back on the Mac today

Hat tip to DirtRoadLivin and B,,, The keyboards you guys sent me are flat rockin’ my world.   ALL of the posting I have done the last week was via phone using keyboards,,,  A Huge hearty thank you to the both of ya for tools to do my ‘real job’,,,

BUT, there are mornings where the lappy is the way to go, at least ergonomically,,  Mostly because the screen is bigger and right close to the hands,,,    not bending and twisting or strange contortions needed.

And I’d better use the Mac or bad things happen to its guts, kinda like the PC (need to bust it out today and see if I can get a scrivner version saved that the Mac can use), if you don’t use tools, sometimes they stop working,,,   Batteries, microscopic parts in processors, anything with a trickle current can corrode, and corrosion kills.  At least I am not in a high salt area so that slows down the death rate at least a little.

Alright, book report time,    Mark Manson, “Everything is F*cked; a book about hope”.  Good shit right there.   only REAL point where i went ‘ummm, NO!” was on AI. Now, its not a huge portion of the book, maybe 10-15 pages max, and it is rather neutral, but his opinion of it rubbed me a little wrong,,,   Not enough to kill my opinion of the book, but enough that I did some other thinking on the rest of the book.   Still sold that he has some valid arguments for getting through this world as it is, and most of those are reiterations of older ideas, done up in ‘a language that we can all understand’,,,    Was still finding points that made me laugh out loud all the way to the ending.   In a round’bout sorta way, you can say that he takes a dozen philosophies, tosses them in the blender than boils off the extraneous bullshit to get to the high octane stuff that counts.    

oh yeah, if you are seriously religious, and a little insecure, you may have a hard time in the middle.     My point on it was digging through it for the gems: I found that section a tad boring, at first.  it did pick up and he found his pace again midway, and that picked things up for the second section and the wrap-up.

ON to reporting.   Mark Ervin.   over a one hundred miles in four days.   When I started writing the numbers down four days ago, he was west of Pensacola, today, he is roughly 50 miles west of Tallahassee, using the inter-coastal waterways.   Can’t say as I blame him, as they are protected from the weather a bit more than actual coastline.   I did note from his track at one point, he fought the wind HARD one day.   You can see where his track looked like a daisy chain as he kept getting pushed back himself: thats determination right there.   Just keep digging in, and you’ll get there.  May not feel like you are moving much, but if you stop, you’ll lose all of your gains.  And I did reach out to a couple of outfitters along his way, sending them links to his pages, both on utoob, and the locatoweb app, asking if they could hook up with him and advise for  the local waters.   Haven’t heard back from either, but I did make the effort.   Nor do I care if they let me know.  I will find out through Mark and his vids as he talks up those that help him out.  Even if that ‘help’ is a fresh, still trying to crawl away, lobster dropped in his lap for his dinner that night.    He really doesn’t talk about the negatives so much, unless its HIS negative: like battling a slight case of depression after returning from Canada and the holidays.   And oh man, Could I feel his pain, and know why.   Those are the days where a paddler NEEDS a partner, just to chat it out.  Being stuck on the water with your own thoughts starts a feedback loop that hammers that mood into titanium like strength; it gets real hard to shake the blues at that point, without a trusted ear to vent too.  I am hoping his letting out in his vid was sufficient (and he only mentioned it, not unloaded,,,,) and I think it did, because he went from 10 miles days to nearer 30’s almost immediately.  Either that or he did the Stoic thing and said, “I’m gonna paddle my way through this!!!” and went hells bells after that.

It’s funny, I had my own personal meltdown of a sort last month, and I asked Universe “send me some inspiration, please”, and I get Mark Ervin and Mark Manson,,,   Haven’t met either of them IRL, but they both gave a little something to me that I needed, and neither of them lost a thing in the process.     I would like to make a trip to SC when Mark E gets to that area, I would like to paddle out to meet him and paddle alongside for a few miles; maybe let him know that he is doing something MUCH MUCH bigger than I would imagine he feels right now.   His Theme for this trip is “Reverse the Bad”, and I think its doing a little of that, in small ways, across a big area.  I haven’t the funds to be able to help him out much, but I can return feedback to him (and have, in messages through the locatoweb app) but its always nicer to have a face to go with the words you HEAR, not read.

Anywhoos, its colder than November out there today.  Voo took one look out this morning, whined and whipped around, headed back to bed.  Mama is in her element, but she is a longhair,,,  Grizz??? he looks like a small dark fuzzy ball right now: tucked up so tight I can’t see a nose, just one ear, thats on a swivel ‘watching’ the world for him while he recharges a cold battery.  Zooms is out and about, kattin’ around.   Must be a FemmeKitteh running hot, and he is ALL about the Femmes,,,, (and why I think he will be the first I lose,   Toms have shortened lifespans, but oh that time they have, they live to the fullest,,,,). And I dunno that I am going to get any water time in, but I plan on heading to the local lake at some point, and will decide then.   The river is flat out right now; up about 3 feet and flowing fast, but not in a good way.  lots of debris floating downstream too.  You can read that as TREES.   Not kayak friendly,,,,

Gotta get out, just to get out.   Last nights reverie of solace and solitude was awesome, but I need to see something other than these four walls and four furries.   While out last night, I was able to see my neighbors (the ones I do like).    They are getting so used to me shining lights on them, they don’t freak out anymore.   4 doe, and about a dozen rabbits, all playing up in the brush.   The Doe were right on the edge of my garden that has been laying fallow, not even 20 yards away, and the only reaction was the ‘mama’ (I think) looked up, looked around, then head back down gleaning grasses or acorns.  Well within bowshot but not at all nervous about ME.   (that may be their downfall in the future though,,,  depends on how things go/keep going/end up.) Time to go get at least get my feet wet.