I have recently converted my book Travelers In A Magical Country to an audiobook on PocketFM. Be advised it is not on their selection list at the time and date of this post. The title had to be changed to Hiking A Magical Country due to the title being limited to only 25 characters.

Please be advised that the story does include adult situations, so I do not recommend it for younger readers.

It can be found here: https://pocketfm.com/show/e6ff253a7.....LnOl0KraWVGgLgFQZz48mzOhGOckRZIcqQQ7i9nqVzJcDf_aem_WFX68_4johO8-Ho1SPXA1w

If you do listen to it please give me your feedback.

Well, I have to accept the fact that I have less than a week to come up with $2,000 to save my things at my Vineland storage unit.

Not only is there full-size railroading equipment there, but also some personal items, including my H-O scale layout.

To be sure, this is not a post asking for money, as many of you have helped me financially, probably more than you should have.

All of this is my fault, I realize, for not paying the mortgage on my house, and it being foreclosed. My leaving Amtrak too soon and not seeking full-time work sooner.

This is not a "woe is me" type of post, but a post that is stating facts.

I was in the hospital from Monday at about 6:30p to yesterday, Wednesday, at 2:30p.

I felt very poorly with dark-colored urine so I knew I was dehydrated.

However, that's not all they found. Apparently, I had a fib ( https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hea.....l-fibrillation ), which did cause me to get short of breath after exertion and a small spot of pneumonia in my one lung.

They did a cardioversion to reset my heart, rehydrated me, and I'm on antibiotics to take care of pneumonia.

So, I'm home now. I'm feeling better but not at my full potential but better than I've felt in a long time.

Am I mad? Possibly. :=3

Yesterday I wrote two more programs in GW-BASIC to do calculations regarding the curvature of railroad tracks.

The first was to convert a radius into degrees of curvature. This one was giving me problems as the formula requires an Arcsin function and GW-BASIC doesn't natively support that function, it requires a formula. I reached out to the community of a forum I belong to and someone wrote part of the program I needed to convert a radius into degrees.

The second one was to do the conversion the other way: degrees into a radius. This one was a bit easier as the Sine function is built into GW-BASIC, but I was still getting weird results. I then found that GW-BASIC uses radians instead of degrees for the Sine function, so I had to find out how to convert degrees into radians. That was quickly solved and the program ran beautifully.

Now you may ask why would I want/need these two programs. Being I'm a railroader knowing the conversions do help in model railroading and I play Railroads Online! and they use a radius in meters for curves and I want to know how tight those curves are in prototype units, as the prototypes, in the U.S., does not figure the radius but the degree of curve in a 100' chord.
An example is if you had a 100' (30.48m) radius curve, which you might find on a streetcar/trolley/tram track, works out to a 60-degree curve and a 90-degree curve works out to a 70.7103' (21.55263m) radius.

I used to be quite good at programming in GW-BASIC, though virtually no one uses BASIC anymore.

However, I had thought of a little program to figure out the tax liability for lottery winnings in the state of New Jersey. There is no program that runs BASIC natively on a Windows 10 machine. I tried downloading a free BASIC program but it was too limited for what I needed. I did find that you could download GW-BASIC, but it doesn't run on a 64-bit machine. I was scratching my head until I saw a program called DOSBox, which emulates a 16-bit DOS machine from within Windows.

I installed that and copied the program I wrote in Notepad and ran it. I kept getting Syntax errors and I rewrote the program but I was unhappy with how it looked; it wasn't tight enough.

Now I do have a GW-BASIC manual, but that is in storage and I have no easy way to get to it as my truck is out of service. I searched online and found a downloadable manual. With that, I was able to find where my mistakes were and fixed them. Now the program is nice and tight and runs perfectly.

Yes, I know I could do it in a spreadsheet, but that means I would have to learn all functions for that spreadsheet; besides it was fun to program in GW-BASIC again.

Who thought I would be programming in GW-BASIC in 2023. :=3

I've acquired a vehicle to replace my Sebring that was totaled out on Oct. 31st, 2021.

I still need about a thousand dollars to get it back on the road and here is a video showing the vehicle and what needs to be done:
https://youtu.be/Wj2lmU0FJ-Q

Well, it's been 7 and half months since my car was totaled in an accident. I'm still looking for a vehicle, but no luck finding a decent used car for a low price. A few people have promised me vehicles, but no one has delivered. So, I'm still looking for the five thousand to get a used vehicle and that may not be enough to get me a dependable used one. So, if you can help I'd be eternally in your debt. To those that have helped in the past a great big thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you care to help please use lionkingcmsl[at]gmail.com over at PayPal.

