"No News is Good News"

          It snowed 10 inches where I live... I hate snow and if you remember correctly I'm not supposed to be here in Connecticut.. I won't dwell on that.. I paid someone to take the snow off my car and I moved it to a clean parking place.. I have actually been home for 3 days. That is the longest period of time ever.. I'm practicing for the future because I know it will happen some day.. My Mustang needs work and I am thinking about fixing that..  I love going to the store shopping for food but now all supermarkets deliver when you order on the internet.. Its like I know what will happen and I don't like it.. I said years ago that I like my freedom..I have been hanging around with people in my building that do what I do more or less.. Change is not a nice word but when you know the end is getting closer it you really think about it.. 

"Who Me?"

    I was in the Hospital for 3 days last week for something called a Duodenal Ulceration, Anemia and Acute Kidney Injury. I have no idea how or why this happened. They don't know ether. I haven't had a sick day in many years and then this happened. One day it was a normal day then for 3 days I had a never ending slight nagging pain in my stomach.. I finally called 911 and they took me to the Hospital in a Ambulance. Can you believe that? .. I haven't been to a Hospital in years and discovered that it was a good place to be for something like this.. Didn't have Surgery but they knocked me out and did a procedure by mouth.. I'm much better now just going for blood tests and Doctors visits.. I'm on a Medication that works taking the pain away and now I can sleep at night..   I will say the Hospital was a nice experience and the Nurses and Doctors were wonderful.. So young and smart and easy to talk to.. I felt like someone special.. One night a beautiful RN came and gave me a Melatonin so I could sleep at night because I mentioned that I take one before I go to bed.. I was quite impressed by that.. Now its Blood tests and Doctors visits.. Because of Covid the Doctor called me on the phone with instructions on different things. Blood test tomorrow and Doctors appointment Dec. 1st.    And on and on it goes .... Good luck out there and God Bless..

"Is This You?"

 

Took this a while ago.. Seen your pictures and I thought just maybe.. Interesting isn't it?

"Love"

                    

                          Love…  Sometimes I wonder what that emotion really is and what are “Mixed Emotions?“ I think I might have that. What is the difference between Love for family or Love for friends? Is that Love for a mate really Love or is it Lust? I realize today that I can say I love you to a person and mean it but not really like the person. Its hard to explain so I won’t even try. I will only say it has to do with humility, regret, resentment and sorrow. So far I’ve learned that there are many different kinds of love. How about the love for someone that hurt me in the past. Can I let the past go because of time and because I’ve grown and have learned a few life lessons? What I feel sometimes is the kind of love you feel when you “Half love” someone. If you can do such a thing? I describe it as a little stronger than like but not quite as much as really like. Its in between very few expectations and It doesn’t matter. As long as I don’t set myself up for a disaster. I realize I am treading in a very dangerous place. Why would I do that, you may ask? I guess its because I can and because you only live once. I always say I would never knowingly walk in a Mine field. Well, maybe if I’m really careful, just this once.

 

 

 

 

 

"War in the U.S."

           

                      Lets face it. Its like we are in sort of a war…All of us go around gleefully ignoring what is happening around us pretending that we are in a bubble. We go out each day never really knowing if you are going to come home safe. 10 or 15 years ago you would leave in morning saying, “See you tonight Hun” and never really think about it because it felt like it was going to happen. Hey, it was a sure thing. Now, in 2011 the chances of coming home are less than were 10 years ago. The store you go into might be the last store you ever stop in. The cars that crash on the highway are going so fast they disintegrate into unrecognizable pieces. The office or shop you work in could be the last place you ever go. Do you trust the person in the next room, the customer that just walked in, the guy that sits next to you. Everywhere you go you see strangers speaking a foreign language. I don’t understand what they are saying. Today I feel suspicious of the people around me. That, it can’t happen to me attitude isn't there anymore. Are they talking about me or planning something? A Congress woman was shot in the head and a Federal judge killed, plus others were killed in the melee yesterday. I’ve been on Twitter for the past few weeks reading and reporting on the insanity in this country by way of links and I’ll tell you its really bad out there. Its just not safe anymore. The anger is a silent and deadly. Its contagious and dangerous. You can actually see it and feel it. Anywhere you go, you don’t know if someone has a gun or a bomb. Remember a few years ago when a post office worker shot and killed his fellow workers. The phrase, ‘Dude, don’t go postal on me” was born. Well, its not funny anymore and its happening everywhere now. It could be the person standing next to you on the bus or in a subway or in a plane. It could be in that coffee shop or Super Market you go to in the morning. It doesn’t matter what State you are in its happening everywhere. It could be your neighbor. Its just not safe anymore. If it happens to you, maybe you will never know and probably won’t hear the shots. Although its safe to say it will be recorded and shown on the news or U Tube at a later date… Keith Olbermann is right, its domestic terrorism and its got to stop. I think its too late. Some really tough changes have to be made...

