There is Scientific Proof of My One-Track Mind

I find it amusing, for some reason, that they call their boats barges

I have been very busy the last few days and I love it. I am trying to pack a lot into whatever time I have from here-on-out. I cannot believe the things I am enjoying now. I have never minded doing laundry so that is still good. I hung the curtain rods above the windows and put together two shelving units in/for the Tiki Room. I ironed the new floor-to-ceiling curtains and I cannot believe how much I liked doing that. I am thinking about opening my own laundromat. I already have the name -  Laundry Matt. I will think about that because I bet after awhile I would get sick of ironing and folding. But, I think the places like that have presses rather than the hand-held irons that we regular Joes use. I also hung the curtains, of course. Cha Cha and I went and met with a travel agent yesterday and it looks like we may be headed to Prague, Paris and Heidelberg. We are trying to work Amsterdam in too but that may take some finagling and more money, of course. Amsterdam is not a deal-breaker but it would be nice. It turns out that since we are so young (compared to all of the other people who will be on our Viking cruise) we will save quite a bit of money by getting a different insurance policy than the other old codgers. Do you suppose I will be asked to open jars and lift heavy things for our co-passengers? I am okay with that. I bet my dance card will be full.

While I was ironing and, again, was listening to Pandora. I was listening to the Barenaked Ladies (BNL) station and most of the songs made me think about everything going on again. Give a Little Bit (The Goo Goo Dolls), Save Tonight (Eagle Eye Cherry), It's All Been Done (BNL), How's it Gonna Be (Third Eye Blind), Good Riddance (Green Day)... Yesterday I was listening to the Disney station and I knew almost all the words to every song. We played Disney all the time when the kids were young. Plus I worked in a toy store for awhile and we played those cassettes (yes, cassettes) when I was there. It's funny that I skipped the songs from Frozen and Tangled because these movies were after my kids were older so they didn't give me the warm-and-fuzzies.

I have always been told that I have a one-track mind

Talking about thinking  - I learned why maybe I can remember what I do and forget what I do. It may come from a "condition" that is pretty common these days called The Google Effect. The Google Effect is a "condition" where we forget things that we can Google and remember the things that we cannot.  That would explain why I can remember all the people that I know and forget other things. It may also, as I have said here, that people are more important to me that just about anything else. I am proud of my mind if it has taken this initiative on its own. I wonder if I will start forgetting famous people because I can Google them? I am not sure if this is 100% true or if it related to what I have going on but I like the idea.

I want to say that I appreciate all of the warm sentiments and kind words about my "condition" but please do not feel sorry for me. This has been one of the best times of my life in a long time. I get to spend a lot more time with my best friend and everybody is so nice to me. Also, I appreciate so many more things these days. I don't take hardly anything for granted as we do in our day-to-day rat-race lives. I don't really worry about much of anything when just a month or so ago I was worried and stressed about everything. Today I even went down the stairs on my butt like we used to do when we were kids - just for the hell of it. In case you are thinking of trying it I will tell you this... it is still kind of fun but it hurts your butt more than it did back in the day.

I heard on the radio that there was a guy arrested out near me for what was classified as looting which is a felony. He was supposedly assisting with all of the tornado clean-up just a bit west of my part of The Middle but he was actually stealing many items that people and companies had donated for these people who had lost so much (homes, belongings. loved-ones...). I can think of a lot of reprehensible things and this is among the worst. To me this is worse than stealing from the dead. I hope he smokes a turd in Hell. I guess I do not know his story but in my mind he was just stealing stuff to sell on Ebay or something. I bet we will hear a lot more about this story.

I got wood! There was also plastic and metal and such in there too

I wrote those last paragraphs before I went and visited one the doctors from my team of physicians. This was my primary-care doctor and he knew nothing about my condition. What in the hell goes on with these doctors? I was told by my neurologist that he was sending all of his findings to my GP (general practitioner) but my GP said, "maybe he sent it to our Galena (Blvd.) office." If he did then why in the Helser didn't they send it over to you? This country is in a medical mess.

