our water back on late yesterday afternoon but who can say it will never happen again. None of us are capable of more than nudging fate but in the end we have no control of it what so ever.
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Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence.-Eckhart Tolle

October 27

Whatcha gonna do when the well runs dry, you gonna sit right down and cry? Nope, I'm walkin, yes indeed and I'm talkin bout going to the well to see. A scary walk it was too. We've joked a lot about these very tall trees that line our road and drop huge limbs every so often, dropping one down on us as we walk by. A good chance was missed last night around 9:15.

That chance came to pass while the wind was blowing around thirty miles per hour, give or take and about twenty minutes after we discovered that we had no water. A flashlight would not have helped but that is all I had as I walked to the well house to check things out. Noticed there was no pressure in the water tank and the pump not pumping right away. Flipping around on things, all I could get to fire up was the light which quickly indicated to poor dumb me that the problem wasn't a lack of electricity. Nothing to do but take the, tho I walk through the valley along the road, walk back home.

Drinking all that diuretic coffee isn't too bad for me because I can always slip outside for relief. The wind is still doing a good job of moving the air which results in taking a necessary precaution as to which direction you face. Some other daily's caused me to think back to a visit to old Mexico several years back where an old man would step into a just used stall with a bucket of water to flush the stool. The memory was brought forth as this old man was doing the same thing with a scooped up bucket of lake water this morning.

We have contacted the repair guy and are now awaiting his call to advise us his schedule for covering our problem and making us happy. Hope along with soon are two words heavy on our minds.
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"We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us." - William Butler Yeats

October 26

Kind of red sky, a stiff breeze and 55 degrees. It looks cold outside and I don't plan on verifying that anytime soon. Well I do need to take out the scooped up glories that I retrieved from Tomi's litter box. One quick throw and zap, I'm back in the house! I'm telling you, around here you never run out of stuff to do and neither does Tomi.

Three cups of coffee and all of them missed kicking me in the rear. I guess they didn't make it that far as I can hear them sloshing around in my gut as I walk. Pretty quick I'll be eliminating them via the normal manner that bypasses my rear, no more slosh slosh.

I know you find all of this interesting! I'm sorry about that! I really do like the life we lead but it certainly supplies very little fodder for an interesting subject.

Too much of a good thing can be bad as too much of a bad thing can't hardly make any good but doesn't necessarily need to be all bad either. With that, I think cutting this bad short will provide more good than bad. The end is always the best part and is always the easiest part to do.

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You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of un-manufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. ~Dr. Thomas Arnold Bennett

October 23

Sitting here thinking, 'a lot to do about nothing' as is the same dilemma I face every morning if I try to do a note. Believe me when I say I know a heck of a lot about nothing and very little about a lot. Nothing new to you if you've read any of the notes I've sent in the past. No surprise but it does seem pretty well that this note is following the same track.

As with me, something amiss in the old noggin makes scooting down a well beaten path the only way to go. Click 'create mail', type a few meaningless words, over working spellchecker quite a bit, then going to the address book to choose from the huge list of relatives, friends and acquaintances to whom I want to send nothing to. Then I click on 'send'.

Luck, being only the natural consequences of habitual positive behavior, leaves us no earthy explanation as to why this little nothing happened to appear listed in your inbox.
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"Never make a defense or apology before you are accused." - Charles I

October 21

We have a round the horn trip scheduled for today. To Osage Beach for some things then to Eldon for a few more which will include a stop at the library. Good reading weather is almost upon us.

Halloween is almost upon us too, so we need to pick up some of those trick abating treats. Not that we expect to have anyone appear at our door giving us the ultimatum but I wouldn't mind having a few treats for myself. Sweets can help you become more lovable as in softer and more cuddly.

You know overweight people usually breath more heavily in about any type activity. In some instances that heavy breathing can be mistaken for extreme passion and could quite possibly inspire the other to great heights.

