nothing has happened...

Nothing happened today, nothing, not a thing, zilch, nada, nothing..so far. I do know, I gotta stop throwing peanuts at my cats, those things are  too good to be throwing at those cats. And, to make matters worse, I only had one cup of coffee...go figure.

Don't mess with Grandma...

I went to Kroger to pick up some breakfast food and my favorite, Swiss cheese. Not just any Swiss cheese, but the big-eyed, cheap, (inexpensive) Swiss cheese.

At the deli counter, they usually have a number system to accommodate the customers, if a large number of people converge on the deli counter at the same time.  Today was not one of those days. At the time, it was only me and another lady at the counter and we were both being served, at the time.

A couple minutes later, an older woman, I would have to say she was in her late 70s, early 80s, five foot tall, strolled up to the counter and went straight to the machine that dispenses those little tickets with the current number, waiting to waited on. I looked over to her and said, “You don’t have to get a number.” She looked at me for a hard second and proceeded to pull a number ticket out of the dispenser.

I then said, “You must be a Republican!”

“What?” She grumbled, with a look of disdain and daggers being hurled at me through her eyes, 

The woman standing next to me blurted out, “He’s just joking, he’s just joking…”

“Only a republican wouldn’t listen. You didn’t have to pull the number; they would have waited on you without a number…” I said with a super large, silly smile glued to my face.  The older woman just smiled and gave me a thumb down and said, “Not me!”

I gave her two thumbs up, grabbed my Swiss cheese from the counter and High-tailed out of there.

Stranger things than writing...

I did it again...I went to a writer's conference this past Saturday and they talked about procrastination in writing. So, I said, at the time, this coming Monday, today, I would write at least 2000 words in my novel. What happened? I sat all day (well, after running 3.25 miles), and watched that Netflix series, "Stranger Things", All eight episodes. The stories were compelling, reminded me a lot like a few Stephen King novels. My only thing, where does season 2 take the viewers to? And was the end of episode 8 a "kind" of cliff hanger? I guess I'll have to wait until 2017.

Will the real coffee drinkers please stand up...

"Heard at the KDL Writer's Conference, in Grand Rapids, today; Her: "I love coffee!"
Me: "No you don't, you love sugar and cream..." As she poured a couple of teaspoons of sugar and then a lot of cream into her coffee. "Real coffee lovers drink their coffee strong and black.""



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I've forgotten and I can't...

I consider myself a thinking person, someone who always has a brilliant thought on his mind. But, I guess as I progressively age, a guy just wants to have fun…but, alas I digress.

About a month or so ago my Keurig coffee maker died, or so I thought. What did I do, I went out and purchased a Mister Coffee, coffee maker for about $20. Prior to that I had purchased an expensive, well a near expensive couple bags of coffee, which I used in my Keurig coffee maker. That coffee was great, great taste and so forth.

The only problem, coffee tends to spoil after a couple of weeks (actually a week or less. I just can’t drink coffee that fast, though).  And, what made it even worse the Mister coffee maker left my cup of coffee with a bad plastic after taste. Yesterday, after having no coffee for a couple of days, I thought I would try the Mr. Coffee machine again. This time, the coffee was just terrible, I mean terrible! A biting, stinging taste on my tongue. I took one sip and had to spit it out, it was that bad.

This morning I opened up a jar of instant coffee. I have never really liked instant coffee, never. I usually drink it when I go camping. As of right now, eight hours later, I still feel that coffee in my gut. It seems to be hard to get out of my system.

Anyway, I remembered something my son told me a very long time ago…”Use YouTube, Dad!” Sure enough I went to the web and looked up Keurig coffee makers on YouTube and my exact machine came up and the video explained what was wrong and what to do about it. A very simple thing to do.

I now say to myself, “How stupid could I have ever been?” This is something I should have done two months ago and I wouldn’t have suffered as much as I have in the long run. And I have suffered. I need my morning coffee. Not because I like it so much, (love it), but it offers me the energy to get out of the house and do my daily run or walk or anything else that requires exercise.

If I can ever remember, old age seems to be doing that to me or I have been drinking too much…I’ve got to remember to use YouTube when something around the house breaks. Anyone wanna buy a Mister Coffee maker, cheap?

13 hours!

I had a dream this morning and they usually end up as a Sci-Fi story I want to write. After I woke up, fed the cats, made coffee, breakfast and read all of my emails, I thought I would flesh out my story. So I decided to go out and walk my three mile route and come up a story line.

When I got back I had the story laid out…in my mind. I was planning to write today, I have a bunch of things I wanted to get out and finished, let’s say, at least 2000 words worth. However, nothing happened at all with all of those thoughts I had, Nothing, nada, zilch, nope…Nothing!

Why you ask? I watched all 13 hours of the New Netflix series, “Luke Cage”. Thirteen hours! I watched six episodes last night and I was up until 1 am. Then when I finished with most of the things I needed to do, today, I hit up Netflix, again, and finished the rest of the series. Thirteen hours!

