Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in Willie Ray's LiveJournal:

Monday, July 26th, 2004
10:02 am	Does it? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 20th, 2001
11:02 pm	A Place Called Serenity Today I worked an 11 to 9 shift at the store. Usually I don't work past 6, but one of the key people needed me to cover for him while he journeyed to Big City to go to a basketball game. The minute I arrived at work today there was instantly pressure for me to go to the back and write a quick milk order. That's a hard thing for me to do because I have to be careful not to order too little as management does not want our store to run out of product during the holidays, especially if any of that product is on our ad. In the same vein I can't order too much product because as you know dairy products have a tendancy to spoil after a while. I did my best to hurry the order along but then the warehouse manager needed to go to lunch, and I had to take over for him. And later a truck of 7 pallets of milk arrived and I had to help the milk driver make room for it in the cooler. Despite all of this I still managed to keep my cool and not get all stressed out. I kept telling myself to breath deeply and relax. My aim was to remain serene and peaceful no matter what, and I even went so far as to say part of the Serenity Prayer. I kept chanting, "God grant me serenity" over and over. It seemed to do the trick and even though I took longer than the manager wanted I still managed to finish the order before my own specific deadline. Since I have high blood pressure, so much so that I daily have to take pills for it, Serenity is a place I should be traveling to on a moment to moment basis. And today it felt really good to be in control of my nerves. Current Mood: calm Current Music: "Take It Easy" by the Eagles (Comment on this)
10:07 am	Should I resume my writing here? I am thinking about resuming writing in this here LiveJournal thingy again. The problem I have with this is you can't put counters on the page to see how many people are coming to your site. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: "Should I or Shouldn't I?" by the Questionmarks (Comment on this)
Monday, June 11th, 2001
11:32 am	A Healthy Lifestyle RIGHT NOW! Question of the moment:  What am I doing RIGHT NOW to continue living a healthy lifestyle? 1. Drinking only one cup of coffee this morning. 2. Switching to water. 3. Remembering to take my blood pressure medicine and my one-aspirin-a-day. (I forgot to take them on Saturday.) 4. Loading up my Remember-To-Take-Your-Daily-Pills Box. 5. Stretching. 6. Sit-up crunches: two sets of 50. 7. Arm shaper's exercise with weights: two sets of 10. 8. Pecs exercise with weights (lower region-mid-upper): two sets of 10 each region. 9. Arm bends with weights: two sets of 5. 10. Overheads with weights: two sets of 10. 11. For breakfast I ate a raw carrot, two slices of turkey bacon, an egg, and one piece of whole-wheat toast. I wanted another cup of coffee, but I drank more water instead. 12. Rode my bike, Blue Thunder, down to the coffee shop to meet friends instead of driving. At the coffee shop I only drank orange juice and decaffeinated tea. My friend, Duke, offered to buy me a pastry and I told him no thanks. 13. I rode my bike back to Creekview, and now I think I am ready for a nap. And it's only 11:25 AM! (Please note: this is a lifestyle program I've adapted for me with the help of a physician. This not intended for anyone else. If you do feel you'd like to try doing anything I've done here, consult your own physician first, ESPECIALLY if you have high blood pressure.) Live Journal Archive/Live Journal Calendar/Home/Email/Cast/Places/Hamrickie Gallery ©Renovation, Rejuvenation, and What Counts-2000 to 2001-All rights reserved. ©The name "Hamrickie" and any art by Hamrickie: all rights reserved. No artwork by Hamrickie shall be reproduced without his permission. ©Willie Ray's LiveJournal 2001-All rights Reserved. Current Mood: sleepy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
