The absence of caffeine in my body has led to an amazing improvement in my sleep. I hit the bed nightly at 1930, asleep within a few minutes and wake up at 0400 sharply. Wide awake, no coffee needed.

I'm having amazingly realistic dreams and my smart watch is measuring REM sleep in hours vs minutes. Last night I got up to pee in the middle of a dream and stood there thinking I want to go back in, and damned if I didn't continue that dream when I hit the bed, right where I left off!

I even dealt with sore knees that were trying to mess with my sleep. I guess yesterdays eighty squats and seven miles didn't sit well with my old joints. Suck it up boys.

btw: Ida is expected to come right over my head tomorrow morning, I'll try to shoot some video...

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Some folks have a couple of drinks in the evening to take the edge off. What I have come to realize is, the alcohol is the edge they're trying to remove. Your body expects it and puts the edge on until it gets it. Take away the booze and the edge goes away!

Caffeine and sugar also have their edges. I noticed when I was down in Belize recently the first thing I needed to do when I woke up was to wander into town in a desperate search for a hot cup of coffee. Fortunately my sugar addiction was kicked many years ago.

Sadly the folks here in Tennessee don't give a shit about edges, for the most part. I've lived in a lot of places but I have never seen such a disregard for obesity as I do here. It is the norm, and it ain't pretty.

I've seen a few cases at the gym or on the trail where people are trying to slim down, but the energy exerted is not up to the task. You really have to work at it, hard. I've been busting my ass to drop a measly ten pounds around my waistline, and succeeding. Crissinda dropped a bunch of weight from last summer with a vigorous exercise program, very proud of her.

The bottom line: eat healthy, no sugar, caffeine, booze or drugs, work out hard, walk a bunch of miles every day. Get your pride back!

Met up with Crissinda and her kids this morning for a sweaty three miles around the path. It was great to chat in person while the two older ones rode bikes, and she pushed the little one in a stroller. The kids are home schooled so classes don't start for them until the normal time in September. We had a fine time and hopefully we can get a couple more in this year.

I called the City this morning about that wasp nest and a guy met me down there armed with wasp spray. The rubber thing had moved from the spot behind it where the nest was, and the wasps were gone. I just lifted it slightly yesterday so we both concluded that someone else picked it up and is in the same shape I am this morning.

Barely slept last night from the pain of multiple stings all over my body. The shot below is on the inside of my leg, next to my stuff.

For what it's worth, Daniel and I got revenge last night. He spotted an active yellow jacket nest in the ground next to my front door. He said the down home way to kill them is to wait for sunset when they're all in the nest and then pour gasoline down the hole. We did, they're all dead, and I feel good about it.

Man did I screw up! I was getting in my two afternoon laps on the trail today and I carried along a garbage bag this time to pick up the trash I've been noticing along the way. I spotted a big piece of rubber, about two feet long, and decided to pick it up. It was a wasp nest and they attacked me.

All I was wearing was shorts and shoes and they hit me from all angles as I backed up the trail screaming like a baby, killing them against my body as they stung me, until I collapsed on the grass defeated. They backed off and I stood up, knocking the last ones off my ankles, and I thought ok, if I was my neighbor Daniel, who's highly allergic to these guys, I'll be dead shortly.

I stood there in great pain, trying to figure out which one hurt worst, the one that went up my shorts and stung me on the inside of my leg, or my left ear. I thought of the Afghan vet I saw on TV this morning who put his buddies in body bags then went out the same day and disarmed bombs. You carry on, he said.

So I went back to the scene, wasp swirling around my garbage bag full of trash, grabbed it and continued on down the trail. Hell, I even got in my second lap, passing the piece of rubber one more time, wondering if they were going to recognize me.

So how am I as I sit here writing this? Sore, but ok...

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Piper is the queen of our little neighborhood as she is the only pet on the entire street, and she knows it. She doesn't get along with other animals and that's just the way it is, so when the next door neighbors moved out with their dog and cat, the neighbor across the street lost his dog to the highway, and Daniel can't have animals in his house, it all became her's.

btw: That storm yesterday killed 22 folks here in Tennessee, with 25 missing, many of them children. Very sad day here...

