The Ever So Sensible Plan For Happiness & Productivity

He had the positive self-talk down

Could quote Peale as if it was written on the back of his hand

He created an environment that stimulated creativity

That would have had Edison crying in his sleep

Wrote down his goals and reviewed them ten times a day

Keep them in focus, sharp as a Samurai's blade

Made damn sure everything he did was meaningful

And that whatever he did gave him an opportunity to shine

First thing everyday he wrote down a plan of action

That would make him joyful, productive and fruitful

Though not necessarily in the biblical way

Just wanted to stay motivated

Just wanted to stay real

Just wanted to stay in the game

Just wanted to be real

Heavy Wet Tree Branch Snapping Snow

    May snowstorms are not unusual in the Rocky Mountains, but heavy, wet snow like we received last night/this morning is. The media reported the snowstorm as the most snow for a day in May since the May of 2003.

   Sure took a toll on the trees in and around my neighborhood.

 

Material Is Money

 

Tripping Through The Thistle Fields Of Life

 

Gotta admire a craftsperson who takes pride in their work and does the best job possible, even if the end results are very rarely ever to be seen.

The Cat Was Looking For Someone A Little Cooler

 

A Beautiful Day For A BallGame

 

   Yesterday was a beautiful day for a ballgame, especially for Padres fans. The Friars are enjoying a great start to the 2026 season, and continued that start with a come-from-behind victory over the Rockies compliments of a 3-run jack off the bat of birthday boy Gavin Sheets in the 9th.

   His father, former MLB outfielder Larry Sheets, had to be smiling from ear-to-ear.

   This game also featured the sons of two other former MLB players - Rockies 3rd baseman Kyle Karros, son of Eric, and Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr, son of Tatis Sr.

   Former MLB pitcher Billy Wagner's son Will also plays for the Padres, but he is currently on the IR so did not see any action in this game.

   Baseball is a very family-centric game.

   And yesterday was a great day to bring the family out to the ballpark, especially if your family is comprised of Padre fans.

The Split Rail Fence Of Adages & Affirmations

Aching Painful Sore Back Emergency

   The past eight days have been some of the most painful of my entire life. Worse pain than any abcessed tooth or broken/fractured bone or migraine headache.

   My back went out. 

   At first all I felt was a slight discomfort in the lower left side of my back when I removed a less than 20 pound box from a shoulder-height shelf and turned/twisted to load it onto a cart. 

   There was something ominous about how my back tweaked as I placed the relatively light box down though. It was one of those "uh-oh" moments when one knows one has screwed something up worse than it appears.

   For the first few days after the tweaking I felt only slight discomfort, but on the fourth day the pain ramped up suddenly and severely.

   Have you ever spent a night trying desperately to find a comfortable position in your bed to sleep? Constantly adjusting and shifting your torso and legs to get at least a minute or two of comfort, all of which is painful? Yeah, it was that level of hell. 

   I felt like a carnival contortionist trying to fit into a suitcase that kept getting smaller and smaller, all while some idiot outside the box was sticking knives into the shrinking space.

   After downing 800mg of Ibuprofen and putting an ice pack on the spot where the imaginary knives were lancing into my lower back (about two inches to the left of my spine, right between the erector spinae and gluteus maximus), I was finally able to get a little sleep).

   The intense pain returned within a few short minutes of my wakening however so I started texting people I know who have suffered back injuries and endured intense back pain in order to get their advice on what to do.

   CMM, who was rear-ended by a truck while driving along I-70 almost 20 years ago and has had to contend with persistent back pain ever since.

   BWB, who has had a dodgy back for most of his adult life and has managed to work in an industry that requires heavy lifting nevertheless.

  JER, who injured his back while serving in the U.S. Army and is now on full disability.

   All three of them gave great advice that included most of what you see in the pic above (the only piece of advice not shown is the cannabis - I'm just not a cannabis guy).

   And of course I was told, "Get thee to a Doctor".

   So, I did.

   I made a beeline to a little clinic not to far from my house. I was able to be seen by a Physician Assistant after a short wait.

