I am on my fourth day of my fast. I was going to fast until Sunday or Monday. I think I will break it Saturday morning, I want to get out and do something on Sunday. I can either go on a 40 mile bike ride to Harsens Island or a 8 or 9 mile hike. Decisions, decisions.

Happy first day of the Autumnal Equinox! Or as they say in America..."Fall", because the leaves fall off of the trees.

The End of Days...

Well, this is it! It's the last day! Get out and do something before it's over! You only have one chance at it. Enjoy the Last Day of Summer!

Recipe for iced coffee...

I laid down to take a nap, earlier today. So, I layed on my right side, unbeknownst to me my cat, Tom, would join me for his daily nap, and proceed to lay with his butt near my face...anyway, I digress. When I woke up my left shoulder was hurting as if I had laid on my left side. What's up with that? I am wired weird in my old age. Go figure.

It took me 9 months, 18 days to watch, Star Trek - TOS, ST:DS9, ST:TNG and I just finished Star Trek: Voyager last night. I really don't know if I want to finish the entire series, ending with Enterprise. I seem to have Treked out, for now. But, it's only 4 seasons...

Three Things...

 Three things:

Thing number 1.  I got up this morning and, as I laid on my bed and stretched, my sciatic nerve in my left leg said, NO! No stretching and you are not getting out of the bed today. Of course I ignored that dagger in my butt and got up any way.

I tried to put on my PJs, (I sleep in the nude) and tried to lift my leg and struggled to get my left leg in to my PJs. I limped to the window to look at the rain falling and then limped down the stairs to feed my cats, Tom and Jerry.

I was going to play racquetball this morning but, my butt said NO! For whatever reason I am becoming a servant to my butt, specifically, my pain. It seems that everything on my left side hurts. Anyway, I am going to sit here and write and then watch football for the rest of the day and suffer with the pain in my butt.

Thing number 2. After racquetball I was going to go on a 7 mile hike and finish with a picnic. When the food had been devoured I was going kayaking. Looking out the window, the rain hasn’t stop. I just checked the radar and all of Michigan is covered and the rain will be out of here by 5 pm. So, the organizer cancelled the hike and the Kayaking. But, she re-scheduled the hike for tomorrow. All in all I still might go and walk 3 miles, in the rain anyway, just because… (I ate two donuts this morning).

Thing number 3. Last but not least, this morning was a good thing, no, a great thing. A couple of weeks ago, while grocery shopping, I needed to get some coffee. Since my Keurig died I have been drinking Folgers Breakfast Blend and ran out. So, I thought I try something really different. Of course anything Starbucks is out of the question. Sometimes, what you don’t know may or may not hurt your, philosophically speaking, of course.

As I scanned all of the coffees on the racks in the coffee aisle and I spotted something different, a coffee I had not seen before. Since it was $2 cheaper it’s what I wanted, so I bought it. It turned out to be Seattle’s Best coffee, more on that later. Today, I opened that bag of Seattle’s Best coffee, brewed it and waited for a bit before I drank it. I was surprised by the taste.

Talk about the best tasting coffee I have had today, and probably for the next month, too! I am not a coffee snob, but I know what I like and I have tasted quite a few great tasting coffees and this was one of them, this month. Even though, in the back of my mind, I knew that Seattle’s Best was owned by Starbucks. I Googled Seattle’s Best and sure enough…Starbucks Best.

I don’t know why I cannot stand Starbucks coffee, at their stores, and I now know why people who drink it add lots of sugar and cream. Now that I think about it and I’ve had three cups of coffee, (my cups hold 3 cups,), I probably will stick with this brand for a while longer, considering it is the least expensive of most coffees on the coffee rack.

Oh well, it’s still raining, I guess I will sit here and watch the last three episodes of Dark Matter and later, Football … and finish that pot of “Seattle’s Best” coffee.

Blooming Spiders...

It’s that time of the year again, well sort of, I remember it happens in the spring too. What you say? Spiders! On one part of my jogging lane there is about 100 meters of trees on my left side. It didn’t happen this year and that was kind of a mystery to me, because of the prior years.

When I am out jogging, sometimes walking, I am headed east into the sun. And since I have great eyesight I notice many things at a distance, especially in the bright sunlight. Today, it was spider webs. In the distance I noticed hundreds of single webs from spiders. Well, not hundreds but quite a few.

Last year I carried a 20 inch stick with just for those spider webs…also for those little dogs that bugged me along the way. Anyway, I would just put the stick in front of my face, so the webs wouldn’t get into my eyes and so forth. However, earlier this year, no spider webs, so no stick. And no little dogs, either.

So, this time, and this was the first time this year, I just held my arms up and in front of my face to deflect those single strands of glistening webs. Of course the spider webs just wrapped around my arms. When I passed the trees, by the lake, I had to get all of that sticky stuff off my arms because, that stuff itches! And if it gets in your eyes, well it’s only happened once, I don’t want to happen again, ever.

My only guess is that the spiders mated late this year and the babies are blooming! Or something is going on and the spiders are getting out of town.

A star is born...

"I learned something new today; Tawas Point State Park is a dark sky site. I did not know that. Sunday morning I happened to wake up at 3 a.m. and saw Millions and billions of stars. I thought there was only one site, but there are four sites in Michigan."



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My God, it's full of stars...

I went camping this past weekend, three fun filled, relaxing days. My only complaint, my air mattress continues to deflate. This in turn causes me to wake up with a sore back, which is still hurting as I sit here and type this blog post.

On Saturday, early on, the rains came and they came. Most of us decided that we would drive over to the beach house and get out of the coming rain. Seconds after we got into the beach house the rain started falling, sideways! Even though the rain only lasted 20 minutes we stayed for in place for an hour.

While I was there, I ate something, and to this very moment I can’t remember what it was I ate but it was probably sweet and I know I had some coffee. Now that I think about it, I remember that the cup wasn’t clean and there was some strange looking crud at the bottom of the cup which I didn’t notice until I finished the coffee. I have the feeling the guy who brought his coffee maker never cleaned out.

