Happy Irony Day or is it Just Coincidence Day?

Dr. Stephen Maturin from one of my favorite films of all time

As usual I have very little on my mind but I will blog anyway.

I think my neurologist is just throwing medicines at me to see what will stick. My investigation is that he gives me samples that the pharmaceutical reps give him. Is there money to be made in the medical community? I guess everyone is out for our money aren't they? It is a poor way to treat a problem and I am sick of it (pun intended). I have decided to choose which of the meds I will take and which I will not. I am being careful about it and will ignore no signs either one way or another. I began this procedure yesterday even though I do not know the wisdom of this decision. I am going to begin to think of my doctors as offensive and defensive coordinators and myself as the head coach (pun not intended but recognized and appreciated). He who would make a pun would pick a pocket.

Ha, ironies of ironies - I just got an email on my wristwatch from TruGreen that reads "last chance to save on ice melt." Is there green ice? Maybe a diamond? I suppose TruGreen Ice does have to keep the lights on when nobody is getting their lawns sprayed for bugs and fertilized... Are they called wristwatches anymore? I am talking about the one that counts my steps and takes my pulse... I guess we have wristcomputers now huh?

Dirty Laundry Podcast will be only three degrees from John Fogerty soon

Cha Cha took our new mixing board with her to work today. A lady that she works with is married to a chap that does a lot of professional recording and is going to help us to get the podcast up-and-running again. I do not want to do the show the way we did it before. We just had one studio microphone and the sound suffered from time-to-time I felt. This would allow everyone to have their own microphones. We went to a dinner party one night with the guy who is looking at it and earlier in the day of that party he had been working with one of John Fogerty's drummers, Kenny Aronoff, laying down some tracks. Aronoff is probably most known as John Cougar Mellencamp's drummer for close to 20 years. So, I suppose he guy looking at our set-up knows what he is doing quite a bit better than I do with a mixing board. Hopefully, soon I will know a bit more than I do know now though. Do you suppose the recording guy will want a photo of us to put on his wall with the other big recording artists he works with? We have worked with Emo Philips if that counts.

Another irony of today (or another coincidence) - I had the movie The Natural on in the background and, when it ended, Awakenings came on. Incidentally, also both very good films. It would have been much more ironic/coincidental if I were still writing the paragraph about the neurologist because, in this movie, Robin Williams plays a neurologist that helps people who are catatonic (fortunately I am not even close to that) "awaken." I am not sure if I can continue to find irony in this Freaky Friday but I will make a list and check it twice if I do and report back later (probably tomorrow). As this movie is going on I am finding many more ironies and coincidences - perhaps everything in the universe IS about me after-all. Spoiler alert - I don't think I ever suffered from encephalitis. Not in this life anyway. I have been told many times that I have what could be considered just the opposite of encephalitis. Supposedly, often times, that disease has mild flu-like symptoms and, for the past couple of months or so, I have had a problem with my left ear popping and hurting mainly when I yawn. I should try to yawn during the day or just quite yawning all together (did you just say " yawn?"). I have yawned three times since I first typed "yawn." Proving, once again, that I am weak-minded.

Okay, it's  a bit after noon already and I have some things I need to get done before my day really begins. Thank you for stopping in. I hope you have a great Friday. I think I will be able to blog tomorrow but it may be an abbreviated blog as I have a big weekend ahead of me and I hope you do too (and that it is all on the plus-side). TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

Still Alive!

I am SUPER NERD! 

It has been almost a week since I last blogged (will be a week tomorrow) and I thought it was time to blog again. I just had a lot of things that needed to get done so last Friday I wrote that I would not blog for awhile and that allowed me to get many of the things done; most of them actually. It was also fortuitous that you did not expect a blog because Fabio got sick and I took him to the doctor a couple of times in that time and drove him to school (Waubonsee Community College) and hung-out in the library for about five hours reading a couple of days ago. Waubonsee is where Cha Cha and I met when we both worked on the newspaper and the television station and without Waubonsee Fabio (and Splenda) would not exist. Wow, has that place grown and changed. Anyway, Fabio is better (about 85% good). They are still not sure but they think he may have had mononucleosis and he was definitely dehydrated. He also had a temperature of a bit above 103. Yesterday he was back to 98.6 and seems to feel alright. He has another doctor's appointment next week - I know it is really just so they can get another $20 co-pay out of us but that is okay. It was probably worth that so he could get a doctor's note for work since he works in the deli at a grocery store at probably should not be around food if he is sick. This is the first time he has ever been sick and, when I took the note into his boss, she seemed concerned about him because she knew he must have been pretty sick.

