Jame's Buice's new book and Two Mules For Sister Sara

Well, I'm down to one more Eastwood movie after Two Mules For Sister Sara. After this one I'm going to watch "The Outlaw Josey Wales". However, Two mules, directed by Don Siegel, starring Shirley Maclaine and Eastwood is a so so western. If you don't have anything else to do it is OK, but not anything to write home about.

Speaking of writing home about. Jame's Buice's new book. "Southeast's Best Fly Fishing" is truly a gem. I received it today and have only skimmed through it, but it looks very nice and colorful. It contains the author's main recommendations for trout fishing destinations in GA, NC, TN, and KY. It is probably the best book for this region in at least a decade. Highly recommended.

Joe Kidd and gone to Sweden

I watched Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd the other day. I have to say it is not the most impressive movie with Clint. I like Robert Duvall in it but the movie has an amateurish feeling to it in my humble opinion. It's directed by John Sturges, and it's not one of his better work. The story by Elmore Leonard is good but the movie itself you can live without. I hope I didn't offend too many Clint fan's with this, but even though I love Clint, this is a misstep.

I'm off to Sweden for a visit. I won't be back on here until mid January some time. Take care and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Well, my hope was wrong after all.

The crick I had turned in to a cervical spasm. I had to ask my wife to drive me to the ER in the middle of the night last Friday. After a week of unbelievable pain and suffering I'm back at work as of yesterday. I lost almost four days of work and with the pills and injections in my butt plus the ER fee it came to about $250. I suppose it could be worse. I was most sad over the loss of my last vacation time. I have to use all my saved up time for my upcoming trip to Sweden in two weeks. We , meaning my wife and I went to Atlanta and the SEC game. We had a great trip although my pain didn't go away completely until Sat evening, We stayed at the Hilton downtown and took the MARTA everywhere. We stopped twice at the always wonderful IKEA in Atlanta. The game was awesome. As much as I hate to say it, being from VOL country and all. The Georgia Dome is nicer in the fact that it has a ceiling and the seat is for you only not like at Neyland. You share the seat with five others.

I managed to finish up Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point", which was not nearly as interesting as Blink or Outliers, which is the best one of his in my opinion. I don't think I'm going to read "What the Dog Saw". I think I'm Gladwelled out. LOL.

I also watched John Sturge's "The Magnificent Seven" The movie is almost fifty years old now and in parts it shows. It is still however a must see for a western buff. With stars like Yul Brunner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Eli Wallach, who had a birthday the other day. I think he is 94 or something.

Anyway, I'm back and grateful for not having pain anymore.

Update and The Mother of All Cricks No not fishing this time

I don't even know where to start, such has the past week been. I got off four days from work and decided to stay home for thanksgiving this year. My wife drove up from her work to her folks in KY on Wednesday night. I wanted to stay home and rest,especially since I have a long trek coming up for Christmas. I went to Shoney's for thanksgiving buffet and let me tell you! Many people had the same bright idea. It was actually pretty good and affordable. I stayed home on Friday and Saturday to get caught up on some reading I had been holding off on. Lisa (my wife), came home on Saturday evening. On Sunday I went on my first hike with the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club. We went to Frozen Head State Park, for an eight mile trek to climb Bird Mountain. It was a very nice and clear day and I had a great time.

On Monday afternoon at work, my shoulder and neck began aching real bad. I woke up that morning with a bad crick in my neck but thought nothing of it. I went home and straight to bed after work. I couldn't sleep that's how intense the pain became later that night. I stayed home from work Tuesday under excruciating pain. Decided to try to work this morning but lasted only two hours. Time to go to the doc. The pain was so intense I had to call my wife to come home from work so she could drive me to the doctor's office. After seeing the doctor the pain eased a bit and now with some meds it's getting somewhat better. What was it you ask? Nothing more than the mother of all cricks. The pain was so bad I thought I had something really bad. I'm glad it's not anything serious.

A productive weekend

I finally got all my fall duties done. I put in the second toilet in our second bathroom. I got my truck washed and now we are all set. It has been a long working around the house November. I got to go hiking with friend one Saturday though. I'm done with Kjell Eriksson's "Stenkistan". It was not one of his best but still, any Kjell Eriksson is good. I was sad to hear that he is wrapping up the Ann Lindell series with the tenth book. Currently, I'm reading another Malcolm Gladwell. It's called Blink. It is not as good as outliers but still a necessary read if you like Malcolm's books. Next I need to finish up a couple of more of Kjell Eriksson's and then move on to Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point. As you can see, fall is my reading time. I'm going to go on a hike Sunday after thanksgiving. Besides that not much else going on.

More Chores to do plus a couple of movies

Even though, I still feel somewhat tired from my sore throat and headaches lately, I did get some stuff done. Lisa and I got the gutters cleaned, I got all the leafs off my lawn and we cleaned the entire house today. Lisa got two new tires for her car and I even managed to watch two old westerns. I watched Pale Rider from 1985 and Unforgiven from 1992. Most people love unforgiven and I do to but Pale Rider in my opinion is a better movie. I know, I'm not following the mainstream but that's just my opinion. Both movies are worth seeing though. I especially like MichaelMoriarty who plays the main miner character in the movie. I can't believe it's almost 25 years ago I went and so this movie at the theater in Växjö, Sweden.

A rough week

I have been constantly sick since last Saturday night. A sore throat and chest congestion with sinus headaches, one after another. I finally felt so so enough to do my leaf raking outside today. I cleaned gutters as well and put the patio furniture inside for winter. Tomorrow I'm going to clean the whole house and then it's time for work again. I find myself very busy every November due to the end of season. I am not able to do much else. No fishing or hiking this weekend and I doubt much will happen on that front for a while. I'm going to put in a new toilet in one of my baths next weekend, and finally get around to wash my truck. Maybe I will go hiking or fishing one day during thanksgiving weekend if the weather cooperate.