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You guys keep me going. I live in fear that I am slighting one of you and you might think less of me. I think it happens to all of us boomers at one time or another. What joy it is to turn on boomer and writterdeb and all the rest who say hey in the shoutbox, catch a recipe (I've already tried the shrimp fried rice), and see who is up and active. We all know who is most active. And we even have Active1951. I know most of the daily words but can't spell them without spell check. How would you like to have an editor who catches every mistake you make? Thank God..I have mine....
I'm a morning guy but I'm not. I get up early but it takes lots of coffee to get my mental energies energized so I don't say much but read a lot. I go through 10 newspapers and a bases loaded list of sports sites. I feed my brain with information I will retain like super glue but don't ask me what happened 5 minutes ago. Long gone like a Ted Williams homer...
I read the nice comments I get and I'll never live up to those billings but I do believe I'm almost famous. I have said bumper sticker on Blue to prove it. I'm kidding of course but a long time ago I set out to tell readers about where I live in the woods and describe to you the beauty of what I see so you can feel like your walking the trail with me. And you have been there. Every step ofthe way. Break life down to simple terms without the hoorah of the city life or anyone that actually has a life. I have a life but it's no where near the life most of you have. Remember that game LIFE? I played it a lot as a kid......
Together we can get through these hard times. Here on the lake I'm not saying a word about how I'm broke to Kris. He came here to get away from the bills he has, the cut hours and maybe having to sell his beloved Harley. That would be like me selling Blue. I don't talk much about he worries about his mother and how he may have to take her in soon. I think this is why he hasn't married. Mom has always been number one to him. I feel his pain....
I'm never alone as I fight my battles. I have family. I have friends and I have my BOOMER friends. That's a trio I'll go to bat for. Like my Grampa Plankey once told me; The sun even shines on a rainy day...
Happy Monday my friends..
Easy...
I had two piles of firewood in the living room of the rusty green trailer I once lived in because I had no other place to go. It was the winter of 01 in Upper Michigan and a pot bellied wood stove gave me my heat and cooked my meals that didn't come out of a dinty can. I was desperate, a cat cornered wondering why God had done this to me. My family had left for Florida and Minnesota and I was left alone on family property in a home that was barely fit to live in. In actuality, I had done it to myself after a series of life's unfortunate turns of fate had left me alone in the woods looking out on Island Lake. The snow swirled on the white, frozen lake and I would get chills just seeing it from inside the comforts of my little spot next to nowhere... One pile was the frozen wood I'd chiseled out of the woodpile I hadn't tarped and next to it was the wood that had unfrozen and ready to fill the heat beast that enabled me to sit at the table and write with pen to paper. If I got lazy and didn't bring in the wood the wet wood wouldn't burn and all I would get was fumes that filled the room and I had to open the front door to get some air to breath. The cold air rushed in and I would hate myself for taking that nap and not caring if the fire went out. The fire inside me almost did.... And then came Bud and Pard. I went for a ride one night and had one too many and adopted two twin male black cats and I figured some companionship was what I needed and they were the love of my life that winter. They kept me going. They gave me a reason to live. They lived off birds they would snag from the feeder and the cheapest cat food I could buy. I left the door barely open at night so they could get in and out. I marveled how they would jump into the waist high snow and having fun doing it. I wasn't having as much fun as they were but it made me smile a bit.... I look back on those days now as I sold that wood stove yesterday and it felt like I'd lost my soul mate. Filling it with wood from my land and filling me with heat when it was so cold I almost froze. But, an amber kept burning in that stove and in my heart and I found my way out of the snow, the adversity and spring time came with the trickling of the snow melting in my driveway and rolling downhill to bring on the green grass. Spring always brings hope.... Bud and Pard grew up to hate each other worse then Cain and Able and I took them to the humane society and gave them up like I'd given up my first born. Both were bloodied from fighting for rights to the new penthouse cabin I was building. It crushed me but I had to do it and I swore I would never give up a pet again. You know? This is why I am so hesitant to get a dog....
But, I'm going to get a dog. Kris is here this morning and he's in the blind I've been baiting for a couple weeks. It is so good to see him again and I'm cooking him a huge breakfast for when he comes in from the cold. The camp is warm, the fridge is full and it's time to sit with Kris and remember those days long ago.....
Easy....
