The Life of a Shop Keep

Growing up, after moving to the place I ended up finishing out what would be my teenage years, we had a shop. It started out as a resale and commission type shop and a side for what would become a bait shop. Oh the memories of this place, from early spring to late fall and sometimes the beginning of winter, we even lived in the shop. You see it started out in a big pole barn about 60 ft by 120 ft (its just an estimate in size because I have never measured it). We sectioned off one entire side by length, it had a room that we used like a kitchen with a Coleman stove, a small refrigerator and ran water by hose to it. In the front on the one side we had a large minnow tank, a sales counter, a display cabinet with antiques, a snacks stand, refrigerator with other baits and soda. The other section had all the resale items such as clothing and odds and ends.

This place ended up becoming where I would spend most of my time from age 11 until I graduated highschool and moved out. We had another building that we moved the bait shop part into later on when I was in highschool but we didnt live in it. By the time I was in highschool, I had pretty much started running the entire store inside and out as well as doing all the paperwork for it. It was open 24 hours a day mostly and only closed when I could sneak off, which was usually on the evenings that it was slow or when it seemed there was no business. Most of the time I could predict what days this was going to be, I actually used the business as a project for one of my highschool classes to get extra credit.

Before my stepdad passed away, he had told me that he had been so hard on me about the business because, it was his legacy to me to run it and make sure I always had an income and he knew that none of his kids wanted anything to do with it. He wasnt wrong, his youngest son has told me that he cant even think about fishing because it makes him sick from running that store while in highschool. He didn’t really run anything to do with it other than picking up nightcrawlers to make extra money at night and didn’t do that very often either. I did though.. lol I was picking upwards of over 1000 per night and getting paid .02 cents per worm. That was $20 per night in just a matter of a couple hours.

I was also the one that would go with my stepdad and sein the back waters of the lake for crawl fish to sell and dip net or cast net for other bait fish to resell. I seem to remember only twice did my stepbrother take me to catch bait fish and both times he took his girlfriend with him and only once did he help but was only for a little while. When we could go for getting bait fish, we would fill about 10-15 totes to bring back and then I would help my stepdad process and portion them to be frozen as bait.

We also made our own lead weights, specialty bobbers, plugs and sometimes dough type baits to sell. It was just me and him doing that, and my step siblings didn’t help with that either. Yes, back then I was angry that I was the one that “had to participate” but I am not since growing up.

Over the years, I have often thought about reopening the bait shop again, but would probably be harder than it was back in the 80s. Its a new time and you can get bait at any gas station or supermarket around here now, so not so sure I could work that out.

Anyways, thanks for reading ~W

Check out our store at: https://whysprs-whymseys.square.site

Roadblocks??

I’ve mentioned a few times about the little town I was running around in my youth and here’s another story from then.

This little town had a tradition that went back to at least as far back as the 50s, I just know the man that lived next door to us used to tell me stories about it from his youth and he was at least 60 back in the 80s.

Anyways this tradition of crazy nonsense was called the Road Block. Basicly people around town would donate to us big items such as TV’s cabinets or anything big for us to use for blocking off the main road into town. This was a small country town and had one single main street that ran from the highway to the park. The last 2 weeks in the month of October was when the road block would be errected, usually in the evening and then would be moved to the sides of the road during the day for the entire duration.

Usually this was just something to occupy the teens of the town amd keep them out of real trouble and actually causing real trouble in the town. I can remember the first year that I participated and was before I became well known in the town. We had all kinds of items donated to our cause that year such as tractor tires, big cabinet TV’s, cabinet stereo systems, stoves, washing machines and driers. What I didn’t know at the time was that another part of this was the calling of law enforcement on ourselves to have a sheriff deputy chase us. I didnt make the calls but I did do a great deal of finding hiding spots when this would happen. The funny side is that there were people that would come out and sit in front of the General Store and let us know when the sheriff had been called and on the way. Other than doing that, these adults didn’t participate unless to tell us where to get more items for the road block.