Around the time it started getting dark the group all got together and we started a fire and we sat around drinking beer and wine. Someone then pulled out some cheese and crackers, which I needed to counter the effects of the beer.

I noticed the clouds were beginning to clear and the stars came out, but it was still bright out, basically because of the quarter Moon.  Mars and Jupiter were very clear and bright, I should have gotten up and gotten my binoculars but the beer was having a slight effect on me.  Anyway, the big dipper and a bunch of stars came out, but nothing amazing. It was like being at home sitting in the back yard looking up at the stars in the sky. Then the clouds filled the sky again.

I got my first telescope when I was about 11 years old. Not knowing a lot about astronomy the only thing I could see was the moon. I don’t ever remember seeing stars or planets, way back then, and I don’t remember what happened, to this day I think my brother broke my telescope knocking the secondary mirror out. I spent hours and days trying to glue the mirror but it just wouldn’t stay in place. This was way before Super Glue.

In my life time I have had three telescope, two reflectors and one refractor.

All of them were cheap and I could never see any of the planets, though, the moon came in clear, big and bright. A few years ago my brother came into town and he brought with him his telescope. He had a cheap telescope, one he purchased at a pawn shop. But, he had purchased expensive, but not too expensive lenses, and that made the difference.

With his telescope and lenses I, for the first time in my life, saw the rings of Saturn, heck; I even had a clear view of Mars! All this did was get me salivating whenever I saw a telescope. I have a page on Pinterest with all of the telescopes that I could ever wish for or dream about. The one I want, though, is $14,000! Hey, I can dream can’t I?

Back at the campground, I decided to go to bed about 10:30. I figured that I had enough to drink and I was hoping the alcohol was enough to help me sleep. For whatever reason I cannot sleep in a tent, considering someone in the next tent was snoring so loud and for just about all night, but I digress…

Around 2 am, my stomach started talking to me, loudly. Not only that I had a sharp pain in my lower abdomen and it got sharper as I laid in my tent. I stayed there for about a half an hour before I decided to get up and walk a 100 meters to the camp restroom/showers.

Even though I was in pain I happened to look into the sky. I have, in my lifetime never seen that many stars! Some were so bright; they looked as big as flickering baseballs in the sky. I even saw the Milky Way, the center of our galaxy. It wasn’t as bright as I have seen in pictures but I could see the entire outline. If it weren’t for the pain and those pesky mosquitoes I would have pulled out my chair and sat and watch the stars, as I was, in awe and wonderment.

I made it to the restroom, did my thing, 15 minutes later I slowly made it back to my tent, but I didn’t go in, not right away. I stood there and just viewed the stars as long as I could. The two things I lacked that night, a telescope and a real camera, I have a point shoot right now. I could have gotten my binoculars but, I would have had to get back into my tent to get my car keys and If I went back in I was going to try and go to sleep.

From what I understand, Michigan has four Dark Sky sites and I just happened to be in one of them, Tawas State Park, Michigan. I didn’t know that at the time and felt I like a kid in a candy store looking at millions and millions of stars glowing and flickering the night away.

A camping I will go...

I love camping, well; I like it a lot, really. I just got home from my latest camping trip to Tawas State Park, for this past weekend.

It’s kind of funny; I always try to remember to bring the important things that I need to have a successful camping trip.  Most times I forget those things. Usually I will do something like, a blanket but forget the pillow. Or, forget a pan or spoons or something. This weekend I forgot my little pan, so I could make pancake for breakfast and I forgot my giant patio umbrella because I read that it was going to thunderstorm on Saturday night.

This weekend I remember to bring a pillow but I didn’t take a blanket, to completely cover me, because I was thinking on bringing a top sheet. I didn’t realize that it would get cool that first night or for that matter the second night. So, for the first night I blew up my sleeping pad and laid my sleeping bag on top of the pad. I was fine for a while, though.

Late into the night I started to get cold, considering that it only got into the 50s, it was too cold for shorts, no socks and a t-shirt. So, the little blanket I had, a throw blanket, 4’x 3’, which was only big enough to cover my feet and legs, but not my upper torso or vice-versa.

I remembered that I had bought a couple of towels. I got the largest towel, which is about six feet long and covered my legs and used the tiny blanked to cover my upper body.  It was a bad night, I just couldn’t keep either towel or blanket on me and the cold was overwhelming. I don’t remember sleeping much the first night.

On the second night, Saturday night, I was thinking that I would have to use the second towel because I took a shower and that big towel was wet. I had, earlier, looked at the weather report and it stated that the temperature was going to be in the 40s! It actually got to 48 degrees!

Then it hit me, like as if someone dropped an anvil on my thick head…I had a sleeping bag. Why didn’t I just use it? I got in my sleeping bag and was toasty the rest of the night; I was too warm, now that I think about it.

 I had realized a tiny bit, and a day late, that when I am sitting around the campfire with the gang, I should not have had two glasses of wine, and three beers. Those liquids seem to help me forget more than old age ever will.

Dreaming...

Dreaming…

My father, many, many years ago, labeled me a “Dreamer”. I made the mistake of sitting around and dreamt about everything that popped into my mind; usually my dreams were of science fiction. I watched as many SF movies as I could, considering; going to a movie, in those days was only 25 cents. Those dreams, though, got me to write science fiction stories. I don’t regret those dreams.

In recent years, I still dreamt bad and good, more on the bad later. However, for instant, I have always had that dream I would win 10 million dollars, still hasn’t happen, but I keep that dream in the back corner of my mind. I do remember seeing a computer, at Best Buy, and told myself, that was the computer I wanted! I had never seen a one piece computer before and it was the...one.

