OK. I’m finally retired. Been that way since July 27. A year ago tomorrow, my bride, three cats and I all piled into a U-Haul loaded with the cheap artifacts that furnished a dingy one-bedroom apartment in New Salem, North Dakota, and pointed the truck in an eastern direction to begin a new existence at a briefly old stomping ground in Ashland, Wisconsin.

That new existence lasted slightly less than a year. In the time between September 6, 2023 and July 27, 2024, many things happened.

• I resumed my morning radio show at Classic Country WATW.
• I finally got around to dealing with a skin cancer on my left ear, resulting in the surgical removal of about 1/4 of that ear.
• In October, our senior cat — Monty — suddenly took sick and died from undetermined causes.
• In November, we augmented the cat ranks with a feral black kitten from the barn of our friends Steve and Brianna. We named him “Magnus.” A subsequent visit to the vet caused us to change his name to her current name, “Melisandre”.
• After waiting months for the VA to assign a disability rating to the Parkinson’s disease I acquired from drinking the tainted water while serving as a Navy Corpsman at Camp Lejeune from 1975 to 1977, the VA finally came through with a combined 90% service-connected disability rating. The subsequent back pay from the filing date of January 7, 2023 was enough to purchase a nice vehicle, pay for a move to Myrtle Beach, SC, to secure and furnish a very nice two-bedroom apartment.

Which is where we are now.

The reason for this online journal? Just to write about the day-to-day things, the pithy observations, commentary on the day’s headlines, etc., as I approach my 70th birthday — another in an ever-decreasing number of milestones up ahead on the long slog to the grave.

I have a nice swiss steak slow cooking in the crock pot. The TV is on and I’m sorta half-listening to the news. Diane is in her office playing with her new computer, the purchase of which freed up her old computer which is now my computer. The cats — Henley, Morgana and Melisandre — are hither, thither and about.

And the blog — such as it is — is officially launched.

Thanks for dropping by!