Whining Bad, Happy Good

Ooops!! I caught myself. I got a bit whiny yesterday. Yes my friends, I’m guilty as charged of allowing things to stress me out; and when I do that it sure seems like my head goes up in flames and my reaction to the stress is like putting large buckets of gasoline on the fire but you know it’s really not all that bad but I make it out to be only because I have this magnifying mind that can make a mole out of a mountain hill and then I want to run screaming into the woods and ask the wild animals if I can live with them for awhile and they all look at me like I’m some sort of tree monster and they run for their lives and this run-on sentence has become way to silly to continue so I’ll stop it right now.

Thank you.

I’ve been thinking out loud to groups of friends about all this living life stress stuff. They are very good at reminding me to stay grateful and just try to do the next right thing. Bless them… they’re probably getting a bit weary of my rants when I start spouting off about all the injustice in the world, and how some things that have to do with getting older scare the excrement out of me. . They’ve heard it before, and before that, and before that. Yet, they seem to love me anyway! Not sure how anyone else works it all out; but I need to vent to someone who understands when I’m hurting inside. The way it works for me is to vent until I get tired of hearing myself venting. Oh, and I’ve pretty much given up on being angry for very long. Fortunately, I’ve become aware that if I allow anger and resentment to fester in my heart, I’m basically working on poisoning myself. Being livid about things over which I have no control is about as effective as eating a poison pill and expecting someone else to die.

When my serenity alarm goes off, I need to remind myself to run through my “gratitude list.” Although I sometimes allow life, the universe, and everything to crinkle my brain thing; am getting better at replacing negativity with thoughts of thanks to the Universe regarding how truly blessed I am. After all, I’m healthy and I have the love of a beautiful woman. She even let me marry her! We have zero debt, cars that work, a nice home, plenty to eat. We have loving relationships with our offspring, relatives and friends. Life really is good at our universe.

Here in the U.S., the Thanksgiving holiday is on the horizon. Although I’m not a fan of some of the “origin” stories that were thrown at us in grade school, I do use the holiday as a convenient reminder of how fortunate all of us are. I mean hey, if you’re reading this, you are a fortunate person. Why do I say this? Well, I’m willing to bet that if you are reading my silly blog typings, you don’t live under a bridge with a shopping cart nearby that contains all your worldly belongings. That’s just one example.

So, no poison between the ears for me thanks. I will continue to make gratitude my attitude. I will work very hard at enjoying each and every moment of each and every day. You know that saying, “One day at a time,” right? Sometimes it takes a bit of work to pull it off, but life is much more peaceful when I succeed. Can you tell I’m practicing? So I’ve decided to give myself some homework. My new assignment is just like the old song: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Sounds simple enough, but it takes effort.

As our friend Ringo likes to sing, “I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.”

For this week’s video coagulation, here are those two songs.

Here’s Bobby McFerrin with some friends…

And here’s Ringo with some of his friends…


Imaginary Florksnibbles

Dear Lumpflatteners,

Before proceeding any further, I must hereby explain that although, upon reading the title, you may be hormonalIy imbalanced, I sincerely hope you are not expecting a detailed description of the origin of incendiary snibbleforks. The reason for this is quite simple: the amount of effort required to induce such indelible mud pastries far outweighs the large pile of recycled celery that has already flattened the tires of my trailer. Instead, please enjoy the clam sandwiches currently available at the Old New Dehli Deli.  You will find the sam clandwiches right next to the Belly Jellies, in the frinkle sauce department of a Kolibbik store near you.

You may qualify for a package of used cheese.  Please do not write to the following address to see if you have entered your name in the North American Bilge Experience (NABE):

Log Turner Contest
24Cx Bugsnot Blvd.
Chiclet, MI  44404

Please call 1-800-555-1212 for the number.  Ask for Phlegm.

Be advised that all nickels will be collected by a rodent during the coming drainy season. Do not worry about any plugged drains, for as we all know if a plain gets drugged there are more than enough socks to prevent the chafing.  I’ve been keeping my drained plugs here in the bottom drawer of my desk where I’m sure they feel safe and are finally unable to smell the cabbage burning in the candelabra.