Nearly 10 years ago, I started doing surveys’ online and for a long time I never won anything. I would just accumulate points in order to get gift cards, and that was fine, ten bucks here, ten bucks there…I purchased a ton of Apple gift cards and music. Six years ago, I got an email from an unknown person; the note read that I had won a computer. I kind of ignored the note for a couple of days, then, I got another email from the same person.

So, the note said, call this person to verify who I am. I did one better and Googled the company and asked for that person. She told me that I indeed won a computer, the one I had seen at Best Buy, the year before. She mentioned to me that she wished that more people would call.

Anyway, in the years following, I have won more gift cards and a 55-inch Sony flat screen Boob tube, and more gift cards. However, as of today, I have not won anything in the Lottery, still dreaming about that though. And, I am still dreaming about my perfect, dream woman – not really, but it pops up every now and then.

The Bad, well, not all that bad. I remember dreaming about having a crash while I was driving and it had happened a few times in my adult life. Years ago, I remember dreaming about my brother and I heard him screaming, “Freddy, Help me, Help me!” A few days later, I heard he was in New York; he had been attacked and was in the hospital. I also remember a friend, who lives in Boston told me she was flying to Chicago the next day. That night, for whatever reason, I dreamt about a plane crashing. The next day was 9/11.

Not all of my dreams have been that bad or devastating. One thing, or dream I have, more often than not, as I am washing the dishes, (yes, I still wash my dishes by hand, even though I have a dishwasher), I always, as I am washing one particular knife, a large butcher knife, think that I might drop that thing on my foot. That has been going on as long as I have had that butcher knife and or have been washing the dishes.

Today it happened. I dropped a knife onto my foot. Now I won’t have to think about that anymore, because it happened and it’s over. I am just thankful that it was a butter knife!

Facebook

"Just a reminder: When you are chewing gum and you decided to throw it out of the window, just remember, don't flick it in a downward motion! I never noticed that green wad of gum that stuck to my door a couple of days ago, as I flicked it out, downward...go figure..."



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it's SCAM TIME...Be aware!

(3) Facebook: "It's the scam time of the season. Everyone, BE AWARE!! I just got a call from the internal revenue services (Not the IRS?) from somewhere in Washington State. Anyway, I just googled the number and found out it was a scam. So, again...BE AWARE, if you are getting any calls from the internal revenue service. The IRS will send a letter first and you call them if you have a problem with the IRS."



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Is that a cat or a fur ball?

"I don't get it... I brush the cat and get another cat of fur in the process. Two minutes later he jumps on my lap, I rub him and get another handful of loose fur flying all over the place. What's up with that??"



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In the heat of the night...wait, what?

It getting to the end of summer and it is getting cooler, most nights. The last two days it has gotten down into the 50s, well, last night it was only 47 degrees. I usually keep my window open and the fan going, also. But, last night I turned the fan on to just the No.1 setting, the lowest. I usually have it on high, but, only because it has been the hottest summer on record.

Of all these summer days and nights, I usually don’t see my cats, Tom and Jerry until the morning and it’s usually just Tom. He tries to wake me up about 6 am, my alarm goes off at 7 am. For whatever reason, I would wake up about that time and Tom would try his best to get me out of the bed by slapping me in my face, until I roll over and face away from his attacks. Jerry, on the other had would sit on the floor and then jump on the bed when I throw the cover off of me.

Yesterday, though, I got into bed about 12:20 am or so and curled up under my blanket to end my day and fall off into dream world. Five minutes or so later, Tom jumped onto my bed and curled up next to my legs. Two minutes or so after that Jerry decided that he was sleeping with, on me too, and he curled up way to close to my face.

For whatever reason he sometimes lays, face first and usually putting his paws on my arm, digging his claws into my flesh every now and then. Tom, on the other hand, likes to lay over the edge of the bed with his butt near my face and tail beating my in the face.

Anyway, around two o’clock it started to get cold. Now, I lay on my back most of the time and this time Tom decided to lay in between my legs. That meant I couldn’t roll over without kicking him off the bed. On top of that he was laying on the extra blanket I had covering my feet. I was just covered with a blanket and a top sheet and I was starting to feel the cold. But, since I didn’t want to wake that darn cat I just fell back to sleep, cold does that to you.

This past night I thought way ahead and pulled the comforter onto the rest of the bed. I wasn’t going to be cold this night. I again turned on the fan and the window was opened, I do this so the cats can watch whatever is going on all night long. Anyway, I noticed Tom sitting on the ledge looking out of the window, not at all interested in me. As I laid there, under my three blankets I started to get hot, even with the fan on and the window open. That was strange.

A few minutes later I heard Tom jump down from the window ledge and then jump onto the bed. He took his usual position, next to my legs and curled up trying to find that heat coming off of my body. Jerry joined in a few minutes later. 

This morning I heard that it got down to 47 degrees! It’s that time of the year where the temperature will drop day after day. Checking the news, weather, it’s going to be in the 80s next week. Right now it’s 73, even though it feels warmer, well warmer in the sun. It’s bright sunny day today, Great Football weather.

It shouldn’t be to cool tonight, I just checked, only 57 degrees, not bad, unless you like laying in bad with your cats snuggles between your legs and the other cat with its butt near your face. But, I will be warm.

Play ball...

Facebook: "I have finally seen the process...You throw the ball to the cat, the leaps for it, wrestles with the ball and then pushes it under the sofa, never to be played with again. Or until I decide to lift the sofa and take out the other 20 ball stuck under there."



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Muffins...

"I think I have too much on my mind right now. I've been thinking, what would a blueberry muffin taste like with peanut butter spread over the top? I have a taste for one Right now! And a cup of coffee, of course!"



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Coffee, it's back...

Fred Green: "I feel great now! I went out and got a 12 cup Mr. Coffee maker. I just have to drink 12 cups in the morning or figure out how to make just four cups...naw, I'll drink the 12 cups!!"



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Getting my racquet on...