Today was a good day other than that. Waste Management came out and picked up our Bagster today. In case you are unfamiliar, it is like a collapsible dumpster that you unfold fill it with refuse up to 3300 ponds and they send a truck with a telescoping boom to pick it up. I sat in the front window of the house just watching the dude masterfully park in the cul-de-sac and work the boom and turn the Bagster in the air and put it in the back of his truck. I am such a ten-year-old by in so many ways. I also got the Tiki Room completely done except for the french doors that were supposed to have been installed last Thursday. They are coming back tomorrow morning with the correct supplies. If they do not get it done I will contact Lowe's and make other arrangements.

Sorry this was posted so late today. Maybe I will post a photo of the Tiki Room in tomorrow's blog though most of you didn't see it before we started the transformation. Thank you for stopping-in and for waiting for the blog. After I go to the bank and get the scratch for the cruise I will be here for quite awhile while the french doors are installed. Have a great rest of your night. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

The Curious Case of Mattjamin Blogger

I am sitting in the new Tiki Room (Tiki Room Y2K15). The other night Cha Cha and I went out and got the new blinds for the windows. The walls in this room used to be a french mustardy Dijon yellow color. It was called butter cream or something. It was kind of this color. The blinds we had on the windows and the curtain for the sliding door were this color. I painted the room last week a very light yellow and the shades I installed yesterday are white. They are really cool blinds that do not have strings. They are the Pinocchio of blinds. You pull them down and they just stay where you want them to stay simply by letting-go of them. When you want them to go up you just push them up from the bottom and they stay wherever you let them go. The guy is coming back Thursday to install the french doors. They are white and have blinds built right into the window between the panes of glass. He was here last Thursday but did not have the correct materials because the window and the frame were not the correct whatever even though he came out ahead of time and measured and we bought the door based on his initial measurements that he gave to Lowe's who he is a subcontractor for. It is good that I am off all day every day to accommodate his schedule. As long as it looks as good as I anticipate and Cha Cha gets what she has envisioned I will be happy.

I was thinking about Benjamin Button this morning. No, I do not know why. I am pretty sure he and I went to college together as our ages crossed. I liked that film (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). It is really about life in general and it made me listen to The Circle of Life this morning from Disney's The Lion King. If you think about it, if we live long enough, being a baby and being very old are very much alike. You cannot dress yourself and you cannot feed yourself and you cannot control your bowels (or you just don't want to), you wear diapers, you don't have any teeth. I still dress myself and I have most of my teeth, I have peed myself but that was at SIU from drinking too much. Right now I am a little past the MIDDLE part of my Benjamin Button Phase but I am afraid that the second half is going to go faster than the first.

I so want to use this mind-loss for my own amusement but I can see that the jokes are wearing thin on some and I think it kind of upsets Cha Cha. My jokes also, often, help me relieve my own stress. On the way back from Tennessee we stopped-off in Marion, IL (no I was not being committed or examined at United States Prison - Marion). Splenda drove over from Carbondale and we had lunch with her. I made a few cracks of this nature and I could tell that it bothered her so I stopped right away. Maybe it is tough seeing your dad go off his coconut though there is so much less stress in it. I have always dealt with things with humor. I also have a pretty good gauge of when that is not working and I know when to stop. A good stress comic has to know his audience. You don't know that managing a comedy club (Zanies) for a couple of years in your Benjamin Button journey is preparing you for later life but all of our travels in life, if we pay attention, are just spring training for something else that is yet to come. I am nervous of what my current training is preparing me (or my loved ones maybe) for. 

I am listening to The Eagles station on Pandora and Ben E. King is singing Stand By Me right now. I have always loved this song but, like any song does from time-to-time for all of us, it has different meaning this time. Ha, now The Beatles are singing Nowhere Man telling me about making all of my nowhere plans for nobody.

