I have one of the original Amazon Echo's ever made. It's a round black tube and I got it from an early Amazon program back in 2014, well before the public. And she still works great!

I am constantly asking her about everything! If I don't know how to spell a word, she knows. Her wakeup word is "Computer", which I love. I am very glad that I have lived long enough to enjoy this experience!

As I was watching my little white squirrel eat from the seed board on my porch, I asked her about "Albino Squirrels" and she said they are very rare!

How blessed am I to have this new little rare friend hanging out daily on my porch. And the baby groundhogs down by the creek!

The boys were hanging out below the bird feeder this afternoon. I assume they're boys, but what do I know?

Maybe they're a couple, and soon we will have bi-racial baby squirrels running around my front yard!

Whatever, I embrace them, love them, and support them. No woke shit here, at the bottom of Tennessee!

OMG Update: My wise friend and neighbor suggested that maybe they are parent and child! This makes so much sense!

Sometimes my house feels like this, but not lately. Moses is still caring for his dad at the hospital up the street, and drops on by. Daniel comes over and gives me a bad time. Last night the two of them met, it was a wonderful clash!

They're Harley guys, both born and raised around here, and maybe someday we can do a charity ride together.

Beats the hell out of:

I've got a new visitor in my yard, it's an albino squirrel! I have two little brown buddies that battle the birds for the feed I put on the board on my porch, and raid the feeder, but this one is new. And very pretty!

It just stuck it's nose into my house to say hi, how cool!

I had the pleasure of hanging out with my friends at Crockett Shoals Tubing this morning. The tube handling boys are back, and full of it as usual. I got them up to speed with the patching techniques I developed last Summer, and they will do fine.

I met the new driver that Elizabeth hired, his name is Chris and he's a former long-haul trucker. I drove, and showed him the route, along with the various emergency pick-up spots along the creek. He's a nice guy, but I have to say, I only understood half of what he said.

He has a really strong country accent, and I was trying really hard, but when you have spent the bulk of your life on the West Coast, decoding these down home accents is challenging for me sometimes.

I told him that half of his riders would be ladies in bathing suits. He understood and accepted that... I wish him the best and I really hope he works out this Summer. It's a great fun job!

My little dead-end street on Shoal Creek is a great walking area. It's like having a private park, and this spot is a short distance from my front door.

Unfortunately I'm walking like an old man these days. My lower back is locking up on me, and it's difficult to move.

I had a skin cancer thing removed from my chin yesterday, autopsy pending. Then I picked up some circular band aids today to hide the hole in my face.

I'm making myself available to the tubing company tomorrow, get the boys up to speed on the patching techniques I worked up last year, and do some old school bus driving training, if they found someone.

I just want my friends there to know that OldManJim is not up to the speed he has been in the past. If you see me walking funny, understand why. I'm not coming on as a full time employee, just as a consultant, because I like the heck out of all of you.

I told Elizabeth I would be available for driving this Summer if they get in a bind, and I'm in town. I can still drive, I just may be a little slow getting to the seat!

I have no doubt that my baby grand-daughter is going to grow into a beautiful red-headed woman! Hang on, Riley and Jess!

I got a text this morning from grand-daughter Shelby as she was driving to work. She spotted a big charter bus with Lawrenceburg, TN on the back, and sent me a picture.

These folks are a good sized company, based out of my little town, so I dropped by on the way to a duck feeding, they're just down Buffalo Rd. I walked in the door and was met by a lovely young lady and a nice guy, both behind desks with computer screens.

I told them Shelby spotted one of their busses in DC and they said they have several up there right now. Very nice people and it's a small world!

Here's their website.

I was looking over my YouTube video stats today, and was surprised to see Steph scraping snow off our roof in Idaho came in at 104,902 views, behind Mexican Dancing Horses at 128,377. Next closest was Steph weed whacking at 16,435 views.

It's funny how YouTube videos propagate. That one of me and Madeline feeding the ducks got a whole bunch of hits, and comments. One lady said she had a rough day with nurse exams, had no idea how that video ended up in her feed, but loved it and it made her day.

But the Horses video remains king at views and comments.