I have a lot more theories than this but we've got to head for town now.
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The most that one can claim for any theory is that it has shared the successes of all its rivals and that it has passed at least one test which they have failed."- Sir Alfred Jules Ayer

October 20

Tried the old fishing thing again this morning. I'm sitting here to tell you the catching was really great but the keeping hardly bumped the needle. Later when fish cleaning time rises up on the list in my mind of things to do I might be thankful for that.

Only three keepers out of 24 caught doesn't come out as very good in anyone's book, except at cleaning time. It isn't to say that catching small ones doesn't allow for a little thrill but it quickly gets old.

For some, it takes longer to get them off the hook than it did to catch them. Wrestling them little rascals around always leaves you all smelled up with nothing to show.

I probably have a few more morsels of thought in there but there isn't a tooth pick within reach so I guess I'll leave'em stuck for now. I might have let that happen too many times in the past which could partly account for my rotten dirty old man mind.
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"A little neglect may breed great mischief." - Benjamin Franklin

October 19

Sitting here with the chairs footrest opened up, Tomi in his usual position asleep on it between my legs and the computer on my lap I gave my mind the task of coming up with some words. The kind of words that can be put together to fashion what might be deemed as a humorous note, or maybe even a somewhat humorous note.

After sitting here for quite awhile I realized that funny had been present from the moment I had sat down. Funny I try this almost everyday and funny too, nothing came to mind again.
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"Get well cards have become so humorous that if you don't get sick you're missing half the fun." - Flip Wilson

October 17

Had to make a decision early this morning............Do I want to type a note or fish?

Ha and wow! The fish were biting like mad. I caught several and some were those nice 12-13 inch size. Stupidly stopped when Glenda called me to breakfast as when I returned they were gone. I did spend some time frothing the water with that little lure but to no avail.

For me, bad luck they quit bitting, good luck I caught a few before they did. For you, bad luck I managed somewhat of a note, good luck there isn't much for you to read.
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“The difference between a philanthropist and a liberal is that a philanthropist is generous with his own money.” —Jack Kelly

October 15

How can I type how strongly and literally sick I am of all the political crap on TV and received on the computer! I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! However at the same time I realize that life as we know it hangs in the balance. That is what keeps me watching, reading and worrying. The knowledge is also what causes my fingers to hit 'forward' then 'send' instead of immediately hitting the delete button after reading some of them.

I am of the opinion that those who watch only the biased news stations or hit the delete button without reading the contained information are the same people that will group together and bring our nation to it's knees. I'd say 'woe be them' but unfortunately it will be 'woe be every last one of us'. That is except for Obama, Pelosi, Reed and they're cohorts will be on a huge power ride. The largest most powerful 'do what you want' and to hell with the lowly peasant's and what they want or need, ride ever in history.

The drill now, drill, drill, drill won't be for oil because they'll shut all the oil producing areas off again. The drilling will be up our rear as they dig out any money you might have via more taxes that no matter who is taxed higher we all damn sure be paying it as they are passed on down in the cost of everything. 40% of the people that pay no taxes at all will be getting checks from all those poor suckers who do. I have no doubt that 40% will begin to grow and grow.

I quit on this for now! If you apologize for something does that mean it should bar you from doing it again? Okay then, I'll not apoligize for sending all that important but boring political stuff.
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"An apology? Bah! Disgusting! Cowardly! Beneath the dignity of any gentleman, however wrong he might be." - Baroness Orczy

October 13

Here I sit again struggling to stick some kind of note together. Sometimes it is easier than others but the results are always pretty much the same. 'A lot to do about nothing' is the phrase that comes to mind......But, ' I don't care if I do die do die do'.. Heck, I want the afore mentioned word die to mean fail in this instance except, 'I don't care if I do fail do fail do' just doesn't zing like die.

As I think about it, death can never be consider as a failure anyway. Dying is a preordained process that begins with birth, usually continuing over a considerable period of time and always ends when the cessation of all life functions come to pass. Living the life with a known destination can never be consider as a failure when it is finally reached.

