Started of wearing the “Fabricator” hat, made a guillotine latch for Son of Bossmans Carport that we are enclosing with tin.   I was doing that while the others were busy passing time in one way or another as we waited out the rain.   So far this week, the weather-liars are being pretty danged accurate, sometimes to the minute,,,   Scary,,,,  Today was another one of those ‘In the Black’ moments for them.   9 oclock, and the skies started clearing, winds out of the south to blow off the westerly muck we have been under. 

Then spent the majority of the day being stoopervisor/lead/grunt, installing a privacy fence behind a funeral home.    Has anyone else noted that most all funeral directors look like someone poured them into thier suits?   Never good fits; more like that $100 special from JCPenny, and chosen one size too big in case they put on weight.   Apologies, just a passing observation,,,

And towards the late middle of day, Son of and Bossman showed up, showed off Son’s new high-fallutin’ Ram Dually his daddy bought him. (Is a Matchbox collectable thing,,, not the real deal,   he was making a lot of fun over that.) and asked me to make a run to a powered gate we installed a ways back, a little late diag needed,,, So my day went over-time.     All good, gate issue was a dying battery in the keypad,,, swap out with new, triple check function, text Son of with details, and on with MY part of the day.

Due to the late nature of my day,  I did a no-no: bought a heart-attack in a sack for dinner.   Christ,,,  I can eat cheaper and BETTER by going for Chinese buffets.    Fact is, I hate eating past 5, 6 pm latest.   If I do eat past that time, I am up ALL DAMNED NIGHT, and not because of any issues; just that I ate late and the bod is confuzzed,,,,   Like having a pot of coffee after 5 will wire me to the gills and by the time I finally collapse, its time to get up and do it again.   (If I state I am drinking coffee late in the day, I am writing, you can lay money on it.)  I may not have the metabolism I had when I was thirty, but the metabolism I do have is NOT that of 55yo.  Its a large part of why my kayaky-krew (and myself) make jokes about my skinny butt and narrow boats. (of which I have a strong preference for, which also means I have to search in OldSkool boats for ‘new’ toys.)  

It’s been a looonnnnnggggg day, but a fruitful one.   Bank run is out of the way, and I will be paying the billage over the weekend, All ahead of schedule.   Can’t complain about that.  Not going to hurt either,,, was a good week even if not the full 40: close enough that comfort is built into the scale.   My only desire right now is for the end of month to hurry up: the first group get-together at the lake is the last week of the month, of which I will be able to make the last 2 1/2 days of.    Need that face to face with friends.

y’all take care

keep on livin’

Whooo-boy, talk about a wet wet day.   This system has been blowing in from the west ALL DAY and its down pour followed by downpour.   

And amazingly, I got a full day in,,,  Shop time

And thats MY problem right now.   Wet weather, along with a cold day in the shop on that concrete floor,,, If I have had an injury, its reminding me of its existence today.   Achy joints, sore muscles, hips complaining to high heaven for release,,,,   Its the cold concrete that gets the hips achin’,,,  I have never found boot inserts that counter that effect.

And these thunder boomer showers are slotted to last all night.    Grizz is not a happy camper about this,,,

Poor fellers’ just gonna havta get over it, eh?

Mood is still in good standing, despite the aches n pains,    They remind me I am still upright and breathin’   There is something to be said for that.   I know younger in worse shape than I, so I can’t feel to hateful about it.  Not gettin’ any younger, and I did live fast and hard for many years.   Lots of good memories from it,,,,

“I see their faces, I feel the traces they left on my soul,

and those are the memories, that make me a wealthy soul,,,”

(one of the last great balladeers IMHO,,,)

sigh,,,

Its gettin’ late, and the drumming of the rain is taking a toll on my energy levels: gonna sleep like a babe tonight,,,,

tomorrow is the pay day, looking good so far; prayin’ tomorrow is not a washout.  Won’t kill me if it is, but would like that added cushion, so to speak.   I don’t like running close to the bone, carry over from my touring days when I carried mad cash from per diem pay (that I never got to use because we never stopped in one place long enough to buy a beer,,,,  besides which, we had beer on the bus,,,,)  but these days, I ain’t alone in that ‘runnin’ close to the bone’, am I?

