sumpin a little different
(in honor of the holiday)
I’ve talked about my beliefs here a time or two. I would like to point you to a post by Francis first,,, GO read please
I’ve said I am more pagan than christian, and a lot of that has to do with how the Roman Catholics absconded certain holidays to ease reforming the pagan religions. Easter was spring rite, Hallows Eve was another,,, Saints day, same, you name, there is a pagan equivalant somewhere. Not going to go into that too much, just pointing out that there were some things like that in the faith that made me begin questioning the integrity of the whole.
Fact is, the whole argument is a negative assumption, not provable, not disprovable. Too many points where witnesses outnumber the written facts, but, as Francis points out in that article; those that would be writing down the events were under different constraints, different motives, different GOALS,,, Those that wrote the events as described in the bible and other records were the devote, and those that were not, might have been impelled to massage or outright quell the event ‘for reasons’,,,,
It wasn’t until I started diving into Quantum mechanics (and I am no expert by any degree, just an avid hobbiest at best) that I started to put some questions to myself that started to add up, along with the beliefs of the Christian faith to ‘THAT MAKES SENSE NOW’ There are still aspects that I take as “propaganda manipulation’ and I think I am justified in that since Religion in all its aspects is about as old as the human race is,,, some say the oldest profession ever (harlotry being the second,,,,) And why not, those that were smart enough to scare the tribal leaders, but weak enough that they needed an edge; sure, make up some mumbo jumbo about spirits that do evil if you don’t do this,,,etc etc etc,,,,
Funny how that works out to “maybe there IS a bit of truth out there”. Such as boiling water, or not eating pork, We know now why those are correct, but back in 500BC, how did the clerics of the Jews know,,, Simple observation and deduction; then twist in a bit of starry eyed reverence and make it Taboo for relgious reasons,,, Yeah, I might be putting some bias in my thinking since I hold little regard for organized religions.
More wars, death and misery have come from the various religions over time. Will again if things continue along certain paths,,,, The Crusades were never ‘finallized’ ya-know,,,,
But let me pass on all of that for a moment. Let me tell ya how I started to ‘come around.’ The whole Quantum Cloud thing started making me formulating my theory that we are “interfaces” or, to parrot a movie “Avatars” of our quantum selves, that we visit this realm for lessons, or vacation, or something, but that, due to the nature of the physical, we can’t bring all of our aspects with us, like our REAL memories. (and that explains some of the stories of very young children having “wierd memories” that they lose very quickly as they gain deeper harmony with the world around them. I know there are ‘memories’ that I have, that ‘aren’t mine’ perse,,, Things that there is no way I could have experenced the events I recall, and details that can’t be ‘explained away’. I won’t go into that here though.)
Now, we have this quantum cloud thing that is slowly being proven as fact, we know that the quantum do not ‘recognize’ time, or space like most particles and atoms, we know and have (mostly) proven and disproven many theories in quantum mechanics,
but there is one aspect that rings true across two places. One is the research itself, the other is the bible. THe deeper we look, the more we find and that rabbit hole looks to be infinitely deep. There is a quote in the bible of “the deeper you look, the more you will find ME.” (and apologies, I do not recall where that quote is ot to whom those words were intended, but I firmly recall hearing/reading them in my past. Maybe someone more learned in such things than myself can enlighten us in comments)
There is also the fact that more and more Quantum scientists, who usually start of as athiest or agnostic, become quite firmly Christian in short order,,, I don’t think that is accidental, or conspiracy, I think they find “Faith” is the ultimate answer at the end of the day,
Why? Because the more they uncover, the less the ‘rules’ work,,, Something directs those particles to do what they do (and why the search for the “God Particle’ is ongoing.) And that time and space are seemingly meaningless to the particles,,, Like Tachyons, that are ALWAYS detected BEFORE a nuclear reactor starts; almost as if it travels backwards in time,,,, There was some discussion in a group of friends about creating a nuclear war sensor using tachyon dectecton. but was shot down fast, since the detection is usually in microseconds,,, thats too short a time frame to be of use against nuclear war,,,,
Let me make a suggestion, totally hypothetical on my part. What if our history that we call ‘our history’ back to such and such a point, isn’t COMPLETE? That there is lost knowledge from long before our written histories, (and there is evidnce of this in some of the Seven wonders of the world) And that those that came before some collapse that didn’t make it thorugh to the pages we know, (like some epic flooding or something,,,) that was MUCH MORE IN TUNE with the quantum realm. Look around for the Circle of Life markings, that show up with regular frequency, all around the world, in archeology.
And what if some of that knowledge DID make it through and became religous teachings,,, such as the Chakras of asiatic medicine. We DO KNOW that the Old Testament is taken from the Torah of Jewish heritage. What we don’t know (but can make the assumption) is how much of that was orginially and STRICTLY oral traditon? and for how long? What was lost in translation? How much was INTENTIONALLY lost in translation because some group didn’t like some aspect?
No one knows. I don’t believe anyone can know because any that would be guilty of such have been dust longer than the tablets and scrolls ‘the word’ was taken from.
Keep the important stuff, cull the dregs,,, except someones definition of dregs might have held something important, that tied other things together, and the rot would spread,,,,,
And I digress,,,
What we know, and this is still growing: muscle memory is real. ‘Gut instincts/gut feelings’ are real. We know that what was thought of how the brain functions is woefully inadequate to explain what it actually does, and that its not just what is held within the cranium, but along much of that path as described in the Chakras. Either the ancients were far better at physical observation than we (YES!) or they were privy to communications with God/Creator/Author/The Cloud, that we are not.
and oh, you have no idea how that “why?” goes through my brainium in the wee darks,,,,,
Let me talk about the person that this day is in honor of, his death to be precise. Died on the cross, laid in a tomb, rose from the dead, appeared before congregations of people (supposedly world-wide by some modern peoples beliefs.) than ascended to heaven.