Hey!!  What’s that gourd doing in cat food now?? Didn’t we agree that squashpickles are to be granted the same virtual hallucinations as all those oversized pennies we’ve been finding in your moss pockets? Please try to ignore all my future instructions regarding this ink washing procedure.

Thank you.

Now of course you can be happy to know that I have more paper for sale than ever before.  Some of it is useful. If you want some, send $23.70 in dickels and nimes to my pet dirt clump over there in the hedgerow.  Upon receiving the money, I will send you your 43 tons of compressed paper. Please make sure the car is not in the garage that day.

If any of this makes sense to you, make sure you contact your local Hamper Salesman by July 43, 2104 .  There are also community resources on which you can rely, such as the Cribbled Office Of Pie Stashers (COOPS) and the Ceramic Octagon Plucking Society (COPS).  Neither of these entities will ever run to your aid.  Therefore, if you understand any of what has been written heretofore, you are basically toast.

Enjoy toast with all your might.  Remember, the toast you crave may be on loan.

Happy Bortinkulars to you, and may the sand never fly into your cereal.

My eyes are lamps,

Kebbic G. Fefflewonk
A.K.A. Harvey Ticknoodle

P.S.:  Thank you for changing the tire leggings last night.  I’m not sure my car would have tolerated another month of “swish – swish KABOOM!!”

Moooo!!!

Perhaps this video will give you enough bread sampling encouragement to face yet another week’s festivities which will, of course, include the Dingle Day Dance. Or whatever this is…

No Time Was Saved

So here we go again, this coming Sunday morning we go back on Standard Time. Well many of us do anyway. I’ve always welcomed the late sunsets that Daylight Savings time brings in the summer; and have often cursed the early ones when we “fall back.” Many times I’d even whine out loud to strangers, whether at a grocery store or gas station. “Why don’t they just spring ahead and leave it alone!?!?” is often exclaimed. Some will also grunt that “We’re the only country that uses this, aren’t we?” And I have to confess, “I’m not sure.”

Well I simply had to look it up. There’s a very interesting map that shows who uses Savings Time and who doesn’t; and you can find it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

Turns out lots of folks use it. And I’m betting lots of folks whine about the change. I’ll have to admit, though, I really do love that extra hour of sleep, even if it’s only for one whole night.

Doesn’t feel like any time is actually saved. I mean, yes it gets dark later. But the amount of time in a day is still 24 hours, right? So who’s saving all this time? And if they have some extra, where do they keep it? I want some either yesterday or the day before please.  I mean seriously, may I have some this time that was supposedly saved?? Some extra time would be especially useful now that I’m getting older.

So now I’m gonna switch gears here a little, but hey, I’m old enough to remember when The Beatles came to the US on the Mayflower. So I’m allowed to switch gears, OK?? I just have a very simple question: where the HECK did all the time go?? Anyhow?? I really do remember when The Beatles first set foot on US soil. We were in our grandparent’s apartment in Brooklyn, NY; and I jokingly told Dad, “Hey! The Beatles are in town!! Wanna go see ’em??” And he simultaneously smirked and snarled, “Yeah, right!!” It was a definite snarlsmirk.

That happened in 1964, kids!! FIFTY NINE YEARS AGO!! How come it feels like a couple months ago? Well OK, maybe a couple years. Just a few years ago a 50th anniversary edition of the White Album was released. Yikes!! Sure, I’m 69 now… but although that’s how long my body has been roaming the planet, my spirit is still convinced I’m in my 20s or 30s. But my body slaps me back into reality when I do normal chores like chopping wood or hoeing in the garden. The mind says “GO!” and later the body says, “OK, so now you hurt everywhere. Happy??”

Well yes, I’m happy, but also in pain.

Yeah, we’re getting old. I can accept it most of the time… I certainly like it better than NOT getting old. And I’ve learned to embrace and even celebrate the milestones. My Beautiful Girlfriend and I celebrated a huge milestone this past summer: our marriage turned 50 years old on August 21. Is that amazing or what?!?! We’re not really amazed that we’re married… we worked very hard to learn how to give each other lots of happiness. No, instead we’re amazed that it’s actually 50 years!!

