Flat worn out when I laid down last night, dropped into Lucidity without a blink.  

Piano music; that was the take-way that is  still lingering.  Couldn’t for the life of me try to write it out in notation, but the it was throughout the night, including the ‘visions’,,,  One vision in particular was predominant: A stone tablet, LARGE stone tablet, say full sized pickup truck size, stood on end.   Words inscribed on the surface, but when you tried to focus on them, they scattered like cockroaches and went all blurry.   What it said, not a clue…  My mind wandered over what it meant this morning and one thought was “that was my headstone and it hasn’t been written yet”  but that thought was pushed aside for another, stronger and likely more ‘outside’ influence of “Things are coming to a crux, and that stone will be found when things have reached terminus.”

And this morning I went over to Francis’ place to read THIS   and without permission, I’m gonna pull a quote from it.

     “Not a particularly religious person” covers a whole lot of people: by my lights, just about everyone not in Holy Orders (and quite a few subject to them). But that’s to the side.

I’ve never been one of those ‘particularly religious’ peoples.   In fact, I think that the majority of ‘organized’ religions have been hijacked by power mongers and the messages distorted for control of the masses.   That both the Jew and the Catholic faiths ‘DROPPED’ entire sections of thier writings and claimed it was under the authority of God, says something, especially when you find copies of those removed items and study them.     Heck, even the opening chapters of the Koran are mirrors (despite translation errors) of the opening of the Bible.   That was the basis of TRumps “Abraham Accords” : that there was a common ground between the tribes and peace should be grounded in THAT.

Now as for  Jesus,,, I fought and fought with that whole thing for years.   Mostly because of twists in words over two thousand years.  There are NO RECORDS of Roman origin for a “JESUS”,,,,   but there are tax records (census records, and others) of a “YEASHUAH” .Not new informaton, but new to ME, and it answered many other questions I had.    And there were the letters from Pontius and his wife (and they used the name Yeashuah, not Jesus.)  that were accounts of that time period.    I see now why the zeal of the middle ages was so stong: they had more ‘newer’ information and it hadn’t been hijacked as strongly, nor were the sites buried under decades and decades of urban sprawl and war.

WHAT I believe, is irrelevant to this post.   Do I think Jesus was a ‘nice guy’ or ‘son of God’?    doesn’t matter much, does it?   As Francis points out, “The thing to remember about smart people is that you mustn’t preach to them. You mustn’t press your case on them, no matter how important you believe your message to be. They react badly to it.”

You believe as you believe, I’ll believe as I believe.

Just don’t go trying to force your shit on me at sword point, or gun point (Gives hairy eyeball to Islam and its ilk!)(Side note, I do not beleive the Crusades were ‘trying to convert’, but defending themselves from a very dangerous foe, and taking that ‘defense’ to the offensive because sometimes, thats the only way to ‘make sure’.)

Back to my lucidity for a moment: Big stone, weird face that you can’t read,,,   Was it a vision of future event, or just a subconcious depiction that the future has yet to be written?   I’m gonna go wtih that last one as it bears better to Occams Razor.   Hell, it may be my tombstone that I saw, and that DEFINITELY has not been written yet: LOL.

I can only hope, that this future does not hold the demise of Humanity, and that the stone I saw was the tombstone of us all.

We have too many ‘groups’ that seem very determined to run flat out down that road.  All in the quest for control and power.    Thats an insanity that I would love to see eliminated from our species,,,  

Go see Buhhda, Go see Yeashuah,    They would agree with me that such are a scourge to our species.  (and I do not believe Yeashuah would look kindly on what has happened to his teachings since his ascension.   JUST MY OPINION,,,)

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No intention of this being a downer post, I actually woke with a light heart from my dreaming.   ( I think my mother was the one playiing that piano,,,  Not sure, but there were some odd notes, almost boogie woogie style, that were her ‘signature’,,,, then again, it could have been memories of her playing and my subconcious pulling out old memory files to work with,,,,)  A light heart, not ‘impending doom’.   A lot of people are putting a spin on the upcoming DNC mess in Chicago as being a shit-storm kick off.    I think our shit-storm as kicked off in 2008 and this is just another wave of deluge to come before the tsunami wave hits.   When that is???   Soon,,,  Thats all I can say, and from which direction, Only God knows.

Keep on livin’

keep laughin’ to wake the dead, rattle the window panes and scare the angels blue.

and keep loading those damned shelves and magazines like the hoards of zombies were outside the walls (our enemies are already inside the walls, so’sssss)

There is a point where I should have crossed,  but didn’t recognize where I was,  so added another mile or so to my trip.   Its that big loop where the lines seriously diverge.

I was getting quite tired at that point,,, Still holding steady speed of nearly 4mph,,,   That during hard winds from the south-west, and good sized swell action going on.   Some of them easily took the front deck under water to the cockpit.  That slows a body down a bit, and makes for more work to get back up to speed.

But damn were they fun!!!

Looking at the track, there is one area where the line is orange.   I had picked up a passenger and she was dragging me down big time (seeing how she was still in the water holding onto my back toggle: TONS of drag on my poor upper body,,,)    She had fallen off the tow-able float and the driver didn’t notice at first,,,  I was right nearby when it happened, so I swung over and had her grab on while I towed her to the boat that had finally came to a stop.    It was about this time where I took my wrong turn,,,,

I started realizing I took a wrong turn when the waves started dying down.   I knew I had exited the main channel at that point, and I didn’t have my chart with me and the phone was tucked up in my PFD (can’t read it in that light anyways, even with the backlight maxed.)  It was as I rounded a point and saw a little finger of land I had been on before that I started making that turn to cross back over and make the trek BACK to the main channel.

And when I hit it, the wave action was even more energetic.   No complaints, I have my sea legs back, but paddling ‘uphill’ can be a challenge, and there were a few times where that was exactly how it felt.

that last slog across the bay to the boat ramp, there is a loopy in the middle.    I dropped my waterbottle and had to hook back around to retrieve it.

Lady at the ramp had sat there and watched me cross the whole way.   She said I must have ‘brass balls to get in that dinky boat in those waves’…

Funny, when they are hitting like that, they don’t phase me at all; just another day at the office, keep paddlin’.  I worry more about getting ran over by some drunken fool boat operater than I do the waves.   (and part of why I leave the water before the late afternoon/evening hits,,, the alky-haul usually starts getting hit heavy then,,,, )   BUT, that crossing did me in,,, I had to sit on the backdeck and get my strength back before I even contemplated getting Buffalo and getting all that gear up to the truck from the water.

I’m getting stronger,,, and slowly getting some stamina back, but its harder to do when I only really go out once a week.   I could probably hold a lower speed and do it all day long, but my muscle memory keeps kicking in and I paddle like a metronome: don’t even think about it, just keep going.   I don’t even think about sweep strokes or bracing strokes or any of that while out there; its all on automatic now.   Still, it takes energy and that runs down with time.  

Gonna say it: Mark Ervin was a danged machine to be able to paddle 10000km in a year.   30 to 40 miles a day,,,   Try it just once and you will see just how much it takes to do a third of that.   wow.

Time for a shower, eats and feeds of the kittehs.   Then dawgums is gonna wanna walkie to leave badCuz a gifty,,, (evil smirk)  

Keep on livin’, laughin’ and loadin’

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.