Well, hello Streamer Beamers..... I hope everyone had a good week.... I had a pretty good week.... other than some of the usual job stress, things went pretty well........ I am at the new library after getting up early today (5:30AM) on my day off and hitting the walking trail....... 7 miles this morning! I'm BEAT........ I walk over to a little park where there is a lake with a trail around it......it's really too hot now to do the mountain walk much.... and it's much more of a normal walking scene with other folks out getting exercise..... I-PODS seem to be a big player.... maybe I'll get one of those next year.... there are some people fishing there too so I like to stop briefly and chat with them to see how the fishing is going...... but I'm mostly there for the serious work.... I try to get my pace up and keep it there without stopping for most of the distance...... and then I try to make a mental image of the fat burning off my body.... as if me thinking HARD about that process will help it along (!)........ but I spend most of the time just thinking about my life...... or I will hum songs to myself..... I have found that I can come up with melodies for things I have written on the guitar or piano really well when I am actually away from the instruments....... if I dont have words already written then I just do lah lahs and do-de-dos.... I seem to have alot of those...... I just havent written any lyrics in a while........

....so I'm about to head back to the ole dump, grab a shower and then take a wonderful long nap..... it's suppose to rain this afternoon...... sounds like it could be a little slice of heaven right here on earth!

See Y'all very soon!

HUGS and WOOTS!

..... well, so my long 3 day weekend is drawing to an end..... it's late Sunday afternoon and it's almost time to go back to The Sheraton.(!?)

I've had a good time..... Secret and I got the painting project finished.... it was hard work but the outbuilding looks great..... even though she didnt go with the color I suggested..... Oh, well....

After we had finished yesterday's work, we decided to go for an afternoon drive to a little town we hadnt visited before.... Oneonta, Alabama..... I had heard nice things about the place so we gassed up and took off.... even though it was really HOT, the drive was nice.....through the Appalachian foothills we roamed looking for the highway that would quickly take us to our destination... we took one of my infamous shortcuts that I had supposedly committed to memory since I didnt have my Alabama road atlas and ended up in some remote private driveway with the highway we were seeking just behind a field and row of trees with no way to reach it.... and I couldnt convince Secret to go offroading.... anyway, we got turned around and back on the way to Oneonta...... finally reaching the town, which actually was really pretty...... we got there just in time to catch the tail end of Oneonta's WORLD FAMOUS JUNEFEST! WOOT! Er..... we parked and walked down to the big happening to find most of the booths closing down and the last diehards gathered on a sweltering streetcorner to watch an Elvis impersonator doing his act from the middle of the street...... oh, man..... he was O-kaaaa as Elvis..... better singing than gyrating..... I'll give him a break since it was 95 degrees and he was in a fully sequined getup...... Secret and I didnt stay long and as we were shuffling off we looked down and saw where someone from The very unofficial Oneonta welcome committee had carved "Fuck You" into the sidewalk..... that brought even more snickers than the bad Elvis did..... then we took off to try to find a B-n-B I had read about and again I was SURE I knew where it was..... kinda sort of, so again, without the benefit of the roadmap we took off down another road to nowhere that just went on and on and on.... Secret was getting a little panicky and loudly declared that we SURELY had gone 30 miles when we really had just gone a few..... but it sure SEEMED like 30 miles as we went further and further into this terra incognita..... the road finally dead ended at a little watery place called Inland Lake and there were actually a few souls there.... I wondered if they had simply gotten lost like we did and decided to just move there since the way back was just too long.... so we backtracked and went back through town and headed back...... at one point we passed an odd little place that we saw as "Donkey Dream Ranch"....... we were both confused as to what kind of things might go on at such a place and a very colorful conversation took place on the subject in the miles that followed (I googled it later to find out it was "Dream Donkeys".... so we had mixed it up, but that was funnier at the time)....... well, the drive went on for a few more hours as we meandered around Northern Alabama........ even went through Boaz..... world headquarters of the mullet and the sleeveless Budweiser shirt! WOOT! The drive ended up on the shores of Lake Guntersville on the Tennessee River........ it was a lovely way to end the day before turning home.... the heat had slackened and it was cool beside the dark blue water of the lake...... one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in a long time was the sunlight glistening like a million crystalline mirrors on the choppy water... framed by the sharply rising heights of the Cumberland Plateau as it rose and tumbled away to the North..... it was a great day topped off by an inexpensive dinner on the way home........... it's been years since she and I had done a drive like that and we both happily agreed that, for an afternoon, it seemed like old times again.....

Everyone have a great week and I will see ya!

