My father was brutally assaulted three days before Christmas. Then on Christmas eve, I got violently ill. I have been sick in bed for over a week now, and even though I still feel bad I at least have enough energy, strength, and focus to write down my thoughts of the last week.

On Monday night before Christmas. My father went to the local bar to have a few drinks. He usually goes out two or three times a week and visits a bar that's only a little over a mile away from our house. On Monday night he returned home around 11:30 p.m. Just as he got his key in the door and the door unlocked. My father was jumped and beat up by two men. He was beat up right on the front porch. As my father describes it, he said " then a man came up behind him very quickly and whacked him in the head with a pipe." My father screamed in pain, turned around and gave that man a roundhouse right punch straight to the face. A second assailant came up and started to whip him with a chain. My father believes it was a heavy-duty dog chain that you might use to walk your dog with. My father only got one punch in before he fell to the ground and was not able to get up.

All he remembers is screaming in pain, and being hit repeatedly with a pipe and chain from many different angles. This whole process went on for probably less than a minute before my brother actually heard the commotion, through his bedroom window. My brothers bedroom is at the back of the house so it must've been very loud For him to wake up from all the noise. My brother Jim turned on the light and came running down the stairs to see what the problem was. The two assailants ran through our side yard back towards my house and threw the Ally. They were never seen again.

My father was a little buzzed because he did have several drinks at the bar. But he was still conscious enough to try to tell my brother what happened. There was blood everywhere! My father was bleeding profusely from the top of his head. My brother Jim brought him in the house and cleaned him up the best he could. Then he took dad to the local hospital because he really needed medical care that my brother could not provide.

When it was all said and done. My father ended up with seven staples in his head to close the large gash where they had hit him on the head. He also suffered a fractured eye socket. This was not too severe, but the x-rays showed that he had a crack in his skull Around his eye. When my father hit the one assailant, he end up breaking one of his fingers. So now that finger is in a splint. Finally, it appears that they actually stepped on his foot because he had several cracked bones on the top of his right foot. The bones were not broken, but his foot swelled up horribly and for the first couple of days. He had trouble even putting any weight on it.

My brother Jim drove my dad to the hospital and he stayed there till probably about 2:30 am or three o'clock in the morning. My father remained at the hospital, and did not come home till probably eight o'clock in the morning. Dad took a cab ride home. The hospital does have a shuttle bus service, but it does not start running till very late in the morning and my father did not want to be at the hospital any longer than necessary. They wanted to take a few more x-rays and make sure that he was stable enough to go home and did not have any serious brain injuries because of all the hits he received to his head.

If some of you do not realize this I will tell you now. I live in a small house, directly behind my brother's house. My front porch is maybe 20 feet from my brother's backdoor. There really is not much of a backyard, but he has a large side yard that we both use. My kitchen door leads out to the back alley way. I rarely if ever use this door to go in and out of the house. We all park our cars on the main street in front of my brothers house. So, when I left for work that morning approximately 3:30 a.m. or so. I did not notice anything out of the ordinary. My dad's car and my brothers truck were sitting there and all the lights were out. Naturally I assumed all was well. I went to work and had a very busy day, and not till I came home and listened to all the messages on my answering machine. Did I find out what happened the night before.

Of course, I was very concerned and extremely upset that something like this could happen right in my neighborhood. I admit, we do not live in the best neighborhood in Pittsburgh, but it is by far not the worst. We live on a tiny little street, where there is only six or seven houses. At the far end of my street is a busier road that connects my neighborhood with another one. That road does get a lot of traffic, but since it is probably about 100 yards from my house. The noise and traffic does not bother us at all.

I kept thinking to myself and asking questions. How and why could this have happened? Did the two people that decided to beat up my father and tried to rob him plan this out? Did they just happened to see him stumble home drunk and figured he was an easy target? Or did they notice him at the bar and decided to follow him home? I really don't know? Even though there is a street light in front of my brothers house, it still is very dark here down in the valley. So I do believe that my dad never was able to get a good look at these people, because the lighting is poor. You read about stuff like this in the paper or see it on the news all the time. And you wonder, how somebody could do this kind of thing. What kind of person are you when you brutally assault a 65-year-old man on his own front porch? This is one of the main reasons I never watch the news, because I don't want to hear about these tragic stories. I know there are many bad people in this world willing to take advantage of the old, the week, sick and helpless. I just can't understand why they would do this? More than likely, they figure they can get a few dollars off my dad so they can go buy drugs.

