I went to the woods last night before dark to sit in my lawn chair to meditate and swat mosquitos. I call it lazy deer watching and the quiet time relaxes me and I do my best thinking. Same thing happens when I take long walks. I'm saddened after hearing that my Dad's good leg has poor circulation to his foot and they may have to do surgery again. My Dad sure doesn't want to lose his good leg but he is more bummed out that he can't make his scheduled trip up here for the 4th of July. He was on a huge high after his trip and now he was in tears telling me he doesn't want to lose his other leg. Reality sucks at times and that's why I go to the woods to find peace and answers. I pray alot too.....

I hate it when I don't know something. I was reading about a book up for auction written by Copernicus which expounded the theory of the earth revolving around the sun. The price tag is in the millions. The story mentioned other books for sale and one was written by Johannes Kepler. Huh? Who is he? I do know Gabe Kaplar plays for the Red Sox....

 I googled Johannes and turns out he was a 17th century mathematicion and astrologer who reinvented the refractor telescope that backed up the theory of Galilio. Ok. He didn't invent the hulu hoop or the skateboard and I wish he had because you probably wouldn't be so bored reading about Master Kepler. I'm telling you because.....

Tonight after dark the moon will appear over the horizon and will seem to be larger then usual. You won't need a telescope to see it.......

Here's how it works: Your mind believes things on the horizon are farther away than things overhead, because you are used to seeing clouds just a few miles above, but the clouds on the horizon can indeed be hundreds of miles away. So if we think something (such as the moon) is farther away, and it's not, then it seems larger.....(copied)

I have no idea what that means....

I know I have too much time on my hands....

Have a good one, eh?......

Easy...

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 The walk to the mailbox takes me about 15 minutes but sometimes I can stretch it out for an hour or more. Today is one of those days. A brisk wind is blowing and the temp is cool but fluffy white clouds fill the sky. At the culvert the trillions and wild marigolds border Beaver Creek as it takes in the runoff from the recent storms. The red wing black birds hang unto dead trees in the swamp swaying and singing in the breeze. The bull frogs dig deep for their call which is more like an exclamation in tenor. Little flies dance on the water near the lily pads that grow by the day. I sit here watching the water run and the sound soothes my soul.....

My mood has really picked up in accordance of the weather I guess and even the mosquito's are taking a break. Or they all died. Hmmm. I like that thought. Moving on I see a shell from a turtle that Burner ran over last time he came through. Not on purpose of course. Many animals or birds have picked at it and all that is left I toss into the swamp. Doesn't seem right for even a turtle to be run over again and again. I hope she planted her eggs. Soon, the whole dirt road will be like morter shell rounds have landed as more turtles lay their future breed and I stay clear because I've seen some nasty looking snappers that I give a wide berth. Reminds me of my ex mother in law but that's another story and aanother sin of mine......

Up the hill and turning the corner I see two young deer in the high grass and they are frozen in time trying to figure me out. They are a robust brown color because the food supply chain is good to them these days of spring. I love playing the staring game and am completely still watching their tails dance around in fear of danger. I managed to get a pic on my camera phone but they were in the shade but it doesn't matter as they slowly walk away to the safety of the woods. In the last few days I've seen more deer then humans and that's ok with me. We live together, respect each other and are kindred spirits I meet on my way to get my mail......

By the time I hit pavement I'm tired and sit on a special log refilling the tank and reading any mail I might get. Got an invite at the Lutheran Church for a service and pig roast and I'm up for that. I need to go to pray and thank him for blessings recieved and prayers answered. My Dad made his trip and is back home and estatic about an event he will never forget. It is a good closure on his long and rewarding life... And a good meal and conversation at the church won't hurt at all.....

Hope your day is a calm and content one where it is enough to not have visitors but to be left to your thoughts as we marvel at all we have inside and outside our homes.....

God Bless...

Easy......

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There is some serious bad karma going on in my front yard. I still cringe thinking of my fall and subsequent misery times ten. I hadn't given it much thought until Kris looked out the front window and said, "Where's the birds?" Huh. Where are the birds? Except for a random yellow finch or two I have had no birds stopping at the feeder. I think it is the feeder and lack of cover using a bare pole for support. But, the worst was yesterday afternoon in a downpour when I got caught on a walk and slipped in the driveway on the mud. I was going down again on my right shoulder and somehow I caught my balance at the last second. Oh my gosh. That would have been bad. I try real hard to be careful. I really do. Anyone know how I can delete bad Karma yard?

From this window this spring I have seen: A cow Moose, a Turkey, a Partridge, assorted deer but no fawn yet, a deer swimming briskly in the water crossing from Island to shore, bunny rabbits, Ducks and Geese, squirrels, chipmunks, a skunk, coyotes and a wolf. Sorry, the partridge was in a pine tree....