These days, in spite of some health concerns, we really are the happiest we’ve ever been. And we are grateful that it has been this way for well over 30 years now. Feels like we’ve been together our whole lives, and we like it very much. Both of us tried to sabotage the relationship but neither of us succeeded. We both stuck to the notion that we needed to be together much more than we ever wanted to be apart. That gave us the willingness to change in ways that have produced a spiritual bond for which we are both immensely grateful.

In the grand scheme of things, we basically grew up together.

I heard a funny statement a while back: “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” Oh, and as the frogs might say, “Time’s fun when you’re having flies.” If you’ve read this far, you’re probably getting old (like me), because hey, who the heck reads blogs anymore?? OK, I do. So yeah, time really does fly… and the older I get the faster it seems to go. We’re retired now, and we do decadent things like stay up way late and “forget” to set an alarm for mornings. Andy yes, in spite of the annoyance of the time change, we’ll probably be grateful for that extra hour of sleep.

Us old farts gotta get our rest ya know.
———————————————-

A dear friend of mine got me a t-shirt awhile back that reads, “I May Be Old But I Got To See All The Cool Bands.” Well lots of them anyway… here are some examples of performances of songs relating to time. I got to see Pink Floyd as my very first rock concert. I was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base and saw them at Tampa Stadium, which is long gone (my Beautiful Bride had not left home to come marry me yet). But both of us heard the “time” songs when we saw The Guess Who, Styx, David Bowie, and yes, Cher (and yes, we saw many, many more). Good times!!

Three Cheers For Sninkel (And Free Fertilizer) Season

Oh fine, here we go with another story about leaves. Just what every red blooded Yankee wants to hear about this time of year, right? And by Yankee, I mean anyone who is far enough north to enjoy the massive seasonal leaf gathering festival we call “fall.” Each year, Mom Nature paints the landscape with the beautiful autumn hues we’ve grown to know and love. These days, the leaves are already busy sninkeling (huh?) down from the trees. Yes!! You can even hear the “sninkel-sninkel-sninkel” of the leaves whispering in the wind, and then they fall to the ground and rustle about in good sninkely singing songs. In fact, as this is being written you could even say they’re in full-sninkel!

Or maybe I could just say that…

Anyway, when the leaves have completed their sninkelization, if they don’t get removed from the lawn, well, the lawn changes a bit. Once upon ago I would rake all the leaves onto a tarp and then gather the corners to play Leaf Dragging Santy Claus and haul them to the garden. These days I cheat and use the bagger on my lawn tractor. Takes a lot of trips but it chops them up nicely so I can dump the bags on the planting beds. For the garlic bed I actually till several dumpings of sninkeled leaves into the ground and plant the cloves before the snow comes. After planting, another layer of chopped leaves is added as cover to slow the effects of winter’s cold breath, and also to keep weeds in check when the snow is gone. Takes a while for the cloves to start rooting, and as they do the worms and soil microbes are busy making food for when they emerge in the spring.

Other planting beds will get layers of leaves that will remain throughout the winter to act as “sheet composting.” This practice builds the soil nicely because worms, microbes, and other creepy-crawlies enjoy the food I’ve laid down for them. To show their appreciation, worm manure and other byproducts of leaf digestion (made by the microbes and other creepy-crawlies) make very healthy soil for the vegetables I’ll be planting in the spring. And yes, as my vegetable plants get going I’ll mulch with leaves too; as they help the soil retain moisture, control weeds, and add nutrients as the aforementioned helpers break down the leaves that touch the soil.

We have mostly maple leaves… but when I’ve been a good boy and cleaned up all the leaves from the trees at our house, I actually go hunting for more. As you may have guessed by now I’ve learned long ago that leaves are probably the best fertilizer you can get. And they’re FREE!! And hey friends, there are no such things as bad leaves for the garden. There seems to be an old myth floating around that oak leaves are bad for the garden. To this I say, “Phoeey and Bibble Dee Boo!!” It’s simply not true. Yes, oak leaves have some acidity when fresh. But adding them to the soil actually produces a very beneficial result due to several factors, including: a) oak leaves are high in calcium, 12) oak leaves contain good amounts of nitrogen, and X) earthworms LOVE oak leaves.