Now I have done a lot of drugs in my life but never once did I ever think about harming another human being just so I can get my next fix. I guess these people are in a completely different frame of mind than I am. I don't know why they did this. All I have are many unanswered questions. I can only hope that one day, the people that did this to my father will get what is coming to them, because nobody deserves to be brutally beaten up for a few dollars.

Once my father got home from the hospital. He talked to my mother on the telephone. She drove from her house to our house and picked him up and took my father home with her. She is nursing him back to health. If it was not for my mother I really don't know what my father would have done for the last several days. Because my brother and I had to work and could not be around him for most of the day. I am glad that my mother decided to help out and take care of him in his time of need. Even though my parents have been divorced officially since 1992. I know for a fact that they still care very deeply for one another. They just can't live together anymore. My father proved this when he retired a few years ago, and he moved in with my mother. They tried to make it work, but it was not meant to be. They are both much happier when they live in separate houses and only visit each other occasionally.

I do believe my father will recover from this fully, but it may take a while for all the wounds to heal. He may also be a little bit wiser about going out drinking at night. At least, if he came home before my brother went to bed. Then someone would be there in case this happens again. I don't believe somebody would try to jump you on your front porch. If there are lights on and sounds coming from inside the house.

I feel terrible about this! There really is nothing I can do. All we can do is be just a little bit more cautious. This happened over a week ago, and I have yet to see my father because he is at my mother's house and I have been home sick in bed with the flu. Hopefully in the near future, once I am feeling 100%. I will be able to go see him.

Now if this story was not bad enough to ruin anyone's Christmas, then how about adding on top of this being extremely sick. On Christmas eve, while I was at work. I got violently sick, and I have been in bed ever since.

For the past few weeks we have been very busy at the bagel shop. Since we are closed on Christmas day I decided to take a few vacation days after Christmas. So I could spend more time with my family and friends. I admit in the last couple of months. I have been rather busy and neglected a lot of people that I care about. I figured I would work Christmas Eve, then I would be off for five days in a row. So I could spend lots of time, with everybody I care about. Funny how all your plans never seem to work out the way you thought it would.

On Christmas eve at the bagel shop. We were extremely busy! I cooked more bagels that day than I probably ever did on one single day. Before 11:30 a.m. in the morning. I personally baked four racks of dough. Each rack contains 30 boards of dough, and each board there are 30 bagels per board. I ended up baking 4 full carts of dough that morning. So if you do the math that is approximately 3600 bagels. It was probably a little bit less because a few boards were square dough. And there are less square bagels per board then round ones. The square bagels are mainly used for sandwiches. Anyways, the point is, we were really busy at work that day. I definitely believe that the entire store was understaffed and overwhelmed by the amount of customers we faced that morning.

We were so busy that I really needed a helper that day. I was never able to take my break at 9 a.m. in the morning, because we were so busy. I kept working trying to keep up with the demand of bagels that the customers were buying. Finally, about 10 o'clock in the morning Tracy, an assistant manager came back to help me and relieve me so I could go on break. At that point we were so busy and I was so behind that I continued to bake while Tracy helped me out. Not until I think back at it now. It was really hot, standing in front of that oven all morning long. Tracy only helped me for about 30 minutes or so, when she said that she was hot and needed to go take a break. I did not think much about it at the time and I continued on working.

Up until this point, I did not realize that I was about to become violently ill. We slowed down just a little bit right around 11:30 a.m.. So I decided that I would let Tracy continue baking, and I would go in the walk-in cooler to organize the dough and set up the open bake rack for the following day's business. Even though it is very hot in the bakery I usually get many chances to cool off when I go in to the walk-in cooler. On Christmas Eve, I very rarely went in the cooler and mainly stayed in the bakery all morning long. I believe, not having a few minutes break here and there to cool off and get out of that hot area is one of the main reasons I end up getting as sick as I did.

I did not realize how hot I actually was until I went into the walk-in cooler. As I was organizing the dough. I started to feel dizzy and a little bit sick to my stomach. I did not think much about it at the time and I figured I was just stressed out from working and hungry, because all I ate was a single bagel around 6 a.m. that morning. Finally, the dizziness really got to me and I had to go back next to the office and sit down.