When I sit in my portable and not so comfortable blind to watch for deer I have a lot of time to think and take stock of my life as I near 60. And, I'm not so happy these days. I seem to have lost my drive. My dreams. My reason for being easy. This happens to me about as often as a deer comes in my yard these days. Often. "I went to the woods to live deliberately" is the world according to Thoreau and according to me I'm the only one here and I can't find myself..... While in the woods it's real quiet except for the wind whipping through the tall trees and I hear them creak, crack and eventually keel over with a big thud that shakes the earth. Hopefully, I'm not under one of those big boys that leaf no warning and one pun intended. I hear the Chickadees small wings flapping as they buzz like they are playing a game and I see the Blue jays that love the corn kernels and dive bomb time after time until they are all gone or the bird is too heavy to get off the ground.... What strikes me is my general malaise lately in all aspects of my life. I'm not writing at all and maybe it is because I can't seem to get going on my new book which bothers me to no end in sight. I'm not baking. I think back to my 1,000 words a day for 30 days write a book the Easy way. Well folks, I've lost that easy feeling and it's not so righteous.. brother. Any writer with any salt would love to live where I do and right the perfect novel and I shake my head not being able to do it here when I could do it once in a tin roof trailer barely alive with cancer. I don't know the answer why but it will come to me like Janet tells me it will. It always has but I'm an impatient writer in waiting.... I've always been open with you and I won't stop now. I'm sorry I haven't been more active on boomer, a networking site where you only get what you give. It was about this time last winter when I left Janet and I am surprised how hard it has hit me on this lousy anniversary with no winners. I was the one who ended the relationship and I have second guessed my decision many times and then a few more. I always come to the conclusion that it was the right decision because I must live alone. Let's just say my lifestyle is unique and leave it there. But, Janet (Saved by Grace) is a real sweetie and..always..will be. Our memories were all good ones. The simple fact of losing her and thinking of the good times we had can be tough when living alone talking to squirrels and these four walls. It is better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all. I'm human and its been tough lately.... So, what's the answer? How do I get out of this self imposed hermit life again? I pray every night for guidance. I do a lot of thinking about it. And, I think the answer is to keep writing good or bad. After I finished my book and came back home to Republic in 06, I found boomer and it changed my life for the good. I haven't been sick since. It's time to get back to the basics and that includes more of boomer.... Easy..
When I think of Veterans day I think of: The picture of my dad next to Senator Dole when he was honored last summer along with other Michigan vets at the newly opened WW2 memorial in Washington D.C. My dad saw first hand what the atom bomb did to Japan and I can't imagine those horrors he took to bed each night..... It's volunteering to place flags at a local cemetery near Detroit when I was in my cancer and labored to just walk. An overbearing community leader decided the show was for her and it was 20 volunteers following her as she tried to find the graves. I wanted a bunch of flags and let me go, I'll find the vets. Remember, Veterans day is about the vets and not our self... Standing in the cemetery in Champion, Michigan and looking at the headstones of my two great uncles who died of Influenza after coming home from service in France during WW1. The story is that one of the brothers, James, really died of a broken heart because he missed Champion so much and just wasn't military material. Well, he was, and so was his brother John..... It's about the formative years when us Cooley high students met in the Auditorium hearing that our first classmate had been killed in Vietnam. It shook me to the core and it wasn't long I was searching for a Marine recruiter... The Vietnam vets I met as they came off the plane from Nam and joined me in a transient platoon on Okinawa preparing to be shipped home. These Marines were crazy happy just to be breathing and their dirty, red fatigues belied the fact a day earlier they were fighting for their lives. They spent money like it was candy and drank beer like it was water. I was so envious for not being one of them.... Watching my brother Jimmy march in a Veterans day parade a few years ago. He still hasn't made his separate peace with Vietnam but he dodges the demons and dons his VFW cap that is tilted just right. I'm also envious of him but unsettled he won't find help among other vets. It's never one vet it's all of us vets together as one.... We joined up to get away or to be a hero. We were grunts, artillery, officers or enlisted. We all had one thread in common, we joined up to fight for our country and in some cases die for our country. All in the name of freedom, Mom and a big slice of apple pie... Easy...
I woke up well before dawn, turned on the radio and the coffee maker and it was cold with the smell of snow in the early air. My senses came to me when I could smell the coffee and I got my stuff together to walk to the blind and see if any bucks are moving. It's more then that though as I pop a couple of those tasty English muffin bread. It's about keeping moving to stay active and it gives me great time to think. Throw in my thermos of coffee, a piece of cold pizza, notepad and pen and I'm ready to relax and think about what is in store for me on this Saturday morning when snow will be on the ground before the sun goes down..... I step lightly through the woods with my flashlight. I've gone this way so many times I can almost do it in my sleep. I bait the two piles with corn and cut up apples and settle into the small plastic blind. I didn't fall once and not bad for a blind guy who hunts with a camera phone. I open the window with zippers until I can see to my center, left and right. It's cold and I shiver and can see my breath as I reach down and turn on the portable heater and it hisses and I put my hands over the heat to warm up and watch.... I think of my dad who is back in the hospital with pneumonia but I just talked to him and he's ready to come home but it won't be for a day or two. He sounded good and never gives up and worries about me being alone here. He'll bounce back like he always does. I hope. I pray... I'm not sure why I think better out here bundled up like an Eskimo, watching snow come down as I see a little white over the horizon. I hear a Blue jay and a squirrel already on to the corn and I wait for that big buck... I almost got a dog but after further review I passed on a three year old because i really want a puppy plus he was part beagle and has a reputation of running away. I'm sure he will find a good home and I'll eventually find the right dog for me. I hope. I pray.. I can't get comfortable in my portable chair because it's not balanced right and I remind myself again to get it fixed. I unzip my coat and rain rolls down the plastic and hits an empty coke can with a ping. It's that quiet and I can almost see the trees appearing like they have been sneaking up on me... Our big news up this way is Cliff's' Iron Ore Company. They employ about a 1,000 workers at our last iron ore plant in the UP and announced they will be laying off up to 300 in January. Besides tourism and logging this is THE business around here. When are we going to get this economy going again? Our new President has his hands full as do all the leaders we have elected to office to guide our way. I want it the way it was back in the 60's without the wars. I hope. I pray... It's afternoon now and the snow is coming down and big, white flakes and I can alomost hear those Jingle Bells. And I smile. Times change and the weather changes. It's all right and with help all will work out. You got to believe.... I hope. I pray... Easy...