Fred Green: "It's been about 5 months...I played racquetball today. I hurt my arm last March and it still hurts, but I can at least lift my arm up and swing the racquet without a lot of pain. I just have to learn to dink the ball more."



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Sky Rasins...

"OMG!! Tom, my cat, just ate a spider, a Sky Rasin! I guessing it had to be tasty!"



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The grass is alway, wait I can't see the grass...

"Have you noticed how good your lawn, the grass, looks...in the darkness of night?"



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My Monday Morning Moment...

My Monday morning moment: I got up with a desire for a nice cup of steaming coffee. I washed the old-time percolator out, put in a brand new filter, tenderly added three scoops of coffee and then put the pot on the stove and turned the fire on.

I then went and turned on the boob tube to watch the news. After five minutes, I smelled something burning. I went into the kitchen, checked the stove and noticed nothing. There was steam coming out of the pot, or what I thought was steam.

I went over to the cat and had a conversation with him for a couple of minutes, but that burning smell was getting more distinct than it was a few minutes before. I looked at the pot and noticed that the steam wasn’t steam at all. It was something burning in the pot. I took it off of the stove and noticed the weight. I had put no water into the pot.

The filter had practically burned up, on the inside, and the little plastic knob on top melted. I stood there watching it and not noticing that I had forgotten to add water.

Oh well, no coffee for today, so don’t ask me anything, for the time being.

Coffee...and keep it coming!

Coffee…and keep it coming!

My new Keurig, 3 years ago

I woke up this morning thinking what am I going to do about getting my serious morning energy so I can go out and be productive in this world? Or just run three miles…(considering that I went hiking and then kayaking yesterday and this morning I was so sore I didn’t want to get out of bed, and I have no drugs to deaden the racking pain in my shoulders, back and places I didn’t know muscles existed.).

This is day four with my broken Keurig Coffee maker. I had to buy a cup of coffee on Thursday night and I decided that I would just chew the coffee grounds and see how that works. It didn’t. Then, like a true light going off in my head, I remembered that I had a nine cup Aluminum Camp Percolator! I dug it out of that big green duffel camping bag that was sitting under my kayak.

I pulled it out of the box and washed it out, considering I hadn’t used it since June, might have had bugs living in it – hey, it happened before, a couple of years ago. Anyway, when I got it clean enough to use I filled it with my coffee grounds and fired it up. However, I forgot the filters to put into the brewing cup. (I found that I did pull the filters out with the percolator but I put them in a place where I forgot where I put them.)

In the end, the coffee tasted good. Not as good as the DD store bought coffee, but it did wonders for me. My cup is large, two and a half cups large, so I had two…actually I just drank all the coffee in the percolator, since I didn’t want to waste any of it

Now, if I can remember to put the filter in the brew cup, tomorrow, I should be good to go, at least until I can find the instruction manual for my Keurig and fix that darn thing. 

My feel good Friday...

 "My Feel good Friday:
I hiked 5 miles and took in all of what nature had to offer...
I wrote a couple of pages, my book and my blog
I had dinner with 6 friends in an restaurant I've never been to before
I Kayaked 6 miles, two miles in the dark, lit only by moonlight"



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I want my coffee back...

"Chewing coffee grounds just isn't working."



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Never, never, ever say...

Fred Green: "I heard someone say, you should never say what else could go wrong. My coffee maker died this morning and I said to myself what else could go wrong? Well my glasses broke now I can't see, more or less I can't read anything. Oh well Life Goes On, I mean, what else could go wrong?"



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Coffee, Oh Coffee...

 "I'm gonna die!! My coffee maker is dead, dead, dead!! I'm gonna die!"

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Too sweet for me…

It has been about six days since I decided to stop eating sweet sticky stuff, you know, like donuts, cake, pies, and cookies and of course, my favorite, ice cream…vanilla. It had just occurred to me, even though I have thought about it many times in my lifetime that I really need to quit the sweets.

I figured, in 2015 and the earlier part of this year, for all the exercise I do I could at least have something sweet once a month or once a week. I really went overboard last year, though. However, I was doing three times more things last year than I am doing this year.

Another thing that just hit me, three weeks ago I weighed in at 199. Six days ago, I was at 208! During that time span, I had consumed three dozen cookies, a couple, half gallon, tubs of ice cream and a couple donuts. Eight pounds! The peanut butter cookies were 150 calories each and I had four with my coffee every morning.

Six days ago, I decided to pick up my walking and run at least one mile in between. Yesterday and today, I ran most of the three miles. As of yesterday, I weighed 202 pounds. I really haven’t included any extra activities this year, yet but I really think I need to. In addition, the best way to help drop those pounds, lift weights. 

Earlier this year I hurt my shoulder, playing racquetball, and it still hurts today, but not as bad as it did in March. That is the reason I stopped lifting. However, I stopped the lifting part and only walked, every day.

It’s funny, strange or just real…in 2014 I didn’t eat sweets at all, (at least I don’t remember eating any sweets), and I dropped almost 80 pounds. 2015 was a different story.

I am not doing this to look slimmer or great, not saying that I don’t all ready, but in 2013,  a visit to the doctor and I found out that my sugar level was super high, my cholesterol was super high, and my BP was elevated, higher that I have ever experienced in my life. The doctor put me on blood pressure drugs and I am not into drugs. So, I stopped the drugs at the end of 2013 and started my workouts.

Now, I am afraid to stop, well, not really, I enjoy working out, sort of. I would love to ramp my routines up, a lot, though. This, so I won’t be as weak as I was at the beginning of this year, I am going to join one of those gym, the $10 a month gym and stay on the bicycle so won’t get as tired and I’ll be ready for those long, long bicycle trips. 

I know I am not going to live forever, (most of my aunts and uncles, on my mother’s side have lived into their 90’s and the last living aunt is 98 and still gets out and dances and enjoys life), but I want to make the most out of the life I have now and if it means getting out and running, walking, hiking, kayaking, biking, softball, racquetball, and golf, (all the things I do now), then that’s what I am going to do to stay healthy and do away with sweets and stuff…oh yeah, and potato chips, too. 

http://bookhearts.com/giveaways/bookhearts-monthly-giveaway/?lucky=9362

Rain, rain...stay a little longer...