Once I sat down I realized how hot I actually was. On the table next to me was a large plate of Christmas cookies that one of the girls brought in for everybody. Since I did not take a break, I figured I would relax for a few minutes eat a couple cookies then get back to work. That never happened! I did eat two cookies and drank some water, but I started to feel worse and worse. The assistant manager Kirk came back to the office and seen me sitting there. He asked me if I was okay and I told him I was not feeling good at all. I told him how hot I was feeling at the moment. At first he said to go sit in the walk-in cooler and you should be fine. Usually when I am hot, I will do this just to cool off, but I was extremely dizzy and did not want to get up out of the chair I was sitting in. So Kirk opened up the back door to let some cold air in to cool me off. I admit, this did help a little, but not nearly enough. He went back to work and I continued to sit by the back door, trying desperately to cool off.

I got so dizzy that I finally decided that I had to lay down before things got any worse. My car was parked not very far away from the back door. So I decided to go lay down in my back seat. Honestly, I don't even know how I made it across the parking lot to my car. I got inside and laid down on the back seat. I used my big brown teddy bear that I have in the car as a pillow. And I figured after a few minutes I would feel okay. That never happened! I just got progressively worse as time rolled on.

Even though this was over a week ago when this happened. I am surprised at how vividly I can remember this. As I laid there in my car spinning round and round. I was feeling extremely hot! I was sweating profusely! All the clothing that I was wearing became soaked and drenched in my own sweat. It was maybe 40° outside, but it still was not cold enough to cool me off. I had a towel that I use to continually wiped the sweat off my arms and head. Finally I could not stand it anymore and I needed to sit up. I have no idea how much time passed, but it seemed like forever.

I was hotter than I've ever been in my entire life. It felt like I was a potato baking in the hot desert summer sun. Every now and then I would open up the door to get some fresh air, but it still did me no good. My breathing was deep, heavy, and very fast. It seemed as though I could not get enough oxygen into my lungs. My heart was pounding in my chest so hard that I thought it might explode! When all this was going on, I actually felt like I just ran a marathon. No matter how fast I would breed. I could not seen to slow my heart rate down or get enough oxygen. For a while there I literally thought that my heart would explode right out of my chest and I would die right there. I know I have high blood pressure, and I need to do something about it. This was definitely a sign that I need to change just a little bit.

Even though I was extremely hot and could not seem to cool off. I also was cold at the same time. The parts of my body that were touching most of my clothing that was soaked with sweat were cold. It is an extremely weird feeling to be hot and cold at the exact same time. I am not quite sure how to describe it. Since it is wintertime, I usually have a blanket in my backseat. I was huddled up in the blanket trying to keep warm, but at the same time. I was hotter than I've ever been in my entire life. Does this make any sense to you? Even I don't understand it.

I was probably only out in my car for a little over an hour until somebody from work, came to check on me. I never told anybody I was going to my car. I just walked out the back door. The girls were very concerned for my well-being. They said I was white as a ghost! One girl went and got me a glass of water, and I told the other one could you please call my brother Jim up and have him come pick me up here at work. She handed me her cell phone, and I just looked at it dumbfounded. I was in such a state of mind that I couldn't even figure out how to operate a phone. Anyways, Tracy ended up calling my brother for me and he came to pick me up at work. The girls had to get back to work as they were on break. And I told them I would be okay until Jim got there.

I think I blacked out for a little while, because I don't remember anything else until my brother, opened the car door. He wanted to take me to the hospital, but I refused. I ask him just to get me home. At this point in time I was completely out of it! He helped me into his truck. No sooner did I get in his truck that I start to feel violently ill at the stomach. I opened his door and proceeded to puke my guts out. Believe me, this was definitely not fun. I left everything at work. My car, radio, CDs, hat and coat were all left behind. I never even punched out that day. For all I know I am still on the clock. I am sure we will get it all straightened out when I go back to work someday. I was so sick. I did not care about any of my possessions at the moment.

My brother got me home and into my house. I was freezing cold! I turned my heat up to 80°. Then I took off all my clothing because it was soaked with sweat and put on clean dry clothing. I crawled into bed, still breathing extremely heavy with my heart pounding in my chest. There was not much more my brother could do for me so he went back to his house and said he would be over in an hour to check on me. I just proceeded to get sicker and sicker as time went on. Even though my house was nice and warm I still continue to sweat and felt very cold. Throughout that Christmas Eve night, I change clothing several times, because I was sweating profusely.

