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As much as I like Chicago, it hurts me to see what has happened to my beloved Detroit. My parents moved there in the mid 50's and it was my home until I left the area in 1986 to head back to my roots in Upper Michigan. I have fond memories of Detroit when it was so vibrant and alive and now it is dying like a pretty flower with no water. The population has dropped over 1 million since the 50's and has fallen out of the top ten cities in population. I cry for the city that made me so proud and with seeing how alive Chicago is it makes me wonder what happened....

What has happened is more then 126,000 jobs have been lost since 2000 which has lead to the highest unemployment rate in the country, 6.5 %, and 1/3 of the people in Detroit live below the poverty line. More on the facts can be found in a USA story this morning by Judy Keen. Once dubbed the motor city now is called the murder city with one of the highest homicide rates in the country. Once the destination of the poor south, the big three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) have been the laughing stock of the motor industry with record losses. The once powerful unions have been broken leaving many with cut down retirement benefits or none at all. Wherever Jimmy Hoffa is buried he must be turning over in his cement, secretive grave. Foreclosures are at an all time high and the catch phrase of the day is 'the last one out of Detroit please turn out the lights' and we are left in the dark searching for an answer....

What is needed now to turn this around is leadership in the Governor's office and the Mayor of Detroit but neither has been able to come up with solutions and have become part of the problem. The Mayor of Detroit, Kwame KIlpatrick, has been under close scrutiny for excessive amounts of body guards, Cadillac Escalades for family members and the city council, junkets to exotic cities and using city employees for personal use. Last week, when asked about spending charity foundation money on a trip including expensive Vegas motels, he grabbed the microphone out of a reporters hand and threw it 50 feet away. He brings new meaning to a Teflon don....

I would like to say Detroit can be saved but I am very pessimistic that it will happen. I cringe when I hear that prosperity is all around because it is not in Michigan. Everyday I see what Chicago is doing and I wonder why Detroit can't or hasn't done it. All I can do is remember what Detroit was like in my youth when all was good in the city I loved it and I still do. I won't give up on it nor will I abandon it. After all, it is the city I still call home......

I hope you all have a great Friday with the sun shining and clear blue skies with a fresh breeze of untold dreams coming true. Stay positive, be hopeful for a better day and lets do our part to make it today.....

smiles.....Easy

When it comes to life and living we tend to take the simple things we appreciate for granted. Like the sun coming up, the coffee we drink, the car that we drive and the heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. Huh? It all started this morning when I was complimenting Gracie on how much she does for me in the name of love. Later, she asked if I would like pancakes this morning and after I had put blackberry syrup on top of them, my favorite, she told me to look a little closer at the top pancake. Lo and behold, it was shaped into a heart from some pancake template she no doubt bought from some mail order catalog. Double Huh and an awwww for dessert....

Suffice to say the honeymoon is not over yet and it hasn't even started. We are getting ready to head up north the first of June and I can't wait to show her my corner of the world that has no pancakes in the shape of horseshoes. I think of the stunning sunrise's, a deer in the yard or watching the sun going down sitting on lawn chairs at my favorite spot in the woods. It's all in the Finn name of love...

The bug problem has me worried and so do the snapping turtles and my bud the black bear. I started telling her about the downside of living in the woods and now I wish I hadn't done it so convincingly. We had thought of staying a couple months but now we have decided on only one to not put her into a culture shock. I think the simple things we take for granted will win the day....

It's common news that I am having a difficult time finding my writers legs that are wobbling a bit. I will accompany her back to Chicago in July and then catch a ride back up home for a month alone to see if I can get my second book done. If I can't it will prove it is not about us being together and if I can find the passion it will open up a new can of worms and I may as well go fishing. Either way, I am so happy my pancake heart is bursting happy thoughts....

Have a happy Tuesday and for us it is a day of rest after two days doing the funeral duty after the death of the father in law of Janet's son Tony. It was my first funeral since I my bout with Leukemia and seeing this man in the coffin was quite unsettling to me. I couldn't stop staring at him and seeing me laying there when I should have died that day a couple years ago now. I had put that ugly time behind me but it has all come back in a post traumatic syndrome kind of way. I have so much to be thankful for now and it is the opposite of the way it once was. I guarantee you that I will not take anything for granted anymore and that includes a grilled steak in the shape of Iowa....

smiles, hugs and prayers for all my boomer friends...Easy

I cannot eat an ice cream bar without thinking of the good humor truck that came down our street back in the 60's. It had that music playing or the bell ringing and any kid within 50 miles could hear it coming and then it was, "Mom, can I get an ice cream?" followed by a mad dash to the corner of Ferguson and Santa Maria. My parents weren't rich by any means and I usually had paper route money to buy mine. My favorite was the banana Popsicle and my little brother Jimmy was an orange push up kind of a kid. The driver always had a white shirt and pants with a black bow tie and I have to laugh thinking about him when he was getting ready for work in the morning and his kid would say to him, "Going to work Dad?" Then the driver would open that sealed door and the steam from the freezer would come out as he reached around to find the ice cream we had selected. I have to think he had a frozen hand by the time the day was over....