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Our quiet little creek gets ragein sometimes when the downpours come. No tubing today.

I've added another B to my No BB&B (booze,bud,beans{coffee}) equation. I've been consuming a lot of bananas over the last couple of years in the smoothie I make every day: three bananas, more than a dozen strawberries, plain yogurt and a scoop of protein powder. The folks at Kroger's roll their eyes every time I place a big pile of bananas on the treadmill.

It's been my main drink and while it's healthy with all that fruit, I just discovered that bananas have 150 calories each! I've been walking five miles a day to drop a few pounds to no avail and wondering why, it's the damned bananas!

There is now a big pile of bananas in my trash, I'm done and from here on out my new health regime shall be known as No BBB&B.

btw: my new drug Primidone is controlling my tremors. I take one 50mg tab in the morning, one in the evening, and the tremors while still there, are reduced to a manageable buzz. No BBB&B required...

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I've been concerned about the microchips implanted by the government into the two vaccines I had earlier this year. I read online that I should get an extension cord, cut off the end, grab both wires and plug it in. Another site said I should go the extra step and run a bath and stand in it when I do it. Thank god for the internet, damned microchips anyway...

I'll try that later this afternoon and let you know how it worked. In the meantime I'm seven days into no BB&B, working out again and feeling great. I've found a walking path nearby that's exactly one mile around and I got four laps in yesterday and shooting for more today, along with some photos.

Update: Click on my truck to see the walking path!

Many years ago, late one rainy night, I was sitting in a rundown one room apartment in Renton, WA, writing some C++ code. It was my first C program (I usually programmed in Assembly or RPG on the minis), and I was pretty stoned and getting down on it. It was an astrology app that a Bay Area friend of mine commissioned me to write for a few bucks. I had a crushed ankle from a fall and money was scarce, so I took it.

It was a pretty cool app, using all of the tricks of the astrology trade to come up with a series of numbers based on your name and birthdate. The numbers could then be compared to a database of famous people and you could see who comes close to yours. My birth name is Leigh James Riza so that’s what I plugged in and when I scrolled the screen down to see who was close, I literally fell out of my chair when I saw the results. All six numbers matched exactly with Vincent Van Gogh!

I’ve always had an affinity for Vincent and I had read everything about him I could get my hands on. I related to him as the tortured artist who was never recognized for his work. I still relate to that…

So there's an interactive Van Gogh exhibit coming to Nashville in Novemeber, and I have to go!

I bought Piper a new brush yesterday and proceeded to remove a pound of dead hair from her hot big body. (hmmm reminds me of a few women I've seen around lately...) She loved it, and is looking very pretty.

I have no idea where my older brother Dana is or wether he is still alive. Last I saw him was in a locked down nursing home in Stockton, CA and when I checked on him a couple of years ago he had been moved somewhere and when I asked where all I got was an email address for his conservator, who never responded to my emails. Dead end.

It's like the time I called my uncle John down in Texas because I hadn't heard from my dad in a while and he said oh, he died a few months ago.

What a wierd thing life is as I enter day four of no booze, bud or beans. My head is clear though, my old truck is running great and my cat is still purring. Rock on...

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In an attempt to get my tremors under control, along with a few other issues that have popped up in the last three years, I've accumulated a bunch of pills taking space in the back of my icebox.

I'm not a pill guy, I would try them out briefly to no effect, or a negative effect, and then stop. Today I decided to get rid of them so I dumped them all out on my counter and tossed the bottles.

Then I took them out and placed them under the front tire of my truck and ran over them a bunch of times.

I guess my truck is too light because it didn't work well.

So I got out grandpas hammer and pounded the shit out of them.

Now what? I thought about burying them away from the creek where it would take a long time for them to reach the water supply, and hopefully inept at that point, but I'm not sure...

Update: Thanks to advice from Jessica I threw the powder into my kitchen garbage bag and put it in my outside garbage can. Let the landfill disolve it.

