Bill Returns Via Blinking Christmas Light

Bill contacted me again via his blinking yellow Christmas light last night!

This is a short video I took last night of Bill contacting me via that burnt out Christmas bulb. Part of the video I had my iPhone too low but be patient and you can see the energy of the light build up.

To refresh your memory of the history of Bill contacting me this way via the Christmas light.

Before his death Bill and I had often discussed that if there was an after life (which I absolutely believe now), he would try to contact me. We didn't discuss the blinking light, we weren't aware of this method at the time we were discussing how he would contact me. I just said "If there is a way, try and contact me." And it turned out there was a way and what a brilliant way to contact me.

Fist of all Bill was an electrician by trade his whole adult life. This was a skill he learned in the Army and Air Force in which he served a total of nine years.

Why the Christmas lights? When Bill lost his vision through macular degeneration, he was depressed because he couldn't read or do his projects which he so loved, especially those schematics of electrical circuits. Bill always loved the colors of Christmas lights. About four years ago, I connected several strings of multicolored Christmas tree light and trunk them around our sunroom and living room. When Bill lost most of his sight he spent most of his waking days in his favorite Archie Bunker chair in our sunroom. He was position so he could see all the colorful lights which brought him much comfort. I usually took down the lights a couple of weeks after Christmas. But four years ago he asked me to keep them up year round. Why not? So that's what I did.

Well, over the years some of the lights have burned out. I couldn't find replacements (they all have different bases of course) so I just left up the strings with the burnt out lights.

A couple days after Bill died in February, when I was in the kitchen (we have an open floor plan at Casa Tipton-Kelly) I noticed one of the burned out lights blinking. "That odd" I thought. Never have any of those burned out lights blinked before. But now here is one blinking. "What is that all about?" I thought. Then it struck me. It was brilliant. That was Bill's way of communicating with me. Letting me know that his spirit was now in the Afterlife and he was letting me know that everything was all right with him. Oh what comfort that brought to me, knowing that Bill's spirit was alive and communicating with me. 

Since that night, off and on he's returned with the blinking light to let me know he was still getting acquainted with the spirit world in which he now resides. The blinking light was his way of letting me know he still loved me and is waiting for me to join him. 

I absolutely believe all of this!

I don't care who thinks I'm crazy. I know what I know.

After a while the light finally went out this summer. It hasn't blinked since. For months it hasn't blinked. 

I have to say I was sad about that, this was my one way of staying in touch with Bill. I thought he must really be having a good time in the Afterlife reuniting with family, old friends and others. In one way I was very happy for Bill because he was no longer suffering and in discomfort as he was the last three years of his life and he was in a much better place than this, sometime cruel world. But I continued to miss him. Every minute, of every hour of every day; damn it I still miss him! 

So last Saturday night, when I was at my loneliest, I walked over to the burnt out light and talked to it. I asked Bill to "come back" and send me a signal. I didn't expect anything to happen of course, but I did get some comfort at least talking to the burnt out light. Then last night happened! The light was weak at first (I hear it takes a lot of energy for a spirit to contact us here on earth), but the light was there. then gradually it got stronger. And then it blinked! Bill was back!

Now folks, guess what happened tonight? Yes, the light is strong and often blinking. I've taken videos of that too which I will show in my next blog. It's a circuitous procedure I have to take to post my iPhone videos to YouTube then figure out how to post to my blog. Still trying to figure out an easy way to do that. I usually "back into" posting the video 

But the main thing here is folks, that Bill answered my pleas the other night. He's back! And I believe!

And another thing, I don't care who thinks I'm crazy. I know what I know and what I feel.

I knew when I met Bill that was special.

I know my life has been blessed, first with Bill and now Pat. I believe me and Pat were part of the same energy matter in previous lives. I believe that Pat, and our friend Glenn are part of the same soul energy group that have reassembled here at the end of our lives. Our lives which is actually a learning experience. That's the purpose of life folks, our spirit or energy form inhabits this earthly flesh and blood body to learn lessons, by living and how to love. And we keep reincarnating until we get it right. That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

All this mumbo jumbo about man made religion is nothing but to keep the peasants in line. I don't buy into the teaching that we must const

Taking My Neighbor's Dog For A Walk

During Pat and Glenn's visit this past June, I took them along with me as I took my neighbor's dog for a walk. 

I love dogs and cats but I'm too old to have one. I am unable to take proper care of them plus I'm afraid I'll trip and fall over them. I cannot afford that. 

This neighbor's dog lives in the house on the right side of Casa Tipton-Kelly. Today and the rest of this week I'm also taking care of my neighbor's dog and cat on the left side of my house. A golden retriever and a plump tabby cat with beautiful blue eyes.

Life is good folks. Nice animals, nice friends and nice neighborhood, why would I ever want to move from here?

