Brief, HAH! I only have six months to chronicle and LOTS of paper. I can give you the most intimate details of shit you didn't want to read about in the first place. Your prayers have been answered, albeit by the wrong Deity. Let me start by telling you of my daily routine: Get up; eat lunch; take a nap; watch TV; read until sleepy; go to bed. Repeat the next day. Ah! Life is good.

I should stop here and make everyone happy, but what little is left of my brain is not Y2K compliant and I have been having some pre-millennium malfunctions. Hence the following pages.

Well, there I was, in Lavina camped in the back yard of 123 Main St. The month of May was rather wet and cool so I followed my schedule rather rigidly. If I needed a break, some relaxation from my rigorous daily routine, I would wander over to Terry and Glenna's school bus/RV and bother them. Terry was busy (guffaw!) converting the bus into an RV. He still is. If I timed my visits right they felt obligated to invite me in to eat with them. They began to vary their mealtimes but I noticed a peculiar pattern to it so I seldom went hungry.

Robert and Ginger were not expected back from New York until June 8, so I decided to go to Kansas City over Memorial Day weekend for a quick visit with my family. I wanted to drive straight through and figured it would take 22 hours. If I left in the morning I would get there early the next morning and have to go all day before I could sleep, so I decided to leave late in the afternoon. As I drove south from Billings I noticed everything was green. Previously I had only driven this stretch of road in the Fall and it had always been brown. It looked entirely different in the Spring. So full of hope and promise.

I wanted to stop in Grand Island, NE at a Sams Club to buy something I could get only there. Unfortunately I managed to time my arrival so that I would get there about 3:00 AM. So I pulled over at a rest stop and curled up in my seat for about four hours. There was construction at the Grand Island exit so I missed it completely and had to turn around 20 miles down the road. I did make it there about 11 but they no longer carried what I wanted. I called the store in Lincoln and they did have what I wanted on closeout as they were no longer going to stock it.

So I went to Lincoln and bought what I needed. I had intended to bypass Lincoln but because I went to Sams I had to drive through downtown Lincoln. As I drove through downtown I became extremely nauseated and disoriented. I knew it was the energy there and since I knew my way through town I kept going. Two miles past downtown I began to feel much better. There is some energy in downtown Lincoln that bothers me to the extreme. And it is NOT the company for which I worked in Lincoln, Lincoln Benefit Life. The people whom I met at that company are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Except, of course, for you, gentle reader.

In 1992 I lived in Charlottesville, Va for five months. While there I visited Bill and Donna Bauman in Washington, D.C. I could hardly stand the energy there, while Bill and Donna felt quite comfortable. Then when I went to work in Lincoln I again was hit very hard by some kind of energy there. Yet there were so many truly wonderful, open and spiritual people there who did not seem to be affected by the energy at all. This was what made me realize that I was the only person who felt the energy, at least to the extent that I do. For me it is a constant and very painful part of my life which no one else seems able to understand when I speak of it because they don't experience it or anything like it. It is as if I have antennae for a seventh sense that picks up all human emotional energy within a 100 mile radius. Oh lucky me.

Having spent so much of the last ten years in the West I am always surprised and pleased to see how verdant and fertile eastern Nebraska and Kansas are. Everything is so green and full of life. Big trees grow everywhere, not just scrawny little things along dry creek beds as in the West.

The day before I left Lavina for KC I was sitting on a wooden bench on Main St in front of the General Store. I had my left arm propped up on the backrest. When I took it down I got a one inch splinter in my armpit just under the skin. Pulling on it I broke off the piece that was sticking out, leaving the rest embedded in my arm. I was unable to get it out. Fortunately Rose was there. We went back to my trailer and she dug it out with a needle. I arrived at my sister and brother-in-laws house Thursday evening about 5:30. I was tired and spaced out. I spoke to them for about 30 minutes before I realized I was talking in circles. I decided to get a beer in hopes of calming myself down. I had bought a case at Sams and it was still in my van. I couldn't tear the cardboard handle so cut it with my pocket knife. After the knife cut through the cardboard it proceeded to embed itself in my left wrist about a quarter inch deep. It bled profusely, gushing blood. I refused to go to the hospital but with the help of Mark and Jeanne, we managed to get the bleeding to stop within about five minutes. I missed muscles, nerves and arteries and there were no sequelae. After two days I had a bumpy scar but no further problems.

I have now shot myself, stabbed myself and made a snake bite me twice before I got the message. When I was 20 I went to the Lawrence, KS dump to shoot cans and bottles with a .22 calibre pistol. It was a single action revolver. As I drew it from my holster I depressed the hair trigger at the same time I cocked the hammer. When I released the hammer the gun went off and I had shot myself through the fleshy part of my right heel. There was no pain associated with that incident or the subsequent healing process.

In March of 1985 I was using a chain saw to cut some tree limbs a contractor had stacked together so he could build houses on the cleared land. I felt something stick my left forearm. It drew blood. I looked for a sharp stick or something but did not see anything so I kept at it. Then something stuck me again. I wiped away the blood and saw what looked like a pair of fang marks on my forearm although I saw no snake. By this time it had started to swell so I figured I had better get to an ER. As I drove to the nearest ER I could feel the venom flowing through my veins toward my heart.

At the ER they said that I had indeed been bitten by a snake twice but it had not injected any venom. If it had injected any venom the middle of the swelling would have been the white of dead tissue instead of the healthy pink that it was. Poisonous snakes, the only ones with fangs, inject venom only about 40% of the time because we are too big to eat and it takes several days for the venom to build back up. Being cold blooded snakes don't function very well until their body temperature reaches 70 degrees. That is why they often sun themselves on roads or rocky ledges. Since it was mid March and cool, I had probably awakened the snake and it was just trying to tell me to leave it alone. I have learned on subsequent experiences that the venom I felt flowing through my veins was merely panic and fear. I now recognize it fairly early on for what it is.

My stay in KC was very brief, as I left the following Tuesday, and busy with family. I chose that particular time to visit as Robert and Ginger hadn't arrived yet and I didn't know what Y2K might cause in the Fall. When I got back to Lavina I realized that I had done everything I had gone to KC to do but not a single thing more. In the energy of KC I was able to follow my plan but not be spontaneous enough to change it one iota.

The first thing I did when I got back to Lavina (I had left my trailer there and slept in Mark and Jeanne's spare bedroom while in KC) was to get a deep puncture wound on my right knee from the aluminum screen door of my trailer. It never did bleed or scab over but I still have a purple mark where it healed over. I never did understand the significance of three puncture wounds within nine days.

When I returned from KC, Terry and Glenna had moved with their school bus to Glenna's mothers yard about two blocks away. The next day Robert and Ginger showed up with a U-Haul truck full of furniture. I had spoken to Ginger many times over the telephone but had never met her until then. It was good to make her acquaintance and to see Robert again. My birthday is February 7, as is Gingers and Terrys. Naturally, I am the youngest at 35.

During May and June I watched the NBA basketball playoffs and continued to do so after Robert and Ginger showed up. Even after meeting me Ginger said it was okay to camp in her back yard. She had bought the 123 Main Street house from Terry and Glenna. It continued cool and wet throughout the month of June. Fortunately there were no flies or mosquitoes. Summer showed up suddenly on July 1 complete with heat, drought, flies and mosquitoes. Though neither the flies nor mosquitoes were nearly as bad as my previous two trips there.

