Okay, gang.

I did indeed wake-up this morning, and I am still here.

Why I am — is anyone’s guess, at this point.

But since I am still here, I’m going to try to make the best of this day.

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Yesterday afternoon, I did decide to at least put in an online application for that part-time job that appealed to me. We’ll see if they call me for an interview.

Mostly, I just want to be around people. Noisy people, even. People who aren’t dying. So we’ll see.

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And sadly–

I did finally get a chance to talk on the phone with my old school friend yesterday — the one that I’ve known since Jr. High School (1972), who reconnected with me on Facebook the other day.

It was very sad. She is now confined to a nursing home, waiting to be transferred to Assisted Living — none of it is really her choice. But she is very ill and it won’t get better. And her family made the decision for her.

I am going to try to visit her before I leave for North Carolina, but definitely as soon as I get back if I can’t get to Columbus this week.

If you live in the US and you’re on Medicare, I am 100% confident to share with you who handles my Long Term Care insurance, in case you want to look into them where you live:

Bankers Life

The more I see what friends go through as they age, at least out here in Ohio, the more grateful I am that an agent from the company found me when I turned 65. They are honest and they really help you make decisions that are based on the reality of your age, your income, and where you live.

Where you live is key for Medicare and Long Term Care insurance, gang.

A couple of older people I know here in Ohio switched over to Bankers Life, when they told me how unhappy they were with their insurance companies, and they were really glad they switched.

For my girlfriend who is now confined to a nursing home/Assisted Living, and forced to be on Medicaid, it is too late. At least here in Ohio, once you’re on Medicaid, they take everything from you and your life is as good as over; your freedom, gone.

So just, you know, find someone you really trust to help you make your Medicare plans.

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All righty!

Let’s try to get on a cheerier note!

Here’s this!!

I loved Hunter S. Thompson so much, gang. He was one of my very favorite writers. (And being a hardcore conspiracy theorist, I don’t believe he “committed suicide”…)

Anyway.

My dear (and now dearly departed) friend, Kent — the one who was a geologist and used to work for NASA, and who once told me, “Those rocks didn’t come from any moon!” — was the friend who first turned me on to Hunter’s work by giving me his copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when we were 15.

I was familiar with Hunter’s name because I was an avid reader of Rolling Stone magazine back then. But this was the first book of Hunter’s that I read (and afterward, I proceeded to buy & read everything he wrote.)

And here’s something I loved: The one and only book that was ever stolen out of my apartment on E. 12th Street in NYC, was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas!!

When I discovered it was missing (I don’t know who stole it, but people came and went constantly back then), I thought: “Wow! They really needed that book!”

I thought it was so cool! And I went out and bought another copy. And YES!!! Eventually, it got stolen, too! (What a great book! Everyone had to have it.)

But the 3rd time was the charm. Here’s my current copy:

And here’s the inside cover!!

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And speaking of Johnny Depp!!

(He did a fantastic job playing Hunter in the film version. I still have my VHS copy of the movie. Maybe I’ll re-watch it on the VCR later!)

Here’s this!

From Johnny’s production company IN.2 Records — Johnny plays guitar on at least one track.

The album The Great Behind, by Glenn Richards & the Venus Lakes will be released Oct. 9th 2026. Pre-order it HERE!

Glenn Richards & The Venus Lakes – 1990Never (Lyric Video):

Great song. I am already anticipating having it on my driving-to-town playlist!

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Okay!

If you thought I was just kidding when I posted recently that “tiny Richard Hell heads” used to be very popular….

Here’s Richard Hell!! With — you guessed it! Another “tiny Richard Hell head”!!

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And here’s Ric Ocasek, on a smoke break and leaning against a trailer!!

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Oh!

This was GREAT!!

I watched it during breakfast this morning. She really gives a thorough explanation about why any gospels concerning Mary Magdalene did not make it into what became the New Testament.

“…dive deep into the enigmatic and often misunderstood Gospel of Mary Magdalene with renowned scholar Dr. Elaine Pagels. In an episode that promises to challenge traditional narratives, Dr. Pagels sheds light on the mysterious texts that reveal a different side of one of Christianity’s most fascinating figures.”

Myth Vision — Mary’s Lost Gospel ROCKS Christianity! | Dr. Elaine Pagels (14 mins):

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And from Bad Seed George Vjestica yesterday!

(My answer was: May 2, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio, USA!)

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And as much as he said he is going to relax now, I’m afraid Nick Cave is going to have to go back on tour! Pronto! The photos are really getting to be slim-pickings!!

From Facebook:

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And, yes, that’s it!!

The other day, when I was supposed to go shopping at Kohl’s with my girlfriend — she had to cancel at the last minute. Her daughter had to work late and so my girlfriend had to pick up her grandson from football practice.

But she texted this morning, and we might try to meet up at Kohl’s this afternoon. It really has been such an intense week for me, gang. I could probably use a mindless sort of outing of shopping today — a sunny day, a good friend, a store that has happy memories for me.

So we shall see!

Meanwhile, enjoy your Saturday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s close with this!!

It’s been a while! But in honor of a possible trip to Kohl’s with Cathy!!

The Sandpipers!! “Come Saturday Morning”!! 1969. Enjoy, gang.

It’s a gloomy and rainy morning so far, but that often unreliable weather app on my iPhone says that by noon it will be sunny and remain sunny for the rest of the afternoon!!

Yay!!

So I’m going with that thought today, gang! Nothing but sun up ahead!

And since Sunday has become my go-to-town-and-get-groceries day, I’ll wait until noon before heading to town.

I’m hoping I can persuade these guys to go with me again today —

It’s always so much more fun driving anywhere with them!

