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There were two important things our cat friend Bing loved to do most in this world; he loved to watch the sun rise and he loved to watch the sun set. He would attain a kitty-like altered state as though worshiping the sun as it came up in the morning and when it would set in the evening. When it was cloudy or rainy, he missed it.

This morning, sometime after sunrise, he wandered down into the edge of the woods and curled up in a small, warm ball and passed into his next incarnation — perhaps a Bengal Tiger or a Snow Leopard!

He was just a few days short of his eighteenth birthday. He didn’t make a big deal about it. He slept with us as usual last night. Got up as usual, ate his breakfast and generally talked to us and the walls like he always does, went outside and laid in his favorite bushes for a bit. He then sauntered off to a favored spot in his woods where he made his transition.

Scooter and I both wish we could have been with him, holding him when he passed, but it was his choice and we have always supported him in his choices because he was our dear friend. We will miss him as we miss all our fur friends who have left us. But we learned a lot from him about gentleness, kindness, and unconditional love. We also learned how to create and protect our home and space, and equally how to share with others.

Interestingly, Bing didn’t leave us high and dry. We watched him diligently and carefully train his own replacement for three or four months prior to his departure. His name is Butler. He trained him to the point that Butler also sleeps where Bing slept, also does exactly what Bing did, exactly, to the letter, no deviation. Any deviation while Bing was training him was never tolerated. When Butler came into our life, he was totally wild. Any attempt to pet him resulted in a severe wound to your hand. He is now just as gentle as Bing ever was. He is our parting gift from Bing, who was not only our dearest and wisest friend, but who surely knew our hearts would be broken with his departure.

Wherever you are, Bingman, we send all our love and Godspeed to your next destination.

Welcome to the “Dead Zone!” Some know that I participated in helping to write one of the plots for a Dead Zone show. It was titled “Hunt for Osama.” Wish that it should be so easy to bag the old fart and put him into a 4×8x8. The problem seems to be as much two-sided disbelief as it is his insisting on moving around too much, too often, for little reason. I mean, let’s face it, do we really want to find this guy? After all, it’s the devil you know — right?

My Grandfather used to go out to the edge of the field every now and then with his .22 and pick off a groundhog or two, but he never seemed to hit the crusty old feller with the gray whiskers. I was only seven at the time and wondered why he never seemed to hit the big guy. I finally couldn’t stand it any longer and asked him one night; “Grandpaw, are you blind? When are you going to nail the big guy?” My grandfather looked at me and smiled; “When he stops leading all those little fellers to the same places to feed.” I don’t know, maybe Osama has a purpose. Maybe it’s time he became a martyr and his own folks took him out. So, if any of you are reading my blog…

Anyway, I am recovering from my surgeries and I’m coming out of this with very little of the pain I went in with, which is a very good thing. I am coming out of it with some keepsakes however, like the need for a walking stick (that’s eastern for decorative cane) and a light brace on my left ankle. The brace isn’t too bad. It’s constructed of carbon fiber and is hard as nails, so I should now be able to kick a soccer ball out of the park by hooking it off my left shin. The brace is also constructive, since it keeps me from falling on my face. The walking stick is in case my ankle fails anyway. Given what I walked in the hospital door with, I think I made a great trade.

Sadly, I must give up riding my Kawasaki Vulcan, which brings an ever increasing calmness to my lovely wife’s mind and spirit. No more slightly rising front-wheel off the ground, instantaneous jolts of adrenalin. No more 1/2 oz bug in the Adam’s Apple at 80 mph. No more yellow jacket up the sleeve, across the shoulder, and down the back of my Kevlar riding jacket. No more should I go left or should I go right, when someone pulls out of a side-street and stops in front of me — in the rain. Sigh. I’ll miss it.

If anyone out there is interested in an absolutely cherry 800-A 2001 Vulcan with less than 2500 miles on it, roll bars, riding lights, and saddlebags, let me know. Only $4,600.00. It gets somewhere between 38 and 48 MPG, depending on how you like to ride it — and you’ll have to pick it up. An extra $450 will get you the barely-used trailer as well.

I guess I’ll just be forced to hump around town now in my Dodge Magnum HEMI RT, with the leather heated seats, adjustable pedals, Boston Sound System, GPS, and Satellite. I got it for my back. Honestly, I did. I really did. It’s very cool. It runs on only four cylinders when you are cruising. If you watch how you drive in traffic, it always hovers between 1100 and 1700 RPM — 0 to 45 mph, and never goes over 2000 rpm on the open road — 60 to 75 mph. With careful fuel management, I average somewhere between 24.5 to 26 mpg. However…

Remember that guy from Star Wars, a heavy breathing dude, dressed in black — Darth something? Well, there truly is a dark side, and it lives in my right foot! Once in awhile, not often, but once now and then, when, well, you guys know what I’m talking about. A guy simply has to…well… I think it has something to do with a lot of extra body hair on the back of the neck or something!

What you get from 400+ horses is two solid black lines, a lot of smoke and a KAWASAKI on four wheels…and of course ZERO mpg.