   After a little gentle poking and prodding of my lower back to determine where the soreness was centralized (see above) I underwent a few quick tests.  First was the straight leg test while I was sitting in a chair, than the straight leg test while I was lying prone on the exam table. 

   The sitting straight leg test was just me lifting my left leg slowly and repeatedly, which I was able to do with no discomfort to my leg though I did feel discomfort in my lower back.

   The straight leg test while I was laying down on the exam table involved the PA lifting my left leg slowly and asking if I was feeling any pain as she raised my leg until it was at a 90 degree angle to the rest of me. I felt pain in my lower back but nothing in my leg, which she said was a good sign.

   Then she did what she said was a text for possible nerve injury, which she called the femoral nerve test. It was simply having me turn onto to my big belly and then she lifted my left leg while it was bent at the knee. She asked if I was feeling any pain in my thigh and I told her I didn't, which she said was another good sign.

   Good signs while I was suffering from some pretty damn debilitating lower back pain. Oh yay.

   Long story short, soft tissue strain was the diagnoses, and I was prescribed a 5% lidocaine patch (I had no idea PA's could write prescriptions but apparently they can).

   I was also told to lose some weight - at least 60 if not 75 pounds. I am a large human, have been since I was small (which, at any time for whatever age I was, I never was - my waist was a 36 when I was in the 6th grade and I was what people labeled "husky" back then).

   I have been as heavy as 335 (pounds, not kilos) since I left high school all those decades ago, and I currently run 285 (well, not run, 'cause, you know, I'm fat).

   Being descended from generations of coal miners and others who made their livings lifting heavy stuff kinda sucks when it comes to losing weight. I am genetically pre-disposed to being a larger than average human.

   I have, however, managed to lose weight when it was necessary, primarily through rigorously adopting Bill Phillips Body For Life fitness system.

   So it looks like I'm going to be undertaking that 84 day challenge once again (though going lightly on the exercise part). I apologize in advance for the grouchiness that will develop concurrently.

   

Worst Plot Summary Ever

    For your reading pleasure...this is the plot summary for the 1993 television movie Percy & Thunder that was directed by Ivan Dixon, as seen on the Wikipedia page for the film.

Percy (James Earl Jones) and Thunder (Courtney B. Vance) have been with themselves around the past so they are finding it. Percy and Thunder meets with Leatherhead (Mick E. Jones) a corrupt boss and VFW Refree (Ron Shipp) are having a fight against Percy and Thunder to commit it. Percy takes Thunder and Leatherhead and VFW Refree to let Percy know he has to track down an Assassin and then Percy finds the assassins outside and then fights and kills them and tells Leatherhead assignment is done. Percy and Thunder tells Leatherhead and VFW Refree to see them later. Percy goes to find Promoter (Mike Finneran) to know he is bored and then knows the answers and then can use it anytime. Percy and Promoter take a road trip down the road and then they view what's on the road. Percy and Promoter find the helicopter and then all the targets arrive and then Percy knocks out all the targets and then returns to Promoter. Percy tells Promoter that it's good to spend time with itself to know when it's time for it.

   That is verbatim. 

   There may be a couple of reasons that this plot summary is, well, gibberish. English may not be the first language of the writer (maybe the writer's first language is Gaelic, or Urdu, or maybe Vulcan, and whatever software they used for the translation to English was a bit dodgy). Or maybe it was written by a completely whacked-out AI program (ChatGPT?).

   It's not possible that this was the pitch used to sell the project to the studio, is it? No way, inconceivable. Not even the most coked-out producer in all of Hollywood would have bit on this one.

   Of course, a producer once listened to the pitch for C.H.U.D. and that movie got made, so I could be wrong.

   

.

Spay Today...Is A Lie. Spay By Appointment Is The Truth

    

   The sign stated boldly, SPAY TODAY!

   The cat, being female and almost 8 months old, was scooped up when I got home and taken to the place with that big, bold sign without delay.

   The clinician who greeted me politely informed me that "Spay Today" was simply the name of the veterinary clinic.

   You cannot get a cat spayed today at the clinic, but you can certainly make an appointment to have her spayed...in April.

