A Little Craps and Doing Videos

Since my last blog posting, I have gone to the casino twice this week winning a little both times, Yea! Now I have a little more pocket change. 

  I didn't get a chance to take a walk in the woods this week. I've been making a couple of videos. In the first one, I wanted to capture some of the beautiful memories of my Mom and growing  up. It really got to me after I was done with it. I loved making this video.

Today I drove over to the house I was born in and I did a video for "My Own TV" on Oprah's web site. It's about how I went about doing the story of my childhood. It turned out fine except that 3/4 of the way through it a jet plane flew over while I was talking.  Now I know why I like it were I'm living now. I'm not under the flight path.

One the way back home I stopped at the new Des Plaines Casino that they are building. I wanted to see how far they got since I was there 3 weeks ago. I noticed that they have started on the parking garage.

 Well, tomorrow is Halloween, the last day of the month. I have done well at the casino this month. I don't know if I should stay at home and listen to kids knocking at my door or go to the casino and play a little. I'll see how I fell about that tomorrow. I have a lot of ideas for more videos, maybe I'll work on them.

About That Video I Was Thinking About

I've been thinking about doing that video all week long. Today I didn't have anything to do after I had finished my Cardiac Rehab class this morning. I almost chickened out but the only other thing left was going to the casino. I have been doing so good there this month and I just didn't want to risk losing today. Besides the sun was out and it was a beautiful fall day. So I grabbed my camera and went to the forest to make that video. This time I brought my tri-pod with me. Does that ever make a difference when I use that.

 When I got there the whole forest seemed like it was crawling with people. I thought it would be quiet in the forest. I set up my tri-pod but the people kept passing me by on the trail. So I took my camera way back on a lonely trail to do my video.

 This was the first time I had ever done a video. So if it looks kind of grainy it's because I had it on the wrong setting for the video. I remember when I did my life story on a tape recorder going from one of my old homes to the other, it was so great. I just started talking like I would talk to my best friend. But talking into this video is a whole different story. My mind goes blank in the middle of a sentence and I forget what I wanted to say. I think it's the fact that I'm trying to do it on the first take. I'll have to go buy some video editing software so I can edit out the parts that I don't want in the video. It will be a lot more fun doing my videos then.
 I had to do 7 takes before I was somewhat satisfied with it. I would have done a couple of more takes but this man came out of the woods and I decided not to go any further.

On the way out of the woods I stopped and took some still photos.

 When I got home I started working on uploading my video to Oprah's Web site.  She has a new thing called "OWN"  There you can create your Own Channel  and post your videos. It's really kind of cool. I'll just have to get better at editing those videos though.

What About Making A Video?

   It's Saturday and the Sun is shinning. When I woke up, I looked at the forecast. It said that it was going to be 72 degrees outside. It also showed that after today the temperatures were going to go down hill from here. I just couldn't waste one of the last warm days by staying inside. I thought about going to the casino but I got a call from my two girl friends saying that they wanted to know if I would like to meet up with them for lunch tomorrow. "Yeah," I said. We always have a good time together, I like them. So now that we were going to a restaurant, I couldn't take the risk of losing all my money at the casino. That would really suck if I blew that.
 After the girls called, I was browsing around on the internet and saw Oprah's web site. I saw where you can create your Own Channel, telling your stories and express your passions through video.


I thought about it and wondered if I could take these stories that I have been writing with all the photos and do it in a video format. So I decided to go over to the nature preserve and see if I could do something like that.

When I got to the forest, I started thinking about the video as I walked down the tail.

When I got to the farm

I saw Duke and Prince over in their corral so I went over to say hi to them. I found out that they both like to get scratched behind their ears. Prince started poking his nose in the pockets of my leather jacket. I think he was trying to see if I had anything for him to eat. Those two horse are so nice and friendly.

Over by the barn I saw that the cows were out. They aren't very friendly and they smell bad. I like them better on my dinner plate. "I'll order the fillet waiter." Of course the cows do give milk and they make Ice Cream out of that, so maybe I"ll have the ice cream first and then the fillet later.

