Noggin it

 I just opened our last bottle of egg nog 

    It is not straight!  And it has quite a kick!

    I think Julia bought it for us, but I just put it in the fridge and never opened it.

    I planned to on Christmas.  And New Year's Eve.  But never did.  Until tonight.

    A couple of nights ago I watched an episode of The Twilight Zone.  I loved that show when I was young and I was happy to find it is on one of the channels that runs old shows.

    In the episode I watched, a man died and went to heaven.  He had his own personal angel, lived in an all white apartment, had women whenever he wanted, all the food he wanted, everything.

    But he got tired of it.  He wanted to do some things from his old life, like rob a bank.  The angel told him there was a bank down the street, a get a way car was arranged, the tellers were told to hand over all their cash.

    The guy became enraged!  He said there was no thrill, no surprises, no excitement in life.  He told the angel he wanted to go to the other place.  The angel asked what other place?

    The man said he was tired of heaven.  It was boring repetitive, and there was no challenge.

    The angel said, "Heaven?  What makes you think you are in heaven?"

    I always loved the little twists at the end.

    But I woke up this morning with a bizarre thought.

    What if our lives were the afterlife?  What if our memories were planted in our brains when we died?  What if all the people we know and love don't exist but in our own little minds?

    And now I think I am going to have another glass of egg nog and possibly go to bed.

    Happy New Year!

Peace and Love

oops!

 We all visited Julia today

    Jackie, Beth,  and I took a road trip to Julia's.

    My niece's daughter,  son and his girl friend came to visit their grand mother, our sister in law, who is still recovering in Rockford.

    After their visit with her, they came down for a mini reunion.  Julia ordered pizza from Giardarno's in Rockford.  We had some deep dish pizza and it was delish!

    Beth generally spent the time going from person to person to get pets.

    Unfortunately, when the group went downstairs to see the wine room, Beth dropped a load on the concrete floor.

    This is the second time she has done that at Julia's!  Both times in the basement, luckily.

    She has done it once at our house in the basement.  Maybe it is the concrete smell that appeals to her.

    Funny thing is, she had gone out shortly before then.  

    These folks  are in the college attending age bracket.  On New Year's Eve we met 2 young women who are in helicopter training school and will soon be flying Apache helicopters.

    I've run into a lot of young people lately and I don't have any fears about what that generation is going to do.  They are eager, tech savvy, smart, and will build a better tomorrow.

    I just hope there will be a tomorrow for them to build.

    Today is Jan. 3, Epiphany is Jan. 6.  That officially ends the Christmas season for us. 

    But I plan on cheating a little this year.  The outside lights may come down tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

    Then the Dickens village.  Then the rest of the decorations.  

    And finally, the tree.

    The house will seem empty, the Christmas gaiety  will be put away .

    A  cold.  hum drum January and a slushy February will follow and then spring, if we are lucky.

    Life seems to be going by too quickly.

Peace and Love

Pop goes the memories

 I am drinking a 7-Up and thinking of the Kennedys

    No, not the president, senator, or the faux Kennedy running a government office into the ground.

    I am thinking of the Kennedys I knew.

    Up until about sixth grade, we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment on the third floor of my grandmother's building.

I shared a bedroom with my brothers Carl and Dennis.  My parents had a Murphy bed in the front room.

    If you don't know what a Murphy bed is.....It lifted up and went into the wall.  Then you closed some doors and it looked like a cabinet.  I think they are pretty darn cool and a real plus for small apartments.

    Across the street from us was a family with Kennedy as  a last name.

    My parents were friends with them

    When Mr Kennedy died, the kids, all adults, decided to sell the house.  My parents bought it for $17,000.

    We all had our own bedrooms!

    Mr. Kennedy's funeral was in their house.  I remember (and it may be a false memory) looking down from our apartment into their living room and seeing him in a coffin along the wall my parents would later put a couch.

    Fast forward a few years.

    I had a newspaper route.  It was actually in a factory and I sold the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago American.

    But I also delivered a paper to Marion Kennedy, who moved from 1472 W. Belle Plaine to a house on Berteau, 2 blocks north.  

    Marion worked for the city of Chicago water department.  Her sister, Timothea, was an actual sister in a convent in Iowa.  Her brother Jack was a priest and her other brother Phil was a Monsignor.  I don't know exactly what that is, but my parents felt it was a pretty important position in the Catholic Church.

    Father Jack would often visit Marion.  If I delivered the paper while he was there, he would always insist on talking to me.  We talked about what I wanted to be in the future, how school was, what my day was like....stuff like that.  In fact, he even made me a bet on grades.  If I got an A, he would give me $1.  A B was worth 50 cents and a C got me nothing.  If I got a D I owed him 50 cents and an F would cost me a dollar. 

    I was always glad to show him my report card.

    So how does 7-Up fit in all this?

    Marion would always give me a bottle of cold, cold 7-Up to drink during those visits.  I remember how refreshing and great it tasted.  My parents didn't buy much pop, so it was a treat.

    They are all gone now.  

    I often wondered why Marion was the only child not to enter some type of service to her church.  I remember she was a faithful believer, unbelievably kind, soft spoken, and drank 7-Up.

    I have commission papers and photos of Captain Kennedy  from 1896.  They are another one of those items I don't know why I have, or what I should do with them.

    I have a FB friend from those days, and she lived next to the Marion on Berteau.  I wonder if she enjoyed 7-Up too.

