the bad Back...

Day 2, my back held hostage. I know me better than...funny, though, I have worked out 40 out of the last 50 day, but, and here is your big "but", I have done nothing for my core. No wonder my back is hurting as bad as it today. Oh well... Where is my Motrin?



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I just gotta know one thing...

"I just gotta know one thing; you can eat just about everything on this planet, but why is it when you eat spinach you alway have a piece spinach stuck to your teeth??"



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NO More JUNK FOOD!

OMG!! I have gained 18 pounds since Christmas and 8 in the last 10 days! (And it's not muscle). Considering I joined Planet Fitness and I have worked out 25 out of 31 days in January. I emptied the trash this past Sunday and found 3 empty large bags of chips. Plus, I took the past week off so I could just relax and let my body...relax.

Anyway, I have finished of the rest of those chips, and I finished, this morning, the rest of those cookies. I am going back to the old ways and eat the way I did the past 3 years, no more junk food! For real! NO more junk food! I gotta get rid of those last 18 pounds and more if I can.

20 words that once meant something very different...

I got into an innocuous spat with a friend on Facebook today over the use of a word. I remember hearing this word back in the 50s or 60s. The word was "Crone". As I remember it was, as I looked up in the dictionary, way back when, had something to do with the witch in "Snow White".

Anyway, my Facebook Friend introduced me to a book, "The Crone: Women of  Age, Wisdom, and Power," and stated, "The wisdom and value of older women is often marginalized in Western Culture." And that makes total sense.

I read, or I saw it on YouTube, recently, Words that had their meaning changed over many millennia. I found it interesting as I found this and many other views on how and why words were changed.

20 words that once meant something very different |:



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Not feeling it today.

Fred Green - Not feeling it today. I wanted to go to the gym,...: "Not feeling it today. I wanted to go to the gym, early, but I guess I will just go to the throne room and read a book -- War and Peace -- I should feel better by the time I finish."



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(3) Fred's Place

(3) Fred's Place: "Don't you hate it when a word pops into your head and you have never heard the word before, or seen the word before. And every couple minutes you think of that word. You can pronounce the word correctly...but you don't know the definition. that word I hear, in my mind; euclidean -- weird, huh?"



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Ya spoiled brat...

I think I have finally spoiled Tom, my cat. (What am I talking about, I spoiled them both many years ago.) Both cats wolfed down their food at 8 am this morning. About 15 minutes ago, as I was cooking lunch he comes into the Kitchen and starts whining, and whining loud at his bowl. So, I opened another can for him. When he was finished eating that little tiny bit he decided to bug me. Now, he's sitting, on the floor, next to me Whining. He wants to sit on my lap as I type. Nope, no more sitting, he just jumped onto my lap. Now I know why I can't get any writing done.

Writing and beer go together like...

I have been writing for the last 3 hours and 40 minutes and I noticed something; I have been drinking Guinness and Stella Artois beer for the last week and today. My sister came by yesterday and brought me a case of Bud Light. Talk about awful...and I use to like Bud light.

Resolutions – substitutions; Just say no to Resolutions

It’s that time of the year again, time for Resolutions. I have posted many times that I do not make resolutions; I just plan and do the deeds. However, I say this every year and I do make a list of things that I have to do to keep my sanity, especially in the realm of writing.

I have been writing, but only posting to my blog. Why you ask? I gotta stop drinking, procrastinating and going onto Facebook, and watching sports, and…but I digress.

I am not going to get caught up in the hype of resolutions, on the first day of January. Besides, I think all resolutions are a precursor to failure. However, I personally find that there really isn’t anything wrong with failure, failure means, you at least tried.

What I am going to do, try and maybe fail, and or, try and succeed, well, there are a bunch of things that I must do for the year of 2017 and beyond. I really have to finish all of the below because, I am tired of eating PB&J every day, with water. I really miss eating steak, salmon, caviar, champagne…even though I am a vegetarian, I still miss em all.

My goals for 2017:

Finish the novel I started for NaNoWriMo, by at least by the end February, or at least sometime this year, “Marooned”. I am into about 10k words (that took me six days to write 10k words), and would love to end with at least, 60k – 70k+ words. I have had a cover created, which has inspired me to write the story, all of which is glued to a tiny portion of my brain.

 I have finished two books in my “fictional autobiography” series. Now I need to edit them and find someone to read them, for clarity. There are four more in the series to write. The main thing is to find a publisher. I would love to have this series published the old-fashioned, traditional, way. Self-publishing is not out of the question.