Now I'm trying to set a record for most vitamins consumed by a human in a single day. My doctor CJ at the clinic said I need to take vitamins to solve my leg pains, so I researched the best, and bought them on Amazon.

Then I had that cool free CVS offer based on my medical plan, and bought a bunch more.

Now I put them out on a paper plate at night before I crash, and take them all in the morning. I also have two prescriptions for Parkinsons in the mix.

Videos:

Mexican Dancing Horses

Roof Snow

Weed Whacking

Feeding Company

I got an email the other day offering up a cheap Radar Detector for just a few bucks if you jumped on it right away, so I thought hey, I need one of those, so I jumped.

Then I realized that I had opened that email from my trash and thought Oh No, did I just give my card number to a spammer? Fortunately, I used my local card, so I checked my balance online and saw that $7.97 had been charged.

I immediately called my bank and canceled the card, then requested a new one. None of my bills use that card, so no big deal, and I got the new one the next day.

I figured I was out eight bucks, no big deal, and forgot about it. Then a cheap Chinese radar detector showed up today. Really...

I did some research and learned that most police departments are using Lidar these days, which are laser speed guns, rather than radar. which makes a standard radar detector useless. The unit says Laser on it, but I ain't buying it.

I also learned that some cops use Radar Detector Detectors. They can spot vehicles that use them. I guess I really did waste eight bucks! Besides, I'm an old guy, driving an old truck, and I don't speed, much...

My friend Elizabeth is the manager of Crockett Shoals Tubing Company, a place I have worked for, over two Summers as both a driver and a tube patcher.

They need a driver and are actively looking, as Memorial Day is rapidly approaching. I've been texting with Liz about her position that the driver be able to back up a small school bus with a trailer behind. My position is that it's a circular route, and to lower that requirement. Update: Elizabeth convinced me otherwise, citing two emergency pickup locations, that require backing...

I've driven that bus, and I have backed up with that trailer. I consider myself a professional driver with decades of experience, and that combination of vehicle and trailer backing, should be avoided at all costs.

I also spent a great afternoon with the big boss Ricky, who dropped by my place yesterday, plopped down into my other big comfortable chair, and shot the shit with me for quite a while. We talked about the business, and cruising, he's taken fifteen with Carnival!

I apologized for initially committing to driving this Summer, the truth is I'm not up for it now. I was in great shape last Summer as I patched tubes in the back. I would have rather driven, but that's what they needed!

I have agreed with both Elizabeth and Ricky to be a backup driver, if I'm here when they need me this Summer.

I have also proposed a wonderful route to the drop spot here on my dead end street, just down from my house, on Shoal Creek.

It involves a nice little run down to Frisbee Park, a right up the hill and then a left into the Square. The driver will ask if anyone has ever been to Lawrenceburg Tennessee. What a perfect opportunity to act as a city ambassador for our city, with the wonderful little shops downtown and the David Crockett cabin on the right.

Cross over the railroad tracks and follow them to the right, until the road veers to the left onto Highway 43. The visibility both ways on this busy highway is great, with a short little jog over to Lee St, and the drop.

Next Friday I have agreed to train a driver, if they hopefully find one, and this is my lesson. I'll also be getting the boys up to speed with tube patching.

I love the folks at Crockett Shoals Tubing Company, I wish them a very successful season. and if I can help out this year, great!

I decided to drive to the Park on this beautiful Southern Tennessee morning to establish the fact that the ducks recognize my truck. Sure enough, as soon as I pulled in they spotted me, and came running.

There was a family setting up for some fishing and as soon as I sat down, three young boys, I assume brothers, ran over to join in.

It was a pretty hectic scene as I let the boys try to feed them, the camera was going all over and it's not one of my best cinematic efforts, but still a fun watch!

Last October I contacted our local animal shelter and volunteered to be a dog walker. They never took me up on it.

The place is on the back road I take to get to the Park, and I pass it daily. Down at the highway they have a big sign saying the animal shelter is Coming Soon. It's been there for years.

The other day I had a Nashville WSMV4 TV news vehicle turn in front of me, right at that sign, and now that shelter is all over the news.

Turns out, they're blowing it big time, and it pisses me off that they didn't take me up on that offer. I was up for the walking and enjoying the dogs, which are now suffering. And Lawrenceburg is looking bad!

