Oh the world the super rich live in

One of stupidest remarks made to a not so rich person by a quite rich person is "money can't buy you happiness. etc, etc. Maybe not but being rich will do until something better comes along. and then maybe spend the night at a days inn or maybe this.

bring on the icebreakers

Since the leaves are mostly disposed of, all I have to do is wait for that first snow removal from my driveway. Last year was a mild winter for we here in the midwest. Lake Erie did not freeze up like it usually does. I don't know where the picture was taken but some winters it is possible to walk across our lake if you have the stamina and/or courage. I don't know why you would want to unless you have a daughter living on the other side of the lake in New York state.

three stooges

It might be a good idea to let this group play through

Raking-A job from hell

DARN! I was so proud of what I did. I raked up the remaining leaves and there was a lot of them out of the back yard, and adding a good deal more from my driveway and finally a ton more from the front yard. I had a pile to be proud of. I still had some energy, and I was hoping for a "good job" from Hazel so I fired up the mulching machine and went over the back yard into the front yard until it was a job I was (1) glad it was done and (2) it turned out not bad, and then number three came in that night, wind preceding the first of the season SNOW. I woke up to leaves completely covering the driveway and some of the leaves that I had raked were back for a second go at me.

Stuart Woods DOING HARD TIME

I'm finishing up Stuart Woods latest DOING HARD TIME. It is good as usual, but he's knocking off more than his usual amount of characters this time. It's should be called character one or character two and so on, I hardly got to know you. I like Woods like I used to like Robert B. Parker, you can fly through his stuff enjoying the trip.

1949, probably a west coast vending machine

CHOCOLATE potato chips, Oh be still my heart or to be more precise stomach

I do love chocolate, I admit it. Today I am adding to my schedule a pleasurable, I hope, stop at Target's to pick up a package of a new chocolaty delight. Target said the vendor will have them in the store today. I will report on the results {someone has to do it)

Human beings for sale

As aborrant as it was, it still is shocking to see evidence of the fact that we openly sold other human beings as if they were a head of lettuce.

November

November No sun - no moon! No morn - no noon - No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day. No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, No comfortable feel in any member - No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! - November! Thomas Hood

Another painting gone missing.  Experts value it at a million dollars.  Norman Rockwell's critics rate him along with Andrew Wyeth as not just exactly a painter, maybe a illustrator, but whatever I always like his work seen in the thirties and forties in the Saturday Evening Post.  Here is the missing one.

Techies Unite

I don't understand 98,5 percent of what the techies come up with, but it does not diminish my enjoyment of their labors.  Pinterest has a great technology section.  Take a look. That little gizmo casts a keyboard on any flat surface.

Fourth of July fireworks

The Fourth of July, a little cookout stuff, a little break from rain (an everyday occurrence these days, and a little baseball. All of these are good for your health, except perhaps the baseball. Within a matter of ten minutes or maybe less the home team went from a five run lead to all tied up. I'm devastated. Ten minutes later, good guys up. Crack, one run ahead, crack two runs ahead. I really have to put this game in perspective. In between losing the five run lead, and catching up the next inning, I have threatened to never watch them again, write nasty letters, and wondering what sort of devil worshippers that other ball team must be.

Thanks Mr. Engelbart

Douglas C. Engelbart, Inventor of the Computer Mouse, Dies at 88 Douglas C. Engelbart, a visionary scientist whose singular epiphany in 1950 about technology’s potential to expand human intelligence led to a host of inventions — among them the computer mouse — that became the basis for both the Internet and the modern personal computer, died on Tuesday at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 88. Some inventions we're thankful for, and some maybe not. This one, especially the wireless, gets my thank you.

A way to stay in touch

My Florida son contacted his mom today that he read a little story I wrote some time back. I couldn't remember the story so I went back and found it. My son Mike has a great sense of humor, always has, and he found the story and forwarded this; "it brought some moisture to my organs of sight." Maybe you had to be there as they say. but we love him so we're a good audience. Secondly, Hazel my wife has come in possession of a cell phone and she loves it. She has turned into a pretty fair techie. She loves it because she can keep in touch with her kids (3 grown people through text and pics.) I have no desire to go the cell phone way, but keeping in touch is desirable so I'm thinking about bringing the Reader out of mothballs. I feel kind of excited, I hope this pans out.

the duke had a good singing voice

Now here is a pleasant surprise.  Dean Martin and the duke John Wayne decide to sing a duet.  Now tell me after listening if you were not surprised also.

I got a new toy, a IPOD.  It's a little bit of a challenge reading the small print with old eyes, but I love it.  I hope to take some pics with the camera.  If I do, I will post them in the IMAGES blog.  Here is the address: http://jimkitt-images.blogspot.com/

The girls and boys of summer

 

Try this to enlarge it enough to enjoy what the author has to sayhttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/03/books/review/05meyerowitz.html?nl=books&emc=edit_bk_20120803


I don't know if these illustrious literary bunch really had a love for the game, but the picture and the article from the New York Times Book section is amusing and they probably could play baseball better than my local favorites the Indians.  Sorry guys, I love you but get real you need more talent at half the positions.  I'll continue watching you and yelling at the television set, but it really is not much fun when all chance of October play is out of reach at the end of July.

So it looks like my favorite nine have decided that playing well for half a season is good enough.  Except for my fav two tribesmen up the middle, Jason Kipnis at second and Michael Brantley out in center the rest can mail it in.  The journeymen they hired as tempo's, Damon and Lowe could not get it cranked up enough and have been sent packing.  Our interests on the north  coast now turn, ahead of its proper season to our football team.  We can brag that our gridiron group is the costliest bunch to play anywhere, one Billion dollars.  They say that the new owner is a hands on kind of guy.  For the amount of bucks he anted up I hope he is.  Lack of money has always been a Cleveland problem whatever the season.

Trying to finding a cool breeze

This summer has been a scorcher we will all agree I think.  It is also afleeting (is that a good word?)  Hazel's gardens have ended up some good and some not.  The farmers in our part of the country were expecting good crops, but the heat has put it to them also.  The lot of a farmer has to be bad on their stomachs being so reliant on what the weather throws their way.  A tough lot they all are.

Here is what has turned out well in Hazels flower gardens, she takes a good pic also.

Big Soda and in our faces government

I know I must be getting old, I seem to take current events with a shrug and a oh well.  Hazel, the woman I live with, is another matter all together.  She still has some fire that can generate anger when certain things happen that seem stupid to her.  For instance, the latest brouhaha taking place in NYC concerning our right to drink as much sugared soda as we want.  Hazel believes vehemently that we have the right to guzzle it until it gushes out of our ears if we so wish.  I do too actually, but about all I can generate in the way of anger is not much.  I can generate a smile over the stupidity of it all, but not enough to think of marching or picketing the mayors house.  This cover of the New Yorker by Owen Smith is great.  It took me a moment to to get it, but it's great.