So my friends, I hope you can all try to enjoy sninkel season. Not only is this a beautiful time of year, we get free fertilizer too!! This week’s video shows some of the exact ways creatures of Nature enjoy Autumn.

Halloween… Lights??

Halloween is a bit of a strange holiday to begin with, but it evolves into something more ghoulish every year:  COMMERCIALISM.  Is that a word??  I guess so… but it’s not like communism, although sometimes it seems equally repulsive.  My friends call me a “tree hugger.”  I guess I am.  I go around hugging trees all day long and tell them I love them.  Well maybe I don’t really do that… but all of the products that have sprung up for holiday celebrations have me wondering just how much more of all this manufacturing madness Mother Nature can take.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy jack o’ lanterns and fake skeletons and stuff like that there, but lights??  We never had Halloween lights when I was a kid.  Christmas lights, yes.  But Halloween lights??  Sounds like an oxymoron to me.  I mean, Halloween is all about having the wits frightened out of you by witches and hobgoblins and such.  So all these happy Halloween lights are making big brightness of the night which transforms a perfectly scary evening into orange-on-black-holy-cow-look-at-all-the-lights-on-that-house happy joy dead monsters fun world.  

Yes, they are cool in their own Halloweeny way… but I’m thinking maybe some of our neighborhood home owners have electric meters that are going so fast they’re ready to blow an axle.  Our “neighbor” Mike (about 2 miles up the road) has quite the awesome display this year. I even stopped to tell him so one night on my way back from Whitehall. Never knew his name before then, but he was abrim with joy when he described the acquisition of each part of his remarkable display. I must say, it’s pretty impressive!!

But back to my traditionalist whining: how in the heck do you sneak up on someone when the yard is blasting out all that light??  Sheesh.  Now you wanna hear something really weird, when we were kids it was “cool” to walk around on Halloween with a big fat sock full of flour.  Why?  So you could sneak up on people and bop them with it!!  Makes a nice big mark that is really fun to apply, and easy to get off.  And it looks totally cool when you swing your sock full of flour and connect with someone’s back or maybe their booty.  A big POOF and white powder all over the place, and of course a sock print on the point of impact.  And this prank relied on darkness.  You can’t sneak up on anyone in the midst of blazing Halloween lights and bop them with anything.  

Simpler times… I know.  Those days, Frankenstein’s monster scared the living crap out of us, because we knew he was lurking in the dark and was gonna jump out and rip us all apart if we didn’t scurry from house to house with our pillow cases to get those yummy Black Cow suckers, Jujubes, Neccos and Mary Janes.  And if you were lucky enough to hit a well-to-do neighborhood, you could even score a fair amount of chocolate!  Once in a great while you’d stumble upon the “bad kids” who actually had eggs.  And you always knew that bad kids… and worse yet, you knew they would actually throw the eggs.  At other people no less!!  And again, successful egg tossing required a secret ingredient:  darkness.    

Well, Frankenstein’s monster is considered a big wuss now.  Sure, in movies of yore the monster did indeed kill people, and the villagers told of his awesome strength and the ability to tear men apart with his bare hands.  But these days, such a movie would flop unless the monster was shown opening his victims’ bodies with a machete, eating their kidneys, and washing them down with a Mountain Dew.  And it’s all because of those stupid Halloween lights I’m tellin’ ya!!

OK, maybe not.  

Awright, awright awreddy!! I give in: I really do enjoy looking at everyone’s light displays. And the gigantor skeletons. And the inflatable monsters. My Beautiful Girlfriend and I have seen some pretty elaborate displays lately, and we both wonder aloud, “Where do they store this stuff?? And how long does it take to set it all up??”

