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I've tried to get back into life on boomer but it has been hard to find my 'smile'. I'm going to take some more time off to take care of myself. I've had a low grade fever for over a month now and am on an antibiotic that I hope will help. If it doesn't go away soon I will go to the VA in nearby Iron Mountain for a check up....

I hope none of you hold anything against Janet because she tried very hard to make it work for us. I fell short of her expectations and am disappointed in myself for allowing this to happen. Janet is a wonderful woman and I pray for the best for her......

I'll be back but not sure when but will let you know how my health is doing. In this case no news will be good news and I can get back to writing which I love and is so difficult these days. God Bless all of you Gene

It snowed in Bagdad this morning and I'm not sure why but this gives me a good feeling. An omen maybe. The best part was no violence as the people took a break for peace and joy. Have a great weekend.....



"For a couple of hours anyway, a city where mortar shells routinely zoom across to the Green Zone became united as one big White Zone. As of late afternoon, there were no reports of violence.

Talib Haider, a 19-year-old college student, said "a friend of mine called me at 8 a.m. to wake me up and tell me that the sky is raining snow."

"I rushed quickly to the balcony to see a very beautiful scene," he said. "I tried to film it with my cell phone camera. This scene has really brought me joy. I called my other friends and the morning turned to be a very happy one in my life."

The only time table I have is the dresser the clock sits on..

If the Queen Mother takes the fifth she is a mum mum...

It's pedestrian to jaywalk...

If someone says 'like' all the time. I probably don't like like them..

I want traction in any form..

I still have some pomp if the circumstances are right...

I've always wanted to be a phenom...

Hot oil is a flash in the pan...

If I could get there from here I would be there...

I disappoint myself more then other people do...

If I interrupt someone I better have something good to say...

If someone interrupts me I'll forget what I was going to say..

A young tree will grow up and leave...

At the DVD discount bin, I bought one for a song....

Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise we'll all have a good Thursday...Easy

It feels real nice to wake up this morning knowing I am connected to the world again. It gets a bit lonely out here in the woods which is like saying Robinson Crusoe got a bit lost. In this modern world it just isn't right that I have only one option when it comes to an Internet connection. That option is Hughes.Net, the Internet provider working with direct TV and my two dishes in the yard I call the twin powers. Without them, life is not so easy. My rabbit ear'd TV picks up one local channel, WLUC out of Marquette, which we call 'with luck you see' TV. The only other option is the public TV channel from the campus of Northern Michigan University. All other local channels have the snow storm screen and I can get hat looking out the window. It is just quieter.......

Republic has one restaurant called the 'Summer Place' which oddly enough stays open in the winter. Charlie and Jen own the place and its main feature is a long, log table where the regulars sit to discuss everything and anything over hot coffee and breakfast. If you can't think of what to order Charlie will order for you and he knows more about what we eat for breakfast then we do. Our problem is we just can't decide. Charlie has no such problem. By the cash register sits a few copies of my book and in two printings I bet I have sold 50 copies. The fresh baked pastries are behind the counter and I also bet you can't pass them by on your way out. If the coffee isn't to your liking, tee hee, a man can go down to the end of the block and have a cup in the 'Pine Grove' saloon. The ambiance here is totally different with 'Jeopardy' reruns on the TV, the lights are dim, and you can lose your money on the state run keno game blaring on 2 more TV's. ...

The folks from the saloon and the ones in the restaurant mostly meet in passing and aren't best buds. It is a different crowd. Only in the saloon can you get a nip in the coffee cup done slyly by a competent bartender as to not raise eyebrows having a beer at 8:30 in the morning. The men and women who work in the nearby iron ore mine get a pass here because they work those deadly swing shifts and getting off work at 7 in the morning deserves a couple beers. Life in a small town is slow paced and to my liking but I do wish there was a McDonald's on the corner.....

The snow is melting fast and there goes our snowmobile business we need as an economy to survive. I believe in global warming and any local knows we don't get the snow we once did. My road in to camp is still open and it's January, oh my. It's been over 40 for couple of days and my walk today will not include a trip across the lake. I don't fear getting hit by a car or getting mugged. I fear cracking ice to a fault. I once fell face first into the cold water during a blizzard and barely made it back to camp alive. I called that story 'A Cold Way To Go' in my book. The guy died in the story but I didn't and still haven't and don't plan on awhile or more.....

