Happy 85th Birthday To A Couple Of One-Of-A-Kind Guys

 Click on the Facebook status report below to find out more about them...

85 years ago (January 24, 1936) two one-of-a-kind guys were born: Doug Kershaw and Marshall E. Mitchell. Happy Birthday!!! ❤ https://youtu.be/WmuJmQ5kpPs

Posted by Ainsley Jo Phillips on Saturday, January 23, 2021

Below is a poem I wrote about Marshall back in 1987 when he was 51.  I still can't believe that he's 85 this year...


The Wandering Ranger In The Blue Toronado

(The Legend Of Marshall Ennis Mitchell)

This is the story of a modern-day hero
Who has a heart of gold.
Right after he was born in 1936,
His Maker threw away the mold!
Do you want to know who I'm talking about?
Marshall Mitchell is his name--
He's the wandering ranger in the blue Toronado
Who's brought Franklin, Indiana fame! 

He bought his car new in '66
While teaching high school history.
Fifteen years later, he changed his career--
But his car was a different story!
Do you want to know who I'm talking about?
Marshall Mitchell is his name--
He's the wandering ranger in the blue Toronado
Who's brought Franklin, Indiana fame!

He became a seasonal ranger
Who went from place to place.
At Mammoth Cave, Springfield, and the Everglades,
He became a familiar face.
And, way up north to the Indiana Dunes,
He made his way one fall--
Yes, the wandering ranger in the blue Toronado
Was really having a ball!

Once, he and his car went to photograph
Every courthouse in the Hoosier State--
They're among nearly fifty-thousand slides
In his whole collection of great
Entertainment. How he loves to show them
To a warm, receptive crowd!
Yes, this wandering ranger in the blue Toronado
Will make you cheer long and loud!

He'll ask a tourist, "Where are you from?"
And, after he finds out,
He'll rattle off a fact or two
About the place. No doubt
He is among the very best
At Trivial Pursuit--
This wandering ranger in the blue Toronado
Is a genius, to boot!

Yes, this man truly is a modern-day hero
And a darn-good ranger, too--
Returning tourists are quick to tell him:
"I always ask for you!"
Do you want to know who I'm talking about?
Marshall Mitchell is his name--
He's the wandering ranger in the blue Toronado
Who's brought Franklin, Indiana fame!

One day, he chose to settle down
In that place we call Kentucky
And work full-time at Mammoth Cave--
The Bluegrass State got lucky!
One April day in '87,
He came to work all smiles,
Telling all who would listen that his blue Toronado
Had gone three-hundred-thousand miles!

But change must come to all of us
(Be it bad or be it good).
Old blue was getting up in years
And Marshall thought, "I should
Send her off to rest in pieces
In that Junkyard In The Sky.". . .
His eyes grew kinda misty
As he waved a last good-bye.

So, now, you know the story of a modern-day hero
Who has a heart of gold.
Right after he was born in 1936,
His Maker threw away the mold!
Do you want to know who I'm talking about?
Marshall Mitchell is his name--
He's the permanent ranger in the Delta 88
Who's bringing Cave Country fame!

Two Crafty Ladies

 

While looking for another obituary, I saw this one. Looked at the picture and thought that the lady looked very similar...

Posted by Ainsley Jo Phillips on Saturday, January 23, 2021

A New Counter

 I had to add a new counter to my site because the old one (which I added in 2018) wasn't working anymore.

Hopefully, the new one will continue to work for quite some time.

Click on the following link to read the last entry I made before this one, as it needs to be shared....

Another Side Of Alaska

Another Side Of Alaska

 I believe that it was around 1950 that my mom and dad went to Cuba so that they could see it before Fidel Castro closed it to outsiders.  As I wasn't born until December 12, 1952, this was one place that I didn't go with them.

However, The Three Bears did a lot of traveling when we were all together and visited every state in the continental USA, plus Hawaii.  We also not only went into Canada and Mexico but traveled extensively and really got to know these countries.

We had planned on, someday, going to Alaska together but never got around to it.

I had thought that, one of these days, I would travel there myself and explore it.

After reading this article by Jan Starks, I think I'll put my travel plans on hold for awhile longer.

Seriously, there is a problem in the 49th state that needs to be addressed, so please share this article.

