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Arne Walama was hiding in the woods watching the front door of Smudges cabin and trying to figure out a way to kill him. He hated Smudge and always had. It was barely light when Smudge came out the door and went around to the back of thecabin. Arne thought, the outhouse and why did Smudge have his shotgun nestled in his arms? Arne was too dumb to figure out that he wasn't in the class with Smudge who was known as quite the woodsman and tracker. He slowly backed away and circled around to the cabin trying to be as quiet as he could which wasn't good enough. Smudge heard him and he knew who he was. He also knew Arne had been watching him for 2 days now....

Easy read from the Journal and Pete interuppted him while he laced his boot on his bad ankle which was much better after a nights sleep. "So. What were the voices Easy?" Pete grinned and feeling full of himself. Pete liked Pete and that is a good thing. Easy wasn't sure what to say and was a bit embarassed, "I swear I could hear 2 people talking". Pete told him he shouldn't have hit so much Jack and Easy scoffed, "You killed that bottle, not me". He read aloud to Pete, "Arne is out there. He is a fool in the woods and sounds like an Elephant sneaking around. I will call him out in the morning. It's time to get this over. It's been going on since first grade". Easy set the book down and said, "The last entry Pete".......

"So. they went to school together. Think Pete". Easy realized what he had said and laughed which brought a dirty look from Pete, "Ok smart guy. Who was in the class of...ah..ah...." Easy said, "Class of 43-44" Pete rolled his eyes, "Now how do you know that?" Easy tossed him the journal, "page 46 hotshot". Pete looked for his glasses but couldn't find them because he wasn't wearing his glasses. "In your truck Pete" and Pete laid the book on the bunk and limped out the door wondering if Easy was Clairvoyant and also wondered who Claire Voyant was?....

Easy graduated in 67 and so did Pete. Pete was a year older but had been held back in Kindergarten and was not a subject he liked to talk about. No one flunks Kindergarten but no one was like Pete either. Pete had been an orphan and just settled in Trout Falls but that is another story for another time. We have a cliffhanger here. It was a longshot that Smudge and Arne even went to Trout Falls school because neither one of them could remember a Smudge but they did know a couple Arne's. One was Arne TeleMaki and the other Arne Walama. Pete thought that Arne Walama had once got into some trouble for stealing and had left town. "I think Arne was a buddy of my Uncle Ralph". Easy went back to the book while Pete looked into cabinets and drawers for a clue as to who Smudge was. They didn't even think about starting up the truck and heading back to town. That could wait. "We have a real good whodunit here Pete". Pete grinned and said, "Yea. cool adventure, eh?

Tom Snyder has died from complications from Leukemia and I pray for his family, the living and not for the dead. Tom will be fine wherever he goes but I for one will not forget him. I've always felt we were alike in a liberal way. He was funny and off the cuff with a starched shirt and tie and I can do it in purple shorts and a Hawaiian shirt...

I hang on to my reprieve and mourn for a brother gone on. Life is for the living and let us move forward in finding a cure for Cancer. This is where billions should be spent and not for dying in another way.

Inside the cabin, it looked like someone had just stepped out for a minute and never came back. At the wooden table breakfast was set, two eggs over easy (no potato's) on a metal plate, burnt toast and a tin cup full of black coffee. Everything was in its place but no one had been in the place for a long time. Pete found a jug of water and poured it into a pan and heated it on the wood stove after starting a fire. He wanted to apply some heat to his ankle and complained about how much it hurt and about being lost again. After Easy told him they would spend the night in the cabin, Pete moaned over having to sleep up top and Easy said he would go top side on the bunk bed just to shut him up. When Easy had asked to use his cell and call to let everyone know they were ok, Pete said his battery was dead but he did have the charger in the glove box. Easy asked him if he saw any outlets or light switches and Pete looked around and laughed . Part of Easy wanted Pete dead and with the pain he suffered, Pete was almost writing his own eulogy. Easy found a bottle of Jack Daniels in a kitchen cabinet, the girl was missing too, and they had a few snorts that opened them both up with theories as to what happened to whoever lived here. It wasn't hard top figure this out as a daily journal was on the table and Easy sat on the couch to read it to Pete while they ate Blimpie subs that Pete had brought along as back up food. They passed on the breakfast on the table....

Pete sat next to him with his foot in a pail of hot water while Easy sat in his union suit, red, and read of the last entry which was dated August 1 of 1984. "It's time to put this to an end. I will confront him this morning. I can't live with this anymore. All I did was say hi to her"....

