My annual Christmas Eve Light Ride tradition is in jeopardy

Greetings, readers. With Zipcar no longer an option for me, my Christmas Eve Light Ride tradition may be coming to an end. Since I was a little boy, I’ve only missed one year and that was due to an ice storm. Rebecca and I were just on the Hertz car rental site and discovered that though it would be easy and convenient (the office is down the street from me) the cost would make the one night event outrageously stupid, even by my standards. You know me, readers, I never like to cancel anything that is traditional.

This past year I have just not made that much money. My books have not been selling and my other sources of income have come in a trickle. I always tell myself that things will work out somehow, but this year I just don’t see it being economically feasible.

To rent a car for three days, they are probably closed Christmas Eve, will cost approximately $400.00, according to our research on their website. One passenger who wants to go with me said that she’ll chip in for the cost. At least one other passenger would have to do the same to make that price tag possible. Right now, dear readers, I give my traditional Christmas Eve Light Ride chances only at 20%.

Now, on Christmas Eve, the buses still run at least to a certain time. It may very well be that my friends and I will ride CATA’s W bus and let it drive us around Park Forest and surrounding areas. I will be sure to let the bus driver know that is what we are doing so he doesn’t look at us and ask if we have missed our stop. The only other alternative, which I will tell you just dawned on my this very second, is to see if anyone else made a YouTube video of the same kind of ride, or walk around their neighborhood. It’s been said that besides porn, you can find almost anything on YouTube.

On to a different topic. Guess what I’m doing tonight, dear readers? I’m going to my first Shakespearean play experience, a movie playing at the State Theatre, called A Winter’s Tale. I really don’t have a good idea what it is about, but I am intrigued because it is a Shakespearean dramedy. I am not much into Shakespeare though at my age I should be. Hell, with me being a writer, I should have been into all the classic authors. It’s ironic that I am a writer that doesn’t read other people’s material. I think I just solved my problem!

I am starting to change that. On Spotify music I found a delightful version in an audio book of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. I have seen two movie adaptations of this story and love it. It is one of my favorites … probably second to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It is read by an unnamed younger woman I’m estimating is in her late 20s to early 30s with a delightful voice and she is able to bring all the characters to life. I would love to find out her name, then go to Google images so I can take a peek at who is reading to me. So far, no such luck. It is the unabridged version of the story and I’m listening to it, as I said, through Spotify, which is now connected to my brand new Alexa. Oh, what great sound. It sounds like there is a human being right here in the room with me.

Yesterday, again on the internet news page, I saw such headlines as shootings, the stock market is tumbling, and plane crash kills nine. I stopped right there. My therapist told me to stay away from depressing news topics. I realize it is kind of hard to keep up tp date without reading the news. I would love to see a news broadcast that gives as much equal time to good honest heartwarming stories which raise peoples spirits as it does to the bad news stories which tend to depress people. I remember one time, I think I mentioned this before, I was watching a newscast on a New York channel which consisted literally of 50 minutes of bad news, a few minutes of sports, about three minutes for the weather, and then a oh, yes, by the way, nice story to close out the broadcast. I had to wait the whole hour to get the two minute final story that perked me up for the evening. Blech. Fortunately that channel is off our cable system and I don’t watch much news from any other source. Some people say I’m uneducated or not in the loop. Well, readers, I know what I know. I shan’t be bombarded with one bad news story after another. Maybe one day this world will learn that violence and revenge is not the answer. Okay, I’m done with my mini-sermon.

Well, readers, only two more blog entries with Rebecca until our nine-year stint comes to an end. 😦 But as mentioned before, my blog will stay open for you, my readers, to peruse and enjoy, and I shall strive to put a new one up either every Wednesday or every other Wednesday. I can’t lose the few steady readers I have, and I am blessed to have you.

Until next Wednesday, have a wonderful week, love one another, if you are thinking about hatred-give peace a chance, take care and happy reading.

2012 in review

Greetings, readers. We are taking the advice from WordPress.com and sharing this cool report that they did for me (and probably everyone else on WordPress. But for a moment I just felt so special). I just completed my first year of blogging and have loved it. Please keep reading. Rebecca and I will be adding a new post today or tomorrow. Take care and happy reading.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

5 Star, gold banner day!!!

Greetings readers. Today is an exceptional day for me. My first book, Picking Up Where We Left Off: My Bear Spring Camps Stories, which my writing assistant Rebecca and I worked so hard on for almost a year, is now officially in a local store here in State College, Pennsylvania. They are going to be sold on consignment at Appalachian Outdoors. We took ten copies with us expecting them to take perhaps one or two, but OMG, they took all ten!

This makes it a 5 star, gold banner day for Rebecca and me. We worked so very hard on that book and we are both proud of it. To now have it in a store is awesome.

The book is a print-on-demand product at CreateSpace.com and this is the link to my CreateSpace e-store page for those who want to see the book cover and read a description of it.

So, if you are in downtown State College, check out Appalachian Outdoors and ask to peruse my book. For my out-of-town readers, the link is in the previous paragraph. As always, comments are welcome. Until next time, take care.