   Gotta change the name of the place to SPAY BY APPOINTMENT.

Sculpture Seen While Walking The Dr. Tom Jones Trail Around Windsor Lake, Part 5

                                              Cold Moon by Sandy Friedman, $11,600.00

   Sandy Friedman began working in ceramics and then added steel sculptures to his oeuvre. His work has been added to both private and public collections throughout the southwest and internationally in collections and galleries in many countries such as Canada, France & Spain.

   The sculpture above is part of his Cold Moon series and is available for $11,600.00

A Few From The Irish On Saint Patrick's Day

    A pompous English tourist entered an Irish pub in Dublin one afternoon and was promptly offered a pint of Guinness by the barman.

   Without hesitation he declined the libation and exclaimed, "I'm an Englishman good sir - born and bred in England, I proudly live as an Englishman, by the grace of god I hope to die as an Englishman, and I demand a proper English Gin and Tonic!"

   A wee Irishman on a barstool nearby looks over at him and comments, "Have ye nay ambition in ye at all, then?'

   The tipplers of County Kildare

Say it's more than pink elephants they fear

There's red rabbits, purple bats

Chartreuse rodents and magenta cats

 That jump from their whiskey and beer

   A tired old Irish pensioner visiting London was getting ready for bed in his hostel room when a beautiful young English lass in a nearly transparent negligee walked through the door. 

   Looking at the frail elderly man she blushed and exclaimed, "Pardon me sir, I've entered the wrong room!"

   "Aye", sighed the venerable gent, "and thirty years too late as well."

There once was a young lass from Blarney

Whose knowledge of French was simply "Oui oui"

To this very day

Men's glasses are raised

To honor her memory in Paree

   Stout Mrs O'Leary was on trial for domestic abuse. The Prosecutor had her on the stand and, indicating her bandaged up husband sitting forlornly at the counsel's table, stated loudly "Do you you expect this court to believe that a physical wreck such as your husband was able to give you a black eye?"

   Mrs O'Leary looked over at the jury and replied, "He wasn't a physical wreck when he gave it to me."

Sculpture Seen While Walking The Dr Tom Jones Trail Around Windsor Lake, Part 4

Whispers of Spring, Charlotte Zink, $10,000.00

   Louisiana native Charlotte Zink made her way to Colorado in the late 1980's. As a student at CU Boulder she developed her artistic talents and abilities to an extraordinary degree and, with the able assistance of her husband Ben, has created a large number of wonderful sculptures that can be seen in the permanent collections of municipalities throughout the state.  

   The piece shown above is entitled Whispers of Spring and is available for $10,000.00.

Jump, Jump, Jump To Conclusions...& Slam The Door Shut

Some people just have to be heard 

Don't wait for an opening just interrupt

In your head you can hear them screaming

Pay attention to me!

Pay attention to me!

I'm the one who is important here! Me! Me!

Listen to me, listen to me

Listen to me!

As if you have a choice

Some people just have to be in control

Steer the conversation to what's on their mind

Interrupt you in mid-sentence

Disregard anything you were saying

Because nothing you could have to say

Would possibly be as important

As everything they have to say

They know how to marginalize

Manipulate and stigmatize

Undermine and miscatergorize

Belittle and vilify

Every thought and opinion you might dare to express

That runs counter to their idea of what's best

Jump to conclusions and slam the door shut

Jump to conclusions and slam the door shut

Jump, jump, jump to conclusions

Slam the door shut

Because nothing you possibly could have had to say

Could possibly have added 

Anything of value to the conversation

Sculpture Seen While Walking The Dr. Tom Jones Trail Around Windsor Lake, Part 3

                                                     Tenderness, Reno Carollo, $15,000.00

   Reno Carollo is a former teacher who left that profession to follow his passion of being an artist, a maker, a creator, a sculptor, a jewelry designer and a crafter. His sculptures begin as very small models (like, 6 inches or so) and then, utilizing hammers and chisels he subtracts pieces from a large block of stone until he realizes his vision as a full size work of art.