Early in June while playing basketball with some kids in the Lavina School Gym I pulled a muscle in my right calf. As is usual for me I didn't give it time to heal and re-injured it a few days later and aggravated it further only two days after that while trying to play basketball again. Only this time I pulled my left calf muscle too. Now I got the message. I had messed my right calf muscle up so badly that my leg was swollen from my knee to the bottom of my foot. Even my ankle was black and blue as if I had injured it, also. It took three weeks for it to heal. During this time I was unable to hike which was a big disappointment to me.

While this was going on I awoke one morning with a pain in my right mid back as if I had dislocated a rib. This continued to hurt for about an hour after arising each morning for the rest of the summer. I had also hyper-extended my right elbow trying to compete in basketball with teenage boys. Though this got better with non use. I never did go back to open gym night. Late in June I was cleaning out my van and, reaching over the backrest of one of my seats, I heard and felt something pop in my sternum. Apparently I had dislocated something in my sternum. I couldn't get it to go back in. It didn't cause me too much trouble unless I tried to raise my arms, especially both at the same time.

Throughout the summer in Lavina I had no energy or strength; I felt lethargic and without motivation. Robert was busy fixing up their new house and I never once offered to help him because I was just too tired. Fortunately, if you remember my schedule, there wasn't much for me to do. Though there were three things I did get to do that I enjoyed a lot. All too seldom I got to visit with Rose. Although I did meet her two sons and her two granddaughters who visited at the same time from the West Coast. Her daughter and two grandsons live in Billings and I always get to see them when I go to Lavina.

There is no trash service in Lavina so we save all of our burnable trash and every week or two we would take it to Terry and Glenna's burn barrel for a barrel party. I, Robert and Ginger, Rose and a few occasional others would show up. We would stand or sit around the barrel and talk, sing and just visit while our trash and a few logs burned. We would roast hot dogs and marshmallows and eat a little potato salad and whatever else might show up. I really enjoyed these get togethers. One time as we sat around the fire we watched a lightning storm to the south towards Billings light up the night sky for us as stars shone right above us. Just as this storm began to die out after about an hour, another one took its place to the north of us. We just sat there and took in the awesomeness of nature. It was a special treat for us.

(During my first re-reading of this Letter it appears that Jim forgot what the third thing he did and enjoyed was. If he remembers later, but before printing, he will add it to this tale. (ed.))

For some reason I was extremely depressed the first three weeks of June. I was hit with overwhelming feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and deep, dark despair. I couldn't figure out why or find a way to get rid of it. I just dealt with it the best I could. On the Summer Solstice about a dozen of us from Lavina and Billings went out to Roses, who lives on 80 acres of land in the Bull Mountains 15 miles outside of Lavina. We had a little Solstice ceremony and bonfire on a secret and sacred place on Roses land.

I had met everybody who was there at least once except for one woman, Kathleen. When she walked in to Roses house I immediately noticed her wonderful and gentle energy. I spent as much time as I could the rest of the evening being close to her and talking to her without, hopefully, smothering her. She had an open and loving energy and I just loved being in her presence. She had just graduated with a BSN in nursing, though she was in her 30s. I asked if I could see her again and she said yes.

I called her the next week. She lived in Billings and was applying for a nursing job in Red Lodge, 50 miles the other side of Billings at the foot of the Beartooth Mountains. She said if I wanted to ride along to the interview with her, afterward we could drive the Beartooth Highway to Cooke City, at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. This road is listed as one of the ten most scenic roads in North America. It is truly beautiful and awesome. I felt it was much more beautiful than Rocky Mountain National Park. In the Beartooth Mountains you may not be quite as high at 12,000 feet but everywhere you look are valleys 2,000 feet below you and mountain peaks 2,000 feet above you; often on both sides of the road. This was in early July and there was still lots of snow around. It is heavily forested until you hit the tree line.

We got back to Billings about 8:00 that evening. We hugged goodbye and I was overcome with this incredible sense of love; such a wonderful feeling that I literally did not ever want to let go. But I did. This was not my love for her or hers for me. It was not personal at all. It was just the love that she is. It is just the purest form of Gods love (that we all are) radiating from her. This is the essence of all of us. But somehow she never closed herself off to or from it and exudes it from each and every pore. I have hugged over a dozen people like her over the last ten years. I feel that energy merely being in their presence, but for some reason I feel it most strongly when I hug them. And I swear to God I never want to let go. For it is truly Heaven that I experience at these times.

Most of these people have been women. Women are more open and I hug more women than I do men. I met Heribert in Sedona in 1992. He came to a group meditation which I also attended. He and I became friends. He was from Bavaria in southern Germany. He is one of two men with whom I climbed to the top of Bell Rock in Sedona. The other was Adrian from Switzerland. Adrian was another one whom I never wanted to let go when I hugged him because he felt so good. Adrian is in Switzerland and still on my mailing list, though I have not heard from him in a few years. I hope I still have his correct address.

Heribert would not let anybody hug him in the group except me. When I hugged him I felt the presence of Angel Love and could see/feel/perceive Angel Dust, like colored sparklers shooting out and around him. After a month or two Heribert went to Mexico and I have never seen or heard about him since. Two years ago last July I met my parents, one sister and her son in Estes Park, Colorado. We toured Rocky Mountain National Park. On my drive back to Nederland where I was camped I picked up a hitchhiker, which I normally don't do. He lived a few miles outside of Estes Park and worked at a Pizza Hut in Estes Park. He was from France. He had the same energy as Heribert and the same Angel Dust around him. I felt it inappropriate to tell him of the energy I felt from him so we just chatted normally. When I turned into the long driveway to the building in which he had a room, we were surrounded by a herd of at least one hundred elk.

Now, back to Kathleen. When I met her on the Solstice my depression disappeared and has not yet returned. I saw her one more time. She got
the job in Red Lodge at the hospital and I offered to help her move. She said thanks, it would be July 13. Somehow I KNEW that was going to be the day of the baseball All Star game. It was. I missed the game. I drove to Billings the evening before and slept on her couch. We spent the next day moving. She didn't have her nursing license yet and the job was contingent on her passing the Nursing Bar Exam early in August. She had told me she had to study hard for it. I knew she wouldn't be able to see me until after the exam at least. I told her I realized this and I wasn't interested in romance but if she wanted to hang out with me at all before I left the end of September that I would sure enjoy that. I gave her Roberts phone number and my parents address. She said that she would definitely call because she owed me a dinner for helping her move. I told her that she didn't owe me anything, because I knew she would never call. And of course she didn't. But I sure enjoyed the brief time I got to spend with her.

Back in Lavina, as I was saying, it got hot the first of July. I plugged into Gingers electricity so I could get air conditioning. Unfortunately I kept blowing fuses so that didn't work. Phil and Kaye Horton, whom I got to know a lot better this summer, had just left on a three week vacation. Phil knows how to fix everything. Last summer he helped Robert and I mix and pour the concrete in Roberts building. It was his electric mixers we used. They got back from vacation late in July and I immediately begged Phil to help with the fuse box. It seems I was using a 15 amp outlet and required a 20 amp. Phil rewired it and I stayed cool.