I tried to take a little bit of ibuprofen and drink water, but unfortunately, every time I put something in my stomach within a half an hour. I threw it up. Me personally, puking my guts out is got to be the worst feeling in the world ever! I make noises and sounds that I would never make it in a million years unless I am puking. After the first or second violent stomach contraction that makes you throw up, there is nothing left in your stomach. Unfortunately for me. My body continues to dry - heave for several more minutes. I feel as though I am going to puke my testicles out my mouth. It hurts so bad! Imagine your worst puking experience ever and times it by 10. This is how it was for me for three days. Every few hours, I would puke up whatever I put in my stomach. I could not keep any medicine or water in me. For more than two hours. This was probably the worst part about being sick is that every couple hours I would puke. I know when you vomit. It's your body trying to get rid of something that it perceives to be bad, but it definitely does not feel good at all! Believe me I would not wish that feeling that I experienced even on my worst enemy.

I admit I could probably go on for several more hours telling you the experiences. I faced while being sick. A lot of you are probably thinking this blog is already too long and boring as it is. So I will try to get to several points that I want to make. The main reason I am writing this blog today is because I experienced two things that I never quite experienced before. And they all are because of what I have just told you. I experienced an out of body experience and a Christmas miracle all on Christmas Day.

First off, I experienced an out of body experience. I believe this happened late Christmas eve night or early Christmas morning. After thinking about it, I now believe it was more of a dream or my subconscious mind trying to tell me something. This is what I remember.

I remember looking down upon my bedroom as if I was floating 20 feet above my bed. I could see myself lying in bed. I was watching myself being sick in bed. Several of my friends and family were gathered around my bed, and they were doing what they can to try to make me feel better. They all knew that I was extremely sick. Even though I could see all of this going on around me. I could not react with anyone. I remember seeing myself getting sicker, and sicker as time went on. I could see the tears flowing down my mother's cheek as she held my hand at my bedside. This seemed to go on for a very long time until the paramedics arrived.

I watched as they did their job to do what they could to stabilize me so they could move me to the hospital. They put me on a stretcher and took me out to the ambulance that was waiting in the alley way. Then it was off to the hospital. There I was floating just above myself watching as the paramedics continued to stick needles and tubes into my body. It was as though I was watching a very intense television show, except I was not only the star of the show I was also of the victim.

Then I remember being above an operating room. There were many doctors and nurses, trying desperately to save my life. I could see my family, looking through a window into the operating room. I could see the worry and sadness that they were feeling on their face. Not knowing if I would survive this ordeal. I continued to watch the doctors as they operated on me. Then suddenly all my focus was on the heart monitor machine. There it was slowly beating to my heart beat. I watched it slow down. The only thing I had in my site was that little red line going across the screen. Beep, beep, the machine was slowing down. Beep, then suddenly it flatlined! I could hear the doctor say, are you ready? Okay, clear! Then a large electrical shock. Then one beep. The machine flatlined again. The sound of the machine flatlining intensified!

Then suddenly, everything went black. I was standing in a sea of blackness, with nothing around me. I was confused and did not understand. Then suddenly, way off in the distance to the right of me. I saw, a pinhole of very bright light. I turned and looked at it. As I was gazing at this light, something compelled me to walk towards it. I turned and slowly started to walk towards the light. It grew brighter at every step that I took. It seemed as though it took a very long time before I got to the light. There I was standing right outside that would appear to be a tunnel opening of extremely bright light coming out of it. The light was so intense. If you look around, all you seen was blackness or huge beams a bright light coming out of this tunnel. I paused at the entrance to the tunnel. I don't know why, but for some reason, I was afraid to go in.

Just when I finally made up my mind to go in. I woke up in my bed soaked in sweat and gasping for air! It probably took me 15 minutes or more to calm myself from what I just experienced. I could not believe that I was actually back in my bed. I finally was able to get out of bed and go sit on the couch in the living room. I was totally blown away about what just actually happened to me. It was now probably around 2 a.m. in the morning on Christmas day. I finally convinced myself that it was nothing more than a dream brought on by being very sick. Did you ever have a dream about your own death?

