Sunday Morning Smoke

Always good to hear the news from Da Burgh, but not happy to hear about Vince's car. I was hoping he'd make at least a quarter million miles with it. As for cigars, nice crowd of folks you have that come in to your shop, Vince, too bad they just don't come in more often.

As for me, I'm probably heading back to Puerto Rico on January 4th for a four week stay, although I haven't booked any flight yet. The time frame is still tentative. And from what I hear my mother continues to make a remarkable recovery, and I hope to see that for myself some time in February. I plan on making a 5-7 day trip to North Carolina to check up on her at that point, hopefully.

I'm very anxious to get the rest of the mess my father left me over and done with, so that hopefully, within the next year, my cousins and I can just concentrate on doing some farming. Mangos, anyone? Limes? Coffee? I'm looking forward to it. The grapefruits I picked the day we buried my dad were some of the best I've ever had, but I think I told that story already.

Funny season around the NFL isn't it? And now that the teams with the best records are starting to emerge, not all of them are those we expected, and some who we did really had crappy seasons. Still don't know if any teams are great yet, although as usual, certain players sure are.

I love when 25 degree weather becomes news. I just don't get it. We have so many people in the news "business" that they have to make up news just to stay in "business." Would you believe that even the NFL's own web site has a "BREAKING NEWS" streamer now? Yeah, the first one I saw was about McNabb getting benched.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAHAHHHHHHHH!!!

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyy, . . .

see ya next week.

Just finished catching up on the last six or seven Sunday Morning Smokes from Vince, including today's. I was in Puerto Rico for 24 days recently, grinding away at trying to bring the main house back to life, and figure out how to hold on to some land. Being the central figure in a complicated mess of land, finance and real estate issues, as well an ongoing family soap opera, complete with "good guys," "bad guys" and nobody handed me a scorecard, is not fun. But I guess it's my turn, because who hasn't heard of, or been through this.

I spent 14 days of the 24 up at what I guess is now "my house," along with some land, at least half of which I want to sell. But I've only got one piece I can sell right now, and that's a few acres that ISN'T part of the old family farm. Yeah, you get da pitcha, don't ask, don't tell, because if we ask, the post will be so long, Bloof will have to post it in three segments. Yeah, don't ask, but I spent well over $5,000, finishing off my dad's money and dipping in to my own, putting some furniture and equipment in there, plus did 140 hours of hard labor, in some pretty unlivable conditions for a while. Even roomed with a rat for two or three days, until I discovered it, and managed to drive it off. Like I said, don't ask, don't tell, HAWWWWWWWWW!!! Had to deal with about 20 bags of garbage outside that was probably as much as two years old, full of disease, insects, bacteria. I finally got the inside of the house cleaned and painted, all by myself, and some basic furniture and lamps thrown in there. Watch it all be gone when I get back. There ARE security issues, as well the house is wired no better than 1965, and the plumbing in the bathroom is---, well, forget it, maybe 1940's functionally, and water pressure issues all over. Yeah, don't ask, don't tell, hee, hee, heee!!!

Good to see Vince is still Vince. I had major issues with Dell/Verizon Wireless, which took up a lot of the time I had over the two weeks BEFORE I left on my trip, so I'm just beginning to resurface now. December was a blur because of the impending trip, then I was gone until February 4th, hit the ground running, very busy this past week. I did manage to see the second round of the playoffs in Puerto Rico, as I had seen the first in NY. I missed the championship games because of logistical difficulties getting TV service up at the farm, and got back in time to see the Super Bowl at a friend's in Jersey. My issues with the two abovementioned companies had to do with a brand new laptop with mobile broadband service, that I purchased just for these trips. Thank God I had my Droid phone with internet service with me in Puerto Rico. I did manage to receive and send e-mails, check my favorite news web sites, and do some silly, quick posts at another web site, but waited until today to catch up here. I hate typing on that tiny Droid keyboard, and now my laptop issues are resolved, except for that letter of outrage that Dell/Verizon Wireless will receive from me.

So, it was good to get caught up here. In about 2-3 more weeks, I'll head down to North Carolina to visit my mom and her husband. She's still recovering from that horrible car accident they had last July 5th, when that drunk driver went over the divide and head ended them. Back in NYC for the rest of March, and probably head down to Puerto Rico again for four weeks in April. Every trip down there is a different mission, and I'll see if I can sell a piece of land, and then tackle those plumbing and wiring issues inside the house. Beyond that, the only real problems are giving the terraces a good cleaning, then scraping and painting the whole outside of the house. At that point, it'll be ready for me to make a decision about, but that point won't be reached until perhaps the end of the year.

Until then, it's just getting up every day and thanking The Lord I can still do that, and that my body still works well, including my eyes. That way, I can catch up on Da Nooz fum Da Burgh here every week. And with Vince, the news is always full of interesting stuff. That's right, I said it, Vince is full of stuff.

GOOD MORNING, USA!!!

Or what's left of "this once great republic." And I am getting ready to listen to Bob Grant, the only two hours he has left on the radio, down from the 20 he used to occupy over 20 years ago, when I first started listening to him. A lot has changed, and a lot hasn't. Here we are repeating certain things that Vince and I have seen not once before, but twice before in our lives. High gas prices, high unemployment, high taxes, rising crime rate, and movie stars acting like idiots. Well, we've seen that last one about a HUNDRED times in our lives, haven't we, good buddy?