One thing that keeps coming back is how Christ, was not a solitary individual, but a TRINIITY,,, God, Son and the Holy Ghost. That could be another way of saying “strongly connected to the cloud” in words to convey an idea that didn’t exist at that time. Just my thoughts on that, BUT, that many many witnesses of the events prior, the miracles, then the roll out of events after death,,,, All could be explained by someone that was strongly connected to the quantum realms and able to manipulate the particles that have no respect of time or space, and that make up MATTER,,,, If I had that sort of ability, Yeah, I could make water solid enough to walk on, or ‘create’ food at will, I could see/sense illness and affect the causes of it and CURE the afflicted,,,, I could stall the separation of the quantum chord and my body, so that I could reanimate it. I would imagine the release of energy to do that would be strong enough to alter cloth so that it could form an image,,, (the shroud for those in question)
I can also see how some Groups in Power at the time would not want such word spreading to widely or at all. (the lack of records of a person of Christs’ nature by the Romans who were meticulous records keepers.) And that explains much of why the disciples were “outlaws” and treated as such when caught. And maybe Christ was able to pass on some of his ability/nature/whatever it is, on to his disciples, so that they too, could effect miracles (and were recorded as doing such in a few cases)
Maybe what he taught them was that ‘This reality isn’t real, only your thoughts are,,,,”
And that takes a HEADY amount of faith to transcend into.
So, lets make a small assumption that there is some meat on the bones of my hypothesis,,,, WHAT IS HEAVEN? WHO/WHAT IS GOD? Where does ‘Hell’ fall into this line of thinking? Start with the first one, and that one leads into the second, and THIS IS ALL MY OPINION, but it works for me and keeps my spirit/soul content,,, (faith!)
Heaven is THE CLOUD, a Cloud of Quantum material that is scattered about the universe. Its not ‘visible’, only recently been detectable, and no one knows just how big or dense or, well, nothing much known, and leave it at that. BUT, if that cloud were consolidated thoughts of creatures, than the cloud is US,,,, ALL OF US,,, some more complicated than others, some less, some more intune with things, some fast, some slow: and when I say “US”, I mean every single human, furrie, fish, plant, and rock. EVEN THE EARTH (though I have yet to figure out how that would work,,,,but Gaia does ‘vibrate’ and show long movements as if alive so to speak.) “Heaven” would then be that cloud where we combine with the group, share our experiances, whiz about the universe and do different things as different sorts of beings.
So WHO/WHAT is GOD? We are,,, even here, where we are but a miniscule part of our real selves, we make up a part of that thing called Heaven and Heaven IS God,,,, WE were created in his image, and in doing so, we took a part of him as ourselves,,,, TO ABUSE THAT IS THE WORST SIN!!!
Is that blasphemy? Probably to some, but I find peace in it, and I have used it to ‘correct’ some wayward drogues I had the ‘pleasure’ of being in close contact with. Prefacing that idea as “we are all GOD, and we need to act as such” really seemed to hit them sideways with a clue bat. That could be part of that ‘heady amount of faith’ to transcend into.
Now, What the Hell is Hell? Hmm,,,, First off, the whole idea of Hell really was what turned me off from the teachings when I was a kid. For the preacher to say “God is unbridled love” then to follow it up with “but you’ll burn in hell for,,,,,” Let me just say that a 6YO could see the fallacies and discrepencies in the teachings,,,, Now, with that in mind, I do think GOD has some way of punishing us (we punish ourselves really) and that way is, IN SOME INSTANCES, Right here,,,,, On earth,,, we get tortured, torn, destroyed mentally and spiritually, RIGHT HERE< RIGHT NOW, at least some of us do. I can think of one right now, that even though he knows the solution, can not back out of his personal Hell,,,, He may go his entire life in that Hell,,, And as a quantum being, that knows neither time nor space,,, that may seem like an eternity,,, OR even the blink of an eye, and I would imagine the CLOUD has some say in the perception. So, yeah, I think in some ways, Hell is right here, right now, and those of us that seem ‘middlin’ in pain and discomfort are in the Purgatory side of things, Learning some lesson that needs learned for whatever purpose,,,
And IMO, those purposes are to make us ‘closer to God’.
And some of us have a long road ahead to that end. Maybe even multiple trips ‘here’ to do so. (explains the reincarnation side of Eastern philosophies, no?)
I think all religions older than ‘the birth of Christ’ have some merit and are tied together in some way shape or form. Most of those after that fact are either factions of an older one, or some silliness created in a cave by some loser pedophile who was on the run,,,, Most of the modern religions (like evangligcal baptists herebouts) seem twisted to me and really buried in dogma that contradicts the purpose of a religion. My opinion, YMMV.
And I will leave you with those thoughts for the day,
((as for the “Demons” and other agents of evil,,,, All I have to say on that is “They are real” and you only need to look around to find it in action. That aspect is covered by ‘fallen angels’ and such: they are the same as us in fact, but warped maligned and dangerous to the GOOD,,,,))
Good vibes day,,, except for some gnats,,,
Home, late afternoon, finished fairing the repairs on Lyssa, and masked off her Gunwale lines. A little acetone wipedown to get rid of greasy Dio and Grizz tracks and mixed up the epoxy paint. 4 oz first coat, and the shine is to die for.
Second coat, wanna get it on quick as the temps are starting to fall, another 4oz mix. (resin, hardener, white pigment) and start rolling it on. That shine starts getting even better.
Go in house to take care of a download I had started and a small learning curve on a new to me piece of equipment (Cricut stencil cutting ‘printer’, It has uses beyond making stickers, trust me.) (another Muchos Gracias out to B and T,,,,) Print out my first sticker (I did say ‘learning curve’, ya gotta start somewhere.) and then go check on Lyssa.
Well now. Dammit,,,
Dropping temps, gnats came out and I now have a half dozen STUCK to Lyssa’s hull. Other than that, I am quite pleased with the whole thing. But the damned bugs just made my job a bit harder,,, Gonna let her cure for a couple days then wetsand her down with 1000 grit and buff her back to that shine I am seeing. Maybe the only parts of the gnats that I have to deal with are their microscopic legs and that will be just fine by me. I hopes anyways,,,,
Frillin’ bugs!!! Hatez ’em!!!