Speaking of libraries our new library here in DeKalb is closed. I went to take back one of the books yesterday that I got done reading and I saw that they will now be closed until January 18th. That explains why my books are not due back until January 20th. Usually they are only loaned for 30 days but this was due in 60 days: I thought I was just special (yes, I know). I was able to drop the book in the new slot of the remodeled library. I would say that the new library is about three times the size of the old one. That is all pretty nice for a guy who still uses his library card.

I am just about ready to begin the writing process of my novel. I will begin by planning a tentative map/outline of where I want to go with the story. I know the map will change many, many times as I travel through the writing process before I reach the destination (the words THE END though I may use FINIS) but I need a map to get to where I hope to arrive. Just like any journey we make in our lives, however, there will always be obstacles and washed-out roads or paths and rockfalls and inclement weather but those are what, many times, make the journey more memorable and worth taking.

I got the holiday tree up this morning. We have always called it a Christmas tree but with all of the political rhetoric going on about refugees and Muslims I won't use that term this year. Unless this country shows me that we care about the huddled masses that almost all of our ancestors were I will not be in the true feeling of Christmas.

All of a sudden I have started to sweat and I feel light-headed and my chest aches and my feet and hands and elbows are tingling. I guess I had better finish this novel faster than I thought. The aforementioned phenomena only went on for about three or four minutes and now my arms and feet are still tingling and I am sweating a bit. I just got done exerting myself while carrying several loads of stuff upstairs and maybe that is all it is? I just told Jill that I thought I had turned a corner and was feeling better and JINX! Perhaps I am just fat and old (no maybes on those two) and I pushed myself too hard over the last few weeks. I have also been doing some health experimentation and perhaps I have a speed-bump in my own treatment. It could also be that I have been pushing myself kind of hard today and it just caught up with me. I also have been awake since about 02:00 and it is 13:45 right now. Maybe I should take a nap? If I do and don't awake please have Cha Cha to try the old Sleeping Beauty and Snow White treatment though it would be more like Napping Ugly and Sweaty Beige in my case I guess.

It has been a few minutes since I wrote that last paragraph and, other than still feeling tired I feel better. I think I may take a nap before I get the trash together; tomorrow is garbage day.

Thanks for stopping by today; sorry for the unexpected drama. I am pretty sure that I will blog again tomorrow though I do not promise that at this point. Have a great rest of your day. TTTT?...MITM (out) TA!

I'll Blog You When I blog You

The recent San Bernardino shooting was tragic but all of the news coverage seems to be just as disturbing to me. Many reports I have heard basically tell how to make these bombs and how to carry-out one of these kinds of attacks. I have heard where we should hide if we are in a place that comes under such an attack. So, if I hide where the media tells me to hide the terrorists who listen to the coverage because they love the coverage will know exactly where I am hiding. I do not think I would hide if this happened where I was I would act. I am not suggesting everyone should act as not everyone should act. Maybe it because I trained for such an issue but,even it I weren't, I would not let a group of these kinds of people kill a building full of people. Our media feeds right into what these people what and it sickens me.

I guarantee the same thing is under every shell in this game

I had some big issues with the people at the Merlin 200,000 Mile Shop (formerly Merlin's Mufflers and Brakes). I have been going there for several years and I will not ever go back. I used to always change my own oil in the cars but it got to be more of a hassle than it was worth. I am going to send the Merlin's corporate headquarters an email later today but I did not want it to be filled with the pain, frustration and anger... so I did not write to them yesterday. I am not sure what I hope to accomplish by writing this letter but, if I had a business and did not know, I would want to know so I could maybe fix the issues.This was not one of the issues yesterday but I think I have written about how they ALWAYS find something wrong with my vehicles and they have a price ready for them to fix them. The last time I was there they gave me a long list of things supposedly wrong with the JEEP. We have the extended warranty on the JEEP that is still good so I took it to the dealer where we bought it. They checked and found no problems. Interestingly, nothing was fixed by the dealer but Merlin's did not find these same problems that they supposedly found last time this time. Did these terrible, costly things just miraculously fix themselves? I understand the art of up-selling but I also understand preying on people and the difference between the two. I cannot imagine how many young people or older people fall for this kind of practice. I really do believe these things are scare-tactics.

