I water my baby's plant well, today I watered her twice. The flowers continue to sprout, and die. This plant is a living testament to the sweet cat that lies below her.

My debit card was denied at a store today, so I called the bank, and said What The Fuck? It turns out they have this fraud protection thing going and my flight to Seattle purchase triggered a shutdown.

So, I told them I purchase items like this all the time. I've been to Belize three times in the last three years, and Roatan twice. The nice bank lady said it was for my benefit and I said turn it the fuck off, please. There is now a note on my account, that I travel a lot!

Sheesh. And then a guy washing windows told me that because of the war in Ukraine there was going to be a global famine that will affect us all, come winter.

Now my brain is going South! Or North, I'm not sure. I've been having weird shit going on inside...

Just booked a flight to Seattle for mid-September. So did my nephew Brian. Waiting on Shelby...

Going to visit Riley, Jess and Ariella, Riley's providing a car and I will play tour guide, based on my tweny years there, and as a transit supervisor. I have so many places in mind, to turn those two on to. My great friends Dave and Sue will be in town, and this could be epic!

Hell, the Oregon coastline is not out of the question!

I am making some new friends, just not of the human variety. I have three little animal couples that love to come up on my porch and chow down. I leave the door wide open to shoot my photos, and they have come to trust me.

Each couple has a dominant mate, I assume the male, that comes to my little feeding station, while the other remains in the background. In this photoset I've captured some great shots of the squirrel and the chipmunk. The other couple is a beautiful little red bird that comes to feed and then carries it back to it's mate, just a few feet behind, and feeds her from his beak.

All I've got here is the squirrel and the chipmunk, but they're great, no screen door or window in the way because I was just standing there in the door, a couple of feet away. Working on capturing the birds. Click the photo below to see the photoset!

I cleaned the photos off of my phone today, and ran across these:

The chipmunk that showed up on my porch this morning to eat the feed I put down.

The bird that was trapped behind the window at the Wishy Washy.

Daniel getting his groove on.

My sign painting grandfathers hammer that I use to bust up ice.

An uneaten catfish plate, freshly made, from Legends Express. Creamed corn, baked beans, homemade tarter sauce, farm raised catfish, cornbread...

Sunrise at Gulfport, MS.

My GPS on the ride back North.

Alright, things are evolving. As of this moment, we are all looking forward to the possibility of meeting in Seattle around September 17, on Ariella's first birthday.

Who is all of us? Me, Brian and Shelby! We are all connected, we are all family, and friends. What an amazing thing it would be to re-connect in Seattle, and see my precious grand-daughter!

Meanwhile:

Man, Memorial Day is next weekend, I need to continue walking and working out like yesterday, try not to drink, take care of my arm, stay away from the park and try to like myself, just a little bit. I've given up on loving myself, that ain't never going to happen, but a smidgen of self respect would be terrific.

I put together a crockpot pulled pork yesterday, whipped up some fresh coleslaw, made sandwiches and shared it with Daniel. He said it was great and coming from a good old southern boy, that means something. It was a package of pre-cooked smoked pork, a can of pinto beans, a can of organic tomatoes, with a little southern seasoning.

Feeling very sad about that school shooting. Daniel works for the local school system and he said all doors to every school here are secured with card locks. No card, no entry. You don't need armed guards at every entrance, just solid electronics.

I'm trying to figure out an economical way to go see Brian in Jackson, then Riley and family in Seattle, then a flight back to Nashville. Checked out the painful 2.5 day Greyhound trip to Rexburg, ID for $223, then Rexburg to Seattle, a little over one day, is $151. They could be great photo blogging adventures, or bus trips from hell :-). The total cost to spend a few days with Brian and then see Riley is $374, plus expenses along the way. Then of course there is the flight back home.

I told Riley a while back that I wouldn't insult his family by showing up there drunk and stoned. I'm 2/3 of the way better now, and working on it...

Anyway, that's my current state in life, if you read this far, thanks.

Meanwhile:

Well, it turns out when you leave your left arm hanging out the window on long road trips, and travel through the Caribbean a lot with your shirt off, you pick up shit.

Then you have to go to the skin doctor and have it cut out. That happened today and if it weren't for the fact that the young lady that did the cutting was pretty, and very nice, it would have sucked!

My adorable little grand-daughter had her first pool party, down in Lake Havasu, AZ last week. I know that area very well, it was my goto escape place from the harsh Idaho winters, along with Bullhead City and Laughlin, NV.