Over the years we kept the flame going of this tradition but it is no longer upheld in that town. There have been talks of us as adults bringing back the tradition but other than that it has been lost to only memories.

Thanks for reading ~W

Check out our store at: https://whysprs-whymseys.square.site

Doing the Dishes

This story is a fairly short one, but it actually happened.

Me and my one friend, let’s call him J was down at the village and none of the normal friends were around, he was dating one of the girls and they always left thier doors unlocked. They were the kids and the mom was visiting family in another town while the dad was at work. J went on in and decided to do thier dishes, I went over to the store to shoot some pool (I will talk about this place in another story).

Anyways back to J, he was doing dished and decided he wanted to get out of there before they or the dad got home. Needless to say, he had never had nonstick pans and he apparently was working really hard to get this black stuff off thier brand new non stick pans. I found this out cause it became the talk about someone breaking in and ruining thier new pans.

He came from money and he bought them new pans after admitting to the “crime”, but it was pretty funny.

I was going to write a different story, but my internet is fairly bad with this rain we have been having. Anyways, thanks for reading. ~W

Check out our store at: https://whysprs-whymseys.square.site

words of warning.

Magick (note the k) a form of occult practice that has become popular again since the "great awakening" from back in the 50s. The words of warning I want to give is that those who are only adept, should be extremely careful in how they handle things. Emotions are strong power as is words and ceremonial repetition, and things come back to you more often than not. There are things one should not play with out there. I often have been asked in the past for love, curses, and many many more types of magick. Everything has balance and you really have to be careful to offset that balance. Along with that, images in your mind also play a part in that you can hold an image there and make it so. This being said, if you are throwing a spell out and suddenly think of some one else, guess what happens? It gets sent to the wrong person or to multiple people. 

Yes magick can be dangerous, but it can be a blessing as well. It is not inherently evil as so many people have said in the past, and its not inherently good either. It is a balance, and those who use it have to be weary of the responsibility of doing such.. 

Lost track of what I was thinking

Something I havnt talked about is that I do work as a handyman. With this type of work you run into all kinds of crazy, rather it be a possible client that refuses to pay or opening up a water heater closet to find theres no floor and its held up with straps and nailed to the wall.I started out doing just yard work and debris removal and then started getting asked about other things as well. In the begining, I didnt really have many tools other than what I needed to work on my car plus a hammer and hand saw. Now I have an entire tool chest that is packed full and I carry around with me all the time, plus several pneumatics and odd tools that I keep in a shed as well because it wont fit in the chest.I originally did it as a part time job right after my divorce for extra money that my full time job didn’t provide. I would take along my girlfriend at the time and her son with me, I would pay him for the help but only if he actually did work. It gave him a really good work ethic that he shows to this day.A few years in and I had a call from a local lawyer who also gave me business pointers and actually helped me a lot. The work I did for him was more of janitorial services for the most part in his offices. It was one of the oldest buildings in my town, built back in the late 1800s. Later he had me working at his home as well and had to use him as my lawyer to get my workmans comp claim to actually pay my medical bills when I got hurt at work.After I had gotten hurt at work and was able to walk again, I still had issues doing the work that I was doing normally. It was hard work, tossing 50 lb bags of feed almost daily all day long.Anyways, I left there and went full time as a handyman. It can be scary at times not knowing when the next call is going to come for you to make money to pay your bills or buy food. Its always feast or famine unless you have savings. I learned this lesson a few years ago. I had landed this big contract that I knew could end at any time but I took it anyways and quit another job that I had taken when there was no calls. It paid enough that I had paid up the mortgage for 6 months as well as the other bills. At the end of that 6 months I had gotten a few calls but they ended up not paying, normally I wouldn’t have worried about it so much but it was at the end of that 6 months and the mortgage was coming due.I chased down the company that owed me money but they soon changed thier phone number and it was like the company no longer existed. It was a corporate account from a maintenance outfit based out of Florida and I’m in Illinois. The amount would not have been worth the court fees to sue them because it would have cost more than it was worth. It did however cause me to loose our home.This was the fall prior to covid hitting. Thats when I built our tiny on wheels and that is where we are now.