Easy only knew the author by his first name which was Smudge and he went on to read. "I can't understand why he can't just leave me alone. He must have followed me here because no one knows how to get here". Pete said, "That's for sure. We had to get lost to find it". Easy laughed and watched Pete take a long tug on the Jack and after a bit began to slur his words. "I really sssshould go to sleep". With that, he called it a night just before dark, laid on the bunk and in seconds was fast asleep and snoring up a storm. It was a not so perfect storm on a calm night in the wilds of Upper Michigan and Easy continued reading the journal and noticed nails on the wall above the fireplace and that is where a gun had probably hung because the soot from the fireplace showed the outline of a long rifle that was long gone. He tried to remember back to 1984 in Orwellian mystique, tried to remember a man named Smudge and all he could remember was that the Tigers were on their pennant run and went on the win the World Series....

Smudge had been a man who kept things in order and the camp was cleaner then clean and everything in its place. It was what wasn't in the place that fascinated Easy who had made some 1984 coffee in a well used old fashioned coffee pot. It wasn't Starbucks but it wasn't bad either and he wished he had a doughnut too. Where was Bert the cop when he needed him? Easy set the journal down, blew out the candle, finished his coffee and climbed up into the top bunk listening to Pete groan which he did in his sleep too. Easy knew what they would do after reading in the journal but it was no use to Pete who would probably not be able to walk in the morning. Easy lay in the bunk hearing a lone wolf call for its mate and Easy said good night to himself and fell fast asleep...

Just before dawn Easy awoke with a start and heard something moving outside. He yelled to Pete, " Get up. I hear something outside". Pete groaned, woke up and said, "Probably a bear" and fell back asleep. Easy slid down the bunk bed and replied, "I don't remember bears talking Pete" and Pete sat up and bumped his head on the top bunk steel springs and cut his bald head. Wiping away blood he said, "Where are we and why am I bleeding?" Easy reminded him about last night and quietly snuck up on the back window. He turned back to Pete who was rubbing his face and patting a small cut with his hanky and gingerly testing his ankle. Easy said to him in a whisper, "You won't believe what's outside"......

Easy and Pete spent a lot of time in the badlands because it was the last bastion of the wilderness left in Upper Michigan. Camps and property were being bought up by trunk slammers and the locals didn't like it one bit. Here they had found Boone's Pond where the brookies were larger then life and tasted even better. Here they got lost on a regular basis but always found their way home. The rasberries were plump and bright red, the blueberries were plentiful and the peace and quiet was why they were there. In Pete's truck they had followed lumber roads that turned into two ruts and they didn't care while enjoying the scenery and the critters they came into contact with. Seeing a human being was an oddity. It was another great adventure for these two who lived for more then the normal life of a yooper. No one was sure what was normal in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but thes guys pushed the envelope and sent it air mail for sure....

As a writer, I like a challenge too and this is my first installment of a blog that will run all this week and end of Friday. I have a thought in mind and I run with it not knowing what I will write the next day but am confident I can do it. Kind of like having a deadline to push me to my limits as a writer. Some of my best blogs have been when I left the readers wondering what will happen next like Spin and Marty did for me watching 'The Mouseketeers' back in the late 50's. Or, like Batman and Robin did on TV many years ago now. Whapp!!! and Slamm!!!. So, sit back and enjoy as I weave a tale of my two best friends on another journey into the north woods.....

While lost again, Easy and Pete found a cabin in the woods that it had been takin back by Mother Nature and only Pete's eagle eye saw a window reflected from the late afternoon sun. They parked the truck and walked up to the porch almost ducking for fear of a shotgun blast from a hermit who wanted no part of visitors. With an uneasy feeling, Easy shouted, "Anyone home?" and Pete was so startled he missed the porch step and fell to his knees and groaned. "Dang Easy. I think I broke my foot". Knowing that ingrown finger nails bothered Pete, Easy was suspect as Pete hopped to a bench and sat down to take his boot off while Easy knocked on the door and turned the knob to no avail. It was locked. Easy sat down next to Pete who was taking his sock off to show a red, swollen ankle and Pete was grimacing, "It's broke Easy. See that bone?" Easy saw it and instead of saying, here we go again said, "It's going to be dark soon Pete. I think were going to have to spend the night here".