I find comfort here which seemed hard to find in Chicago and that is only my fault. I guess I should be here because I missed it too much when I was gone. Here I bring the speed of the world to a halt or at least slow it down. My friends are few but sturdy as an Oak and I live life on my turns with the least hassle. I don't do so well with pressure or commitments and deadlines. I forget more then I remember probably because I think more of what has gone by then what is coming ahead. Today is Monday and the only message on my calender is of a TV show I want to watch at 10 Tuesday night. I find peace in that. What I have for dinner is dictated by catching a fish or leaving out some venison. I'm glad to be home but detest the circumstances why but I will not be denied a lousy life by my own mind. I've pitied myself way too much lately and it is time to shed that punishment. No one was at fault. Sometimes things just don't work out. But, we tried and it is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all.....

I look for better days and they might as well start here today. Dream on Boomers...Or we are lost....Be good and be kind...Easy

It's foggy on snow covered Island Lake this morning as the temp hits 40 and the snow melts in the yard. Hughes.Net was out here yesterday and it took them a couple hours to get the dish going again. It is so good to be back with my boomer friends and online again. I missed all of you! I'm sure your aware that Janet and I broke up and it has been difficult time for both of us but life goes on and so shall we with the grace of God. We continue to be friends and I have no regrets but only wonderful memories of 2007 and Chicago. I pray for guidance as to where to go from here and the great times we had get me through those gloomy, long days of winter. I feel like a kid who has lost his dog.....

My dad turned 80 in December and he is my hero. He is using a walker with his new prosthesis and gets around pretty good. He has set aside the wheelchair for good and made quite an impression on the Iraq vets at the VA hospital who figured that if this old man can do it, so can they. I had tears in my eyes when one such vet told me how he was lifting twice the weights the young guys were and how much they liked this WW2 vet. Don't have to tell me that....

I've taken up baking as a hobby and the deer in the yard love my loaves of bread I haven't kneeded and a waft of flour covers everything when I'm done. I make my own pizza dough, rolls, brownies and sugar cookies with blueberry on top. I also ice fish from the comfy command post and when the red flag pops on the tip up, I slide down the hill and pull up my pike and deep fry them for dinner. I'm walking alot which gives me pleasure as I sort out the changes to be made and to get used to being alone again....

I hope all of you have a peaceful Sunday God has given not to waste but to be used for the good of all mankind. Everything is going to be all right and the sun will shine again.....Easy

I will be heading back home on Friday for three weeks for a bit of deer hunting and to visit with my son Kris for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Then, I will be closing up our home for the winter and hopefully I can get out before the snow gets too deep. I won't have the internet going this time so I won't be able to get on boomer, so, I'm hoping you all have a nice turkey day with your family and friends....

Gracie and I had a nice visit with Okiehippie (Bill) and Annie's Angels (LouAnn) when they stayed with us for a couple of days last week. I find Bill to be a great guy and if he is not your friend, he should be. I've known Annie for 3 years now and she is also a real nice lady. Janet gave us a nice tour of downtown Chicago under blistery windy conditions and I still have a stiff neck from looking up to the Sears tower. That night we had dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant which featured a Mariachi band that rocked the place, ole!! We had no idea what they were singing but Janet wispered the words in my ear and yes, I will follow her anywhere. All in all, we had a HUGE time. It was truly SWEET.....

Pippen added another baby Possum to his collection and once again I pulled out the Possum Picker (BBQ tongs) and dispatched him over the back fence before he could do his playing dead for real. Pippen likes the chase more then causing harm but I didn't want his sniffer to get bit. I will miss Pippen and our daily walks.....

I was checking the local weather on my home page and it was a severe weather alert for Chicago and it was because the temp was going down to 37. This really cracked me up. Wonder what they call it when it is -20? Probably the end of the world.....

Have a great Tuesday and I will see you all again at the end of November. Be good, do good deeds and keep smiling.....Easy

It's no fun when a kid is picked last for a baseball game and it is even worse when a girl is picked before him. If that humiliation isn't bad enough it gets worse when you are put in right field. This was life for little Billy; a 10 year old who loved baseball but just wasn't very good at it. It wasn't his fault nor was it his Mother who loved Billy but as a single Mother she had her hands full 24/7 working full time and taking care of Billy. One thing that Billy wasn't was a quitter or a complainer and he didn't give up and kept showing up at the school playground with a big mans heart and a love for America’s favorite pastime……

Across the street from the ball field another person was fighting his own demons in a much different way. Henry was 85 years old and his life was in its final season and although he still could take care of himself, he was a very lonely man. He hadn't married and all his relatives had died and the few friends he once had had stopped calling or coming by to visit. One of the things that made him happy was sitting in his backyard watching the kids play baseball across the street. Henry also loved baseball and remembered the days when he played but the older we get even the memories fade with the passing days. Often a foul ball would land in his yard and even had a window broken once but he never complained nor made the kids pay for the repairs…..