#handyman #oddsandends

All aboard!!!

JUNE 28, 2023 ~ WHYSPRS

So been out doing the dishes, yes I do the dishes outside.

Anyways, when I’m doing the dishes I tend to listen to music, today I was listening to some Ozzy Osbourne. “Crazy Train”, it says it all about what we are living in today.

"Crazy, but that’s how it goes

Millions of people living as foes

Maybe it’s not too late

To learn how to love

And forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing

Life’s a bitter shame

I’m going off the rails on a crazy train

I’m going off the rails on a crazy train

Let’s go

I’ve listened to preachers

I’ve listened to fools

I’ve watched all the dropouts

Who make their own rules

One person conditioned to rule and control

The media sells it and you live the role

Mental wounds still screaming

Driving me insane

I’m going off the rails on a crazy train

I’m going off the rails on a crazy train

I know that things are going wrong for me

You gotta listen to my words, yeah, yeah

Heirs of a cold war

That’s what we’ve become

Inheriting troubles, I’m mentally numb

Crazy, I just cannot bear

I’m living with something that just isn’t fair

Mental wounds not healing

Who and what’s to blame

I’m going off the rails on a crazy train

I’m going off the rails on a crazy train"

Writer/s: John Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, Robert Daisley

Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

What I mean by “it says it all about today” is, that just by watching the news for a few moments any day of the week, we hear or see how people are attacking, rioting, killing, and hating on each other on a regular basis.

We really do need to learn to get along and quit being violent towards each other on this little marble of a world we live on. It’s gonna get real hard for all of us if we don’t.

Going in a new direction (a new season)

Ok, so over the years I've tried to keep this blog going and have always been putting it on a back burner quite a bit, sometimes not even coming back for a year or two. Life the past couple years has thrown me several curve balls, 2 of which were close brushes to death, but i keep kicking. From all the times I have been beaten down and broken from life, i have become a survivor. Some of the lessons I have learned over the years are as follows:

1. Life will throw lots of punches at you, you just have to learn how to dodge those punches and get back up every time.

2. Cirve balls if you swing at them you may strike out, but if you bunt them, you can at least get onto the field and take a base. Once those bases are full you may end up with a home run.

3. The world's pace has speed up over the years, but take it at your own pace. Remember the tortoise won when he raced the hair. Even though everyone is runing around like crazy, you can still take a slower pace and get what needs done of you plan it out.

4. Doctors are not 100% right about diagnosis, it is called a medical "practice" after all.

5. You dont need a lisense or certificate to practice herbalism in the united states. The last 2 years I have been learning how to heal myself via thenuse of herbs by natural means.

6. Chasing money will wear you out over time, that time you put in you can not get back.

7. A single moment can change your life forever, rather good or bad.

8. When one door of opertunity closes, another doesn't always open, but be watching because if you're not watching another may come along later. 

9. Time and place. I say this many times a day, everything happens if you're at the right place at the right time.

As i remember more i will post more. Soon I will post about these new life changes that are taking place, I have many ideas on how I will be doing things from now on and postingnmy thoughts and hopefully I can help some onenout there with what all I have to share.

Thanks for reading, 

~W

How Much Are You Worth

How much are you worth? How much do you sell yourself out for?

I look down and ask myself how much am I worth on a regular basis.. right now, the average adult in southern Illinois is worth about $8.25 per hour.. thats minimum wage. some factory workers get paid between $14-16 per hour and an average wal mart employee makes $10 per hour.