Jess took her down for a family visit, while Riley slaved away at his job :-)

My Cayenne pills arrived today from Amazon. I was chatting with my nephew Brian on the phone yesterday, from Jackson Hole Wyoming, and he remembered when I turned 70, quit drinking, and became a health nut.

Cayenne powder, and a whole bunch of other great powders, were my daily regiment, and it made an impact on him as he watched me slim down, get sober, and healthy.

Now he's clean and sober, taking Cayenne pills, and I just bought the same brand. Full circle.

He also has an opportunity to become a coder, in a very complicated field of control systems, and he sent me the details this morning. I researched everything, broke down the acronyms individually, and sent him summaries of what I found.

He works for a water treatment facility at a ski resort in Jackson and they want to get rid of their high priced consulting firm, and pass it over to one man. Hopefully him.

I am so honored to be an inspiration to my nephew, and great friend, Brian!

A lightning strike knocked out our power last Saturday evening, and as I was walking Veteran's Park this morning, I spotted this.

My house is a couple hundred yards from here, as the raven flies, but I'm suspecting this was just wind damage. Or maybe more...

Meanwhile:

I almost fell off an embankment, into Shoal Creek today, shooting this little video...

I just had a text encounter with my friend Skoge in California, after she viewed my backyard walk-around video:

• Who mows all that lawn?

• The landlord.

• And my rent is $425 a month. Welcome to small town Tennessee!

• The lower area was wiped out in a flood back in the nineties, homes destroyed, now maintained by the county, all mine to walk around.

• Isn't it interesting where we land, my friend...

Shot a little walk-around of my yard.

Life is good on Lee Street. Pipers plant is blooming, and my baby's love is resurrecting!

A new flower has appeared on big mama.

The bird feeder is up with it's new base that has been super-glued to the bottom.

And the squirrels are eating the crumbs down below.

The thing about road trips is, you got a lot of time to think. Piper is in my thoughts, a lot.

I remember one winter back in Idaho, four foot of snow on the ground, Steph was back in Seattle for a few months, and I was out driving the fucking bus through the slush.

Piper saved my sanity. We had this morning routine where she would ask for her gravy with a little meow. We spent our evenings hunkered down in my office staying warm. God I loved that cat.

In Biloxi at the moment. It's right next to Gulfport and I like this place also, even if the traffic lights are stupid. What I have discovered is that this is a gambling town, with lots of big name casinos. I passed a Harrah's Casino, hell, I thought they were just in Nevada. I was a bellboy at the Harrah's up in South Lake Tahoe when I was a kid.

Enough talk, it's time to go sit in the sand...

Alright, technically, my ass is not in the sand, but on a bench in the sand, at the beach in Gulfport, MS. My toes have found the water, the suns coming up, I just had a video chat with Daniel, showing off my spot, and I feel better than I have in a long while.

I like Gulfport, my kind of town. They even have a WhataBurger, the last one of those I saw was down in Laughlin Nevada, years ago. And beach access is terrific, lots of parking spots, at least early in the morning here.

Today I'm going to just mosey up the coast, find a place to eat later on, and check out Biloxi.

Spent the morning doing laundry at the Wishy Washy, and trying to rescue a bird that had flown in an was trapped behind a cabinet and a big picture window. Poor baby couldn't understand why she couldn't fly through it, and her partner was frantically squaking at her, fluttering around on the outside. Couldn't make it happen, but I'm sure my friend the laundry lady would solve it when she came in.

Packed up and was out of the house by 0930. Down to Birmingham, over to Tuscaloosa, on to Meridian, MS and I've landed at a rest area south of Hattiesburg. Both New Orleans, and Gulfport Mississippi are 96 miles away. Been to New Orleans a few times in my life, so tomorrow I hit Gulfport, put my toes in the ocean, ass in the sand, with a cold drink in my hand!

I've got a road trip planned. It's a variation on my failed trip down south a few weeks ago. First stop, a rest area off I-59 in Mississippi. It's 400 miles, six hours away.

The next morning I'll bop down into Gulfport and get me some beach time. I may even hit Ship Island, one of the top rated islands in the U.S.

Later Biloxi, then sleep somewhere. After that, mosey back home at my leisure.

Think I'll leave tomorrow morning. Get up early and do a laundry at the Wishy Washy, put some clean clothes in the back of my truck, grab my electronics, and cameras, and get the hell out of town.

I checked the weather for the next few days, it looks great. And yes, I know Shelby, I'm there, you're gone.

Smoke is smoked, finished it last night. Time to clean up, start again.

Just bought a little bird feeder kit that I have setup where I view the yard from my chair.