The grandsons are 14 and 10 now, so trick-or-treating won’t be quite the same as when they were little tykes all wound up about traipsing through neighborhoods asking for candy. Oh, they want their candy alright, but some of that sparkle is a bit more subdued. Sounds like our daughter and son-in-law are switching gears a bit this year and just taking the boys to a local neighborhood for a much reduced trick-or-treat session.

I hope all of you have a safe and Happy Halloween.  It will be here before you know it!! Enjoy the lights, gigantor skeletons, and inflatable monsters. Oh, and don’t forget your flour filled bopping socks!

Believe it or don’t, this week’s video is one that gave me goose bumps when I was a kid. I mean hey, I was pretty young when this was on the old black and white…

Oh Deer!!!

It’s October outside, and here in Michigan, that means hunters will be gearing up for their pursuit of deer. Actually, archery season is already underway, and then in November comes two weeks worth of firearm season.

Whether it’s arrows or bullets, I’ll be staying near the house during the various phases of hunting season. We live in a semi-rural area, and the deer do quite well here. It’s not at all uncommon to see tracks in the back of our five acre plot where Mama, Papa, and Baby Deer have been moving around. Very nice, ya know?? Deer are our friends, except of course when they’re trying to dive into our car as we book down the expressway. Been there. Done that. Not good. But we like giving them a five acre sanctuary, and although we’ve had numerous requests from friends and relatives to hunt on our land, we give everyone the same answer: an emphatic NO. I don’t really like the idea of a stray arrow, bullet or shotgun slug flying past my noggin.

Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with folks who hunt responsibly. But I just don’t have it in me to kill them anymore. I am a WUSSY and I’m not afraid to admit it. Dad used to take us hunting often when we were kids. I got my buck when I was 14, and I haven’t hunted since. I’d much rather shoot them with a camera. I love to eat venison though; yummy stuff, youbetcha. I smear it in my hair with gravy and noodles. Maybe a little mashed potatoes on my eyebrows. A pea or two in my belly button. Now that’s a party!!

Hopefully all the hunters will get their deer and come back all in one piece. Unfortunately, there are some silly boys (and yes, even girls now) who mix alcohol and weapons with very deadly results. And it’s not uncommon for a few to die because an eager hunter sees something moving in the brush and lets a shot fly. Youse guys can go hunting, and I’ll stay home. OK??

Call me. We’ll do lunch. Venison burgers, of course. Your treat, right??

Hopefully our nobody will run across these jokers in the woods…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgDloHcKNVc

Desserts!!

My hair is probably on fire. Is my hair on fire? I smell hair fire. This whole past week has been fanning the hair flames of my stress world; but that’s not your fault I don’t think. Is it? Can you tell I’m stressed? Holy MOLY… Life, The Universe, and Everything were all BIG in my face this week. Big week of living life stress bigness.

BIG.

We got some rather unwelcome health news this past Monday. Nothing unexpected, really, but unwelcome nonetheless. This getting older crap is not for cowards!! And I must admit, there are times while I’m kinda frightened. Well OK maybe a whole lot frightened. Fortunately, we have excellent support from friends, our biological family, and our “family of choice;” not necessarily in that order. And of course, not to forget The People Upstairs (a.k.a. God, whoever they are). A quick note about God (whoever they are): I do not subscribe to any religion. Rather, I love the anonymous quote I read many moons ago: “Nature is God’s reflection.” Yeah, I like that one a lot. To me, that means everything from the smallest subatomic particle to the immense myriad of planets, stars, galaxies, and so on that comprise this amazing Universe of ours. It includes all creatures large and small, and yes, boys and girls, it includes us.

OK so that wasn’t so quick, but anyway… We truly believe we will get strength from The Universe if we simply ask Them for help and keep our minds in gratitude mode. After all, we really are blessed beyond measure in oh so many ways.

There are, of course, numerous ways to deal with stress. Meditation and prayer are two very good ones. Sharing our problems with those we love and trust is good also. Distractions like entertainment such as concerts, plays, movies or TV shows can be helpful. Maybe go for a walk or ride a bike. And of course we need to care for our bodies by eating well, getting enough water, and making sure we get a healthy amount of sleep.