And in my earlier post, I said that I was not going to get anymore water time before the double nickles day,,,,WRONG!!!! Bossman texted me this afternoon and told me “labor day, take off muhnday”. Dammit! I knew it was but was hoping that it had slipped his mind and that we would get a day in. Well, I could,,,except my job right now requires a second back to move the peices around with me. If there is no one else showing up (and you know they won’t) I ain’t building that monster gate, SO, I take a lake day, OR I tear into Buff like a bad habit and have a truck down for a couple of days. (I have intentions of starting on her after this upcoming weekend/birfday,, has plans with friends and don’t wanna F! ’em up,). As of right now, Lyssa is ‘watching paint dry’ or cure as the case may be, Buff is piddlin’ stuff I can handle that won’t hold her up for days on end, and Domestic duties that happen every sunday,,, So monday,,,
yeah,,, get wet,,,
(notice no pics? Yeah,,, I’m home and the signal out here sucks big green greasy donkey dicks,,,, When i was at the lake earlier, the signal was spot on and I was able to load that vid in just a few minutes, not DAYS like out here, or hours for a simple (reduced quality) pic,,,,)
Revelations,,,
And not of the biblical sort. This post is about some random connections that hit me over the last 48 hours,,, since someone I saw and the something they were doing,,,,
First off, all of these indictments against Trump,,, Total backlash is coming,,, A couple of people here local, that hadn’t voted Trump, didn’t like him, and declined to vote the last run are now saying “I’m voting for him now since they are obviously scared of him, and that tells me they are up to no-good”. I have to believe that this is not just a ‘local’ thought process. All of these indictments are to do one thing only, and obviously so: keep him so tied up in legalities that he can’t campaign, but what they aren’t expecting is how much the vitriol they are pouring is flowing back on them, and when it ignites,,,, WhoommmpFFFFF!!!!!
I can’t wait, and my popcorn is gonna get stale, but its coming,,,,And I don’t give a rats ass if Trump gets the election or not, I want to see that fireball of demon-crap-tic peeps when it goes up. And some of the Toadies on the Repugnant-can’t side as well, *cough*Mcconnell*cough-cough*
as for other parts of the Revelations I am in thrall to currently,,, CBDC’s. you’ve prolly heard the term, but let me define it for those not in the know: Central Bank Digital Currencies. Basically, The Fed creating something like BitCoin and making it THE DEFACTO currency of the US, and doing away with ALL paper transactions. Lots of credible fear mongering going on around that little thing “They” are trying to push out, but let me tell you right now,
IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN.
And the why it ain’t? War on Drugs/Mexican Cartels. Clandestine Arms deals across the board. I’ll start with the arms deals first, and from an angle you may not expect. We are sending mad components of war to KraineFeld and Krew to combat Russia,,, Now if this were a legit war, which we had some skin in, (we don’t, Biden and Co. might, but the people of the US: nopes.) we would be ramping up our war machine BIG TIME. I don’t see certain factories re-opening, I don’t see triple shifts at Boeing, and I DO read about them mothballing the Warthog,,,, Let me tell you how DRMO works at the unit level, as far as I can remember (and BCE can concur or correct me here) It’s time to get new gear, but your unit has too much already (there are accounts for this) so your command tells you to send ‘this many units’ to DRMO. Now, you aren’t going to send your top of the line stuff to the scrap yard, HELL NO! You find the rotten-ist crap you have, strip if whats still usable, “bag and tag” it with all the proper nomenclature and roll it out to processing. The Unit gets FULL CREDIT for the gear as if it were new, and those credits are what get your new gear.
So we have entire sections of the DOTMIL right now being told to send gear to the front, (not quite DRMO, but close enough) and the ‘mechanics’ of the logistics work the same, Unit sends their crappiest stuff, Unit gets credit for “as new” gear.
NOW, its shipped out to some country, might even get some retro-fits done to make it look nice for the cameras, but its still the rotten apple no one wanted. Krainefelds peeps know this, know they haven’t the back infrastructure to support it, and sell it to whomever will buy it, and kick back a certain amount of the proceeds: “Keep the toys coming please”
Those last actions don’t happen with electronic payments, They happen in CASH, and that cash gets laundered around until it can be transferred into digital realms and passed on in large amounts without attracting ‘too’ much attention.
Much the same as the way the Cartels work, or the kiddie traffickers, or any number of the other “Dark Arts” that are slowly coming to light as being much larger than Joe Six-pack EVER suspected.
The reason of this revelation: I bumped into someone I know from many many years ago at the lake XXXXXXXXXXX. Kinda surprised to see this person and his S.O. They were playing with big water toys, and sporting out of state Registration tags on them. But they weren’t straying too far from the ramp, at first. We talked a bit, he still remembered how we met (and I am not divulging that for reasons you’ll understand in a moment, even talked about kayaks and stuff, and how he thought maybe he should get into kayaks more, Then they took off around the bend. I wasn’t following them, just paddling (No way I could have followed them if they were running fast) , but I ran into them again, and this time, it was with them tied off to a boat, and they were exchanging ‘items’, some from the boat, most from their toys.
He’s now a mule. And I bumped into them making a drop, and getting paid.
That’s not how I know of him. We never worked for the same people, but we did contract in the same field, and our paths crossed several times over the years. Not a friend, but certainly no enemy either, and even as I saw them making the drop, he waved “hi” and carried on as if nothing was out of the ordinary. I did get the hairy eye-ball from those on the boat, but I kept on a-goin’,,,,,
These CBDC’s are never going to happen because those in power KNOW if they did, the games would have to stop. You may be able to funnel funds around in power, but you can’t get the addicts to pay if the banks are in control of their money, and the base of all of these ‘DarkArts” is the guy on the street, paying cash for his fix,,,, The mules want paid in large bills, thick stacks of them, and that won’t happen with some digital ones and zeros in a phone app,,,
And think of all the pallet-loads of cash this country has shipped off to places like Affy, Iran, etc etc,,, You don’t think that was out of ‘good christian charity’ do you? Hell NO!, that was ‘here, lots of cash to buy stuff with” and “we’ll buy our stuff back so we can launder this mess the secretary of state has created’,,,, Or something very similar,,,,
Again, I can’t wait for the fireball forthcoming,,, my popcorn will go stale and beer will get skunky before the show starts, but by GOD, it won’t go the way “They” keep pushing, and what comes next is going to be EPIC. Dunno how long it will take, but I have full trust that it won’t be as fucked up as things are now. The only downside: its gonna get really ugly between now and then…. People in power NEVER willingly relinquish it,,,,
And I find I am at peace with things right now. I know pay-back is coming to those that thought they could steal what would have been given freely, if only they weren’t so self-centered and greedy.