This is why I don't watch much tv and think I am better off without it. It's the lame commercials that get me. I saw  a commercial from a drug company that will help us men not have to sneak behind a tree to.....They play this soothing music and we have a pack of old men on a large boat skimming across the waves. No smiles in this shot. Then they pump the product and our golden guys are in Kayaks. Kayaks? These renal afflicted are smiling away like they hit the lotto. Not one of them tipped it over and struggled getting air trying to right the Kayak. Wouldn't that be like going in the public pool at school? Anyway, the last scene the diaperless guys are on bikes and loving it. Miles and miles pass and not one has gone into a cigarette coughing fit or let his mind wander into a tree. Where can I get one of these pills? I think I'm going to get stuck in an elevator today....

Another srange one is the female hygene product commercials. One simple statement. The women are always wearing white and smiling. I'm not a pro on this but I was married for almost 30 years and....umm..I didn't see her smiling a whole lot during those days...and I never saw her wear white....

My absolute best commercial is the baby who is buying stock online (Etrade) and was first seen during the last Super Bowl. You know...the one where he throws up at the end. Hilarious. And the other when he bought the clown and said he underestimated the creepiness of it. Lmao.....

Gotta laugh at life. The alternative is not an option. I'm going to have a great week, got it all planned. The plan won't work but it doesn't matter. I'm trying......

Easy..... 

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I don't often copy and paste an article but this one really hit me. Very touching and hits close to home. I found this excellent article about telling Cancer patients that they are dying. It is called, "Most Cancer Doctors avoid saying this is the end" by an AP medical writer, Marilynn Marchione...... 




CHICAGO - One look at Eileen Mulligan lying soberly on the exam table and Dr. John Marshall knew the time for the Big Talk had arrived.

"At first I was really shocked. But after, I thought it was a really good way of handling a situation like that," said Mulligan, who now is making a "bucket list" — things to do before she dies. Top priority: getting her busy sons to come for a weekend at her Washington, D.C., home.

Many people do not get such straight talk from doctors, who often think they are doing patients a favor by keeping hope alive.

New research shows they are wrong.

Only one-third of terminally ill cancer patients in a new, federally funded study said their doctors had discussed end-of-life care.

Surprisingly, patients who had these talks were no more likely to become depressed than those who did not, the study found. They were less likely to spend their final days in hospitals, tethered to machines. They avoided costly, futile care. And their loved ones were more at peace after they died.

Convinced of such benefits and that patients have a right to know, the California Assembly just passed a bill to require that health care providers give complete answers to dying patients who ask about their options. The bill now goes to the state Senate.

Some doctors' groups are fighting the bill, saying it interferes with medical practice. But at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago earlier this month, where the federally funded study was presented, the society's president said she was upset at its finding that most doctors were not having honest talks.

"That is distressing if it's true. It says we have a lot of homework to do," said Dr. Nancy Davidson, a cancer specialist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Doctors mistakenly fear that frank conversations will harm patients, said Barbara Coombs Lee, president of the advocacy group Compassionate Choices.

"Boiled down, it's 'Talking about dying will kill you,'" she said. In reality, "people crave these conversations, because without a full and candid discussion of what they're up against and what their options are, they feel abandoned and forlorn, as though they have to face this alone. No one is willing to talk about it."

The new study is the first to look at what happens to patients if they are or are not asked what kind of care they'd like to receive if they were dying, said lead researcher Dr. Alexi Wright of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

It involved 603 people in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Texas. All had failed chemotherapy for advanced cancer and had life expectancies of less than a year. They were interviewed at the start of the study and are being followed until their deaths. Records were used to document their care.

Of the 323 who have died so far, those who had end-of-life talks were three times less likely to spend their final week in intensive care, four times less likely to be on breathing machines, and six times less likely to be resuscitated.

About 7 percent of all patients in the study developed depression. Feeling nervous or worried was no more common among those who had end-of-life talks than those who did not.

That rings true, said Marshall, who is Mulligan's doctor at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Patients often are relieved, and can plan for a "good death" and make decisions, such as do-not-resuscitate orders.

"It's sad, and it's not good news, but you can see the tension begin to fall" as soon as the patient and the family come to grips with a situation they may have suspected but were afraid to bring up, he said.

From an ethics point of view, "it's easy — patients ought to know," said Dr. Anthony Lee Back of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. "Talking about prognosis is where the rubber meets the road. It's a make-or-break moment — you earn that trust or you blow it," he told doctors at a training session at the cancer conference on how to break bad news.