   His work is on display and sold in galleries throughout the U.S., from Arizona to Arkansas, and of course, in Windsor, Colorado.
 

Charles Ranks His Top Three Nightmares

 The fear of flying

Into the side of a mountain

While riding on a magic carpet

Was a little more horrifying

Than drowning in a boiling fountain

Or accidently falling into a bottomless tarpit

At least it was to poor old Charles Mallery Chadwick

Sculpture Seen While Walking The Dr. Tom Jones Trail Around Windsor Lake, Part 2

 

                                                     Plein Air Bear by Colette Pitcher

   Colette Pitcher is a multi talented artist who can paint and sculpt with the best of them. I first discovered her work when I caught sight of her award-winning bronze "Bee My Honey" in a park just off Washington Ave in Northglenn.

   Her piece featured on the artwalk along the Dr. Tom Jones Trail at Windsor Lake is entertainingly fanciful, and can be purchased for $30,000.00. 

Good Idea For A Comedy Sketch Scene...50 Years Too Late

   This afternoon I overheard someone tell someone that they needed to see a little more hustle from them.

   Which sparked a memory, and then an idea for what could have been a funny scene in a movie...maybe 50 years ago.

   Here is the scene that raced through my mind; Camera pans a baseball diamond that is full of baseball players engaged in a lot of rather lackadaisical activity - it is Spring Training, so the rust of a long off-season is evident as players take swings at cans of corn and play a lot of sloppy pepper.

   Close up on the manager as he grimaces at the sight of his players dragging their collective feet and generally looking more like half-drunk amatuer softball players than a top-tier professional baseball team.  

   The manager cups his hands to his mouth and shouts loudly: "C'mon you chowderheads, cut the crap, I want to see a lot more hustle out there, pronto!"

   The camera cuts to the field immediately as Van McCoy's 1975 dance hit The Hustle begins to blare. All of the players start a perfectly choreographed line dance version of a 6 step hustle.

   The manager is shown burying his face in his hands.

  See, back in '77, '78, that would have been funny as all get out. Nowadays, not so much.

Sculpture Seen While Walking The Dr. Tom Jones Trail Around Windsor Lake, Part 1

                                                           Transformation by Jodie Bliss
 

   The immensely talented Jodie Bliss is a Monument, Colorado based Blacksmith and fabricator who forges metal sculptures using structural steel, stainless steel, copper, brass, and  bronze.

   Her creations can be seen in numerous locales, from the Colorado Springs airport (Muse of Music, which also incorporates glass, and Blossoming), to Salina, Kansas (Phoenix Rising), and Manitou Springs (Spirit of Manitou), and of course at her studio in Monument.

   The piece in the above photograph, entitled Transformation, is located along the Dr. Tom Jones trail which skirts around Windsor Lake, in Windsor, Colorado.

   It's a beautiful sculpture, and if you fall in love with it you can take it home as it is available for purchase ($19,500.00).

   

The Candle Burns Without Pause

 

   Shine, shine as brightly as you can

                                      Time seems to crawl when you're in your prime

               But that's only due to you aching for a future that has yet to happen

                               Each and everyday you grow closer to the end

                                               An end that happens whenever it chooses to

   You have no say in the matter

                           It happens when it happens

                                              You can waste the time you're allotted 

                       Complaining, worrying, whining, regretting, knotted

                                       Or you can live like you mean it

   Unafraid, joyful and in the moment

                                          For the moment is all you really have

 

A Specific And Well Defined Though Notoriously Difficult To Comprehend Statement

 

Delicious Irony Found On A Sunday Morning Stroll Through The Neighborhood

   Picked up a copy of "The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work" by John M. Gottman (PhD) at a divorce sale this weekend. 

   Not because I'm in a struggling marriage (I'm not married) or am planning to get married (I'm not planning to get married), but because I'm curious as to what a twice-divorced (three-times married - third time must be the charm) psychologist (and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Washington) has to write about keeping the magic in a marriage.

   Plus, I couldn't resist the irony of purchasing such a book at a divorce sale. 

