CE Wills

    Hey, everyone. I have had an interesting day, here at the author's green retreat. My heating and air unit was visited by a frog. I am not sure how long the little guy has been around, but he was inside the grill for the fan box. One day he would be on the left and the next day he would be on the right. My wife opined that he was one of those frogs who like to live on the edge. He thought that it would be cool to ride the air coming off the blades, like a skydiver floating in a wind-tunnel. This is certainly a worthy hypothesis but I had another thought about the long-legged rascal.       I decided to name him Thespian, King of Frogs. I figured that he was trying to find a better land for his people to live in. He saw that the moisture from the unit's condensate line would provide clean water. There would be a few bugs drawn to the water, which would provide some nutrition. There was the added plus in the fact that no cat could reach a frog that was inside the grill.

   Hey, everyone. I just watched the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony for Baseball in Cooperstown, N.Y. I made it a point to watch the festivities this year because of the inclusion of Bobby Cox, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddox.     As a longtime fan of the Atlanta Braves, I would have loved to have been in Cooperstown today for this event. That was not possible. I do want to congratulate these men and also the other inductees, Joe Torre, Frank Thomas and Tony LaRussa.     I enjoyed the speeches of the former Braves. These words exemplified the careers of the men. They were done with style, poise and class. Glavine talked about taking Smoltzie's money on the golf course and Maddox said he spent his career watching his kids grow up, winning division titles and watching John's hair fall out.      I followed the Braves from their time in Milwaukee, so of course I watched Glavine, Maddox, Smoltz and Avery during their entire careers. I could often be found behind third or first ba

        Hey, everyone. I was just thinking about phones. A useful tool with a long history of service. I can remember days when I actually dared to go somewhere without one.      When I was a kid, we didn't have a phone. Most people didn't. Maybe, there was a store nearby that one could go to, in an emergency, to use a phone. Then there were the days when there were"party lines". No, this did not indicate nights of wild revelry with nicely shaped phones. Rather, it meant that a certain number of households would have a common line and number, so that a call would ring perhaps 6 or 7 houses. Believe it or not, some people used this primitive tech to eavesdrop on their neighbors discussions. Today we do this and call it a conference call.      I remember the days when a phone was never carried on one's person. There was a line that attached them to the wall and they were massive and heavy. They were even used to kill someone in old mysteries on the telly.     

    Hey, everyone. I stopped by Best Buy the other day and had a nice chat with a rep from Samsung. He was a pleasant bloke and he had his own display there at the store, devoted mostly to tablets. He had a thick piece of magic glass there on the counter and told me that if he hooked an I-Pad to it, that the device would sense the apps contained on the I-Pad and install the Android equivalent on a Samsung tablet, free of charge.     This is brilliant marketing by Samsung, because many people believe themselves locked into the Apple system once they have the gear and the attendant apps, music and games. Apple is King of tablets, but the competition grows more fierce as each day passes.     I walked down the tablet isle at Best Buy and marveled at the variety and prices. There were tablets as low as $47. I started to buy a new tablet myself, just for something new to mess with. My son has been showing me his new tablet with its split screen and other cool feature

         Hey, everyone. This evening I am awaiting the arrival of Modern Combat's newest version to your friendly neighborhood app store. While I am sure it will be a great game, I have been playing another game today. It is entitled Western 1849 . I write some western stories and very much like gunmen of the old west. This is the story of a gunman who arrives in a town too tough to tame. Though a little green, the shootist takes over as the town's lawman and must rid the town of undesirables.     I started out with a 'Rubbish Gun'. No, I'm serious. That is what they called it. They are fair about the in-game gold coins, though, and even on my humble sheriff's salary, I was able to buy a secondary weapon called a common rifle. The rifle is important when the riff-raff you are fighting hides behind a cactus or on a rooftop that is a stretch for your Colt.       The gameplay is quite simple and quite fun, actually. As you begin the gun battle, you are behind

    Hey, everyone. I was just sitting on the porch, drinking my morning coffee. This is one of my favorite rituals. I noticed one of the local cardinals, a female, was alighting on one of the massive blooms of a Crepe Myrtle tree in my yard. When she did, blossoms went everywhere, cascading downward onto my lawn. Then she went to another bloom with a like result. Then another, and another. Soon it became apparent that she was purposely deflowering my tree on some sort of bird vendetta.     As you know, I recently had a cardinal family next to my chair, snug in their nest. They had the baby birds there and the whole domestic scene. Cool. They survived their infancy just fine and moved to other quarters recently. We got along great because I kept the cat away from them. During their residency, I did a blog about the rascals and mentioned that the lady cardinal was more drab in her mode of dress than the male.      It seems obvious to the paranoid that the cardinals not only read the