I also think of all the other vehicles that came down our street. The big truck that sold cotton candy that sang a different circus kind of song and left us with sticky fingers. Or the fruit truck that sold fresh apples, peaches, pears and huskers of corn. The guy who sold the corn was usually shabbily dressed and spoke with an Italian accent and I remember when one of these trucks tipped over going around a corner while the poor man was wedged underneath the truck and we milled around across the street while an ambulance came by to get him out and we were saddened to hear that he died on the way to the hospital. I can still see that guy talking to the policemen and wondering why such terrible things had to happen...

Then there was the knife sharpening man who would sharpen all types of knives and weapon wielding Mothers would gather around his bike type contraption. I always felt sorry for the second ice cream truck that came by because we never dared to ask our parents for another dime. And anyone knows it was easier getting the dime from Dad then it was from our Mom. My Dad usually had a beer in his hand and passed on the ice cream for himself...

Life as a youth revolved around the cement streets of the city. We played touch football and when a car came by we would yell, "What do you think this is, Grand Central Station?" We knew that was in New York but had never been there. I always imagined those 'West Side Story' Jets gangs who lived a whole lot different lives then we did in Detroit. We went crying to Mom with scraped knees and it seemed I always had huge scabs on one knee or another. And we always knew we had to be inside when the street light came on if it was working after rocks were thrown at it. Of course, I didn't. Ha! If we hit the light we would scatter like someone had dropped a hand grenade between us. Other times cars would stop and Billy or Johnny would jump into his Dads car and we would have an odd number on the football team....

Once in awhile a hearse would come by followed by regular cars with those flags flapping on the hood to give the deceased person a last 'glimpse of his home' and I wondered how he knew since he was dead. When a fire engine came by we would grab our bike and follow it as fast as we could. When a police car came by and stopped at the Jensons house we knew that one of the three brothers was in trouble again...

Living here in Chicago now brings back all those memories ten fold and even though times are much different today, the one constant is that kids are kids in Chicago as they are in Detroit, it's just forty years later. These are good memories like most childhood memories are when life was so easy and so much fun. That's the way it should be when we are kids living in the city, eh??

Have a happy Friday as we get ready for another weekend of sunny skies and dreams of fun, relaxation or just mowing the lawn. Keep smiling and be safe...

Easy

I want to tell you about a couple everyday hero's in my life. The first is Ralph Williams and he was my next door neighbor when I was in high school in Detroit. He was married with two children, a Detroit fireman and on his time off he was a local truck driver. His example taught me about the value of working for a living and bringing home a paycheck. A smile never left his face. I would sit on his porch and we would play chess or just talk as I learned about life, living and doing the right thing. He was a Marine Corps vet and the reason why I joined the Corps myself. He was not a man of prejudice in a city full of it and he encouraged me to be all I could be. He would tell me to read books and read more books, especially the classics that helped form my future life. He told me to treat others like I wanted to be treated...

One day I heard fire engines going by and I jumped on my bike and followed it a couple blocks where I saw a two story house fully engulfed in flames. I knew the family that lived there and we all watched as the bodies of the 4 children were brought out covered with white sheets. Mingling around across the street I eyed Ralph who was sitting on a lawn with an oxygen mask on his soot covered face. I walked up to him and he pulled it off and waved off the EMT guys and we made eye contact. He was crying. It turns out he had tried to get into the house but was over come by the smoke. I will never forget that hopeless look on his face. It sticks with me today like it was yesterday and our world needs more people like Ralph Williams...

I went to see him last year and he has suffered a stroke that leaves him unable to talk but he smiled at me and we hugged and I told him what his life had done for my life and he cried again. And so did I. Thanks Ralph....


The other every day hero of mine is Henry Clay who I only knew for 3 days. He showed up one day at Isaac Newton school where I was a student in the early 60's. He was the first Afro-American kid at our school and at lunch that day he was ridiculed, picked on and was backed up against the school wall where kids threw stuff at him and called him names I won't mention here. He stood there and took it all proudly and never flinched or fought back or cried. I can still see the scared look on his face and I can still feel the disappointment I had in not coming to his defense. I just watched it happen and I regret it to this day....