In past couple of months, I have come up a few new story lines, Time Sleeper, Day Runner, Comic Con and Surf's Up. My plate is getting full, and I am hungry.

I started writing a new book of poetry, Haikus. The Haiku’s are in regard to the seasons.  I was taking pictures of nature, in the spring, summer, fall and winter. I think I have all the pictures I need. Of course, a few more won’t hurt, and I have written over a hundred and fleshed out many more haiku’s. However, I have over 500 pictures, which is about the amount I would need to finish writing.

In addition, I have finished two screenplays. Now that I found out about Amazon Storywriter, it should help me focus on my story with features such as auto-formatting, import/export of my favorite file formats. They have also announced that they are now welcoming online submissions of drama series projects and are offering new expansions to their open-door submission policy.

A new Web site! I took the last one down three or so years ago. My goal is to get one up and running in the next couple of months.

On 3x5 cards, I have written out 42 stories. Most of them I wrote over 30 years or so ago. It’s time to outline those stories and get productive this years.

I have so many other goals to accomplish this year, and as of the first of January, I can’t think of any resolutions.

Does anything work around here?

 I just realize why the scanner on my printer isn't working. I saw Tom, my cat, sitting on top of it looking out the window. Thanks Tom. 

A wonderful (active) year...

It has been another great year for me. I wanted to keep doing what I have been doing, this past year, in order to have a lifetime of being dis-ease free. As of the 12^th of December, I have been relaxing, just taking it easy for the rest of this year until January, where I will start up with all of the activities I enjoyed over the past year.

I am planning to join Planet Fitness, again, so I can get my legs in better shape for those long hikes and those long bike rides, 50+ miles at a time. My longest in 2016, 45 miles and I did that 4 times.

Anyway, here are my results for this past year:

ran – only 73.1 miles – (2015 - 235 miles, What a year a difference makes)

Walked – 425.4 miles – (2015-754 miles, ouch…)

Biked – 475.7 miles – (2015 - 410 miles)

Hiked – 294 miles – (2015 - 95.5 miles)  

Kayaked – 17 miles – (2015 - 4.2 miles)

For a grand total of – 1285.3 miles – (2015 1500.4 miles)

 Down a tiny bit, in some categories, and up a few in others, only because I either forgot to add the extra times to my recorder or my  GPS logs failed because the batteries on my phone died. But I did add a lot more other activities such as, Camping 6 times in 2016 (8 times in 2015), Laser tag, and going Zip lining.  

I ended up gaining about 15 pounds and maintained a weight of 200 lbs. for a large part 2016, considering I had lost 76 pounds in the prior years.  

I don’t know what I have doing for the end of this year, but I've gained 15 pounds since the end of November. I think it has to do with all that cake and Rum and Eggnog I have devoured in the last two week. Compounding the fact that I have done no other activities but sit and watch Movies on Netflix for the last two weeks.

In a few days I am going to have to get back on track and do what I have been doing for the last 2 and a half years. This year I plan to add more just to make sure that when I go to the doctor for my annual checkup all my numbers are lower than they were for 2016. 

I want to thank my wonderful cat, Tom, for waking me up this morning. He usually, after the alarm goes off, jumps on the bed and tries to pull the covers off of me. Then he nuzzles his head into my arms. But today, he decided to sneeze into my face. That woke me up!

I am prepping myself for 2017, 1 story at a time. #amwriting#amwritingscifi #writing #scifi #novelwriting #novel

To Poop or, whatever...

Of all the kitty-cat things: my ding-bat cat Tom will not drink from that Cat Fountain, I got for both cats a few years ago. There is a bathroom next to the Laundry room, where the cats litter box is located. For the longest time I thought Tom drank out of that toilet, only because I see him, actually, drink out of the toilet next to my computer room.

He may or may not drink out of the first toilet, but for the longest time I always see cat litter in the toilet. I had never really thought much about it. I figured that he would put his paws on the edges of the water and drink. I am finding out that is not the case, though.

My cats love to come into the bathroom as I sit on the toilet it never fails. I try to sneak up on Jerry, but he runs as if the cops are coming for him, cat-tus interruptus… Tom, on the other hand doesn’t give a poop. I usually never go in their room to spy on them but I was walking by and Tom was standing at the rim of the toilet. He was dipping his paws into the water, I would have to conjecture, washing his tiny paws off after he finished using his litter box.