I think I am going to end now. I have a couple of large projects I need to tackle and there is no time to begin like the present. I hope you have a great day. I am not sure if and when I will blog again. I imagine I will but I do not know when. Behave yourself until I come back. TTT??????...MITM (out) TA!

Welcome to Limboland

Proof that they exist and that CAT is a real word

Cat was not an acceptable word on Words With Friends for me last night. It was the first word so there was no problem with it. Tac, however, was acceptable. How come spellchecker is letting me type it here without incident? I had the same problem again this morning with the word The so I passed. I believe there is something wrong with this particular game because all of the other games I am playing work fine. I think I will win the game with the word Tac. And I wonder why I am crazy. 

Why are 200 boots on the ground considered 200 soldiers? Do we have that many one-footed soldiers? And, if they say we are sending 200 people why do they say they are sending 200 troops? When I was a kid a troop was a bunch of boy scouts or girl scouts. A troop could be ten or twenty kids.

I found some stuff that I wrote for the blog on November 26 that I did not publish. I will add it here in italics without re-reading it.

Last night Jill and I watched a show while we ate dinner. We had recorded Eddie Murphy receiving his Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center. I am not sure why they call it a prize rather than an award. Since it was on PBS I am assuming that it will show again. Eddie Murphy has to be one of the funniest people in the history of comedy (I believe that is since the beginning of time). If you get a chance to see it, and you like comedy, you will enjoy the show. A lot of really funny people honored Eddie and they show a lot of clips of him being hilarious in many different ways. He seems very humble for as much money as he has made for many people.

I have been listening to the news while I get ready for the big cooking and overeating day tomorrow. I am so tired of hearing the term "boots on the ground" when the news agencies and politicians talk about sending ground troops to a conflict or skirmish or a war. These boots that we put on the ground protect the feet of someone's mom or dad or cousin or son or daughter or friend... Do you think, by using the words "boots on the ground," that we will forget that you are sending people to fight and, possibly die for the freedoms and ways of life we have come accustomed to? I also think of the song Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival when I hear this term. The people who coined this phrase probably aren't having their loved-ones with boots on the ground unless they are going by choice - probably against their family's wishes.

Back to today from the past --- I think it is odd that I spoke about boots on the ground and I did that again today. I did not proofread the old stuff so I will not accept responsibility for any mistakes. Okay, I will accept the mistakes. That is one thing I am still good at - making mistakes.

We have snow on the ground again but, fortunately, there is none on the streets or sidewalks/driveways... It looks very nice in the trees and the bushes.

Sorry, I just had to leave for a bit to go get gas for Cha Cha's car while she got dressed for work. That is what gentlemen do for the people that they love.

I don't have to go back and see him until February. So, I am in state of limbo right now. I have volunteered at a couple of local charitable businesses and am waiting for them to call me back. I won't bore you with what he told me but it was not that bad. I still am not cleared to work overnights so I guess a job as the overnight deejay job in Chicago is out for now.

Thank you for coming by. Try to keep your boots off the ground today. Have a great day and be thankful that the snow is not on the roads in the MIDDLEwest. I hope you're as fortunate where you are. TTTT...MITM (oot) TA!

Half-Fast Blog Again

I am in a particular mood today that I do not much care for but there is very little I seem to be able to do about it. Because of that I don;t know how this writing will go today; I suppose it is the same way most days that I write. Many days I make lists of things that have struck my attention and I will write about those thing. More often, however, I just begin writing and things pour out of my fingers. I am not sure of this will go fast or slow but I am assuming it will go half-fast.

I wish the Presidential election procedure could be changed to some kind of a meter that measures when everyone is done hearing the rhetoric and bologna and nonsense the candidates were dishing-out. If that were the case the election would have been held about a year ago. I am so tired of all the wind-bag gas I have been hearing. We cannot escape it. You would think that most people would be on their best behaviors when trying to get a party nomination but that does not seem to be the norm these days. It is more like some of the candidates just act stupid (perhaps they are not acting) and say ridiculous things just to get their name in the news. Are the American people really dumb enough to just vote for somebody simple because they have heard the name? I sure hope that is not the case.

I am working on another big job in the house today. There is always something to do in our homes isn't there? I think I am wasting my time on this one but I hope I am wrong.

