The Life and Times of Jim |
Hi, there. I'm Jim. Welcome to my phlog! This site was written for Las Vegas, then LouisVille. Now, it seems to be about anywhere. In these phlogs, you'll see a lot of my personal notes and pictures. I like to post my observations here to remember life and celebrate it. I'm not religious. I don't pray for good fortune. I'm ecstatically grateful for the gift of life and I think our time should be remembered and not taken for granted. I'm not a writer. I think pictures tell stories so much better than words. I love just about everything in this life, and, I guess that would have to include you. So, if you've seen me, don't be surprised if your picture is in here somewhere. Of all the critters, people are absolutely the most interesting. |
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05/15/2009 21:14:42 jim Ruth Kelley (8/29/61 - 5/15/09) | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
Ruth Kelly (Aka: Ruth Tatum, Ruth Cutlar, Ruth Fortenberry) passed away from cancer on May 15th, 2009, 9:17 PM in Forest, Mississippi. She was diagnosed with stage four cancer (very fatal) in 2007 by doctors in Mississippi. Ruth started chemo therapy, but quickly discontinued it. She believed the cancer went into remission through prayer. It resufaced a few weeks ago after doctors did a biopsy on a lump in her back. I can't say and I'll never know for sure, but her family thinks the biopsy caused her cancer to turn malignant again. I met Ruth in 1989. She was a clerk at the Rebel Station on Nellis and Boulder Hwy in Las Vegas. Ruth had moved in with my best friend (Chris Fahey) who lived in a trailer at Pueblo Del Sol (which Chris had bought from my step-brother, Terry Leblanc). Later, she rented a room from me, at my house at Gabriel. We were together for 11 years. Together, Ruth and I toured San Diego, San Francisco, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah and Nevada in a travel trailer. We visited Otis Kelley (deceased), and the rest of her family in Forest, Mississippi in 1998. At one time or another, most of her family had stayed with us at our Gabriel house in Las Vegas. Our guests were: Ruth Lambert, mother, Forest, Ms; Jim Lambert, stepdad, deceased; John Kelly, brother, deceased; Tex Lambert, brother, deceased; Charles Kelley, brother, Forest, Ms; Sandy Kelley, sister, Forest, Ms. We shared many close friends: Rob Allred, deceased; Chris Fahey, deceased; Allen Harmon, deceased; Darla Richards, Las Vegas; and my Mom, Ruth Leblanc, deceased. We bought a Summerlin house in 1996, and formed Cutlar Enterprises in 1997. We were married from 9/9/90 to 1/11/01. In that time, we raised 3 miniture poodles (Muffin, Little Girl, and Little Man), and saved many helpless birds. Our divorce was amical and with my blessing, Ruth remarried Ricky Fortenberry (an old high school sweetheart) in 2001. I found my new love, Becky Ruth Spurling, that same year. Becky, ironically, lived in Pueblo Del Sol. Becky and I visited Ruth and Ricky in 2005, when we stayed with her brother Charles for a week. Ruth had finally gotten the Mustang Convertable of her dreams in 2004. I bought a Mustang Convertable for Becky, in 2006. |
05/15/2009 20:58:40 jim Rochester Inn | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
05/15/2009 19:33:50 jim Pittsburgh Walkin | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
05/15/2009 18:11:48 jim Downtown Pittsburgh | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
05/15/2009 14:49:16 jim the American Dream - Property Decisions? | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
MillionSaverHomes.com Login 702-212-3513. |
05/09/2009 08:10:05 jim Mothers Day came early this Year | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
I sent some flowers to Ruth (my ex-wife) in Mississippi. She's not going to survive much longer -gbhs. While I was on FTDs website, I thought we'd send some flowers to Becky's Mom (Gma). Well, I got a call from the Mississippi FTP florist, who jokingly said in a strong Mississippi accent "I would love to travel to Las Vegas to deliver these flowers, but can you afford it?". I said "I thought FTD employed a naked guy with wings on its head and feet to deliver flowers". I cancelled the order. Meanwhile, I got a call from a friend who is in a Asia. He called saying "Jiiiim, Heeeeeelp.". I can't resist that. In all of the excitement, he left his credit card in an ATM, and was stranded with just the money he had in his pocket. I took the morning off and wired him some money. I didn't have time to replace the flower order though. Becky went on to finish what I/we started earlier...getting some flowers for GMa. Later that day, while at the store getting some sliced ham (half of which I ate in the checkout line), I'd realized I'd made a BIG mistake. I'd gotten flowers for my ex, and we'd gotten flowers for