And I will leave that right there without any need to expand on it,,,,

Keep on livin’

Seriously, don’t really care, except in how my hours are looking,,,  Burnout called in ‘sick’ this AM, the other brainded did as well.  Left it up to the three Old Guys to get shit done; and we did,,,  Made head way into getting two jobs started, sank dozens of posts for them and the crews will go back later to stretch the wire.  I have more gates to make, which was what I was supposed to be doing today, except the Emp Deficit meant I was needed in their stead.  Just another hat I wear: Take up the slack for the slackers hat.

Looking around, reading the world wide web and the doings of those in high places, the furhter poking of a bear that should have been left well enough alone, the further stoopidity of those that should know better, but whose actions scream they have no clue,,,

And I just can’t care,,,

Well, not true, I DO Care, the problem being, if I get anxious over it, I start to lose focus of the things I DO have control over, and my vision gets limited to fewer options.   Getting antsy over things so far out of my control does no one, especially me, any good.   I have two people (which includes myself.) directly under my perview, and I have to keep the table clear for when things do go sideways.

And I am getting quite certain they are going to go sideways THIS YEAR.  

You can smell the desperation…and not just in the politicos,,,  The feeling of fear out and about is Palpable,, People don’t know who/what to trust anymore.  I see more sidelong glances in public as people are really starting to get paranoid.

I am seeing more and more open carry on the daily , not that that is a bad thing in my book, but its showing the level of uncertainty out here.   Its a good thing because no one is raising a ruckus over it, its bad because this is an area where (until recent years) people trusted thier neighbors and leaving a door unlocked while gone was not uncommon.   That trust is showing fractures, gaping ones.  I can only imagine that in other places, that is trust is gone completely (looking at CinSin-nasty, coff coff)  Certainly was on life support (and failing) when I left there in 2010.  That was one of the factors I had in making my choice to move here. 

I wanna say that presenting a positive vibe in public will help alleviate things.    It does, it really does.   I can’t say how many people have smiled at me the last 48 hours because of my ‘vibe’.   BUT, there is a TON of negative that needs to be counter-acted on, and it takes more than just one dude feeling good about himself.   Said dude could even be targeted by some Negative filled other for reasons,,,    “How dare you be happy when the world is full of shit!” sort of reason.  (happened, don’t wanna talk about it.)

I feel like the disease is reaching terminal status, and what comes next is anyone’s guess.   Something is dying, painfully, but something else is being born.   Probably in the usual way: covered in blood and muck and screaming bloody murder.    I want to focus on that birthing.   We can’t save the old world, thats dead/dying/gone.   BUT we can help the newborn not be warped and traumatized by the dying old one.     There are enough good aspects of the old world that are worth saving, but we need to make sure they are protected solidly from manipulation; the cancer of our old world.   We need to protect the newborn from those in secret places that have destroyed the old.  Thats not going to be easy: rather like chasing ghosts.

enough for tonight.   I am hoping the brainded and burnout return to work tomorrow, but won’t be holding my breath.    Trusts get broken, they need to be re-earned, and the interest rate on that is ludicrously high.

And I don’t wanna destroy my good vibe anymore than it already has been.   Not destroyed mind you, but feeling a bit battered on.   I’m still smiling though.

Keep on livin’

without water,,, well, not under me, had a bit from the sky,,,

Even had one of the guys ask me if I was stoned because I was so laid back about everything.  Naw,,, nothing that can be bought and sold had me on this ‘high’,,,

just good vibes and it carried over from the weekend.  Still is,,,   Reading stuff on the webs and it doesn’t phase me,,, How can I control those things, and how are they affecting me, right here, right now,,, They aren’t, not really.  Well, maybe that inflation thing but all those three letter agencies and political N-dimensional chess being played in the European theater,,,  Fuggem,,,  Vlad wants to tactically nuke some French Foriegn Legionaires, who really shouldn’t be in the Ukraine anyways, except some small balled pretty boy married to a Trans-horse faced-question mark wants to show the French still have a backbone,,,

whatever,,,,  Wouldn’t have any say in the matter if he did, nor if our Shaministration decided to relaliate and the lid comes off that box world-wide.   No say at all other than my words here and it’s not like I am some Sought after Guru of political enlightenment,,,