Speaking of fuses, I kept blowing the fuse on my DC TV plug. I finally bought a new wire/plug from Radio Shack and that solved the problem.
Never having been this far North this early in the year I noticed something strange happening. The sun would rise and set about 20 degrees NORTH of east/west. Farther south it will rise and set just to the south of the east/west line. But due to the fact the earth is round the sun rises and sets north of the line in June and early July. This is the same thing that causes the sun to rise in Alaska in May and not set until September. I had my trailer set up facing east/west so when the sun set on the wrong side of the trailer it confused me until someone straightened me out.

Ah! Billings! It is nestled in the Yellowstone River valley and runs mostly east/west. I finally figured out their street numbering system this year. From the east they number their streets 1st through 33rd. Then they stop and start over again with 1st street. Incredible but true. 24th and 27th streets are major streets in Billings, but they are about six miles apart. I never could figure that out until I learned their street numbering system.

In my two previous trips to Lavina I never cared for the energy in Billings but this year it hurt me to be there more than an hour or so. Physically and emotionally I would just hurt. So I went there as seldom as possible. Also I took a Valium before I went there which would abort the acute pain but it still took me about two days to recover. When I went to Billings to help Kathleen move we went for dinner to a pizza place. It also had a casino attached to it. I had to use the bathroom, which was located in the casino. While I was in the casino I felt like I was running a gauntlet with people beating on me.

I had the Billings Gazette delivered to my trailer. It costs 75 cents each day and is a very small paper, though there aren't many people to buy it so I couldn't expect much. There are several cities in Montana with populations in the mid 50,000s to Billings 80,000, so the Billings paper was by no means the state newspaper. Besides being not much to it, the editing was atrocious. Words would be misspelled, sentences and paragraphs would end in the middle, and often the caption under a picture would have nothing to do with the picture. Even the Associated Press articles were incomplete. I could only figure that the Gazette got a discount for buying the first draft of the AP stories. But it was the only paper around so I read it. USA Today was available only in Billings. Any and all misspellings and/or mistakes in this letter are solely the fault of my computer and the spellcheck program and not my fault at all.

Steve was the man who delivered my newspaper to me. I liked him a lot. He got up at 5 AM everyday, delivered 35 newspapers and filled two boxes with 15 papers. For which he got $5.00 per day if all of the papers from the boxes were sold. During the summer Steve married the woman with whom he had been living in her home. A couple of years ago he bought an old church (in which Roses son Charlton had been married.) He has been fixing it up to live in ever since whenever he could get together some money. He had redone the inside already, though it was incomplete. The church was across the alley from Gingers house. (I was hoping Ginger liked to bake bread, for obvious naming purposes, but she didn't.)

Steve asked if I would help him and others to re-roof the church. We had to take the old roof off and put down new plywood and a sheet metal roof. This took five days over two weekends. I missed the first day due to a prior commitment. That first Sunday Billings recorded 105 degrees, the second highest temperature ever recorded in Billings. It was a few degrees cooler in Lavina but, still, we couldn't drink enough water nor did any of us pee for two days afterward. I did mostly ground work, providing Steve and Phil with the needed supplies. While doing this work I used leather gloves. Soon I realized that the only time I ever put on these gloves was when I was in Lavina.

By this time my sternum had been dislocated for three weeks and I had to be real careful the way I picked up the plywood and sheet metal. I had tried all sorts of stretching and movement exercises to relocate my sternum, all to no avail. But when I woke up after that first day of work my sternum no longer hurt. Some movement of helping with the roof had popped my sternum back into place.

Steve wants to be a preacher some day. Steve also cusses constantly, which I didn't mind because there was no energy such as anger behind it.
One Sunday morning Steve was straddling the peak of the church roof cussing a blue streak. I had to laugh at the irony of the situation: it is Sunday morning, he is on a church, he wants to be a preacher, and he is cussing so loudly the whole town could hear him.

Speaking of the bad energy in Billings, which hadn't gotten any worse, I had become so much more sensitive to it; I found out why I had such a hard time in Coeur DAlene. I was camping in Lynn's back yard in Hayden Lake, ID. A mile or two away was Hayden, ID, headquarters of the Aryan Nations white supremacist group. I was feeling all that hate so close to me and that is why I felt so miserable while visiting there. I was glad to get that clarified.

Ginger is an herbalist among other things. She learned a lot of her herbal knowledge from an author/herbalist named Susan Weed. Ginger claims there are no weeds, just herbs.

Kaye Horton, Phil's wife, is the math teacher at the Lavina school. She is teaching a total of 32 students math, including her son, in grades 5-12. During the summer she got a small grant to study the use of sheep to graze on the Noxious Weed, Leafy Spurge. A Noxious Weed is defined as a weed not native to the area which is supplanting the native vegetation as the dominant vegetation and which interferes with farming/ranching.

Kaye spent several days on a local ranch learning about ranching, sheep grazing and leafy spurge. She took pictures and interviewed and learned that, while harmful to cattle, sheep thrive on eating leafy spurge. It is impossible to eradicate leafy spurge but grazing sheep on the land can keep it under control. Kaye made a computer presentation which she was going to give to several groups across the state. Before finalizing the presentation she wanted to have two people review it first: someone who knew about ranching and leafy spurge and someone who knew nothing. She asked me to review it as the one who knew nothing (her words.) I told her she had made a wise choice.

Montana is a very pretty state. It is somewhat barren and dry in the southeast and very mountainous and forested in the west. But it gets cold in the winter. My Lavina friends wanted me to spend the winter in Montana. I told them I would never spend the winter in a place where you have to plug your car into electricity to keep it from freezing. Most of the cars in Montana have electric plugs sticking out from the front grilles. (Although since another La Nina is forming in the Pacific, they will probably have a warmer and dryer than usual winter.)

Montana also has a claim to Redneckness. Montana has a state law that prohibits more than four junk cars per lot. There is a 50 cent per year fee added to your personal property tax because the state will cart off up to four junk cars from your property for free each year. However there is no sales tax in Montana so it is like getting a 7% discount on everything you buy there.

On July 23 I awoke and turned on the radio as usual. There is an oldies station in Billings which like to listen to, though the signal fades in and out. But this morning it came in loud and clear. They talked about being the best new station in the valley. Now, while Billings is in a valley, they don't refer to themselves that way, though Phoenix does: the Valley of the Sun. A few minutes later I heard a commercial for a business on Camelback street, which is a major street in Phoenix. A couple more commercials also gave Phoenix street addresses. I got up and moved the dial to get my Billings station and heard a voice from the radio that said their station was the best Spanish station in the valley, though they said that in English. I then turned the dial back the other way to find my Billings station. It still wasn't there but neither were either of the Phoenix stations. This is on the FM dial. There is ABSOLUTELY no way an FM signal could travel the 1500 miles from Phoenix to Lavina. Please explain this to me.

I was channel surfing one evening when I came across Tim Allen's Home Improvement show. I have only seen a couple of episodes but enjoyed it when I watched it. So I watched. In the show Tim said that you are not a real man unless you had duct tape, because with duct tape you could fix anything. Now I carry with me Scotch tape, electrical tape and masking tape. But I don't know if I have ever owned duct tape. But, by God, the next time I went to Billings I bought some. But I still cant get a date.

Part of what Robert likes to do is bring the community together. So on August 1st he had a Christmas in July party in his building. Brandon Lund played the guitar and Lester Krause played clarinet and saxophone. Not a lot of people showed up but those who did had an enjoyable time. Lester is famous because of a line he uttered over the summer. Being from New York, Ginger likes her coffee, apparently strong. Lester said he liked Gingers coffee because she didn't use any water.