Later this afternoon I am going to waste my time seeing my neurologist again. I feel like I am a dartboard and he is just throwing darts at me to see if they will stick. I suppose that makes me a crash test dummy. I sure wish Mayo Clinic would get back to me so I know where I stand with them. I am assuming that I am not enough of a hard-luck case to warrant an audience with them. I don't know much about what they do but it has always been my feeling that they take more hard-luck cases than mine. I have been reading a lot about Alzheimer's Disease and I worry that I am showing early signs of it. I imagine any neurological issue shows the same signs. Not that I am not a lost cause but I am not at the point where I think they help people. Maybe I will get worse and then they will see me? I suppose I would just rather muddle along than get worse.

 It makes be happy so I believe it. Only 39% happier though 

I am going to stop and volunteer for another place in the community on the way to the appointment. I like to help people and causes and, with having extra time on my hands from time-to-time these days, I will help where I can. Isn't that what we are supposed to do as members of a society? Help others?

I have to check and see which tire of the FIAT is low. The light is lit that says the tires are low. It does not say which tire and they all look okay by sight so I am guessing one is a little low. In the winter it makes even more sense to have them all properly inflated. It is probably just a bit low but a bit can make a big difference.

I have to stop now. It just dawned on me that it is December 1 and that may be why I am so moody (I didn't have a problem at the end of the month of November and this is probably just my usual end-of-the-month Mattstruation). I hope you have a great rest of your day and I hope that I can find the low tire and get a good report at the doctor. There are other things I hope and wish but hopes and wishes and prayers are all only a roll of the dice or a turn of the card. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

Bog Day for History Today

Today is Cyber Monday and who cares. I am so tired of all these gimmicks to try to get our money. I heard on the radio that this is now Cyber Week as there are internet deals available all this week. I suppose next year we will have Cyber Month and then Cyber Quarter and so on and so on...

More importantly than this capitalistic greed is something much more monumental that happened on December first (tomorrow) in 1955. I mention it now because I will probably forget to mention it by the time the actual anniversary (tomorrow) arrives. Tomorrow is the date in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama when an African American seamstress refused to give-up her seat for a white man even though she was sitting in the, so called, black section of the bus. It seems that Rosa Parks was destined to do this because twelve years prior to this now famous and monumental act she was getting on a bus and the bus driver made her exit and go and enter the bus though the rear door (the black entrance). While she walked back to the rear door the driver closed the doors and drove off without her. I am really glad that I was not a black person back then because I do not have near the patience and discipline to have endured what these people had to demonstrate. I have so much respect for people like Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Jackie Robinson and many many others that had the will and bravery to stand-up for what was right.

It was so nice having Splenda home for Thanksgiving. We will see her again in a couple of weeks and then again at Christmas time. While she was home we went shopping (all four of us for a change) for the underprivileged children for Christmas. Cha Cha drove four names from the names at her work so we would have one child for the each of us. I believe Santa Claus is going to deliver the toys. The most difficult item to get was the Fartblaster 2. Luckily, while we drove through the St. Charles / Geneva area Cha Cha Googled the Fartblaster and found one left at Target. She bought it on-line and it was waiting for us at Target when we arrived there. Karma paid us back but allowing us to get gas for only $1.72 per gallon when it is $1.99 here in DeKalb.

What more do you need in a haunted town than a tavern?

I am watching what I am eating again; I have decided that I really do not want to weigh 300 pounds as I had aimed to do a couple of weeks ago. I now have a new target of around 175 again. I guess that is a big difference isn't it? That will probably be easier than going up to 300.

I read that there is a town in South Dakota for sale for $250,000. The town is called Swett and it is only six acres of land but how cool would it be to own your own town? Maybe if I could get five partners and we all pitched-in $41,667 each we could buy the town and each have one acre lots for our homes. Maybe a little smaller than an acre so we could have a small downtown. There is already one house there that is supposed to be haunted and a closed bar. We can open the bar and call ourselves a ghost town and maybe get our money back as a tourist trap? I would like to change the name of the town though. Who wants to travel to a town named Swett?

One of my favorite people still on this planet just sent me a message telling me that today, in addition to Rosa Parks' big move, is also Samuel Langhorn Clemens' birthday. She knows that he is another of my favorite people who was ever lived on this planet. November 30th is a monumental day on Earth. Maybe I should buy that town and rename it Twain or Langhorn or something. Ironically, Splenda and I went on a ghost hunting overnight tour with this same favorite person and now she mentions Twain's birthday while I am writing about the ghost town for sale. Is that the cosmos telling me that I need to buy Swett? I think the new town name should be Spooky, South Dakota or Haunted, South Dakota or something along those lines. Creepy? Scary? Ghostly? It seems like it is destined to be. In a sort of related point - though Clemens grew-up in a slave state (Missouri) I believe he was anti-slavery. I base this on my reading many of his works and visiting his home town many times. It is difficult to say whether I am correct or not but I hope that I am. One of his most famous books had a runaway slave as one of the main characters and that character was good friends with the main character - Huckleberry Finn.