Here's the news video, and my October post.

I gave my 1988 Mazda B2200 her every other year tuneup today, new cap and rotor, new fuel filter, cleaned and oiled the Weber carb filter. Tomorrow, new spark plugs and high quality windshield wipers.

I messed up the plug to distributer sequence, so I contacted my automotive genius son Riley. Within a minute he had a diagram in my text feed, the sequence was 1,2,4,3. I then figured out which was 1, and she is now purring like an old cat.

I've got 240K miles on that truck, and I would love to get another 240K. I have taken very good care of her since I bought her from Riley many years ago.

I had a Driggs, ID mechanic strip all of the emission controls off the engine when I lived there. He then installed a Weber carb and a header. It was a game changer for my old truck!

I had a great stereo system installed, and the bed in the back of my canopy is a custom memory foam install that I love to sleep on!

Within the last year I've had new brakes and shocks installed, along with some great tires. She's ready for a road trip!

I talked to a local detailer today about power washing the engine compartment, and he said I would have to take responsibility for any component failures afterwards. I'll pass, she's old and greasy, and that's the way she will stay!

Her name is Jill, because she lived with my big old black truck named Jack, back in Idaho.

I wonder if I'm being cat-fished on behalf of my daughter Becky. We have not actually talked on the phone, just texted. I talked to my grand-daughter Shelby, and she said the same thing.

Shelby maintains that her mother Becky exists, because of posts from men in her life from Facebook, which could easily be faked, and I'm seriously beginning to wonder what's real!

I think my bridges are burned, you apply too much heat and they crumble into ashes! My only real friend is my neighbor Daniel, and we've spent the evening playing with his many concealed carry handguns.

We have talked about family and hatred. He hates his dad and his ex-wife. He has nothing to do with his mom. They are all still alive and I am sad at his emotions.

I hate nobody. God I wish my mom and dad were alive. They were both wonderful people, and I loved them.

It looks like my buddies at the tubing company are doing a test float down the creek today.

I pulled up to my house and spotted that very familiar little yellow bus at the end of my deadend street. The launch spot is right here, so if I'm home I get to watch the tubers drive by, and I can walk down below my house, sit in my folding chair, and watch them float on by.

Maybe I'll drive this bus again, a few days this Summer, in a backup position.

After the death of an old friend, Albert Einstein wrote Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Einstein continues to be proven right about everything. My older friend of 52 years, Skoge, died one time for a bit, and came back. She saw the other side, said it's real, and they are all there.

Comforting words for an old man on his way to finding out, sooner than later.

So the secret to a happy old life is to accept that there is more than this, not worry about it, and make as many connections with the people you love here, sooner than later!

So, on my bucket list, besides seeing my boy Riley and family one more time, and my sisters family in Idaho, is to visit every one of my fourteen grandkids, their mother, and their children. Also get legally stoned with Skoge and Grant in Sacramento.

I can meet up with grand-daughter Shelby, my daughter, and my boys family, if we stick to their trip down here to the South, in July.

Then I can make one more road trip West in my old truck...

My friend Skoge suggested I get a dog, or a cat. I told her Piper was the last cat I would ever have.

Taking an animal into your life is a major commitment, you agree to love and care for them until they die, or you do.

I think that's the problem. If I got a young dog, it would outlive me, and then what would happen to them? An older dog would have both of us bumping up against the fence, and I just couldn't take losing another pet.

Piper's passing broke my heart, badly.

I'll tell you what I really need, is a hot 18 year old illegal immigrant girl showing up at my door looking for a place to live. I'll teach her English instead of how to heel. I'll help her get legal, she can cook taco's for us!

Maybe I should start a web site that hooks up the millions of illegals, who are now in this country with no restrictions or resources, thanks to Joe, with citizens willing to help them out.

But I digress...

Loneliness sucks. I had one of those days where I didn't speak to anyone, until Daniel got back from work at 1535. He makes himself a Gin and Tonic, comes over and plops in his chair in front of my big TV, and we chat about our day while watching Fox News.

Today he brought his tablet over to watch TikTok and Pinterest and I had to work to pry some conversation out of him. Hey, I value his friendship and his company very much, but today was tough...