The next day after school I went over to his house on my bike and asked him if he wanted to go for a bike ride and he took me to his garage where he had a brand new Montgomery Wards bike his dad had bought him to probably soften the blow of his predicament. We rode the streets but didn't say much because I didn't know what to say and he didn't know what to make of me. We had a good time though and I was excited about having a new friend but the next morning I learned that someone had put a burning cross on his parents lawn and they had moved out as fast as they had arrived. I have no idea whatever happened to Henry Clay but his character leads me to believe he went on to be a good man I would respect. He will always be my every day hero. Thanks Henry.....

Have a happy Thursday and be a hero to someone today. We don't have to save a drowning person or pull helpless kids out of a burning building. All we have to do is set an example oaf what is good about life and living and that's enough for a child who is so impressionable and ready to be all they want to be.....

smiles....Easy

Thoughts on our trip to Detroit:

We gathered up our kids, Scotty 'Pippin' and Lake 'Iri' in our Nissan Pathfinder, 'Hi Ho Silver' and took our first road trip together like we are one happy family which we certainly are. The trip took about 6 hours and the kids didn't ask once if we were there yet and it was nice to be part of a family again..

We stopped at urgent care at the Ann Arbor, Michigan VA to check on my ailing body part which seems to be a common thread to getting old in the real world. I was the only one there after hours and they took an x-ray and I was asked to come back on Monday to see my Doctor for the results. I believe the VA is doing the best it can in an overworked system due to the current wars we are fighting....

It was my Mothers 76th birthday, yea, I thought it was her 77th, and she was real happy to see us but not so happy to making here a year older. She was happy to meet Janet and our kids. Janet had pulled up some of her favorite Peonies from the back yard garden after I mentioned my Mother has always been fond of them. My Dad is feeling pretty good and the oxygen is helping him breath and my brothers granddaughter Lesie, 11 months old, stole the show and we hade good time but time was short and we left for Canada and Annie and her Angel's to stay until Monday Morning..

At the border the agent wondered why a lady from Chicago and a guy from Upper Michigan was going to Canada and I said we were engaged because I had hired her to edit my book and he said, "Is that what they call it these days?', gave us a wink and he let us through knowing no terrorist would bring along a dog and a talking bird to visit an angel. We met at the McDonalds and while Janet and Annie were getting to know each other I went in and ordered a couple sandwiches and gave the girl an American $20 and she gave me a $5 and a $10 funny Canadian bills along with a 2 Loonies and a Tooney. Hmmmmmmm????

We had a great time there with her and her son Matt who has more one liners then me and stole my thunder a bit with not a cloud in the sky. The time went by fast and soon it was Monday morning and we were saying our goodbyes and headed back to the VA to see if I would need surgery...

I didn't. My Doctor said I have inflammation and tendentious from bone spurs and she recommended two weeks in a sling but I was glad I wasn't up the creek without a paddle I couldn't use anyway. We hit the road smiling on a hot day, almost 90, and Janet had trouble staying awake and I was having trouble thinking because we had an air conditioner I didn't know we had. It was a good thing they didn't x-ray my brain but probably will at some point but not this trip. We pulled into Chicago about 7 at night and it was real nice to be back home again...

So, that's it. First of the many road trips we hope to take with the next one being the trip up to the Penthouse Cabin for Memorial day weekend and ending after the 4th of July. Ahh, it's nice to be alive and in love again and we missed our Boomer friends....

Happy Wednesday to all and hoping your days are full of joy and peace. Smiles!!! Easy......

Gracie and I went to the DMV to get plates transferred yesterday and when we got out of her car we had a flat left front tire. We were thankful that it didn't happen on the freeway and while she was filling out forms inside I tried to change the tire outside. It's safe to say I am not a mechanic and when I couldn't loosen up the rusted lug nuts we had to call AAA. I knew that if I had some WD 40 I could spray them but I didn't because who carries a purse size WD 40 in their purse? Well, my sweet Gracie does and I should have known it because she also has a level in her purse. Somewhere in there is also a desk size replica of the Titanic too. Now you know why I have found the perfect mate even though it is tough bringing along the fork lift when we go shopping.....

A nice man with a tow truck, Janet had decided not to put hers in the purse, got us back on the road but I did miss lunch with baby girl and the Southern food group. After all, we do live in South Chicago. This is the second time I have missed a meal and we had to stop at Arby's on the way home where they had a cardboard cup for us to put the money in at the drive in window. I can't make this stuff up even though I do try. Truth is always funnier then fiction...

When we got back home I had to measure the length of the station wagon to see if it would fit into the garage until we sold it. I was surprised to see that it was shorter then the Nissan pathfinder we bought even though the wagon looked longer then one of those ore boats back home on Lake Superior. Gracie had pulled out her tape measure, it was in her purse (go figure), and again I was proved wrong.....

