Well, as official as my accounting goes,,

I did the last section of Laurel Lake I had not paddled before.  I have now, ‘circumnavigated’ the whole danged lake.

This was my lunch stop a year ago, revisited today.  Even better this year since a wildfire had destroyed all the underbrush late last year.  I got a little sooty checking out the inner grove,  but its so much nicer without fighting the briars. And another hella nice campsite,,,

I made a quick stoppy at the Marina, grabbed a soda, and headed to where I am currently at.   And seen the biggest damned floating mansion for a lake this size,,,,

Two storied with a party deck uptop,,,  I leave my thoughts of practicality/utility aside,,, 

More later,,, gonna pitch camp n stay a bit, head back later

Made it home a bit on the late side tonight: Paid Day so had the bank run and what not,,, stopped in at Da’s,,, he’s grumpy because of the heat and not wanting to be out in it.  Shit makes him sleepy, then he can’t sleep when he wants to,,,, Yah, y’all know the deal.   I told him, ‘get the fourwheeler out, the breeze while riding will keep you cool and you can go see things other than hours of Utoobies,,,,”   Will he? who knows,,, 

The days are getting shorter, the year is on the roll out, my reading spells are getting longer, and I can sense a downturn in working hours coming soon.  I could be wrong: currently we are slightly over-extended and my duties are getting spread all over the damned place.   I am neither a god nor an electron: I can’t be in two places at the same time.   Luckily, I have been able to train a guy or two in things that I have been the sole resource on.   Nothing spectacular: running a core drill for concrete.   One of current contracts has us drilling holes for the posts,,,, about 300 holes and counting.   This is NOT a fast process,,,  Today I supervised the two guys doing ‘my job’ after bossman and Son had spent the ducks on a second core drill and bit.    They did good, and my corrections were growing thinner as the day wore on.   EVEN SO, the two running guns all day only accomplished 18 holes.   YES, its a slow process due to the nature of the materials and NOT wanting to break gear.  I may have one more day playing baby-sitter with them, maybe, maybe not.  Will see.

With the turn of the world on its axis, shortened days that only get shorter (for awhile) I started thinking about what I should carry for Kayaking on the weekends.    I am calling it my FourS-T pack : “Shit sucks so Sit Tight” pack.    Nothing outrageous, just a shelter and ammenities, some food for a day or two, and my usual EDC survival stuff.  and of course, some warmer wear for when things go all sideways as they did last year and I almost went down with hypothermia.   Paying attention to weather is essential and sudden drops in temps with chilling rains are bad news.   I wouldn’t have needed the SSSST, then,  but what if I am on one of my longer play days and things go the same direction?   Yeah: shelter in place, get dry and warm and wait it out.    

When the weather gets to the point that the highs are around 40-lo 50’s,,, then the dry suit will come into play, but not before.  A dry top is plenty in most instances (until the water gets below 50 and stays there.  Rule 1: Dress for immersion)  and even overkill most times of the year here.  A good wetsuit, either full or in peices, works well for me.   The drytop is added insurance,

and the Drysuit is more for when playing on moving waters with Brudda B n friends, which may or may not be a thing,, that depends a lot on weather (Rain chasing,,,) and other factors far out of my control(like travel times to X and warning times).   OR, it would be for getting out on some coastal area during the winter seasons,,,,   Thats a future goal, not an immediate aspiration.

About that winter kayaking thing,,,, I get pestered all the time about how crazy I am to get out when its chill,,,    And yet, those are some of my better memories of kayaking.  The most peaceful for certain.   less boats to add noise, just enough to keep the water moving around some.  Not so hot you want to stop at every hint of shade.     The only thing I dislike is the bare branches of sleeping trees.   They give me that melancholy feeling, which is fine, but can be overpowering some days.   The trees go barren, and I start the search for signs of life to hint at on-coming spring.

cycles on cycles on cycles.   Thats LIFE,,, a time to reap, a time to sow,,,,  

I need more time on water, time before the winds of November start to blow and chill my bones and spirit.  

and the weekend is almost upon me,,,,

LIve

laugh

load  

Dunno who, Exactly, but there are people in this world that NEED to heed this.

back with more laters,,,

Livin’, laughin’, loadin’  

had some strange shit pop up on my feeds and yeah, I started to follow them,,,,  Until I realized what the algorithm was doing,,,

Are we manipulated?   When AREN’T we? is the more pertinent question in my minds eye.   

I know when I am NOT being manipulated (though the spying never ceases,,,)  My times where I am not being manipulated are the times when I am on the water or at a campsite (solo,, in group, we tend to share stuff and there is  LIKELY some manipulation going on there as well.    Not from the fellow campers, but the machines we share info on.)