I was going through my many videos on YouTube, the TV recordings of my life, but couldn't grab his interest. He split, and I just continued on, reliving the moments that I've captured visually.

Communication with a friend is a carefully crafted state of mutual response, and listening. You are allowed to speak your mind, while giving the other person the space to respond, and it works both ways.

Some friends don't get it and they just continue to babble on and on about their life, without respecting yours. When you try to interject your position, it's blown off if it doesn't reinforce theirs.

This isn't about Daniel, we communicate pretty well, depending on the level of intoxication. I'm just making a statement about That Friend, and you know who they are...

I was driving in the park this morning, listening to our local radio station The X, when a sweet southern voice introduced herself as a 911 operator here in town. She was talking about emergencyprofile.org, a web service you can sign up for, and enter your important information.

When you call 911 from your cell phone, the operator will see the information you provided, on their screen. Such as:

• Name.

• Address.

• Age.

• Contact info (phone/email).

• Emergency contacts (phone/email).

• Medical conditions.

• Anything else you would like a 911 operator to know.

The sign up procedure sucks on a phone, so if you do it, use a laptop or computer.

I'm getting hooked on Perdue Chicken. It's quality, free range chicken, and they're dropping the Dino shaped nuggets, so they were on sale today.

Dipped in sugar free Yum Yum sauce, they make a great snack.

And I seriously modified my Summer plans this morning. I've been having second thoughts to committing myself to a full time driving job.

When I texted the manager Elizabeth about the days of the week we would be running, and she said it wasn't firmed up yet, I realized if I was going to bail on a commitment, now would be the time.

She asked if I would be willing to be a backup driver if I was in town, and I said absolutely. I then texted the boss man Ricky, and he was fine with that. I trust they will find someone shortly. It's a fun job, maybe just for a younger person.

So, to my family and a Florida hookup this Summer, I'm back on the table!

I removed two branches from the tree that holds my bird feeder recently. Actually, they were cut by Daniel with a large set of trimmers.

The purpose was to keep the squirrels from jumping onto the feeder. It didn't work.

Now I notice that the tree is hurt. It almost looks like tears are falling from the point it lost it's limbs. I look at this, and I feel bad.

My grand-daughter Ariella has a best friend named Addy. They have grown up together, and how cute is this!

I just put myself out there for a summer job. I saw that Crockett Shoals Tubing was looking for a driver, so I reached out to their manager, and my friend, Elizabeth, and offered my services.

I drove for them three years ago, and had a great time. Last year they needed a tube patcher, and I stepped up and did that grueling job.

I told the big boss Ricky that I was not going to patch tubes this year, and I figured that was it. Then I saw the driver job opening.

I really wasn't planning on working this summer, my main goal was to hook up with family down in Pensacola at the end of July.

But a summer job would do me good. I drive people, that's what I've been doing for the last thirty years. Driving an old yellow fourteen passenger school bus, towing a trailer full of float tubes, up and down Shoal Creek, is a great job!

I would have drove last season, but all they needed was a tube patcher.

So, we will see where this goes. If they make an offer, I'll have to scramble with family, and work out an alternative to a late July meet up.

Update: Ricky offered me the job, and I have accepted!

I met Dawn Beckmeyer in the late seventies down in Carmel Valley, CA. Her family lived local and she worked at the place I was developing an accounting system on an IBM Sys-3 Mod 10 for, a new startup called Flasher Fashions.

She was not your typical looking woman. She had a square face with a smile and energy that melted everyone she met and just radiated positivity. Her very first orgasm was on top, in my Pacific Grove apartment. We fell in love.

For several years we had a great time and traveled a lot. We ended up in a nice place up in the Oakland Hills, and I was happy to have her for a partner.

One day, she sat me down in that apartment and broke up with me. She said she was going to become a cloistered nun in a remote Northern California monastery. WTF? Damned if she didn't do it, and it broke my heart.

She also told me that I was the love of her life. So, you experience that, and then become a nun?

Many years later I made contact with her there by mail, and she was happy and fulfilled. She was the cook for a monastery full of nuns, women who had bailed on conventional life, just to worship god.

That was a very tough breakup for me, and I've had a few. Things fell apart after, and I ended up making some bad decisions.