And speaking of a DRAW, talk about the luck of the draw, FOUR cigars the guy sends him, and only ONE was worth smoking. Forget Hall of Fame numbers, that's getting down to yer outta the league numbers!!!

It's a beautiful, sunshiny day here in Lawn Guyland Citeh, Noo Yawk. That's nowhere near THE Lawn Guyland for you who are getting ideas that Bloof suddenly woke up in plush digs. Rather, I'm still just over the bridge from Manhattan, and 1,600 miles from where I think I'd really rather spend most of the rest of my life. Yes folks, every trip to Puerto Rico is a mission, and it usually takes a few weeks for the dust to settle, and all the thoughts to completely arrange themselves in coherent fashion when I return from there. It looks as though when I return for the next trip, probably in April, if all goes smoothly, I'll be making preparations to spend at least four months a year down there beginning immediately. It's the kind of situation that's so cheap to keep, I'd be stupid to let it go. But it's my life in New York that will be paying for the basic upkeep on the house and farm, so I have to spend a certain amount of time up here. Since there's no one available to live there 12 months a year, that's why I need to spend four months a year down there starting now. That may be stepped up to six months a year very soon, perhaps in two or three years, and eventually eight or nine months a year, when I hit my 60's. THAT, will be fairly soon, a little over five years from now.

Looking at my life here in NYC, there's simply no way to see turning 60 and have my life brimming with opportunities up here. The prospect of affording a NYC rent, even in an outer area of Queens that I may be moving to soon, at that point and beyond is near ludicrous. I have long since accepted that I may be tied to NYC about three to five months a year for the rest of my life. But that doesn't mean having to pay rent for 12 months a year up here at that point. If I had to come to the city for a few months a year to do business or obtain some sort of work for a while, there's ways of working out living arrangements. With a place in Puerto Rico that has no rent or mortgage, the taxes are dirt cheap, and the only bills would be water, electricity, wireless, I'd be stupid to hit my 60's and ignore the benefits of having something like that.

And food!!! All of my fruit, some of my vegetables, herbs, could come right off the farm, starting now. Get a couple cows and a few chickens, you've got eggs, cheese and ice cream taken care of. My grandmother did it, inherited that place when there was no electricity or water. She had to haul pails of water from the brook, at least 100 yards away, and the house is on a very steep incline from the part where the brook lies. If you were visiting and she served chicken or guinea fowl, you could be sure it came from the farm, and she had killed and prepared it herself. So, I'd rather be an old man in Puerto Rico with a place that costs very little to maintain, and my own food supply, than a lifetime city rat trying to pay a rent that's going to be what at that point? Even more out of reach than it is now?!?!!!?? My father was there for the last 15 year of his life. Except for when his health problems set in, and he became less mobile after a couple falls, he had a nice life there. During a conversation we had in the summer of 2009, he told me that he had the life he always wanted, surrounded by nature. I always wanted a place out in the country, nobody around but trees, birds, other animals. I already have it, and it costs almost nothing. But the economy sucks, work is hard to find, and airfare is expensive these days to Puerto Rico.

All I need is to become conversational in Spanish. I'm getting there, just need time for some serious studying. At that point, I'd not only fit in a lot easier, because fitting in is no problem for me, but work, if you are willing to put in a good days work down there, can be had. One unfortunate thing right now is the welfare state going on in Puerto Rico. People constantly complain about help being so hard to find, people unwilling to work more than two or three hours, or work at all. At least 70% of the population is on at least one form of public assistance. So, even at my age, with the shape The Lord has kept my body in, and the health I've maintained, I can blast it for 8-10 hours a day, getting filthy, sweating and doing heavy hauling kind of stuff. Whether it's cleaning an interior area, or clearing land and stepping through mounds of horse manure, I'm all for it. Down there, I'd only need to do that a couple days a week, stay and take care of my place the rest of the time. At my age, it's a big numbers game, and when I pulled out the calculator, I realized I had a big responsibility down there, plus it would be STUPID to let something that cheap go.

But, right now I'm here in NYC, getting ready for some capellini with garlic and oil. Been a little sick lately, and the barely cooked garlic and whiskey treatments have me back up and around, thinking about and planning for old age. Interesting, this country was built on hard manual labor, but we all got away from that idea after WWII. I realized about ten years ago, my only opportunities for employment or even survival in my old age, would depend on keeping my body fit and healthy well in to old age. I thank God for inspiring me to get involved in Physical Culture 39 years ago, and helping me to remain vital, with a high level of horsepower, even today, with all the years and the dings and dents.

WOW!!! Bob Grant's already almost halfway over. I always take a long time composing these Bloofingtonian Blurbs, HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

GOOD AFTERNOON, USA!!! Hee, hee, heee!!!

Thank you. It's also the old position of what other choice do I have? And it's a pretty nice looking set of choices, as long as I can stay healthy and free of new injuries, although with six in the past decade, it's been hard. Still hasn't prevented me from doing the hard work, though.