I normally like to hike at least two hours every other day. Unfortunately this summer I couldn't hike but maybe once a week. This was because of the injuries to my legs, the heat and the fact that I was busy. Also I only rode my motorcycle less than 100 miles all summer. For a small town I sure seemed to keep busy. Though in lieu of hiking I often shot baskets at the schools outdoor basketball court.

In late August and early September I had two flat tires, actually it was the same tire that went flat two weeks apart. This was the new tire I had bought last winter in Quartzsite. I now had had five flat tires in a two year period. ALL ON THE RIGHT REAR WHEEL. When I took the tire to be fixed the second time (it happened in Billings) they said the tire was probably ruined because it had bubbled out where the hole was. It was the same hole as had been repaired two weeks earlier. So I bought a new tire, one with a six ply sidewall rather than the four ply passenger tires I had been buying. They told me they had a sale, four for the price of three but didn't have time that day to mount any more. So I came back the next day and bought the other three tires. My old tires only had 30,000 miles on them but I liked the security of the extra strong sidewalls since I seem to carry so much weight in my van. But I still don't know why all five flat tires were in the same position on my van. Maybe it was because I carry my wallet in my right rear pocket and all of these flat tires lighten my right rear pocket significantly.

Ginger has fraternal 15 year old twin boys who came out for a week in late August. They are both very nice, though with very different personalities, and were a big hit with the local kids. Their arrival coincided with two more of Roberts shows, a double header. New York Night was on Saturday night, August 21, and Red, White and Blue and Lady Liberty, Too was the next evening.

Gingers friend, Audrey, came from New York to attend these shows. New York Night consisted of Robert, Ginger and Audrey telling stories about life in New York that were humorous. They also sang the song Officer Krumpke from West Side Story. Again I was the cameraman. Audrey stayed for only four days. I wished she could have stayed longer as she had real good energy. She had no Stuff so her energy was very clear and she was easy to be around. I didn't spend much time with her as she and Ginger had a lot to catch up on. Although she and I did go for a motorcycle ride. This was something she had always wanted to do but had never done. I thought she was pretty brave to ask me since I have done so many wrong things in the last several years. Speaking of wrong, Robin Williams says, Whenever you have done everything that is wrong, whatever is left is right. I figure that I should be getting pretty close to getting things right pretty darn soon.

The Lady Liberty evening was in honor of a painting Rose did for Robert to put on the side of his building. She spent several days painting the picture on two 4x8 pieces of plywood. Phil cut it out with a saw and we hoisted it onto the buildings roof and nailed it to the wall. The evening consisted of a potluck dinner (after the show so people couldn't eat and leave) and people getting up on stage and singing, telling jokes, stories, etc. Both of these events were well attended and, of course, lots of fun. My camcorder was also there. I need to find some new friends who have their own camcorder. Robert wanted me to do another comedy routine but I refused. I did, however, agree to do my imitation of a fried egg. I cant tell you what that is, since it is a professional secret.

Seven year old Harrison Cooper agreed to tell jokes. He followed my act and I was asked to stay on stage to give Harrison moral support, although he needed none. But after my act Robert came on stage. I was somewhat disoriented after my rather physical act and was not sure what was going on. To make a long story short, Robert asked me to stay on stage. After a brief speech he named me the Rocky Mountain Garages Entertainer of the Year for 1998 for my comedy monologue of last year. My prize was a portrait of myself painted by Rose. Robert showed the audience the portrait but never actually showed it to me before putting it back into the pillowcase and leaving the stage so Harrison could perform. I don't like being on stage or being the center of attention so I was somewhat discombobulated by the whole thing.

To continue with the short story, Robert and Ginger were going to have a photocopy made of the portrait, decoupage it and hang it in the building. It was two weeks before I actually got a good look at the portrait and I must admit that it does look like me. And while Rose did a good job of showing the deep lines around my eyes into my temples, she left my double chin unseen in the shadow of my jaw. All in all I had to own up to it.

Robert often takes three dogs for hikes, Ginger's dog Little Bear and Terry and Glenna's dogs Bandit and RJ. One day I went with him and we walked the Belmont road. The road crosses a stream. While the bugs were not a problem in Lavina this year, when we crossed this stream we were hit by a herd of deer flies. 50 to 60 flies surrounded each of us for about a mile. I got about 20 to 25 bites from them. While I always intensely dislike it when something bites me, I have an excellent immune system which gets rid of the bites within 24 hours. The previous year I hiked that road many times. I enjoy the hike because it has one of the few hills around. But I hiked it only the once this year.

Rose and her husband, Tom, own the Adams Hotel in Lavina. It hasn't functioned as a hotel in decades. Since Rose and Tom bought it several years ago it has mainly been used as storage. They want to sell it so Rose rented one of those commercial dumpsters for a month. On five different afternoons Robert and I helped Rose go through the hotel and throw away the junk and load her pickup with the things she wanted to take home. When we got finished it looked a lot better. It had been so cluttered you couldn't even get an idea of what the inside looked like. The roof leaks badly so there is a lot of water damage but it still looks a lot better after we cleaned it out. There have been many people interested in it this summer but no buyers yet. One man who showed some interest in it was the grandson of the original architect. It was built around 1912 when Lavina was a popular railroad stop. The railroad no longer comes through Lavina.

For people who like the change of seasons, they changed on September 1 this year. On August 29 the temperature was 97 degrees. On September 1, the high was 50. That was the end of summer. On September 12 we had our first frost. We did have a few days back in the 70s, but for the most part it was rather cool. By the end of the month we were having highs in the upper 30s.

Robert and I finished helping Rose with the hotel shortly after Labor Day. Our next task was to put liquid tar on the roofs of Roberts building. His building is half one story and half two stories high. The tar we used was thicker than I had expected and was hard to spread with the brushes. It took us three days to finish this. The temperature was in the 60s and when the sun was out the tar spread much more easily. Unfortunately we had big, puffy clouds floating overhead off and on all three days. Both the upper and the lower roofs were the exact same size. It took us two five hour afternoons to do the upper roof. For some unknown reason we finished the lower roof in one five hour afternoon.

It seemed and felt longer than five hours. But for some reason time must have slowed down. George was coming to visit me on September 14 so we didn't have much time. I really wanted to rest the day before George got there and I got my wish when we finished the roof on that long afternoon of September 12. By this time my injuries had all healed. I still had the strange pain in my right mid back as if a rib were dislocated which still bothered me for an hour each morning after I got out of bed. Also all summer after each hike or bout with physical activity my right sacro-iliac area would hurt. On that last afternoon on the roof it hurt so bad that after each five gallon bucket of tar I had to lay down on my back for a minute or two lest my back and stomach muscles seize up in spasm.

I went to Billings to pick George at the airport. He had met Robert two years before but none of my other Lavina friends. To introduce George to some of the local friends, we had a birthday party for Robert since his birthday is September 15, the day after George arrived. It was a potluck. I made a special kind of spaghetti. Afterwards several people asked me if they could take some of the leftover spaghetti home with them. This had never happened to me before. So either they really liked my spaghetti or wanted to test it to see if it really was food.