Have a great day everyone!

Happy Birthday Pat

Pat (on the right and his friends today at his favorite (only) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada tiki restaurant.

 Guess whose birthday is today? 

Pat!

My Canadian fiancé (we're still waiting for his K-1 VISA approval).

This is a photo he texted me today of his birthday dinner treat by his best friends Paul and Deb. 

Pat is at his favorite tiki restaurant in Hamilton. Pat LOVES tiki restaurants. We fell in love with them when visiting Palm Springs. Can't wait to make a return visit to the Tiki Hut on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs in February when we visit for Modernism Week. 

By the way, check out that Christmas tree!

Just The Two Of Us

Doesn't today seem like Saturday? Well, actually it is!

Interesting isn't it when holidays fall in the middle of the week. My whole rhythm is thrown off. That's all right though because I just found this great new playlist for continuous disco mix.

I remember way back in 1980 (that long ago Ron?) that I would make a special trip to one of the after hour clubs in Philadelphia (where I lived at that time) and position myself next to one of those massive four foot speakers on the dance floor and just absorb the beat of the disco continuous music. 

I had my "sticks" and my poppers and I would really get into beat. I would do that for hours. Yes, hours! 

Saturdays are always sad for me now since that when Bill had passed, early on a Saturday morning. 

This Saturday was overcast with a light rain. Even worse. Even though Bill had passed February 22nd of this year, the day was overcast (no rain though) and chilly. 

I know Bill is in Heaven now where there is incredible light and peace. He awaits me. This I know. I know that one day I will enter the Gates of Heaven where Bill will welcome me with his open arms and our five Pomeranian doggies will be happily jumping around our feet. 

Our last three Poms, the mother, father and their daughter happy to see me at our house in Pennsylvania about 1984. What a wonderful life we all had then!

Until that wonderful day happens, I continue to mark each day that I exist here on earth, with my few loved friends and my way of ultimate relaxation as I am doing now by listening to this playlist.

Me, 1964 at my furnished, two room efficiency apartment in Coatesville, PA. This is the year I met Bill. What a dump that apartment was but it worked for me at that time. I still have that carnival glass pitcher and glass set! I think I still have that green T-shirt!

Dermatologist Visit And Other Fun Experiences This Morning

Rehoboth Beach Walmart parking lot, yes, I used to feed the seal gulls.

This is the same Walmart where I hit the asphalt. Much more crowded though in June. This picture was taken in the winter, early in the morning. 

 Had to get up early this morning for my annual dermatologist visit. 

I've been making this visits for over thirty years now. I am paying the price for my youthful folly of "working on my tan" in the summertime. Oh if I could do those days over again. Oh well.

My physician's assistant had a field day burning off various keratosis spots all over my old worn out sagging body. 

As you know for the "full body check" I have to disrobe everything except my "boxer" shorts (who wears whitie tighties anymore?). The only thing I have to cover myself with is one of those flimsy hospital gowns that you can never quite close in the back. Very drafty those gowns and this one this morning was no exception. 

I used to apologize for my body when I'm exposed like this but these days I'm almost invisible to those who work in the medical establishment so I don't ever bother apologizing for the sad state of my body. Hey, at eighty-three year old, what can you expect? It's all sag, not much I can do about it although I have begun lifting ten pound barbells every morning to recover some muscle tone before I completely sag out.

So this is it for my doctor's appointments year. That is if I don't pass out in the Walmart parking lot again like I did this past June when Pat and Glenn were visiting. Thank God they were with me when I hit the asphalt as we were exiting the Rehoboth Walmart. Otherwise an exiting car would probably have backed out over me and all my worries and woes would have been solved then and there.

By the way, after my dermatologist visit I decided to go into the Rehoboth Walmart (since I was down that way anyway on Route One) and pick up a few items. Wouldn't it be just my luck to encounter a screaming little girl. Oh God how I had those screamers and this one was LOUD. Notice how they can stand still? Almost jumping up and down like a Mexican Jumping Bean. If they're not jumping they're running down the aisles. This screamer was two or three years old. In with her grandmother and mother. The grandmother kept saying "Now Shade". "Stay here Shade." Oh Shade."  Gee? Do you think the little screamer's name was .........SHADE? Oh how cute! It was obvious grandma wanted everyone in the store to know her little darling's name was SHADE.  

Walmart checkout!

I had to get away from that screamer before she elevated my blood pressure more that it was already. 