Posted by Ainsley Jo Phillips on Saturday, January 23, 2021

Larry "The CanMan" Van Ness Is Having Surgery (Report #2)

An update has been added that the surgery is off (read details below), but Rachel Lee Landers isn't giving up on getting...

Posted by Ainsley Jo Phillips on Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Larry "The CanMan" Van Ness Is Having Surgery (Report #1)

 So far, Larry has had a wonderful week as you can see from the post below. By now, he should be in surgery.  I will keep you posted as I know more -- and I'll know more when Rachel posts more.

Stay tuned...

I'm so glad that Rachel Lee Landers was able to be with him. It will make everything easier for him including the...

Posted by Ainsley Jo Phillips on Tuesday, January 19, 2021

To Whom It May Concern At Facebook...

This was written on Monday, January 18, 2021. 

Due to the climate of  our country at the moment, it's understandable that social media places need to be extra-careful at this time, but, in this case, they have been a bit TOO careful, and the post below is to draw their attention to one of those times so that they can correct it.

Open Letter To: Marc Zuckerberg & Facebook Help --- Please restore the rights to post and control content to the...

Posted by Ainsley Jo Phillips on Monday, January 18, 2021

Happy New Year!!!

 

Good Morning!!!

The long-anticipated 2021 has finally arrived, and we're looking at 2020 in our rear-view mirror.

What will 2021 bring our way?

As I've said in Navigating The New Normal, a lot of that will be up to us.

I wrote something last month / last year called The Best Laid Plans... where I talk about meeting /not meeting goals I set for myself for 2019. 

Here is the "Dear Me" I wrote last year.  I began to write it on January 8 and finished writing it on January 31. The reason that it's showing that it was modified on September 18 is that I clicked on the save button by mistake when I had it open in Full-Screen Edit to copy an excerpt from it and updated it even though I never changed anything.

Anyway, I've already made my first New Year's Resolution, and that is to keep doing what I began doing on New Year's Eve.

Here's what I did:

I turned my computer completely off and said that I wouldn't be turning it back on again until the first day of 2021 (likely, in the morning).

Another thing I did was to turn off my overhead light (which has pretty much remained on for much of the time) and closed both doors out of my bedroom / home office (one leading to the bathroom and the other leading out into the rest of my apartment) to further cut down on light in my place beyond what it would take to keep from stumbling over something in total darkness.

My purpose for this is mostly for health benefits -- and there are several of these:

One biggie is to be able to produce Melatonin naturally so that my body will get the most benefit from it.  Even though what I'm doing doesn't go completely along with the natural time-to-sleep schedule that was in our body clocks before electricity became part of our lives and enabled us to work later at night, it's still an improvement over having constant light in the picture along with the temptation to be online at anytime 24/7.

This completely-disorganized time for activity and sleep has been starting to take its toll on my health in various ways, so something needs to change. 

That pretty much sums things up there.

The other biggie is that this will save me money on utilities, so it's all good.

Even when I'm not actually asleep, I'm still in a relaxed position, and I can use this time to reflect on my life and the choices I want to make in 2021 to make it a high quality of life.

Speaking of quality of life, I wrote something on that subject recently.  It's actually a retelling of a story I read over fifty years ago.  If you want to read it, GO HERE.

Anyway, it's now almost three-thirty in the afternoon, and here's how things are:

I actually turned on my computer and began to do online activity sometime after seven this morning beginning with updating the appearance of this blog to reflect that we were into a new month and a new year.

Later, I turned my TV back on.  It was tuned to The Twilight Zone marathon -- and that's where it still is.  I haven't even looked at other channels such as The Weather Channel and CNN.

Also, I haven't been back on Facebook and Twitter yet.

I haven't even turned my overhead light back on yet and am typing this using natural light and the light from my bathroom now that the door is open again.

My hiatus has lasted longer than I thought it would, and I'm loving it!!!

Before long -- and I still don't know exactly when -- I'll be checking around to see what's been happening while I've been hibernating.

At this time, I believe that my next time I go out to shop will be this Tuesday, and I'll be mostly continuing to relax on Monday along with catching up with making sure that the bills I pay online are getting paid.

For now, I'm just enjoying the long holiday weekend.

I'm going to close this blog-entry with a song that describes the best way to live your life when it comes to new beginnings.  This song doesn't mean to just sit around and wait for life to happen.  It's simply a song of reassurance for no matter where life takes you.

Happy 2021 to you and yours!!!

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