The good thing, though, I never let the idea out of my head. I don’t have a title, yet, but I know I will think of something sooner or later, so it’s “untitled – 10/2016”. I better outline it so I don’t forget.

When I get up tomorrow, I hope to find some motivation to keep my butt in this chair, in front of this computer and finish the novel I am working on now by at least November when the NaNoWriMo starts. That’s because I have another novel I want to start.

I am going to have to break some of these plates I have piled up over there in the sink. Because my plates are getting full and its getting hard to keep up. Fingers crossed… procrastinating? 

I got nothing...to write about

I got nothing…nothing to write about this very minute, nothing. I am sitting here watching the Lion’s football game and it’s at the end of the first half and of course the Lions are losing, go figure, so I am fuming, sort of. Heck, Michigan State lost last night and them damn Tigers lost, too. Really fuming now.

I just don’t have anything in mind to write about right but, I need to calm the *Frack* down. Anyway, them Tigers, what to do? They hold their fate in their own hands today, well, Toronto and Baltimore have to lose today. If that is the case, the Tigers will have to win, today, and win their make-up game tomorrow.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should just get up and wash the dishes, during the halftime show, and finish washing and folding my week’s worth of dirty cloths. Or heck, vacuum my rugs or just clean up. I am going to do something, just what…maybe take a nap. I'm due a nap right now. I didn’t drink a lot of coffee today so I am getting tired just sitting here and watching the Lion’s football game...I just bored watching the Lions lose. That’s too close to call… 

Wired!!

Fred Green: "I was going to take a nap, a little bit ago but, I have had so much coffee today, on National Coffee day...I guess that ain't going to happen! I'm wide awake. I did manage to clean the kitchen, wash dishes, fold some clothes...I would have made up the bed but my cat, who was lying there, grabbed hold of the sheet and wouldn't let go so I came down here to write this."



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Today is National Coffee day, and I have had so much coffee I actually feel "High"!

Of all of the lost my mind things: I went grocery shopping this past Friday and I know that I purchased 4 packs of pancake mix. But, when I got home I could only find 3 packs. I went out into the garage and checked my car to see if it fell out. No pack of pancake mix.

Today, I planned to make dinner with foods in the freezer, so I opened the freezer door and grabbed a package of what I thought were frozen peas. It turned out to be that lost pack of pancake mix. It had been the freezer for the last four days. Either I am getting old and my mind is seeping out of my ears or I gotta stop drinking.

Today marks the beginning of a new Adventure!

To eat or not to eat...

Fred Green: "I've had so much coffee today, I forgot to eat lunch. Oh well, what to eat, what to eat?"



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Break -- Fast

I broke my five and a half day fast this morning, normally, for the past 37 years, I have fasted for at least seven day, but I wanted to go hiking and get out on the lake and kayak a little.

I went to the grocery store yesterday to get all the food that I needed to break my fast and what I needed for the next two weeks or so. I usually average $130 when I go grocery shopping, and I usually get a ton of processed food. Stuff like, veggie burgers, canned stuff, lots of frozen stuff, stuff like that, (cookies, donuts, chips…). I thought I would do something different this time…considering that I do this just about every time I fast.

This time I was going to cook, my meals, again. So, I got a lot of vegetables and fruits. I did end up getting some of those frozen veggie burgers, they taste so great, though. When I finished my total bill was only $79! What saved me a lot, I didn’t get a ton of chips and cookies and donuts and way too many other sweet things.

Another thing I did was download and print as many vegetarian recipes as I could find, considering I have a Pinterest page of nothing but vegetarian food and all of the veggie burgers I could find. Heck, I have plenty of time to do what I need to do every day so why not cook breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I just so happened to find a recipe for a bunch of soup, I love soup. I really haven’t had a lot of soup because they come in cans and are full of sodium. As it is, my blood pressure is/was high enough, now. I haven’t checked as of late but, it doing well and I have lowered it in past months.

In my life, I have never liked split-pea soup but, as of late, it is one of my favorites, and Tomato soup. I found recipes for both. I will be cooking up a storm this week.

The one thing I have to watch out for and have done this just about every time I finish a fast, I eat too much at lunch. I usually break my fast with an apple and then, at lunch I make something with a lot of things with protein and find it hard to stop eating. I eat too much and regret it in the end. Not this time. I will not fall into that trap again and, so far so good.  Well, I did have two extra pieces of…

In 2014, I stayed away from a lot of sweets, chips and a lot of other junk foods and lost 78 pounds. Of course I also ran, more often than not, walked, hiked and biked over 1800 miles that year. In 2015, I figure that I could now eat more because I exercised more, now that I think about it, not as much as the year before. I still ended doing about 1300 total miles. However, I gained 10 pounds.

I weighed in at 200 this year and have stayed that weight all year. Today I am 14 pounds under what I was last Sunday. Now, it’s back to the old ways, staying away from all that isn’t good for me, maybe…, I not give up beer, though, I love beer! I hope it won’t be as hard as it has been, my entire adult life but every day is a learning experience. 

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.