 "If it weren't thundering and lightning I would go outside right now and play in the rain!!"


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If you build it...

Facebook: "Talk about progress; On my walk yesterday I noticed a bulldozer had been parked at a house, about 1 kilometer away from where I live. I paid it no attention, I figure that it was there to dig up the driveway or something.

As I was on my return the bulldozer was starting to rip into the garage. I thought that it was just going to tear the garage down. Today, on my walk, the house was torn down! My guess is someone is going for a bigger house! That is the second house, on my route, that was torn down and rebuilt."



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Box em out...

Fred Green: "I don't know why I keep trying; I put a box, a real box, out so my cats could play it it. They use to, but that box has sat empty for the last three days, they just don't want that box...While folding clothes today , I noticed that Tom decided to stay in my cloths tub until I finished and then some. Why do I spend money on my cats when they would rather have whatever they can find to play with..."



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Sleeping the night away..

"Why is it that every night when I get ready for bed, I lay down, about 11:30ish and fall right to sleep with all the lights on and a cat's butt in my face. Only to wake up about 12:20 a.m. or so just to get up to brush my teeth and turn off the lights and listen to my cat yacking non-stop for a good 10 minutes. Then when I get back into to bed, I can't sleep! Last night I remember seeing 2:10 am! Oh well, no more late night coffee for me! (It was decaf, at 9:30, I love the taste of coffee!!)."



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If it breaks...

Facebook: "I gotta hand it to my son, sort of. He kept reminding me that in order to fix something around the house and you don’t know how to fix it…Look it up on YouTube. Why I keep forgetting to do that is a question…I keep forgetting.

About four months ago my water filter cleaner, even though it was turned off, broke a seal and billions of little glass-looking balls leaked into my cold water line. After going to the water company to find out what those things were, they told me to turn off the valve on the filter. It took me a while but I finally had figured out where that valve was and shut it off.

Now, the problem was to flush my water lines out, which took about an hour or so of flushing. In the meantime, my only real problem was my kitchen faucet was stopped up, completely. At the time, I tried to take the faucet off but I couldn’t quite get up under the sink to pull the thing out.

So, I just decided that I would use the dish washer until I purchased a new faucet. This one was on the cheap, only $80. A new one would cost about $120! So, like a typical man I would use all of the plates, cups, pots and pans and when I had enough to fill the dish washer I would turn it on, cleaning the whole lot twice a week or so.

This went well during that time. Individual plates and cups and stuff I would go to the bathroom, next to the kitchen and wash them out in the sink. All this time it started to get on my last nerve, then, out of the blue, like a bolt of lightning, right in the head…I remembered YouTube.

I just happened to have the exact same faucet as the one the guy was working on and I played it and watched it and did what the guy was doing. Of course, it only took him a few minutes to check it out. Me, on the other hand about a half hour to finish the task.

Yes, the little chamber was filled with those stupid little balls and was totally clogged up. It just took me, almost forever to get that plug out, my fingers are too fat. Nevertheless, work it out I did.

It had occurred to me though, “I am not a plumber, I’m a writer.” But, Thank you son and YouTube. Now if I can just remember to use YouTube when something else breaks around the house."



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Cats, what are they good for...

Facebook: "My Cat Tom is an A-hole!! I just bought a "Big old bag of Catnip...". I gave it to Jerry, at first, but Tom took it from him and went nuts with that bag. Jerry just sat there looking so sad that he couldn't roll in it. 30 minutes later I took a look at the old bag and Tom had peed on it...I guess it's his now."



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Coffee, coffee, coffee...Meh, sometimes

Facebook: "I have no idea why the coffee I make in the morning taste like, "MEH"! And no idea why the coffee I drink in the evening taste, "Great"! This morning I tried the K-cup (decaf) and it tasted great, but I now feel, MEH! I just don't want to buy 100 K-cups for $30 when I can get 5 pounds of Folgers for $8...Oh the sacrifices..."



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Losing it...

Fred Green: "I am not losing my mind, yet! While cooking lunch today I just happen to pour hot sauce on my pancakes. I put that s$@% on just about every thing! I really gotta stop drinking in the morning!"



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Low down dirty cat...

Fred Green: "My cat, Tom, is a dirty s.o.b.! Around 6 am, he whined, jumped and walked all over me until I got out of bed at 7:30. I went upstairs to get my phone a little after 9. Guess who was laying in my bed! Anyone want cat?"



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I Love camping, but…

(1) Facebook: " For the longest, I have been trying to find things to write about in regard to my writing life. It’s either boring or non-existent, now and in the past. I have been trying for many days to find things to write about in that area…but I digress.
Anyway, I went winter camping this past January, and I realized I love camping; it was my first time camping in the cold, cold climes of winter, in northern Michigan. After talking to my neighbor, the gung-ho former Marine, he has gotten me totally interested in backpack camping, however, as far as equipment goes, I fall far short.
Three years ago, I joined a social group, which included camping, hiking and just about everything outdoors. Considering that, I have been camping for over 25 or more years, including camping as a cub scout. However, with this group I have gone camping 10 times since 2015.
Throughout those many years, I have only gone car camping, which help me carry all the equipment I could load into my car, enough to last an entire weekend, or more if I wanted to stay longer. In addition, all have included either a 20 or so mile bike ride or a hike.
As far as backpacking equipment, all I have now is a Day Pack, it, in its self, is large enough to hold all of the things I need to go on a 15 mile hike, my longest so far. I can carry my water, extra clothes, food, well, some nuts, bananas, apples and stuff like that, and my walking stick. But, that’s where Day backpacking hikes end and weekend backpack starts.
This past November I got the opportunity to camp at Sleeping Bear campsite near the shores of Lake Michigan, an entire weekend. However, it was kind of car camping because, my car was a little more than 15 feet away from me. However, I really enjoyed that weekend and now I like camping in cooler weather.
I do have a four season tent, (the advertisement states that it is a four season teat and the manufacture states that it is only a three season tent. I’m guessing for legal reasons...), which I bought earlier last year, and a sleeping bag, rated to 30 degrees. My only problem, I cannot fit all of that equipment into any of the backpacks I own.
On the other hand, considering, the temperature, that weekend, got down to 27 degrees both of those nights and the wind was gusting to 35 miles or more all night long, but I was toasty and warm all night long. For whatever reason, though, I cannot sleep, soundly, in a tent anyway.
Before I joined those outdoor groups, I usually camped with another group, but they camped once a year. And those weekend were on the shores of Lake Eire. For whatever reason, and the fact that the water was beating onto the shore, the noise kept me away all night long and that started my never being able to sleep in a tent. I guess I am more comfortable in my own bed."

