Hello everyone. It's hard to believe I let six weeks go by without an update. Here's what has been going on.

My grandmother passed away on April 16. I did get to see her a few times before she left us. She was moved from the hospital to a transitional care building, and that's where she spent her remaining time.
I saw her on April 3, and she looked like she was doing okay. Very tired, but still alert. Her 90th birthday was six days later, and she still looked like she was in good spirits. She had an IV attached to her arm, since she didn't feel like eating. My family held a little birthday party for her in room, and she received several visitors.

However, after the party was over, my dad and his brothers and sisters met with the doctors, and they removed the IV. Grandma had a living will that said she didn't want to have tubes connected to her, so the IV was gone the day after her birthday.

The last time I saw her was two days before she died. She was very weak and could barely talk. We tried to give her some water through a straw and she had difficulty drinking from it. I knew at that point that she wouldn't be long for the world, and she passed two days later.

The funeral was Saturday (one week ago today) and it was very nice. It took place at the church she had belonged to for 49 years. Religion was a big part of her life, but she exemplified the good aspects of Christianity, especially helping those in need. Grandma would think nothing of taking people into her house who needed a place to stay.

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Work has been going pretty well. I figured something out over the past month: My editor really likes the work I do. That means a lot to me because he's been part of the Hamilton County community for over 50 years and is one of the most respected figures here. For so many years I used to doubt myself - "Am I in the right business?" "Do people like the work I do?" "How do I come across to everyone?" Now I truly feel like I belong. There's more I could say about this, but I'll save it for another post. Anything to get me back here on a regular basis.

And in my ongoing struggle to clean the apartment, I think I'm actually making some progress. It just amazes me how everything piles up. But I have probably saved several forests in the process, so that's good.

Since I'm seeing a lot of old friends posting lately, I figured I'd chime in with one of my own. Things are fine, work is steady and the winter has not been too cold.

The youngest nephew is now walking around at 13 months of age. He and his older brother are getting more active and curious. It's always fun whenever I see them.

My grandmother was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to get treatment over the weekend. She's doing fine, which is a relief. Her 90th birthday is in April and a big celebration is being planned, so I'd like to see her enjoy that.

And finally - I've grown a beard. And I like it.

Because it was suggested:

I'm running a test to see who's reading my posts. So, if you read this, leave me a one-word comment about your day that starts with the third letter of your LJ USERNAME. Only one word please. Then repost so I can leave a word for you. Don't just post a word and not copy - that's not as much fun!

Happy new year two weeks late! Haven't really had much to post about lately. Things have been steady at the paper, and my nephews are doing fine.

There's one thing I have managed to stick with in the New Year: Cleaning and organizing. Every so often I get on a cleaning binge, then it tends to fade away. But I've let things - magazines, books, newspapers, receipts, junk mail - pile up too much and it's just gotten bad.

So I have been throwing things away and recycling. There's still a long way to go, but just getting started was a step in itself.

I know I've posted this before, but it's always worth posting



Hope everyone has/is having a wonderful holiday!

So I will return to LiveJournal with a big helping of cute:



I've been doing fine. I finally shook the stomach ailment and am now trying to get a little more sleep!

Things are business as usual with me. The only thing that's been slowing me down has been a stubborn stomach ailment that won't seem to pass out of my system. It's forcing me to watch what I eat, which I guess isn't that bad.

The nephews are doing great. The younger one is starting to walk at 10 months, which is amazing.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been my usual busy self, but it's a good busy as always.

I do have one interesting thing to say about myself: I've grown a beard. And I rather like it!

What is it about this journal entry of mine that spammers seem to like? Is it a weird way of measuring how popular Coldplay is?

The last two times I went through drive-thrus, the amounts owed came out to be a few cents over a dollar. The first one was like $8.03, so I gave the cashier three pennies in addition to a 10-dollar bill. I noticed that she looked mildly annoyed. So Friday night I went to Steak 'N' Shake (it's an Indiana thing), and that bill came out to $7.07, so I gave the cashier a 20-dollar bill. She didn't look upset that she had to get out a whole bunch of change, although she didn't look thrilled either.

The reason I bring this up is because several years ago, I went through a drive-thru, and the bill was once again, something like a few pennies over a dollar, so I handed the cashier the extra pennies. When he closed the window, I swear I heard him say something to the effect of "I hate it when people do that." I always thought it would be more convenient to just give the cashier a couple extra pennies so he or she wouldn't have to count and give out all that change.

So here's an etiquette question for everyone to ponder: Do the cashiers appreciate it or think it's ridiculous?