The badlands were a section of land that was dotted with old line shacks that the sawyers used when cutting the tall trees for profit. They would stay out in the woods for a month or more while they cut and collected the timber that was floated down the Big Fart River to be processed in Marquette and shipped off on boats that went to Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland and ended up on paper for me to write stories. Easy and Pete were in for a surprise as soon as they figured out a way to get inside and get warm on a cool early August night. Pete suggested that they break a window while Easy thought they should use the key. Pete rolled his eyes and asked, "You got the key, Easy?" Easy grinned and lifted the mat on the floor by the door and sure enough, there was a key laying there as pretty as a key could be. Pete hated Easy being right all the time but it was getting late and his leg was throbbing and when Easy opened the door, he followed him inside hopping on one foot like he was in a one legged race at a picnic. Once inside, the two looked around the room and scratched their heads at what they saw. Easy said, "Oh my" and Pete said, "will you look at this" and I will end it here for now and pick it back up on Monday morning. If that is ok with you. What do they see? What is inside? I guess you will have to wait a bit, Ok?

The English Sparrow is quite a resourceful bird. It can be found in parking lots where it will fly under a car to eat dead bugs that have stuck to the grill. Talk about a free meal which brings me to my free dessert I get every night when I pick rasberries in the badlands behind my property on Island Lake. They are ripe and plump and picking them has taken over for sitting in the woods and lazy deer watching. I have already made a rasberry/cherry cheesecake which I gain 5 pounds just looking at it in the freezer. I've saved half of it not by grace but for Gracie. Next to it is many pints of rasberries I am squirreling away waiting to enjoy them with her. It's the rasberries eating them alone but I suffer through....

One thing I have learned about being here alone is I don't want to do it again. It's just not the same without Janet's smiling face, support and the laughs we share. I feel ike the lone deer who comes into my yard everyday. What happened to his family? Why is she alone? I haven't been able to buy any corn so she must be as frustrated as I am. Were kindred spirits for sure...

I'm off with Burner on Monday to hit some places to put books again. I'm also frustrated that my sales of books sits in bank accounts and I get a check each month. I have a lot invested in this and know how other writers must feel waiting to reap the rewards. I know it takes time to get known in the literary world and I have much to learn about the marketing avenues to sucess. But, alas, it depends how hard I work at it and how hard I push myself to get it out. I stand by my product. I believe in myself and the Trout Falls Chronicles and I think the best is yet to come. I am slefish though, I want it now. Don't we all?

Wishing you a great Friday and a safe and fun weekend too. It's finally cooled off some, my Dad is holding his own and actually making some wise cracks about his handicap. Hust like him, he's a tough guy with a strong will to live. Maybe that is where I get it from, eh?

Special thanks to Mimi who is the latest to buy my book. They talked with Janet on her birthday and found out what I already know. She's simply the best...

keep smiling....Easy

It's going to be 90 again today and you can put a fork in me, I'm done. To think I told Gracie that it doesn't get hot up here, oh my, was I wrong. I wish I would get a little smarter a little sooner. One of my neighbors, Jim, stopped by last evening and we sat by the campfire minus the fire, the heat was already there, and talked of the old days when his wife was alive and I had just divorced and I was holed up in and under the rusty green trailer. His 2nd wife doesn't like the outdoors which is like saying mosquitos are no bother. I told him what it is like sitting in the catbird seat with Janet liking the Penthouse cabin and the woods. Ever been in the catbird seat? Does the cat sit there or does the bird? Birds perch and cats sleep so I will have to google this and find out.....

The local rag, the Mining Journal, is going to do a story on me after they review my book which will pretty much tell me if it will sell or not. A bad review will kick the stuffing out of me for sure. If it is good, I will have a large ad in the paper to sell it and be on my way to my real goal and it's not money. That is to have my own column (blog) in the paper on a regular basis. Of course, it will be called "Easy Does It". With Gracie at my side to guide me and offer her expertise, WE reach for dreams like they are apples on a short tree. Before I met her, I had all these grandois plans but they didn't often come to fruition. Pre J.., I was stuck in the mud. Har har. Big talk, big ideas but the results were like Beaver Creek where only a trickle of water passes through the rocks. I wonder if people get tired of me alking of my sweet Gracie? Frankly, I don't give a da**. She has opened me up like a blooming rose and at 58 I want to experience everything and I want to do it now. Long gone are the panic attacks at Walmart although I do sweat passing Home Depot signs. The self imposed isolation I was so famous for is gone and I can almost taste the juices of that ripe apple. I'm hell bent for leather and maybe I will google that too....

'Google this' has become part of our vocabulary and replaced the library as an answer to bar bets and TV show trivia questions. We are one click away from knowing how old Mick Jagger is and all the knowledge we want and I'm glad I sold my stock in Britannica. I'm off now to Jims camp and his dock where I will swim and cast for Pike for dinner. If I had a family to feed they would be starving with my luck lately. Pike fishing is my son Kris' game like brookie fishing is mine. To each his own....