Pretty sound advise 

Jill and I are going to see a travel agent later today. We ARE going to go to Europe soon and we want to make the best of it so we will pay somebody who knows what they are doing in this arena to help us. I am about 98.6% sure that we are taking a Rhine River cruise but we want to make the most of it and see as many things that I will be able to forget as we can. Ha, Take It To The Limit is playing now. I guess after we talk to this dude we are going to dinner at one of our favorite places - Bien Trucha. We have been there many, many times and I remember that I love this place but, for the life of me, I cannot picture it in my mind or where it is. Not a joke. It is odd the things that I can remember and the things that I cannot. Maybe my mind is purging the things that it deems unimportant first. People have always been the most important to me so I am confident that you will be there until the end. I cannot promise that so please do not be offended that I forget you but it will be great to meet you again one day. And, if you are offended, don't worry - I will forget all about it.

I still want to do a blog like a tribute to Cha Cha. Uh oh, I feel the tears starting to well-up. It doesn't help that Eric Clapton just started to sing Wonderful Tonight - damn you karma and your evil ways! I cannot believe how fortunate and unworthy I have been to have her with me for the past  32+ years (that includes dating...). Not to mention that, without her, I wouldn't have met some of the best people that I have ever known (her dad Jerry, her brother Tom and our maid-of-honor Mary as examples). I have to stop writing this because I am chocking-up and I need to get some stuff done today. Maybe later?

I do remember these now that I Googled a photo!

Now Keep on Loving You (REO Speedwagon) is ending and Everything I Do, I Do it For You (Brian Adams) is playing. They should call this the Matt In The Middle Station. I want this Pandora station played at my funeral.

Thank you for encouraging me to continue to write. I don't know if I was ever taking quitting the blog seriously or I was just feeling sorry for myself but I need this therapy and short distraction every day. Funny how a distraction is discussing the problems and issues huh? I guess that is what therapists and psychologists do - let us talk about our problems. I have never seen either of the two but who knows if my path will lead that way later? But, I sincerely do thank you and appreciate you every day whether you comment or not. Have a great day as I will. I cannot wait to try this Bien Trucha again for the first time today. I should probably see if I did a Yelp! review of that place - I sort of think that I did. TTTT...MITM (out) TA! Now Let It Be (The Beatles) is ending and Stairway To Heaven (Led Zeppelin) is starting - UH OH! Double TA!

Physical Memory Dump...Contact Your System Admin....

I am now considering several tattoos

I am having mixed feeling on whether to keep the blog going. On one hand I love writing and it helps me in so many ways. It also helps me get things off my mind but, this is not one of my usual attempts at humor, I really don't require that getting stuff off my mind assistance anymore. As I laid (or lied) in bed this morning I became aware that there are many things that I should remember that I cannot remember. Maybe I was still groggy from sleep because I slept pretty well last night for a change and perhaps my body and mind do not know how to handle that because I VERY RARELY sleep well. I would not say that I am frustrated or worried but I would say that I am aware and hypothesizing. I am concerned.

Yesterday I spent a great deal of the day exercising my brain with A LOT of stimuli and it performed very well I believe. I know you have to work-out your brain like every other muscle in your body and that is my main work-out focus right now. You can probably tell that it has probably always been the one I worked-out the most.

You probably know that I love irony. When I went to use my computer this morning the screen was blue with a bunch of white letters trying to scare me. I think my computer and my mind must be either melding or conspiring together against me because it read:
Collecting data from crash dump
Initializing disk for crash dump
Physical memory dump failed status OXCOOOOO10
Contact your system admin or technical support group for further assistance

I wonder which of my doctors is the system admin and which is the technical support? My life is kinda like if you took the film Memento and the movie (there is a difference between a film and a movie to me) 50 First Dates and combined them. Luckily I am fat so there is a lot more room for all of the tattoos of things and people I want to remember.