 After watching the cows, I headed into the woods. I stopped at this fence. My mind was still on the video and how I would make them. I put my camera on the fence post and set it to video. I got into the picture and started talking. Well after a couple of minutes I reviewed what I had done. It turned out that I had chopped my head out in the shooting. There was no where I could set the camera up. Next time I'll have to bring a tri-pod with me. But by then there will be snow on the ground.

 I walked thru the trails still trying to find a place to set the camera up.

 Along the way, I found a couple of more memorial benches.

I continued down this one trail that I had never seen before. I came across this little old shack. I have no idea what they used this for. We used to build our own forts but this would have been great to have as a kid.

I found some poison Ivy. At the time I didn't know what it was. I just thought is was a pretty red leaf. Then I saw a sign a little later with a picture of it. I also went on the internet to check it out and sure enough, that's what is was. I'm sure glad I didn't touch it.

I saw another bench and sat down on it.

I relaxed and stared at all the beauty in the forest around me. My mind went back to the videos again. Besides the tri-pod, I'm going to need some video editing software. Oprah's web site has an editing page where you can put the video together but I'll still have to get one of my own. This sounds like it's getting too complicated. Maybe I'll just stick with my blog and the photos. I'm having a lot of fun doing this anyway.

 I headed back to the farm and back to my car.

I was glad that I didn't go to the casino today. I had a nice walk and enjoyed the forest.

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I Felt Like a Kid Again

I finally went back to the casino on Friday. I only took a small amount with me and I won enough to put some gas  in my car. It sure did feel good to get back to playing again instead of sitting around at home. In between playing  craps I took time out and enjoyed a free buffet over looking the Fox River.

  When I woke up today I saw that it was a beautiful sunny day out and there won't be many more of those. I started  thinking about what I could do. In my last post I mentioned the trail I used to walk on with my friend Bob when we were kids. It's  Saturday and I thought he would be home. I headed for his house. The new Des Plaines Casino they are building is only a few blocks away from his home. I wanted to stop and see how far they had gotten with the construction. I  parked across the street from it in a little parking lot in the forest preserve. Of course I had my camera with me and I took some picture so I could show you how far along it is.

http://tinyurl.com/23z9ujx


After I left, I went over to Bob's house but he wasn't home. The forest preserve with the tails that Bob and I use to play on when we were kids is only about a mile from his house. I parked my car in the preserve



and went over to the trail. The trail starts by the highway and goes straight back all the way to the river. 

As I started walking I looked up at all the old oak trees and I recognized a lot them. I remember saying to myself,  "That tree was there when I was 12 years old." The memories of playing on the trails came flooding into my brain. I felt like a kid again.

Half way down this long trail on the left is an old path that I recognized. It has some old stone boarders on either side. Back when we were kids we use to bring our BB guns with us. Of course you weren't aloud to have then in the forest. Back then all the trails were used for horse back riding and they also had forest rangers patrolling the woods. Well at this particular spot on the trail we saw somebody on a horse riding our way. We threw our BB  guns in the weeds so we wouldn't get caught. We didn't see very many forest rangers but we ran across a couple of  them when we were kids.



Up until the 1970's they didn't have any roads you could drive on to park your car. This was just all forest back then. Back then this was considered the boonies. Then eventually they put the superhighway through the woods that led to O'Hara airport which is only a few miles west of here.

 As I got near the end of the trail where it meets the Des Plaines river, I could picture all of us guys trying to build  a raft so we could float down the river. It was filthy water even back then. One of our crazy friends went swimming  in it while we were gathering the logs to build the raft. The raft didn't hold together very long and a couple of  guys went in. They made it back OK. I knew it wouldn't hold together so I didn't get on it.

I went over to the river and I saw this old motorcycle laying at the bottom of the river. It looked like someone  went barreling down the path and went over the edge into the river. I wondered what the story on that was.

I looked down stream to see what else I could find.

 It was getting hot out and the sun was beating down on me. So I decided to head back. While I was crawling back up the bank of the river, I saw this old twisted dead tree laying there. It had a cool pattern to it, Click, Click, I took a close up picture of it.