The New United States Football League

In the late 1980s, the United States Football League, a weak competitor to the National Football League, had a three season run and then folded. Enter March February 2012. The buzz on the internet is that the new United States Football League, or USFL, is set to get underway late next month.

Twelve teams shall make up this new league which shall play through the end of summer, again giving fans year round football. While getting ready to write this blog entry, I Yahooed and Googled and could not find anything specific such as team locations and names. Apparently though it is a go for late March. I say, why?

The original USFL played to half empty stadiums, had teams that moved constantly, especially the Breakers organization which had three homes in three years. Problem number two was that the league expanded way too quickly. Their biggest problem, however, was that they promised big salaries with money that they could not pay did not have.

If the USFL version two is for real, I certainly hope that they are much more organized than their predecessor. I actually loved the original USFL but I sincerely doubt that North America will accept a second football league. It took years for the indoor Arena League to catch on. Outdoor year round football is simply too much.

If there is a team in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, and their games are covered on television, I shall give it a shot, being the football lover that I am. But as far as a league lasting 70 or 80 years, I’m not holding my breath. More details as I get them. Have a great weekend and I’ll catch you next week.

Keekee’s ordeal

Hi everyone. I just thought I’d write a post to you today about Keekee’s ordeal from Monday the 6th. My poor little kitten had four teeth that needed removed, so on the public bus system we went bright and early at 8:30. We arrived at the vet’s office by 9 as scheduled, Keekee was weighed in at a little over 13 pounds in her carrier, and then it was time for us to sit and wait for our turn.

It has always been my habit to put a towel over her carrier when I take her there just in case there is a big dog that might scare her. After about ten minutes, the vet tech came out and took us to the examination room.

Keekee obviously didn’t want to come out of her carrier but she was tempted with a treat. After a quick once-over, the technician explained what was going to happen and when I could expect to get a call from them. She said if you don’t hear from us by 3:00, call us.

Well folks, 3:00 came and went without a call. So I got on the horn at 3:30 and was told that she was just about to go in. Dental surgeries are scheduled last in the day. I thought to myself after I hung up, why did we have to be there at 9 in the morning? Oh, well. I was asked to call back around 5 or 5:30, which I did.  I was told that she was just coming out of surgery but might need some extra time to wake up fully. A friend drove me out to the vet to pick up Keekee. Unfortunately, the poor girl took longer to come out of her anesthesia than expected. So we had to wait. Luckily a Denny’s restaurant was just across the street. My friend and I took the opportunity for a coffee and a snack.

When I finally got my cat home, she stumbled out of the cat carrier woozy from the anesthesia and plopped herself down on the floor, not really wanting to move. After only a couple of hours though, she seemed to snap out of it and regain her balance. Much to my surprise, she was actually hungry for some soft food.

It has been well-documented that some people, especially those without children, think of their pets as their kids. I, a 46-year-old single man, am one of those people. For those of you that like the stories about my kitty-cat, I invite you to leave comments or questions, to which I will respond. As always, have a great day and watch for more blog posts very soon.

Good news about Keekee and other stuff

Greetings everyone. So sorry I’ve not blogged in a few days but I’ve just now recovered from the weekend, though it was fun.

I got some very good news about my kitty cat Keekee. Very soon she will have to go in for some dental work which shall be quite expensive, but the vet’s office has agreed to a payment plan rather than one lump sum. My budget says thank you.

Keekee is doing very well, despite having bad gums and needing six teeth removed. My vet told me that it happens to this particular breed of cat. Other than that, she is a quite healthy 5-year-old. I hope to very soon put a picture of her up on my blog for all of you to see. I have to learn how to do this first, however.

When my friend was here this weekend, I believe that Keekee smelled his cat, because she hissed at him a number of times. It was either that or he made a sudden move which she did not like; she hates sudden movements.

Briefly onto something else, I have another dentist appointment for myself today and I don’t wish to go. Though I like my dentist very much, I hate all the instruments wedged in my mouth – such as the saliva sucker. I suppose it’s better than drooling on myself.

Last week I mentioned writing about the late Joe Paterno. I did not forget. I shall attempt to do it tomorrow. I think I would like to jot down some notes first.

Lastly today, I must rant and rave for a few moments about my 12 round fight with technology. I won … but not until the twelfth round. Sometimes I hate computers. Machines are supposed to assist man, not defeat him. Not to go into too much detail, but let’s just say this blog post should have been up an hour ago. Until next time readers, take care and have a good day.

A night of insomnia : (

Good morning. It’s 7:05 and I’ve had approximately 1 hour or sleep. Grrr. I hate insomnia. Don’t you? Well, later today I’ll be working on new stories and editing camp book 2. My Assistant, Rebecca and I shall try to type something that makes sense this afternoon. I’m not quite sure how alert I’ll be. I’m off soon for a nap so as to have some energy at least.

Update to readers: My hope is to have the second camp book released sometime between late summer and mid fall.