Have a nice Wednesday, a day hard to spell and caught in the middle of the wweek. Some call it hump day but that reminds me of rabbits, Ouch. Are you smiling yet? No? C'mon lets see those purly whites.....Easy


"The catbird seat" is an idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position, often one of great advantage.

"In the catbird seat" was among the numerous, folksy expressions with which the legendary baseball broadcaster Red Barber delighted listeners. Some say he invented the expression; others say that he dug it up from his Southern origins.

And, oh yea, wish that Rolling Stone a happy birthday Thursday, he will be 64.......

It's going to be a hot one today and the water level on Island lake is down a foot or more. I went out trolling for Northern Pike before dark last night and I had to push the Leaky Teaky 2 6 feet out of the mud before I could pull a Gilligan. Why did the millionaire and his wife bring so many clothes for a 3 hour voyage and how did they find all their clothes but not the Minnow? Did you see that movie with Tom Hanks called Castaway? I couldn't fly in a plane for 2 years after watching that crash. Anyway, I caught one decent perch, lost one of Kris' lures and stopped at Marks dock to talk for him for a bit. He is troubled these days in a nasty custody suit with his ex that makes it impossible for him to remarry. When love goes bad it can get worse after the fact. I won't ever fall out of love with my sweet Gracie but I can fall out of the boat quite easily which I did so when I landed at the shores of my cabin. I fell into the muck and mucked my way out looking like I had been tarred and feathered minus the feathers even though I did have a fern sticking out of my pocket. I knew a guy who had an Aunt Fern who grew to be 6 feet tall. I didn't mention this to Janet so we will keep my nightly face pack to ourself, eh?

I may go to town today and I may not. I love the way I make decisions on such weighty matters. If Mark goes to see his lawyer I will go to town and it's funny how his love life dictates my travel plans. I ask for rides only at last resort and when I do ask him for a ride he always says yes. He wishes he had said no when the Pastor asked him to marry his first wife. A friend of mine has had 3 wives and keeps spouting off how much he dislikes women now and I bet their are 3 ex wives who say they more then dislike him too. He came out to see me and made up some story about him winning the fishing derby contest and I didn't belive him for a minute which is about how he was married to his second wife. Some guys aren't born losers but spend alot of time learning how to.....

I just heard that Lindsay Lohan was arrested for DUI and drug possesion less then a week after getting out of a 30 shake and bake Hollywood treatment center. A ouple days ago she was quoted as saying she was wearing an ankle tether when she went bar hopping to let everyone know how serious she was in staying clean. I was better off getting mucked and dirty. This is a very sad story and I've seen this type of behavior in the substance abused Upper Michigan. The culture dictates that Mom and Dad drink in the bars, drink at picnics and football games while the child sees this on a daily basis and in high school parties in the woods at night is a popular pastime. The scores of young kids killed in alcohol related accidents dot the cemetarys in the area but some just don't get it. Lindsay Lohan got it and I mean the white substance they found in her pocket. Now she is really going to get it. I pray for her like I do all who suffer from substance abuse. The time comes when we have to just say no and I can attest to that. Saying no is sayng yes to life.....

A human interest story to send you off on your Tuesday duties. When I was a kid we heard that the neighbors had a color TV and a bunch of us ran down the street and sat on their lawn and watched Disney though the 'picture window' in amazement. The Mother even brought us out popcorn to eat and I've always remembered this kind gesture. This world needs more people like that. I also remember my Dad who took me for a ride when I was 16 and we stopped at a tow truck company lot. We stood at the fence just before dark and the gate was locked. He pointed out a little black car that had those Woody sideboards. It was a Morris Minor and my Dad had bought it for me. $50 cash. It was so out of character for him since we seldom had extra money but it is way my Dad was and I think he was smiling more then me. The little bits of kindness we do in our daily walk pays large dividends in return. I know that Lindsay Lohan was a child actor and wonder if she had a chance to even be a kid. Check the list of what happened to the 'spanky and our gang' actors....

Do a bit of kindness for someone today and watch them smile. Then you will smile and that's much better then moaning or pouting. We'll leave that to Mark for now.....Easy

The president of my fan club is my brothers 7 year old grand daughter Kaitlyn. She is a cutie. The Bible talks of child like faith and I smile thinking of her as the future of our country and I find solace in that. Were all real tired of war and dying. It's bad enough when we see one of us die during peace. Kaitlyn has taken my book to show and tell at school where she and the teacher have read some of my stories to the class. I know they must get a kick out of Easy and Pete getting lost in a potato farm and I'm glad I didn't use any swear words. I talked to her yesterday and asked her how my Dad was doing and she told me that he was sad and she felt sorry for him. But, almost in the same sentence, she laughed when she told me she has a vice president of my fan club too. Kids are like that. Resilient...

