--- a chill wind blowing down Pennsylvania Avenue. N/T

$70K to walk around with a dead cat on his head?

Davy Crockett could at least afford a dead racoon.

Its almost October: Here's your SURPRISE !!!

Donny Dimwit's tax returns for your bathroom reading pleasure.

Tomorrow's another day with few choices.....

Kids are gone.

House is empty.

Places I would normally go to in order to watch fall foliage with friends, well the friends are cooped up with virus prevention. I do not look forward to a long drive in the car by myself.

This is the scenario that leads me to the casino for a loss of a couple'a hundred. I don't over-gamble. It's just a way to kill a couple of hours during mild depression.

Good day, today. Sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Temperature, low 70"s. So, I went on a hike

with my club. 6 1/2 miles with a total gain of 10 stories (as per the iPhone app).

Lot of huffing and puffing on my part as i am out of condition from not doing much hiking since March. Also I am overweight.

But I kept up and the scenery was beautiful (N.J.) with the hills of Penna. in the background. One Bald Eagle overhead... not much of a surprise since there is an Eagle's nest on the hike location's property.

Two more club hikes scheduled this week, tomorrow and Saturday. I plan to do both.

Kind of a downer day.

Last year, friends of 50 years (one is a former lover) made plans for moving out of state. They are concerned about their recent health issues and worry that they will not be able to enter an assisted living facility if they present sick. Once they move into the facility, they can transfer to nursing care if/when they become seriously ill.

They are now spending every free bit of every day painting, getting rid of most of their possessions and prepping the house for sale.

Side bit of information that gives me a smile thinking about it. As I said, Mrs. and I (open marriages) were lovers. This was for 15 years. I was a teacher in a neighboring town that was a 10 minute ride from their house. I had my teaching schedule arranged so that I had 1 1/2 hours free during the middle of school days. I would drive to her house where she would have lunch ready for me. Then we would have a "matinee" and I would go back to school with a smile on my face.

I will miss them. They will be within say, a 1 1/2 hours driving range but I don't know how often I will make that trip. I don't expect they will drive back here. I like to drive but they don't.

They have lived in the house for 55 years and are active in their community and U.U. Church. They have said many times, they will miss their friends and activities.

Its sad, knowing I will lose them.

Then, this morning, my cousin announced that he has a buyer for the building from where he runs his business. We grew up together in neighboring towns and knew we were friends when I was three and he was two years old. As we grew up, we called each other once every night....talking about tv programs, our parents, girls, school and on and on.

I didn't have siblings and he was as a brother to me. I guess the same for him, although he had three brothers.

He bought the business property in 1972. I had teaching jobs that allowed me to see him either every morning before school or afternoon, after school. I would bring coffee or whatever and we would talk about everything or nothing. We did road trips with other friends.

Anyway, he came to the realization that technology has passed his business by -- that and the problems of the economy and physical ailments. Today he announced that he found a buyer for his business property and will spend at least half of his year in his house in Vermont.

I will miss him, too.

Its not about me, complaining. Just trying to sort out where I am....78 next month.

The virus is a good part of it..... lost my housemate in July. Three of us bought the house in 1982...raised our kids in it and lived it as kind of a commune. There was the fun of our kids and their friends over the house until they became adults and moved out. The kids (and grandkids) live close so I see them every couple of weeks.

The remaining two of us still live in the house and we get along quite well.

The good thing is, money is not a problem. I ain't rich but there is a hundred or two left at the end of the month. And I have no serious health problems.

Several of my friends, we would take road trips every year.... been doing that since '98. We all felt it was a good idea to stay home this year (and maybe next year, too). I haven't seen any of them since Christmas. We talk and email and so forth. No other really close friends.

Weekends are particularly hard. No place to go, little to do. Pick weeds, get out the weed-wacker, assemble the garbage and recycling. Go to the casino just to kill a couple of hours.

I guess it was yesterday that it hit me hard... I was driving down 78 and I decided to play the tunes I had downloaded on the iPhone over the past years -- songs I enjoyed in past. The Who, The Seldom Scene, Stones and so forth. I used to play them on car cassette while driving to Maine or Massachusetts or Vermont. singing along at the top of my lungs, the freedom of the open road.

I started playing the songs and it hit me, I forgot some of the words to songs I knew every word of.

What happened to that guy?

I don't know if I will go to New England again. Not fun going by myself. I used to go with my kids and then friends.

This is what is going through my head the past few weeks.. I can't figure out how to get joy back into my life.

3 HD

New Jersey --- thinkin' of switching from AT & T to T-Mobile

Thoughts?

It ain't who votes that counts.....

Its who counts the votes (and stops the voters from voting).