    The house?  My mom sold it in 1978 or so for $57,000.  A few years ago it was listed for somewhere in the $800,000 territory.  But it did not look like  my boyhood home.

    Funny when memories pop up.  

Peace and Love

Sometimes Beth just wants to see what is going on from a different angle.

Good bye 25!

 And good riddance

    Hopefully 2025 will be a much better year for all of us.

    Less hate, more love.  Less war, more peace. Less division, more unity. Less blaming, more cooperating.

    Ah, what a wonderful world that would be.

    The dog treat mystery was solved.  Emily left them Christmas Day!  That means for a whole week I never noticed them until last night.  

    And while they are made in Delaware, you can buy them in our area.

    In years past I would get up early, watch the parade, watch some football.  But I seem to have lost interest in the parades.  And I am not much up to date on college football.

    I didn't even watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade this year.  

    I may catch a glimpse or two, but I really don't care if I watch or not.  Same with college football.

    Hope you all have a healthy, happy, safe 2026.

    And although you will hear this a lot, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

    (Pretend you hear cheap toy horns blowing)

Peace and Love 

what the......

Pardon my typing mistakes tonight 

    I have an injury.

    Somehow I got a wood sliver under the nail on my left hand ring finger.

    It hurts like crazy.

    Jackie tried to dig it out using a needle, I tried a tweezers, and neither worked.  Nor did sucking on my finger or soaking it in hot water and then squeezing it.

    So the s w and x keys are hard to hit because I put a bandage and Neosporin on the spot.  

    Many of you know how unobservant I am.  

    Tonight when I went to take my 3698 pills, I noticed a bag of dog treats in front of my pill suitcase.

    I swear, it was not there this morning.

    There are 2 delicious looking treats in the bag.  Nicely decorated, soft like Beth likes, and how they got there I don't know.

    Lisa, our morning helper, said she did not bring treats for Beth today.  I would think she would have said something if she had left a bag.

    The kicker is:  the treats come from a place in Delaware!

    How they got there puzzles me.

    Delaware is like, well, far away!

    Our nice was here yesterday and she is from Delaware OHIO!  I know she did not leave them because I would have seen them before tonight.

    And for my latest trick, during supper prep I knocked a bowl of puppy chow onto the floor.  Not puppy chow for puppies, but the puppy chow for humans.  I swept and vacuumed up the floor and Beth spent a lot of time sniffing and looking for parts I missed....but I don't think I missed any.

    That's my life.

    Unobservant, sore, and clumsy.  Sounds like a comedy group in a retired actors home.

Peace and Love

Bad dad

 Sometimes I am not a good dad

    I let Emily's dogs out yesterday.  She has crates for some of the more rambunctious ones.  For some reason, I let Kingsley out of his crate, but when I left I put Fiona in a crate.

    Kingsley created quite the mess.

    I feel bad about it, because it was my fault.  I should have paid more attention to what dog was where.

    I have dog duty this weekend and I guarantee Kingsley will be in a crate when I leave her house!

    I don't always pay attention to the details...the "fine print" in life.  That has been a problem all  my life, or at least as much as I remember.

    I did notice today that our Nest thermostat had a "low battery" message.  I did not even know it had batteries!

    So I did the modern thing, Googled it and found a video on replacing batteries.  Took me about 2 minintes and I did not yell, scream, or drop anything.  That may be a first.

    Our niece  Laurie stopped by for a few minutes before heading back to Ohio.  Her mom, our sister in law, is in a rehab facility in Rockford but may be moved soon to one in Byron.

    It was hard on her, and on her brother, to come here and then have to leave Mom and head back to their families and jobs.

    Just hope SIL Ruth makes a speedy recovery and can join them out east.

    Dang cold today!  Currently 15 but it feels like 0.  I can attest to that every time Igo to with the dog.

    Winter.  Love it or leave it.

Peace and Love

 

Bear Down

 I am looking forward to tonight's game

    Bears vs. 49ers.  Two teams with 11-4 records.  Something has to give.

    Unfortunately my favorite team is playing a team with one of my favorite players.  I love the Brock Purdy story; last guy picked in the draft, not well known when drafted, the butt pf jokes by being named Mr. Irrelevant and then thrust into a starting role and bingo!  A star is born!

    Kind of reminds me of me.  Well, except the football player part.  And being cast into a staring role.  And doing real well.

    But he has 5 letters in his first name, just like me!

    I can't believe I am saying this:  I have had my fill of cookies!  Good grief, I have eaten a lot!  I need some real food for a couple of days.

    The last pennies were recently minted.  The mint folks  put a set of 3 coins together....a penny from Denver, a penny from Philadelphia,  a gold coin, and sold 232 sets of those at auction.  Why 232 sets?  That is how long the penny has existed.

    The last set, 232, sold for $800,000!

    And folks think the rich should not be taxed more than they are.  People who can spend that much on a coin collection can certainly pony up some coin in taxes.

    Speaking of taxes, I have a taxing problem!

    I am assuming the ground squirrels are the culprits in this....not sure what else would be in the yard.  That would explain why the hawk hangs around so much.

    Oh oh.....gotta get ready for the game

    Where did I put my orange paint?

Peace and Love

These critters have dozens of holes in my yard!  And there are highways between them!!

My train tree

I hope you an read the poem

Hard to believe it is Christmas time!  Where's the snow??