I should scrap this and start all over but my desire for any of it terminated in a fitful death just before I began typing. The fitful was what enabled me to get what I got with just barely enough left to click the send button.. I guess we can all be sorry about that.
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It is only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day-to-day basis.~ Margaret Bonnano

October 12

I'm here to tell you we live it the nuttiest neighborhood I've ever seen and that doesn't include any of the inhibitors here in our little hooch nor any of the neighbors. Some of these I might be able to count, as well as a bunch of the boaters but without them, it's still the nuttiest ever.

To walk up the road, the sidewalk or the porch, it's like walking on marbles except most of them crunch and break. If an acorn tree needs to be fifty years old before it produces an acorn crop then our trees must be a hundred or a hundred fifty years old because they seem to be double and triple cropping this year.

Can't tell you how many walnuts and hickory nuts there are that join with the acorns making it almost dangerous to walk out there but there are many. The safest way I've found, is to use the blower and blow a path as you walk. It's a little aggravating at that because blowing a nut up a small grade doesn't make it stay there. Take the blower off it for another and it will roll right back to where you blew if from.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained and this note like most of the others prove that even having ventured one can still end up with nothing.
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Many aspire to change the world but few realize that everyone accomplishes that goal. Each day you live you are changing something.~Anon

October 10

Can't believe this 'Acorn' thing that keeps coming up on our TV's! I've checked every one of them and they each had the same'O same'O. We've looked up a few things on the computer about the organization too. One of the places that have a pretty good account of it is at http://www.rottenacorn.com/downloads/060728_badSeed.pdf A link that I've sent to some before.

Good night, it will be only after the election that the many thousands and thousands of ineligible voters will be discovered. You know, like dead people and even a complete football team being registered in a couple states.

Acorn has registered up to 1.3 million voters across the US so far. Personally I think if the voter can't be validated by election time the vote shouldn't be counted. I'm saying this is a very serious problem! Sitting around on our butts not doing anything can possibly create a terrible situation for all of us in the future! Maybe not for all of us, being old and closing in on the end might help some cash in before we're required to pray to Allah.

An interesting blog........ http://www.everystudent.com/wires/radical.html?gclid=CPmI953snJYCFRJdxwodJj6kng

After awhile its, 'turn the TV off', hoping for a little time to quit worrying about the most likely misappropriated election only to have a big bang every few seconds as an acorn falls from one of the oak trees. What a reminder!
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"Instinct is the nose of the mind." - Madame de Girardin

October 9

Turn on the computer, click 'send and receive', read messages and three newspapers, forwarding a few choice readings, everything clicking in my head just fine and at a good pace until I hit the 'create mail' button.

I can't figure out if it is the window that opens or if it is when my fingers touch the keyboard, whichever the door to the mind flat slams shut. Every so often it is shut so hard that it bounces open just enough to allow a quick nothing note to be typed as it did this morning.

On top of that, the barge just went by with the rip-rap rock to be placed along the lake side of Struebbe's seawall. Not many things go on around here and I try not to miss one when it happens.........Got to go down the street now!
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Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.~ Washington Irving

October 8

Heading to Jeff City chop chop. Going to take friend Ruthie to catch Amtrak. Won't see her again for about seven months unless she sends us a picture. Look out Yuma here she comes.

Appears to be, on this fall day, a real stand up day in the making. Unlike some of our younger years we have learned to better appreciate every day we're blessed with and take nary a one for granted. A meaningful prayer of thanks after I close my eyes at night and when they open each morning are one of my better daily endeavors in my opinion.

Say, believe it or not a real word of interest, which I think you will appreciate, comes to mind ! Bye
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One of the most important-and most neglected-elements in the beginning of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendour that is all around us. -Thomas Merton

October 7

Well, I did get the weeds cut yesterday but only on the south lawn as the other two didn't look to need it yet. Took extra care to chop up all the fallen leaves too.

Afterwards I came in for a grilled cheese and a cup of tomato soup then went back out to rake the hay. Just that quick, the green cut hay was already covered with a nasty looking brown covering of newly fallen leaves.

It was pretty windy but still makes me think it might be too expensive to move all the leaves out this fall. Heck, we might just leave them where they fall for now Because of the way things are going and with the increasing cost of energy, including electricity we may need to bundle them to use in the fireplace for heating and cooking.