This was one of the most unusual experiences or dreams that I have ever lived through. I concluded that it had to be a dream, because there I was in my own house in the middle of the night. My mind must've made up everything that I just experienced, because if it had happened. Why would I still be in my house? I thought, maybe possibly this was showing me an alternate reality or what might have happened. I guess, it was just not my time to die. So I was sent back to live another day. After one experiences something like this. You look at the world in a whole different point of view. Even though this happened a week ago, I still have many unanswered questions.

Anyways, there I was sitting on my couch, probably around 3 a.m. Christmas morning. I was extremely sick, and very shaken up about the experience I just had. I did not want to go back to bed, but I was too sick to do just about anything else. Then I happened to notice my mail sitting on the coffee table. My brother brought it over to me in the afternoon when he came to check on me before he went to my mother's house on Christmas Eve. I decided to open up my mail.

I received a small package from my friend Kristin. I opened it up, and there was a small Christmas card wishing me Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Also inside was a very small Christmas teddy bear. He was brown and cuddly. The teddy bear wore a red Santa hat upon his head and was holding a Christmas stocking. I looked at it and began to cry. Here, someone I only know through the Internet, decided that they would spread a little Christmas cheer for me and sent me this small gift. Kristin lives in Estonia. Estonia is a very small country in Europe. Until I met Kristin, I never even heard of her country Estonia.

It is hard for me to describe how much joy I felt at that moment. Holding that tiny teddy bear in my hand. It was early Christmas morning, and this would be the only Christmas present that I would receive on Christmas Day. I really don't know how to express my thanks to Kristin for this gift. The reason this gift means so much to me is all because of timing. This gift happened to come to me when I needed it most. I do believe if I would receive this gift a day sooner or day or two later. It would not have met near as much to me, as it did on this cold Christmas morning.

I realize now that Kristin did not just send me a small token of her appreciation. But what she actually gave me this year for Christmas was the gift of hope! I received hope that morning. I received my

Now I know a lot of you don't believe in Christmas miracles or hope, but I believe now. Something changed for me after I was done crying and holding that teddy bear in my hands. I realized that I still have a lot to live for, and I have hope for the future that things will be better for me. Maybe it sounds silly, that I associate this gift of friendship as a sign of hope. But I believe that this gift was more than what it started out to be. If I can give anything to all my friends and family. I would choose to give them hope.

I used to think that love was the most powerful force in the universe. I have since changed my mind. I do believe that hope is just a little bit stronger than love. I do believe you need both hope and love to survive in this world, but hope is a more powerful force. Because if you have no hope in this world than love will lose most of its power.

Here's hoping that all who read this will experience their own Christmas miracle someday. Remember, it doesn't have to be anything very big or important to be a miracle for you all you really need is a little love and a little hope!

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all my friends out there.

Love always,

your teddy bear friend

Remembering old movies

I don't know about you, but I like to watch old movies. There is really something to be said about old black-and-white movies. Even though today's movies can be really exciting and dazzle you with all the special effects. Somehow, someway, they just can't compare to the simplicity of the old movies made between the 1930s and the 1950s.

The way I see it, a good story is a good story and you don't need lots and lots of special effects to get your point across.

The last two weeks it has been fairly cold and I could not go outside Very often. Now that it gets dark at 5:30 p.m. I really don't have a lot of daylight to go out and do many things. I am usually done work around 1 p.m.. This only gives me about four to 4 1/2 hours of daylight in which to go and do things. So I have spent some time watching several old movies that I have on videotape or DVD.

One of my all time favorite comedians are Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. I have 32 of the approximately 48 movies that they made together. So I have been watching many of their movies over the past couple of weeks and got to thinking. They really knew how to make a movie back then. The people who were actors actually knew how to do more than just act. They could sing, dance, and do things that most actors today could never do. These were real people actually doing the dance routines or the physical stunts in their movies. Not like today where everything is fake and computer generated.

If you could sing and dance you definitely could have a career in Hollywood Way back in the 30s and 40s. At lease when you watch movies like this. You can actually tell that these people really were singing the songs. These people actually could do the dance steps, because the camera was usually far away enough so you can see the entire actor as he performed the dance routine. Not like today's movies, were they show a quick scene of a dance step then cut to another scene of a dance step then cut again to another scene. I hate movies that are made up of lots of little cuts in them.