I want my country back, and it looks like we may get it: maybe a little battered and bruised from all the fun and games of late, but OURS,,,
Happy only starts the description
Yeah, this is the “glorify Lyssa” post that I can well believe a few of y’all saw comin’.
How to describe the difference between two boats, of different materials but nearly identical design (nearly because the decks are completely different with only small tweaks below the water line,,,). While I can’t describe things perfectly (my butt doesn’t know english and the translation gets a might garbled) I can describe the differences in performance at the water level,,, Putting one (BJ) on edge, where you lift one knee and ‘lean’ (not really) in the direction you want to go (the boat leans out, you lean in,,,) does absolutely nothing without driving the paddle harder on the outside of the turn. In the other boat, the same motion and she is taking that turn with grace and NO OTHER INPUT required. Any other input only amplifies the motion or hinders it, depending on what it is. Too much on the inside and she goes straight, more on the out and she is nearly spinning on her center axis.
Love the hell out of Blue Jean, and she has her forever home with me, but she is not Lyssa, nor is Lyssa her,,, two completely different characters with distinct differences that make for two very loved boats. Lyssa is more like Lizzy in how fast she is, but more like BJ in how she handles things: Lyssa is more like a Standard Nordkapp when it comes to how she handles edge and leans.(Lizzy is an HM, with a fixed skeg/keel: straight tracking like a freight train). She fits the bill between Lizzy and BJ that I was looking for. IF I were to use animals to describe them, I would say that Lizzy is that 8 month old colt, all abuzz with get up and go, skittish when bored, and ready to run, run, runrunrunRUN,,, Blue Jean is that 5 year old, Amish raised mule that pulls the family around country roads and doesn’t spook at even the most obnoxious exhaust pipes. Lyssa,,,The two year old mare that has good sense, but is still looking to play, and may play a game of ‘nip the behind’ when you least expect it, but is content to run around the pasture for fun.
When I was doing the one crossing that had me a little goosed looking at it from the distance, I pulled the skeg back up because it was doing me a disservice being down. Even at half-mast, it was grabbing the rebound waves and twisting me around towards the cliff face that I was trying to stay away from: with the skeg up, the waves were pushing the stern out, while the wind was cocking it ‘in’, and I was doing exactly what I wanted to do, which was travel a straight line along the cliff face and get to calmer waters. Skeg down the waves had more ‘push’,,, I am learning the heck out of this boat and MYSELF again. And that IS what I wanted in a fiberglass boat: growth. That she punches waves in the face and laughs about it (they slap me back by climbing in my lap and making for a wet ride) is only a plus, (I do have concerns about her ‘pitch-poling’ in surf, and have read that this model is known for it: pitch poling is when the bow drives under so hard it impacts the bottom and ‘pitches you’ as if you were on the end of a pole. Good thing we don’t really have surf around here,,, Boat wake is the most I see,,, And Lyssa won’t be taken on white water, where that might be an issue.)
Now, full admission, I have been in much taller water in other boats that did well. (Serena on Cumberland lake when The Ohio Navy was let out of lockdown in 2020,,). What we saw today was minor to that day, but the memory of how Serena handled the waves was “Right There”, I even had the feeling I was still moving in waves when I hit the no wake zone (didn’t get motion sickness, just had that ‘things is moving, but they ain’t,,,” feelz going on.). But, she had one thing Serena didn’t have: SPEED. I checked in a couple of places and I could have her up to that 5 point sumpin mark in about 10 strokes of the blades. I was digging hard to do it, but she did it anyways, and once there, I could let up a touch (still needed to power on,) and hold it close for a spell. That is not fast,,,, Thats BLOODY FAST, and I am not sure Lizzy could match it (more boat to get up to speed.). Lizzy could hold it longer, but she had more mass to hold the inertia, and longer waterline.
and the other advantage of Lyssa vs Lizzy: easier access to cargo holds. Larger hatches (that are now or will soon be weatherproofed)
One downside to today though; My carbon fiber Greenland Paddle is taking on water these days. Still quite functional, holds its own as a paddle, but after an hour, has gained weight: lifting 2# every stroke is a lot easier than lifting 5# every stroke. and when you are lifting a paddle 1000+ times a mile, that adds up to “woOF!!!”. I have another brand (not Chinee like my current one) but its sorta pricey and won’t be ‘gotten’ anytime soon, and the means is being set aside a little here, a little there. And since I do not think I will have that new blade in hand for the SKAW, I am going to start making a set of wooden blades that I can splice into the CF loom of said current paddle and not have a paddle that incrementally gets heavier as I get more tired. No rush, easy after work over a couple of weeks project, but one that today became “do this soonest” over other kayaky projects I have. (and that front hatch leak was very minor, it can wait a bit.). If you don’t recall, the SKAW is a 13 mile race, open flat water (two 6.5 mile laps). Don’t want to run in that with the handicap of a paddle that gains weight the more you use it.
Hell, I’m single and an empty-nester: what else do I have to do on those nights when all the other stuff is either done or on hold for weather???
(debating on Lyssa/Lizzy for the race seeing how they are both fast boats and Lizzy is plenty stable, so long as you don’t stop moving,,,)
So, for the TL;DR crowd that scrolled down here to see if I had anything else to say: Lyssa is MY BOAT now, and our friendship grew in leaps and bounds on that lake today. Very happy and all the trials and tribulations of getting her, to include the ‘fight with Da’,,, was worth it.