George read palms at the party for anybody who wanted their palms read. He was a big hit. We also played a game similar to Bingo, called Symbl, based on the symbols Robert came up with for his Spiritual Diagnosis kit. Prizes were given. Kaye won the first game. I was flabbergasted when one of the prizes from which she could choose, and she chose it, was a tee shirt with my portrait on it. It seems that Robert and Ginger scanned the portrait onto their computer and bought those things you can print onto from a computer printer and iron on to a tee shirt. (I think it is called a transfer (ed.)). A week later Kaye and Phil's 9 year old daughter, Sara, asked for and got a tee shirt with my picture on it. This was too much for me as it came as a total surprise and I cant fathom why anyone would want a tee shirt with my picture on it.
The next night Phil and Kaye invited Robert, Ginger, George and me over for dinner and of course Kay wore her Kinerk shirt. George has always called me Kinerk and he often E-mailed Robert and Ginger and referred to me as Kinerk. So that is how Ginger came to know me, as Kinerk. Even Robert began to occasionally call me Kinerk.

While in New York Robert learned to cook a food called Borscht. He became known as a pretty darn good Borscht cooker. He brought this talent back to Lavina with him. It does taste very good. Ginger likes to entertain with homecooked meals and I was generally invited to all of them. Kaye invited us over occasionally. When I was helping Rose with the hotel and Robert with the roof they generally bought me a meal at the cafe. Between all of these things I didn't have to go to the grocery store during the last six weeks of my stay in Lavina.
On the second morning after George's arrival both of my back pains were gone and have not come back. For the first time in over three months I had no pain in my back. Just being in his presence must have been enough to heal it. I didn't even ask him to heal it nor did I even tell him of the pains.

I am a tennis fan and really got to watch a lot of the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament this year. I enjoyed that a lot. I saw some great tennis, some old favorite players and some new ones. The Tournament lasts two weeks. I saw almost all of the first weeks televised matches. Unfortunately I was too busy to see any of the final weeks matches. I play tennis and keep my racquet with me but seldom find anybody who also plays.

While in Lavina this year I got to attend three girls basketball games. The Junior High girls play followed by the Senior girls game. The whole Lavina School, K-12, has an enrollment of less than 80 boys and girls. The Junior High team consists of 2 eighth graders, one sixth grader, two fifth graders, a fourth grader, and 2 third graders. I think only two of these girls were over three feet tall. I am not sure they won any games but they hustled. In fact in one of the games I saw seven of our girls fouled out, leaving only one girl left to play. For the last minute of the game the other team had five girls on the floor but only one competed with our one player. I knew three of the girls on the team as I knew their parents.

The Senior girls were taller and better but didn't win many games. But we had the best looking girls of any of the three teams I saw play. I had met four of the girls in August. I was shooting baskets one evening outside on open gym night but no one opened the gym. So several of the boys and girls who would normally have played indoors joined me on the outdoor court. One thing I noticed about the boys is that even though they were much taller and better than the girls, they let the girls play. They didn't block every shot or steal the ball every time. I thought that showed a remarkable level of maturity for boys in their mid teens.

The first game I saw the Junior girls play, the ball had too much air in it. Every time the girls on either team tried to dribble the ball it would bounce over their heads and they would lose control of it. Needless to say neither team scored many points. I was surprised they didn't let some of the air out of the ball at half time, but they didn't.

Do you know where you go if you want to find a ghost? To a ghost town.

My first real job at age 15 was working the soda fountain at a burger joint. That made me a professional soda jerk. Now I'm just a jerk.
Have any of you seen those signs which have to be posted by law in stores that say, Doors will remain unlocked during business hours? Well, Duh!!! Which were they going to do: lock us in or out? And why do we need a law that makes them post this phrase? Any ideas?

As a teenager I listened to Rock music. My hearing is okay as I never played the music very loud. But I blew my mental circuit board then because I tried to understand the lyrics and I've never been the same since.

When people tell me to act my age (this happens with some regularity) I remind them that since we are immortal and therefore have always existed and will always exist, that I am no older now than the day I was born. So I suck my thumb, drool and whine a lot.

Now that I don't have a brain I can tell myself the same jokes every day as everything I say goes in one ear and out the other.

Seven year old Harrison's grandfather had a stroke and was temporarily paralyzed on the left side. Harrison went to his mother, Carina, and told the story of the man who had the left side of his body chopped off, but now he is all right. Then Harrison told Carina that it probably would not be a good time to tell his grandfather that joke. (True story.)

In Hindu philosophy a manvantara is the breath of god. It lasts 187 billion years as he breathes out and creates the physical universes. As he breathes in for 187 billion years the physical gradually returns to pure spirit. The last time god breathed in he inhaled some dope and spent the next 187 billion years pondering the meaning of dog. And when he exhaled the next time, this is what we got.

Joe Torre is the Manager of the New York Yankees, who have won the last two World Series and three of the last four. He is a former Major League baseball player. He played third base. When he first came up to the Majors he was a catcher. But every time a batter would swing and miss, he would wince and turn his head. So he switched to playing third base because he didn't want to be known as that chicken catcher Torre.
There! Thanks! Now I have gotten that out of my system for at least a week or so.

On Friday, September 17, George and I left in my van and my trailer for Rapid City, SD. George wanted to play tourist there. Seven miles out of town my van overheated. When I pulled over I could not see any water underneath the radiator. I travel with a six gallon jug of water in my van so we refilled the radiator. Nothing came out. When I started the van we noticed water pouring out of the back of the van. I have a rear heater and the hoses there had suddenly all developed leaks. Slowly we hobbled back to town. We eventually found a shop which quickly solved our problem by bypassing the heater hoses which went to the rear heater. All it took was four hours and $43 to fix the problem.

Due to our adjusted late start we arrived in Rapid City after dark and picked a trailer park for our stay. The next morning at ten we picked up Sheryl, George's friend in Dallas, at the Rapid City airport. She was to spend the next week with us.

From there we headed out to the Badlands. The first thing Sheryl did was to sprain her ankle, so she saw the Badlands from the van. After stopping at the Visitors Center, we drove through the Park stopping to look at anything that looked interesting, and there was a lot so we stopped often. The Badlands are rugged and unusual formations created by millennia of erosion.

We exited the Park on the road to Wall, SD where we spent two hours touring the famous Wall Drug Store. When I crossed South Dakota in 1990 I stopped at Wall Drug and was not impressed with it at all. But over the years I began to realize I had not seen Wall Drug but something entirely different. As it turns out, I had stopped at the gas station just off the highway owned by the Wall Drug owners. It was just a gas station and a rather large souvenir store. The REAL Wall Drug is in downtown Wall and must cover a city block. It is a drug store but also is a rather large tourist trap with lots of things to buy though there are also lots of free stuff to see regarding the history of Wall Drug and the surrounding area. It was a stop worth making.

The next day we went to Deadwood. Since Sheryl couldn't walk well we took a trolley ride which lasted an hour. We weren't expecting to see THAT much of Deadwood. We were looking for a place to eat breakfast but ended up eating a dinner type buffet underneath a casino. We did see the casino in which Wild Bill Hickok was killed and the saloon in which his killer was captured. It was cold and cloudy that day but didn't rain.

Next we went to Sturgis, home of the annual Harley gathering. George wanted to tour the National Motorcycle Museum there. Sheryl stayed in the car while George and I went in. They must have had over a hundred vintage motorcycles of many different manufacturers. There was even a German motorcycle which had been used in World War two. It reminded me of the motorcycles in the Steve McQueen movie The Great Escape, as well as other war movies. As near as I could tell, they started making motorcycles in 1903.