One day Billy had been picked on for making an error during a game and as he passed by the old man walking home, Henry talked to the boy over the fence. Young Billy knew the old man like all the kids did because he would buy them a new baseball on occasion when he would see that the ball they were using was wrapped in black tape and fluttered like a badminton birdie. The kids thought the old man as kind of weird in a nice way but with the times the way they were no one befriended him. Parents would walk their kids to the bus stop for school and when school got out you could see the cars lined up to be sure they arrived home safe. It was sad that life had come to this but it was the way it was and there was no going back to the carefree days when the old man was Billy on the schoolyard playing baseball….

Henry asked Billy if his parents would let him teach the finer points of the game and gave him his phone number to let him know if it was ok. Billy's face lit up and ran home but his Mother was a bit suspect. She asked around and found out the old man was well liked by everyone in the neighborhood and she agreed to let him help Billy. To seal the deal, Henry bought Billy a new baseball mitt, a pristine white baseball and a nifty Yankee cap….

Henry would play catch with Billy, let the boy hit some pitches, catch some grounders and he immediately started to show some improvement and it wasn't just about baseball, it was about life in general. Henry was a special teacher as well as a decent man and Billy's Mother started to see changes in Billy around the house and in his school grades. The old man even knew a few things about car repairs and had tuned up his Mothers car. One good deed leads to another and it wasn't long before Billy and his Mother were stopping at Henry's house for dinner and it turned out he was a very good cook besides. You could say they were helping each other for different reasons and life was looking good for each in there own way…..

Henry would sit in his yard and watch as Billy went from being picked last to being picked first and when he lined a double off the left field fence or made a nice running catch in the outfield, Henry would stand and cheer like he was watching a Yankee game at the house Ruth built. It made him feel like a kid again. Summer moved into fall, the leaves fell from the trees and before long it was snowing and baseball was over for the year. Billy and his Mom saw less of Henry like it happens in life when we get caught up in our own lives. On a winter evening Billy heard the ambulance come down his street and stop at Henry’s house. He cried when he heard that Henry had died in his sleep. Not many in the neighborhood really knew Henry like Billy and his Mom did and his passing was barely noticed. The common thread was that he was a nice decent man who was friendly to his neighbors and he would be missed dearly. It is an epitaph that we all would like to leave a legacy behind but that isn’t the end of this story. Not by a log shot over the center field fence at Yankee stadium…..

A month later a lawyer came to Billy’s door with a package for Billy and the deed to a house for his Mother. Henry had left his home to Billy’s Mother and inside the box were an old cotton baseball uniform, a dusty glove and a well-worn Yankee cap. It turns out that Henry had been a major league baseball player for the New York Yankees back in the 1930’s. He hadn’t been an all-star or a famous player but a single act of kindness would live with Billy all of his life and in turn make him a better person for knowing Henry. He had truly been an all-star in life and living……


Don’t forget about my short story contest. Message me yours by Nov. 30, 2007……...

Have a great Monday and keep smiling….Easy

A man grew a record size 1,524 lb. pumpkin in Oregon. He plans to make pies out of it and a ton of cool whip will be delivered to his door on Halloween....

Disaster struck on the set of the new "Sex in the City" movie. Shooting was halted indefinately when lead actor Evan Handlen had a ucontrollable case of the hiccups...

Pamela Anderson had a quickie Los Vegas wedding with Rick Solomen after she said she had to pay off a poker debt she owed by sleeping with him. I can see this marriage lasting about two weeks....

You know the war is going south when 9,000 US troops cannot retire because they are needed to fight in our two wars. The government calls this a 'stop loss' program. Partly right, it should be stopped so no more lives are lost.....

The state of Michigan has allocated $312,000 to put up a 4 foot high wall for two miles on the side of a busy road to stop the senseless slaughter of turtles who cross to get to the river to lay eggs. Wonder who hatched this plan???

In Oakland, California it is against the law to smoke at bus stops. Right, wouldn't want to take away from the exhaust pollution of those buses...

Only 10 days left to make your travel plans to the World Toilet Summit in New Delhi India. I'm not going. It would be money down the drain....

It's time to stick it to the Social Security retirees and disibility folks again. We got a 2.3% cost of living raise coming in January. This means we will get about a $25 raise and that will almost put a half tank of gas in our car for the month. Thanks for almost nothing...

DON'T FORGET TO STOP IN AND SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAPPA ALLEN TODAY. HE'S ONE OF OUR BEST HERE FOLKS. LETS MAKE IT A REAL SPECIAL DAY FOR HIM AND JUNIE... HAVE A GREAT DAY MY FRIEND!!!!!