Been a touch bizzy
Just lettin’y’all know, I am still here, posting may be lite, mostly because there ain’t amuch to yap about,,,,
well, theres PLENTY to yap about, but is it worth sitting down and tapping out a post about the latest distraction, or some Cesna and the pilot passing of ‘sudden’ crashing in Virginia,,,
Or the latest krazy that I am into,,, Trucks and kayaks, trying to keep my Buffalo moving under her own power, and making an older kayak seaworthy again,,,,
or that I am getting 9 hour days in at the J.O.B. and that seems great, until you realize that ALL of that extra lucre needs to pay off debts that WERE getting knocked down until Buff decided to frag me and my finances,,, She didn’t kill me, but all that headway I had made was splattered on the alley walls like so much gruesome grafitti. Again, could have been much worse, but thanks to you guys, wasn’t,,, Many thanks and I can’t say it enough…
As for the more hours thing going on at the J.O.B.,, Most of it krew leading, and ‘putting out fires’… Not fires in my shop, since I haven’t fired up the welder since sometime last week. I need to check my shielding gas tanks, not sure I have any full ones that aren’t on the rig, and that needs rectified soonest since I DO have welding jobs forthcoming that will require more than one tank to finish. (even though I run at barest minimum of flow since we no longer have a supplier close,, can only order once a week for scheduled wednesday delivery.)
About Lyssa, the blood red kayak,,, That hatch is fixed, but man, that was a mess to do. They afix the hatch rings when the deck is not attached to the hull, and that makes the way they do it flat easy. Since I am not going to seperate the hull/deck to fix one little ring (Oh Hell no!!) I had to make some strange and troublesome yoga moves. That ring is now fixed but in doing it, I mucked up some of that work I had done on the skeg and now have to pull the seat pan, again,,, sigh,,, My addiction, my zen thing, and there is USUALLY a price to pay for such. I am paying mine. But the compartment holds 5psi for 30 minutes and no bubbles anywhere to be found. (rear compartment still has a leak somewhere: she won’t hold pressure, but I haven’t found any bubble spots. May be in the rear where the toggles are located, I hadn’t looked there,,, if so, I live with it, that area is complicated and near unreachable from inside.)
Buffalo is doing well for now,,, Been working on pulling donor parts in the evenings when I am ‘watching paint dry’ on Lyssa. I want everything off and ready for when I start to swap parts on the real deal because I don’t want to be without transportation for more than 48 hours at any given point. Preferably 24 but I am a realist, I know engine/transmission swaps can be a DAYS affair, even with full shop access,,, I have shade-tree(or carport if you prefer full honesty), gravel drive, and hand tools,,, My one power tool is my dewalt impact driver (which rocks, but has limits,,,) and the rest is busted knuckles stuff (but Snap-on, Mac, and Cornwell,,, Quality tools that have served me well for three decades,,, If ya wanna borrow them, its full price down with 95% back to you on safe returns. Sorry, gonna protect those tools like they were me own fingers…)(and I found a local Cornwell dealer that isn’t an ass like the Snappy dealer, that won’t honor the handtool warranty…)
Gonna be long humpday, clocks are winding down today, even though I haven’t done all I intended to do tonight. Did take a big chunk out of them though…
more tomorrow, maybe early post before things take off on me.
Good and bad,,,
the bad: no work today,,, Asked if I should take the rest of the week off (I have a reason I desire this, later in post) and was laughed at, but that still means NO WORK TODAY,,, dammit,,,
I kind of expected it,,, Usual this time of year; schools letting out, fams headed out for vakay, businesses are changing up footing for summer,,. We usually drop off around this time and my custom work drops off comptetely,,, still, kinda sucks on the timing of things, seeing how I just recovered from a set-back that cost me (and you, and a very sincere thank you in order for those that helped fund Buff and mine’s recovery of Transpo,,,)
Thats life, move on,,,
So I came home and did stuff here, like trimming my weeds, placating kats because they despise the line trimmer,,,
And digging deeper into Lyssa. Fixed that leaky skegbox, and pretty much had to take her apart to do it. Nothing needed removed from the decks, but I did have to take apart the cable lines, and to get to the control box, I had to take out the seat pan. I even played and put the seat pan from the Necky Chattum in it, just to see. Didn’t like, felt like it raised my CG by 1/2″ or so. That makes a difference in ‘liveliness’ of the ride and Lyssa already feels spritely. anyywhooos,, the Skeg box was a simple fix, just needed to reseal the cable tube at each end, but to do that I had to take it all apart and clean the parts up so the sealer would stick. Funky design, and more complicated than I like, but it works and I figured out some tricks for the re-install.
And my added coaming worked out great. I haven’t tested it on water yet, but I did put the skirt on and did some serious wiggling around to try and pop that edge loose. Seems like its going to work. And its strong. Much stronger than I expected. I was able to pick up the whole boat by the coaming. I figured ‘if this breaks it, it was gonna break anyways’,,,, Held just fine. After I put everything back together I mixed up a thin batch of resin and pigment and ‘painted’ the repair area to smooth out my sanding mark and make it match the rest of the coaming better. You can still see it but its not as obvious.
And I put hip pads in her to ‘tighten’ the feel of the cockpit. I have such a narrow hind side, that even a 16″ wide cockpit feels loose to me. LOL Even though I am 6′, I have to use medium or low volume boats or I feel like I am wallowing in a bathtub.
And she is ready for the weekend. B and Fam are at the lake already, and why I was ‘hoping” that Bossman and Son would be willing to let me ride out a week,,,, Oh well. Not this time and I do need the income, so I ain’t complaining about that, just the fact that I am off on a weekday and essentially ‘on hold’,,, Itsux,,,
So, when I do get the chance to head out (likely friday eve) I am only taking Lyssa with me. Not enough time to play with multiple boats and I want even more time in her yet, preferably out of the No Wake zones,,, and now that the skirt holds, time playing with rolls. I already have a feel for her speed, (fast, but not as fast as Lizzy) And yup, I could take her to the lake or river today, but I would rather give that sealer 24 hours to cure up without strain,,, All that pulling stuff apart to get at the culprit,, naw,,, let her sit
Thursday EoD mind dump
Probably gonna get tagged with that title but so what.,, (EoD, end of day,,, or Explosives Ordinance and Demolitions,,, end of day in this case)
Wandered over to BCE’s place and found he had posted an early post (as he is on the road for the day headed to his mountain home away from home)
Been keeping my thoughts to meself over many things, but sometimes, there comes a point where ya gotta say your peace, and this time, BCE pulled that rabbit out of the hat and
Have to absolutely without a doubt agree with this’un,,,,
And I got to thinking of that definition of ‘mental disorder/insanity’: that insanity is defined by society, and those that step out of that definition are ‘Insane”. Its all subjecttive,,, The Aztecs would be considered insane in todays world, total homicidal maniacs: yet in their society, ripping the still beating heart out of a (rapidly dying) still alive person was considered a religious event, to be shared and celebrated. We would be considered ‘bug nutz insane’ for thinking otherwise.