My Beautiful Girlfriend and I also have another tool for coping with stress: GOODIES. I remember seeing a meme in the form of a silly placard on the interwebs at one time or another: “STRESSED is DESSERTS spelled backwards!!”

I really like desserts.

We have a place called Mac’s Meats a few miles up the road from us in Rothbury, Michigan (nudge nudge, wink wink). We call it The Carnivore’s Candy Store. Yes, of course they have wonderful bacon, sausage, ribs, and such. But they also make some very nice baked goods. Their Long Johns are big and fat and must weigh in at over 3 pounds (maybe not, but we share one and that’s plenty). Our youngest grandson dubbed them Maximum Meats, and of course after we chuckled I responded: “Yes, and when they start to run out they rename the store Minimum Meats.”

For me, pizza is also dessert, as are potato chips. Those things really should be controlled substances. But I also like peanut M&Ms, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, oh and Holy Wow those amazing Ritter Sport chocolate bars that are packed with whole hazelnuts. All these and more are delicious, and I find myself accidentally buying some sort of chocolates from time to time. OH, and I also like cookies. Ice cream is nice also. Sure, my Wonderful Sweetheart and I had some muskmelon for dessert the other day; but the next day we had Ben & Jerry’s (Cherry Garcia… mmmmmmmm). So when I’m stressed, desserts start to call my name; and try as I might to resist, I do indeed heed the call. Yes, I know that too much of this stuff is not exactly calorie friendly. Since I’ve retired I do a lot of home cooked meals, so we eat sensibly much of the time. We work on our sweets intake in much the same way as we work on procrastination. Both of us have committed ourselves to quit procrastinating either tomorrow or the next day.

In the meantime, you gonna eat that last piece of pizza??

When I was MUCH younger, watching these two guys was a great stress reliever. Still is, in my professional opinion.

A Paperless Papers Letter

Dear Battery Holders,

As you may have noticed, this letter is not printed on paper.  No… you see it’s like this:  I’d like to warn you in advance that what follows is something of a hot topic. Please, if you have any interest in maintaining a trove of printed documents, DO NOT be like me.

As an egg sample, I often can’t seem to find my brayne. Those of you who are getting older will appreciate this, and maybe some of the younger ones too. So there I was, wenting to the Meijer pharmacy place picking up a prescription for my Beautiful Girlfriend. And yes, wenting is a real word because I said so, and I can conjugate it thusly, in the following usages of went, wented, and wenting.

I am went to the store.

I wented to the store.

I was wenting to the store.

All good?? Yes. I think, maybe…

So I wented to the store to pick up a prescription for the Love Of My Life, and this particular prescription required the presentation of a photo ID. Well, the only photo ID I am having is a driver’s license, so I put that in the little drive up sliding door thingamabob and it disappeared into the other side of the wall where the nice lady was processing the prescription; and perhaps unbeknownst to her she may possibly have had something to do with the composition of this run-on sentence; I simply don’t know.

OK. I am pay with the credit card and then I am receive the bag with the prescription and put it on the passenger seat and I am go home now. Then I am being home and am remove the prescription from the bag. The prescription obeys the law of gravity by sitting nicely on the counter. The bag is transported to the Red Metal Bucket (RBM) which contains junk mail and other fire starting combustibles.

Well sometimes we have a problem. We heat with wood. No, that’s not the problem… the problem is that when you put “garbage paper” (junk mail, prescription bags, etc.) in the woodstove to get a fire going, you can’t really go back through it if you have a little “whoopsie.” If you try, you will have ashes in your hair and eyebrows from putting your face inside the firebox while looking around.

PLEASE: ONLY DO THAT IF THE FIRE IS OUT… BUT GUESS WHAT?? EVEN IF YOU GO BACK TO CHECK, IT’S PROBABLY TOO LATE!! The fire must be out for obvious reasons. I mean, it’s not very comfortable to walk around the house (or anywhere else) with toasted nostrils and face blister ouch. Probably better to screen the papers carefully BEFORE putting them inside the firebox; because paper burns really well.