The new VP is her best friend at school and Kaitlyn tells me Harry Potter has nothing on the Trout Falls Chronicles. That is my kind of girl. When Janet and I visited her not long ago she sat by my side staring at me, constantly giving me hugs. Maybe she remembers when I almost died and maybe she didn't. She would laugh at my ice cream cone head. All white on top. Kaitlyn walked through my Cancer with me but from a distance. Adults have a hard time understanding Cancer but kids come right at you with their thoughts. The kids have the edge on us in this respect. I have always been the funny uncle to them. I can make a kid laugh on demand and after coaching kids baseball for ten years, kids seem to like me. Kids just want attention and we have a responsibilty to give them that. As long as I have her a fan and as long as she is reading instead of playing a game on the TV, all is good in this world on this day...

When we were young, we have yet to be tainted by dishonest, decietful or mean adults. Janet brought this to my attention, well warranted, that I shouldn't tell kids something that I made up and is not the truth. If I do, and they tell someone else and I am proved wrong, that child will never trust me again. Kids want to learn. Kids want to have fun. Kids want adults to look up to and admire. As adults, we must be patient with kids and the electronic dohilkkies they carry and listen too. It is not our world anymore of black chalk boards and aisle displays. We feel confused trying to understand what the child has in his hand or coming out of their ear. I don't like it when I don't understand things and it is quite humbling when I ask an 10 year old to fix my computer. I do understand that the smiles I see on kids like Kaitlyn is something toappreciate. Kids haven't learned yet that they must be gloomy because it is Monday or bad weather is on the horizon. They will like us for who we say we are and when we say something it must be fact. They will dislike us for the same reasons. It is up to us to help them through the transition from child to adult. The way I am today is the result of those who helped me. I won't mention their names but remember them one and all. And I smile...

Hope your smiling, the sun is bright and the breeze soft. A day to tell a child a story or buy them a book. Harry Potter will even do. Or maybe...ah, you know.......Easy

Imagine your life if you did not know how you were going to get to the store and back home. Most people just jump into their car and go but there are many of us who rely on public transportation, walking or friends with cars to get us around. To find out how many real friends you have just ask them for a ride and you can tell right quickly Quigly. We are the ones you drive by at bus stops, train stations, taxi stands or god forbid, hitch hiking. It is a life of uncertainty when we want the opposite as we get older but it doesn't, it only gets worse finding a ride....

These truths were never more evident as yesterday. The reason I'm not in Chicago celebrating Janet's birthday with her and her family was to be at an authors fair to sell my books and get my presence known among the other authors. I was in awe at first. A WW2 vet who parachuted into France on D-Day, an outdoor writer with groupies around his table loaded with book after book and a retired prison guard who wrote a childrens book about a whale in Lake Superior. I wanted so much to belong and it didn't take long to sell my first book. We sit at booths and watch the people go by. We hear other authors giving their pitch like at the circus when they enticed you to come inside the tent. I was enticing them into Trout Falls. I told of my Leukemia, my life and of my sweet Gracie and Larry the author next to me told me I should write a book of my life. I grinned and said, "I am"....

My Dad is not doing well and more surgery on his other leg is a strong possibility and my time at the Penthouse Cabin is short. I pray for the wisdom to know when to stay here and when to head to Detroit to be with my Father. I go by my gut when making decisions and I'm swayed to the side of packing my tent and hitting the road again. Maybe I'm afraid to go. Afraid to see my Dad in this state. Afraid of him dying....

I have much to say to him yet and it must not go unsaid. It's time to put my life on hold, load up the Nissan Finnmobile with the boys in the back and Gracie at the helm, taking the trip I've been not waiting to take my whole life but getting older is part of that trip and so is dying. We just don't talk about it enough...

Boomer seems like a safe place to write my thoughts of such hefty issues. Heaven knows, death is part of our daily life but not talked of openly but wispered for no one to hear. Here I can let it out, my buffer from the reality of sad family faces. These are words written to my friends, telling of my fears and desperation. In some ways it is like me trying to find rides day after day. It is my life and I won't complain about it but it feels good to share it and let it out here on boomer. I can stand back from the computer and feel better inside. I rely on you my friend and hopefully you can rely on me.....

Happy Sunday and thank God for all we have. Take a walk in the woods or go for a swim. Catch a mess of sunfish, till the garden wearing a straw hat sipping a lemonade or just sit around with a fan in your face watching a ball game. Thanks for listening and keep smiling....Easy

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