6:22 am	Willie Ray, Grocery Journeyman (This entry was written yesterday, but for some strange reason I couldn't upload it last night.) Question of the moment:  How come I was so damn unproductive today? I'll tell you why. I was tired! I just finished five days straight working at my grocery store. Some people wouldn't guess it to be, but the grocery business is an exhausting business to work in. I am on my feet all day long standing on and running around on the store's concrete floor. It simply poops this old fellow out. I either ring up people's groceries up front or I'm heading to the back to write a milk order or take care of some other task. And like all big supermarkets, my store is loud and busy with a constant flow of people coming and going. Just the store's never-ending background noise can wear a person out, especially if you have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder like I have. There are times I am aware of an inner alarm crying out from within, "Too much stimuli! Too much stimuli!" And those five days I work straight in a row almost always end on Saturdays, the one day I manage the store's warehouse. Warehouse days are doubly exhausting because there is so much strenuous physical labor involved. I am continuously straightening up, cleaning, and organizing the warehouse. You have to pull pallets of freight around, unload the pallets and stack the freight here and there. All the while, I am checking in more incoming freight as it arrives. On top of this, I still have a milk order to write. Nevertheless, I like my job. After all why have I continued to do it for thirty years? Out in the front end of the store I do good working with the public. Customers like me and have good reason too. I am a people person. I am a people pleaser. I bend over backwards to make their visit to our store an extremely pleasant visit. And one thing I really like about the grocery business is the fact that you always have to act happy when dealing with the public, and this is easy for me to do. I'm basically an upbeat person. And even on days when I am in a crab-ass mood, I can still manage to paste on a smile. And on most of those occasions, just by pretending to be happy causes the real happiness to spontaneously kick in. As for working back in the warehouse I like that too. On my warehouse days I can work at a specific task from start to finish and in most cases not be interrupted by a call on the intercom to go up front and ring up groceries. On warehouse days I am strictly the warehouse manager. I even like the hard, strenuous labor. There is something about how I feel at the end of a warehouse day that tells me that I really accomplished something that day. The aching muscles and utter exhaustion are proof of that. Plus, most of the time the warehouse is all spiffed up from my efforts. So on the sixth day I rested. And didn't get much accomplished. And now that I think about it, it was rightly so. For this here hard-working groceryman. Live Journal Archive/Live Journal Calendar/Home/Email/Cast/Places/Hamrickie Gallery ©Renovation, Rejuvenation, and What Counts-2000 to 2001-All rights reserved. ©The name "Hamrickie" and any art by Hamrickie: all rights reserved. No artwork by Hamrickie shall be reproduced without his permission. ©Willie Ray's LiveJournal 2001-All rights Reserved. Current Mood: exhausted (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 7th, 2001
12:31 am	Shared Genius Question of the moment  How did band practice go last night? Let me answer that with two questions: Band practice? What band practice? It didn't happen. First I forgot I had it scheduled Tuesday and I told the lady that is helping me fix my computer's CD-ROM we could work on it some more that night. And so I had to call her and reschedule my time with her which I really hated to do. If anyone's going to help me fix my CD-ROM, I have a feeling its her. She knows her stuff. When I told her of my scheduling conflict she was very understanding and nice, at the same time letting me know she thinks she figured out how to fix it. Rats. But she is going to help me another night, and so I have that to look forward to. I also had band practice to look forward to that night (or so I thought) and so I loaded my guitar, by music bag, and music stand into Bernice, my truck. Before I left though, I first cut some roses off two of my yard rose bushes to give to Lynn Marie because she always hosts our band practice at her house and because she always shares her dinner with me before practice starts. And sometimes she even packs up some of the leftovers for me to take home. The roses were a small token of my gratitude. By all means, though, no way do any of my tokens measure up to all the nice things that Lynn Marie does for me. And so I arrived at her house and presented her with the flowers and we ate a delicious meal of noodles topped with stir-fry chicken and vegetables. The third member of our band, the conga player, Ben never showed up. The whole night. It was okay though. After dinner while we were waiting for Ben, I had Lynn Marie boot up her computer. Once we were online and I showed her my new LiveJournal. For sometime now I have been trying to help her create her own online journal/diary, because she is a