I'm actually enjoying the cool to mild weather we're having. Normally I love hot weather, but we had too much of it this summer.


I also can't get Foster the People's "Helena Beat" out of my head. Here's a link to the song, not the video. The video is a little too weird for me.


http://youtu.be/XBFfFmWcPQM

I'm still here. It's been a pretty typical September - pleasant weather and a busy time at the paper. My nephews are doing fine. The little one is crawling now, and he can get around pretty fast.

I'll post more in the coming days. I'm not leaving here anytime soon...there's too much I want to say and too many people I like to ever leave!

Only in Indiana can you go from using the air conditioner to the heater and back to the air conditioner in the same morning. Well, maybe it happens in other states.

My Labor Day weekend was pretty nice. Monday I had my usual dinner with the family. A couple weeks ago my two-year-old nephew was looking at my mom's refrigerator magnets, one of them being a space shuttle. I showed him the video of a shuttle launch on my phone, and now he's completely obsessed with it to the point that every time he sees me, he wants to see it! He's a smart little kid.

I'm also battling a cold/allergies/stuffy sinus - one of those three. It was worse yesterday, but I found the right medicine and it's slowly going away. I also discovered that eating an abundance of spicy foods really doesn't work to clear my sinuses up. Maybe it's because I eat so much of them already, my body's used to them.

It is 98 degrees outside. Way too hot for September 1st. I thought nothing could top the summer here four years ago, when hot weather persisted into October, but we have a new winner!

Sunday was my five-year Live Journal anniversary. I joined because I saw all of the bloggers out there, and figured it'd be a fun way to meet new people. I have certainly done that!

I remember some of my old entries very well. At first I wasn't sure what direction I wanted my journal to take. I figured it'd be a good way to merge my radio interests and gay life (now there's a combination!), but the radio thing never took off how I thought it would. My original username was "fiftykilowatts." I like this name better.

When I started, I tried to be edgy, but that was soon abandoned. I'm about as edgy as a Care Bear. I tried to be sexy, but it didn't feel natural - only forced. I tried to be like ajaxstamos, but I soon realized that nobody could be like ajaxstamos. He's one of a kind - and a great friend.

So after a couple months, I finally settled down with it and just let my journal be itself. And after that, everything started taking off. I made new friends, and started growing comfortable posting about myself, rather than what I thought other people wanted to see. I think you know the obvious lesson here.

There is one sequence of events from those early days that I'll never forget. You can read about it in the first 96X post, and also the incredible follow-up one month later. I got to talk to Stuart Elliott a couple more times as well. I'm sure it meant a lot to him that people still remember his beloved 96X all these years later.

So, the "radio thing" won't completely go away. That's good. And I'm not going anywhere either. There's still lots to post about.

And thank you to all my friends for being here. You've kept me coming back all these years, and I'm grateful for every one of you.

Here's to the next five years!

Everyone here is stunned about what happened at the Fairgrounds. I had my TV off, and turned it on about 10:20 - that's how I found out about what happened. It's horrible that people went there to enjoy a concert and then had to deal with a tragedy.

This past week has been half-busy, half-not. We had a baseball team playing in a big tournament out in Washington. They offered live streaming coverage, which was picked up by a local bar. I can honestly say I've never been at a bar at 1 o'clock in the morning to watch a baseball game, but now I can.

It's actually cool here for the first time in a while! Break out the blue jeans.

It actually hit 100 degrees in Indy yesterday for the first time in 23 years.

Needless to say, I've been staying inside as much as possible.

I'm on vacation this week! YAY!

I was all set to go to Crown Point to watch that golf tournament, but unfortunately a rain delay and my misunderstanding of the schedule changed that. I made up for it today by taking a nice drive around the area, just to get out of town for a little bit.

While I don't have too many set plans (my dad and I are thinking about going to one of the nearby horse track/casinoes), I would like to make it a productive week - do some cleaning, get back on the treadmill and go a couple places around Indy that I've either never been to before or haven't been to in a while.

Oh, and get a little more sleep, too!

It's hot again this afternoon. This after having a humongous rainstorm yesterday morning that caused flooding and major roads to be washed out. No tornadoes, thankfully.

Everything is going fine, despite the rain. Work is fine, too - and I may get the chance to cover a professional golf event next weekend. Stay tuned.

There is only one network that airs a soap opera at 2 p.m. here (ABC), which also happens to be my favorite show (One Life To Live).

And right now, there is only one network here that is showing a press conference about all this Anthony Weiner crap. Guess which one it is?

If there's any belief that the networks don't care about their soaps, I think this proves it.