I’m at peace, and I sure don’t wanna let that go,,,,

Been noting a lot of people thinking that somehow, someway, someone, is going to pull the plug on the country.  Either EMP or cyber attack, or something,,,   Started seeing it after Tucker made comment on such, and now its going viral.     My take,,, not going to happen.   The PTB of our country would lose any semblance of power they hold and that is their biggest fear; as shown by their desperation/insanity with the upcoming Selection cycle.  They won’t be the ones to do it.  (UNLESS, its a last ditch effort to stop the upcoming election cycle,,, Don’t hold your breath on that one, they have the system rigged enough, even if its obvious to Ray Charles on Pluto.)) China or Russia COULD, but to what end,,, we are pretty much defeating ourselves, and Sun-Tzu (which the Chinese follow diligently) says, do not waste your energy defeating a defeated opponent.   The only real players that would gain anything by our total collapse into medieval times (which grid down nationwide would do) would be Iran, because we would no longer be propping up Israel with weapons and money, but then again, they would no longer be getting freebies from us either,,, (pallets of hush money for example.)   Sorry, don’t see that happening.  

————————————————————-

We are most definitely in May weather zones now.   Broil under a heat lamp all day, then chill out to thunderboomers at night.  Doesn’t bother me so much, but is going to make getting the grass war back in motion a bit problematic.    That grass is going ape-shit with all the water and sunlight its getting.  And the grass is too wet by the time I am available to murder it,, Shit would glog the mower down hard and fast and she isn’t exactly up to par these days, as is.

‘s’all good,,,   I’ll get to it, and not overly concerned if it looks like a hay feild in the mean time.   Can keep the area around the house trimmed down using the line trimmer, so that’s what I have been doing.  

Did a quick search around at river levels; even with all the rain we are getting, the rivers are still sitting quite low.   All this water is getting sucked up by plants/trees and turned into green and O2,,,  You can smell it every where out my way.    It smells wonderful, and is part of why I am holding my peaceful demeanor so well this week.   I want to keep that rolling a bit longer,,, my body needs the decompression.  

Did a thing today: asked the bank for a raise in my credit limit.   No need for it, but the hell with it, ask anyways.    Worst they can do is say no.   Won’t say what my credit score is,  but that score was part of my reason for asking,,, would rather a better interest rate, but I know the bank, I am already at their lowest rate.  As for applying for a different card: Phbbblllltttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!   Have you seen the ursurous rates some of those cards are getting?   29.89%APR?!?!?!?   Ho-shit Batman!!!   Thats highway robbery writ large!!!

Anywhooos,,,,, Mama is in my face again, tapping my beard sayin’ “Loves on me dada!!!!”  

more later,

keep on livin’

Two days in a row.   not the same lake so this day didn’t hit as strongly as last did. Not the same boat: took Lyssa out on her post-operative cruise.   She is sound again. 

BUT

It still worked to wind me down and get my soul unwound,

and get rained on.  Again.  LOL

Thunder growlers wandering around now, and home resisting the heavy eyelids I get when the Negative Ions are top heavy, as they are right now.

yeah,,, paddled out a couple miles to a spot I have eyeballed a time or two, about two miles of water under the keel to get there.  Pulled to shore, and set-up a little camp,,, Nothing krazzee, just my PFD as a seat pad, camp stove to make some coffee, and CHILL OUT.   No pics,,, wasn’t anything exciting or new to me out there, and y’all have seen multiple pictures of that church.   Only big difference between the two lakes (besides size) is NO MOTOBOATS,,,   This lake gets chop from wind and thats IT, rest of the time is glass flat waters.  

BUT, that lack of boats made for PEACEFUL SILENCE out there, and I found my meditative state with almost zero effort.    DIdn’t realize it at the time, but I spent over two hours just sitting there, total ZEN out.   Butterflies were in force, and even had one that thought my coffee was interesting, though she never landed.   I swear, when there are that many, you can almost hear them singing.    Nothing intelligble mind you, they are the epitome of ‘FLutterheads’ afterall; more like the lalalalalallal songs little kids make up  because they don’t know the words,,,   That little ‘song’ had me mind wandering all sorts of paths from ‘such short lives, yet so much life while here’, to ‘look at that one crossing the lake,, In size comparison, she is flying 50 miles,,,,’  

Its the appreciation of what Mama-nature has created that always puts me back on track.   The areas I paddle to,,,   They were there before us, and will be there when we are gone.  The flutter of wings on a butterfly in this world are comparible to US in the great wide Universe,,, brief sparks, and so small,,,,   

yeah

Ready for the week now.