Well, here I am finally sitting down at my machine again after what seems to be so long a time. My recovery pain has subsided to the point that I can sit in one position for long enough periods to allow writing and not just reading. It’s been eternally frustrating, but having gone through a number of periods in my life where I’ve had to follow the doctor’s advice with regard to rehabilitation, I know that rushing it can do more damage than good, so I’ll continue to force myself to watch the reruns of “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Star Trek,” while alternating between sitting, lying, and walking in the woods with Bing, who knows more about life and what’s going on than I do. He turns 18 in a few days and that’s about 125 in our years I think. As you can see, he’s a bit frail, and sometimes carries on conversations with people and things I can’t see, but again, still knows more than I do about life and living, and probably the great beyond. So we walk together, and I listen to him anyway, and maybe that will keep him here until he is 150 if we are lucky.

Dear Friends,

We apologize for the length of time it has taken to report on Joe’s most recent trip to Japan for the tenth “FBI: Psychic Investigators” Japanese TV show. He has been inundated with clearing the large numbers of remote viewing tasks from his desk before his upcoming back surgery, while at the same time we’ve also been overwhelmed with last minute details and tasks relative to some ongoing construction projects taking place in our home. Our other formal business commitments and writing have also required continual focus during this period, thus the delay in keeping you updated.

On March 3rd a three-person film team arrived at our home to film Joe’s remote viewing for the television show to be broadcast during prime time in Tokyo April 1st on Channel 4 (Nihon Teribi). The filming director and camera/sound operator flew to Charlottesville, Virginia from Tokyo, arriving with a translator provided from the studio offices located in Los Angeles. As ever, the production assistant had already sent me the names and, when available, the birth dates of the missing people they were looking for. I then put this information in sealed, opaque envelopes, identifying each envelope with a series of different numbers. Attached to each envelope I put a sticky note asking for a description of the target (missing person) and the target’s exact physical location.

For the next two days, Joe was filmed for more than eight hours a day as he produced detailed remote viewing information under totally blind conditions in response to these three targeted individuals. Keep in mind the targets’ locations were unknown to anyone in America or Japan. The director carried Joe’s remote viewing results back to Japan to help locate the missing people, as well as to use for the studio portion of the show which was to be filmed live at the end of the month.

On March 27th Joe and I flew to Tokyo Japan for his 10th appearance on what has become the highest ranked and longest running paranormal show in Japanese history, “Chounouryoku Sousakan” (FBI: Psychic Investigators). As a result of Joe’s remote viewing information, detailed maps and drawings of landmarks, they were able to locate a woman who had been missing for a period exceeding seven years. She was found in a small city to the north-northwest of Osaka, approximately 200 kilometers from the town from which she had disappeared. She has since been reunited with her family and friends. On the show, it was formally announced that Joe had at that point searched for 26 missing individuals and was successful in finding 13, some of whom had been missing as long as 60+ years who even the police and private investigators had been unable to locate after many years of searching.

During the same show, they reported that a woman who had escaped from North Korea into China whom Joe had been tracking for a period of almost two years from location to location, had finally been able to extricate herself from the Mainland and return to her family in Japan. In an interview with studio executives, she reported having followed the specific routes and having been in the specific cities at the same time that Joe had reported her as being in during her travels. At one point she even stated that she had changed locations because she felt that someone was inside her head and was warning her to move to a different location because the Chinese were close behind—an action that was later verified to have saved her from imminent capture, and to have coincided with statements in Joe’s RV reporting. A coincidence? Maybe, but it’s hard to say!

While in Japan, Joe and I made a special pilgrimage to visit the huge, sitting Buddha at Kamakura, which was part of Joe’s intended preparation for his upcoming surgery. Joe’s back surgery will be done this coming Tuesday, June 13th .

Due to the continued deterioration of Joe’s spine (a result of a helicopter accident he experienced in Southeast Asia in the latter part of 1967), the upcoming surgery involves five vertebrae and four disc spaces in his lower back area L-1 through S-1. Dr. Chris Shaffrey with his neurological team and a cardiovascular team will be doing what’s expected to be at least an 8-hour surgical process on Joe starting early Tuesday morning at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. If there are significant complications during surgery and it goes beyond 8 hours, then he will spend three days in the intensive care unit, followed by additional surgery on the 16th of June. Following surgery, Joe will be in the hospital for about seven to ten days, followed by three months of recuperation and approximately one to three months of supervised rehabilitation, some of which may be in the rehabilitation center of the hospital, dependent again on possible complications during surgery. We’re hoping—make that intending and anticipating—that this surgery will eliminate Joe’s intractable back pain, making it a thing of the past.

As usual, Joe’s attitude is extremely positive, and he plans on looking over the doctor’s shoulder during the surgery to watch him work! I’m confident he’ll do extremely well with this, as he has with all the other surgical procedures he’s undergone, and that he will once again astound the medical folks with his speedy recovery. We will keep everyone posted on the outcome of the surgery on this website.

In the meantime, we welcome and would appreciate your good thoughts and prayers for Joe’s successful surgery and swift healing – and for peace of mind and heart for all who love and care for him!

Blessings to all,
Nancy “Scooter” McMoneagle