Becky's Mom, but I'd overlooked the most important person in my life...Miss BECKY. Now this is really wild, I bought her some Starlight Lillies, a little Koala Bear, and a nice Oh, Becky got some new gradient transitional lensed glasses. They were the best lenses available from Walmart, and I realized I would be taking a gamble (it would probably be the first time Becky had ever seen me clearly). I worried about having to explain to her that my hair wasn't really fuzzy. She cried when I bought them. hmmm. Coming home, I decided to take I76 to I79, but I76 didn't have an exit for I79. Matter of fact, it didn't have any exits for 30 miles so we decided to go to Cleveland. But I had second thoughts when I realized I had YooHoo from an exploding can all over me. I was so sticky. Instead we went to Beaver Falls, which is a wasteland of dead mills and factories. From there, we went on to Richland, which consists half of mansions, golf courses, and elegant cemetaries and the other half abandoned houses, shops and greenhouses. We stopped at this little pub name "Tilts". I'd heard about their bands from a guy at work. The bartender was almost impolite at first (we were outsiders), but after a few small conversations, she warmed up and started bringing us jumbo shrimp. Becky had the nastiest Slo Gin Fizz on this planet. Being a gentleman, I drank half of it and had the bartender fill it back up with 7-up (what a guy!). And, that's my long, drawn out, over embellished, never ending, run on story with colors , for this week, as I see it. ---yawn |
05/09/2009 03:41:13 jim So, what is reality? | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
Is reality what we experience? If others don't experience what we do, is our perception real or imagined? All of those voices in our head, what are they? Do our dreams tell us what to do in our daily lives? I've seen things that I rarely get a chance to talk about. Because this blog offers mostly my perspective of life, through pictures and words, I feel I can voice freely some of what I've seen. I know that there is much more to this life than I can imagine. I see an intelligent force around me every day. It must be millions, if not billions of years old. And I know that our brain holds the knowledge of how are body was built as well, and this knowledge is denied to our consciousness. I've seen animals that learn to walk much faster than humans after being born. Do they dream about walking before being born? We aren't given the tools to understand reality. Why? I will never know using this brain with its senses. We are severily limited in our thinking. Sometimes I think our brain is like a 20 year old PC. We can't do a lot with it. One person is gifted with math, another is gifted with music, but nobody has it all. Its nice to know others have gifts, and I'm not just talking about people. I'm talking about every living thing I see. Perhaps, nothing I do in this life really matters to anyone here today, including myself, but it will matter millions of years from now. It seems sad that eternity simply can't exist for this brain. Its amazing how much this body has changed forms since I was born. It makes sense to me that I've been here, changing and having many different forms for a very long time, long before my body and mind existed. It always amazes me that I was once a small fertilized egg. Logic tells me that when I was born, everything in the universe worked its way up to my creation. If everything hadn't happened exactly the way it did, I wouldn't be here. If my Mom hadn't met my Dad, if my grandparents didn't ride a trolley together in New York...and so on, if anything had been different, I wouldn't exist in this form. That seems clear to me. And I believe we die every day. Our skin dies, our memories die, our body is constantly replenishing dead cells with new cells everyday. We host over 30 trillion living cells in our body. Our perspective changes all of the time. We aren't any single thing. We are part of the universe, and we are many. But if someone sees life as being something different than what I see, who am I to say they are wrong. All I have is my perspective on life. I like this article. Almost everyone writes better than I do. Anyway, click here to read something a little more eliquent than what I've wrote. Its comforting to know that after 100s of years, few things that were said today will be remembered. However, everything we do today is part of a chain of events that will create a different kind of future. Everything we did, will matter. |
05/08/2009 18:28:58 jim Richmand-Tilts Pub | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
05/08/2009 16:25:45 jim Beaver Falls | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
05/06/2009 19:48:11 jim Counting the Days | Wed |||||||||||||||||||