I stood by the wooden door because there was no place to sit and I shivered from the poor insulation at the Big Fart camp deep in the woods of Upper Michigan where men are men and women bake pasties in the oven. It was deer hunting season looking for those elusive tirty point bucks in der woods dere, eh? The snow was blowing sideways and the howl of the wind echoed off the pine rafters that creaked and smelled like Christmas trees in November. One round table filled the room and it was covered with ashtrays full of butts next to a bottle of Jack half full with four different packs of smokes and three brands of beer. Less filling. Tastes great. The smell of the room was woodstove pine and sweat with a stick of strawberry incense sitting a dead beer can sending smoke swirling up to the ratty ceiling where bats hang upside down... I felt something breathing wintergreen snuff in my ear and I turned and saw it was Al, Stealth Al. Somehow he had slipped into the camp without opening the door and I surely would have known if he had come in but I didn't and he did it time after time Ms. Lauper. Every time I see him I always say, "Where did you come from?" and he always looks at me like he's looking through me like my boss used to do when I was lying. Stealth never lied and he sold the best brown eggs from chickens that filled his front yard and overflowed into the road and if you ran one over you got to take it home free of charge but biscuits were extra.... His homestead covered forty acres of the blackest dirt this side of really good black dirt and he had two barns, a chicken shed, a suana, a Satellite dish that could pick up soap opera's in India, a two car garage and a one car motorcycle garage that was smaller but just as nice. He had two cows that sat in the pasture munching on hay he grew on the back meadow and birds sang happy songs and the crows didn't complain at all. Hanging on the front of his garage was every set of horns of every buck he'd ever shot and a man couldn't tell the color of the barn but it sure looked like deer dark brown. He smoked Venison, he canned Venison and if you wanted to pay him he would take you to the Venison and you could try to shoot it but you would probably miss because your not Al and your not Stealth..... He has the prettiest wife who bakes scones to die for and cans everything except Venison and not on Sunday when she teaches Sunday school. She quilts on Monday nights and Tuesdays was the walking club and Wednesday she cleaned the barn where she had two Johny Walker horses that she rode in shows and won many Blue Ribbons and was even named Mrs. Horsepull one year on the fourth of July when Al shot a match at a 1,000 paces with his .22 to set off the fireworks display he'd learned in demolition school back in Nam. She was quite the lady with quite the guy. Al the Stealth guy....
Smile...Easy
I would have walked to Republic to vote today but Burner picked me up yesterday and I spent the night at his camp and voted first thing this morning. Isn't voting about he best thing we have going right now? As a country we are hurting and this God given right and our forefathers set up a system that has worked for over 200 years and it won't fail now. We may be cracking at the seams but better days are coming folks and it's because of people like you and me... We had it all in the sixties, eh? Prosperity was around every corner and the auto plants in Detroit were making good cars and owning a home was a given as we left high school, married and set up shop in a decent neighborhood with a garage and a basketball net for the kid to shoot hoops... We're either going to put our trust in an old war hero that I respect and admire or an untested and untried up and commer with the charisma of John Kennedy. As always I pray to God we make the right choice... I been under the weather and radar o'really a bit lately but have been uplifted by the last episode in easy does it on youtube and a computer screen near you. I've been busier then the two beavers at the culvert lately burning down the trailer piece by piece and I haven't been able to write diddly squat and if I did I would spell it wrong... I never quit trying though and hope I'm back on track again but I can never really tell. I feel like I'm not holding up my end on comments and such and sorry I missed the halloween party considering I was in my hermit costume I once wore on a regular basis.... Have a great Tuesday and get out that vote and go gold. Have you read Poppatom's home page and seen what this man has done in his life? I take my hat off to him and how he can put out these little blubs of my life and make me look like a.....yooper....Thanks Tom, you and Mitch are the man..... Easy.....