Okay, I just wanted to quickly get that in writing for future reference. I have to work on my todo list for today. I won't bore you with the list today - maybe tomorrow? Thank you for letting me get this down here. I am sorry if I have become a one-trick-pony with the blog lately but it has always been whatever comes into my mind, ironically, and this is on my mind almost every waking hour right now. I'll get past that and I appreciate your help and understanding. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

Don't Waste Your Time on a New Pair of Speakers

I have a lot on my feable mind this very early morning so I have decided to come out on our deck that sits at the foot of the Smoky Mountains and spend a few moments with you. I hear the water rushing over rocks creating white-caps in the river or stream way, way down there. I see three light on the top of Old Smoky (The Smoky Mountains). They are not covered in cheese but there is probably a lot of dew up there. I have things that I want to remember the most and I want to put them here. I can use the blog (like I have done many times) as my memory, I am getting chocked-up and teary-eyed just thinking of the main reason I wanted to write this. I want to remember, more that anything, my love for Jill and what she means to me. I am getting so emotional and tear-filled that I don't know if I can continue to write. I know it sounds cliche' but I have to go get a tissue. "Tito get me a tissue." I will be right back.

LOL, Billy Joel just sang "don't waste you time on a new set of speakers, you get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers..." on Pandora. I am glad my phone allows me to create a "mobile hotspot." Of course, Jill taught me that. Those Billy Joel words mean something different to me this morning. I like his music but I think he is probably an a-hole though a-holes are necessary sometimes and are very entertaining in small doses. I have been told that everything is about me before but I think that is the only way I can relate to thing - to make them about me. I think everything is about each of us in our ways and that is the way we relate to things - putting our personal spins and feeling on them..

Anyway, as usual, I digress. I just want to remember that this morning I woke-up and lied in bed and had a pretty good cry. Almost blubbering. As you know, I tear-up on a regular basis but, today, I had the stereo-type stuffed-up nose and the tears running down my cheeks (to the sides since I was still lying down in bed). I would wipe them away and they would just fill-up again; I was on the boundary of blubbering. I cannot think about anything but how I do not want to make Jill and my kids sad and that is pretty-much out of my hands. I also do not want to be a burden. Maybe that is why I put a razor blade to my neck last night but it had nothing to do with shaving. Don't worry, it was not to kill myself but that will be a great matt-hanger cliff-hanger for a later blog. I sliced my throat neck several times last night

We are gonna leave Tennessee in a bit and we are headed home a different way. We are going to go across Tennessee and go to the bottom of Illinois and up that way. Splenda asked if we were going to go back her way and stop and see her. So, of course, we are. We are going to meet in Marion, IL for... I guess it will be lunch by then, At least we will get some time back going that way.

Ha, now Paul Simon is thinking 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. "Just go Splat Matt" or "Jump in with a Polecat Matt"...

Okay, we are gonna get out of Dodge before the cirus in town wake-up. I will continue this later (maybe from a literal "mobile hotspot" travelling at 70+ miles per hour). At the bottom of cliffs leaving a cliff-hanger...

Evryday I'm Buggtusslin' Tusslin'

Wow, yesreday was a long day. I have no idea why it took us 14 hours to get from DeKalb, IL to Bugtussle, Tennesee. Some people call it Gatlinburg I call it Bugtussle. I think that I could have been anywhere in the world in 14 hours by plane. Chicago to Hong Kong is only 15 1/2 hours and that includes much more comfort. I remember (sort of) driving from home to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in only nine hours. We stopped to eat a couple of times (sit-down food) so that sucked some time. We have a beautiful, huge deck (don't get deck envy now) off of our bedroom and I can see why they call these the Smoky Mountains. The fog (they call it Ocean Layer if you are in a coastal town) looks like smoke rising above the trees. Who knows, maybe there is a forest fire and I am just a moron. I know half of that statement is true.

I am still sad that I am going to potentially lose, at least a portion of, my mind; that is the only good part about me and many people would debate whether my mind is even worth a hoot. I can tell that Cha Cha is really sad and that is probably the worst part of this for me. She deserves better. I have told her several times that if I get bad that I want her to just put me in the booby hatch. I have always been a booby man anyway so it seems fitting. I won't know the difference anyway. I do not want to make the blog about this every day so I will just say a few things each blog maybe. Probably a little every day.

