I need to make note of the fact that this blog is now 12 years old.
My first entry was December 1, 2011. You can look it up. Twelve years later, it seems everything in my life has changed. I’m no longer in Tampa Bay, and I am now the last survivor of my family.
Thanks to all of you who have read the blog over the years. Tony and Amy, especially you two.
The goals for this blog, or the initial ones, have been met. Ten years and two thousand posts. Now, I just want to see how long I can go.
This is a posting I do every Saturday called Life In Lake County…
Life In Lake County: I’m not a doctor, but I think my odds at spending some time hospitalized this week is about 50/50. The foot wound needs more attention as calloused skin is around the wound and preventing closure. Getting wound care on Medicaid (I’m currently applying for SSDI and Medicare) is a bit of a challenge – and this was supposed to have healed last month. Current thinking is trying the Advent Health Hospital I’m Tavares after a Monday morning appointment in Apopka.
Happy to report Mom is back at her ALF in Tampa. She survived another health care, and I thought what happened with her two weeks in was going to be it. Very happy we will have more time together.
My Bible Study group has commissioned me to enter a Chili Cook Off tomorrow at lunchtime. Having never cooked competitively, I have my doubts I’ll do well, but I’ll gain a life experience – so there’s that I guess.
Going to be a pivotal week for me. Stay safe (especially with all the Middle East bull crap) and be blessed.
I’ve been watching with great interest the buildup of a wrestling match. It’s not the WWE or AEW, but something that transcends the business -to the point every major circuit wants to be a part of this event in a small fashion: Ric Flair’s last match.
Flair’s been in the business for roughly half a century – and after a tumultous last decade or so where he lost one of his sons and nearly lost his life, the 73-year-old Flair wants that last match.
Is it a case of someone who craved the spotlight one more time, like many boxers and wrestlers do? It probably is.
Rightfully so, Flair’s last bout will be a two-against-two tag team bout, where one man competes for his team at any given time, with exceptions. He joins Mexican grappler Andrade El Idolo (Flair’s son-in-law), battling Jeff Jarrett (himself no spring chicken at 55), and the 37-year-old Jay Lethal.
They can’t go into the match without a buildup – so an old-school wrestling angle was concocted, with Lethal and Jarrett playing the role of jealous associates turned rivals. Only in wrestling would what would normally be an elderly assault but just another working angle in the business.
Thinking about getting the PPV, which will be available on FITE. Pretty sure Flair will go over – I just wonder if Flair can stay out of the ring the rest of his life.
So far, so good with this series.
I’m not all doom and gloom – sometimes, I tell stories.
Recently, I got back on Tik Tok and told a tale I heard in high school.
Here’s the latest and greatest with my little buddy Ella.
I’m thinking of making LWE a twice-a-week series. I’d welcome any thoughts on the matter.
Here’s the latest with Ella…
Back in January 2021, I mentioned that I had completed the first season of the Hometown Football League with its first Hometown Bowl.
I did do a second season, but with the failing health of my Mom and my brush with the grim reaper, I put my sports gaming channel on about a four-month hiatus.
When I moved to Seminole, I decided to continue on with the channel and complete the season up. It took nearly five months, but I got there.
I’m taking a week off from the hobby this week, and after seeing my Mom get increasingly frail last month, I’m doing one project at a time these days. Next stop: continuing to replay the 1975-76 NBA season
Yes, I get this is a semi-crazy hobby, and most do it for love and not for money because there is very little money in it to be made. But I enjoy it – and it calms me as the world gets more and more insane.
I haven’t been over to Tampa to see Mom yet – for an unconventional reason: the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Many of the hockey pundits had written off our local NHL team, which has won the last two Stanley Cups and is now looking for a third such honor in a row. No one gave them a chance against the Florida Panthers, who gained more standings points this season than any other team. To the surprise of many, the Lightning currently has a 3-0 lead in games in the best four of seven series.
For those of you who don’t follow sports, if the Lightning wins one more game out of the next four, the series ends, and the Lightning advance and get either the New York Rangers or the Carolina Hurricanes. The only way the Panthers win the series is to win four games in a row – something that has only happened a handful of times in the history of the NHL’s playoffs.
When the Buccaneers, Lightning, or USF play a game in Tampa – or if there’s a bowl game over the holidays, Uber rates go up dramatically if you have to go into or through Tampa. So it’s probably best to wait and go on a day when there’s nothing on the sports calendar in Hillsborough County.
It sucks, but that’s life in the 21st Century with our technological advancements.
If I had to do my life all over again (an option I will never get) – I think I would have studied accounting and/or bookkeeping.
Recently, I saw a Facebook ad for a company that offered a bookkeeping business startup – for the low price of just about two grand or two hundred a month. Their “deadline” for me was today – and that made the decision to pass on the idea a bit more decisive.
If I give money for goods or services, why should it matter when I decide to take the offer? As the old song goes, fools rush in where mortals fear to tread – and if you’re gonna rush me, you make my decision about your goods and services all the more comfortable on me.
Besides, I have some other fish in the sea at the moment – and they can wait on me.
It was a quiet week in some respects, but busy in some other ways.
A Slice Of Big Pauly 