Next on our agenda was the Natural History Museum at a college in Rapid City. George and Sheryl went to look at that while I stayed in my van and watched the KC Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos on the TV in my van. That was MUCH better than anything I could have seen in the museum. That night Sheryl told me she did not feel safe around me and no longer trusted me. This was fine with me since I had told her from the first day of her visit with me in Quartzsite last winter that I was NOT interested in a romantic relationship with her or anybody else. All I could offer was friendship.

The next day was sunny and warmer so we went to the Black Hills. We stopped to see Mount Rushmore. To me if you have seen a postcard of it you have seen it all. George really liked it because he said it embodies the Spirit of America. Next we went to the Crazy Horse Monument, which I also think is overrated. It cost $17 for us to get in to a museum and several gift shops. We could get no closer to the Monument itself so driving by it on the highway is good enough for me, which I had done twice before.

On the way back to our campground we took the Needles Highway through Custer State Park. The highway is thus named because of the many rock spires that look like needles. It is a very beautiful drive through a dense forest interrupted by these gorgeous and awesome rock formations. The road is narrow and goes through three tunnels, one of which is only 8 7 wide. At two of the tunnels we had to wait while a tour bus, the size of a regular city bus, slowly crawled through the tunnels. I was so impressed that they could do that that I had to give both drivers a big smile and the thumbs up sign. Heck, I was a little nervous going through the tunnels with my van!

George and I had taken highway US 212 to get to Rapid City. On the way back to Lavina we took I-90 so we could see Devils Tower Monument. Now this I liked. It is an awesome piece of rock sticking up 1830 feet above the surrounding area. It was formed by magma leaking up through cracks in the ground. I had seen this type of formation before close to Mount Rainier in Washington State. The entire area had been at least this high thousands of years ago but all but the Tower had eroded away. We couldn't have had nicer weather. It was sunny and 70 degrees. The three of us walked the one and a quarter mile trail around the Tower. It was awesome and gorgeous, just like Amy.

In the summer of 1995 I had seen all of these places before while vacationing with Amy and her two children. don't worry, Jack, they slept in my trailer and I slept in my van. The only things that were new to me this year were Devils Tower and the Motorcycle Museum.

Since it was George's idea and desire to visit these places, he paid for all of my gas, all of the camping fees, all entry fees, and most of my meals. I did pick up the meal tab for the three of us one time. I waited until I knew the bill was very low before doing so. This way I get credit for picking up a tab without actually having to spend any money.

We got back to Lavina at 8:00. Robert and Ginger were not there but showed up moments later. Both of them had received E-mail from Sheryl and had spoken to her by phone and they were the ones who had extended an open invitation for her to visit them, but they had never met her in person. So we sat around chatting and visiting for three hours.

Two days earlier George had told me that he and Sheryl had decided she would sleep in Ginger's extra bedroom rather than in my bed in the trailer, which is only 39 wide. At 11:00 we were tired so George showed her to her room. Sheryl went coldly ballistic. After two hours it ended up with George and Sheryl sleeping in the bunkbeds in the extra bedroom. Before going to bed, Sheryl called the airline and changed her flight plans to the next day. She was extremely angry with me even though I had nothing to do with the whole situation. George had told me it was a done deal, it was what they had agreed upon. While I would have slept better alone in my bed, I was totally willing to continue to let Sheryl to sleep there. I never saw Sheryl again. The next morning I went for a hike and Ginger and George drove Sheryl to the airport in Billings. Thus endeth the drama.

Kaye had invited us for dinner that evening. She wanted George to read her palm, which he did. Ginger and Kaye are both wonderful cooks and I always compliment them on how good the food tasted. One of them asked me why I always say they are such good cooks. I told them that it was true, and besides, if I told them it tasted like shit I probably wouldn't get invited back.

The next afternoon Robert, Ginger, George and I went to Roses house in the country for a picnic. To our pleasant surprise Glenna showed up, too. Rose lives on 80 wooded acres, 15 miles east and south of Lavina. (This is redundant. See page two. (ed.))She has a sacred spot with a campfire and the skeletons for sweat lodges. We spent some time up there visiting and feeling the energy of the place. It was a fun afternoon.

I was going to leave for Show Low right after George left, but stayed another week merely because I got free Starz movie channels on my Satellite TV the next weekend. And I was too tired to leave. During the extra week I slowly got ready to leave, saying goodbye to my friends and just doing stuff that seems to accumulate when you aren't looking. It was cold this week, dropping from the fifties into the thirties for highs. Ugh! I even saw snow! So I knew it was time to leave.

Phil knocked on my door the morning I left and invited me to the cafe for breakfast. I have spent a lot of time with Phil and really like him, but had never spent any one on one time with him, so this was special. He had made some drawers and a cabinet for my trailer and refused payment. He is always doing stuff for other people and refusing any money for doing it. What made his invitation for breakfast even more special is that both his wife and his daughter have tee shirts with my picture on them. I really enjoyed that breakfast with him, chatting casually about anything that came to mind. I am not much of a conversationalist so Phil must be a good one.

I left a couple of hours later. I stopped in Sheridan, WY for gas and noticed antifreeze running under my radiator. I pulled away from the pumps to take a closer look. It appeared it was coming from the overflow hose. I was confused because my temperature gauge read normal, but because of my recent problem I was concerned. I took the radiator cap off and my radiator was full. I guess some things are just not meant to be understood. The rest of my trip, though, the temperature gauge would occasionally suddenly swing to hot. If it didn't immediately go back to normal I pulled over and as I slowed down it would usually return to normal. I checked the radiator each morning before I started for the day and it was always full. Just something to keep me on edge for the trip.

I spent the first night in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Cheyenne, WY. The next day was uneventful except for the occasional blip in my temperature gauge. I took I-25 all the way to Albuquerque. At the border of Colorado and New Mexico I went over a mountain pass at 8,000 feet. It is very pretty with mountain peaks everywhere with trees with the color of their leaves just passed peak. I wanted to get a video of this area but couldn't. Since Rapid City I had been having trouble getting my camcorder turned on. Strange; I have the same problem with women. That night I spent the night in a Wal-Mart in Las Vegas, NM.

In June of 98 my friend in Show Low, Ed, had made special headlights I could use to drive at night since my motorcycle, which I carry on the front of my van, blocks the vans headlights. Because of this I could drive farther each day than usual and was making good time. The trip to Show Low from Lavina was 1,360 miles, much farther than I had calculated. Nonetheless I was on target to arrive in Show Low early in the afternoon of the third day of travel. While driving on I-40 west of Albuquerque my radio suddenly went dead. One of the positive effects of having so many things go wrong is that I knew immediately what was wrong: my alternator was dead. I pulled over at Continental Divide, NM to check with my multimeter which would measure how many volts were in my battery. There should have been 14 but there were only 10. Diagnosis made. It is a long four hour story but I had my battery recharged by a couple of native Americans who then followed me the eight miles to a Napa parts store. There they installed my fourth alternator in three and a half years. But I have a three year warranty on this one and Napa stores are everywhere. Three hours later I was camped in Shari's driveway.