 

 

"Working at Bradley Airport"

 

The picture is of my truck parked at my house after a snowstorm.. I just got home after working all night plowing the runways..

Being retired for a while now I feel bad for the folks that have to work or go to school… I remember very well days when the airport would call. The lights would go out on a runway because of the rain. It usually meant that an electrical vault was flooded and filled with water and shorted out the circuits. Fun, fun, fun…..It didn’t take long for me long to fix that. It was that phone call at the early hour that was the pain…Today, I sort of wish I could go to the airport and make a runway check. That was the fun part of the job especially when it was busy. Between flights I would get clearance from the tower and make a run down the main runway to check the runway lights and pick up debris…Yes debris…Pieces of rubber from blown tires and a few times the baggage door that wasn’t closed properly and blew off. Bird parts….Poor birds that the plane hit. One time I picked up a tail cone from a United 720 that fell off because the tail hit the pavement when he landed with the nose too high. At times I would be half way down the 2 mile main runway and a 707 or 747 would be landing right behind me…As I was turning off the end to the taxi way at about a 100 miles an hour, I could the see people looking at me out the windows…Talk about good timing….One morning the alarm radio woke me with the news that a plane almost hit a maintenance vehicle that was on the runway…..Its feels uncomfortable when the news is about you….I had a great job and loved what I did…Thank you for your love and guidance Dad…..I was one of the electricians that put in those 3 lights on the top of the mountain at the approach of runway 15 at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut……

 

 

"Bird Nest"

 While walking in the woods today, guess what I found? It always makes me wonder how creative these little guys are.. To pick up every piece of grass and twigs to make a livable nest.. Its Amazing..

"No Going Back"

 

                                   I am glad I am the age that I am. I have heard others say that.. I think I mean I was born years ago when things were sort of new. I remember the clean air and you could drink water out of a brook and smell the spearmint growing near the water.. The silence was unbelievable. You could "Hear a pin drop" as my Mom used to say. Laying in a field of clean grass at night was like being at a planetarium. The milky way and the trillions of stars I will never forget. I could walk to school without fear of being mugged or shot. The neighborhood bully was another thing but my Dad taught me me how to fight and I taught the bully a lesson and he never bothered me again. Its funny no one called the police. We duked it out and it was over. At night I huddled near the radio to listen to The Green Hornet and The Shadow. Life was easy going and lazy. Mom was there when I got home from school and she made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of fresh bread delivered to the door by the Wonder Bread man who lived on a street in the same town we lived. After I went out to the woods to play Army or Cowboys and really believed I was those those things. If I wasn't home at five I would received a lecture from my Dad on how we need to eat all together because it was easier on Mom to do the dishes all at once. I think there were other reasons but I never questioned my Dad. Not out of fear but out of respect. I was always home before or at five on the dot. Flash forward to today..... A woman running for president. It was unthinkable years ago. (Not that there is anything wrong with that). Every other person on the street is a from another country. The anger is at level I have never seen before. There is blood in the streets in all the city's. The news at eleven is murder, rape and animals being mutilated. Its a slow news day when there isn't someone shot in a school or a husband killing his wife and kids and then killing himself. Today, can you take a walk in your neighborhood? When is the last time you walked into gas station or a store and wondered if the cashier could speak English? So, all you people from where ever you are or where ever you came from God bless you! You can have this tired, old worn out country with all the roads, stores, people, pollution and crime. You will never know how it was. I lived the best years here. The time moved slow and there was real happiness not purchased instant gratification. So you can have it to ruin like the ruined country's you all came from. Can I still say that? I don't know. there was a time you could......

 The picture is of the Coffin Factory in Enfield Conn. On Google Earth its still there not in very good condition.. Hasn't been a Coffin Factory for years..  

 

 

"Memories of Cape Cod"

    Years ago a friend of mine let me borrow his cottage at Cape Cod. I took my little dog Albert and we got in my pick up and drove from Vernon Connecticut to Hyannis Mass. I wouldn't recognize it now.. The top picture is where we stayed and the second is Albert running on the beach.. Those are memories I will never forget.. One more memory is taking a shower outside at the back of this cottage after swimming at the ocean which was only a block away. Have you ever taken a shower outside? There is nothing like it..I still remember what it was like..