To me honest, I have no gear that I could use to go backpack camping, yet. I might be able to squeeze my tent and the rainfly a large enough backpack, though. As it is now, I am saving to purchase a 60 liter Plus 10 Backpack. I should have enough money by the middle of August.

In the meantime, I am putting together a list of things to purchase, light enough to go backpack camping this coming fall and winter. Then I will be ready for a new adventure. I just hope I don’t freeze to death on one of those marches to the campsite. That kind of happened, my feet freezing solid, this past January when I forgot my second pair of wool socks.

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Fred Green - OMG!! I did it again...

"OMG!! I did it again...I could have sworn today was Wednesday...I am going to have to stop taking 2 and 3 hour naps! It seems like I lose a day when I do."



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nap time...

Facebook: "OMG! I just flamed out. I shouldn't have sat down to read these post on Facebook. I decided to run my last half mile, now I have no energy to do my core exercises. That's two days in a row now. Oh well, I guess I am going to take a longer nap today..."



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STAR TREK BEYOND

Facebook: "I am a fan, a super fan of Science Fiction, in fact, I write science fiction. I have two short stories and one novel published and I am working on a second novel, but I digress…
I decided that I am going to start reviewing the movies I have seen, the new movies that are in theaters, now. I have only, started, recently writing reviews of things like books or music, but I have only posted them to sites like Amazon and Goodreads. Hey, it’s as start.
I went and saw Star Trek Beyond the other day. For the most part, I really enjoyed it. As of today, I have seen many posts, on Facebook, hating the heck out of the movie, saying it was worse than the 2009 reboot, STAR TREK. As far as I am concerned, I loved all three of them, what more can I say.
For me, it was the best Science fiction movie of the year, so far! It reminded me of the original Star Trek and the Director and writer tried to stay within those boundaries. Another movie that will go into my collection when it comes out on Blu Ray. On the other hand, I had one tiny problem with the movie, since I went with a group of youngsters, (my son and his friends).
When I got my ticket I was unaware the movie was in 3D and IMAX, at first. I have only gone to one movie in 3D and didn’t enjoy it, I really can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the movie, it was AVATAR, I just didn’t enjoy the 3D effects, at the time. That was 7 years ago.
However, I was amazed with STAR TREK in 3D. Now that I think about it, one other, tiny thing bothered me. In most the action scenes it seems like all the actors were blurred, the faster the action, the blurrier it got. Maybe I am not use to 3D, in my older years. If it were this great 20 or so years ago, I would have had no problems with 3D today. I think I prefer watching in 2D, though.
All in all, I give STAR TREK BEYOND, 5 stars!"
#STARTREKBEYOND, #sci-fi, #sciencefiction, #startrek,


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Sit and watch or sit and...

Facebook: "You know, I just realized that it is almost 1 pm. and I am still in my PJs. I guess I should get up from this comfortable couch and make something to eat for lunch or whatever, maybe some pancakes, and some ice cream...
Today was one of those days I just didn't feel like doing anything, only because it has been raining since early this morning. So, I am taking the day off from any overt exercise, the first day off in 10 days.
For the rest of the day I am going to sit here and watch Tiger's baseball and drink beer. I don't know if I really can just sit here though, my butt kind of hurts...from sitting too much. Yes, retirement does that.
I thought the game started at 1:00, but I guess it starts at 2 pm. I was also guessing that, since the game was postponed because of rain, last night, I figured they would be playing at 1, I guess not.
On the other hand, maybe I should sit here and write something as I watch the BB game."



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A tail of two...

Fred Green: "It's nice to see my two cats laying next to each other each other not trying to kill each other. But, Jerry kept whipping his tail into Tom's face. So what does Tom do? He bit Jerry's tail. Then the fight started." #cats



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A burger and fried...2 bits!

Facebook: "I am going to do something different, eat something different for lunch today. I am going to have Yogurt with honey and blueberries. Heck, who am I kidding, I'm going to have the usual...a veggie burger, loaded and some fries! Oh yeah, and a beer!"



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You can fly, but you can't hide...

Facebook: "Here's something you don't see everyday; on my daily walk I heard what sounded like a bunch (murder) of crows heading my way. To my right I saw one crow fly by at its top speed. Then three more followed, also at the fastest they could fly. A second later a hawk flew out but it turned and did one of those numbers that a Mountain Banshee, in Avatar, did...hop through the trees from limb to limb and then it flew into the trees waiting for something else to catch and eat."



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Its' plastic, you nut case...