You really can tell how good of a movie It is and the quality of the actors by how long it takes before the camera angle changes from scene to scene. If they can do an entire comedy routine or a long dance scene without the camera angle changing too often or at all you know, they actually were able to do this in one take.

I do admit, not every old classic black-and-white movie was a gem by the least the ones I own or want to get some day are.

I have always liked old horror movies. And I have a rather large collection of them. Believe it or not, some of my favorites are still the really old ones from the 1930s and 40s. Take for example, the first Frankenstein movie. At the time the makeup and special effects in that movie were state-of-the-art. Boris Karloff had to endure a lot just to put on and take off the makeup to become the monster. Here was a man that really could act even though his face was covered in makeup. So he would look like a monster. Now, today's movies are all computer generated, and I am sure actors go through some discomfort, but not like they did in the days of old.

Did any of you ever seen the classic movie called "arsenic and old lace"? Cary Grant starred in this fantastic light comedy. Here is a movie that had such a great storyline and such great acting, that you can't help but be enthralled with everything that's going on in the movie. One minute you are laughing hysterically and the next minute. You are scared for the characters on the screen. I have only seen a handful of Cary Grant pictures, and I would really like to see more of them.

I went to a website dedicated to him, and it had all his movies listed. Unfortunately, I really don't know which movies would be worth renting to watch. If anybody out there reads this. Please let me know what some are your favorite old movies are and why you loved them. Even though I have looked on several websites pertaining to old movies. Sometimes it is hard to find the ones you really want to see.

I even like some of the old "b" rated science fiction movies and horror movies. I know sometimes the special effects can be very cheesy, but I still have a place for them in my heart, because if the story is good. Then the cheap special effects do not matter.

I have always had a special place in my heart for the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. These men truly knew how to act and make an audience laugh. I personally believe that there is no comedy team or pair that is out today that can compare to how great bud Abbott and Lou Costello were. Lou Costello is the ultimate funnyman! I admit some of his funny scenes would not work so well if he did not have a straight man like Bud Abbott to be there with him.

Even great teams like the Three Stooges or the Marx Brothers really made some fantastic comedies. I remember as a child watching the Three Stooges on television in the early 70s. I just loved their slapstick style of humor. I knew it was fake, and I knew you couldn't actually hit somebody with a hammer, and they would still be okay, but I laughed just the same. My parents taught me the difference between reality and fantasy. I was totally broken hearted in the mid-80s when the Three Stooges were banned from television, because some young child hurt another child because they were imitating with the Three Stooges did on the screen. Personally I believe this was bad parenting because they did not take time to watch this with the child and explained to them that this was all just to get a laugh and if you actually hit somebody like that in the Three Stooges movies, That a person would get seriously injured. I do believe that they are finally showing the Three Stooges movies again on television.

In the last few years I have been a real sucker for romantic comedies. What I want to know is, what are the names of some of the best old romantic comedies made between the 1930s and the 1950s. Hopefully one of my friends out there can tell me about some of their favorite movies. So I can get a chance to watch and enjoy them. I may not be the most knowledgeable when it comes to movies and or actors. I just know what I like. I would love to discuss favorite scenes in favorite old movies with anyone who reads this. Please tell me, some of your favorite old movies.

I admit I do not go to the movies very often to see new releases, because it is expensive to go to the movies. I do like to buy them on DVD when they come out and if I have the money. Unfortunately, times have been tough, and I have bought very few movies because I just can't afford it. Lately, when I actually have a couple dollars to spend. I've been going through the five dollar bin at Wal-Mart and picking out one or two movies that are very cheap. And most of the time I seem to pick a good one.

I do like a lot of the new movies of today, but sometimes I think Hollywood tries too hard to wow the audience and show them things that have never ever been done on screen before. Sometimes the special effects are the only good thing about a movie. The storyline sucks, & the acting sucks. So all you are left with is a movie loaded with special effects most of them generated by computer animation.

Even if you look at some of the movies made in the 1970s. Take for example the Smokey and the bandit movies. They have a lot of spectacular stunts, mainly involving car crashes. Yes, they use stuntman, but these were actual cars crashing and not models or computer generated graphics like today. They will probably never do a movie like the blues Brothers were they crashed hundreds of police cars in a car chase, because it would just not be cost-effective to smash that many cars.