Wouldn't you know it they followed me on the same trajectory around the store and I was going? Even to the checkout! I'm always concerned that these little screamers run into my legs. Always happens. You know folks, I can see where kids are cute but you keep them. Okay? They drive me crazy. Boy, was I glad to get out of that store. In the past I've posted an episode like this to my You Tube account with a video. I don't do that anymore. The vitriol that rains down on me, unbelievable. Wow. "You miserable old man!" Yep, that's me, a "miserable old man." Guilty as charged.. I had to finally disable comments on my You Tube posts. In fact, I don't eve post those episodes to You Tube anymore. This is another reason I'm dreading my plane trip to and from Palm Springs. I just know I'm going to get one of those whiney kids on the planes. Doesn't bother Pat. Bothers me though. And when I don't get a whiney kid I'll get a hefty person with body odor. Oh yes, that's happened. You know I probably should have chosen a different career, a stand up comedian as a Miserable Old Man. 

I'm back home now. Looking forward to a nice quiet night and maybe I'll luck out and get a good movie or series on Netflix. Wish me luck!

The Day After Christmas 2024

 

Michael (Spo), Randy and Pat 2014

We made it folks! 

Now we start the countdown for Christmas 2025.

Doesn't it feel like each year we reach the goal of another Christmas only to begin the countdown for the next year? 

This year with the return of Trump into office as president can you imagine what next year will be like? Quite frankly, I cannot imagine. Well, actually I can but I don't want to think about it. 

Instead I want to think about nice occasions like our last Bloggerpalooza which took place TEN YEARS AGO in 2014. The photo at the beginning of this post was taken from that gathering that took place at my place of work in Lewes, Delaware. Pictured from left to right are Spo of Spo Reflections, Randy of Nebraska and Pat ("my Pat") of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Now just imagine where we will be ten years from now. Do you really think at 93 years old (that's how old I will be then years from now), I'll still be blogging? Right! I'll be blogging from the spirit world. One thing is probably for sure, Trump will still be dominating the news because he, and his enablers (the Congressional Republicans and HIS Supreme Court) will have figured out a way to keep him in office for life. I don't even want to think about that.

I hope you all had a wonderful and peaceful Christmas. I had a quiet one here. My widowed neighbor invited me over for Christmas dinner with his extended family (there were four cars in his driveway). I declined not because I don't like him (I do) but because I always feel like a skunk at a picnic when I have a meal with him and his extended family and friends. First of all they're all MAGA (we don't talk politics of course, we have that understanding), all straight and all family orientated. Zero in common except that we're neighbors and we watch out for each other since we're both widowed. I would like some of that turkey he was talking about. Maybe he'll have some leftovers he can offer me tomorrow or this weekend.

The next week is the week I hate the most of the year. There's nothing on TV. All a rehash of the past year with second string journalists (I watch MSNBC and CNN exclusively). I don't need a review of the past year. I know what happened. A disaster that I don't want to relieve through flashbacks. The week between Christmas and New Year's is always a Lost Week for me.

This year for the first time in a long time I am considering some serious resolutions. No more Trump rants. That's like pissing in the wind. Doesn't change anything except getting piss all over me. Also I'm going to continue working on controlling my spending habits. Since I'm not working at the hotel and don't have Bill's modest Social Security income for household expenses, I have to learn to live within my means. This year's trip to Palm Springs will be my last. Not only because I can't afford it anymore (I can't) but because I am not physically up to it. I just can't move around like I used to nor do I want to. I'm perfectly comfortable putzing around my own house here in southern coastal Delaware. I actually live in a resort. Time to enjoy my environs. I have everything I need here, except of course the love of my life Bill. Oh how I do continue to miss him. However, I am finally getting used to living by myself and quite frankly I am enjoying it. I continue to talk to Pat daily on FaceTime and stay in touch with my other friends via Zoom. I think I'll be quite comfortable here doing a slow fadeout over the years until I am no more. Oh maybe occasional visits from Pat but not like we used to do the last eleven years, every three months we would get together. Pat's quite comfortable at his new home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Hopefully next year his K-1 VISA will be approved and we can get married but we don't have to live together to be in love and be husband and husband. Pat is the last love of my life, wherever we live and whether we live together or not. One thing is for certain, I will never live with anybody else except maybe Pat and that's not likely now. Oh I would like to have a pet but that isn't going to happen either. Not fair to the pet and a danger to me because I would probably trip over the pet eventually and end up in the hospital with a broken hip or worse.

That's the plan folks! Have a nice evening and a nice week at the end of the year where nothing is going on.

Christmas Day 2025

Me in my Previous Life 1964 - Bucks County, PA
(BTW, I still have that bathrobe!!!!)

 Good morning folks!

Are you sitting on the floor, lotus fashion, around your Christmas tree in your jammies waiting to begin opening Christmas presents?

I hope so!

Christmas is a family thing. 

Bill always said that. He also always said "Christmas is for kids." I believe that but I also believe Christmas is whatever you make it for yourselves.

Of course the REAL MEANING of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder and leader of the ONLY REAL RELIGION (according to their adherents, especially the evangelicals) that will get you in Heaven. That is if you give enough praise to their vengeful and insecure God who will smite you if you DON'T ACCEPT this mythical person called Jesus Christ as you SAVIOR. 