And to all my friends here on Boomer, have a super weekend and be all you can be...Keep smiling, eh? Easy

Taking a walk in the city is much different from taking a walk back home near the Penthouse Cabin. Most everyone I pass on the cement sidewalks avoid eye contact and if I was to do that in Republic the whole town would consider me strange for not saying a hearty hello. I've tried smiling and saying hello to city folks but they look at me strange and I have almost given up trying. Almost. I wish I knew why this is but I imagine with the crime in the city they see me as a threat. I wonder if the real criminal element leads with a smile before they mug someone? I also wonder if the people I meet here are all in bad moods? I don't think so....

I came to the Polish grocery store and it is always packed and I stop in for one of those Polish doughnuts called Paszkies (?) and the sales ladies always speak me in Polish but I don't care because they are all smiling and I love their pastries. After I clean the blueberry off my face and hands I head for the Chicago Coin Company where I have to be buzzed inside and I understand this is for security reasons. It seems like the city figures you are a criminal first and a customer second. Here I get our gold coin appraised which could be worth a few hundred or a few thousand dollars as I try to figure out which is accurate. I collected coins when I was young and I am having lots of fun trying to get all of our coins graded and valued. It is not easy but I sure am enjoying it....

I put the coin in one of those coin holder things I bought and enter the public library next and and as I walk in the quiet zone I can hear my coin giggling inside the container. It sounds like a brass band and I get stares from the people reading at the tables and am sure I am going to get one of those shhhhh's from the Librarian. I don't though and sheepishly read today's paper and make a not so quiet exit....

I've always heard that pedestrians have the right of way but am finding out cars are much bigger and don't care much. Half of the time drivers are on cell phones and if I don't look out for them they will run me over for sure. I can never take a nap while walking like I can do on the back roads by my home up north. Maybe this is why walkers always seem to be in bad moods. I give cold stares to drivers who don't pay attention and wonder how citified I am getting.....

I was a bit hungry and decided to stop in at McDonalds but inside I saw a school bus worth of kids in line and decided that wasn't a good idea. Ever stood in line behind a youngster trying to make up his mind what to order? Enough said and I moved on to a Taco Bell down the street a couple of blocks. I passed two city workers who were painting the curb yellow by the sidewalk and here comes another bunch of kids walking on a field trip, no doubt learning how tough it is walking in the city, and the teacher bellows to the kids, "Anyone who steps in the yellow paint loses their field trip privileges for the year". I'm not sure but pointing this out to the kids leads me to believe at least one of them will step in the paint just because she told them not to. Maybe not, and I wonder if all kids get field trips on Friday afternoon? And I wonder if walking on sidewalks is a class project?.....

I stop in Taco Bell and it is empty and I think I know why. This neighborhood has many Hispanics and I've eaten Janet's authentic Mexican fare and she has taken me to real Mexican restaurants and there is no comparison. Taco Bell is generic food at best but I am hungry and ask the young girl who looks like she is 16 for a soft taco supreme and she asks if I want the number three and I said what is that? She says it is the combo and I said no, I would have asked for the combo if I did. She rings it up and asks me for three times the money it cost and I said I only wanted one and not three and she said "oh". I got that straightened out and I asked for some mild taco sauce and she handed me the hot sauce. I was starting to wonder what the requirements are to work at Taco Bell were and she finally gave me the right sauce and I sat down at a table and realized I had no napkin. I found the napkin holder that was empty and asked the young lady for one and told her the dispenser was out but she was busy laughing with another employee about what they did last night after work. Talking about work stuff must be boring to them and now I know why the place was empty and sat back down and almost enjoyed the almost hot taco. I thought "quid pro quo" when the receipt says let us know how the service was and I couldn't wait to get home and fill that baby out and maybe win the cash prize of $1,000 for letting them in on how bad my service was. Only problem I see with winning the money is there probably will be alot of entrees.......

I passed a funeral home next where I saw a family going inside with three small boys that had to be about 3 or 4 years old and wondered if that was the right thing to do to such a young mind considering what a short walk was doing to me as adult. I do respect the judgement of other adults but it would not be my choice......

And finally, just about at the end of my walk I passed the Pink Palace Adult Motel that is smack dab in the middle of a nice neighborhood that offers adult videos in each room and many different theme rooms. I noticed three company trucks that were all the same lined up in the parking lot and wondered if this was a early Friday office party? It got me thinking so much I lit a cigarette and will let you ponder that one......

When I walk the two rut roads back home in the badlands I may kick up a deer or see some other animal but it is mostly pretty quiet. Here in Chicago, it is a whole different ballgame and I must admit it is hard to get used to but the bottom line is when I get back home Gracie will be waiting for me with a smile and I guess it is a trade can live with if I can continue to dodge the cars that are trying to ruin my day and end up in a funeral home where little kids can come and look at me after they have stepped in the yellow paint with bellies full of big macs....

I hope you enjoyed my walk and I wish all my friends a happy and blessed weekend and keep smiling.....Easy

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