I'm just an old man, seventy five

Drunk and stoned, glad to be alive

Living alone, on a dead end street

Hanging out, with everyone I meet

Ain't no rich man, ain't no poor man

Glad to be a real man, ain't got no sham

I pursue my pleasures, wherever I can

I'm an honest man, and I got plans...

Mid-mornings around here, the sun is fighting to get thru the blossoming trees, to reach it's hungry children on the ground.

Pipers corner gets the early sun, as the canopy on my porch blocks the rest.

I have one of the original Amazon Echo's, got it early before the public, as part of something I was doing. So I've had an AI as part of my life for a long time, and I've been shelling out for Amazon Prime ever since, because you need access to the monster.

I currently call her Computer and I use her constantly throughout my day, to control lights and my big Roku TV. You can hear me down the block when I scream Computer! Mute Roku! because I'm doing something else and don't have access to my remote, when the fucking My Pillow commercial comes on, at Fox News.

I'm always asking her shit, she's my insanely knowable friend. What's the temperature, what time is it, what is ..., how do you spell ..., everything!

Today, I asked her what the weather was going to be like tomorrow. She told me, and then she said btw, did you know that cat succulent planters for small plants by animal lovers is on sale now?.

She asked if I was interested, I said sure. Then she proceed to give me a sales pitch for a product that incorporates everything that Amazon knows about this old, long standing customer, and his recent purchases. I've bought a lot of cat stuff over the years and I recently was searching plants and fertilizer.

How fucking insidious is this? Anyway, she asked if I would like to put this thing in my cart, and I said sure. Then she told me it had been added, goodbye! Mission accomplished...

So I go to my cart, and there it is. The sappiest most stupid crap you can imagine. Deleted, goodbye!

I love this little artificial intelligence lady that sits next to me, but she works for the monster.

Spent the afternoon down in Muscle Shoals, Alabama today. Went across the Wilson Dam on the mighty Tennessee River, to the Rockpile Recreation Area.

Shot with my Sony and the zoom lens.

I was standing at my sink this afternoon, melting my face because I can, and I'm also a grown ass man making my own choices, that don't affect anybody but me.

Then I thought of Skoge. My buddy, my long standing friend, we shared houses together over the decades, she's known me through every major relationship I've had since, and we met in 1971. She's three months older than me.

So, I thought how nice it would be to have a phone conversation with her, as I sit here peacefully in Tennessee with my front door open, on my dead end street, fan on, and my feet kicked up.

The problem was, Skoge and I have not been in a phone conversation for a very long time, just social media. The last time I saw her and Grant, was maybe ten years ago, or more, in San Francisco. Now they live in Sacramento.

So I went on facebook, clicked on her name, went into messaging and said call me, then left my number.

One minute later baby, the call came in! I bitch about FB all the time, but at moments like this, it shines!

We had a great talk, it was like sitting right there on the couch with her, passing around a joint, which is now legal in her neck of the woods, thank you.

Love you Skoge,

Lopes

btw: Sherry's last name is Skogen, thus the nickname Skoge. My nickname was somewhat more complicated. For some reason I ended up with Hymie Lopez, aka: Lopes.

I ran across this old grainy shot from life with Riley as he grew up. I plastered every creative thing he brought over to my place, up on the wall, and all over my fridge. My little studio was right across the street from his high school and thru the woods to his middle school.

I eventually put all of that into a book, which I gave to them a couple years back.

This was about the time we put a fan page of the Spice Girls up on this new thing called the internet. My first dive into html...

I was stopped at a light, coming back from Krogers this morning and spotted a little handmade sign that said "Yard Sale - 128 Jackson St". It was dated today so I got my groceries home, then headed straight there.

Pretty lame, just a few items, with a very short lady sitting behind a table, with a cash box. A little boy and girl were sitting in a nice Jeep under a canopy. I asked the lady how much for the Jeep and kids. Fortunately, she laughed.

I didn't want to leave empty handed, so I shelled out some big bucks for an item, and I now suffer from buyers remorse.

I like eggs scrambled in the morning, but the cleanup is a pain, so I decided to try these egg cooking things out.

I whisked up three quality eggs with a dollop of sour cream,

then poured the mixture into three of these little silicon thingys. At least they stood upright on the counter.

I then lowered them into a pot of boiling water.

One of them fell over, just wouldn't stay uprite, and the egg mixture poured out of the little venting holes. There were no directions on how long to cook an egg in these Chinese slave worker made pieces of shit. I pulled out the two that didn't fall over, and they were a runny, uneatable mess.

