In my last post, I listed some of the more important things that have happened this year to influence my life, But I am caught up in the anticipation of things to come and surely they will.

As of this writing I have heard not a word from any so-called family member regarding what I am doing tonight for Christmas eve, nor have I received an invite. I will make a couple of calls tonight to my family who live out of state and them that live here but too far away to visit. The others that do not call or get in touch with me before morning will be removed from my list of people I care about.

Merry Christmas

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I turned 67.

I became a great Grandfather again.
A son was born to my Granddaughter Lenora
whom she named Deklyn.

My youngest Granddaughter Marci moved into her own apartment with her boyfriend.

The depression that I harbored for so many years lessened somewhat with the realization that things would never be the way I want them to be here on the home place.

I composed a new CD with original songs on it.

The top fell in on our septic tank.

I took my first trip to the Tomahawk fall ride.

I lived with good friends for a short time, I consider them my family now.

My wife of 32 years Moved out…again… and wants a divorce.

A good friend whom I consider family stays with me.

My brother in Oklahoma calls me almost daily.

All these things happening at once leads me to believe there will be even greater changes in my life in 2012…

We shall see
…granpaw

The one thing I’ve found about my quitting after so long (50 years) is… Smoking to alay stress is my greatest stumbling block.
The second greatest block is lack of anything else to do.

About a week later I’m on day four of my latest bout with the tobacco companies… I know the Chantix will work this time the only question I have is
will it work IN time?

I don’t know exactly what is causing this congestion in my lungs, could be this environment (the Northwoods) and the dampness in the air, could be what I eat, most likely is a combination of all of that coupled with the emphysema I have from smoking for so long.

What I am sure of, is that I will not last another winter being able to move around without the use of an oxygen bottle, if I continue smoking.
I also wonder if they are correct when they tell me once you quit, your lungs get better.

I hope so…

Well the Rib Lake Ice age days have come an’ gone agin pilgrims an’ fer them as was absent I can safely say it were a good’un!
Ole granpaw pulled in about 6 or so thursday night an proceeded to set up what he didn’t fergit this time…

Weather was nice and the setup went good…Had to go home that night on account of I had to take the kid to Medford Friday, and I fergot m’ mattress an’ pillow….
Wonder if the ole mountainy fellers ever had to go to the settlements cause they didn’t have a pillow???.

Anyhow the band uptown was in full swing by the time I got to camp on Friday an’ let me tell ya it was a pleasure hearing the sounds of silence (about 3 in the morning) but at least you couldn’t hear
the mosquitos while it was making that racket!.

An’ I think there outta be a law about the kids from camp not being able to ride rides with their period correct clothes on…heck look at some of the townies and the way they dress!.

A lot of nice folks walked through camp saturday and sunday and there were a lot of folks from other countries also.
One young couple from Poland came by and asked in halting english if they could take pictures…
I said “sure” so they proceeded, then they wanted to take one with a rifle and I said “sure” so they proceeded, then while the guy had the thing in his hand yet ole Smurfy came up an’ started loading the thing…well…you should have seen the look on the young fellers face as Smurfy poured a load in the barrel!…and the girl taking the pictures was goin’ nuts trying to fill up her camera…and it come time to shoot, he did and he absolutely beamed at that!…then Smurfy loaded it up agin and motioned fer the gal to shoot!….wellllll…I ain’t seen a look like that on a gal since I was young and women folks was new to the earth!…

Packed up Sunday after the parade in dry HOT weather and made it home before the small rain that hit about 6.
Now….a week later I think I’ll go unload the van…..
Later pilgrims…..
granpaw

To begin with, I have no knowledge of cell phones and/or how they work or how they are efficiently used other than as a phone.

At the beginning of the month, and at the insistance of my dear wife and her daughter, I agreed to purchase a two year contract with Verizon, 3 phones, and whatever else the fates held in store after that.
Both my wife and the daughter chose the Samsung Knack, the wife needed a phone she could use that is somewhat blind friendly. Well they aren’t but that’s not really my story here.
Being in website design and a band, I thought It’d be really neat to have a phone that took pictures and videos and I could download them to my computer at home…
I told the sales person (at the hardware store) what I wanted and he showed me the LG vx5500, which of course at this point is for show only, therefore you pays yer buck and takes yer chance…but the phone seemed like a nice one and was easy to hold and work, or it seemed like it at the time.

Long story short…the LG is good for use as a phone…that’s it….it has no video capablilities, the dinky camera takes pictures that are blurred and out of focus in everything but brite sunlight…but it does not drop calls I’ll give it that.

The Samsung on the other hand drops calls like hot rocks…It is unwieldy and bulky. Though the voice controls are what the wife needed, between the three of us we have almost got the thing to work right.
That’s enough for now…I am contemplating another phone if I can figure out how much I will have to pay to upgrade….

This ‘un here, an ole skinflint what goes by the name of Dewey, claims he’s from down around Arkansaw. It’s nigh ’bout as easy to get a buck outta him as to cuddle with a dang porkypine, but, you’ll notice he is a reachin fer his moneybags to buy some of m’ homemade maple syrup a few years back at Adams Freindship.

And this here is One-step, a reprobate what whittled up a whole dam canoe paddle fer his “bird nest” tryin to get first place in a fire startin contest over at Sauk City. He lost…to me of course.

This here is one-half of the “twin pines” sisters, they sell Indian fry bread. Shes takin a break just before they was overrun by a passel of flatlanders what bought ‘em out of fry bread so I didn’t get to eat m’ dinner.

As for me….I’ve taken on a new life over on Facebook and have become a multi-billionaire (temporarily of course) and whacked more of my criminally minded peers than all of the FBI CIA or BATF combined (fantasy of course).

But back to my reason for this post….

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!