I hear rain falling. Cars are treading their way through the flooded roadways. It takes me back to a timeless place in my mind and its a good feeling. I feel young again. A friend has layed down for her last time. She's counting the hours. All of the old times in our past, the partying with the gang, picking each other up from the floor and falling down again, us laughing at ourselves. We had crazy times of constant fun, with never a bad word to say. Almost all of the old gang is gone now. They came and went like an afternoon dream. And I'm left here, listening to the rain fall, remembering with a smile... while counting the days. |
05/02/2009 17:59:22 jim MeadowLands Casino | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
05/02/2009 16:07:20 jim Meadows Race Book | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
05/02/2009 09:01:46 jim Homestead-Lowes Theatres | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/29/2009 07:07:42 jim Last Weeks Events - Pittsburgh turns Green | Wed |||||||||||||||||||
Last week was HOT! It got up to the high 80's. All of the trees that were brown the week before, are now green. Where do the bushes that looked like sticks the week before get all of that green stuff! I'm awed by the event. Plants are full of action. All you have to do is notice them. Magoos Bar and Restaurant Magoos is just up the hill from our apartment on Old Perry Highway.The food was excellent and they have live bands every Tuesday and Saturday. Near there, was an ancient bowling alley hidden in the back of a small, self deteriating mall. It was full of leaguers. Walnut Grove Wednesday, we rendevoused with a coworker at Walnut Grove in Cranberry They have live jazz at 9 pm on Wednesdays. The food, music and company were GREAT. Mt Pleasant Drive-In Friday, we ended up at a drive-in 65 miles south of Pittsburgh. You wouldn't believe it. There were three screens surrounding a grassy field. The burgers were hand shaped (old fashioned style), and the ambience was festive. We caught the tail end of Hannah Montana (which was surprisingly good). People clapped at the ending! We came to see Witch Mountain with the Rock. Rita's Ice Cream We swung by and tried some of Pittsburgh's famed ice cream. I figured it must be good if people are lined up there in the winter time. I had my first Gellato. I don't know why I was thinking it would have Jello in it, but it was delicious. One of Pittsburgh's various surprisings is its Ice Cream College! Strange, but true. New Glasses for Becky Let's see, what else did we do? Oh, I bought Becky a new pair of glasses (expensive little boogers). She was in tears, she was so happy. I didn't expect that. It was beautiful. IBM Thinkpad for work Yesterday, I finally got my laptop for support work. Its old, but does the job. I like Thinkpads. I especially like the mouse stick they put on the keyboard. Its light, has a docking station for work, and now I have two monitors!!! Now I have an excuse to stay at home on the weekends...and not wander the country aimlessly, looking for new and exciting places. |
04/28/2009 09:13:33 jim Wexford Apt-Spring is here | Tue |||||||||||||||||||
04/23/2009 19:17:31 jim Magoos in Wexford | Thu |||||||||||||||||||
04/22/2009 20:43:03 jim Becky Time | Wed |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 23:59:18 jim Louisville Thunder Crowds | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 21:32:21 jim Thunder Over Louisville - Fireworks | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 18:48:12 jim Louisville-The Friedrichs Clan | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 17:59:46 jim Louisville-The Camp | Sat ||||||||||||||||||||
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04/18/2009 17:00:44 jim Louisville Thunder Bldgs | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 14:26:20 jim Louisville Thunder Baseball | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 11:54:52 jim Louisville Air Show-20090418 | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 08:22:50 jim Louisville Trip | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/18/2009 08:22:50 jim (Reply).Louisville Trip | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
Sorry I haven't gotten more pictures out yet. They will come. |
04/18/2009 02:59:40 jim More Louisville Pix - From Rod | Sat |||||||||||||||||||
04/17/2009 01:01:01 jim Thunder Over Louisville | Fri |||||||||||||||||||
Thunder Over Louisville kicks off the Kentucky Derby on 4/18/2009. It is one of the top 10 events to see in the US. Over 500,000 thrill seeking people are expected to show up for the event. This calendared Stories is here to remind me to plan on going to the events. Rod's family is coming, and I'm pretty sure everyone sets up on a camping area near the river. |
04/15/2009 18:53:20 jim Homestead Square-20090415 | Wed |||||||||||||||||||
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