That subjective thing,,, its also called “A MAJORITY”, and to those people like the one that will not be linked, Dylan Mulvaney,,,, Y’all ain’t a majority despite your getting inordinate amounts of press coverage. Last I read, y’all don’t even make up a full percentage point,,, What you are is a useful tool for those that wish to destroy a country without firing a shot on it, and you are their tool to humiliate THE MAJORITY into surrender mode. Hope that gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling, knowing that in reality, you are ‘the useful idiot’. AH, but then your actions show your delusional realm and we shouldn’t expect you to understand what happens to all the useful idiots when the game makers ‘win’,,,
So, yeah, Chop it off or KNOCK IT OFF, and let the adults take back over dammit!!! We are all getting a little tired of the bullshit gaslighting that such types help feed.
End of Day, end of week for me, start to the weekend. Plans made, but not sure I can attend to them or not. Buffalo is being her ‘you got money, I want new parts‘ self again. Like I expect otherwise, considering she has near 300K on the odo,, Just gets a little old after several weekends of wrenching,,, I may say to heck with it, and push the limits and go play instead. Gonna reach out to the others and see how the land lay there.
And I have a conundrum taking place in my skull as well. Short version, Found another kayak (and the peanut gallery groans,,,) fiberglass version of one I have been eyeballing since before I picked up Lizzy, and the price is right, BUT,,, I would have to sell Lizzy to make the deal doable without killing my finances with blunt force trauma. I have the Vizcaya that needs moved as well, but that would only alleviate the financial pain, not equalize it.
Most of y’all know that Lizzy seemed to be ‘divine intervention’ and I keep hesitating on making the call due to the way I acquired her. (Dio, its JUST a boat,,,). yup, that thought keeps passin’ in the forebrain, then the hindbrain jumps and starts screaming about ‘bad karma’ and other krazy things,,,
And I know how this plays out,,, I put Lizzy up for sale, and the day that I sell her, that other boat gets sold out from under me, and I am looking again,,, That seems to be the luck I have. Happened two (three?) years ago with a P&H Sirius,,, Sold the boat I wanted to part with to buy the other, and boom, it was sold to someone else,,,
OR— I go ahead and make the buy, then am sitting on Lizzy for months and months and months, trying to get my financial house back in order,,,,
Tough call,,,
And I may do a reach out and offer ‘Earnest Money” to hold the boat. Not sure how that would pan out, or if the trust department is strong enough (in this day, trust is fleeting unless close friends.). The only reason I am even considering it right now is with how well work is going for me,,, We hit our dry spells, but right now I am going pretty well, even with a four day work week. That may not hold after the summer months,,,,
sad panda Dio, wants and needs aren’t all the same thing, and I DO know better than pushing for wants over needs,
What I want is what I’ve not got, and what I need, is all around me,,,,,
I’ll figure things out and while I may not be happy, I will be content,,, Guess that’s all any of us can ask for in these days, no?
It’s called life,,,
Feeling much better today. Whatch’all didn’t know was that I put new wheelbearings on Buffalo yesterday. Yes, while fighting of internal buggies n such, but before I tipped the bottle,,,
and that wasn’t the danged problem.
Pretty much knew it when I jacked up the front end and didn’t get ANY wobble or wiggle out of the suspected bad side. (note, I just did wheel bearings on her two years ago, and those were definitely bad). well, money spent, send it. go through all the motions and I slways do suspension parts in pairs: anything else is false economy.
and the noize was exactly the same as before.
Low Differential fluid,,, Topped of the front diff and the noize abated. GM front drives are always in motion, just not fully engaged across both wheels.
I feel a bit miffed that I didn’t figure that out before I went and spent a chunk of cash on the parts. BUT, I have two good bearings sitting on the shelf for the future (not a danged thing wrong with them so I boxed em and when/if these bearings start to fail, there they are.).
Its one thing to be mad at myself for a simple (NEWB) mistake, but then, I am not turning wrench everyday like I usedta back in the day…. Nor is my hearing all that these days. That I could hear it tells me it was getting really bad. but diff gears are robust, they just need lots of lube to not burn up.
It’s called life. We age, things fail, on us and things around us, and we keep moving forward in time, until such time as we don’t, but time never stops. Mistake made, and may be made again later down the road. BUT, next time, I check fluids before I go dropping cash.
It’s kinda icky out today. Grey April skies, threats of rain (that we need!) and chilly. Seeing how I just fought off the bugs, I think I wanna hold off on kayaky stuff today, maybe even build a fire in the stove to knock the chill in the house down. (gotta watch that though, its real easy to turn the house into a literal oven.)
And that means I work on writing stuff,,,, Still working on that re-write and sequel so there is that,,,,
more laters as I get the gumption,,,
Oh, to be able to see,,,
I may not be able to hear all that much, and it comes and goes according to location/proximity to crowds/noize, but I CAN FLIPPIN’ SEE.
Sarah posted up two very illuminating posts that help one to get back on the track of ‘this too shall pass’. While these posts are very much drumming the “we win, they lose” mantra, they are also based in empirical observation from someone that grew up in a communist/socialist country and can see past the bullshit we get muddled in.
And there was a post up on another place that I will NOT link too, that talked about ‘in 130 years, this ALL will be irrelevant’. While I agree with the point, I don’t like the site and won’t give them any traffic, even if its the small numbers of my readership.