I admit I am really not big on musicals, but I do have two favorites and they both came out. I think in the 1970s. Naturally my all time favorite musical in my opinion is the blues Brothers. This movie had everything, including a fantastic cast, and many great musical performers doing at least one song. My other favorite musical of all time has to be the 1978 movie grease starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. I have worn out my original vinyl album playing those songs over and over again. Here is a movie if you first watch, it seems just a little bit corny, but actually, it is a fantastic movie, with terrific songs! I also like the musical hair. They had some of the best songs from the 1960s in that movie.

I don't know, but sometimes I wish they could go back to making movies a little bit more simple like they did in the olden days. Special effects are nice, but sometimes they can just be too overwhelming. All you really need is a great story and a few good actors to get your point across. That is why every now and then when I have time or I am feeling a little bit blue. I like to sit back relax and enjoy an old classic movie. How about you?

Where has Spanky been?

I am sure that a lot of my 360 friends have been wondering where Spanky has been in the last several months. Because I have not been online hardly at all since the beginning of October. Well I guess I need to tell you. I have not been online because I have been trying to spend more time away from the computer. Other than a handful of select friends here on 360 it looks as though nobody even noticed or cared that I have not been around.

For the people who have stopped by and left me messages and comments I want to thank you personally. I admit I've only been turning on my computer. About once a week for maybe an hour at a time. Just to see who sent me e-mails and if I deemed anything very important that I needed to reply to. I do admit I have neglected a lot of my friends here and I do feel sorry, but life is tough enough and sometimes certain things need to take priorities. It's not that I love any of my friends here online any less. It's just that I don't seem to have as much time to spend on the computer as I did before.

One of the main reasons that I have not been online is because here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania we have had one of the greatest and most beautiful fall seasons that I could remember! The weather here in Pittsburgh has been fantastic! September, October, and November were absolutely amazing weather wise. We had so many warm and sunny days that I could not just sit here at the computer and waste them. I decided to go out for walks in the woods and take many bike rides on the various rails to trails that I go too often. When it is 70° out and it is early November in Pittsburgh you have to take advantage of such fantastic weather! I really did not do a lot of exciting things in the last few months, other than try to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. God I love global warming! Because we have cool summers and warm winters. I don't know about you but I really hate it when it is way too hot in the summer or way too cold in the winter.

I have noticed that lately, I definitely do not eat very healthy. If I am going to continue to eat this way I definitely need to exercise more. I know I need to eat more sensible choices and a lot less sugar. "God I love sugar" But this is my life choice at the moment and until I decide to be a little bit more healthy this is the way I'm going to be. I do admit working at a bagel shop is not always the most healthiest food in the world to eat. Not every morning, but at least three times a week. I make myself a bagel breakfast sandwich with eggs, bacon and sausage on usually a rosemary olive oil bagel. I am sure this sandwich alone has enough calories to keep me alive for the entire day, laugh out loud!

Anyways, it looks like I'm getting a little bit off the subject. So what can I do in the last few months? I got up, went to work, then after work I would spend several hours outside enjoying the fresh air. Sometimes I would visit friends and family and spend time with them. But mostly I was alone.

Even though my city is only 250 years old, because this year it's celebrated its birthday. I am amazed how beautiful this region of the world really is, and how diverse the people are who live here. I truly believe I live within one of the greatest places in the world. Because you can be in the heart of the city. Then take a 10 Minute Drive, and you will be out in the country in the middle of nowhere. We have everything that a very large city would offer, but we also have a lot of the things that small towns, communities, and the countryside has to offer all right here in one place.

Since I have not traveled a lot in my life time. I can't say for sure that my city is better or worse than the one you live in. I just know that I really like living here. I would like to travel and see other places, but at the moment I am too poor to do something like that.

Anyways, getting back to the weather here in Pittsburgh. It has been great, other than the last two weeks. Since we have had such nice warm days and nights were not that cold. I can be a tough guy and I realized that even though it did get chilly at night. I was able to tough it out and not turn my heat on in my house. It only got really cold for about a week in mid October. That I could not stand it and for three days I had to have my heat on, because it absolutely was too cold. Then it warmed up again until last week when I had to put my heat on again. I admit there were many days, I probably should've put my heat on, but I toughed it out. Mainly because I wanted to save a little money on my heating bill. Basically, the main reason I decided to turn my heat on in October and now is because when you wake up in the morning and it's only 40 to 45° in your house. That's just a little bit too cold. I am sure if I absolutely had to I could live like this, but I don't want to.