Kris and I set off into the woods Saturday to scout the perfect spot for a new blind he wants to hunt out of this coming deer season. A steady rain pelted us and the dead leaves that have fallen to the ground and we could see our breath as we talked. We decided to go deeper into a swamp that borders the edge of our property and we were hoping to find some evidence of big bucks. The water had mostly dried up in the swamp and it is covered in a spongy green moss and has a moldy smell. It's dark as the over hanging Maple trees seem to blank out the sky. I came across a decent rub (A tree that has the bark shaved off from a buck rubbing his horns on the branch) and we took five to look around for a place to set up the blind.... As much as it was a scouting trip it was also a time for us to size each other up and catch up on 3 months of being apart. The love is always there, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and a few thoughts jump out at me. He is very protective of me and worries about my well being out here three miles from nowhere. I tell him to get in line for that and I take care of myself almost just fine. He's also upset because money that he has earned and worked hard for is gone in a recessional minute. His 401 is not so-oK..... I had no pep talk answer to ease his financial pain because I don't know this country we call ours anymore. All I see is greed, bad business decisions, infidelity, lies and a host of other problems. On top of that we are fighting in two different wars we will never win. Am I the only one that sees this? Soldiers are dying every day and it appears to be second page news with the way the economy is today... I laughed when Kris found a spot, set up the portable blind, looked around and said to me, "I'm not feeling it..." So, we found another spot a few feet away and all the sight lines were just right and it was buffeted from the wind by a huge Maple. He cut branches with a small axe for better vision while I sat on a dead log getting my butt wet again but tired from the hoofing we did.... We put some corn out for bait and I promised him I would do it every day until hunting season on the 15th of November when he will be back. Hopefully, I'll find a pattern of how and when the deer are moving. I can bring my portable Coleman heater and still get my time in the woods which I enjoy so much. I want Kris to shoot that 16 point swamp buck and get all the accolades and bragging rights involved. I also want him to recoup the money he lost on Wall Street and I want all of us as a country to get some assurance matters will be worked out and our country can get some stability back again. I don't ask for much do I? I pray for it all..... Snow on the ground this Monday morning and JJ and Rose have headed back to Flint and Kris is already back home and off to work again. Here I am, alone again, waiting to see what God has in store for me today. I know it will be good... Easy....
It's not easy being the Mayor of Island lake and when I saw an empty canoe bobbing in the water a couple days ago I took action faster then Brownie did on Katrina. I revel in the responsibilty and would be reticent to shirk my promise to uphold law and decency here. My first thought was that soneone might have been in the canoe and then I thought that no one would be that stupid to be out there with the temps around 40 and rain pelting down..... We have a few Islandlakers who are not from this area but from Wisconsin or downstate Michigan. They travel long hours to come here and be silly and make excuses for having too much to do and then they head to Walmart. I tolerate them like I do the mosquito's but as Mayor I must be diligent and offer my wise aged wisdom. These are people who do not know the ways of the outdoors but try to act like they do. We call them trunkslammers, trolls(live under the mackinac Bridge) or simply inept.... I figured the canoe was my neighbors from Flint but they weren't answering their phone. Hmmm. Maybe they decided to take one last canoe ride? I was frantic. Well. Not really but I had to act like the Mayor, eh? I watched as the wind blew the canoe against the shore of the Island and then it would turn a 180 and bounce around some more. I scanned the surface of the water with my binocs to no avail but did see a neat wood duck preening...... I was bestowed Mayor for life while I was in a hospital bed in Ann Arbor a few years back. JJ and Rose had been called to come and say 'goodbye' to me as a steady procession of others came to do the same. I was ready to move on the a better place before I'd even known myboomerplace. It was sad but I was going out on my own terms and as Mayor for life eternal.... I pulled the tarp off Blue to head up to their camp and see how many cars were there and don't you know that downstaters don't bring one car up they bring two. I have no idea why. Anyway, I got my rain gear on and was off again in the rain where I seem to be with a black cloud over my head. One car was gone and that was good. I called them again and they answered and were in Marquette...gee Walmart.. shopping and I hoped it was for canoe rope or a Mae West. They promised to be back in the late afternoon and asked if I would keep an eye on the canoe. I said sure like it was going to go anywhere. Yoopers are lined up to swim out there and steal it. The next morning it was banked over by the lilypads and had found a decent bass fishing spot and I thought that was apropo. I sat here at the comand post and saw JJ puttering acros the lake with his other boat to corral his canoe. Yup, two boats too. Another crisis solved, sealed and delivered by the man who is always on duty doing just enough to get by so he has time to tell you about it. Over and out....
I'll get the tongue out of my cheek now.....
Kris is here and life is good..... Easy...
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