I never understood that whole concept folks, even when I was a little kid and being brainwashed into this concept that never made sense to me. Of course I understand now, that form of religion was to keep the Great Unwashed under the control of The Few who seized power over them by threats and intimidation and promises of Eternal Damnation unless you followed their dictates.  

So here I am on Christmas Day, which originally was a pagan holiday heralding the beginning of a new beginning. 

I'm not all "Bah Humbug" though about the concept of Christmas. I'm a believer in you doing whatever gives you comfort, as long as what you do doesn't interfere in my life choices. Who am I to tell you what religion to follow in your life. But by the same token, this is a message for you Evangelicals, don't tell me what I HAVE TO DO to conform to the religion YOU choose so I get get my ticket to Heaven.

My beliefs are very simple. I think we all have a spirit or soul that inhabits this body of flesh and bone that, if we're lucky, lasts about seventy or eighty years. We are incarnated in these physical bodies to LEARN and LOVE while we're LIVING. We keep coming back to this physical life until we get it right and then are blended back into The One. Yes, THAT God. 

So on this Christmas Day I wish all of you a happy and joyous time with your family, if you have one to spend the day with. For those of you who have no family with you today, I wish you a very happy day with your memories. That's the way I'm spending my day today, with my lifetime of memories made possible by my late husband Bill Kelly and my many friends I've made during my lifetime including those who have passed and my few friends left who are still alive and will probably outlive me in this physical incarnation. 

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Christmas Eve 2024

Here we are, another Christmas Eve.

This Christmas Eve will be my first without Bill. 

I just got off the phone with the wife of my cousin who died four and a half years ago. I know she was very close to her husband, as Bill and I were to each other. In fact we both took trips together to my father's birthplace (my cousin Bob's father was one of my father's brothers) in North Carolina. 

My cousin and his wife from our trip to North Carolina in 2013

Today I had just received a Christmas card (one of those sparkly cards I love). I'm feeling very lonely tonight (of course) so I thought I would take a chance and call her. She was home. We had a nice conversation. Hard to believe that her husband died four and half years ago, it just seems like last year that he passed on. She told me she is still dealing with the loss, as I am still struggling with my loss of Bill. I have to admit it was a little depressing to know that four years from now I will still be grieving for Bill's loss. By now I know that I will be grieving for the rest of my life for Bill. This is the price of true love. Bill was the love of my life.

What am I doing for Christmas? I'm just spending the day here at Casa Tipton-Kelly alone. And that's the way I prefer to spend this first Christmas without Bill. I know Bill's spirit is with me. As is this DjMora's playlist. This music may not appeal to everybody but it does give me comfort.

I hope wherever you are and whether our alone or will your loved ones, you all have a very happy Christmas.

Christmas Countdown

Bill celebrating Christmas 2010 with our late neighbor Christmas 2010

All three (including her dog) are in Heaven now.

 Only three shopping days to Christmas! 

Have you got all your shopping done?

Is it me or does Christmas seem to roll around really fast each year? 

This weekend here at Casa Tipton-Kelly will be a quiet weekend. Just the way I want it.

This is the first Christmas that I will be without the love of my life, Bill Kelly. Sad times here folks. 

Bill opening his Christmas gift from his neighbor Barbara Christmas 2010

Bill and I never did whoop it up on Christmas but we did enjoy the quiet times spent together during the Christmas celebrations all around us.

Pat is visiting his good friends Paul and Deb right now. He spends his Christmas with them and later, he will visit his brother and his wife and perhaps one of his nephews. In fact he is with Paul and Deb as I write this blog posting.

I didn't do anything today. In fact I didn't even get in my car and take a drive. I thought about going to Food Lion or the Restore Thrift Store but I opted to take a nap instead. It's just too cold outside and I have no desire to mingle and mix with the Christmas crowds. Yes, here in sales tax free Delaware there still are a lot of last minute Christmas shoppers.

Correction, I did do a little bit of updating on my Find a Grave account and my Ancestry.com account. I just found out recently the husband of one of my cousins died earlier this year about the same time Bill died. I'm on the outs with my cousin, she angry with me because I posted on my Ancestry.com account that our grandmother had a child out of wedlock in 1911  when she was only fifteen years old. Our grandmother died when my Mother was just a little over two years old at age twenty-nine. 

My maternal grandmother, Ethel Darlington Hickman Hadfield. A grandmother I never met. She died at age 29 from complications of childbirth. She had a total of seven children. I will see her in Heaven. I look forward to that day. 