When I got back to the top, there are three ways you can go, straight back from were I came or to the right on this  path heading south.

This path takes you deep into the woods with trails leading everywhere. There is an old foundation back in there. We discovered it when we were kids. It used to be a garage or part of an old farmhouse. The first time we saw it, there was an old model T or something like it half buried in the ground. The top and the back were sticking out of the ground. We tried to dig it out but it was useless. Eventually the whole thing just rotted away.
Bob took me back there a couple of years after my heart attack. We found a lot of old broken bottle and junk. Bob also discovered an old garbage dump that must have been used by the farmers. Him and his brother have gone digging there and found an old wind up toy, old bottles and assorted stuff. I've never been there.


 Then there is the other path to your left that takes you north. It doesn't  go that far because it runs into the Kennedy Expressway.

I started back the way I came, regressing in my mind as I was walking. Pretending that I was 12 again and I had my BB gun with me.

 I started thinking about my mom and dad and my home as I was walking. I wished I was little again and heading back home in time to have dinner with them. 

This is the end of the trail. Back when we were kids this road ran through the corn fields. It used to be a two lane road we called the "Drag Strip" because it goes a quarter of a mile and then ends. We used to watch the cars drag down there all the time. I saw a couple of the cars crack up at the other end.

Beyond that, I only had to walk a couple of blocks until I was home.

Hi Mom, I'm home!

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It's Thursday Again

 Well, it's Thursday again. I wanted to go to the casino and try and win some money but I can't risk it until my bankroll is bigger. So I ended up taking a walk in the nature preserve again.

It was a bright beautiful day today in the 70's. Prefect weather for walking and exploring the trails. After I parked, I started down the trail in the woods towards the farm. As I was walking through the woods I started thinking back when I had my heart attack in 1995 and how lucky I was at this very moment. I never thought I would be able to walk in the woods again after that incident. Playing in the woods with my friend Bob was something that I enjoyed as a kid. It took about a year and a half after my heart attack before I was able to start doing the things I wanted to do. So I called him up one day and told him that one of the things I really wanted to do was to walk down the exact same trail that we use to walk when we were kids. It was very important to me that we did this thing. Then I would know that I was alright again and I had a long life to look forward too. Bob, Said, "Lets do it!" It was so much fun and we both started acting like kids again as we walked down the paths in our old forest preserve. I even found a vine that I just had to swing on. "I"M BACK," I thought to myself. I knew at that moment that I would be alright again and I had a long life to look forward too.

 
  Bob and I are still friends to this day.


After reminiscing today as I walked through the woods, I finally got to the farm. I had my camera with me and I noticed some pretty purple flowers along the fence by the farm house.

 

  I went over to the barn and peeked inside.

Gad did it smell. There were a couple of cows in there. Right outside I noticed some milking pales.

I headed out down the gravel road and stopped to say hi to Duke and Prince. Prince is the one with the white star on his forehead.

I continued down the road toward the forest looking back at the farm as I got further away from it.

I crossed the bridge

and entered the forest. I came across this weird looking tree with all these nodules on it. My friend Bob had cut one of them off on his property up north and made a beautiful looking bowl out of it. Of course you can't do that here on a nature preserve.

 I circled around the forest and headed back toward the farm.

The pigs were out so I stopped and looked at them. All I could think of was that some day they would be all chopped, cooked and sitting on the dinner table.

I saw the care takers with their wheel barrels full of hay. They were heading over to feed the two horses.

Duke and Prince seemed like they were enjoying their dinner. I can't imagine how they can swallow that stuff, icky!

On they way back to my car I had such an urge to to go to the casino and play some craps but I didn't. I hope it won't be to much longer. I keep thinking about all the guys at Crapsfest.com that are going to Las Vegas next week. It's being called "The Final Fling" since this will be the last time they give a dice seminar and ALL the guys will be there. I sure wish I could be there with them. Make some money guys and make a bet on the Don't Pass for me.

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