Three quality eggs down the drain, less space in my garbage can, and I'm out a bunch of money...

I've been pushing videos I've shot, up to the internet, since the first day it could be pushed.

I had a prototype computer based webcam in my place overlooking Lake Merritt in Oakland. That's where I shot a great video of me and Riley when he was about three. Riley is 35 now, so that was thirty two years ago.

I've shot a lot of video since, and the best of it goes up to my YouTube channel. I actually have two channels, the other was from years back and contains some old esoteric shit. If you want to see those, drop by...

Here's an old link I just ran into.

Here's another and another:.

Not sure of why I am, when I am, where I am, or who I am. I'm the old leaf rolling down the road in the wind, which will finally crumble into dust, and die a hot death on the highways of America.

I've been pushing videos I've shot, up to the internet, since the first day it could be pushed.

I had a prototype computer based webcam in my place overlooking Lake Merritt in Oakland. That's where I shot a great video of me and Riley when he was about three. Riley is 35 now, so that was thirty two years ago.

I've shot a lot of video since, and the best of it goes up to my YouTube channel. I actually have two channels, the other was from years back and contains some old esoteric shit. If you want to see those, drop by...

That big flower thing that I interacted with yesterday, is pregnant.

With new growth, she really loved the water.

So I gave her more this morning and as I was walking back I noticed the vines climbing up to my office window, so I watered that one also. Hot dry days you got to take care of your plants.

It's interesting that I didn't know those vines were there, I never open the shades on that window anymore. That was Pipers perch, she loved to lay up on my desk, window open, and survey her domain, of which that big flower thing played a big part.

And, I'm almost positive that was her hiding spot on hot outside days, where she could hunker down and blend in. I never could spot her in there.

Your entire life, every exhilarating and heartbroken moment, up to this instant in time, defines you. It's what the world sees as you move about it.

Some days I don't know where I am, and some days I just blow my own mind!

I use Visual Studio Code from Microsoft, the top code editor in the world, to create websites, and then use NoteTab Pro, a relic I've carried on for decades, to be my text editor. This old piece of code runs amazing on my Acer laptop under windows 11.

I compose my text here, spell check it, then port it into my blog.

You know you're in trouble when the joint you are about to lite up is called Face Melt OG Slims XL lg.

It's taken me three quarters of a century to finally figure out how to boil fucking eggs. So that the shell slides off whole, with a tap, as opposed to shattering into a thousand little pieces, super glued to the fucking egg.

I now love boiling and pealing eggs, so here it is, Jim's version:

Take the eggs out of the fridge and put them on the counter while you fill up the pot and bring it to a boil. The eggs can reach near room temp by the time you put them in.

Throw a good dash of salt in the pot as you add the eggs. Boil without a lid for 12 minutes, then remove from heat and cover for 14 minutes. I call it the 12/14 algorithm and I've got me a sweet little timer attached to my stove that implements it!

After 14 minutes covered, drain the water into the sink and just let cold water run over them to cool them down, less than a minute.

Perfectly cooked, and they peal great!

And since I'm playing the role of Mr Tweak, here's a snap of my grandfathers hammer from his sign painting days in Northern California. I have this and others, I have my grandmothers blankets, somehow.

I use the hammer to continually break up the giant bag of ice Daniel gave me for free, because he's the ice house god, as it takes up my entire freezer.

Life on Lee street, 2022...

The flower bed in my back yard is blooming nicely. I never water it, as opposed to watering Pipers plant daily, yet is quite beautiful in its reckless abandon, and thriving!

Update: I just gave the whole bed a glorious watering. Leafs were flying in the air with joy, flowers drank thirstly. and I gave a full minute of full on water, from my sweet flexihose, down to the center of her base.

Did I just have sex with a plant?

Been thinking about Andy, Shelby's man. I could have been his superior officer, had not life taken a different path, in the late sixties.

I was in the Navy boot camp at San Diego. Vietnam era. I wasn't adjusting well but still scored the highest notch in their initial test, across about 250 guys. (I found this out at my exit hearing)

I was a smart, troubled guy without a real father in my life. Nobody to say "Hey, stick with it, you will go far!".

Who knows how far I would have gone in the Navy, had not me and a buddy decided to go awol, crawling down a culvert into downtown San Diego, for hours.

Until we were busted, walking around in skivies, with no money. MP's hauled our sorry asses back to base.

At which point I was dispatched to the bad boys camp. I was forced to walk around a fucking metal table, carrying a heavy artillery shell, for hours.