brilliant writer and artist and that would be a great place for her to shine. But I had a hard time doing this, because my computer is a regular PC while hers is a Macintosh, and I don't know a whole lot about Macintoshes. But now with my recent discovery of the LiveJournal website and all they had to offer me, I felt Lynn Marie could benefit from it to. Per LiveJournal's instructions, she then typed in the necessary information required and created her own online journal/diary. And so the evening, by all means, was far from a completed loss. The air was filled with the scent of roses. My stomach was filled with scrumptious food. I shared the evening with one of my best friends. And now with my prompting her to create her own website, I get to share her genius with the world. Live Journal Archive/Live Journal Calendar/Home/Email/Cast/Places/Hamrickie Gallery ©Renovation, Rejuvenation, and What Counts-2000 to 2001-All rights reserved. ©The name "Hamrickie" and any art by Hamrickie: all rights reserved. No artwork by Hamrickie shall be reproduced without his permission. ©Willie Ray's LiveJournal 2001-All rights Reserved. Current Mood: pleased (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 5th, 2001
8:12 am	Yesterday: Part 1 and 2 (Part one of this was written last night.) Question of the moment: Can I stay up long enough and finish another entry? I'll try. Actually I still need to drive back to my store tonight and cash a check so I can buy some gas for my truck Bernice. (Sonny and I already were there earlier this evening shopping for groceries.) And then I have to drive across town to Blockbuster and return a video. Have you see Best of Show? I liked it. Sonny didn't. It's a Christopher Guest movie done in the mockumentary vein. You know it's suppose to be a documentary, but it's not. The movie plays out as if it were real life, but again its not. Christopher Guest has directed at least one other mockumentary. The one I am referring to is called Waiting for Guffman. I saw that too and liked it, but I don't think Guest's movies are for everyone. They're kind of corny. But I like corny. I thought Guest had directed This is Spinal Tap, but I guess he is just an actor in it. I haven't seen that one yet, but I want to. It's another mockumentary about a fake rock and roll band. I did see the band's crossover from movie to television. Their characters had a starring role on an episode of The Simpson's. (Part two of this entry was written today. After I returned home from the video store I conked out. Last night I slept seven and half-hours! Woo hoo! I feel so good this morning! Incidentally, we rented more videos. I had a rent-two-for-the-price-of-one coupon. Sonny picked The Crow, Part Three. I picked a Sopranos video with episodes four, five, and six on it. [Keeping within the theme of things I guess this entry should have the labels, Part One and Two attached to it's title. I'll have to remember to do this when I give it a title.] Incidentally, part two: [Heh! Heh!] Both my sisters are hooked on The Sopranos television series. My younger sister pulled me into their addiction when I was visiting her last month. The Showtime series has been out for three years now, I think, yet I can't watch it on regular television since I don't have cable [duh.] Be forewarned though, if you decide to watch it as a result of reading this. The hero of the series, although likeable and extremely interesting, is morally corrupt. Galore! He's a killing mobster. But he's a loveable, killing mobster. [I always feel the great need to go to church and confession whenever I'm through watching a Sopranos episode. I feel so guilty for enjoying it so much.]) More about last night: I have this friend I've known for several years as a loyal customer to the grocery store I work in. Over the years in our short visits in my grocery checkout stand we have talked about various subjects. One of those subjects we used to relate to each other over is the fact that she was writing a one act play (later produced on a college stage in Big City) and I was writing a screenplay (never finished, never sold. Otherwise, why would I still be slaving away in a grocery store?) The friend's job now is fixing government computers for the state. At the mention of this I happened to mention my computer is not recognizing the my new CD-ROM player that my friend, Kirk installed. I asked her how much it would cost me to have her fix it. She told me twenty dollars an hour, but the first time she'd fix my computer for free. So that's how I spent a couple of hours in the early part of the evening before I journeyed to the video store. I sat and watched an expert