Happy Halloween!

Did everyone watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"?

I watch it every year, and I never tire of it. But just once, I would love to see Charlie Brown get some love, as they say.

"I got a chocolate bar!" "I got a popcorn ball!"

"I got a rock."

Come on, people. Just because the kid fucked up his ghost costume doesn't give you the right to dog him out. Give him some love!

Anyway, watching that reminded me of the time when I was a child, and me and my friends would all get together for Trick-or-Treat. No one said what they were going to be on Halloween. When they showed up at the designated meeting place in their costume, we all had to guess who was who. After everyone was ready, we would proceed to hit the street with our pillow cases in hand and go trick-or-treating.

Little plastic pumpkin baskets with a handle? Nope! We were professional at this. And we were going to get as much candy booty as we could. That's why we had the big bags!

We would usually go around several blocks, and we would run into a few friends from school that lived on the next block. We would tell each other who was giving out the good stuff, and who was giving out money. Hey, a quarter could buy a soda or a pack of baseball cards back then.

Some people who were giving out candy would have their yards made up like a grave yard or a haunted house. I remember one year someone had a casket standing up by the front door, and a vampire laid inside. After you got your candy, that vampire would then jump out and chase after you.

Do that now, and the parents will slap a lawsuit on you for "emotionally disturbing" their child. Like as if being chased by some guy in makeup and fake teeth is going to make someone distraught for the rest of their life.

As our feet began to hurt and our bags became heavy, we would eventually go in for the night. And as I sorted out the candy on the floor in front of the television, Frankenstein or Dracula would be providing the scares on the small screen. And Dad would always take a few Bit-of-Honey bars.

That's all right. Just don't take the Snickers bars!

Today, I do not have any children. But if I did, I would probably be going through the same ritual, walking them down the street in their costumes and saying hello to all the neighbors. And I would probably tell the children who is giving out what.

As for the small screen, not one channel is showing anything for Halloween. Instead of a good monster movie, I have to watch something like "America's Next Top Model". What are they going to do for Halloween? Watch a model scream while someone holds a chocolate bar in front of her face?

Good thing I have a home theater system. That way, I can watch some scary DVDs at home. Such as "Planet Terror". If you like the flesh eating zombie movies, this one is great. It is Robert Rodriquez' homage to the old zombie horror movies that you would see at the drive-in. And it has Rose McGowan in it. I will caution you, though, it is really graphic. But it also has a lot of laughs.

Oh, and one last thing. I remember before we would go out for trick-or-treat, we would tell each other ghost stories. And every Halloween, someone would tell the story of "The Monkey's Paw."

I do not have enough time to tell it, but go to www.americanliterature.com, and you will see several headings for novels. Click on "Twenty Great American Short Stories", and then click the heading for "The Monkey's Paw". And just in case that is not enough, there are also some stories from Edgar Allen Poe.

Hope you enjoy it, and have a great Halloween.

Hello everyone!

I am currently taking a break at work, so I thought that I would stop in and read a few blogs. And if you're reading this, Heather, sorry about the Cleveland Indians.

As most of you know, I currently live in Orlando, Florida. I grew up, however, in Cleveland, Ohio. So you can probably imagine how I feel about the Tribe not going to the World Series. When a team is leading a series 3-1, they should be able to close out that series and win the fourth game. The Tribe did not do that, allowing the Boston Red Sox to come back and win the American League Championship.

What can you say? The Red Sox played some great baseball when it mattered the most, while several of the Cleveland players could not deliver. I think a Boston-Colorado match up should make for a good World Series.

As I read several blogs throughout the week, I have read several blogs celebrating Halloween. So with Halloween being a week away, I thought that I would share with you another part of my growing up in Cleveland. And that is the Franklin Castle.

As I was growing up, I would always hear stories about the Franklin Castle. The Franklin Castle is located in a Cleveland neighborhood called Ohio City. It is an area where several of the homes were built in the late 1800s-early 1900s. The house has a reputation for being haunted. There have been reports of people seeing ghosts, faces appearing from out of the walls, the crying of a young woman who is nowhere to be found, as well as the sound of an infant crying, nowhere to be found.

If you want to read more about the Franklin Castle, there is a website, www.deadohio.com. There is a story about the history of the Franklin Castle and the families who have owned it, as well as other haunted places throughout Ohio. It makes for some interesting reading for the Halloween season.

And it also has taken my mind off the Indians.

Let's see. The Browns won yesterday, Ohio State won on Saturday, and the Tribe took a game at Fenway to even up the ALCS at 1-1 with the Red Sox. And Game 3 is tonight at Jacobs Field. And where is Ohio State ranked in the College Football Top 25?

And I have today off. For a Monday, things are not so bad after all.

Have a great week, everybody.

Although I have not posted anything since my last blog, I have been reading a few blogs from time to time while I am at home. Sometimes when I am having a break at work, such as now, I will get online and go to Blogstream. In order to leave a comment to someone, or to just let someone know that I am thinking about them, I have to log in to my account in order to make a comment., Hell, you all know the drill!

Anyway, I sign in to my account, and then I go to my blog. As I look above the title of my blog, there is an advertisement for Asian women looking to get married. There is also an ad for a singles web site call sugardaddies.com.