They never broke me. Then they booted me. But, all of that brass up before me in military court, were really sorry to see me go.

And, they were kind enough to give me an honorable discharge, because they thought I had a future, just not with them. Thank you U.S. Navy!

So, now I'm sitting on the sidewalk in downtown San Diego, with a few bucks, and decided to hit the Haight Ashbury up in San Francisco. Can't remember how I got there, but I did. I hit it at it's prime, fish and chips on the strip and pure meth up the nose in the park.

How I survived that is a mystery in my mind, but of course, how have I survived almost seventy six years, to arrive here? Typing this now!!!

Hmmmmm......

I just want to do a shout out to women. To carry and nurture a future life to delivery, is something we men really don't understand. The sacrifices you make with your bodies to bring our children into the world is amazing!

Reading sappy stories and crying, in the dark, door open and it's misty outside. Life on Lee street, in the middle of an early May day, in southern Tennessee.

I discovered that Daniel has two trash cans and a fire hydrant in his back yard, when I went looking for the groundhogs he had spotted from his kitchen window.

Exsessing. Contemplative and aroused.

I suppose that if I suddenly fell face first into my laptop, dead from a heart attack, this wouldn't be a bad way to go...

Had a catfish hankerin today. Showed up at Legends Express right as they opened at 10:30, just me and a good old boy in front, at the drive thru. We both kept our engines off after ordering, understanding that they're in start up mode.

When I got to the window the rosy cheeked smiley girl said the fish needed a couple more minutes. Nobody behind me so I just scrolled thru TikTok on my phone, engine off.

I love this meal, the catfish is super fresh in the morning, big chunk of cornbread to dip into my sides of baked beans and creamed corn. Everything just melts in my mouth, which is great because my tooth count is at zero. The cornbread, baked beans combo, is a lesson in down home southern cooking.

I pull over into the big empty parking lot at the fairgrounds and eat half of it, saving the rest for dinner later.

So how much is this combo badboy? Eight dollars even.

Leftovers:

Life is like ice, may it melt in peace.

Made that expression up today, maybe it's been muttered by others, but for the moment, I own it.

It all started today when I dropped a cube of ice down between my stove and cabinet. Most rational men would just say "fuck" and move on, not me, I had to rescue it.

So I got down on my hands and knees and rescued that ice cube from an inglamorous death on the floor, to one up in my sink. And it got me to thinking, do ice cubes have a soul?

Do they scream out like lobsters going into the pot when they finally transform into water?

I don't know, but thank god for ice, I am their friend...

My tuna and egg sandwich thing started back in the mid-ninties in Kent, WA.

My big black good buddy Roger Cave told me the secret of tuna fish. I had always just bought chunk because it was cheap, but Roger had me try a can of solid white and I was amazed at the difference in quality and taste.

So I combined this tuna discovery with hard boiled egs, and started feeding myself, along with Riley and his high school buddies, this as a sandwich.

I was at a party with those guys when they were older, and they all remembered my sandwiches fondly.

These days I use Krogers Albacore Solid White Tuna, in water, wild caught, you get the drift...

As for eggs I use Krogers free range large. I only use one slice of sour-dough bread, fold it in half.

My grand-daughter just text invited me to come up to DC on Memorial Day weekend. Big parade, lots of military appreciation, and all the flags laid at each headstone at Arlington. I told her I'd think about it.

Well I thought about it. I pictured driving my sorry old ass for 13 hours, only to slide into a crazy wild scene around Memorial Day in DC. With a couple joints in my pocket and a bottle of vodka in the back.

I'm adventurous, but I have to honestly reflect on my abilities, and limitations, and know my limits.

I'm passing on that one, sweet Shelby. Rock on!

Hey, I've been to Belize three times and Roatan twice, in the last four years, but this is different. I am finally settling in as a down home country boy, and I don't foresee any big trip in my immediate future. The only exception would be flying to Seattle.

As I was driving down I-24 towards Nashville Saturday morning, I spotted two bright dots in the early morning sky. I watched them for about a half hour as clouds rolled in front of them. Stars were not visible. I really don't know what was happening here, two planets?

Sunday morning I bought three bags of brown mulch at Walmart and spread it out over Pipers bed. Waiting for Daniel to loan me a rake.

Meanwhile, Shelby and Andy and dogs are starting their move north to the Pentagon today!

Whiped up a little video from inside the Paris, TN Fish Tent, which is actually a concrete building. This is right after the parade, it took an hour to get here, and the line behind me was long :-)