I'm cleanin up and dryin out. It's time to get my body and mind back into the top of my game. Those tremor pills are working good enough to get me through the day, but we need to up the dose.

I got a call and a script from my doctors office for Vitamin B12 injections, turns out I'm seriously lacking that vitamin. The pharmacy guy asked if I'd ever given myself injections and I said I'd figure it out, got home with a bunch of needles and a tube of liquid and proceeded to totally fuck it up. Tried to open the little rubber thing with a knife so I could suck the stuff up and...

Hey, I have determined that I have a damned needle phobia anyway, and I just couldn't stick one in my stomach. That's why I'm not a heroin addict or have a tattoo. So, I threw it all away and said Plan B?

Today I went to LabCorp, had them stick a needle in my arm for blood so they can check my intrinsic factor, to see if I can absorb B12 in pill format. Sigh...

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It's kinda funny that two of my top three videos (out of 370) on YouTube are of Steph working around the house in Driggs.

Roof Snow

Mexican Dancing Horses

Weed Whacking

I mosied up to the park this morning to check out a little bench down by the dam:

I've been dealing with essential tremors for a decade or more. They never get better, always worse. It's like having a large vibrator inside your body that is always on and radiates everywhere.

Last Wednesday I went to a Neurology clinic up in Columbia and met with Amanda. She was impressed with my overall health and the fact I don't take any pharmaceuticals. She also got it that these vibrations are debilitating, and prescribed a drug called Primidone.

She recommended a half tab of 50mg every evening because it makes you drowsy. I broke one of those little suckers apart, couldn't decide which was bigger, said screw it, and popped both halves around 1600. As I read up on this stuff, that's the normal initial approach and the long-term efficacy of Primidone is 375-750 mg/day.

Around 1900 I was sitting here at my computer, petting Piper up on my desk, when I realized the vibrations had subsided big time. The web calls it reducing the amplitude of essential tremor from within the brain by suppressing the firing of some electrical shit.

I call it a gift from god...

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I notice a lot of folks around here are just waiting for their turn to die. Most are so overweight there's no going back, so they just eat what they want, finish it off with a smoke, and shorten the wait. I was walking out of Walmart this morning and an old broad was sitting in a truck parked in the front handicap stall, coughing and hacking loudly between drags on her cigarette. I mumbled Welcome to Tennessee as I strode strongly across the parking lot...

That ain't to say I'm some saint, I got my vices, but I don't walk around in a fatalistic state sayin wtf either. I want to live as long as I can and as a result I stay as healthy as possible. But, just in case my time comes up unexpectedly (I am old as dirt), I'm ready.

My LegalZoom Will is sitting on the table waiting for me to sign it in front of two witnesses. It cost $89 bucks and it's customized to Tennessee law. It contains the stuff I put in a blog post awhile back, with a few tweaks.

I don't know if I have to take it down to the courthouse and have it processed, or if it's good to go as is, but it sure feels good to know the State ain't going to take my shit.

You got a Will?

Brian had a close encounter with a large leaf in Belize.

Another beautiful grand-daughter.

Shannon and Shelby smakin the white ball.

Here's a few clips from around Shannon's home.

Shannon just moved in to her five bedroom home and is setting it up nicely. I grabbed a few shots of the downstairs along with a three inch long flying thing that was hanging out by the front door. Click on it to see the photos.

My grand daughter Shelby texted me Friday morning that she was heading up from Pensacola to Atlanta, GA to hook up with my long lost grand daughter Shannon, and invited me along. I accepted, stored my cat at the vet on Saturday morning and arrived just in time to jump in the dinner Rover with the power couples and have a memorable dinner in town.

It was my extreme pleasure to spend amazing quality time with my grand-daughters Shannon and Shelby in Atlanta, GA this weekend. This shot was taken at a luxury downtown hotel after dinner where they charged serious money just to pull a cork out of a bottle you brought in yourself.

I have a lot of video content to sort through but I wanted to get this photo up here, just to establish the fact that I am a blessed old man.