I've already stashed a cache of jalapeños to use in helping keep my hands and feet warm as I dig through the snow for the leaves. Just rub my hands and feet good with one before I put my gloves, shoes and socks on. Whee, warm it is. I used to use a lot of them back when I deer hunted. If you get a bit chilly inside, since it was used on your feet, just hold your nose and eat the remnant's, works very good to warm you. If you're a little sleepy, not holding your nose tends to perk you up too.

Nope, nothing comes to mind again this morning. That should probably say nothing comes from the mind not to it. I still have a memory but my steel trap mind doesn't turn any loose very often.

And in case you've never taken the time to think about it, unless you happen to observe the splattering plop it's might nigh impossible to tell bullshit from cow shit.



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My God! The English language is a form of communication! It isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets -- no, they're little gifts with some containing meanings! -Philip Roth

October 6

Another great day beginning here at the Lake of the Ozarks on the banks of Lick Branch Cove. We're hoping all the great extends clear to your inhabiting area too. The talk of rain tonight and tomorrow here doesn't even promote a blink. I think we could use a little but what do I know? A lot of little bits we could use some of which I suppose we can do without. Like we could use a little more rope but no job and poor luck at the lottery keeps our rope pretty darn short!

I do know I probably should mow down some of the weeds that we call lawn before it rains. So, gotta get out there and make some hay while the sun is shinning.
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"The day of the sun is like the day of a king. It is a promenade in the morning, a sitting on the throne at noon, a pageant in the evening unless hidden by the rain clouds." - Wallace Stevens

October 5

What a start to our day yesterday! When I came downstairs I discovered that one of the washing machine hoses had busted. What a wet mess! It was one of those things that seem to flat out require some work whether you want to do it or not. Retired or not, fate still holds a hand in your time allocation.

Went to Versailles to the apple fest after the initial cleanup of the water problem. Think it was a bit smaller affair than some years in the past. Don't guess it was a complete waste of time but sure wasn't anything to write home about.....Don't know why I mention it here other than to take up a little room which might help you think you received a full note.

Well, the cap on the chunk of meat that the dermatologist took from my back was a non-cancerous Seborrheic Keratoses. Said it wasn't a sun grown growth but it is something that runs in families. So now we know. Don't know about the thing she took off Glenda yet but really don't believe it to be cancerous either.

Picked up a couple new hoses yesterday so need to try getting things back together pretty soon. We may be poor but we try to stay clean.
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"Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him." - James Allen

October 3

Another day is under way in which thankfully, Glenda and I get to participate in again. My little contribution may not mean much to a lot of people but it sure means a lot to me.

Glenda has bowling plans for this afternoon while Lardy Larry plans on hanging around here. I might even mow the lawn but the urge will need to grow quite a bit for that to happen. Besides, Tomi isn't very happy if I'm not sitting in the old recliner where he likes to lay between my knees while I'm all racked back.

A misty foggy morning, just right for book reading. I've got three here to read and I'd better get started. Bye....
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One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.~Will Durant

October 1

It was God's will and another day happened upon us and a beauty too I might add. 55 degrees to start with a slight breeze to irritate your hair some making you aware of another seldom thought about blessing. A full head of hair is good and with it comes about the only true bargain in life. The fact is, I pay no more for a haircut than the guy with the small head band of hair nor more than the men with less than that.

At $9 a cut I try to extend the intervals between. Like, I tell the barber to cut it close to a crew cut but leave a little in case I want to comb in a part. This allows me the pleasure of not visiting the barber shop but only once every three months. $36 for a years worth of haircuts when, as he tells me, most men get their hair cut every two weeks. Heaven sakes man, that comes to around $234 a year! That also doesn't include the wear and tear on the vehicle nor the cost of the fuel used to get there and back.

"Nothing says lovin like something from the oven" but it should be warm and my heated mind can't even warm up a plausible thought.......again.......Err, I guess you've already noticed?
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"I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love, and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they will keep getting a busy signal and soon they'll forget my number." - Edith Armstrong