Oh well, if that hadn't happened I would never have hooked up with Riley's mom, so all things work towards the right place.

But still...

Today was my big doctors appointment, so after breakfast on the Square I picked up my donut order from Sunrise Bakery.

It was 0830 and my appointment wasn't until 1130, so I decided to drop the donuts by Fast Pace medical then, instead of right before lunch.

It turns out the Family Nurse Practitioner (CJ) was sick, and all appointments were canceled. I asked the lady at the front desk if I could go back and deliver the donuts to the staff and she said sure!

They were all very appreciative to have donuts mid-morning from the best bakery south of Nashville.

Update: I called Fast Pace back to make a new appointment, and was told that CJ had recovered and I could keep my 1130 appointment. She was absolutely amazing! I have never had a doctors office visit as thorough and as thoughtful as the one I just experienced.

She was also dealing with her own issue of Vertigo, so she called in a nurse during the physical examination, just in case we both fell.

She believes the problems with my legs may be a vitamin deficiency, complicated by my Parkinsons and alcohol consumption. She also said that when I'm ready to quit drinking and get back in shape, she has a med to help deal with the withdrawals.

I'm picking up the recommended vitamins, and seeing her again in three weeks. Did I mention she was wonderful!!

My Review.

And they loved the donuts!

I went to bed tonight around 2015, relatively sober, and just laid there and thought about everything. So I decided to get up and write.

Nights have been really tough lately. The Parkinsons vibrations are strong and the pain in my legs is messing with my sleep. I last about a half hour on each side before the pain wakes me up and I roll over.

And, when I lay on my right side, my rotator cup stuff hurts. As a result, deep REM sleep is gone, and sleep in general is shot.

I finally have an appointment tomorrow with my Primary Care doctor at the Fast Pace clinic up the street. Usually I deal with the lovely ladies that run the place, but this is with their main PC. I know they take this seriously, her time is valuable, and they have bugged me a bunch about being there. Trust me, I'm there.

The primary purpose is to discuss my very high blood pressure, and maybe put me on some meds. I'm currently taking just two pills for Parkinsons.

But I want to address other issues. This is my one shot to talk to a real doctor, why is my ability to walk going south, why does my lower back seize up and make me fall down? And talk about alcoholism...

This little clinic right up the road has been there for me several times over the almost five years I've lived here. The ladies are sweet, compassionate, and I appreciate them very much.

So, I'm stopping at the Sunrise Bakery here in town and picking up a dozen assorted fresh baked pastries tomorrow. I will carry the box into the back, and set it on their counter before I head to a cubicle. Sweets for the sweet!

I'll take a photo of the box and post it tomorrow!

A hundred thousand Swifties were up in Nashville last night as strong thunderstorms rolled through. The last performance was finally at midnight, and imagine waiting four hours for that show, staying up all night in the rain, then dealing with BNA the next morning trying to get home!

I just heard about a couple of ladies that paid $2,000 a piece for tickets to see Taylor, only to have their show cancelled. Now they have to scramble for refunds.

Here's a breakdown of the Taylor Swift fan demographics:

I really hate taking life. Today I was trying to chase a small wasp out of the house with a fly swatter, and hit him too hard. He fell to the floor mortally wounded, and I had to finish him off. I then told his dead wasp body that I was sorry.

When I find an insect in my house, I capture it and escort it out the front door. Last year I had a mouse in the house and had to take it out with a trap. I felt very bad for days.

Back in Idaho, Steph talked me into taking out a beautiful woodpecker that was doing it's thing on one of our trees. I rested the pellet gun up against our log home, sighted it in, and dropped it to the ground. Never listen to a woman when she tells you to take a life!

It's a really hypocritical position to take I suppose, since I still eat animals and fish that have been killed by others. I guess I can only just hold myself accountable, as I try to survive.

I grabbed a closeup of one of our groundhog babies poking it's head out the hole this morning. It's a little blurry, but still cute.

I hung out at the New Prospect Volunteer Fire Department today with Daniel, his wife, his oldest son and his girlfriend, and a young friend of theirs.

It was the annual fund raising fish fry and this makes the third year in a row I've come here. For $15 you get a generous portion of catfish, fries, hush puppies, coleslaw, baked beans, desert (I had the banana pudding) and a drink.