If you read my last post, you know about my situation. Now, if I had money, do you think I would be in the situation I am in? If I had money, I would probably be on sugardaddies.com right now. And besides, I would imagine that most of the people on that web site would rather be shallow in a personality-wise sort of way. I have met the type of people that would use that web site, and I would want nothing to do with them.

As for the advertisement for Asian women, this sounds like a mail order bride operation. In that case, I am not interested. Don't get me wrong. This is not an issue of ethnics. If I want to get married, I want to marry someone who loves me for me. Not because I am their ticket to a citizenship for the United States.

A friend of mine, Steve, had married a mail order bride from Honduras. They have a good marriage, but his idea of a wife is for her to do all the housework. Hell, she even cuts the grass, for crying out loud! But she is happy, because she got her citizenship.

I remember some years ago when I first met Steve (I use his real name because I know that he is not reading this). We were out having a few beers one evening, and he started to tell me about an argument he had with his then-live-in-girlfriend. He had told me that she was mad at him because after he had shaved that morning, he left the sink a mess and she had to clean up after him. So Steve could not figure out why she was mad and proceeded to tell her that all she had to do was take a towel and wipe out the sink.


I had asked him why he did not do that, so he changed the subject.

How much do you want to bet that Honduras Honey cleans up after him?

That's not for me. I clean up after myself. Why? Because I have to. I live alone. And I don't expect anyone to clean up or pick up after me. And I sure as hell don't want anyone else washing my underwear!

So, if anyone in charge of Blogstream is reading this, I would like to make a request. Please remove the ads! I am not a sugardaddy, and I am not interested in a mail order bride.

And in case you are wondering, I have not met that woman again. I have, however, met a woman when I was out one evening. And I have met this woman from China at my part time job that seems to have taken a liking to me. So there is some hope yet. There are also a few things I plan on doing when I have the time, such as looking into a few singles groups. So at least I am trying to make an effort.

I have to go now. Lunch is over, and the children will be getting out of school soon. I have to teach pottery today, so I have to get ready.

Take care.

Just wondering. Is there a web site listing sugarmamas?

That's it for now. Now if you don't mind, I would like to have my life back.

A few weeks ago, I met this wonderful woman, and we had a great conversation. It was the first time in God knows how long that I felt comfortable talking to a woman. It was also the first time in years that I felt attracted to someone. And I honestly think that she felt the same way about me.

My heart has hardened over the years. I have had one too many times my share of rejection. I have also had more of my share of people wanting something from me. Such as help with moving, or needing to borrow this or that.

I have had many friends come and go throughout my life. Especially those who have got what they wanted. Some friends go their own way, needing their space. Some friends move to another city or state. Some friends enter into the black hole called marriage, where they are never seen or heard from again. And some friends become married, but their marriage is not a black hole, if you know what I mean. Why, sometimes even a friend's wife will call or e-mail me just to say hello and to find out how I am doing. I also have had friends that I do not see or hear from because we had some differences. And don't tell me about life being too short.

Anyway, I had a period for several years of having to take care of my mother when she came down with Alzheimer's. As some of you may know, this requires a lot of time and sacrifice. So having time to date, let alone any personal time, can be hard to come by. During this time, most of my friends had their life and were able to date. Many a friend had married and moved on. A few are in the black hole, where sound, let alone light, does not escape.

For me, it had been loneliness. I have not met anyone, nor have any friends introduced me to anyone. I have done what I could do. Join clubs, take classes, chat lines, personal ads, and myspace. However, I did meet a woman through friends of mine around this time last year. Any relationship we had, however,` fell apart. What I thought would be the beginning of a friendship only lasted for a short time. For her, the relationship was to see how much she can take.

So a year goes by, and I met this lady a few weeks ago. And my goodness,this was the most beautiful woman I have met in ages. As we talked, I would find out that she is a caregiver as well, taking care of her father who has throat cancer. We talked for quite awhile, and our conversation mainly centered around caring for a parent. Not many people realize the task it is, and for those who have gone through it, they realize the time and devotion taken when someone acts as a caregiver to a parent. The people who have not had that experience tend to tune it out when someone needs to talk because it becomes too much to bear at times.

Sometime later, she then had to leave. We told each other that it was nice talking to one another, and we said our good-byes. And I watched her leave. And I didn't think to ask her for her phone number.

I guess maybe because of all the times I have been told "thanks, but no thanks" and "I just want to be friends", I didn't ask her. And I have not seen her since. Because of the past, I let her walk away. And I should have asked her for her phone number so I could talk to her. Or for her to call me when she needed someone to talk to.

I remember a time when love was in my life. And I also remember having a life as well. And now, there is nothing. A few friends call every once in awhile, but nothing is going on. I am lonely. And I and tired of sitting at home. And I am tired of meeting people whose only interest in you is when they need something.

It is time to make a few changes. I want my life back, so I have to do something about it. And sitting here in front of the computer/television on a lonely Saturday night doesn't help. I miss the companionship.

So that's it for now. This is the last blog I am going to write for awhile. My heart is no longer in it. All I have thought about in the last three weeks is a woman that I met, and I wish I can meet her again. I would like to be able to talk to her again, and to be there when she needs to talk. I want my life back. And I hope that maybe there is a chance that she can be in it as well.