When we arrived here Cha Cha  and her sister went in while I waited in the car. They were taking a really long time and I kept moving the car so people could get through the turn-about. The ladies were just standing at the check-in desk talking to this same lady and then a guy would come over and join in. I figured something was awry with our reservation so, after 20 minutes or so, I decided to go in and be The Enforcer. I am told that I am better under pressure and that I have a tenasious way about me. Jill has even told me that when I get angry my eyes become competely black (not the whites though). I just comes down to "nobody puts Cha Cha in a corner." It makes sense that I am that way since dogs, who I seem to have many traits with, are the same way. They are loveable and playful but mess with their pups or take their bone and see what happens. Anyway, I marched in and just stood back and listened while planning my attack and it turned-out that these people (at least these two) were just blabber-mouths. Maybe that is the southern hospitality. I am glad that I observe, assess andplan before I attack.

I saw the trailer for the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, coming out near Christmas. It looks really good, of course. I may have to watch all the other movies again (I am pretty sure we have them all in one form or another) just so I can remember what is going on. There is so much time between films and A LOT has happened in that time in the current real world (not a long time ago in a galaxy far far away). And, of course, the long awaited sequel to Joe Dirt, appropriately entitled Joe Dirt 2, will be streaming on Crackle this summer. I may have to miss that one.

I guess we are going to spend most of the day today in Knoxville. Jill's sister is a big University of Tennessee fan. Working at a university I am not overly excited but, as I have said, I am just along for the ride. I am like the toilet dispenser of the trip. I am not necessary but I am handy to have once in awhile. I am the eye-candy. I hope you like sour balls.

I have to end so I can take a shower and get dressed. I may blog again tonight and post tomorrow before we head-out and post it early (though it is Sunday and I may not blog at all). I think we may go home a different route tomorrow so we can stop and see Splenda on the way north. Of course, she is worried about me too. Thanks for being here; I appreciate you so much. TTTT (or Monday) ...MITM (out of...) TA!

Rapiunt Amens (Seize the Crazy)

Jeff still has his friends over to watch the Lassie box-set

FORWARD - I wrote this two days ago and was going to post it twice and have not but, obviously, now I have! (I did add and update a few things)

I am changing my entire way of life. I have done that many times and with some success. I lost 84 pounds about six years ago or so but, unfortunately, I have gained some of that back so I know I am capable of change when I put my thinky-thing to it. I am watching far less television than I did just one week ago. I think Newton Minow may have been correct in calling television a vast wasteland. And, to think he said that 50 years ago when he was the Federal Communications Commission Chairman. Nobody really discusses his entire statement. He said, "when television is good - nothing, not the theater, not magazines or newspapers - nothing is better. But, when television is bad nothing is worse. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland." The speech went on but you can look it up if you want more information. I remember in college (majoring in Radio-Television) how I kind of resented that statement until I read it in its context. He could not have been more right. Television has changed a great deal in 50 years and there are good television choices but there are A LOT of bad ones too. Anyway, being off of work with my ailment, I had been watching way too much television (some great, some bad, some good, some very bad). So, now I watch no television during the day and watch it very sparingly at night. There are shows like: Mad Men, Silicon Valley, Better Call Saul... that I will watch the recordings of. I am now a television snob (but it s my field of expertise so that is acceptable). I think maybe Minow was referring to the vast loss of time and not as much the programming though the speech was aimed at the programming itself.

