Times are a changin’

Greetings, readers. The nine-year stint of Rebecca and I working together will be coming to a sad end at the end of this year. Many factors on both sides have made this the only logical choice. Fear not, blog readers. While I might not post new entries twice a week, I won’t be closing the blog down either. As well, Rebecca asked me if she could add an occasional From Rebecca from time to time in the next year. Obviously, I said yes.

I’ve been going through a rough patch recently. A very sweet young lady – a server at Bear Spring Camps for many years – was hit by a car in Florida and killed a few days ago. It made me wonder: A wonderful person with her whole life in front of her is called home and I, a gamer and absolute loafer, continues to walk the planet. Hmm. I don’t see the justice in that. Probably I’ll get to live to be 106, playing baseball video games right up to the end.

A high school classmate of mine is back in the hospital and not doing well. Pinky, you have to make it, Kid. I’m not ready to add your name to the curse of the class of ’83. I’m praying for you constantly.

It is a beautiful sunny day here in central Pennsylvania, yet cold. There is nary a cloud in the sky. The days of 60º F are gone until springtime, I’m afraid. I must say with climate change we were warmer here longer in the fall season than in years past. I will take it.

I cannot believe that we are getting to the home stretch of the Penn State football season, and just past the mid-point of the NFL season. It truly feels like the older I get, the faster time seems to go. That is probably because the majority of my years are behind me. I’m not that young kid anymore who could run around and play sports. Hell, with my knees I couldn’t even run to a bus.

Now, readers, as you know I am not one for conspiracy theories. The other day I was doing errands with a friends and I saw something weird in the sky. I can only describe them as chem trails, a term I learned from a former friend that meant she thought the government was spraying chemicals in the air. I hope never to see another cloud like that again. It was definitely not a vapor trail from a jet liner at 33,000 feet. I know the difference. This was low and perfectly curved, as though it would fit around a big pipe. As Arte Johnson on Laugh-In would say, “Verrry interesting.”

Lastly, I’m still getting used to my new smart phone … very slowly, and thanks to the winning costume at the Halloween party, I won a Kindle Fire. That’s right folks, I went from having a dumb phone to having two smart devices in a week. There will be a learning curve. I must say though, I am enjoying both gizmos.

 

Me at the 2019 Halloween Party at Addison Court Apartment as C3PO. I won the contest!

 

That’s it for today. I can’t guarantee a blog entry for the weekend as you know, but I will try. We’ll be working together until the end of the year, so until next Wednesday, take care, have a great week, love one another, and as always, happy reading.

Computer woes and other goings on

Greetings, readers. From the time Rebecca left last Wednesday afternoon, I tried four separate times to dictate a story or blog entry. For no reason that I could discern, the Dragon Speech Recognition program refused to open. I don’t know if it was related or not, but it was followed by a cascading series of desktop icons not opening. None of my Steam games would open properly, however I could get Steam’s homepage icon to open when selecting the “run as administrator” option. As Arte Johnson on Laugh-In used to say, “Verrrry interesting.”

Slowly but surely by Sunday afternoon I got the games up and running, but the blog entry that I put up had to be typed. By Monday, I had almost everything running, less the speech recognition program. Again, I was typing away on Monday afternoon writing the extra blog post. Only today when Rebecca came, did we get the Avast anti-virus working, which detected and corrected all problems. Rebecca said, “I didn’t do anything.” I think the computer knows who’s boss. 😉

This morning walking home from coffee, a friend startled me from behind. She didn’t know about my heightened startle reflex or fragile back. She apologized, we hugged, and I thought all was right with the world. Then she got reprimanded by my coffee buddy Smith, and the next thing I knew the friend was walking away in a huff, obviously embarrassed. I am sure it will all blow over in a day or two. That brings back vivid memories of me at childhood at school. One time in the auditorium, a girl behind me sneezed and I proceeded to jump six feet in the air. Even the principle who was giving a speech had to stop and chuckle, even though I could tell he didn’t mean to laugh. The girl behind me felt so bad and apologized later. I told her it wasn’t her fault, I am the one who startles easily.

Let’s see, what is planned for the rest of the week? I stumbled on a Charlie’s Angels movie script project I started a while back for the original cast, and contained in its three pages were so many flaws in logic that if I chose to do this project I would start from scratch. The premise wasn’t bad but I think I was working too quickly and missed obvious blunders. I read on a web news page, that a new Charlie’s Angels film will be released in theaters soon. Grrr. I’d like to know why every time I get psyched to do a Charlie’s Angels film, another bunch of folks beat me to the punch. My bad luck, I guess.