Keep on livin’

Started off on a rough foot. One of those “I know this is good for me, but dangit, just not feeling like it today,,,,”

BUT, like I keep trying to tell Burnout, “don’t quit, keep sloggin’ even when you feel defeated.” and so I pushed out, spent a minute getting a feel for the water, then turned east and paddled on.

And some Angel was thinking of me,,, Found this in the first 100yards.

Yeah,,, that feeling I had of “I dunwanna” vaporized and I had a shit-eating grin on me face.   I know it wasn’t directed at me in particular, just someone putting up something sweet to the world at large.  It sure hit home with me today,,,,

No power paddlin’ today, easy does it was the key.  only paddled about 4 miles in total, never exceeded 4.5 and I think that was from some following waves giving me a push: I sure wasn’t pushing,,,,

Average speed was low 3.xxish,,, with lots of sitting in place and checking things out.

Like this

I found that cool as shit and my pictures do it no justice.   The big rock on the right is surrounded by DEEP water, and the channel between,,,, I pushed my paddle in as far as it would go, and didn’t hit bottom.   Waves coming in formed a zig-zag pattern, almost herring bone like and fun to paddle through.

Lots of slow rolling swells today, LOTS of boat traffic and thier wakes, so there was some choppy chaos as well, but nothing BlueJean doesn’t laugh at (Hell, I think she would laugh at a tsunami wave,,,,)   New skirt made a world of difference in my drystate.  Everything from nipples down was bone dry (other than sweat that is)  Even after THIS,,,,

only lasted 10-15 minutes, but what was outside of that skirt was flat drenched.  Head and shoulders dripping water wet,

AND I WAS IN HEAVEN.  (honestly, the feeling was like that of a Baptism.)

After that little soaking, my relaxation levels were near the “find a shore, bust out hammock and take a nap” level,,,, I could have easily fallen fast asleep sitting right there in that kayak, I was so relaxed.

But I didn’t,,, enjoy it consciously, keep paddlin’ and smell the flowers.   And there were plenty of great smells to soak in .  Blackberries are blooming, some honey suckle are starting to bloom out, the wet pines along all the shores, clean water smells: BLISS!!!

Paddled for another hour after that little shower before taking a little break for hydraulic pressures.  Sitting there smelling, watching soaking it all in, when I heard the low rumbles in the distance.   The actual storm is so close, I can’t make out the thunderhead, but the clouds are that streaked grey/silver of high moisture climbing to the stratosphere.   

I’ll paddle in rain,

I don’t paddle in electrical storms, unless I get caught by surprise, and then only enough to get off the water.

Load my stupendously relaxed carcass back in the kayak and make for the put-in.   As I was putting BJ on the Buff, the temp started falling fast and the winds were picking up.   GOOD TIMING.

I only wish my descriptions of the day didn’t feel so inadequate,,,   Definitely a case of “Shoulda been there” and I do wish you could all join me ‘at church’,,,  More people need to do as similar as they can, and maybe things of this world could be different.

Sitting here at the desk, coffay in hand, scanning around the webs, gettin’ mind in gear for getting out on the water(where being the difficult question) and ran across a ‘short’ on Fakebuk, posted by a fellow kayaker.

Since I won’t link FB, I have to describe it.   Young lady, mid 20’s saying, “why don’t the Representatives and Senate get paid an average of what the people in their state make?  If the average salary/pay for them is 25K/yr, than thats what the Reps should be making.”

Not new to me.   I proposed this very thing back in 2012 at the patcoms.  There were other ideas I had; like term limits on all positions, to include the ‘three letter agencies’.   In that case, the Agency can be created, but has a finite lifespan.  At the end of such, Evaluation of the effectiveness is done and if the agency is under-par, OR, more specifically, Societally disliked (coff IRS coff coff) than the whole thing is disbanded.   If it ‘passes’, it gets one more run, BUT NO MORE; two spans is the limit.    Also, Agency can not write law, by inserting rules into the federal register, as they do now.   It MUST go through the same channels as prescribed by the Constitution.   This could be done with the current Constitution in place, with an amendment that would be one paragraph in length, not these 8000 page 0mnibus bills they keep shoving down the peoples throats. 

