Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Mallard

 It's hard work keeping our ducks fed! What they don't eat, the bunnies, squirrels and opossum finish off in the afternoon.

Opening the vitamin bottles after 60

 

I hate that every time I try to open a bottle of Melatonin ends with a trip to the ER.

My Dogs Obituary.

2010-2024

My dogs obituary; Brutus, also known as Mr. Boo, Baby boo, little guy and dammit dog, was born (we have no idea the day) 2010, and died March 13th, 2024 from Kidney failure.

He liked dancing on the table, stealing food off the table, tummy rubs, cuddling in bed, treats, stealing treats, and making his family feel guilty if you didn't give him a treat! Below is a picture of that.

Brutus loved the ladies! For years we trusted him in the yard without a leash until some golden retriever b***h went jogging by and he ignored every command and took after her. He was neutered the following week.

He certainly knew God, how many times in the last 7 months did I pray over him asking for more time and one last walk? According to the Vet, he was surprised that Brutus had made it this long.

It's never long enough with a beloved pet.

There's a funny tik tok video about the joys of owning a pet that ends with 10 years of best friend, followed by 2 years of vet bills, followed by pain so brutal that you'll never recover from. George Carlin said "when you go in the pet store, you're basically buying a tragedy." How true, but I wouldn't have missed his journey.

Brutus was survived by his human mom and dad, his doggie friends Gracie, Stella, and the b***h across the street, and his best friend and partner in crime, Big Girl.  He will be missed.

Into existence.

 

Black Mountain, San Diego

 I hope you like my picture of homes built on dormant volcano, Black Mountain, Rancho Penasquitos, I guess any day that doesn't start with a pyroclastic flow is a good day!

It's never easy to lose a friend.

 Six years ago it was a Tuesday. I had just seen him at a Packers-Bears game that past Sunday. He was close to my husband and I.

When I was taking an IT course, he had me come over to his house and practice taking the guts out of the computer and reinstall it. When my son hit his laptop keyboard in frustration over something, he told us to come over and he'd repair it. I told my son "I hope you like David Hasselhoff because he does and he'll be playing "the hoff" while he repairs your laptop. But he surprised me. He decided we'd watch German logrolling off the German channel instead.

He was my brother from another mother. On Tuesday morning around 11:30 AM, I was at Joy radio getting ready to leave when a email popped up on my work page that said "Robert Deglau, Deceased." My first thought was who is the blankety blank that put this out? I'm gonna hunt him down and kick his...I called my boss and said "who sent this piece of crap?" He said "Cindy, it's true."

I got called into a meeting the next day to figure out what we were gonna do for his 4 hour show that weekend. I volunteered to put a tribute show together but spent the rest of the week regretting it because listening to his voice, and his shows, trying to decide what to put in was so painful. I listened to his Saturday show he had just done 4 days before, blissfully unaware that this would be his last radio show ever. His tribute show was the hardest thing I ever did in radio. It took me until the night before because I wanted it perfect for him and his beautiful wife Karen.

Möge er in Frieden ruhen!

Speaking into the void.

 

I don't normally listen to Joel Osteen but tonite he said something that really jumped out at me.

"Stop speaking your negative thoughts into existence. God wasn't having a bad day when He created you."

Thanksgiving

 When I'm tempted to get into a rut, I try to remind myself of how much I have to be grateful for. Like having a mini stroke where i lost the use of both my left leg and arm for about 10 minutes. 

I was trapped in the Joy 1340 radio studio where I was setting up the room for the first show of the morning. Only 10 minutes before I had just been on the highway driving to work. The fatigue hit first, almost like a wave, and I sat down immediately. Then I tried to reach for something with my left arm, my arm didn't work. I tried to move my left foot, it felt like it was in concrete. 

I face booked message my friend Elaine Plummer who actually knocked some sense in me, because after about 10 minutes my arm and my leg came back. Like it never happened. I was tempted to ignore it. By the way this was the second time this happened, a couple of years earlier although it wasn't as severe, and it had happened at home. 

Gratitude turns what we have into enough. I'm grateful I'm still here, and not in a nursing home. Happy Thanksgiving and God's blessings to all of you today 

Holiday programming.

 When the Elf movie ends but I'm still in the mood for a holiday program...

Cloves

 I needed to buy whole cloves for Prime rib. Sure, I could check to see if I had any left over cloves but that would be opening up a big can of worms, because then I'd probably discover I'm out of vanilla extract, onion powder and Lawry's season salt and buying all that crap gets expensive, so I just went to the store to buy a $5.00 tin of cloves and came home to put it in my spice cupboard.

In Appreciation.

 

Duke Wright, he was the owner of several radio stations including the country station where I did the All Night Country show, WGEE, back when you personally knew the owner of the radio station you worked at. We had a bar/bowling alley in the basement of the radio station- television station.