On our way home we had stopped at her sons house to pick up a smaller bird cage to take 'Lake' Erie, her talking parakeet, along with us on our trip. And, I know what your thinking, she had sold her own smaller cage when she was going through her purse at the pet store two days before. I sure hope Erie isn't a back seat driver on our trip. She knows full well that is my job but that is another blog for another day when we get another flat tire....

Not wanting to get hit with her purse I had Gracie proof read this blog and I believe my concussion will be ok before we leave tomorrow morning even though Erie will be seated in the passenger seat, buckled up of course, and I will be in the bird cage in the trunk. Love is great, eh????

Happy Friday to all my friends and I think it is going to be a good weekend too because Tony hasn't dropped out again and come back as the purse snatcher from Georgia....

smiles.....Easy

I was reading more of the "Nick Adams Stories" by Hemingway last night when I came up with the idea for my next book. I woke up at 5 this morning listening to the birds outside and it reminded me of back home and I had to smile. It was nice to smile again as I am still devastated with the problems I am having with my family but it is out of my hands and I pray that we can work it out and at least be talking again...

I made coffee and hurried to the computer to get started on the book and after three hours of working I have a tentative first chapter done and I think I am on my way with a solid idea in which I talk of my childhood, the Marine Corps and my battle with Leukemia and my eyesight problems.....

It will not be a sequel to the "Trout Falls Chronicles" as I thought I would write but something altogether different. I won't share my theme with you quite yet but will when I really get rolling. It will be a fictional novel and I say this because this is the 3rd time I have started my second book and the other two were deleted almost as soon as they were started....

Saturday is my Mothers 77th birthday and it will be a nice present for her when we pull into Westland, Michigan to say hello. My shoulder is hurting very much and I am unable to even lift my left arm and I have an appointment on Monday to get exrays and see whether I will need surgery. We have been in touch with LouAnn (Annies Angels) and will stay with her for a couple nights in nearby Windsor, Canada. Our fun may be discounted 20% Canadian but we'll make up for it in American common cents. Har Har....

I hope you all have a good Thursday and keep smiling and I'll be praying for all of you to find your own peace of happiness.

Easy

Why is it when someone in politics or show business gets caught doing something wrong they will immediately deny it until evidence proves they did do it and then they go into treatment and blame it on alcohol? I think this is setting up a real bad example to our younger generation....

Why is it the Chicago police allow panhandlers to stand IN traffic at a stop light with a can to collect money and they will give out jaywalking tickets to normal people?

Why is it our President tells us that any opposition to the war funding is an admission that we have failed in Iraq when there majority of people in the last election have already said it is a failure??

Why do we lock our doors at night but leave them wide open in the day time??

Why do we think people who live in a $10,000,000 house are happier then people who live in a $50,000 house??

Why is it ok to bring your dog into a pet store but they can't come into our malls???

Why don't people talk in elevators but can't stop talking to each other in a line to buy something???

Why is it easy to say hi to a person in a small town but it is not so easy to do in a big city??

Why is it an atheist will say God Bless when you sneeze but doesn't believe in God??

Why does Ashlee Simpson say she loves the way she looks but has cosmetic surgery at 22?? And why doesn't she get vocal cord surgery??

Why do we make cars that can go 160 MPH and the speed limit is 70???

Why do companies keep trying to reinvent the toothbrush??

Why is the new and improved product better then the last new and improved same product??

Why is the orange flavored dishwashing soap better then the regular dishwashing soap????

Why do I get three forks in an expensive restaurant and only one in a small diner??

Why does one pork chop cost $65 in one restaurant and $5 in another???

When did riding on a bus become a poor mans transportation???

When did a haircut become a makeover???

When did baseball become a business and not a sport???

Why is it ok for baseball managers to yell and scream at umpires but they can't do it anywhere else???

Why is it I wonder so much why is it???

Happy Wednesday all........

smiles, Easy

I want to let all of my friends know that Janet and I will be going to the VA hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan later this week to get an X-ray on my left shoulder that has been bothering me for quite some time now. At my last regular check up in March my Doctor gave me a cortisone shot that helped for a few days but now it is worse then ever. They think I may need rotator cuff surgery and I want to get it done before I head back home to the U.P. to get ready for the next printing of my book and to get a well drilled at the Penthouse Cabin.....

It will also be a chance for my parents and my brothers family to meet Janet and get to know her. I have been having some serious issues with my own family about our quick engagement and it is important to me that they all know what a wonderful woman she is and that this is not just a immature crush I have on her. I have been caught off guard by the negative responses and it has been bothering very much and a blog in the next day or so will explain that more. What should be a great time in our life has caused problems that have sent me from the highest highs to the lowest lows. It will also give us the chance to visit with Annie (Annie's Angels) in Windsor, Canada. She and Janet have become very close friends and it will give us a place to stay for a day or two....

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday and ask you to keep me in your prayers for both my health and the issues with my family.....

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