 

 

 

 

 

 

"On This Day in American History"

 On Aug. 18, 1992, basketball legend Larry Bird retires at the age of 35. The three-time NBA champion from French Lick, Indiana, excelled in college basketball. In 1978, he was the top draft pick of the Boston Celtics, where he became a 12-time all star known for his shooting, passing, rebounding and defensive skills. Shortly before his retirement, Bird won the Gold Medal as a part of the “Dream Team” during the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

"Antique Shop"

35 years ago I had an Antique shop in this building.. Went by there today and thought of all those wonderful memories.. 

 

"The Beginning"

My story ... When I was a kid I took the Train to school from Windsor Locks Connecticut to a Hartford Connecticut Trade School where I became an Electrician working for 20 years for the State of Connecticut on Airport Runway lights.. While riding that train every morning during the school year, the engineer seen me standing there every day and asked me if I wanted to take ride to Hartford in the Diesel Engine... I've been hooked ever sense.. From the 16x16 Layouts with American Flyer Train sets (2 track) to riding my bike across railroad bridges to now only to watch and wish I was driving..   Thank you for your knowledge and new experiences...

"Lost in the Woodwork"

GOOGLE MESSED EVERY THING UP!!!!!! UPDATE..........................................Mary Kay Letourneau — the former Washington state teacher who became infamous for her sexual relationship with a 12-year-old student she later married — has died of colon cancer. She was 58. How many names do you remember.. “Or If you are famous, things people will remember you by in the future if you screw up”
                      Or “What people will think about when they hear your name.”
                      Or things a publicist will say they can repair but really can’t.

O.J. Simpson…Isn’t he the double murderer that played Football? Did he ever find the killer?
Bill Clinton…“I didn’t inhale.” or “I didn’t have sex with that woman.”
Michael Jackson…Wasn’t he the Pedophile drug addict that was a good dancer?
Robert Blake…..Blake, Who? Was he the one found not guilty of killing his wife. Did they ever find out who did?
Casey Anthony…..Wasn’t she the one that killed her daughter?
Pamela Anderson…Wasn’t she the one with the fake big boobs that did a porn movie on a boat?
Anthony Weiner…Who? Oh, that guy! Don’t need that visual…..
Tiger Woods…Who? Oh, he’s that black golfer guy who cheated on his hot blond wife….
Mary Kay Letourneau…Wasn’t she the cute teacher that had sex with that kid and married him when she got out of prison.
Plaxico Burress…Wasn’t he the football player that went jail after he shot himself in the leg?
Michael Vick…Wasn’t he the Dog Killer guy? I think he played football. I don’t know where…
Pee Wee Herman aka Paul Reubens…..Wasn’t he the guy that talked funny that got arrested for playing with himself in a porn movie theater a long time ago. (1991)
Rap singers….What is that?
Elvis…Wasn’t he a singer that died from taking too many pills.
Chaney Mason…He was a lawyer I think…Oh, Wasn’t he that lawyer guy that gave everyone the finger. I don’t know why?
                                                 ((((( His picture in on the bottom of the page.)))))
Rod Blagovitch….Him? Wasn’t he was just another corrupt Illinois Governor…I think he tried to sell a Senate seat to the highest bidder. He’s in prison isn’t he?
Roland Burris…Didn’t he buy a senate seat from a corrupt Governor? Didn’t last long in Washington, he came back to Illinois…Don’t know what happened to him…
Kate Gosselin….Who?
Arnold…You know, the Terminator guy. The one that married that rich lady….Wasn’t he having sex with his house keeper?
Paris Hilton… Didn’t she have a father that owned a hotel. She did a Porn movie. Didn't she get Arrested for drugs.
Lindsay Lohan…..Who? Wasn’t she an actress or something?
There are so many others that deserve this honor but have been forgotten or have been, as my Dad used to say, “Lost in the woodwork“….

"No Time To Care"

 

Would you believe I wrote this 10 years ago

Today it seems like we are at war with ourselves. Tea parties, riots, gunfire, hate. This is a normal day in the United States. Kind of sounds like Afghanistan or Iraq. We have crime as we have never seen it before. Home invasions, wife beatings and people killing people in the worst possible way because of the uncertainty of the future and very little or no trust in our church’s and our government. You can be sure of this… It will get worse. Its a fact that when people are insecure and don’t have a job and no money the crimes get more blatant and cruel. Greed and the decay of our morals is like in no other time and getting worse everyday. I can sense and feel the change, its shifting, its in the wind. There are too many people here and just not enough jobs to do. Ten million illegal Mexicans alone. Now they can’t even create things to do without tax dollars. We are in debt so far into the future there is no way out. Lately, I have been seeing more and more young American boys and girls working in the fast food restaurants. That’s a good thing but its not a career or something reliable. Its only a job. No one slows down because they can’t or they don’t know how. Young people today are not the same as you and me. Its like they are a different breed. They don’t know the peace and quiet of a world where there is no confusion or doubt. Everyone is geared for speed and no one has the time to care…We have exhausted all the solutions. They all have been tried and its out of control and its too late…The things I wrote about will come true. It will just take time. Thank God I won’t be here….