Fred Green: "I think my cats have a dying wish; they are suicidal, in my opinion. Tom and Jerry will be 11 years old this coming October, 60 years, in human years. All during that time I have tried my best to put things up and keep things off the floor so those dummies don’t eat it or destroy it.
I use to have flowers, in my house. When they were kittens they started to eat the plants and flowers. All flowers and plants are now plastic. I use to let them out of the house and let them roam the backyard, under my watchful eye for a few minutes and I was fine with that.
One day, as I was rushing out of the house, going to a wedding, I left the house door open and forgot to close the garage door. I was gone about six hours. My son got to my house earlier and called me and told me what was going on and he said he couldn’t find the cats.
When I got home Jerry was upstairs in my bedroom, but I could not find Tom. I went out on the deck and saw a pair of glowing eyes peeking at me. He decided that he wasn’t coming in. After a half an hour I just put a bowl of cat food out and he came to it. That was five years ago. Now, they don’t go outside at all, anymore.
That brings me to today. When I came downstairs today I noticed that one of the cats had thrown up. In that mess was two inches of green string. Actually, that thick string that I used to keep my eyeglasses wrapped around my neck. Funny thing, they had been playing with that string for the last year or so. They would drag it around the house, or drag it into the kitchen and drop it into their bowls.
I am glad one of them threw it up. I don’t want a sick cat on my hands right now. The sad thing, a couple of weeks ago, as I came downstairs, the first thing in the morning, I saw more throw up on the carpet. This time, though, there was part of chewed up plastic bag in the pile of goop.
I have no idea how they got hold of a plastic bag. I make sure that there are no plastic bags where they can get their tiny paw on. Yesterday I found a chewed up piece of plastic. Now I have to do double duty to make sure they don’t find plastic and the strings are out now. No more play time with string.
Like I said, I don’t need a sick kitty on my hands right now, because if anything, bad, where to happen I don’t think I have a box big enough to bury them in."



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Getting Higher, and higher...

Fred Green: "My dentist started something new, at least something new that he didn’t do on my last visit, yesterday; they now take your blood pressure. I use to have great blood pressure when I was working, over 10 years ago. That was because I spent most of my time, after work, in the gym.
For whatever reason when I retired my pressure slowly went up. I joined a gym, but because of the expense I quit. So, for the most part I watched the boob-tube from sun-up to sun down. Six years ago I saw a cardiologist and it was confirmed that my blood pressure was high, very high, but not crazy high. At that time it was over 150ish over 70ish.
Of course there were other underlining factors and the doctor decided to put me on drugs to keep my pressure in check. I stayed on it for a couple of years and decided that was enough for me. It seemed that my pressure, ranged from 120/73 to 153/78 during the times I was on the drugs. When I stopped taking the drugs my BP stay around 130/70ish, the lowest being 116/78.
In 2014 I decided to step up my working out, not going to the gym, but just running, I only walked in 2013. I included riding my bike, taking longer tips and lifting weights and I started going on hikes with a 25 pound pack and I dropped about 79 pounds and got down to 180 pounds, maintaining 185 for a few months. In 2015 I gained five pounds and stayed at 190 for the rest of the year, until Thanksgiving. By the first of the year I got up to 210.
I had to step up my work out, and my work outs got harder, but it seemed too hard to drop that 10 pounds. It’s now July and I am at 200 and I can’t seem to knock of the 15 to 20 pounds I really want to lose. My metabolism has slow down.
At the dentist, my BP was 153/90. I have had higher, but that kind of bothered me, a little. My cardiologist told me that sometimes your BP can get higher when you visit the doctor’s office. I have my own BP machine and when I got home my BP was a lot lower.
I checked it today and it was 140/80, in my right arm and 135/78 in my left arm. For a second, I was thinking that I may have to go back to the doctor and get back on those drugs, but that thought was only for a second.
I decided, and I may change my mind later, but for now I must add a couple of exercises, the ones I stopped last year, lifting weights and core exercises. Each takes about an hour of my time. I hope they will be worth it. But, I will see the results and if those exercises don’t work and old age takes hold of me, I guess the drugs will have to do."



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I love peanuts and all that other nutty stuff...

Fred Green: "I love peanuts! Now that I think about it I love all nuts, especially cashews, oh yeah, and seeds too. It didn’t start out that way though. When I was younger, really younger, let’s say about 10 or so, my Mother told me not to eat any of the donuts that she had just purchased.
Being the hard-headed child I was I went ahead, when Mom went to work, and ate a donut. A donut with nuts on it, peanuts, as a matter of fact. I can still remember the taste of those donuts after 50 year of never eating them. What made the situation dire, I, later, got nauseated and sick and I then went on and threw up, mostly those donuts.
That stuck with me for many, many years. I have, to this day, never eaten nutty donuts. But, I love peanuts.
Last week or so, I went to the grocery store and one of the things I needed was peanut butter and I love peanut butter, too. Kroger has their own brand of peanut butter and I thought I would try a brand I had never, I don’t remember ever seeing it before. Honey Roasted peanut butter. So, I grabbed two jars of it because I love peanut butter.
Sometimes, before bed or if I have a cup of coffee, I get a spoonful of peanut butter. I opened a jar, stuck my spoon in and get a large dab of peanut butter. I took a bite and notice that it was chunky peanut butter. I had always hated to eat chunky, crunchy peanut butter.
Well, I couldn’t take it back so ate it. I have now fallen in love with crunchy, chunky peanut butter again. Of course the honey taste helped a lot, though. I finished the jar the other day and opened the second jar. I stuck my spoon into the creamy mixture, pulled out a spoonful and tasted it. It tasted the same, but there were not crunchy or chunky peanuts in it. It was just plain old creamy peanut butter. I was so disappointed.
I guess I should look at the jars when I buy stuff. And, now that I think about it, why was a jar of chunky, crunchy peanut butter next to the creamy variety? Oh well, I will remember next time. But, I will still get both, because I love Peanut Butter! Oh and peanuts, cashews, and seeds and all kinds of mixed nuts!"



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Into the drink...

Facebook: "I saw two things that I normally don't see every day or for that matter, ever, okay maybe once... 1.) While out doing my daily walk, I heard a scream, but I couldn't figure out what direction it came from. Out into the lake I saw a head bobbing in the water and a boat making a quick u-turn. Apparently the speed boat accelerated too fast and that person fell out.