Well, hello strangers...... hee hee, I meant "streamers", of course!

Man, I just havent been around much the last few months..... I miss being here and I feel so out of the loop as to what is going on with my friends here...... I'm sitting here at the NEW library a stones throw from where I live so maybe I can be on a bit more....... so what's new with me? Er...... not too much new to report other than I believe I have crack dealers in the room directly next to me as there is now a steady procession of cars stopping by, and the folks are going in for 5 minutes or less and then leaving.... all the time.. days and nights..... that stinks...... I really dont like that going on but I have resigned myself to the fact that it goes on there.... just as long as they leave me alone, I'll tolerate it...... I just dont care for it going on 10 feet from where I lay my head to sleep at night....It's dangerous enough without screwing with the dealers... Oh, and the gas station right across the side street was robbed the other night.... I walked over there to buy something and there were police there and the manager waved me away....... LOVE having armed robbery happening 30 yards from my doorstep!

I have suffered another slight money setback so my car sits and sits and sits...... I'm gonna have to buy new clothes too as everything I have is so big and baggy due to all the weight loss.... so it's become really difficult to pull the 600 dollars together to get the thing fixed....... I REALLY want to move away from the place I'm at but that wont happen til I get the car back...... and so it goes..... I'm really at peace though, all things considered........ I feel great, I would like to think I look great (without sounding egotistical), and I am mentally and spiritually as fit as I may have ever been in my adult life.......... just broke and lonely..... but broke and lonely are merely things of the temporary world...... I still feel good about my future......... thanks to everyone for all their love and support these last few months....... Its meant the world to me to have you.......

I'll be at The Hollow this weekend to help Secret finish the paint job she and started a couple of weeks ago..... so I will be able to get back to all the great comments that were left here while I was gone........ so see Ya'll soon!

Hugs and Woots to yas!

Well, hiya Streamer Beamers..... I just wanted to check in since it's been a while since I did.......... Things are going well.... still no car but I have been paying off some bills and socking away money to hopefully get the car repaired in a month or so..... I really dont mind not having the wheels so much..... with gas prices like they are, I would probably just walk anyway..... and I have definitely gotten into the walking lifestyle now..... I get to see things that most of those speeding past me dont see...... maybe the soul of a town is in the details and we miss those locked up in our speeding cars....Once I get off the main highway and into old Oxford, I enjoy passing certain homes with beautifully tended yards and gardens.......this little town has done a wonderful job of protecting it's history...... there are many old churches and homes around where I live... and I really get a good idea of how many folks around here I know as everytime I walk I get honks and offers of rides from the many friends I have made since moving from The Hollow......... so I dont really feel so alone and exposed to danger while I am out and about...... It's nice to get out of the place I am living once or twice a month though to visit back at The Hollow..... it's really kind of seedy where I live, as I described before.... things have improved somewhat since I was moved to a room nearer the front of the motel but I have had some interesting run ins with the strange folks that come and go there..... I had some disoriented woman pounding at my door at 4 in the morning a couple of weeks ago and then a crackhead stumbled up to me one day as I sat on my doorstep reading and demanded to "borrow" my lighter.... I wasnt going to argue with him and frankly I didnt really want the lighter back anyway..... I just wanted the guy out of my face...... btw.... he returned last night after midnight, pounding on my door, asking to borrow some ciggys and a lighter again...... no dice this time, I told him through the window..... geeze!

... I am in the best shape I have been in in years and I really feel good physically...... emotionally, I am doing better than usual.... but I still struggle with that same despair that seems to rise up out of nowhere once in a while and wash over me...... it doesnt have the complete control over me that it has had in the past and I am proud of the fact that I am getting by with no medication or by falling back on the bad habits that have wrought so much destruction in my past.....Actually, I guess I'm doing pretty good!

Nagging boredom and loneliness aside, I feel I am on the way to something very special happening in my little life...... I'll get back to the things I love sooner or later... photography, making music and hiking in the wilderness..... but this is a time for me to grow inside and to grow in my relationship with God.... onward and upward.... onward and upward.

I miss so many of you and I hope everyone is doing well!

Hugs and woots to ya!

Hiya Streamers..... I just wanted to say hello since I am at a computer..... I am at the library..... walked 4 miles to get here to hang out, read books and check email.... well, they have unblocked my little blog here so it looks like I can begin posting more..... er.... when I'm up to walking an 8 mile round trip to get here..... my time is almost up so I gotta run.... I will return all the great comments Y'all left here when I can..... wont be at The Hollow this weekend or next......but I'll be back to see Y'all!

Hope everyone is doing well!

WOOT!