perform her technical magic on my machine here. As of yet my machine is providing too difficult of a challenge and the CD-ROM is not working yet, but my friend did manage to get rid of a few bugs. Even though the overall solution evaded her I could tell she knows her stuff. I sat there fascinated as my friend went through different files here and there tweaking this and that. And my friend hasn't given up on the challenge. She went home to check out her son's computer whose is similar to mine and she had me email her some information I received from the CD-ROM manufacturers. She plans on returning on another night and giving it another go, and before long I'll be able to play music CD's on my computer and load programs from my computer CD's. I can't wait until this happens. A long time ago I bought this cheap digital camera from Wal-Mart (sixty bucks, you can't beat that price) and it has a CD required to load up it's related program you need in order to take pictures and transfer them to your computer. Even though they most likely won't be quality pictures, I'm anxious to be able to have the capability to do this. If the pictures are good enough, perhaps I'll even upload some of them to this website. Do you have any questions or comments? If so, click on the button. View Visitor's Questions and Comments Live Journal Archive/Live Journal Calendar/Home/Email/Cast/Places/Hamrickie Gallery ©Renovation, Rejuvenation, and What Counts-2000 to 2001-All rights reserved. ©The name "Hamrickie" and any art by Hamrickie: all rights reserved. No artwork by Hamrickie shall be reproduced without his permission. ©Willie Ray's LiveJournal 2001-All rights Reserved. Current Mood: anxious (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 4th, 2001
1:34 pm	Renewing My Vows Question of the moment: Have I finally quit tweaking this freshly created template for my new live journal? Yes, I have. Now it is time for me to get on with the day and get away from the computer. But first I have to do a little catching up. When I went to lie down yesterday for my nap, Sonny remained in his bedroom doing what I wanted to do: he was resting in a deep sleep. Which is what I likewise did for about an hour and a half. Hooray for me! I needed it. I felt so much better afterwards. Nevertheless, I never did get much accomplished. I get in these unproductive modes of behavior where all I wanna do is play on my computer or watch television. I did manage to clean myself up, and I did manage to clean up Creekview somewhat. I washed some towels and clothes too. But I also watched a couple hours of television, that is, a tape of Sunday night shows that Lynn Marie recorded for me on her VCR. It was a tape I have already watched, but since I was in a sit-on-my-ass mode of course it had to be viewed again. Of course. Meanwhile there was a long list of a million better ways of passing the time that scrolled through my brain that the television adventures of Homer, Malcolm, and those X Files FBI agents helped me ignore. I did manage to get up and argue with Sonny. His only chores I insist he do are washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. He has to do them daily at my insistence. I tell him he that's how he pays me back for paying all of the bills around here. As far as I am concerned I think he is getting a pretty good deal. Yet he still gets upset over this and complains. He better get use to this. Because not only is he going to have to wash dishes, I'm planning on giving him more chores to be responsible for. Sonny has got to pull his weight around here. That's all there is to it. Or he is going to have to move out. Enough on that. I get tired of being a bitchy parent. "Well then, don't be a bitchy parent!" I tell myself. "Okay, I won't be! From now on whenever I attempt to guide my son towards his responsibilities, I'll be more encouraging. And all the while I'll try to keep looking for all the good that he does." "Didn't you just make those vows to yourself not too long ago?" "Yeh, I did. Okay, So I back slid. Now it's time again to get myself back on track."   Do you have any questions or comments? If so, click on the button. View Reader's Comments! Live Journal Archive/Live Journal Calendar/Home/Email/Cast/Places/Hamrickie Gallery ©Renovation, Rejuvenation, and What Counts-2000 to 2001-All rights reserved. ©The name "Hamrickie" and any art by Hamrickie: all rights reserved. No artwork by Hamrickie shall be reproduced without his permission. ©Willie Ray's LiveJournal 2001-All rights Reserved. Current Mood: determined (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 3rd, 2001