   Game of Thrones Spoilers!    Hey, everyone. It is a rainy, cool July day here at the author's green retreat and I had a toothache.(No commercial intended.) So, I curled up in my recliner with some painkiller and began to work my way through the massive tome of A Storm of Swords . I must say that it is not as much fun, reading the books, once you have watched the shows. The HBO folks have done a fabulous job bringing these characters to life and I catch myself growing fond of certain characters, rogues though they may be.      I'll give you a 'for instance'. Jaime Lannister, for all his Kingslayer ways and devout kinkiness, has the rudiments of a good dude in there somewhere. The almost childlike naivete of the Knight girl (Knightess?) Brienne has restored in Jaime the desire to be a true knight. That is, to embrace those high ideals on which a knight hangs his hat. All that corny stuff like loyalty, chivalry to women, fierce devotion to honor, protecting the we

      I was off the coast of Nassau on my lovely ship. It had just turned dawn and the fleet of fat merchant ships was in sight at last. The journey had been long and eventful. I had tired of being humbled by the men-o-war and had bought myself a vessel. A ship with red sails, as you can see. I thought that my prey would tremble in fear at the sight of the red sails, red being the color of blood and all. I had bought the ship and some trimmings for $7.99. The one-eyed geezer who sold it to me called it a starter pack, for some reason. He was narrow between the eyes,...uh, eye, and spoke out of the corner of his mouth, but we shook on the deal. It has been a good ship, aye, and I have trebled my booty. That's spoils, for you landlubbers.         By my side on the deck is the fetching woman called Aaminah. I saved her off a slaver ship that I caught in open water. She is a trim vessel; the girl I mean, with a smile that will light up your heart. I like my women sassy

     Hey, everyone. I had the pleasure of watching a terrific, older movie tonight on TCM (Turner Classic Movies.) The title is Youngblood Hawke. This is a 1964 work that could best be described as a human drama, I suppose. My reason for watching it was because it was about an author, but I found it to be so well done that anyone could enjoy it.     James Franciscus stars as Youngblood Hawke, a young Kentucky lad who aspires to be a writer. No, that's not fair. He is a writer. He drives a truck for a living but works all night, most nights, writing a massive first novel. He sends it to New York to a publisher, as myself and untold millions of other people have done. (I have a few nice form letters of rejection around here somewhere.)       Mr. Hawke is weary of his life, his job and his bitter mother. His uncle has cheated the Hawke family out of their interest in a coal mining property. She is preparing to bring suit against her crooked relatives when Youngblood gets 'The

        Good morning, happy people all over the world. I downloaded a free game yesterday called Assassins Creed Pirates . It is currently free so you might want to check it out. It is a huge file, around 860 MB. The graphics are stunning, as you can see. It has an interesting story, also. I found the animations and controls good and have enjoyed it tremendously, thus far.      I am one of the few gamers on Earth, possibly, who has never messed around with an Assassins Creed game of any sort, on any console or tablet. One reason was that I felt, from what little I had seen of it on screen at someone's house, the games seemed to be somewhat anti-christian. The reason I bring this up is the disclaimer of this particular game. Ubisoft put a blurb on the screen saying something to the effect that the game was developed by a team of cross-cultural folks of all religions. So, possibly, I was not alone in this thought. At any rate, I am really enjoying the game and have seen no prejud

     Hey, everyone. We went to see the movie called Edge of Tomorrow this er... afternoon. Let me give you a few thoughts on the subject.      Normally, I don't care for the "Groundhog's Day" type of shows which feature people having to relive something over and over again. Frankly, that part of the movie which I saw today wasn't my favorite thing either. Other than that, I really liked the film. The special effects were awesome and the two lead actors were exceptional. I liked the story. Goodness knows that there are precious few sci-fi stories that are very good.      Tom Cruise stars as William Cage, a Major in the military. Bill is not really a fighting man. In fact, he is responsible for manipulating the public perception of military activities. I think they call that a "P.R. Man". It is in such a capacity that he comes to the European theater of the desperate war against an invading species of alien life that might be unflattering called bugs