The point of that post is this: In 130 years, there is going to be no one alive today left on the planet, and these events that we take for serious and obtrusive are going to be footnotes (at best) in history and most people THEN, won’t give a tin-whistle of care for it. (think about how people look back at 1900 NOW: 99.9% couldn’t tell you who was president then, let alone what people were thinking at they traversed into the 20th century,,,)
I saw some posts recently on Utoob of a guy and gal that are going around the US and finding ghost towns, or near ghost towns. Like Cairo Il, (link is to video)
And this brings me back to some of those empirical observations of Sarahs. (too many to link, so bear with me). Like the fact that our Census says we have 350 MILLION people occupying space in this country.
Really?
Where?
Have you seen the number of “cities” that are near vacant? How about all the boarded up or ‘for lease’ buildings in Cities with actual populations? If you were to take a drive around Appalachia, the number of burned down, or flat abandoned houses (not just trailers, but actual homes with foundations,,,) would astound you. (hell, there are two foundations/collapsed houses here on my hill in the woods. If you aren’t looking for them, you will never see them.)
When you want big centralized government, your agencies are going to fudge the numbers to keep the leadershits happy. Thats why when BCE did the numbers of what the DOTMIL actually has versus the money spent, he was SHOCKED. When census’ happen, Think about the padding tha happens by people such as the mules that are documented carrying extra votes in 2020. When the local welfare office is dependent on federal funds, do you think they are going to be flat honest about how many ‘clients’ they have. Do you think the ‘clients’ are telling ‘swear to God its the truth’ when they tell the welfare office how many people are living at a location?
The whole thing is a racket from top to bottom, and its all shouldered by the tax payers. I don’t care to call welfare or workfare peeps Taxpayers since they are paid in tax revenues from the start, (even though they pay taxes, at least in some cases. UNLIKE those guys I work with that ‘pay’ a grand or so a year into the Rectum Stuffers coffers, but collect 5 grand back at tax season,,,, THAT sounds a whole lot like a Ponzi Scheme to me: “keep voting for us and we will take care of you,,,,”)
I am 100% sure that the numbers we are ‘given’ are padded. I am 0% certain what the reality is. But I see entire cities that had decent populations at the beginning of the last century, that are now 90% empty, and while I see more housing being built in urban areas (all that farm land being sold to developers,,, I cry,,,) but it sure doesn’t ‘add up’,,, There is a lot Kerfluffle over the Illegal infux of so called refugees of late, but I ain’t buying it. Those ‘mobile replacements’ are not here to expand their horizons, or oppurtunities,,, they are here for ‘the free ride’. You know, the one that is about to implode when Current Leaders Pretend continue to ignore reality. Look above and see how you can apply the numbers of “refugees” to a padded Welfare report, to drive higher influx of FedBux (digital transfers of NOTHING,,, but I digress,,,)
((full disclosure,,, I am 1/4 way into that bottle of Larceny,,,, Such a fitting name,,, not the actual definition, but the emotions that word inspires,,, I’m running with the buzz at this point, enjoy,,,))
I want you to pay attention to that second post by Sarah. I think it safe to say, and I would bet serious money, you would agree, that ALL of our media is compromised. ALL OF IT…. Those links that I post to WRSA, are OPINIONS of others, not ‘news links’, because, IMO, ALL of the news is so compromised by propoganda these days, I stopped looking at it. Even the offshore sites that seemed neutral, are no longer on my daily. I will cruise through them once a week, just to ‘get that finger on pulse’, but seriously, PRAVDA is what comes to mind no matter where I look these days. That whole ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ paradigm,,, I get that you want to drive your stats, thats how you make money, but that doesn’t drive “TRUTH”,,,,
I may piss a few of ya off with this next part, but it encompasses that whole SOCIALIST thing called Social Security. Here I am, 54, not old enough nor broken enough to be able to claim it. I have no dependents, I have no handicaps, I am considered ‘highly qualified’ for any number of positions, and I am MALE, and WHITE, and SINGLE,,,, My hopes and aspiriations of getting on ‘A check” are in the negative percents: they would likely figure out how I had to pay them FIRST,,,, (Oh, wait,,, I already DO,,, Every pay check,,,,). I have stated that I have no problem pyaing into the system because the way I see it, I am supporting my dad in some small way… (I don’t pay near as much as he recieves a month,, no way no how,,,, That means that the rest of society is ‘kicking in a portion’ as well. BUT, when you have one third of the population being working paying taxpayers, one third supported by tax revenues for ‘legitimate work’, and the other third supported by the other two,,,,
Something is fucked,,,,
There are those that paid into the system for years and were ‘working class’ that are supported by the system now… THEM, ok, I got that…. The ones I chomp at the bit over are the ones that never worked a day, or were wastrels from the get-go, and are now ‘rewarded’ for their incompetence. The Felons that are not hireable but getting $1200/mo for that fact…
I bust my ass for TWO STRAIGHT WEEKS to make that sort of cash(and fall short by a few Franklins). They get it for sitting around figuring out their next con/whatever, eating cheetos and playing with themselves>>> OR <<<<. Making babies that are going to follow in their footsteps and get us one step closer to “Idiocracy”,,,,
I don’t give a damn what color you are, what ‘gender’ you ascribe to(just as long as you aren’t trying to force it on little kids), what religion you claim,,,, Don’t give a fuck.. What I do give a fuck about is if you are a LEGITIMATE. Contributor to our society. Do YOU hold to these standards? 
So long as it hurts NONE, do as ye will,,,, (and that none INCLUDES YOU!!!!).
drunk, talk tomorrow
Domestics Sunday, funday,
And kinda depressing at the same time. First off, its grey nasty scattered APRIL SHOWERS sort of weather, not that I am complaining about the weather or anything,,, It’s flipping SPRING and my fav-O-RITE season of all. NO, the depression kicked in while assisting Da with his lawnmower. I realized that I am becoming the teacher, where he had been mine,,, Kinda hard to express the entire event that brought it on, without making an entire story post about it, but I realized that our roles have switched a bit and it hit me a little hard.