2.) A yellow plane just flew about a hundred feet over my house. Apparently it either just took off from the lake behind me or going to land in the lake behind me. That Happened a few years back, but that plane was red."



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Fred Green: I gotta quit drinking...

Fred Green: I am really losing it; I just went into the bathroom and totally forgot what I went in there for...



"I just got back from the store and I bought something I haven't had in over 15 years...Soda, specifically, rootbeer. Hey, it was free, I couldn't turn it down. I hope moderations works for me."



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Coffee, black and...cover your lady parts.

On my way to a café, the other day, in one of those towns where the uber hipsters hang out, I thought I’d park my car a little further away so I could get a little refreshing walk in. I crossed the street and made a quick left, heading to the café in the middle of the block.

Ahead of me were two young women. One of them had a head of bright blond hair with dark brown streaks in it, topped with a blue thingy wrapped around her hair ending in a long ponytail. She had on a colorful; I don’t know what you call it, a Halter top that exposed her belly button and a blue, short skirt that had frills on the ends near her knees. On her feet were beige-colored platform style shoes with straps that went up her ankles.

All of a sudden, she rolled her ankle, tripped and went down. She rolled over on her butt and as I walked to her to help her up, I noticed that she had no underwear on. It seemed like an eternity as I reached for her hand to help her up. She looked at me for a moment and said, “Did you like what you saw?”

I said, “No. You could use a trim or a Brazilian, maybe, or dye it the same as what’s on your head.” I smiled, and turned into the café. I then ordered a coffee, black, no sugar or cream. I wanted a brownie, but they didn’t have any that day, so I got one of those large, soft, chocolate chip cookie. I went and sat down on a vacant sofa and waited for my comrades to come. I was going to read some of my poetry, that day.

I was just about to get comfy when that young lady marched over to me. She stood there for a second then bent over to say something to me that only I could have heard.

“Are you some kind of pervert?” She said…her eyes wide, her face almost expressionless. I was shocked, but only for a second or two.

Looking dead into her eyes I said, “Youngster, I have seen, touch, tasted, and played with over xxx women in my lifetime. I am over xx years old and that,” pointing at her crotch, “doesn’t excite me as much as it did when I was your age.” I looked up at her and smiled, then added, “Besides, a pervert would have had a camera and took plenty of pictures. My camera was in my pocket.”

She straightened up and put her hands on her hips. I noticed the corner of her lip started to erect into a tiny smile. I figured she wanted to burst out laughing, but she didn’t. She turned and started to walk out of the café. I noticed, as she walked away, her rear end was sashaying, a definite prominence that she didn’t have as she was walking down the street. 

At that moment I realized, I had lied to her. Something I don’t do often, fibbing, not telling the truth. I did get excited, just a little, a tiny bit. Just enough to let me know, I’m still human.

Forty-five minutes later, as I sat listening to one of my friends read their poems, that youngster walked back onto the café, over to me and whispered into my ear, “can I get a ride home?”

Pokemon GO! Geez, now what?

Facebook: "Here's something I don't see everyday and hope not to ever see ever again, in the near and far future.
At the end of my run today, as I was walking to my house, there was a young couple a couple hundred feet away. I would say they were in their late 20s or early 30s and they were walking and looking at their phones.
The young lady looked up at me, started to laugh and they made a hasty left turn onto an adjacent street. I just shook my head as the girl looked back at me, the guy probably didn't give an F....
I knew what they were doing...they had to be playing that... phone app, pokemon go...go figure.
Anyway as I passed the adjacent street, they turned around and headed back towards my house. The girl still giggling as they passed and they disappeared into the sunset, Okay, it was noon, but gone nonetheless."



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One hell of an answer.

Facebook:  I have a sign on my door, stating: "Please no soliciting". It's been there for over a year. In that past, year and a half, a handful of people have knocked on my door.
Once, a bunch of old ladies, knocked. I mentioned the sign and one of them told me that was about prostitution. I told them to be on their way(not really but it was implied).

On another occasion, a boy knocked, I mentioned the sign and he too mentioned that soliciting was only about prostitution. I could only shake my head in disgust. Don't they teach these kids anything in school these days?

Anyway, today, two young girls knocked. I mentioned the sign, again and the oldest of the two said, "That means selling something...and we are not selling anything, we are asking for something.
Again I just shook my head...I then said, "Soliciting means asking for anything, not just selling."
She retorted, "...it means selling, My Mother is a lawyer."

I mentioned what other people do in life and what does that have to do with you not knowing what the word means, and I am a writer, I know words. I then said "GOOGLE IT!"
"It means, selling something, My Mother is a lawyer."
I could only shake my head in total dismay and disgust. Maybe her mother should be a teacher or something because these kids nowadays know nothing!"



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Hairball season: it's that time of the month

Fred Green: "I guess it's that time of the month again...hairball season. My cats love to lay next to my shoes, for whatever their reasoning is. I was going to put on my sandals and I noticed a wad of spit-up IN MY SHOE!! Couldn't he have just thrown up a couple of inches away from my shoe? Geez, I hate my cats...okay, not really but if I had a stick I would..."



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I see you...

Fred Green: "I see people trying to compete with others as to how many Megapixels their camera's and phones have. I hear that a company is trying to see if they can get a commercially viable camera to 75 megapixels! Think about this for a moment, your Eye has a resolution of 576 Megapixels! So, just blink your eye when you see something you like and put it into your memory banks and you can save it forever too. And it will be just as clear as a 7 megapixel camera, which is only what the eye can perceive anyway."



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Dead or alive...feed me!

Facebook: "I just read that the reason why my/your cat wakes me/you up in the morning is that they are checking to see if I/you, the person who feeds them, is alive or dead. I kind of figured that, but my cat, Tom, bugs me for at least an hour, or until I finally get up, just to feed him and his brother, who doesn't bother me at all."



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