Okay, I have been writing this off-and-on for the last couple of hours. I have to get some more laundry started and start thinking about dinner, I am thinking turkey hot dogs. I will do mine with no buns now that I no longer want to weigh 300 pounds; it would be a lot easier if I just kept that as one of my goals. I hope you have a great rest of your day and night and, as always. I thank you for stopping by. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

Insert Your Own Clever Title About Ivory Poachers, The YMCA and Alcatraz Here!

This makes me very, very sad. Though these are Rangers trying to stop it.

Again I did not get a chance to blog yesterday. With Splenda being home for Thanksgiving we have been spending a lot of time with her, It is only 07:02 on Sunday morning right now and she is still asleep so I am blogging and will finish before she gets up for the day. She will head back to southern Illinois this afternoon. Cha Cha has been helping her with her final college project/presentation a bit and we went and bought her the materials she needs for that project. We also bought a new dishwasher and we will find out tomorrow when that will arrive. I am assuming it will be installed this week.

I am kind of sad this morning because I turned on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel while I let the sleep drain from my mind and eyes and there was a story about the hunting and slaughter of African elephants for their ivory. I am a sucker for all animals and this saddened me greatly. There are even park rangers that dress like and train like a military group to battle these poachers.They even wear camouflage uniforms and carry assault weapons. The statistics of the loss of the elephants were very alarming - about a generation ago (around 1979) there were about 1,500,000 wild African elephants and today there are only about 400,000 alive. We can manufacture plastic and wood to look and feel just like ivory so why do people think they have to destroy an entire species of animal on our planet for it? I am sad most days anymore and this made it just worse today.

We were going to go over to the YMCA today and join again but we saw their hours and the cost and decided that it is less expensive to just spend the money on food and stay fat. Our YMCA has a pool that members can use in our old high school but the hours to use it are 05:00 - 0700. What the hell good is that? It's a place of intolerance anyway with YMCA being an acronym for Young Men's Christian Association. I am not young, half of my immediate family (and the best parts) are women, I would not call myself Christian for various reasons and I don't like to be associated with things all the time. It sounds more like segregation than anything; I am sure they will take anyone's money though. It's interesting how money seems to squelch segregation many times.

I just saw a report of the laziest cities in the country listed state-by-state. It has a lot to do with median income and activity, of course. I think people all over the country read this blog from time-to-time but three of the states that I know that have regular readers are: Colorado. Illinois and Wisconsin so I will tell you their laziest cities. In Colorado it is Pueblo, in Illinois it is Carbondale/Marion and, in Wisconsin it is Fond du Lac. If you are interested in your state or in giving some of your lazy friends grief here is a link to the article. I found it funny while I sit on my lazy butt blogging.

Sadly, Splenda goes back to the laziest city in our state later today. I wonder if laziest cities have prisons in them. I know Marion, Illinois has a very large federal prison that is where many of the prisoners were moved-to when Alcatraz closed. I drove out to the prison when I was in college down there. One of my friend's roommates was doing a paper on federal prisons and he needed a ride to go on his tour of the prison. I had a car so I drove him out there. It was pretty scary for a 20-year-old to drive into that complex with his orange Ford Pinto with the guards with their sub-machine guns staring down at him. I got yo go to a waiting room while my passenger went inside the big house to interview some prisoners. I would have loved to go further into the jail but it is cool just to say that I was inside Marion. I have also been inside Alcatraz too when I was a kid on vacation in California.

You can see why they called it "The Rock!"

It always surprises me where I go with the blog when I start writing. I guess it is just like a conversation that starts one place and goes in several different directions before winding-up coming back to just about the same place that it began. Even the voices in my head have mixed conversations. I bet you;re thinking about all the voices in your head too, aren't you?

Thank you for stopping by today. It looks like a fairly nice day outside. I am happy for that with Splenda driving six hours later today. I am a worrier and I always worry about everybody I know and love. If I know you but don't love you I will just worry a little. It is safe to say that the people that I know who read this at least semi-regularly I worry about you quite often. I want the best for you as I hope you do for me as well. Have a great weekend and I will try really hard to blog on Monday. I will also work on getting those before and after photos of the kitchen now that the holiday weekend is winding down. TTTMonday...MITM (out) TA!