My Mother, before she died asked me to "find out about Uncle Albert." Turns out "Uncle Albert", who was raised as my grandmother's younger brother was actually her son out of wedlock. He died at age eleven years old from diphtheria. I did a lot of research including obtaining death records and birth records. The death record stated that my great grandmother and great grandfather were Albert's parents but the birth record indicated that Albert's actual mother was my grandmother and another man. They were both teenagers at the time. And back in 1911 having a child out of wedlock was a major scandal. Not so much now. Still, my cousin said "Grandmother wouldn't like it if I put that information in my Ancestry.com account." Oh give me a break~! Grandmother is dead. Let the truth come out. So, cousin and I have been estranged ever since. Her choice. This is something I've found out when researching my family history, every now and then one turns up a skeleton in the closet that other family members would prefer to keep in the closet. Wow, did I ever veer of the subject of my quiet Christmas weekend. Anyway, my cousin's husband died this past January. I always liked him and his name was also "Ron." 

I made a nice Find a Grave Memorial for him, out of my respect for him. 

You know how you just connect with some people? I connected with him. He was a nice guy and even though I didn't know him that long or well, I felt sad when I read his obituary. He was 91 years old though, he had a good run. Like Bill had a good run at 95 and I'm having a good fun at 83 years old. 

For years I've joked about not having that long to go but I'm not joking now. The numbers don't like. eighty-three years old is OLD. 

I'm tired now. One more trip to Palm Springs but after that trip I'm just going to coast out here at home in Delaware. Maybe a few trips to visit Philadelphia where my eighty-eight year old good friend still lives. I have an eighty-two year old brother who lives in the family homestead in Pennsylvania but we're also estranged. He's a Trumper and blinded by his hatred of "fucking Democrats." I'm done with him. And I don't feel bad about it. He's been difficult his whole life. He's the only brother I've ever had physical fights with. My other younger brother, we never fought. He died a couple of years ago.

With so many of my friends and relatives dying I'm starting to feel like I'm on an island. But you know folks, it doesn't feel bad. It's just another adjustment in my life. This "journey" that has been quite a trip.

I've been meaning to write a blog post about all these scenarios from my life that have been replaying in my mind since Bill died. I've had a very interesting life but I do feel things are wrapping up now. I'm getting for forgetful and I am always tired.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Scammer Alert!

Just got a call this morning who left a voicemail that “a preauthorized purchase has been made against my Walmart account for a PlayStation 5 in the amount of $919.75. The caller (“Amelia”with a British accent - I guess Indian accents are a giveaway for the telephone scammers now) told me to “press one to cancel this purchase or to speak to a customer representative.”

SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!SCAM!SCAM!SCAM!

Under no circumstances press any number. Block the phone number. Mine was an 860 number from Hartford, CT.

The crooks are still out there folks albeit this time with British accents instead of Indian accents.

Another Doctor's Appointment Today

One of my many doctors appointments

 December is the month of follow-up doctor's appointments.

Today I have an appointment with my urologist. This is an annual follow-up appointment to check on my kidney stones and prostate cancer.

Last week I gave blood for my labs and also had an ultra sound. Hopefully I get a clean bill of health again this year. If I don't, then I am resigned to the next step in my life's journey.

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013. That's also when I had several kidney stone attacks. I survived both at that time by having surgery. I consider myself very lucky to have survived this long. I hope I have more years left but if I don't, I will still be grateful for the last eleven years, especially the last three years that I was privileged to be Bill's caregiver. Speaking of which, I am still grieving and now accept the fact I will grieve for my loss of Bill the rest of my life. 

Later this month I have my annual dermatologist appointment. Last year my doctor did find I finally developed skin cancer. That was on my ear.  He took it out which required three stitches. I've been going to the dermatologist for about forty years now.  I've always had the precancerous (keratosis) before. My dermatologists over the years have burned off those spots resulting in me leaving their offices like I was beat up. Well, I was actually.

After these doctor's appointments then it is time for me to prepare for my trip to Palm Springs with Pat in February. I have to say I'm not looking forward to this trip. Once I'm there I guess I'll be all right. It's just the preparation and the traveling by air. You know what a nightmare air travel is these days. My neighbors on either side of my house (I'm still getting use to saying "my" house when referring to Casa Tipton-Kelly) will collect my mail and keep an eye on my house. I also have Ring doorbell and inside cameras so I can "keep and eye" on MY house from afar, even in Palm Springs.  I guess my main reason for not looking forward to this trip is that I don't walk that well now and I'm just too comfortable here in my own home. When I was younger, I LOVED to get away. As much as I loved Bill it was good to "get away" every now and then. Not so much now, I'm perfectly comfortable here at home and yes, Bill's spirit is still here. I haven't changed anything in his bedroom including this T-shirt that he last wore at the hospice facility. I haven't washed it and I have left his room as it was when he lived here. Bill's ashes are also in his room. We're still together folks.

Well, time to get ready to leave for my appointment.