Sculptures Seen At Fickel Park In Berthoud, Colorado

   Stopped in the small (but growing - the population has doubled in the last 10 years or so) town of Berthoud, Colorado and noticed that there was a sculpture park located between Mountain Ave and Massachusetts Ave, between 6th and 7th streets.

   Except it's not designated a sculpture park as such, it's Fickel park, and it has a few sculptures placed in it (on the Mountain Ave side of the park).

   I took pictures of all the sculptures and they are posted here:

Colorful Glass Mosaic Piece on Pedestal, No Attribution Found 

                                          Harley's Dream, Cast Bronze Sculpture by Helen Violet

                                       Walrus & Calf, Cast Bronze Sculpture by Dellores Shelledy

                                  Old Gold Tooth, Cast Bronze Sculpture by R.B. "Doc" Fickel

                                    Mt Mariah, Cast Bronze Sculpture by R.B. "Doc" Fickel

                                           Panzon, Cast Bronze Sculpture by Dan Ostermiller

                                              Carved Tree Stump, No Attribution Found

There's Getting Dumped & Then There's Getting Erased

    Ah, Valentine's Day, the one day a year that florists, chocolatiers, and greeting card manufacturers (not to mention restaurants, independent high-class and so-so class chain joints alike) all rejoice in the sudden swelling of their coffers.

   Not to put too much of a cynical spin on it.

   There are millions and millions of people all over the world (something like a hundred countries celebrate some version of Valentine's Day - in Latin America, it's known as Dia del Amor y la Amistad) expressing their affections towards someone on Valentine's Day. 

   With so much participation around the globe, one is somewhat forced to lend it some credence as a bonafide celebration of romantic love, eh?

   However, there are those who disdain the blatant commercialization and abhor the societal pressure that is placed upon individuals to flamboyantly display/express their affections towards their mate/significant other/sorta serious friend/frequent but casual hook-up. 

   And then there are those who are not involved with another on any interpersonal level whatsoever, romantic, casual, or pay-as-you-go. Those people really have it rough (that is, according to the small sample of my circle of friends and acquaintances who fit into that demographic they do - heck, according to most of them it's the worst day of the year, period). 

   Those people are fairly vociferous about how much they despise the holiday.

    The ones who have it even worse than them though? Gotta be those who have recently gone through a break-up, amiable, amicable, or otherwise. Even if the break-up was a long time coming, the first Valentine's Day afterward has got to be just a little more than irksome.

    Especially if the end of the relationship was so bad one or the other parties involved had to take a chisel to the initial that was preserved with their partners in cement, encircled by a heart as a statement of their eternal devotion.

   Sometimes even being etched in stone isn't a guarantee.

Warm Winter Afternoon Hike

    Unusually Warm Winter for the Denver area this year. No complaints from me though, makes taking an afternoon hike much more pleasant.

The Texan Who Relocated To Colorado But Still Misses Home

 

   Cannot decide which is funnier, the steer horns mounted on the hood or the placard hanging from the rearview mirror.

   I suppose it doesn't matter, because whoever is driving this car is definitely winning.

The Unwelcome Confession

   Carter sat on the bench in an awkward slouch, his physical misalignment quite in line with his current emotional state.

   In short, not good.

   For perhaps the 25th or 26th time that evening he recounted to himself exactly what had transpired between him and Yolie the day before, and for the 25th or 26th time that evening he found himself unable to accept that last thing she had told him.

   They had met a scant 8 weeks ago while standing in line to see the latest and greatest iteration of a reformed '90's band. She had liked his shirt and he replied that he like hers.

   That's all it took to spark a mutual attraction that led to an exchange of phone numbers and 14 dates over the past two months.

   Date 15 was yesterday. That date was far more intimate than any of the previous 14 - far more intimate than the long, lingering kisses and full body caresses that had evolved from the awkward hug goodnight of the first date.

   The conversation afterward was as far more intimate as the physical intimacy had been. Far more intimate and far more revealing.

   It was during that intimate conversation, when both of them were sharing details about past relationships, that Yolie stated rather flatly that she had only ever been involved in what could be regarded as an affair once, and it was over 25 years ago when she was still in high school, and she wasn't the married one, so really, it shouldn't even matter.