Last February, the electric company threatened to shut off my power because I've owed them several hundred dollars on my bill. My brother help me out with a loan to pay them off and ever since then. I have been trying to save energy any way I can. my electric bill was between 100 and 150 US dollars a month. Now my electric bill is between 20 and 35 US dollars a month. That is a significant savings. Because in these hard times and the price of everything skyrocketing. A person needs to find any way that he can to save as much money as possible. I realized I had way too many electronic devices plugged in and sucking electricity needlessly. So I decided to unplug them or put them on power strips. Now when I leave my house. Only my refrigerator and my phone answering machine are drawling power. When I am home, if I want to use an appliance or watch television. I turn the power strip on for the time I'm going to use it only. Believe it or not, most home electronics including your computer suck a lot of electricity. Even when you are not using it. Just by making sure that no power goes to it when you are not using it can save you a lot of money.

I have done such a good job on saving money on electricity this year that the power company came and put a lock box on my meter this month. I believe that they think I am stealing electricity. Because last year at this time I used three times as much power as I am using right now. Last year, I used over 9000 kW of power. This year, I have only used 3000 kW of power. So I am only using one third of the power I used the year before. This is definitely helped me out a little bit, but since the price of everything has gone up so much. I really don't have a lot of extra money.

I even did this with my gas usage to heat my house, heat hot water, to dry my clothes, and to cook with. Ever since the oil crisis of three years ago and the price of oil has skyrocketed natural gas has also gone way up in price. I really don't understand why natural gas went up when it has nothing to do with the price of oil. Nonetheless, I have been trying to use as little as possible. So I don't have to give the bloodsucking utility companies all my money.

A few years ago, when I worked two jobs or even before that when I had a job that paid better. I really didn't worry or care about how much energy I was using. Now that it seems that I am poorer than ever. I need to make sure that I give as little of my money to the energy companies as possible. This is another reason why when it is nice out. I want to spend my time outside instead of sitting in front of a computer or watching television. If I am outside in the fresh air, I am getting exercise and not spending money on electricity or natural gas.

I really don't know about anybody else's situation, but the last three years have been really tough financially for me. It seems as though once I get my paycheck and divided up among the bills that I owe. There is very little if anything left for me to spend on recreation or just to buy something nice for myself. I really do miss the money I made with my second job, but I don't miss working 70 plus hours a week. I only hope that with our new president he will do something to help people like myself who are poor. So we can live a better standard of living. Believe me, it sucks to be poor!

Until the past few years I never actually considered myself poor. Now I realize I have been lying to myself all these years. Just because I wasn't struggling like I am today, didn't mean that I wasn't poor. I am part of the American working class. We are the people that pay for everything in this country. The people who are worse off than me and have absolutely nothing can't pay taxes. The people who are a lot wealthier than me and make at least a hundred thousand dollars a year or more really don't pay taxes because they can write things off on their taxes. Most of their normal expenses, there are loopholes and ways that they can use. So they don't pay taxes. I really don't think this is fair either. I don't mind paying my share to make sure that we have better roads, schools, fire protection, and a good police force. I just believe that someone who makes 10 times the amount of money As I do should pay a little bit more than I do. I do understand that the system is really screwed up and somehow someway. We need to make a change.

Anyways, I have no idea how this blog started out to be about what I did in the last couple months, which really was not anything exciting, and it ended up about paying taxes. I guess I need to sign off and if I'm going to write another blog. Write it on a totally different subject, instead of combining what ever comes to my mind.

Anyways, my friends, I do believe that I will try to spend a little bit more time on the computer now that it has gotten a lot colder outside. I seem to have many things that go through my mind that I would like to write down I just need to get up off my lazy ass and do it. Maybe if you my friends encouraged me. I might actually take the time to write out some thought-provoking blogs and post some of the thousands of photos I've taken this year. I did not forget that I still want to post more photos from my train trip in October. I just did not get around to doing it. Hopefully soon.

This has been the ramblings of your lost and poor friend