People react differently, though, said Dr. James Vredenburgh, a brain tumor specialist at Duke University.

"There are patients who want to talk about death and dying when I first meet them, before I ever treat them. There's other people who never will talk about it," he said.

"Most patients know in their heart" that the situation is grim, "but people have an amazing capacity to deny or just keep fighting. For a majority of patients it's a relief to know and to just be able to talk about it," he said.

Sometimes it's doctors who have trouble accepting that the end is near, or think they've failed the patient unless they keep trying to beat the disease, said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.

"I had seven patients die in one week once," Brawley said. "I actually had some personal regrets in some patients where I did not stop treatment and in retrospect, I think I should have."

James Rogers, 67 of Durham, N.C., wants no such regrets. Diagnosed with advanced lung cancer last October, he had only one question for the doctor who recommended treatment.

"I said 'Can you get rid of it?' She said 'no,'" and he decided to simply enjoy his final days with the help of the hospice staff at Duke.

"I like being told what my health condition is. I don't like beating around the bush," he said. "We all have to die. I've had a very good life. Death is not something that was fearful to me."

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It is a beautiful Fathers Day morning on Island Lake with dead calm waters and blue skies. Kris is still sleeping and when he gets up he will be heading back to Minnesota and his real life. Last night he cooked up a dandy Fathers Day meal for us featuring New York Strip steaks which were broiled to perfection. I've never been to New York but, my oh my, their steaks were excellent. The best part is I didn't have to pay for them or cook them and I could get used to being pampered and fed like this...

I talked to my Dad last night before he flew back to Detroit and he told me that his time in Wash. D.C. was wonderful. He told me that they had a ceremonial dinner in the WW2 vets honor and his voice was cracking with emotion. He called me Gene which was odd and is anxious for me to write the story of his journey. He took notes and went through two rolls of film and I can't wait to see them and learn more about his experiences. God willing Mom and him will be traveling up here for the 4th of July holiday for probably the last time....

My mom inherited our 15 acres on the lake from her dad in 1980. 'Bocker' Antilla was quite the lumber baron in these parts and the good Father of 8 kids. The historians of Republic say that he kept many logger Fathers with jobs in a time when there wasn't many in Upper Michigan. I respect him so much that the cover of my book has a picture of him on quarter main street in our smal town of Republic circa1950. I bet he had many happy Fathers Day's too......

It took the death of our good friend Joanne to bring Kris here unexpectently this weekend and as I think about it maybe it was more then coincidence. God always has a plan for us and we never how it will happen. He always provides for me in so many splendid ways. Having Kris here when I was going through a bit of a tough time lately was truly God sent. After all, God is the ultimate Father of us all......

I already have my day planned which means I have no plan other then watching the final round of the U.S. Open Golf Championship where Tiger Woods is on the prowl again. He is a new Father too and wouldn't it be nice if he could win again today considering the problems he is having with a surgically repaired knee. It's a win win situatution for all the golfers competing because most likely one Father will win.....

I hope and pray all of you Fathers out there enjoy your day today. This one is for you and being a Father myself my advice is... milk it up for all it is and all you deserve......

If you are in a part of our country hit by the bad weather I pray for blue skies and healing with any loss that may have occured. In tragedy we come together as one....

God Bless.... 

Easy.....   

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One of my more obscure memories of flag day goes back to grade school in Detroit. Isaac Newton school was where my life was formed and 100 apples falling from the tree couldn't knock enough wisdom into my head to keep the beat. I was a drummer in the school band and I couldn't keep a beat even with 100 pacemakers. Eh, Jerry? I first tried the Trumpet but the music teacher took it out of my hands and said your no Gene Krupa Gene. He had seen me play baseball and offered I should stick to that. Swing and a miss. Parents were funny back in the early 60's and my dad was determined to have a son who could play something and hooked me up to learn drums in school. I was the lost of  the Mohegins and there were no drums on my Mohawk which I didn't have besides no rhythum (Is that spelled right?). My dad cut my hair high and tight and that is probably why I joined the Marines. I tapped those two sticks on that plastic mat and I tried but I could never quite get it. I'm still not sure what a parradibble is....

