Song Writers, In The Halls Of The Living

We attended a showcase for songwriters. As an unpublished writer of fiction, except for my self-publishing efforts, I know many people have stories in the drawer of their desks or on their hard drives. Why it never occurred to many that there are as many or maybe more songwriters with the urge to tell their stories.

The themes of these folks were as scattered as pillow feathers in a windstorm. One fellow even bragged he could write a song about a grocery list, and I don't doubt him.

They sang about life and love, disappointment and happiness. The music was from Broadway show style to blues, country, rock, and folk. Many of the songs were humourous, and some were sad, while most of them were thought-provoking.

All in all, it was an evening well spent and something to look forward to.

On The Easel

Looking South at Sunset

Pastel 12 x 16

Health Report

It's a week of recovery from the bladder scrap. I'm eliminating less blood than I had been, and the post-op pain is significantly less. I don't know where 'not painful but irritating' fits on the 1 - 10 pain scale. I know that waiting for the pathologist's report is definitely a 10.

Yes, I'm in a relationship.

Many of you saw the announcement via Facebook. I met Jeanne Kornkven while working at the All Saints Hunger Booksale. We became friends and discovered that the kind of relationship we thought was in the rearview mirror was right across the table.

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Ring The Bell

It appears there is a tradition in the radiology department at Ascension Hospital that patients, upon completing their course of treatment, ring a bell. ( We know not for whom this bell tolls.) Ring the Bell with My Sweetheart Jeanne. Jeanne drove me to all but two of the appointments. Pam Frautchi took me to the other two. Today, after being zapped thirty-two times, I rang the bell. This begins a roughly one-month recovery period where the effects of the radiation abate and, I'm assured, a return to normalcy occurs. In my case, I anticipate more energy and greater awareness. Books, Books, & More Books I am simultaneously celebrating the end of the third year of volunteering for the All Saints Hunger Book Sale. Next week, we will wrap up the preparation for the sale and open our doors on August 3 for the public. I ran into this humourous but quite accurate cartoon on a T-Shirt that shows most of the volunteer's sentiments at this point. If you think the printed and bound p...

One of my latest efforts. Sketch: The Lady Is Blue Gouache 9 X 12 Reporting: I enjoyed a pleasant evening with my friend Michelle Mooney. I took her out for dinner to celebrate her birthday and to thank her for the many first-rate haircuts she's given me. We were surprised at the number of people who dined alfresco in the balmy night air. Whatever we've done to please Mother Nature, she had deemed acceptable by giving us a shot of summer just when late fall weather was wrapping her fingers around our throat. If I have one complaint about the friendly confines of The County Claire, it's the noise level that makes it difficult to converse. The rumble is an acoustical problem with the customers speaking in normal conversational tones. This is without audible TV showing some game or background music selected by a dance DJ. I know! We should have eaten outside, where the only noise is the occasional 14 bus snorting by. Maybe It's Me Since my two soccer teams are not doing...

It's time again.

It started in 2004 when we moved to our condo off Downer in Milwaukee. Then we mover to the Westside of Milwaukee when we rented from Ken Karr, the former landlord, now a current friend on Highland and 29th St. Then we moved to Mandeville Louisiana for a little less than a year. Returning to The Fox River Valley, we rented a home in Fox Crossing, formerly The Town of Menasha. When the tree fell on the roof, and the landlord felt no urgency to fix it, we moved to W. Commercial in Appleton. Here is a shocker. Are you sitting down? We are moving. No, I don't mean off the couch and out to the patio. There are too many damn mosquitoes for that to happen. No, we are packing our stuff, or at least the stuff we unpacked from the last move and moving to a home Maria purchased on Mason and Glendale in Appleton. Let me unpack that last sentence (pun planned for). We are moving at approximately the end of September to a house. The house has been in t...

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