How I Relax

This is how I relax folks while I'm on my computer. I put on a good "Music For Shops" DJ. I love the continuous beat that blends one song into another. 

My subscription of YouTube is perhaps one of my best investments. I can access DJ's like Dj Ricardo Morro, and play their latest playlist on my iMac with my old (twelve years) Bose speakers with a floor subwoofer. 

At this time of my life I need to relax. My blood pressure is still high (154 over 80 this morning) so I need something to help me relax. Trump is in office the next four years so that horrendous fact is enough alone to keep my blood pressure high. There isn't much I can do about that other than keep a low profile and hope I outlive the son of a bitch. I would love to have a cat but having a pet at my age is just impractical. First of all, the pet will outlive me. Secondly I'm just one fall away from taking up residence in a hospital....again. Who would take care of my pet? No one, that's who. Another problem with having a pet is that I sleep a lot these days in my old age dotage, and having a pet would constantly disrupt those long periods of sleep which I so enjoy. I just got up from my daily one to two hour afternoon nap.

I've always like a music with a "good beat."  Remember the old "American Bandstand" days (from the Fifties in Philadelphia folks) with Dick Clark. I used to watch that show every day when I came home from school at 3:30 PM. I think the show ran for two hours daily until Dick Clark sold out and took "American Bandstand" to Hollywood. I stopped watching the show then. I was even on the show once in 1958. I along with about eight other teenagers won a one hundred word essay contest with the subject "Why I Would Like To Be On American Bandstand to Celebrate the Downingtown BiCentennial." Yep, I won for real. What I remember about American Bandstand was how small the studio in West Philly was and the long line of local teenagers waiting to get in. We (me and my fellow winners) of course got in ahead of that riff raff. The day I was there Dick Clark wasn't there. I don't know where he was but his substitute was Julius LaRosa, the old Arthur Godfrey alumnus. The guest singing group that day was The Royal Teens who sand "Who Wears Short Shorts." I don't know what I was thinking but I never thought to take a camera with me. Here's something that gets me. The people who organized the trip should have taken a group picture of us. Of course they didn't. That also reminds me of the time I won a trip to New York City when I was a paper boy.

One of two pictures I still have of that trip to New York City in 1958. I think I had eight black and white photos on my Kodak Brownie camera, these are the only two I could find. 

I did make it to the top of the Empire State Building of which this is not a photo of but I was impressed with the General Motors building back then which shows you how easily I was impressed back then.

There were about a dozen of us paperboys who won the trip, our chaperone of course didn't take a group picture. I took some scenery pictures which are almost totally useless these days. I'll look for one to include in this post. I never thought to take a picture of myself or my fellow twelve year old paperboys. 

Twelve year old me with my trusty paper boy bike which I used to brake by riding the pedals backwards. Believe it or not I never once fell off that bike even after using it for five years to deliver newspapers daily after school. And no, I never folded my newspapers and threw them either at the door of my customers or the lawn. I always put the newspapers in side their storm door or under their mat. No one told me to do this but I thought it was a good idea. I was born with empathy folks, unlike our current president and many of our fellow human beings these days. Some might look at this as a curse (having empathy) but to me it was the only way I could live even though at times in my life that empathy was taken advantage of as a weakness and others thought to exploit it. Something I didn't realize until late in life but that's why we are here folks to learn. And believe me I have learned. 

Boy, did I stray off the subject here or what? Not really because while I'm typing this nostalgia I'm listening to Dj Ricardo Morro! 

Maybe in my next life I'm come back as one of the escorts of trips. Today I just finished sending out the rest of my personalized desk calendars that I make every year. I use photos from my previous year when I make the calendars. I think I was a photographer in my Previous Life. I know I LOVE taking pictures for posterity. Gives me a great deal of pleasure. Most of my friends often complain that this habit of taking photos and now short videos annoys them but I just ignore their complaints. Not only do I like to take photos and videos I like to receive them too. Rarely does that happen even though I often ask for them. Just this past week I asked a former classmate of mine to take a group photo of our class of 1959 Annual Christmas luncheon. 

A Christmas Luncheon December 20, 2005 of me and my boss and co-workers at First Financial Bank. I asked the waitress to take this picture. It works!

In past years I took all the photos of our class reunions. I can't do that now because I don't travel like I used to. I also asked my former classmate to include himself in the photo. The last time when he remembered to take a photo he took it himself and didn't included himself in the photo. I gave him a tip "Ask the waitress to take the photo." So what happened this time? Of course he forgot. 

This is what it looks like when I take the picture myself. From December 20, 2005, twenty years ago!!