Update: It's been a great Saturday, watched the Kentucky Derby then had drinks up at Stetar's, with some fine bluegrass, and nice people.

Living just down the road from Nashville is a hoot. There are ten different events going on this weekend, with a half million tourists expected in town.

The biggest event is the Taylor Swift concert. Hundreds of Swifties have been camping out in a line overnight, just to buy stuff off her Merc Truck when it arrives today.

I personally can't stand the girl. I don't like her look, her attitude or her music.

I wrote four blog posts yesterday, on totally different topics. I love to write, it's a substitute for creating code.

My big programming rig sits quietly in the other room, my old friend with the giant monitor, lighted keyboard, and powerful processor. I used to spend many hours in that chair over the almost five years I've lived here.

But, even though I considered my code brilliant at the moment, nothing stuck. And stickiness is what defines reality. So I quit coding.

Now I just write, from my little keyboard on the little Acer laptop that sits on my table in my little house at the end of a dead end street in a little town at the bottom of Tennessee.

And, I just had a great breakfast in the Square (yea, one of the places on my boycott list) with my neighbor, his wife Jen, her dad Norman and his wife Kay. It's good to get out and about and talk to folks! The old Southern lady Kay was talking about cutting the legs off of frogs to eat them, and then burying the bodies, only to find the dirt moving the next day. What a way to go, have your legs cut off and then buried alive! Count me in! OMG...

I was discussing AR-15's with my neighbor Daniel, who owns two of them, and he asked me if I knew what AR stood for.

I assumed Automatic Rifle, and he said no, nor does it stand for Assault Rifle.

It actually is an abbreviation for the inventer and initial manufacturer of the rifle, ArmaLite, Inc, back in the fifties. The fifteen stands for the final version.

It wasn't selling well so they sold their design to Colt, who acquired a contract with the U.S. military, and it became the standard issue to Vietnam troops during that war. It was known as the M-16.

Colt's patent expired in the seventies, and multiple weapons manufacturers jumped on it and created their own version, and AR-15 became the generic name for the gun. Ironically ArmaLite, the creator, is still in business and is selling a variety of styles of their own invention.

The NRA estimates there are eight million AR-15's in circulation, and I would say that 99.9999 percent are in homes for self defense, not for school shootings.

Banning this rifle is futile and foolish. Imagine prying them from the hands of eight million law abiding patriotic Americans. You want to talk about a blood bath?

There has to be a solution to keeping them unavailable to deranged people, but outright banning the ArmaLite version 15 ain't going to work!

The Second Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

America was built upon it's Constitution and Amendments. It's the vehicle that gives you the ability to thrive here, and have the right to bitch about gun laws! But you cannot override it, because to do so, leads to tyranny.

Back when I lived in Teton Valley, Idaho, I drove a Paratransit bus for an outfit called TRPTA (Targhee Regional Public Transportation Authority).

They were based down in Idaho Falls, and occasionally my partner Karen and I would be called there to attend a company meeting.

We would take one of our busses based in Driggs, and head down after work.

Somehow, I always ended up sitting next to Lindsey. She was an office lady there, married with kids, and we had a connection. Nothing sexual, we just enjoyed each other.

She would loop her arm through mine sometimes and rest her head against my shoulder. These were good sized meetings, with about forty or fifty drivers there, and I can't imagine what they thought. We didn't care, Karen was gay, and she would just roll her eyes and smile. :-)

TRPTA went out of business a while after I left them. My friend Amanda, the boss lady, was unfortunately full of shit. I had a long career as a Paratransit supervisor with two large companies back in Seattle, and one day she invited me into her office and diagramed her vision for the company on her blackboard.

She had a real talent for spinning bullshit, that fooled a lot of people, but I knew it was nonsense. She was my friend, I let it slide, and the company eventually imploded.

But at least I made a friend named Lindsey!

I haven't had any coffee for several months now, actually the only time I drink it is on road trips, and it's usually rotgut stuff from a gas station.

I was in downtown Lawrenceburg, TN and I had the craving today, so I asked Goggle. Turns out there was a coffee shop just South of the Square in a beautiful old house. In fact, if it wasn't for the tiny little sign near the street, you wouldn't know.