   Her stating that she was in high school when it happened, and that she wasn't married but he was, both made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and piqued his curiosity.

   So he asked a question that, once it escaped his lips, he knew he shouldn't of.

   He asked, "You were in high school and he was a married man? How did that happen?"

   And she told him how it happened, in the same flat manner that she had casually mentioned it.

   She was 15. He was her 35-year-old tennis coach. She had a crush on him that drove her crazy. She flirted with him incessantly when they were alone together. She said she knew he was playing coy when he told her several times that what she was doing was inappropriate, and she was certain he wanted her as much as she wanted him. 

   So she persisted, wearing tight polo shirts with all three buttons undone to expose her ample cleavage, and the shortest tennis skirt she could get away with. She smiled seductively and licked her lips as she bent forward toward him when he was feeding tennis balls into the hopper of the ball launcher, and made it a point to always bend over to pick up a tennis ball or two with her back to him.

  She stated that she did everything she could for at least two months to get him to make a move for her before deciding to take a step that she now "somewhat, sort of" regretted. 

   With a chilling tone Yolie said she told her married tennis coach that if he did not start responding to her as she wanted him to, she would tell his wife that he had. 

   That, she said, was when he came around to her way of thinking and they started a very passionate affair that lasted for almost a year, until he and his family moved when he took a job in Florida.

   She had been tempted to follow him to Florida, but changed her mind once she met her first serious boyfriend at the fast food restaurant where they both worked.

   Carter then asked the second question of the night that once he asked it he knew he shouldn't have.

   He asked, "Do you ever think about how much danger you put him in - he could have gone to jail for that, you know, and no doubt would have lost his wife and family."

   Yolie had laughed a little when Carter asked that question, and her curt reply of  "Oh come on, we just were having a little fun and nobody got hurt, don't go all prudish on me now!" had turned his stomach.

   That was the point when Carter got up out of the bed they were sharing and started to get dressed. She asked where he was going and he told her he had to leave and do some thinking. He finished dressing as she sat upright on the bed staring at him, and he walked down the hall and out the door without another word.

   Carter straightened out a little on the bench, his left leg having developed a little numbness. He drummed the fingers of his left hand on his knee. 

   He knew there was no way he could accept her cavalier attitude about the affair, it just wasn't possible. She confessed to seducing a married man 20 years her senior when she was in high school, a man who, as her high school tennis coach, would have legally been regarded as being in a position of trust and would therefore have been criminally liable for abusing that position.

   Criminally liable, which in this state and at that time would have meant he would have gone to jail for a minimum of 5 years, and would have had a lifetime afterwards of having to register as a known sex offender.

   And she only "somewhat, sort of" regretted how she went about it.

  

   

Anchorage In February, 1990

The sun began to crack the horizon a little earlier each day

By the end of the month there would be almost six full hours of daylight

Not enough to melt the parking lot glaciers

But in the afternoons the sun dogs would start dancing

Anchorage in February, 1990

The Coolest Thing(s) I Saw Today

   Right off I-25 southbound at the Cimarron (Colorado 24 westbound) exit...well, about two blocks up Colorado 24 westbound, on your right.

Buffalo Roaming

 

                                             Lou Wille's sculpture in Grand Junction, Colorado

Sometimes You Just Have To Force Yourself To Do Something, Anything

   If there is one thing my experiences with myriad other creative souls has taught me, it is that there is very little that creative souls agree upon. 

   There is an amazing amount of disagreement about what is and what is not  "creativity", and what is really an art form, or what is truly an artistic endeavour.

   One creative's art is often another creative's unaesthetic garbage.

   However, there's is one little thing that I have found that every single creative I have ever met has agreed upon, and that is:

   When you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it, and the best way out of that miasma is to just work it out.

Subaru Cleared For Take Off

 

   Is there anything worse than driving along a highway doing 75 mph and being anywhere near this guy?

   I mean, sure, it could be a logging truck with a full load of fresh cut trees, but man, that mattress and foundation are either going to fly off the top of that Subaru, or that Subaru is going to take flight.