Unplugging and STAYING unplugged are two different things and the one is not feasible in this modern world.   The lady in the linked article found out just how difficult modern life can be if you full on unplug.

Not impossible, but very very difficult.   Hard to spend or make money difficult.  

Even my Da, who has little online prescence, is finding that he needs to ‘plug in’ more and more to get little things done.   Like paying a bill from a company that has decided to go all paperless.   They don’t want to send a bill to his res, and getting them to accept a paper check is getting difficult.    They have been, but I see a day coming,,,,,

Yes, it’s cheaper, less overhead, sort of work,,, let the computers handle the details until there is a glitch that requires hooman intervention (like removing physical hardware from a residence due to non-payment,,,,)  I am even seeing things like HF charging $2/month for paperbilling…   (that came to a screeching halt after I pointed out that I had turned that off THREE TIMES and yet, they kept sending me bills, and there was much apologies on thier end,,,,)  

And the A$$hats wonder why people in fly-over land are so ‘resistant’ to going all digital currency?      We already see how it can be controlled and manipulated; even those of us that are 95% paperless in most transactions.    I still like holding on to cash for those days when things aren’t all working, which does happen time and again.  Power outages, net failures, what have you.   Its not like the net is PERFECT and can’t fail, and it is VERY dependent on a power structure that is iffy on good days.   Even just one server farm getting taken down can cause massive failures around the world, as we have recently seen.    Or like a Christmas day bombing in Nashville that took out AT&T’s infrastructure across a vast swath of CONUS.    I personally had to address a powered gate system that was operated by cellular service, that was supported by ATT at that time.    TOTAL FAILURE and people were trapped within the compound, unable to operate the gate and didn’t know there was a manual bypass system to the gate.  (and the property owner was incommunicado for the very same reason, so couldn’t tell them about it.)

20 years.    30+ if you were more the nerdy type and played on BBS’s and such.    But really, it was the advent of the smart phone that pushed us over the edge to techno slavery.  

What? You claim you are not a slave to your phone, or computer, or tablet?   Its a tool you use to accomplish your life, right?   

read that linked article again.   There are billions of bits of info, flying about the web ABOUT YOU, YOUR DOINGS, YOUR SHOPPING SPREES, YOUR SEARCH STRINGS, YOUR CONNECTED FRIENDS,,,,,,   And its ALL for sale,,,,   and you agreed to that when you click that EULA that NO ONE ever reads,,,,   Someone is making BANK on selling details about YOU, and the only benefit you get is further addiction to a ‘tool that you use to accomplish your life’.

and I am just as guilty.    Dumping the phone would do serious damage to my current world: from banking, to just communication with Da.  

8 million plus IP’s assigned to GiGGles alone.   There are likely not many you access that aren’t on that list.   I can’t even say if the IP that you click to get here isn’t owned by GiGGles,,,, I don’t believe it is, but I can’t say for certain.

I love the modern world, access to information 24/7/365,,, research ANYTHING on a whim and chase rabbits down holes that seem endless,,,   The world I knew as a child, where reading was the only way I could find anything, and access was limited to when I could make it to the library (which once I started being able to ride to town on my bike, was more often).   The school library was way to limited,,, the local library was as well, but I could order books from the main branch if needed.  Then I found about the stacks of the main branch and hooo-boy, did I do a deep dive into things then. 

but now its at my fingertips,,,,

only most people never utilize that tool in such a manner; usually playing some silly game on their fave social media site while awaiting friends to make comments or start conversations.

Even now, I will sometimes turn the phone into a hotspot and leave it outside  while I tap away or dive down rabbit-holes on the lappy.   That way I don’t get distracted by text messages while I am focused on something.   Being connected is way too easy these days, and not neccesarily in a good way.    One of the first chapters in Jim Kwiks book “Limitless” is about disconnecting to refocus your brain.   We all need time away from our Slave Master….

those times for me are as listed above: on water, alone in a campsite, and one other,,, when I plug the phone in for the night IN THE OTHER ROOM AWAY FROM ME!!!     I had a techy link to the phone at one point and that is no longer: a ‘smart watch’ that was mostly a health monitor.   It finally died on me and I decided I really didn’t need to be selling that much information about myself: they get plenty in other ways.   I know I am not healthy like I was in my 20’s: I know my resting pulse is not the 45bpm like it was while I was in the Marines, I know my heart has seen better days so my BP seems a touch higher than I like, but still not concerning.   And my sleep,,,, Well, it has always been hit or miss,,, catch as catch-can sort of thing.    (and why I could fall asleep in Kuwait on top of ammo, and sleep like a baby.   For 30 minutes at a time.)  Yah, they don’t need to know my sleep cycles or that when bossman and I have a tiff, my BP tips into the red,,,fuggem.