Another problem on the trip was getting my mind to switch from Rose Wise to Ruth Wise, my friend in Show Low. Also I thought her husband went by RJ. But in Lavina RJ was one of the dogs Robert took on walks with him. I did know that Ruth's husbands name was Bob so that accounted for the R and I was pretty sure he was RJ also. Fortunately soon after I got to Ruth's store in Show Low I heard someone call him RJ. Another embarrassment avoided. Actually I have embarrassed myself so many times I am no longer embarrassed by those things.

While in Lavina I got to thinking about all of the people I have met because Susan Pound, back at the campground outside Taos, NM in 1991, introduced me to Barbara Bartley Baldwin. Through Barb I met all of my Show Low friends and even my Lavina friends. The connection with Lavina is that Barb introduced me to Robert McNary MD of Lavina 59046. Thank you Susan.

All of you who have finished reading my last Trip Letter please raise your hands. Oh. I was afraid of that. Okay. All of you who have reached this far in this one please raise your hands. That bad, huh?

In Readers Digest I once read that harboring bitterness, anger, or hatred toward someone was like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. This is not funny. This is true. Think about it.

I have spent months going around in my head where I should spend the night of 12-31-99 in case Y2K decides to be a problem, like I think it will. Every time I would decide on a place I would then think of a reason why that would be a bad place to stay. Finally I realized that this was the same reasoning problem I had when trying to figure out which trailer to buy; and I bought two wrong trailers. So I realized that I can't figure out where is the best place for me to be. I will be some place that night and will have to deal with whatever comes as a result of that. Where ever I am I will have plenty of food, full gas tanks and enough water for a month; plus free electricity from my solar panels.

No one knows what will happen with Y2K or what the consequences will be from whatever does happen. We will all have to wait and see. Heat and water are the first priorities. In the summer of '98 I felt that there would be some disruptions of certain sectors of the economy in certain sections of the country. I still feel this is true. But the worldwide ramifications are horrendous because most of the non English speaking world will not be close to being ready. Last winter I got the strong feeling that something big, bad and worldwide will happen between 11-1-99 and 3-1-00. I didn't know whether this had anything to do with Y2K or not. Now I feel this is something entirely different from Y2K. What it is I do not know. I can only guess because of what people like Gordon-Michael Scallion are saying. Solar flares are predicted by scientists to peak during the first four months of 2000. Already in 1999 we have had more solar flares per month than ever before recorded. Solar flares interfere with the earths electromagnetic fields and disrupt electrical power plants and communications.

I had been in Show Low for three days when, while trying to jump start my motorcycle, I fell off and broke five ribs, all on the right side; two in the front, one on the side and two in my back. I smashed them up pretty good. They weren't cracked, rather completely broken in two. I lost control of the motorcycle because I wasn't thinking properly. I know how to jump start (by pushing) a motorcycle but couldn't think of or take the necessary precautions.

I don't remember the actual fall. When I jumped on and popped the clutch instead of the engine turning over, the rear wheel locked up. Somehow I lost control of the motorcycle. I remember fighting to regain control. The next thing I remember is standing behind the bike with my helmet in hand howling at the night sky in pain. I was going maybe 15 miles per hour and I fell two and a half feet to the ground from the seat of the motorcycle. How I could break five ribs from that is beyond me. Maybe some bruises, but that should have been all.

Strangely, I have felt no emotion regarding the accident. It is just something that happened and I am dealing with the consequences. Although it did make me feel that my life was not under my control. I guess that is pretty much normal. I did go to the ER to make sure I didn't puncture a lung and I hadn't. The motorcycle sustained almost no damage. Unfortunately it was insured and I was not.

At the ER I sat for two hours on a Sunday evening before being taken to get my ribs X-rayed. The only other patient was a 37 year old man who came in complaining of a rapid heart rate. Of course a potentially fatal patient would take precedent over one with only broken bones. Yet he got his chest X-rayed just before the same technician came for me. They wouldn't give me any pain pills until the doctor had reviewed the X-rays. When the doctor did show up 30 minutes later he said I had broken five ribs (I already knew they were broken. I could feel the broken ends scraping against each other with every breath.), had not punctured a lung and if I did not admit myself to the hospital I was probably going to die. So much for compassion or instructions on how to deal with five broken ribs. There was no treatment given since there is nothing you can do for broken ribs. I did get a prescription for pain pills which, if taken as directed, would last three days. I did have my abrasions cleansed by a nice nurses aide named Sparky.

When I went to the ER I refused a tetanus shot and an IV. I couldn't think of any good reason for those things. Shari later told me that doctors don't like it when we take control of our own treatment because then they cant play God. She said this was probably the reason the doctor gave me no instructions or advice on how to deal with my broken ribs. Normally I would have pressed the issue and gotten more information but I was in too much pain to think at all rationally.

Shari is a nurse and has taken good care of me. She is also a healer and I asked her that first night to do some healing work on me in the dream state. She did. I could feel it the next day. I am probably healing twice as fast as normal but only half as fast as I would like. I overused my right arm two weeks after the accident and suffered from it for several days. The bones are knitting fine but I think I strained the muscles in those areas. I spent the first six nights sleeping upright in Shari's recliner before I moved back to my trailer. After the accident I had to sleep on my back which is not a normal position for me. The first ten days I slept night and day. Since then I have had a lot of trouble getting to and staying asleep.

My motorcycle has been impossible to start unless the temperature was 70 degrees for two years. During this time I have had the motorcycle in the shop five different times. Not once did it occur to me to have that checked out. Although I did intend to have it checked out while I was here in Show Low. A psychic at Ruth's shop told me I had been pulled out of my body during the accident. That has begun to make a lot of sense since I cant remember the accident. I did not hit my head, though I was wearing a helmet. My first memories after the accident were of my standing behind my motorcycle with helmet in hand. I took my first breath and felt my ribs crackle. I hoped that they were just dislocated and the crackling sound was the ribs going back into place. So I took a second breath and felt the broken ribs grind against each other.

My point is, why did I think of it as my FIRST breath. Surely I had been breathing during the fall and getting up and walking behind my motorcycle. Nest paw. (That is French.) I have a hard enough time spelling English. You'll just have to go with the flow. Kay! You taught me that phrase in 1975. I just forget how to spell it.

Needless to say I didn't do much after the accident. I did get the motorcycle to the shop with Shari's help. It had a clogged fuel line which is
why it wouldn't start. They had to order a couple of items which had broken, but I got it back as good as new in ten days. Though I don't think I will ride it again until my ribs heal. But I WILL keep riding. I still cant believe I fell off, much less that it might happen again. It is just like the pollack who bet his friend, before going to a movie, that John Wayne would not fall off his horse during the movie. Afterwards, while paying off the losing wager, the pollack said that he had seen the movie four times previously and he just couldn't believe that John Wayne would fall of his horse five times in a row.

The weather in Show Low was sunny and between 65 and 72 on most days except for a couple of cooler days. I ached to go hiking but too much movement of my ribcage hurt too much. However I did walk 1.2 miles each morning to get a paper. I couldn't swing my right arm when I walked or move my right shoulder as the worst break was in a rib just below my right shoulder blade. But my attitude and mood remained what is for me normal.

Each month I get even more sensitive to energies and cringe whenever I have to go into even a small city. Part of why I did not heal even more quickly is because I had to deal with the energy there, which I have always had trouble with. Everything in my life leads me to believe something is going to happen this winter/early spring which will open us up to our true Selves and we will know what we are here to do and begin to do it.