Lastly, I am having a devil of a time trying to find the right connector cord to my recently acquired digital camera. A trip to Best Buy is in the works. I have a cord to connect it to the television set, but that is no help with getting the pictures on my computer. Hopefully, Best Buy or Wal Mart will have said cord.

As for Sunday, I have another busy weekend planned but will try my hardest to get the entry up by mid to late Sunday afternoon. For those of you who read the being in camp mode entry, it should have been linked to the Bear Spring Camps Facebook page, but in all honesty I don’t know how to do that. Rebecca will have to teach me. There is definitely an increase in readers when we make the link to their page.

So, until then, I bid you a wonderful few days, enjoy the sunny weather if you have it and bunker down if you don’t, love one another, and as always happy reading.

I hope you are having a good Memorial day weekend

Greetings, readers. So far my Sunday has been wet! It was pouring down rain as I walked home from church. I do have plans to go to a neighbor’s party later, where I will have fun and stay dry. After that, I think I will take a nap, so I decided to get this blog entry done before the party.

I have a fundraiser I am doing for a friend of mine, who is about to lose her apartment. I hope to raise enough money to keep her in her home for at least another three months. If you feel like donating, the link is here. Thank you.

I want to say thank you to all the military people who have served our country. My prayers go out to all of you who have lost loved ones in the service of this country. Thank you for your sacrifice.

I will be back on Wednesday with another entry. Until then, have a good week, take care of each other, and happy reading.

A late Christmas present for a dear friend

Greetings, readers. A very dear friend of mine whom I’ve known since junior high school has had a very rough couple of years. Me, being the kind of guy I am, wish I could wave my magic wand and make it all better. I don’t have one of those, so I thought to myself what is the next best way to pull off a Christmas miracle? Then the answer hit me.

My friend has always wanted to take a cruise to the Bahamas. I’m going to do my best to be Captain Santa’s elf. I’m going to start a GoFundMe page for her and her fiancé in order to raise money to send them on that dream vacation.

Her health is not what it used to be and I really want her to be able to enjoy the cruise that she’s always wanted to go on. Rebecca and I were crunching numbers on the Royal Caribbean website, and we will continue to do so on other cruise sites. The amount we came up with is $4,000, which is $2,000 per person for the cruise tickets and travel expenses. I’m thinking about a cruise in April 2019. That will give us plenty of time to raise the money and find the perfect cruise for them.

I’m going to construct the first draft of the GoFundMe page contents. I told my friend I would let her see it, in case there were any changes she wanted to make. Once she gives me the thumbs up, I will complete the GoFundMe page and make it live. I am so excited to make this happen for her.

Finally, on a Christmas topic, I did manage to string two strands of lights around a picture frame and my bookcase. They look extremely pretty. My kitty cat, Josie, to my happy surprise has only pawed at them one time. I’m shocked beyond belief. I fully expected her to pull the strand down minutes after I plugged it in and all the lights lit up. I also hung up a couple of stockings. I drank plenty of eggnog, went on my traditional Christmas Eve light ride, went to two Christmas dinners, and passed out at 8:30 Christmas night with a full belly.

Rebecca and I will be here tomorrow, for our last Thursday, as we go down to one working day a week … at least for a while.

Until tomorrow, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, love one another, take care, and happy reading.

This heat wave is enough to make me hate hot weather, and that is saying something

Greetings, readers. A very happy, hot Wednesday to you from here in Central Pennsylvania. We are in the grips of a late summer heat wave with temperatures approaching 90 degrees with very high humidity. My air conditioner up on this top floor doesn’t like it. I’m not expecting it to be an icebox in here, but according to my little thermometer, it is 81 degrees F in our office. I have even tried using my fan to blow the cold air. It works a little bit, but not much.

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a hot weather person. I’m starting to change my mind. Do I want sub-zero and ten inches of snow and ice? No. But 70s during the day and upper 40s at night would be lovely right now.

Knowing me, I’ll be bitching come winter, wanting the heat of summer time back. It is human nature to want what we don’t have. I’ve noticed that in other people and especially in me. This weather pattern is an excellent example of this.

This heat wave, I think, has affected the health of my good friend and payee. Today was what we call pay everything day, which happens on the last Wednesday of every month. Today, he stopped by briefly, handed me the checks, and was on his way to the ER. I wish him well. I would not be surprised if this heat wave has something to do with him feeling poorly. When I see him next week, I will ask him how is feeling.