There are days where I ‘ALMOST’ wish we could go back to the days of microfiche machines and the Encyclopedia Brittanicas,,,  (then I remember the cardfiles and,,,,)   The kids today have NO CLUE how good they have it,,,,

Keep on livin’

laughing to raise the dead,

and loading like KamelToes’s stormtroopers are on the move.

Let this play in the background as you read,,,,,

Been pestered a time or two about “Get your’n arse to Church!!!”

Wellzzzz, y’all readers here know I am a regular church-goer, even if mine church doesn’t have four walls and a regular congregation.

My question is, ‘Does going to a building to be told about God, vs Sitting in a boat on the waters and holding a conversation WITH God, make me a better person?’    And it doesn’t matter if your version of God is Yehwah, Allah, Brahma, Universe, Is, etc etc etc etc,,,    If you are conversing with the ‘Almighty’, you are leagues ahead of those that must be TOLD, weekly, (3xdaily in Islam) about your beliefs.   Just my Opinion, mind you,,,,

So what if God doesn’t speak to me in words, or thoughts, The Conversation is most definitely two sided and there are, if not ‘reactions’ from the other side, there are influences that are percieved by me as input.    I was sitting there in the boat, near shore, just talking away, had my hands in the water, paddle resting across the coaming. just babbling away,,,    Suddenly, during a particular monologue,,, some fingerlings started nibbling on my fingertips,,,   Is that not some input into the conversation?    Yeah, some would say, ‘they were just eating the dead skin from your fingers,,,   just a natural thing.’    Ummm,,, sure,,,, ya haven’t seen the things I do for a living and that there is ZERO dead skin on my fingers,,,  Chances are, they are rubbed raw, not overly encumbered with excess skin,,,,  

short ‘church’ day, today.   Just a couple of miles on the local MIRROR GLASSS water of Cannon Creek,,, Don’t really like mirrored waters, but did just fine.   My anxieties are purt much defeated it seems. Compared to the tossy-turvy waters of yesterday, this was like sliding across ice.  Lots of sitting; mid-lake, shore line.   Even put in at a favorite spot for a soak of some sunshine while it was still out.   Cloud cover has moved in and while not grey gloomy overcast, there is a decided lack of hard sunlight here. 

Weekends are just way too short,,,, If I weren’t making a concerted effort to pay off the bills I accrued from Buffalo, I’d start taking the Fridays off again.   Not quite back in my comfort zone on the billings,,, Getting there, just not there yet,,,, (and I am probably ticking off some accountant with early payments and killing the principle with double payments,,,, )

I made mentions of a rabbit hole ‘most people suck’ in my earlier post.    Well, I do have that ‘when you are pointing your fingers, you’d better look at the three pointing back at YOU’ outlook, and I did some introspection in that direction while out on the water… Maybe its not that THEY suck, but that I am older, grumpier, and a WHOLE LOT more set in my ways (read as INTOLERANT) than I was 20-30 years ago.   SO,,, Is it that people suck or I am just that old “Get off My LAWN!” type now?   I guess the question answers itself, no?   LOL    That’s ok though,,, I do like me, have grown quite accustomed to my quarks, to include holding conversations with Katz and Dawgums (some of the best ones in experiance) and much prefer the honesty of young’uns and Pets over the posturing of other hamster-wheel occupants.    I only do the hamster wheel because I have yet to write off society as a whole.    Not saying I won’t, not saying I will, but the option is ALWAYS there in the back of my mind.  

Keep on livin’, laugh to rattle the window panes, and load up like the war starts tomorrow.

And keep talking to whatever higher power you believe in,,, he/she/it IS listening,,,,   Maybe if enough saner voices cried out, things would shift away from the progressive bullshit that has become so inundated in our lives.

Caught myself bein’ bad,,,

I was scrolling through Marketplace looking at kayaks,,

Some guys do porn; maybe kayaks are my version,  dunno.

Like I need another boat,,,  I have more than I use, more than I lend out for that matter,,,  (would be different with more friends maybe,,, but that leads down a completely different rabbit hole of ‘most people suck’,,,,)

As for ‘need‘,,, no, I dont need,,, desire though: thats a different animal.   I would like a longer, larger volume version of Lyssa.  Glass bodied (or other composite material) with similar handling but more room for ‘stuff’ and the displacement to carry more ‘stuff’.

Fund-age though,,,,   gotta keep that in mind as well.   Most truly ‘long’ boats double in price, with that added foot or so.

Sigh

Some day.

Till then, Blue Jean is my RV, and Lyssa is my corvette,,,