And fast!!

I did not notice my boo boo for several days; when I happened to open my wallet and discover that my license was gone. My reaction to this epiphany was, “Where the HECK is my lice…. oh crap.” So yes, boys and girls, I put my driver’s license in the fiery furnace. I’m sure it did a superb job of starting the fire, and that it burned really well.

And fast!!

Thankfully, you can now apply for a duplicate license at a kiosk in the grocery store. Is that cool or what?? And because of my weird propensity for remembering numbers, I was able to type in my driver’s license number from memory. I paid a few bucks for the mailing fee, and the kiosk thingy spit out a temporary paper license that I stuffed into my wallet where the real license used to live. And no I did NOT go home and put it in the woodstove. Took a week or so and I got my duplicate license in the mail, at which time I was able to quit shaming myself for using my original copy to start a wood fire.

I think perhaps I’ll be more careful next time I have to present my license to the pharmacy. In the meantime, I’ll just plod along and try to locate my cerebellum and it’s accessories. I may have left it in RBM (Red Metal Bucket), or even worse it might already be in the wood furnace. As the old saying goes, “All’s well that ends well.” But sometimes I find myself wondering if my brain thing is still out in a remote corner of the galaxy somewhere.

I go now. Please have a Happy Merry and a Joyful Wonderful.

If our fire ever gets to be a problem… we could always call Mickey’s Fire Brigade.  Or not…

No News Is Good News

It’s getting difficult to watch the news these days. Our lightning-fast media bring reports from all over the globe and flash them in front of our faces, often while they are happening in real time. Sure, it’s important to be informed, lest we become complacent and start resting on our laurels. After all, if we didn’t hear about what was going on, how could we act to effect change? Unfortunately, however, too often the news media have become voracious marketeers. Reports about sad and disturbing events have become their livelihood; sometimes with complete disregard for the victims of horrific events.

I saw a video a while ago of a CNN reporter who was put in her place by a poor woman with kids who had just lost everything because of a hurricane. The reporter asked the woman what the experience was like, and of course the poor lady reacted with disgust from the mere act of being interviewed in such a manner.

Manners… don’t people have manners anymore? Not sure about anyone else, but I don’t think it’s very good manners to stuff a microphone into the face of someone who was freshly uprooted because of a terrible storm.  My heart aches for those who are suffering, and my head is on fire worrying about my loved ones who are bracing for the wrath of Mother Nature, not to mention all the war crap going on around the globe.

Um… I asked you not to mention that!!

Well my friends, there really IS good news out there, and so I thought I’d take this opportunity to spread some of it around. Some of the links to follow were sent to me by friends, others I simply stumbled upon and stashed into my brain. So without further ado, here are some places you can go if you hunger for some uplifting stuff.

One of my new favorites: UTR Michigan (Under The Radar Michigan). Very cool stuff here. Saw a broadcast of their program on our local public TV station recently, but you can also watch programs on their site for free. I’m very grateful to have been transplanted to Michigan… a great place to live in my professional opinion. This guy points out just how cool it really is at http://www.utrmichigan.com/

Then there’s Yes! Magazine. A dear friend gave me a subscription for a Christmas gift awhile ago and I’ve been smitten ever since. Articles about all types of positive actions around the globe are chronicled here. They can be found at http://www.yesmagazine.org/

Then of course my organic gardener soul loves these: The Mother Earth News: http://www.motherearthnews.com/ Oh, and another favorite, the Seed Savers Exchange: http://www.seedsavers.org/

Oh! We mustn’t forget “the pooper book” website!! Say wha?? Well, that’s what our son calls the Old Farmers Almanac. His nickname for the Almanac is one of love, I’m sure, and was derived from the area of the house the magazine is most often found. Every year I buy at least three them: one for our son, one for our daughter and her family, and one for us. Over the years, I’ve acquired this habit of also buying copies for friends. Not sure the website qualifies as news, and actually the hard copy is more fun than the website. Nonetheless, you can find it at http://www.almanac.com/

Well friends, I could go on and on but suffice it to say that there really IS good news out there if you look for it. And the older I get, the more good news I seem to need. There is more than enough heartache in this world; and when I find myself focusing too closely on just the nasty stuff, I get rather sad. I’m sure I’ll continue to keep my ear to the ground and stay informed, but there are times when no news really is good news.