While Rebecca and I swelter here in the heat of the office, today is the day I have to make my decision of which entertainment service I am dropping. I picked up Hulu and Sirius XM music on their free month trials at the beginning of August, but quickly came to the conclusion that I cannot afford Spotify, Netflix, Sirius XM, and Hulu. One has to go, at least temporarily. It was a difficult choice, but I’ve decided to drop Hulu. Hopefully at some point when I have more money saved up I can pick it up again. It is well worth it.

Lastly, Rebecca and I will be working tomorrow, albeit an abbreviated day, for I have an appointment later in the morning. I must apologize for not clicking that Facebook button under last week’s post for a few days. I’m still getting used to that. The beauty of having Rebecca here is that we can publish and click the button at the same time. No fuss, no muss, no forgetting.

So until tomorrow, take care, stay cool in the heat, have a good day, and happy reading.

I reconnected with a special friend recently

Greetings, readers. For a couple of years now, on and off, I have been trying to reconnect with someone I met in junior college. Her name is Tess (last name withheld for privacy reasons). I last saw her in 2003 when she and her husband Chris came to my mother’s viewing; I don’t remember whether their two young children came with them or not. It is amazing that 14 years had passed since I had heard her bubbly cheerful voice. She is such an upbeat person and it is quite easy to make her laugh.

Over the past few years I had left messages on their answering machine with no reply. I figured either they have moved, switched numbers, or she had forgotten about me. The other day I called the number that I had in my cell phone and it was going to be for the final time. I was planning to erase the number if she didn’t call back within a couple of days.

My heart sank when the answering machine activated and I began to leave my message. To my happy surprise, Tess picked up and we couldn’t believe that we were speaking to one another once again. She had a couple of errands to run but definitely wanted me to call back later that evening. I, of course, cleared my evening calendar. I made sure my cell phone was charged, for Tess and I had a lot of catching up to do.

About 9:00 I called and she was there. Tess explained that she had to be in bed by 10:00 and I was thrilled that we would have a whole hour together. We reminisced, told jokes and stories, and did all the things that people do in the let’s-get-caught-up process. She told me that she never got my other messages, that her machine sometimes eats them. I told her that I wanted to see her and the family before winter time. She agreed, but no firm plans have been set yet. They live about 3 hours away from me and I will suggest that we meet about half-way. I am already eagerly anticipating that day.

To show you haw time flies, I asked her how old her children were. She said 21 and 24. I immediately went into my old man voice, and asked her if she had seen my dentures. She laughed hysterically. I will admit back in junior college I had a crush on Tess but she was taken and I respected that. I consider her one of my closest friends. She knows secrets about me that not many people know.

There are a few other people in my life that I would like to reconnect with and I hope to fulfill that dream one day. I’ll take those dreams one day at a time and finding Tess is one dream fulfilled.

That’s my big news and I will leave you with this. Major prayers go out to the flood victims and their families in the states of Texas and Louisiana. The pictures from the news are horrific and I plan to donate what I can to the appropriate Salvation Army. I am also inspired by the pictures of people who have helped other people, whether it be by using their boats to help rescue or by going out into the water to rescue people and animals themselves. I am glad to see that there is so much goodness and charity left in the world.

Until tomorrow, take care, have a great day, and happy reading.

From Rebecca: Happy Birthday, Joe

Today is Joe’s birthday, and if you read his post yesterday, you know that he is spending it with his good friend and brother David Trost, who is visiting for a couple of days. I’m sure they are having a great time together. Hi, guys! Happy Birthday, Joe!

I have known Joe since we went to high school together. I was a bit in my own world back then, but Joe easily befriended me anyway. He has always been interested in other people, in seeing the good in them, and being a good friend to them. These are traits he still has. Once in a while someone will take advantage of his niceness, of his easy trust, and it will make him feel stupid for a bit of time. But he is still willing to help the next person he sees that needs assistance and offer a shoulder to cry on. I admire that. It is my natural inclination to pull away from people I don’t know, and Joe’s natural inclination to move closer in order to say hi. He is a special person.

As I’ve said before on this blog, it has been an experience to watch Joe in his fast food job. He has approached it with so much excitement and joy, even though lately he has also experienced some of the disappointments and mishaps that can occur at any job. He will be taking a couple of weeks off in August when he goes to Bear Spring Camps in Maine, and no doubt when he comes back he will start a new work schedule as the town gets ready for the Penn State fall semester.

Joe wrote yesterday that he will be back next Wednesday with a review of his laptop, but he has an appointment that morning, so he will probably do that on Thursday instead. I might be writing the blog entry again next Wednesday, unless Joe gets back in time to do it.