"Did you Know"

The bike trail runs under Route 84 in Rockville, Vernon and it continues to the Shoreline.. Look it up. When I was a kid I started at the Congamond Lakes in Southwick, MA and went as far as Simsbury Ct.. I finished the ride to the shoreline another time.. Pictures are self-explanatory.. Bike is gone now and I miss it so much this Summer.. Looking through my pictures the memories are so beautiful I have tears...Notice the stonework on the bridge in the second picture.. That is the lane towards Hartford..

"Only Today"

                         

Its one of those days that I sit here and look at the little blinking line on the word processor. Sometimes its a challenge to come up with something interesting to write about. Lets face it. By choice, I live a very, I’ll never say boring life. More like, “Laid back” are the right words. I could write about the past but nothing brilliant comes to mind…I could write about the future but lets face it, we really don’t know what’s going to happen in the next minute. Here's Proof read on...... I was thinking yesterday afternoon on the way home in the wind and rain that I was almost home safely. Wait, I thought, not really. I was 2 miles from home and approaching an intersection and I thought what if someone goes through the red light and broadsides my car? No, I made it through the light but did slow down and I looked both ways first. Then I thought, as I was driving by a convenience store. What if someone with a gun comes out shooting and inadvertently fires at my car as I’m driving by? No, that didn’t happen…..I then glanced in the rear view mirror and thought what if someone rear ended me in an out of control Toyota a 100 miles an hour. Nobody was behind me. A mile to go and I thought as I was driving down my tree lined street in the wind and rain, what if a tree limb broke on one of these huge trees and went through my windshield. Nope, not today….Now I’m a half mile from home and I thought what if someone is shooting at cars from one of these homes, because of anger “Sniper style” and randomly shoots at me? Didn’t happen….Wow, I was turning into my drive way safe at last but wait, what if there is a terrorist in my building with a bomb? Well, I won’t go into that……Laid back or boring? Life in this country is one day at a time. Are you in control of your life or is that Higher Power in the LJ question the other day sort of watching over things? I happen to think I wasn’t in control yesterday. I was 2 miles from home and well, you know what I mean………

"Home"

         

Not to long ago at one time I was a little kid.. We all were.. I miss back then.. I was small. Innocent….  Now, years later there is a feeling of loneliness and I miss things.. I miss the old town I lived in, the people, my friends. Lately I have discovered you can visit but you can never go back.. You can go back to the town but everything is changed. The buildings are gone. It seems like things changed over night. It even smells different… I’m at an age now where you start thinking about genes and health.. I’m so blessed when it comes to that.. It seems like yesterday that I was going to the Catholic school in my little town.. I remember that like it was yesterday…We try to hang on to what we can but it still changes. The people we knew, our parents the material things. Everything changes. The older you get the time moves faster and faster. Now it seems you don’t have time to enjoy a moment anymore. You put up imaginary fences and walls to keep out the bad guys and thoughts but some manage to slither through.. These days its hard to tell the difference between the good and the bad. There are a lots of innocents that will never be the same again. I do everything I can to live and let live but I have a compassion for those who I know will never be able to live, what I consider normal life. They will never have what I had and still have… At times I worry but under the surface there is a peace and understanding, a subtle happiness that I have earned through the years.. That I will never lose.. I wait now with a content and a comfortable feeling to be voided out..

"Seaside Asylum in Waterford Ct."

Took these pictures in 2019.. Seaside has been in the news lately so I thought I would share them with you.. The last picture is the view of Long Island sound.. Looking out to the ocean on the left across a small channel is Ocean Beach in New London Connecticut.

 

Seaside Asylum in Waterford Ct. was originally built to treat kids with Tuberculosis but used as an elderly home, medical hospital, and a facility to treat the mentally handicap. It has been closed since the 90's and is set to become Connecticut's newest Sate Park.

"On This Day in American History"

 

I will never forget this....

                               On June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 42, is fatally shot. The Democratic candidate for president had just won the California primary, and after wrapping up his victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he was shot several times by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy was the likely nominee for the Democrats to run against Richard Nixon, but after Kennedy died on June 6, the nomination eventually went to Hubert Humphrey who lost to Nixon. Sirhan Sirhan remains in a California prison.

"Snow"

This is all the Snow we had at the shoreline this year..