For those that don't know my car was totaled in a car accident on October 31, 2021.

I've created a gofundme ( https://gofund.me/bc5bf6dc ) to help me get a new car.
Now I'm not asking anyone who has helped me before to donate, but, if you think I'm worthy, to pass the message to those you think may be of help.
I'm looking for $5000 to buy the car and to get the paperwork and insurance done. The thumbnail shows the before and after of the impact site of the accident. The front-wheel looks fine, but that is an illusion. The A-frame and axle are broken and being it's a 1999 model year the repairs would be more than the car is worth.
I sincerely thank all those that helped me out before. Your kindness and generosity have not been forgotten.

Ever wonder what a single retired lion's larder looks like after he's done his monthly shopping?

Well, wonder no more as I have uploaded a video showing what my larder looks like after my shopping, plus you get a glimpse of my kitchen.

The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/LscwvkiPi_g

I've uploaded a video showing my new den.

It starts with an exterior walk around and then proceeds with an interior tour.

You can find it at https://youtu.be/Ua8vLmnrjII .

I've been without my internet since 12/27/19. Reason: I need to pay my cable bill, and I have no timeline for that.

This is being posted from a friend's house.

How to make the 342.6 mile trip from South Jersey to Pittsburgh, PA and Anthrocon in 10 minutes 6 seconds In actuality the trip took me exactly 5 hours, which was surprising and the time-lapse was one frame every second.

The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRPLm4AVWQ

The bridge I crossed, at the 45 second mark, is the Walt Whitman bridge, from Gloucester City, NJ to Philadelphia, Pa.

Other info is in the description for the video.

Enjoy the ride. :=3

At 2:16p this afternoon (Saturday, May 25, 2019) my brother Karl called to tell me that his brother-in-law had found my father dead on his couch.

He had someone visiting him, but she thought he was just sleeping. That means he probably died peacefully in his sleep. He did have a pacemaker installed due to a slow heartbeat.

My dad was 86 and would've been 87 in November. And less than three weeks to Father's Day. |={

I last talked to him on Tuesday. I will be headed to Florida tomorrow morning and I have no idea of how long I'll be there.

This is one very sad lion.

For the second year in a row, and only the second time I've tried it I've written over 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. This time 50,184 words, and I've got plenty of more pages to transcribe from my hand printed notebook into the computer.

For the record, it took 143 hand printed notebook pages to equal those 50,184 words.

So I'm a wiener, er, winner. once again.

Many people have warned me away from pursuing this deal, including my lawyer.

To that end, I will NOT pursue this avenue any further.
Thank you all for your advice and concern.

I just received the "Publication Agreement" from Page Publishing.

First things: I knew I would have to pay some money up front. The editors, copy setter (for page design), artist, the ISBN, etc. need to be paid for. The editor alone, if I was going to self-publish, would be in the $2000+ range.

So how much are they asking? A total of $3345. Here's good news, they only want $395 initially, then 10 monthly payments of $295. I'll need a few weeks to get the $395 together, but the $295 I should be able to do.

There are options that add an additional $395, each, to the initial payment.

They also they say won't take their 20cent per book fee from each book sold until I make my initial investment back.

Yes, I sent a copy to my lawyer, to make sure it is in my best interest.

All, in all, I think it is a good deal to get my book published.

I'm not asking for money, but if you want to help; PayPal using lionking at snip.net would be the best bet.

I just got off the phone with a publisher. That's right, a publisher!

My book, Travelers In A Magical Country, has been accepted for publication!

Now begins the process of going through the process to get the book actually published!

As reported before, on May 15th I lost my house of 12 years due to foreclosure and lies.

I am trying to buy a used mobile home, that is already sited in a mobile home park. To that end, I've started a "GoFundME" campaign to help me raise the money at https://www.gofundme.com/f3uq6-i-ne.....-place-to-live ,

If you can help me raise the money needed to buy the mobile home and allow me to move into it I would be forever in your debt.

If you want to send me mail directly, use this address:
Don Miller
c/o David Hill
C-11 Country Club Estates
248 Harding Highway
Newfield, NJ 08344-9753
This will ensure your letter/package/etc. will be sent directly to me.