As Joe would tell you, take care, have a great weekend, and happy reading.

Facebook link on this blog

Greetings, readers. This is a short note about how my blog site works. I know many of you, my regular readers, are also friends with me on Facebook, and some of you are not. I have a link to my Facebook page on this blog site, but I know it won’t work for anyone who I am not already friends with there. I often invite people to leave comments on the blog topic of the day, either here or on Facebook. I want to acknowledge that I know the link only works for some of you. I welcome comments on either site with great appreciation.

If you are not my friend on Facebook, and you want to be, you can give me a request on Facebook and mention you know me from here, or leave me a comment below. I will be honored to accept. My Facebook name is Joseph Kockelmans.

On a different topic, this blog entry has to be short for Rebecca and I must get right to work on a pressing insurance issue. So until next week, I bid all of you a great few days, take care, and as always, happy reading.

Whoo hoot! I passed my apartment inspection

Greetings, readers. With the help of a good friend, I was able to pass my apartment re-inspection this past Monday. It was a trying and bittersweet day. Was I happy that I had passed? Absolutely. But a lot of stuff from my life had to be thrown away. As I have mentioned before, I’m a junior hoarder and we found bags of garbage inside bags of garbage and old papers. Not fun.

To be truthful, 75% of it was old clothes that either needed to be washed or were thrown away because they dry rotted. Family mementos were carefully placed in closets or drawers, and although I never would have thought it possible, the place looked great when we were finished. I actually have a bedroom again, not a storage unit.

I was proud of myself that I had kept my apartment in the half-decent shape that it was in from the first inspection the previous week. But if I had failed this inspection, I don’t know what would have happened. I enjoy living here and do not wish to have to move. Now I can relax, sign my lease in July, and it will kick in on October 1st.

On another note, since the inspection, I found myself retreating from real life by watching videos on YouTube of crickets, ocean waves, forests sounds, rain, and other such peaceful things. I searched for meditation videos, mainly from Japan and China. As I’ve said before, you can find almost anything on YouTube. Somehow I can’t help but wonder if this sudden desire to not live in my real world has a connection to having to lose so many of my things while cleaning out my apartment. My answer would be yes. Oh, my therapist will have a field day tomorrow. My favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes dealt with the holodecks, where people lose themselves in a creative fantasy land. I have the feeling that that was what I was doing when I would listen to these 8 to 10 hour videos.

Next, here in central Pennsylvania, we have gone from mid-spring to what feels like early July in two days. Today is sunny, hazy, and a luscious 85 degrees F. No coat, jacket, or even sweater is required. I didn’t look at the long-range forecast, but hopefully this wonderfully warm weather will last a while.

Lastly, I would like to thank Rebecca for the wonderful review and write-up of my Beatles show. Everyone seemed to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed performing it.

Until Friday, take care, have a great couple of days, and happy reading.

Who knew that flowers were so difficult?

Greetings, readers. The roses I bought for my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day did not last. I thought we did everything right, I cut off the tips of the stems and put the powder in the water, but the roses began to droop after only one day, and by the third morning Traci had to throw them away. To put it mildly, I was not a happy camper. I stopped at the florist today to find out what we had done wrong. After talking to the manager, I discovered that it was my fault.

The scissors that Traci had for me to use were not exactly the sharpest. In the process of snipping the ends of the stems, I must have pinched too hard and closed off the capillaries. Hence, no water could get to the poor flowers. I feel like such a murderer! Just kidding. Truthfully though, I do feel bad. I won’t say how much I paid for them, that is not really the point. I was upset because Traci’s flowers, which she loved, didn’t last. She told me that she had never had flowers given to her and that she was thrilled.

What to do, what to do? Traci was sad about the short-lived flowers. Rebecca and I went to the florist today to find out what had gone wrong. After some conversation with the manager, we determined that the stems were squashed and that in the future I should use a sharp knife to cut the ends. Unexpectedly, the manager replaced the flowers free of charge to make up for it, and said that new roses would be delivered to her this afternoon. That is definitely the way to keep my business. I found this extremely satisfying. By the time I come to visit her this afternoon, the new roses should already be there. A big thank you to Woodring’s Floral Gardens in State College.

One thing I must do before I go off to therapy is to arrange for someone to let the florist in the building at the right time. I just called a friend of mine and he will buzz open the security door, so thanks to Scott.

Well, that is the Thursday news going on with me. Rebecca will have a blog entry tomorrow, and I’m sure you will all enjoy that. Until then, have a great day, take care, and happy reading.