Once a month in the winter, he brought his polka band to the bar to perform. I would sneak local country performers after midnight on my show. They would play a couple songs in between the country records, tell some war stories of opening for country stars...One day when I was there during the day for an air check meeting, he walked by me in the hallway, "I know what you're doing on the overnights." Then he winked. "Don't get caught."

Duke died before Christmas. There would have been no success in Milwaukee without what I learned about radio and interviews in Green Bay. I am forever grateful to Duke Wright. He genuinely loved radio.

One of the performers I snuck on my show was the very talented Steve Austin who wrote a song about an overnight DJ (hello)who did dedications. I had a spoken line in it. It was a minor hit. Years later, I couldn't find my copy and for the heck of it, went on eBay. And there it was! In England. I bought this 45 rpm for 44 dollars plus shipping. WGEE played the song in 1989 I believe. Thank you Steve Austin, thank you Duke

My dad was always available with wisdom.

 

My dads 86th (heavenly) birthday today. My dad always knew how to cheer me up and give me great, life changing advice.

For instance, the year was late spring 1981 and my whole life had fallen apart. I was bounced from a strict Christian school and had to pay back my scholarship and my dad had just been laid off from his job at an insulation (asbestos) plant.

We were sitting outside on the front stoop one night and I asked my dad "what am I suppose to do with the rest of my life?" My dad said "I don't know, I don't even know what I'm going to do with the rest of mine!"

Good talk dad, good talk

Popcorn

 

I told my husband I want to see the new Shazam movie when it comes out.

He: Whose in it?

Me: Helen Mirren.

He: What does she do?

Me: She kills people.

He: Why do you want to see that?

Me: We're out of popcorn.

On Surviving challenges.

 I just watched the late Dr. Charles Stanley preaching on the book of Job; the one where Satan walks into the court of Heaven and God says "have you considered my servant Job?" And Job comes through all his trials victorious.

Based on how I handled my trial earlier this year, I have the uncomfortable feeling that if God asked Satan, "have you considered my servant Cindy?" Two days later God would be asking "can I pick somebody else?"

Storm Clouds

I'm in the line at Kwik Trip when I hear someone wondering about the forecast. I told him it's going to storm. He asked if I heard it from the news, I said no, my back told me.

All reactions:

46Dave Jonasen, Susan May Romano and 44 others

 Just one more, at the time of this picture in the Catholic Church parking lot, the sirens were going on South of us.

The morning of the San Diego hurricane

 

Not at all worried because Starbucks was open.

Before I got laid off at Big Buck County...

 Just days before I was laid off from one of my favorite radio stations of all time Big Buck Country radio station in Milwaukee, I was in the studio when I got a 10 minute "warning" that the Miz was coming down for an interview. The Miz? Who is he? WWE. Oh, I have sons, this won't be a problem. He was a super nice man and because of that, I still follow his career.

The day before I got laid off from Big Buck, I got to interview Jessie Colter, Waylon Jennings widow. She was promoting an album Waylon tried to finish before he died. I was to run it the next day. Ugh. She was a real sweetheart too.

One more Japan photo...

 Ok, two photos...

My daughter and I riding the Tozai line route to the tsunami museum, I'm wearing my train pass because I cannot trust myself to put it somewhere that I won't forget it.  At home I wear a bell so the dog knows I'm coming...

Sure, there was American food, KFC, Burger King and especially Starbucks.  There was also raw fish for breakfast at the breakfast buffet at the hotel.  There was also the 7-11, oh thank Heaven.

Japan with my daughter

 I hadn't seen my daughter in a year, so I decided to pay her a visit;

Mt. Fuji at sunrise from Gora, Japan.  From the Hyatt hotel, room 306.

Downtown Sendai-shi.

Sara in front of the Sendai forus mall.

Seeing my daughter at a "british" restaurant where absolutely none of the staff spoke English, but the fish and chips were awesome!

Goodbyes never get easier, in fact, I would like to send an apology up to my mother who took goodbyes hard, and told me someday I would understand.  Jesus, please tell me mom, I get it now.  And yes, she told me so.

Fun in Japan

 If you visited Japan, but didn't have an earthquake, were you really in Japan?  

Real question.

The tsunami museum

While in Japan, we visited a 2011 tsunami museum at a train station, it was located 3 blocks from where the waters stopped in that area. In the museum there's a whole wall of comments from survivors about the struggles that occurred after the earthquake and waters. It was cold but the electricity was off, no stores were opened for days and there was no water. A reminder that if Japan can go through a disaster, none of us are safe, even in America.

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Sendai 311 Memorial Community in the Sendai Municipal-Tozai Line.