Speaking of the Millennium, some purists say that the next millennium doesn't start until the year 2001 because there was no year zero. I say that is all bullshit because the year is based on the number of years since Jesus birth. According to all accounts I have read, bible scholars believe He was born in the year 3 or 4 BC. Therefore the millennium has already passed and everything else is moot.
Because of my travels and then the accident I missed most of the baseball playoffs, but I did see the last three games of the World Series. And those hated Yankees won again. Here I sit, hating them and waiting for them to die, and they win three of the last four World Series. There is no justice in the world.

I had lots of plans for my stay in Show Low. Except for not being to hike the beautiful trails amongst the tall pine trees and beneath the intensely blue sky, I did get the rest of my tasks done, albeit a little late. One of the reasons I like to camp in Shari's driveway is that she has a basketball goal right there in her driveway! Well, not IN it, but next to it. I love to shoot hoops but since I am right handed, that was canceled for a couple of months.

I had planned to get a Chiropractic adjustment and a massage while in Show Low but had to forego those pleasures. I also wanted to get my ears coned. I think I will be well enough to get that done before I go.

My friend Ed did a little bit of work on my van. He has been most helpful with it in the past. And this gave me an opportunity to visit with his lovely wife, Lisa. Ed put a new motor in my passengers side electric window, as it had developed the obnoxious pattern of occasionally getting stuck either open or closed. If it wouldn't work while up, no problem, but if it got stuck while down, lots of problems.

He also tightened my engines heat sensor connection and he thinks that may solve my temperature gauge problem. A few other minor repairs and the van was as good as new. Except for the nut that holds the wheel. He said that was beyond repair.

I was able to get to Ruth's store a few times. Ruth has created a very special place and it is always fun to hang out there. I met more interesting people there. Other than that all I did was to visit with Shari and sit and lay around waiting to heal. When I leave here I intend to go to SW Arizona, probably the California side of Yuma. I will camp for a week or two in California, close to Yuma, so I can go to Mexico and load up on cheap booze. Where I will go from there, I. Just. don't. Know.

This was the third Halloween in a row I have spent at Shari's house. The first year Shari didn't work and we gave away candy. The last two years Shari has had to work and I gave away half dollars. I do that rather than candy so I wont eat what I don't give away. My first customer this year was a three year old boy, accompanied by his father, dressed in a Pooh costume. I told him I gave money instead of candy as I dropped the coin into his basket. He looked up at me and said, Cant I have some candy? Fortunately his father said this was even better so he left not hating me. Later an eight year old girl and two boys showed up. As I explained about the money, she turned to the boys and said, See! I told you so! About an hour later she showed up again in a group of 6-8 others. I don't know if she had recruited them or was just trying to get more money, but I gave her another half dollar.

Early in November my TV blew another fuse and melted the DC plug. So I figured out that it was more than a worn out wire. Just this morning I took my TV to the repair shop to check out the TVs DC wiring. I think they call them mother boards. I'll know what's wrong long before you do. Concerning the word morning, you have to understand that my morning starts at noon. I figure if God had wanted us to get up in the middle of the night he would have called it 1:00 rather than 6:00.

My friend, Barbara Bartley Baldwin of Long Island, is doing very well. She went back to New York to get her Associates degree from her massage school, which is now a fully accredited two year community college. She will graduate this December with her associates degree. I am extremely proud of her and what she has done. She has had to learn time management, discipline and has had to read real books. I always knew that she COULD read, I just didn't know that she DID. don't anybody tell her I said this. Lets make her read this whole darn thing to find out about this. It'll be our secret, okay?

Her daughter, sweet Angel Robyn, has a boy friend, Matthew. They met a year ago and have been in love ever since. They are inseparable. Robyn is in the first grade and is becoming a real little person.

The pictures started out to be just the one of me in front of my trailer. But Rose got involved with her digital camera and this is the result. All pictures not obviously taken outside Lavina were taken by Rose. I never intended to have so many pictures of me. In most of the pictures of me, I am wearing the same flannel shirt. All of those pictures were taken the same day when Rose got carried away with her new camera and the myriad possibilities which it entails.

Rose and Shari are two of the most powerful and aware humans I have ever met. Both know it, yet neither will admit it, not that it matters. They know and I know.

I knew some of you had met me only briefly and may have forgotten who I am much less what I look like, hence the idea for one picture. I did not photocopy the pictures. It would have been too expensive. Rose printed all 150 copies on her printer for me.

Well, I've done all my writing and editing and cutting and pasting but I still have a page to fill. I guess y'all have good karma. I cant think of any more trip trivia or what I call witticisms, so Ill have to go straight.

In 1987 I psychically extrapolated the current society 25 years into the future. I couldn't find anything. It didn't exist. I drew two conclusions. We would continue to pollute our air and water until we killed ourselves. We would not learn to live with one another in peace without judgment. Nuclear weapons existed and it was only a matter of time before some rogue dictator got and used one. There are too many fanatics in the Near East and the Indian subcontinent for this not to happen, given enough time.

OR we would have a quantum leap in consciousness and learn to live in harmony with each other and the Earth. Twelve years later we are still in the first conclusion. The worst case scenario for Y2K and/or the long predicted earth changes would change things and certainly change our society/civilization. We could build anew from this and, perhaps, get it right.

I also see in the children of today a new energy, a new consciousness, a desire to live in harmony. Given a hundred years they would create a new society as us old codgers and codgeresses died out. But we don't have that much time.

I feel that the earth changes were set to happen in 1975 but the Lords of Human Consciousness worked together with the Spirit of the earth. Because we humans were beginning to change our energy the earth changes were delayed and lessened in intensity. These changes are a natural part of the earths life. They are what built the mountains and valleys. They are what created the instantly frozen wholly mammoths and the seven continents.

I think the period of delay will soon end. How rapid these changes will occur I don't know. But some will be extremely violent.

So what can we do to facilitate this quantum leap in consciousness? I'm glad you asked because I was going to tell you whether you asked or not. At all times respect all of those around you. Judge no one. Treat everyone with respect. Acknowledge and be aware of all those invisible people with whom you come into contact everyday. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with YOU.

Examine all of your emotions and let go of any of them which do not have the purest love at their center. We are ALL GOD. It is literally true that what we do to another we do to Jesus and to ourselves. Treat EVERYONE in your life as you would treat Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, or whatever other person you see as divine. THEY are all one. We are all they.

There is nothing but God and the absence of the awareness of God. There is nothing but the LIGHT and the shadows which we ourselves create which block the LIGHT. All you have to do is to stop trying to block the LIGHT and let it shine forth in your lives. Give up your separate egos. Allow the FEELING of oneness to flow through your entire being. This is not something you can figure out rationally, it is a feeling which you experience. Let your heart direct all of your actions. There is no right or wrong. Take responsibility for yourselves; and allow others to take responsibility for themselves. Perhaps this is harder, no?

I could go on and on but then that would be a book, not a page. But I think you get my point. Heck, you most likely already had it or you wouldn't be on my mailing list. But this is my time to talk. I welcome all replies.

Soap box: no extra charge.

I know I promised to be brief, but I lied. Ill see y'all in the next Millennium. No matter what happens, always remember we all are here to help create and build the Golden Millennium, the 1,000 years of Peace during which we will learn to do it right.