    Hey, everyone. Last night I watched a really good movie entitled Blood Simple . Despite the title, the plot was not simple. It was a plot which had you interested from the first moment. In fact, this movie is that rarest of beasts, a truly 5 star show.      This film makes me think about raising teenagers, though there are no teens in the show. But, if you were wanting to warn young men about the hazards involved in life, you might just make them sit and watch this movie and say, "Don't ever be this stupid". The people in this tale are not very bright.     Dan Hedaya stars as Julian Marty, a bar owner in Texas who has a wild wife. To be delicate about it, Abby ( Francis McDormand) likes men, a lot. One of her husband's employees is Ray. (Played by John Getz) Ray samples the forbidden cuisine of Abby and the watchful Julian finds out about it. In fact Julian has hired a private investigator. The weird PI (Played by Emmet Walsh) gleefully shows Julian some glossy

         Hey, everyone. Happy Independence Day, to all you folks in the U.S.A.     I forgot to send along my congratulations to my Canadian viewers the other day when I was talking about Wimbledon tennis. Milos Raonic played in the semis and lost to Federer. Eugenie Bouchard is in the finals on Saturday and I'll be pulling for her. Also, Canadian Vasek Pospisil will be in the doubles finals. I get a big charge out of seeing people, athletes and nations make a breakthrough in any field of endeavor. To have both a man and a woman reach the semis at the big W for the first time is awesome. Last year Andy Murray made his breakthrough and I enjoyed that.      This morning I watched Novak Djokovic beat Grigor Dimitrov. I was surprised when Novak allowed himself to get so flustered. I really liked Dimitrov's demeanor. All business, hustle and energy. He didn't really seem to play tight at all, despite the big stage. Admittedly, he had several double faults but he continued

    Hey, everyone. It is a lovely morning here at the green retreat. A cold front passed through last night and dropped the temperature down, along with the humidity. The air is crisp and there is a wonderful breeze. As it blows through the trees, it sounds very much like the ocean, though I smell no salt.      I have a pretty crepe myrtle tree that is bloomed. The blooms are pink, massive and provoke memories. Jekyll Island, one of our favorite places, has a lot of these trees. For that reason, along with the nice breeze and the crisp temperature, I reflected on pleasant memories of the beach. I could see myself and Carley walking in the sand, hand in hand. Corny, right?      This morning, I am sitting here on the porch, listening to the "cheep, cheep" of my cardinal babies. Do you suppose they are remembering the beach as well? I doubt it. Much too young. They are pleasant companions, anyway. I suppose I could name my porch Stanford University.      About the cr

  Hey, everyone. You may remember that I had a Cardinal building a nest about a foot or two from where I sit on my porch. She had two eggs in it. This morning as I drank coffee I heard an abundance of tiny chirping noises. Sure enough, the baby birds have come forth into the world and seem abundantly happy about it. They have no feathers. Good thing it was a hot day. Of course, unless she is hunting food, the mother bird sits with them and keeps them warm.      It is hard to be in a bad mood while you listen to baby birds cheeping. It is a feeling like "Hey, the world must be okay after all, or those little rascals wouldn't make all that cute noise. Hopefully, they'll keep it quiet if a cat comes around. Cats are a bit cruel at times and could care less about cuteness.      Hey, maybe Facebook could put the sound of baby birds cheeping on their site and measure the happiness response of their victims customers. Ha, ha. Bizarre to experiment with humans.      A few w

    Good evening, and welcome to the author's green retreat. Tonight I had the privilege to watch a very good movie entitled The Man with a Cloak . It is the story of a failed poet in New York City circa 1848. He is a charming rascal called Dupin. He meets a young French woman named Madeline Minot, played by the lovely Leslie Caron. Madeline has just arrived in the states from France, at the behest of her fiance. She goes to the mansion of Charles Thevenet, her fiance's wealthy grandfather. (Played by (Louis Calhern.)      When she finds Thevernet old, sick and being cared for by servants that want him dead, she enlists the aid of Dupin. (Played by Joseph Cotton). Dupin and the girl quickly run afoul of housekeeper Lorna Bounty (Played by Barbara Stanwyck) and butler Martin (played by Joe De Santis.)      There are a multitude of surprises in store for the poet and the young woman. Mr. Thevernet is being denied his medicine and despite his age and infirmity, likes to party.