I am listening to much more music (mostly on Pandora) too. That is one of the best subscriptions we have ever gotten (you can get it free with commercial breaks but I do not want the commercials - "ain't nobody got time for that"). I am listening to the Miles Davis station while I write this. It is only instrumentals. Right now I am listening to "In a Mellow Mood" by Andrea Pozza. It is only a drum kit and a piano. I am reading much more now too and the instrumental music helps drown out a lot of the background noise. Though I have brain issues my senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) are too acute. I have had The Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume I sitting on the shelf for about two years and I have started to read that now. He is one of my favorite authors. I love visiting Hannibal, Missouri (his boyhood home and the inspiration for many of his writings) whenever I can. I may have to make my way down there one weekend (or any day for that MATTer) this summer as I am not working. Anyway, I am trying to do more things that cause me to think and not veg-out. Cha Cha has even gotten me to start using/playing  Lumosity. I use the phone ap. It is a "brain games and brain training" program. They should call it Loonosity.

I guess I will stop beating around the bush and fill you in on my condition according to the one medical/neurological opinion I have received so far. The MRI showed that my brain has shrunk and is shrinking (cerebral atrophy). This is common in many diseases that affect the brain (yes, I finally have documented evidence that I do have a brain though it is literally making its way to becoming a pea-brain or trying to completely evacuating the premises). Some brain shrinkage is normal in aging but I am too young to have this much shrinkage (not a Seinfeld shrinkage joke even though, obviously, I thought of it). There was also evidence/proof that I have had/am having seizures. He also said that there are chances of dementia in my future. So, I've got that to look forward to, which is nice. The most common form of dementia, of course, is Alzheimer's Disease. The signs of Alzheimer's are: memory loss, mood swings, poor judgement.... My memory used to be amazing but, over the past few years, I have had a feeling that my mind was full and there wasn't room for the new stuff. I have always been a moody cuss and, if anything, I have found that I am more pleasant over the last couple of months but that could just be not working nights for awhile. I think my judgement has improved too in many ways. I guess you don't necessarily have to have all of the signs.

The thing that concerned me (and Cha Cha) the most about the meeting was when the doctor said something like, "get done the things you want to get done."  That seems like something from a movie. You have heard the line - "you may want to get your affairs in order..." I don't even have any affairs. If I am going to go off my rocker or go crackers or lose my marbles or go loony or kooky or bonkers or daffy or haywire or cuckoo or wig-out or go off the deep end or wacko or flip my lid or go bananas or berserk I want to at least have some fun on the way out. I would have liked it so much more to have it been a surprise - damn seizures wrecking all my fun with their foreshadowing. I picture me in a group session in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That does not seem to appeal to me much. What is it with me and Jack Nicholson? Yesterday Bucket List and today Cuckoo's Nest.

This is Heidelberg. Where my "crazy" voyage all began

One of the things that I have wanted to get done for a long time is go back to my country of origin (West Germany - now just Germany). I have not been back since 1964 and I am sure the people of Dossenheim have been asking themselves many times, "Warum er nicht schreiben?" I was actually born in Heidelberg and we lived in the burbs. No kidding, this may actually occur. I am fairly positive I will be close to the old hood. I will be able to see how six years of German in high school and college was useless. It is like the Make-A-Wish program. How come I can't have a telethon to fund my travels? 

If I totally lose my mind and cannot remember anything I don't care if you mess with me. I just ask that, no MATTer what, please do not try to convince me I am a Cubs' fan or tell me that I used to be a Cubs' fan. I will find out and I will make you pay and I will easily get off on an insanity plea. I am not big on tattoos but I may have to get a St. Louis Cardinals' tattoo to try to thwart any of this kind of activity

I guess I have to watch some kind of training film called The Notebook.

I hope I have not bummed you out. I was slightly shocked and bummed when I first received this news but I got over it. I will see what the second opinion bares (maybe the 22nd) but I am fairly certain it is easy to see if a brain has shrunk and if there is damage. See, I should have smoked pot! Maybe I can get a prescription now? Seizures is a key word there I think. I saw the images from the MRI and, though I know very little about this since I am just recently CERTIFIABLY mentally challenged, it seems like the report I received is correct. Something this big is worth a second opinion though. I vow not to apply for handicapped plates unless I can get personalized handicapped plates. I think I would lean toward CRACKRS or LOONIE or CUCKOO.