I'm still looking for a more permanent place to stay, as I know I will eventually wear out my welcome here.
In that vein, I have found a used mobile home for sale, relatively cheap compared to a new one. It will cost $7,500 and the lot rent will be $600. I will be able to afford the lot rent, but the home is beyond my means at this point. Rental properties (houses/apartments) are in the $1200 and up range/month, and my credit rating and eviction will be going against me landing a rental.
So, with no small amount of trepidation and reluctance, I am asking for donations so I can buy the mobile home and get myself settled in less than a month or so.
If you are willing and find me worthy you can send your contribution to lionking (a) snip dot net via PayPal.
I know there are those out there that I owe a substantial amount of money to, because of my actions of four years ago, and I understand if you are unwilling to help at the present time.

Other than that I'm in a holding pattern.

Before I get to the meat of the post, let me tell you I am okay and doing as well as can be expected.

As some of you know I was evicted from my home on Tuesday, May 15, 2018.

This came as a shock, as the person that was living with me said he had things under control and we had at least to August.

The buck stops with me though, and my failure to pay the mortgage going back to 2008.

Right now I'm living with  ScubaTiger and I'll post an address for him later, but, for now, you can keep sending mail to my normal address and it will be forwarded here.

I'm not asking for monetary assistance, as I owe too many people money already, due to what happened in 2014, but if you wish to help me you can send me money via PayPal to lionking at snip.net .

I hope to get more permanent living arrangements in the near future, so not to put too great a strain on UT's and my friendship.

I have completed the NaNoWriMo challenge 4 days early, with 50,005 words officially validated.

I have more to write, so it will be awhile before I can submit my manuscript to an editor and get it published.

As I do Snoopy's victory dance.

I've just read that Albert has passed away. ;={

Like many here, I thought something might be amiss when he didn't update his strip on Monday or all of this past week. I had hoped he was just not feeling well, and the strip would resume.

My heart goes out to Catswhisker and all of his friends and family.

The most horrifying part of his death is that he was only 3 months younger than myself. I was born in September of 1957, and he was born in December of that same year.

I had met him only once, at FC, when he did a commissioned sketch in my sketch book. He was warm and genial. I had hoped to meet him once again.

So, 2017 is picking up where 2016 left off.

RIP Albert/Gene. You will be missed.

After 2 2/3 years the lion has finally become gainfully employed again!

On Tuesday I applied to ManPower, a temp agency. They had me come in today to do some preliminary testing. I scored rather well and they said they would contact me if something came up. I was not home for more that 15 minutes when they called and told me of a position I might be interested in.

I went back and told me of a "Production Inspector" position in a local glassware company. It pays $10.00 hour, 7:30a - 3:30p, Monday through Friday. I jumped at the offer and I start tomorrow!

So the times, salary and days I work are what I was looking for. An upside is that if they like me after 90 days, they probably will start the paperwork to have me work for them instead of ManPower.

So, let the celebrations begin!!!! :=3

Maggie, my 21 year old pussy cat, passed away at ~5:10p on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. A day, which coincidentally, is my brother Bob's 56th birthday.

I fed her one last time,with baby food at 4:15p, but there was no muscle resistance or reflex movement, even when brushing her ears.

She died laying in front of a heater with a towel on her for warmth. She died at home with the sounds, sights, and scents that she knew so well.

I will have her cremated, so she will be with me always, as Katrina is.

My house is now just a house and no longer a home, as the warmth and love that Maggie brought is no longer here. She was a saint in the form of a cat.

As much as it pains me to make this post, I have to.

I do not believe that she will be with me much longer. She is not eating or drinking, she has gotten lethargic and lost weight. I had her to the vet yesterday and the diagnosis was kidney failure. she said it was not surprising for a cat 21 years old. This was different vet and the staff was surprised at her age and how well behaved she was.

Maggie is putting on a brave front: jumping into my bed earlier this morning and, as I am typing this,she jumped into my lap. She is not using the litter box much, and when she does use it very little is there.She has drool coming from her mouth. She is not showing external signs of pain, but I know she is in discomfort. The past few days she has sat around yowling and crying for no obvious, to me, reason. Even if I had the money I would not go for "heroic" measures to lengthen her life. It would not be fair or kind to her, and it would be very selfish of me to do so.

She has been part of my life for the last 16 years and I will miss her. As anyone who has visited the den will attest she is laid back, very tolerant and gentle.

Even though I have had a cat in the den for the past 20 years,the first was Katrina, I will not be getting a third cat. I will miss having another living presence in the den, it will feel empty, but I also feel that I might be doing a third cat a disservice. That being said, if I do decide to get another cat I will adopt an adult cat; like Katrina and Maggie.