I would guess, then, he wasn’t drinking out of the toilet in his toilet room, just dipping his feet in the toilet. However, he is still drinks out of the toilet I use most often than not. I don’t get that cat. If I close the toilet seat, he would rather die of thirst than drink out of that water fountain I have set up with both cats. Oh well

I made it to the 21st Century...

Amazon Echo Dot -- with Alexa

Automation…welcome to the 21^st century, as I listen to Amazon Alexa play soothing electronic music in the background. I can’t say that I am late to the game, I have had automation, with my lights, and only lights since the late 1970s. When I moved into my first house, in 1984, I took all of the switches and transceivers with me and automated the house.

I then purchased additional transceivers and wall switches so that I had the control to turn on all the lights in the house and a few other things I can’t remember, now. During that time, you could only control your lights by clicking the corresponding number on the transceivers the switches were assigned to. The system was called X10 Powerhouse, sold by Radio Shack, at the time. I still have all of my switches and transceivers.

However, three or so years ago my computer running XP, I purchased back in 2003, died and the X10 software was on that computer. The lights were programed to turn on at up to 255 times a day, if need be. Last year I found, at a local computer store, a hard drive enclosure. I put the old hard drive into the enclosure and sure enough, the drive wasn’t damaged and worked fine.

I hooked the drive to my main computer and all of the software was still intact. The only problem, Windows 10 isn’t backward compatible. I went online to find if X10.com had the software for Windows 10. For some reason, the site doesn’t look the same. I am guessing that some entity has taken the company over. They say there is software to control the switches, but I couldn’t download it. I was just SOL.

(I’ve gotta take another break – this break is brought to you by, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Kroger Eggnog, this Writer’s favorite winter and writing drink!)

 In the meantime, I just purchased timers for the main lights, the modern kind where you can have them come on at various times of the day or week. That worked well, to a point. I just had to deal with it and be complacent. Then I heard about Amazon Echo. I wanted it, needed it, but, at $199.00 (back when it first came into existence), it was a little too pricey for me, so I put in my Amazon wish list and just waited.

Out of the blue came, Amazon Dot. At first, I didn’t understand it. Why was it so small? Of course, I got the details later. I added that to my wish list and waited. Since I have been doing those online surveys I had been able to save about $20 a month, which doesn’t sound like much, but it helps where you want to get a few things on Amazon.

Lo and behold, Amazon lowered the price of the Amazon Dot to $39 in November! You will never guess how much I had saved. I knew exactly what I wanted and (before Amazon Prime) a week later I got my Amazon Dot. And so it began. I had to figure out what I could do with it, though. Now, actually a few weeks ago until yesterday, I just played music and asked Alexa dumb questions.

After many hours, (actually, many hours of YouTube and automation webpages), I figured out what to get first…Lightbulbs! However, I didn’t realize that connected lightbulbs were that expensive $15, up to $50 for one bulb. I thought only one type would fit and work, style A19 light bulbs. I purchased a four-pack for $20 only to find out you have to have connected lightbulbs. I had to return the four-pack.

I found some, near inexpensive, connected bulbs, only to find that the Home Depot, close to my home, had just two of the bulbs I wanted left. I decided to get a third bulb, a Phillips Hue bulb. I took the set home and put the Phillips Hue bulb in first. I had read that you needed a Phillips Hue hub to work with this particular bulb. Before all of that, I had purchased a Wink2 hub, reading that I have to have a hub to control of my automated toys and stuff.

I couldn’t get the Hue bulb to work. I checked the site and found out that the Hue bulb will only work with a Phillips Hue Bridge (hub). I started to think to myself, why in the world would I buy a Phillip’s Hue Hub when I already have a hub. The Wink hub said that it works with the Phillips Hue bulb. But, two hubs to work one bulb?

So I had to go back to the Home Depot and get a Cree connected bulb, they had one but it was slightly more than the two I purchased previously. Today, after all the work was done, I can now say, “Alexa, turn on all the lights…” and like magic, the lights come on. Now, I just have to figure out how to put the lights on a schedule.

I just realized that I only have five lamps in my house and only need to three of them on, at night. All the other lights are on switches, 24 bulbs, not including the garage and back porch, in all. So, I checked the prices of the switches, they start at about $30 and up for one switch. The fan, in my living room, for instance, is a dual switch and they cost about $70. I am guessing it is expensive to automate one’s home.