I guess some people just don't have the same priorities that I do. Even Pat, who I love, even mocks me for taking so many photos. I've learned over the years to brush off those complaints because many a time I go back and look at those photos and videos and relive those wonderful experiences. I especially love looking at these photo and videos now at my age, now that I'm coming to an end in this life and about to either embark on a couple hundred years in the spirit world or maybe be reborn immediately, in which in my next life I'll have my latest iPhone and I can take a ton of photos and videos! By the way, wouldn't it be wonderful to have photos and videos of your past lives? I hear that when you die you get to see a replay of all those scenarios. That's something else I'm looking forward to when I rejoin Bill in the spirit world, at review of my past life this time around.

Did anyone spend anytime listening to this DJ? Or is it just weird me? To think that back in the eighties (1980 to be precise) I used to go to the after hours gay clubs and position myself next to one of those four foot speakers and totally absorb the beat of whatever playlist the in house DJ was providing all us drunken gay guys looking for Mr. Perfect in All The Wrong Places. Ironic for me because here I had Mr. Perfect the whole time at home, Bill.

Christmas Cards Completed!

Finally! I completed my Christmas cards!

This has always been one of my favorite Christmas holiday activities, preparing and mailing my Christmas cards. 

I've been doing this since I was a teenager. Over the years my Christmas card list has evolved many times. Most of the people I mailed Christmas cards too when I was in my prime are gone now. They are in Heaven or the Afterlife. I miss all of them. Many of them is how I used to keep in touch at least once a year. Of course soon I will be with them. I have a feeling this is the last year I'm sending Christmas cards.

Bill and I had stopped exchanging gifts about fifty years ago. But we always exchanged Christmas cards. Bill knew I liked sparkly Christmas cards and he would put forth a major effort to find that perfect sparkly Christmas card to give to me. Each year it became harder and harder to find that "just right" card but we always managed. The last year or two, with Bill's eyesight gone, he would make his own card with a big black magic marker telling me how much he loved me. And you know folks, those cards, even without the colorful sparkle, were the most beautiful cards I've ever received. 

Holiday Eating Tips

HOLIDAY EATING TIPS

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Holiday spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly, it's rare. You cannot find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Holiday party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert, Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner. Remember this motto to live by:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate and wine in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming " WOO HOO what a ride!" MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Ron's Many Homes

 

2124 Spruce Street, Philadelphia PA. My apartment was on the top floor to the left. I had to walk up four flights of stairs to get to my apartment. I doubt I could even walk those stairs now. I can hardly walk up my stairs here at Casa Tipton-Kelly.

Now for the Christmas countdown! 

Yesterday I completed ordering my annual personalized desk calendars for 2025. I send one of those desk calendars to my close friends. These are my Christmas gifts. That and a personalized Christmas card. I have the cards ready and this year I have the dreaded Christmas Letter that I'm sending out. I usually don't send out Christas letters but this year I want to inform my friends that I'm flying solo this year. I'm informing them that Bill is gone. 

I'm not sure if I'm going to put up a Christmas tree this year. I only put up a colorful Christmas tree last year for Bill. Bill, with his macular degeneration, was legally blind but he could see colors and the colorful lights of the small aluminum tree I put up in his line of sight gave him comfort and pleasure. I was going to put up that tree again this year but it would just be another reminder to me that Bill is gone for the rest of my life. Ron is flying solo again, for the first time since I was twenty-one years old. 

All my life except for that brief year and a half period from when I got out of the Army in January 1963 to March 1965, I have always lived with other people.

Me standing in from of my small furnished efficiency apartment at 388 Madison Street, Coatesville, PA where I lived from April 1963 to February 1965. My apartment was on the bottom floor to the left of where I'm standing. Bill took this picture of me many years later. This apartment is where I came out to my Mother when she caught me with my married boyfriend one Saturday morning and I told him to hide in the bathroom. Regular followers of my blog know THAT horror story. So much drama. 

From the Grand Central Station of my Tipton Family Life before I joined the Army at eighteen years old to those three years in the Army with I lived with hundreds of other guys, I've never lived alone.

Me, many years later, sitting on the stoop at 120 Washington Avenue, Downingtown, PA where I grew up. Our family and an apartment on the second floor of this building. It was grand central station. This is where I developed my obsession to one day have my own back yard. Funny, how these steps now seem so small but when I was a kid with my brothers (below) back in the Fifties, they seemed so much bigger.

Me and my two younger brothers and some other neighborhood brats back in the Fifties when we were the Terrors of the Neighborhood

A fairly recent picture of 120 Washington Avenue, Downingtown, PA. We have the second floor front apartment. My aunt and uncle and their kids lived on the top floor and another aunt and uncle lived in the second floor rear apartment. Lots of Tipton's in that building. As I said it was Grand Central Station. I never had friends over. I was too ashamed. That apartment building was in the white trash section of Downingtown. Still is to this day. I'll always remember the rent. $22.50 a month for that cock roach infested apartment. 