And good news is just plain good!

One of my least favorite topics is politics; but this 1937 Betty Boop cartoon shows that having a mayor like Grampy is just plain cool.

The Hunt For Channel 3

Something smells terrible in the physics of our electronic TV wavelength reception universe. In other words kiddies. sadness abounds because channel 3, our local CBS broadcaster, is not coming in very well. Why do we care? Because we are prehistoric citizens of the techniverse, and we still get much of our TV reception from a strange fixture known as an antenna.

Last time we had this fun, the cause was a soggy coax connector that screws onto the antenna amplifier. This was 8 years ago… and I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to get back on the roof to replace the connector. Used to be you could get such strange items at the local Radio Shack, but those are long gone. I remember going to the local Meijer and asked the guy in the Media Center very technical question. “What year is it??” I said. “Ummm I think it’s 1982,” the youngster replied with a snicker. “Good,” I replied. “Then maybe you can help me find a connector for my TV antenna cable.” The nice young man was maybe in his 20s, and did his best to be helpful. “I need a connector for RG-59 cable,” I said. Of course, he had absolutely no idea what I needed, but I’ll give him an A+ for winging it. He pointed at an assortment of doo-dads and said, “this is all the RGA stuff we have.” I didn’t bother to educate him on the terminology; but no luck for the likes of me. A little later I told my Beautiful Girlfriend, “Maybe I still have one stashed in my junk someplace.” “Where is all your junk??” my Lovely Sweetheart wondered. “EVERYWHERE,” I told her, with little need to exaggerate.

And by golly I found a couple!! They were in the bottom of the bag behind the curtains of the little closet in my office, along with some pliers, an old watch, some matches, a little 3 foot tape measure, some pens, and lots of other treasures I apparently was unwilling to either discard or sort in some logical manner. Although I’d very much prefer not to do it, I imagine I’ll be clambering up on the roof sometime soon to see if that’s actually what’s wrong.

All this may seem a rather silly to some. We live in a pretty high tech world these days, and there’s lots of content for the TV on cable, satellite, and of course the interwebs; if you’re willing to pay for it. We are not willing to pay for something that has been free since the day we were born. Well OK we do pay for the interwebs; but broadcast television is still very much alive, and there’s lots of free stuff you can watch once you get your antenna system set up. When it was new, my antenna system cost a total of about $300 with all the bells and whistles. If installed properly, such a system will work seamlessly for many years. Of course we’re talking a large fish bone looking monster that I bought over 20 years ago, along with a mast mounted amplifier. You can get much smaller antennas these days for almost half as much money. Even though it’s old, it has served us well, and I like to keep my stuff going, thank you very much.

If you know me, then you know I’m a dinosaur. Caveman. Troglodyte. Fred Flintstone. I’m, well, not really a high-tech kind of guy. Although I retired from a fairly high-tech job, all the stuff at our house is pretty much old-tech. We still have a turntable, cassette recorder, and a kick-ass stereo system on which to play them on. And we never did get cable TV…

Instead of cable, we get content off the interwebs with our ROKU. We keep our subscriptions to a minimum… Netflix and Paramount Plus, the latter of which allows us to livestream channel 3!! But hey, when all is well our antenna brings in at least 30 channels, sometimes more depending on what’s going on in the atmosphere. We figure if we paid for TV we’d watch too much of it. And even if we didn’t; it’s money we’d rather spend on other silly stuff like groceries and car repairs, and toys for our grandkids. I don’t mind being a caveman; and my Beautiful Girlfriend hasn’t left me for a high tech guy yet so I’m guessing she’s OK with it too.  In the meantime, the hunt for channel 3 continues; and I WILL WIN!!!

If you don’t believe me, just ask me some time.

When we’re not watching TV we sometimes listen to the radio; just like these two… um… ladies??