I think I am going to try to take a nap WITH EAR BUDS. If you read the first blog from today you know, as usual, I have been awake for awhile. Thank you for being here and for all of the nice messages and thoughts even without knowing what my deal was/is; that makes it even nicer. I think I will blog tomorrow but I am going to Tennessee (last minute). I am not sure what time my driver will be ready for me. Cha Cha and her sister were already going and, now that my dance card is wide open and I need to see the world and stimulate my brain, I got a ticket to ride. "My baby don't care." I hope to visit every state and remember none of them; I have already been to Tennessee many times though. It will be odd not doing the driving. I am gonna sit in the back of the Jeep and be chillin' like a villain. Maybe The Joker? Thanks for taking the news so well and don't worry about me. I know some who read this will even be delighted to read the news. I appreciate you for continuing to stop by. Just hold on from here on out because it may become a bumpy ride. TTTT (sometime)...MITM (out...of his right mind). TA!

I am a Blog-Brain

It is 0416 and I have been up for just over an hour now (since 0254ish). I turned-on the CalmMeditation Radio on Pandora and that does not even make me fall back to sleep. That is the station that really helped Cha Cha when she was in the hospitals a few months back. The bedroom is completely dark and I even put my face mask on to block any little pin-hole of light but, no sleep. I worked cleaning the garage yesterday nearly the entire day and I thought I was exhausted. The level of tiredness does not have anything to do with my not sleeping it appears. Oh well, there's no crying in insomnia. There's a lot of complaining, it seems, though. 

I have written a rather lengthy blog about what I have been led to believe are my medical issues. I am not sure if I want to post it before I get a second opinion (on the results - not on whether or not to post all of that boredom). I am not trying to P.T. Barnum this whole thing up I am just trying to be a responsible journalist. I guess it would not be irresponsible to post what the doctor told me as everything I would write is fact as I know it.  However, a good journalist, as I see it, always tries to get a corroborating source on controversial topics. If you don't it could just be hearsay or someone trying to promote their own agenda. Sometimes I feel that, with the 24-hour news cycle, the news agencies just have to fill their time which is why there is so much fighting and fright in our world (I cannot speak about other countries' or planets' worlds). I am certain that I will post the other information; it may even be later today. I assure you this is not a ploy to try to build excitement for my season finale. I don't have season finales. well, not yet anyway.

Jill goes out of town with her sister soon. I will miss her. I don't see her much anyway because I know I can be a pest and I am only good in small-doses so I try to limit her exposure to the virus of me. I think there have been A LOT of people who have O.D.'d on me. I am trying to figure out why sometimes I call Jill by her real name here and sometimes I call her Cha Cha. There is no correlation that I can think of. I believe it may just because she doesn't care for the great responsibility that comes with being an international celebrity so I am trying to split it into, what seems like, two people. It makes me think -I have had many people call me "Matt In The Middle" when speaking to me. I think I have laughed every time someone has done that. 

That may explain why I am a St. Louis Cardinals' fan?

I cannot tell if the bird chirping sounds I am hearing are included in the calm music I am listening to or they are actual birds outside my window. I have not considered that they could just be in my head. My window is right next to the tree where the birds hang-out. We have a feeder just below and I also sprinkle seeds on the ground so we can service all of our customers efficiently. I guess the tree is like the line to the drive-up window. Maybe the sounds are in my head? I always wondered where the term "bird-brained" came from. Okay, the song just changed and the birds are still blabbing - mystery solved. 

That having good hearing thing is really a nuisance sometimes. That is part of the reason (maybe) that I could not go back to sleep this morning when I woke up a bit before 3AM. I heard the television on downstairs so I went down and there was nobody down there. Maybe it was a Poltergeist thing? I bet Helen Keller slept like a rock. 

I am going to end now because, if I post the other blog that I may post later today, you will overload on me and I need you. Thank you for coming-by again. I hope you're excited for the MITM season finale (which will be followed the next day by the new season premiere). I am actually tired and I am going to try to see if anything can come of that. TTTT (or maybe today after review and consultation)...MITM (out) TA!