So what's my memory of flag day? I'm getting to it but the flag is still halfway up the proverbial pole. Joyce Syzmanski played the flute and I thought that was heavenly. When she made beautiful sounds with it I was in love with it and her. A week later my best friend told me he had a date with her because he played the saxaphone and had an in with her. I was definetely out. Story of my life as a neurotic kid with acne and the beat went on with Sonny and Cher and I pulled up the rear. The point is I loved music as much as Jukebox George and I tried hard and harder to no avail but the good drummers were as thin as my social studies teacher who when she turned sideways she disappeared. Which leads to flag day morning on the front lawn of the school where the flag is raised and the band gathered while all classes of students stood in packs neatly organized and forced to be ready for the ceremony. It was hot. Real hot. It was so hot a kid put a magnifying glass on the girl in front of him and caught her blouse on fire. Many boys would have more then liked to pat Patty down but it was the Principal who heard her scream and took action. I always thought he was a little weird. the kid was taken away by the assistant Principal and a nurse took Patty who suffered 2nd degree burns to her cute little shoulder. When that loco commotion was settled down we got down to business.....

My drums were cradled in my lap held by a shoulder strap and I started a drum roll which meant something really good was coming. It was the National Anthem and for I minute I thought I was in the ballpark waiting for my Tigers to play. About halfway through the song which us kids mouthed the words we knew about half of. And then the fire drill bells went off. My first thought was that Patty had been burnt alot more then thought and it left the principle perplexed. We were already outside don't ya know and for a minute he almost herded us up and bring us inside. Ha....

All hilarity aside I love our flag and what it stands for. It stands for freedom and the red is for the blood that gave it to us. The blue is for the sky as promising as our hopes were as a new country. The white is for the light to see how good we have it in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave....

The flag reached the top of the pole and no one knew I was off beat, Nick. Patty recovered and she was called 'burny' ever more. The kid who did it stole a car and crashed it and his dreams other then burning someone. The Principal resigned a year later under a cloud of smoke and I quit the drums and music for good and got by pretty good just lisening to it on the radio.....

Raise the flag today and be proud of it.......

Easy....

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My friend is an accountant who is dumber then a rock. I call him analytical....

When I am home I miss people and when I go out I miss home....

I had to tie the ties for three rookies this morning. I read that the sale of ties is declining. That's knot good.....

Finding a penny on the ground is like finding a plastic bag halfway up a tree......

When you stop to get gas you should have a white flag hanging from the antenna.....

Standing in line at Walmarts I can't stop wondering where do people get all that money?

Eating a tomato today is like swallowing razor blades....

Ever seen a watchtower move?

I can climb the highest mountain and fall down the other side...

My giddy up has slowed to a slow meander...

I could dance all night but I won't and probably can't....

Easy...

Does it.....Make any sense?

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It's pouring rain here most of the day at the penthouse cabin. I've been watching a lone duck head towards the safety of the marsh by shore. You know it is bad when a duck wants to get dry. Thunder is clapping, no birds yapping and I'm waiting for Kris to get here later this evening. A long time friend died a couple days ago and we will be going to to the services and burial in the morning. I almost feel like the angels are crying for Joanne tonight. She raised her boys alone and she always found a way to feed and shelter them with little money. I remember her stopping by for coffee and asking for a cig and I would give her a pack if I had them. It worked  the same way when I was out. Her twin sons stayed here Wed. night in the bunk beds and they are hurting bad and I like to think that I have been a father figure to them and have watched them grow up to be fine upstanding adults. I am very proud of them. After knowing them for 20 some years I still can't tell them apart and I hate that. When one of them would visit I would look for the car they are driving to know which one is which here near Witch Lake. God speed Joanne. You will finally meet up with your youngest son who died tragically in a car accident 10 years ago......

On a happier note but with trepidation my dad, George Plankey, will be going to Wash. D.C. for flag day on Saturday to be honored at the WW2 memorial. I just called him to wish him well and to tell him I love him but I am concerned the trip will take alot out of him considering his physical disibilities. They say that there are only about 90,000 WW2 vets alive in Michigan. He just recieved his new permanent leg and is struggling to get around but I'm sure he will stand tall and salute the old glory like the hero he is to me and many others. I told him to take pictures and notes because I am planning on doing a nice story on him for our local paper the Mining Journal. It is the hardest story I will write so far in my life and pray I can do it justice for his sake and his legacy. After it comes out in the paper I will post it here for all of you to see. We can never thank our vets enough and I believe I have my sound principles because of him and what he taught me about life. I remember sitting at the dinner table when I was 18 and told my parents I had joined the Marines when Vietnam was at it's peak. Mom of course was crying and afriad I wouldn't come back home but my dad looked me in the eyes with tears and said, "I fought my war and I now you will fight yours. Don't be John Wayne son. I'm proud of you." I cry now thinking of that day then when I so much wanted his approval and he didn't let me down. He also didn't let our country down. Our family has a long history of fighting in wars and I had two great uncles who died near the end of WW1. It's my turn to be proud of my father and that's awful easy because of the man he is.....

I hope you all have a safe and blessed weekend.....

Easy....

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