11:44 am	Willie Ray, Online Zombie Right now I am still glued to the computer. I'm still in the sweats and sweatshirt I slept in. I need a shower. I need to shave. I need to change into some nice, clean clothers. This is what happens when I don't get enough sleep! I waste a ton of time sitting in front of my moniter. If my television was hooked up, I'd watch what ever show is playing and there usually ain't anything good on Sunday during the day. I just ate some breakfast so maybe I should go lie down. Sometimes as my food digests I can sleep for an hour or so. I am so tired! I am not siezing the day! I am the walking dead! I am a zombie! Now watch... I'll go lie down just as Sonny wants to noisily rise and start his day. Current Mood: exhausted (Comment on this)
9:39 am	Only 5 Hours of Sleep. Oh Well... I Will Sieze the Day Anyway! I slept a big whopping five hours last night. Oh well, that's better than 3 or 4 hours. I've decided to embrace the day anyway. Carpe dium! Sieze the day! I figure I'll get myself real busy and work on my zillion projects and chores and take a great nap later on. I woke up about 5ish. Surfed the Internet and looked around the Live Journal website. This might just be a fun thing to do for a while. Sonny arrived home around 7ish. He spent the night at his friend Jimmy's house. He went to his bedroom to sleep the minute he came in. Before shutting his door he asked me if I'd wake him around 9. At 9 I popped my head in his room and he wanted to sleep some more. I don't think I'll walk on eggshells and be quiet though. I'm done with that. If he wants to go out all night, that's fine. But not at my inconvenience. I haven't mentioned this yet, but last night Lynn Marie and I hit the local cinemaplex and thoroughly enjoyed the computer animated movie, "Shrek". If you haven't seen it yet, do so. You won't be disappointed. The voices of Eddie Murphy, Micheal Myers, and Cameron Diaz, are perfect for their characters, the script is funny and unique, and the animation is spectacular. Current Mood: awake (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 2nd, 2001
11:54 pm	Back From the Post Office and Paying My Rent I wonder if this journal is going to come off as rather mundane. Afterall, what it is I'm doing is writing about what I'm doing from moment to moment, and I lead a rather sedate life. So I'm back from the post office, and tomorrow I have to catch up my checkbook and catch up the rest of my bills. I was having a hard time paying my bills this last week or so. Not because I didn't have the money, but because I was depressed and it was hard to discipline myself and sit myself down and take care of this chore. I wanted to escape instead to watching videos or surfing on the Internet. Why was I depressed? I want better things for my son and it is not happening as fast as I want it to happen. Plus, I haven't been sleeping much lately. As everyone knows, one becomes more prone to depression when there are snores that need to be snored. When I do sleep it is on nights I take Melatonin, a natural dietary supplement. With that deep sleep though it added to my depression! Can you believe it! I'd wake up almost well rested, yet there would be the blues as my constant morning companion. So there you have it. I'd get easily depressed partially from lack of sleep, and then when I'd take something to make me sleep well, I'd be depressed in the morning from that. This all lead to a little experiment I tried Friday night. Normally I was taking one whole pill of melatonin a night. Well on Friday I cut the pill in half and that seemed to be the exact dosage I need. I slept seven and a half hours! And I woke up feeling well rested. I woke up feeling grand! But last night I didn't take any Melatonin and I slept just three hours. Rats! So here I sit. It is practically midnight. And I should be in bed catching up my Z's. I took another half a pill of Melatonin tonight and I hope it helps put me under and it keeps me under. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
11:12 pm	The Live Journal Begins! Okay, here goes. I thought I'd try something new. Just to see if this would make it easier for me to write everyday. Too bad I had to start at 11 PM when sleep is trying to over take me. Oh, well... basically I'm doing this to see how it works. I can add more content to it tomorrow. I still have yet to go out into the night down to the local post office and mail my rent for my trailer space. If I don't get it in now I'll get charged a 25 dollar late fee. And already I may have sent another bill off late and this may cost me with a huge late fee. This is all for now. Let's see if this works. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)