There was a time when our representatives did NOT live in the district.  They stayed home and only asssembled for specific times within the district.  They were not Salaried, they were paid per diem for those times.   They had very short time frames to accomplish the mission, then they were tor return to their home districts and LIVE AMONGST THOSE THEY REPRESENTED.     That sort of system required them to actually “Represent”, and not make a career out of grift.  I would say they were a bit more inclined to keep thier noses clean if the people that hired them were right next door, not 1000’s of miles away.

and of course, we need to return the Senate to state chosen, not people chosen.  That change made this the ‘democracy’, not a republic, that it currently is, and that change began the downhill slide to what we now have.  (one of MANY changes that did so; Like the Federal Reserve act,,,,)

Fact is, we can clean the slate and not have to start over, but its going to take time and struggle to neutralize the beast in its current form.   Its well embedded and hidden under the shell of legalities,   The key there is “Clean the Slate”,,,    Get rid of all the agencies that are mucking things up, like the education admin that acts like children are widgets that can be made into cogs.(one of my personal gripes,,,)

One thing that keeps creeping into my head is the “Decentralized” thing.   We need to pull everything back to local local local.   Stop feeding the beasts of BIG GOV with our hard earned blood, keep it close to home with a SMALL amount of Gov at the ‘big level’ for dealing with other countries, but, as our forefathers KNEW, keep it so strapped down and limited that it can’t get out of hand.   HOW to keep it that way is the trick, and one that apparently the original founders slipped on.  Not begrudging them a thing here; they had no idea how big this country would grow, nor how much technology would change our thinking.  Seriously, who could have imagined, just 30 years ago, the dependency we have on smartphones?   Let alone that we would have computers that were fast and powerful that fit in the palms of our hands.   30 years ago, my best computer was a desk top, and the laptop was a kludge.  That factor alone has changed the world; not neccesarily for the better in some ways.  No, there was no way they could have predicted where we are, or how we would change as a society as technology grew.

Just as those of us now have no idea where or how we will change as the technology continues to evolve. (and evolve Us in the process.)

I try to hold onto the past, at least the knowledge of things past, because I fear that there will come a day when what/where we are, won’t be able to hold up.  we use more and more energy every year, not just in transport, but in processing power.  With a computer in everyones hands, the amount of wattage we pour into our days is incomprehensible: count the cars/trucks passing your place on a daily basis, think of all the computers in use, just to transact business, add in the pleasure computers, how much streaming takes place on the daily for entertainment.

and think of what happens if that energy FAILS,,,,   I don’t think it will, but I DO think we are setting ourselves up for a failure of some sort, and I think those in places obscured by legalities know it as well, and they are trying to bandaid over all the weak spots to hold on just a little longer.  They don’t have the answers, and won’t ever have the answers because they don’t have the intuition to develop anything but words on paper.

I think that is part of why we are seeing this influx of immigration, not to replace us, but to knock us down so that their ‘bandaids’ make more sense; at least to them.   I have no solutions, at least not solutions that would work large scale.  I don’t think there are any TBH,,,   I do know that using small scale renewables can work, easing the load on the large scale stuff.  Like my house, I have not tied into the grid since I built the place.  I have a backup genny, that I start once every six months, not because I need it, but make sure it still runs.  I have not needed it in eight years, not once.   I fire it up and use it to run a vacuum or some power tool, just to keep it alive for that day I MAY need it.   

Thats not to say this is for everybody.   I stripped my world to bare bones to accomplish that draw of energy reduction.   No high powered sound systems, no energy hogging Gaming computers, no smart house that has a 100Kw draw just to ‘idle’, no HVAC to keep my homes interior at a steady state.  (And I still have propane usage that requires I keep tanks full and on hand, so in that way, I am still grid tied.)(side note, I go into depth on this in my “Outside looking in” book, available in the side bar.)

I don’t think small scale renewables would work all that well in a our ‘suburban’ ways.   Rural, yes, packed like rats on small postage stamp lots, NO.   So, no, I have no real solutions.   I am just one dude with some obscure thinks on things; not some mega-brain with insight to universe laws.   There IS a solution, that I feel with my entire being, I just don’t think I am the one that is going to find it.  Same goes for how the world politics works,,, I know there is a solution, one that would work for the masses and NOT be that communist ‘utopian’ fantasy.    One that respects the individual and allows for greater differences without oppression of groups.  

But I think it will require a reboot of how we, as a species, THINKS.  Not sure I like that idea either, since there are and have been inroads into manipulating our thinking (Fakebuk, Tik-Tok, Twitter b4 X, etc)

Anywhooos,,,, thats enough for y’all to chew on today.   I’ve been chewing on it for years, so I am going to go get my butt wet in a kayak and let the soul out for a bit.

Keep on livin’