I always yearned to live alone but when I did, I didn't like it, not at all. I thought I would but I didn't. Oh, there was one other time I lived alone that I actually did like it. It was a brief eleven month period in 1980 from January to November. Our house was being built in Pennsylvania but not completed so I had to rent a fourth apartment in center city Philadelphia at 2124 Spruce Street for $150 a month. I actually liked that. Bill with our two Pomeranian dogs lived in the unfinished house in Pennsylvania until construction was completed. I think the difference this time was that I knew it was only temporary that I would be living alone. 

Oh, there was one other time I lived by myself. A furnished one room efficiency apartment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The grand Victorian house in Shadyside, Pittsburgh where I resided for about three months in 1960 before I moved back to my hometown because I was just too lonely in Pittsburgh. 

I had an eight dollar a week apartment where I had to share a bathroom with four other apartments! I hated that. My room was on the right, first floor. The bathroom was on the second floor and invariable someone was always in the bathroom when I wanted to use it. If I did happen to get the bathroom to myself, then someone usually was knocking on the door asking "How long are you going to be?" Folks, that's one time you don't want to be rushed. I hated it.

I'm experiencing the loneliness of living alone again but this time I'm getting used to it. Probably the big difference is that I know I won't have years and years stretched before me living alone. At the rate I'm going now (falling asleep at 8:30 at night), I won't have all that many years left. Back when I was twenty-one, I wasn't too happy about sixty or seventy years ahead of me with the prospect of living alone.

Notice how I start out with the Christmas subject of this blog posing and I veer off to living alone? That's the way I compose my blog postings folks. Whatever train of thought winds its way through my overloaded brain. 

Another apartment my family lived in. The rent here was $0.0. We lived on the second floor (that my Mother on the porch with her canary in the cage getting some fresh air). The deal here was that our family was given free rent to live above the offices of Gindy Manufacturing Company (my father worked for David Ginsburg who was a trailer manufacturer). Our family were the de facto "watchmen" for the manufacturing company building which was right next to this red brick building. My mother was about to save enough money for our family to rise out of abject poverty and finally have our own, albeit very small (1100 square feet house) with three and a half acres of land. The year was 1958 and I finally had my own "backyard!" Only got to live in that house for a year though until I joined the Army and I was back in "apartment" (barracks) building. 

This is an aerial view from the Sixties. My one remaining brother lives there now (the one I don't talk to, he's lost to the MAGA cult). He has spent thousands of dollars to remove ALL the shrubbery because he's too lazy to trim and keep it up. The property used to be beautiful now it looks like a Martian landscape). 

1075 Hopewell Road, Downingtown, PA 
my bedroom (finally had my own bedroom!) was the middle awning room

Will Pat and ever live together? I doubt it. We're way too set in our ways, both of us. Oh yes, we'll still get married but we'll have a long distance relationship. And that is fine with both of us so anyone reading this blog thinks I'm up to having someone else move in here at Casa Tipton-Kelly, you can have another think coming. It ain't happening. I've already severed my relationship with one longtime acquaintance who was making the moves. It ain't happening. That person was already trying to run my life. It ain't happening. No more reporting where I go, when I'm coming back and all that freedom that one has to give up when sharing living arrangements with someone else. I didn't mind with Bill because we loved each other. I'll have have that love or love somebody that much again. Never.

Have a great day everyone! 

Trump Nominates Crazy Eyes for FBI Director

Donald Trump has nominated Kash Patel for FBI director.

Hey Trump voters! How do you like Trump's cabinet picks so far?

Matt Gaetz, child sex abuser.

Pete Hegeseth, accused  rapist.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., former herion addict and vaccine denier.

Now Kash Patel, AKA "Crazy Eyes." 

Kash Patel, one of the main architects behind the January 6th attempted overthrow of a lawfully elected president. 

Kash Patel, who has promised to "go after" those in the news media he doesn't agree with.

Kash Patel, totally unqualified to head the FBI.

Trump thinks he won a mandate to appoint whatever clown he wants to senior cabinet posts. To Trump their only qualification is total obedience to Trump.

Now the test is to see if any of the Republican senators has enough balls to stand up to Trump and vote down this traitor, Kash Patel. 

I doubt it. 

Perhaps the two women senators (Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski and Maine senator Susan Collins), two woman who actually don't have balls, might vote against confirmation of Crazy Eyes. 

So Trump voters, proud of yourselves for this embarrassment you have inflicted on the United States of America? 

Actually Trump voters, I have another question for you. Why actually did you vote for Trump? Because you could't vote for a woman? Couldn't vote for a biracial woman? Is that it? Or that you just couldn't vote for a Democrat? A liberal? 

Are you really THAT afraid of a transgender woman playing on the girl's volleyball team? 

This is the America we live in folks. At least he didn't appoint Lurch.......yet.