As I turned the old doorknob, I wasn't even sure if they were open. I was greeted with a bustling scene of attractive young women, and kids. I asked the lady at the counter if this was normal, and she said yes, it's a gathering spot for young mom's to get together in the morning with their children.

She made me an espresso style black coffee, with a double cup and a straw, and it was delicious! The address is 205 S Military Ave, if you're in the neighborhood.

I am convinced that Amazon is running a scam. Do you ever wonder where those movie clips on TicTok come from? This is copyrighted material, but it's all over that app.

Here's how it works. I'm scrolling through TicTok, pausing to watch an interesting movie clip, then I click the comments to determine the movie name.

If I find it, I bring up NetFlix, a service I pay for, and all of their content is included for that price, but the movie is never there.

Prime Video on the other hand comes with my Prime membership, and offers a lot of included content. When you go looking for that movie, it's always there, but for the additional rental fee of $3.99, plus tax.

I fell victim to that yesterday, as I have before. I wanted to watch Dreamer with Dakota Fanning as a young girl who races a horse in the Breeders Cup. So I clicked the Rent Now button, and watched it for $4.37.

I think Amazon is finding great movies that are not on NetFlix or other platforms, putting clips on TicTok designed to capture your interest, then making them available on Prime Video at a price.

It's a Scam!

I just saw on TV the result of a major poll, asking "What's the best State in the Country to live in"? The result blows my mind! I'll bet if given twenty guesses, you wouldn't get it!

The answer, Utah! They even had a picture of the Salt Lake City skyline on the screen as they announced it.

Are you kidding me? That state is just south of Idaho, and I've driven down it many times on the way to Vegas, and my favorite places in Arizona. It's barren ass country untill you get to SLC, and I've visited that city many times. It's just as bad as any big city when it comes to crime and drugs.

And it's Mormon land, the big Temple is there, this is crazy. Idaho is way better than Utah. South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming are Paradise compared to Utah! How about Florida?

I just remembered something, I lived in that city when I was five, before moving to California. Wow, I used to live in the best State in the Country, now I live in the greenest State in the land of the free!

My bird feeder, and the seed board on my porch, have become pretty popular. I have a wide variety of regulars that show up, and I leave my door open all day, with no screen, just to enjoy them.

But I can't keep the squirrels off my bird feeder. I thought they were jumping there from nearby tree branches, so those were removed, but they're still getting up there.

I figured they may be jumping straight up, so I researched that and sure enough, they can jump that high.

I'll try to raise the feeder up closer to the line, but I don't have much faith that it will work.

I like squirrels, but they've developed a real craving for this bird seed, and keep wiping me out. I may have to borrow one of my neighbors AR-15's, then shoot and eat them. Folks here say they taste pretty good, and now they're all fattened up!

I spend my days pacing around my little house, watching streaming video. I rebuilt my bed today, flipping both sheets to avoid the laundry mat for a while.

I saw an ad on Paramount+ for Perdue chicken, free range and no antibiotics, so I broke my several year chicken boycott, and bought a big bag of strips. I also grabbed some new sugar free dipping sauce called Yum Yum from G Hughes. It was the highlight of my day yesterday.

I visited my duck buddies at the park this morning, it's been a while. They were hunkered down sleeping in the grass when I pulled in. I let out my quack quack call and they jumped up and came a waddling. It was great to see them and hand feed them some quack cocaine, which I carry in my truck at all times.

My dad gave me some pocket change ($107) today. The royalties from his old family gas well show up in my mailbox when they go over a $100. If I last the next couple years I may get some decent scratch from a multi-million lawsuit from the well. That's got long cruise written all over it!

I don't shower as much as I should, because it doesn't matter. It's also my biggest fear to fall in the shower, and break a hip with no phone in there to call 911. Besides, having a bunch of paramedics hauling my naked ass off the floor, to the hospital, is not on my bucket list. I think I would rather just lay there until Daniel got home. If I don't answer the door, he knows the codes to get in.

I ain't looking for no sympathy here, I'm just writing and saying what's real. That's what blogging is all about. I wish I could be talking about a new website, workouts at the gym, or a new lady! But that ain't the reality...