Now this being said full time used to be considered 40 hours per week but ever since Obama and his "infinite Wisdom" created the medical reformation act, full time has now become 30 hours per week, which means not only do you get forced to buy insurance at an over priced rate but you also now earn a lot less money than you used to make. so that person that was originally making $330 per week is now making $247.50, that is $82.50 in lost wages per week or $4290 a year that has been lost.

now knowing this, a single person with one income makes about $990 before taxes and fica (social security which supposedly will run out before I get it, which is another story in itself) which ends up as being $721.77based on http://www.payrollforamerica.com/calculators/Illinois-payroll-calculator.php .
Now shall we add in costs of living? an average apartment in my town runs anywhere from about $400-$500 per month utilities from what I hear are similar as follows: average water starts at about $40-$60, electric about $175-$250, then there is food so look what has already been spent so far with even the cheapest 400+40+175=615 so lets hope you don't have a car payment or paying on anything else cause we still haven't included the cost of gas (locally $2.39 / gal when I wrote this), food, phone, consumables such as personal hygiene products, or anything like TV or Internet either oh and don't forget that insurance that is mandated by Obama. Right now as we are calculating you are seeing that this person working full time and is single only has $106.77 left from paying these bills.

now has any money been put back and saved at this point? probably not. By all rights we should be only paying out and living on 50% of our earnings or less, but as it turns out, the majority are living on about 75% or more.

So I ask you again, how much are you worth? you see this was just me trying to show you what average people around me are dealing with, how they struggle and how we as a community of people struggle daily to just exist. I myself am sick of just existing. I want to make more than that  little amount I quoted above, I am sick of being the man on the low end of the totem pole that every one craps on, on a regular basis. I know for a fact that I am not the only one that feels this way. But I tell you what in December of last year I met some people that gave me a small glimmer of hope, a star to steer by that I am trying to make work. Yes, it is hard work. Yes, you have to spend money to make money... But you know what? I see it working with so many people. I have met people over the last several months who have shown me so much that can come of this, and it is a way to escape from this living that isn't even a living. One man named Orrin Woodward call it the Matrix.. Its not hard to believe either because it does resemble it a lot.

So once more. HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH???
I know I am worth more than that $106 that was left over from those bills listed above, and so are you!

If you are interested to find out more information about what I am talking about, please feel free to contact me at 618.241.0328 or you can message me via hang outs or Google plus of even here by leaving a comment. I will get back with you I promises.

Write you again soon
~B

I know there's a song there somewhere

Sitting here at the depot watching the sun rise above the diesel engines rumbling hum from the truckstop several yards away...

7/9/13 Thoughts

Well here I am again pondering things, some things on life... firstly there's the book that I started and just havnt taken time to do more... I've got one chapter written I think but I'm sure it needs more. The entirety of the project was from seeing all these idiots out there telling people to do things to rely on for emergencies that is gonna get them hurt or killed. Its scary and sad at the same time...
Then there's the other book, my biography of the craziness of things that is my life... well some of that you get to read here for free, so enjoy it while you can.. haha!

  This whole deal that I was asked to write up for this prayer meeting deal at the church has brought out a lot of thoughts and deamons back to my life to confront, its pretty scary to see all the doors I had opened in the past, I am just hoping I don't scare off these two pastors and end up getting shunned from yet another church.. I have a really really dark past and I've seen and habe done things that most humans can say they have neither seen or did in 10 lifetimes. It is only through God's grace that I am still alive, even though I have no clue as to why I am still allowed to be alive.. To bring some one to Christ I suppose, but who knows but Him!

I've grown tired of facebook, its boring and is always the same drama here drama there bs that has become tireing.. perhaps I will delete that account as well.. actually the only reason I keep saying I leave it up is for my kids, but at least one of them also posts on google+ as well..

I'm still debating on paying a downpayment on some property somewhere too... but won't be around here.. yeah I've lived my whole life here... I know all the fishing and hunting spots... but I think I'm sick of the nothing to do around here of all of southern illinois... its pathetic, you look up kid friendly things to do here and all it comes up with is malls and movie theaters.. totally pathetic... ok I guess that's a rant and I'm gonna leave on that note
L8rz
~W