So, we shall see. (They’re probably in church right now, so I’ll wait a bit before calling them…)

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Okay!!

Wow, you know? What a morning. The first 2 things I saw on Instagram, very early today (5AM), were 2 of my favorite accounts having huge troubles with Instagram & Facebook — the various algorithms there were making them very unhappy.

One was our beloved Phyllis Stein — I so hope she doesn’t leave Instagram, but it was actually Facebook that was threatening to block her awesome account for no valid reason.

The other account was for 2 cute little dogs that I follow in Germany —

I have followed the account for years and the woman who runs the account is around my age and we interact all the time (luckily she speaks perfect English since my German consists of about 4 words — and I count “gesundheit” as one of them). But she is so fed up with Instagram interfering with her posts now that she is actually leaving Instagram as of today.

I really can’t stress enough how much I do not like Facebook (I recently rejoined it). It has gotten so different now and it is very difficult to post over there.

I don’t interact much on fb at all. I have about 5 followers. Literally. And all of them are people I have known for a long time and, except for Iris N. Schwartz, I also follow them on Instagram. So fb seems sort of pointless to me.

It seems like the only thing I really do on fb is look at Nick Cave photos!! Like I needed another app on my phone to look at more Nick Cave photos!

But here’s one I liked on fb yesterday!!

But as far as Instagram — I love Instagram. I have been active on it every day for about 8 years.

Once in awhile I post something concerning my writing career, but mostly I post photos of my cats. And I just love looking at everybody else’s photos.

I mostly follow other cats, and dogs, birds, alpacas, goats, donkeys, cows! From all over the world!

And a few people in Finland and Norway who take unbelievably gorgeous photos of nature.

And a bunch of Punk and rock & roll musicians — most of whom, sadly, are already dead.

But I just love Instagram, so it makes me sad that people I enjoy following are being bullied by the algorithms now — and enough to leave the platform altogether.

I don’t have a lot of followers on instaramg — sorry, that’s a different app I also use. But on Instagram, I have about 1600 followers.

But I only really interact with about 12 of them on a daily basis. So for me, it’s just fun.

I can’t imagine how awful it must be to try to rely on those apps for career-related stuff. It must be a nightmare.

I am so glad that I have my blog, gang.

You know, even though it is totally old school — no bells & whistles — I have about 100 people a day, sometimes as many as 200, from all over the world, who stop in and read my blog!

That’s about 3,000 views a month, and about 36,000 views a year now!

And I’ve had this same blog for 12 years already. In fact, a few years back, WordPress was after me to update it to a different layout. They wanted to retire the layout I use because it was too old-fashioned. But I love this layout because it is SO easy to use.

So I think I am the only blogger left on WordPress who uses this layout.

Anyway… I digress.

I am really glad that WordPress doesn’t resort to a bunch of terrorizing algorithm stuff.

And I really want to thank you guys so much for stopping by every day to read the blog.

It still means a lot to me, even after all these years.

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All right.

Well, after listening to the new auditions for audiobooks that came in yesterday morning, I have decided that for now, I’m removing the short story collections from the audition queue.

Those are just going to be too complex, since some of the stories are from the female POV, and some from the male POV. I’ve decided to just focus on the novels for now.

But other than that, we are moving forward with perhaps THREE novels to turn into audiobooks! 1954 Powder Blue Pickup, The Guitar Hero Goes Home, and possibly Freak Parade.

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Okay!

Since the Bad Seeds’ tour is over now, I am resorting to a photo of Nick Cave from the desktop stash!!

Singing and smoking!! In black & white!! (He looks so, I don’t know, energetic here!)

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And here’s this!!

If you look REALLY carefully, Keith is smoking — and walking & carrying a package in London in 1986. In full color!! Heavy on the blue!! (Photo by Richard Young)

I can’t say for sure if Keith is smoking here, you have to do your own research on that. But it does seem to be the 1980s, and in black & white.

And if you don’t really know much about Keith–

Back when he was a heroin addict, his teeth started rotting really badly. After he quit heroin for good, around 1978, he had all of his teeth replaced.

But here’s one of the photos from the not-so-great-teeth days. But he still looks so sweet here:

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And that is what I have for now.

The laundry is just about done! I’m gonna check in on the 2 cats outside and see who wants to be fed (again) before I head to town.

Have a great Sunday, wherever you are in the world, gang.

And THANKS for visiting!! I really mean that.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s close with this!!

Since I have been reading that book, Conversations With Tom Petty (2006) at night now, and we are now up to when he was recording his triple multi-platinum Wildflowers solo album, I put that CD in the kitchen jukebox player this morning!

So let’s listen to “You Wreck Me”. I hadn’t heard it in awhile!! A real rocker.

From the Wildflowers album, 1994!! Enjoy, gang.

“You Wreck Me”

Tonight we ride, right or wrong
Tonight we sail, on a radio song
Rescue me, should I go down
If I stay too long in trouble town

Oh, yeah, you wreck me, baby
Yeah, you break me in two
But you move me, honey
Yes, you do

Now and again, I get the feeling
Well, if I don’t win, I’m a-gonna break even
Rescue me, should I go wrong
If I dig too deep, if I stay too long

Oh, yeah, you wreck me, baby
Yeah, you break me in two
But you move me, honey
Yes, you do

I’ll be the boy in the corduroy pants
You’ll be the girl at the high school dance
Run with me, wherever I go
And just play dumb, whatever you know

Oh, yeah, you wreck me, baby
Yeah, you break me in two
But you move me, honey
Yes, you do

You wreck me, baby
Yeah, you break me in two
Oh, but you move me, honey
Ah, yes, you do

c – 1994 Mike Campbell, Tom Petty