Some of the things, next on the list, a Nest Thermostat, automated front door lock, and a garage door opener. I am guessing if it will take a year to get my house automated, but it will be well worth it.

I wonder what else the future will bring – hopefully replicators, transporters, phasers, robots and other toys to play with, or do I have to wait until the 22^nd century?

Now that I think about it…what do I do with all of my X10 transceivers? 

The fly...

It was nice and toasty, in my house, this morning. I got a roaring fire going right now. So warm there was a fly flying (a sky raisin) around in my bathroom. I was wondering why the cat was sitting there. something he doesn't do much of.

I swatted at it a few times and it flew to the floor and stayed there, much to the surprise of Jerry, the fat cat. He chased it around for a few minutes...then ate it. I heard that sky raisins were tasty for cats and he seemed to enjoy one of his favorite treats.

My fanny is bigger than...

OMG!! Fanny packs are making a comeback!! I know I have a couple packed away down in the basement. I'd better go and dust them off! I saw this on the news, so it has to be true...unlike seeing it on the Internet...

Winner, winner...pants on fire?

I retired from my, a real job 10 years ago. I, then, decided that I would write novels and something I found interesting, at the time, taking surveys and entering contests, sweepstakes, so on and so forth. I can’t say that, in all that time, it has been lucrative, but I have won and received quite a lot of prizes.

During those years, I have received at least, if not close to $1000 in music, movie, and gasoline gift cards. Usually $10 at a time. Recently I saved enough $10 Amazon gift cards to purchase a backpack and a camping cook set. However, the two biggest things and most wanted things I have received were a 23in, all-in-one computer and a 55in TV, both in 2009. Nothing but Amazon and iTunes gift cards since. Of course, nothing in the lottery, or for that matter, all of those sweepstakes that offer million dollar homes and cars and stuff. Not a biggie though.

For the last year or so I have been watching a daytime TV show called Right This Minute, RTM. I got into it because they showed a ton of internet videos and I enjoyed most of them. Sometime last year they started offering iPad Mini’s and once a week a bonus prize, usually a LED TV, if you watched and sent, on the internet, your information and the “Word of the day” to their web site. That got me hooked.

I figured that if I play long enough I might win; then again, I might not win a thing. This sweepstakes usually lasted about 30 days, 3 times a year. This year I finally won that iPad Mini2. I always thought that if I won I would sell the iPad on EBay; I would rather have gotten the cash then the iPad, considering I already have a tablet and it does what I want rather well.

I received the iPad Mini2 this past Friday and, for all intent and purposes, it was a nice looking tablet. I, for whatever reason, decided to keep it. Then, I said to myself, WHY am I going to keep this tablet? I took all of the plastic off of the tablet fired it up and then started to add apps that I think I needed.

At that very moment I realized that having a second tablet was just a little bit much, overkill. I already have a laptop, a desktop, two smartphones and now two tablets. Both tablets doing much of the same thing. Moreover, an Apple device is a hard cookie to crack. There are a lot of little things my Nexus 7 does that the iPad doesn’t do and to me that it a distraction.

So now what do I do with it? Keep it in my bedroom and use it as an alarm clock? I can’t do that because my old and I mean old second smartphone does that. I don’t use it for anything else but wake me in the morning. It looks like I may end up selling it anyway, that is if I don’t find something for it to do.

Other than that, I guess I will just keep playing those online contests and sweepstakes. Now, if I can just win the lottery!

Yes, its official...

Yup, I'm losing it...it has been confirmed, again. I took that particular sweatshirt with me, camping, this past weekend. I know I put it in my bag. For that past four days I have been looking for that sweatshirt, to no avail. I really searched this house from top to bottom. Nothing, zilch...no sweatshirt could be found. Today I was going to finish raking the leaves in the back yard. I needed a cap, which I knew was in the dryer. Guess what I found in the dryer...my sweatshirt, where it languished for the last four days, hiding from me.

Survey says...?

I've been doing surveys and playing games that have big prizes for the last, well, since I retired, about 10 years now. During that time I have won a computer, the one I am typing this post on, a Big screen HDTV, tons of movie passes and Google music and movies and Apple Itunes music.

Nothing big, real big, so far, like a house or $50K, stuff like that. The last thing, kind of big thing, was about 6 years ago, the HDTV. Anyway, I just got a notice, today, that I just won another "mini" computer. I am still waiting on that $100K, or for that matter, anything more than $10 in the Michigan Lottery,

though.