I also realized (reinforced) where a lot of my self-doubt comes from, since I heard him saying things openly that I often say in my own head when I am struggling with confidence issues. And I was telling him the things I have learned to say to myself, when such times come about: “Shit like this happens, we are only human, and to be perfect would be boring,,,” etc etc etc. Yeah, lawnmower issues were a self inflicted wound and he was embarrassed by it. Shit happens; shrug it off and move on,,,
Took both Lizzy and BlueJean out today. about an hour for each,,, Lizzy first since she was left at home last weekend,,, Geez, I thought I had my sea-legs; HA!!!! She reminded me that she is REAL SEA KAYAK and that in her you had best keep your hips loose. I settled down after a bit, but that first 1/4 mile,,, EEK!!!! Found a rock and did some hip-snaps and that helped give my hips some wiggle room and settled the hind brain down a bit too.
Then I took BJ out just because I wanted to paddle and not need to think about it. What a confidence inspiring boat. Harry Tieken really nailed that design down pat. Slower, but damn, just point and go and don’t worry about a thing on the water. Y’all saw that pic of my busting through DamWave on the Elkhorn, It looks a whole lot more exciting than the reality of it,, I said she never wobbled and she didn’t. I would take that boat through Tide-surf and be as cool as a cucumber the whole time.
And now I am home, and considering loading camp gear into the boats ‘just in case’ I want to go out. No rush to do so, since I have a workweek ahead of me, but I am really wanting to do that Kayakamping thing and SOON…. There was a couple that had paddled to a point and were camping at the lake, and seeing them packing it up onto their sit on tops got my ‘wanderlust’ twitchy.
And I wish B and Fam and I lived closer together,,, I enjoyed the break of the weekend doldrums yesterday (two weekends in a row with friends,,, hot shit!!! I may be getting addicted to that,,,) and seeing Bub running around playing with the toy I picked out for him,,, Yeah,,, gives a godfather a warm fuzzy feel,,,
Been a good weekend. Highs and lows, without going to extremes in either case. Short one for me since I usually have three day weekends, but hey, theres seven hours towards my next paycheck already in the chute,,, that’s gonna help a bit on things here. (note, I payed off completely, one of my debts,,, It is a revolving account, but right now the debt shows ZERO and I intend on keeping it there for a while.)
But this drizzly warm afternoon and some physical activity has caught up to me and this ol’grumpy bod is sayin’ “NAP! NOW!”,,,, LOL.
Talkatcha’y’alll laters.
diktats from furriefuzzyfluffheads
it’s amazing to me somedays, just how much three little furrie murder machines dictate how I am allowed to dwell in my own residence. Mamakat has taken serious liking to my office chair as “HER BED”,,, Zooms likes to be close and uses the ottoman I have for propping up the hind feet, when I am here typing out things,,, And Grizzy,,, where every my chest resides is HIS, HIS, HIS I SAY!!!
And Voo,,, Dunno whats up his silly butt, but he has been demanding walkies out the yahooo the last couple of weeks. Maybe the shift in weather and dawggum has cabin fever,,, dunno, but it never fails, I get two or three GOOD paragraphs into the writing thing (doesn’t matter what, Blog, book, just thinking,,) and there is the Voo pushing his head under my arm pit sayin’ whatever it is a deaf dawggum is trying to say,,, He seems happy enough with the walkie thing, and I can usually tell if the food bowl is not to his satisfaction (he plops next to it and stares at me,,, Pretty obvious, no?)
I say I own pets, but let’s be honest:THEY OWN ME,,,, They have me very well trained too. I just reside here, this is THIER house. Call me the maintenance man of this demesne: I sure ain’t king of my castle,,, the royalty here is 11# of Fluff with 5 out of 6 sharp ends and her two footmen and her Canine Calvary. (and that 6th end is very ‘vocal’ about moods.)
And we are BACK…. Told ya, three paragraphs, here comes dawggum,,,, ‘gotta poo da!’ And this time around, Voo was doing his thing, and Cuz’s dawgs decided that then was the time to jump him (I wasn’t all that close). First got a nip in and then two others saw Voo trying to clear out and thought he was running scared. He wasn’t, he was exiting the area in civil fashion.. The three got to see just what a Catahoula Cur can manage by his lonesome when you cross the line.. All three are now sporting torn and bleeding shoulders and hips: Voo ripped ’em up and ran them all the way back to their house.(and not a scratch on him,,,) and Now, is lounging on the porch watching that way, and if any of them start heading to the drive, he sets up to howling. “I kicked your smarmy asses, you little bitches, now stay home and think about it, ya little inbred shits!!!!”. And that is just what they do,,, run back to their house,,, I am laughing my tuckus off over this new script of “As the Dawg Rolls”. Not at all bad for a twelve year old mutt thats out of practice: I’m proud of my boy! (and he is too. That tail is riding HIGH when he is walking around now.)
grey drizzle drizzle kinda day out. My ‘girls’ are riding in the breeze over Buffalo, but with the chill, the drizzle, price of gas,,, Thinkin’ I should just stay close to home today. It’d would be perfect day to get some miles in, IF, there were another go and enjoy it with,,,, Somedays, i would rather paddle alone, others, I want that friend out there with me. Today is that day,,, Not for safety’s sake either, just companionship. I see it with Mark E, too. He loves spending time with new people, and will take days out when new people click. Being alone is not always ‘lonely’, but there are times,,, I can go weeks without seeing another face (that isn’t covered in fur and whiskers) and be fine (it was when I went weeks without even that, that I started going a bit stir-krazzee and sent up my plea to Universe “I just wanna dawg”, and Universe blessed me with my VERY PROUD OF HIS BAD-SELF Voodoo.). And there are times, where hearing another voice is in demand, and not a recording, but someone to interact with. I am not ‘desperate’ for that, but it would be nice to talk to someone that responds with more than “Blert” or ‘mrawr!’ if that. (dumb looks are ALWAYS free,,, and my fuzzies have ’em aplenty.)
daylight shifts again, back to the millstone tomorrow, but the trees are budding out, the cold nights are getting warmer, and the days,,, Well, it is KY; things can be ‘different’ and still be normal around here. And I fully expect to see lots of sunlight this week, while I am working and can’t enjoy it properly,,,, LOL. Just like when I was in school,,,,
PSSSSST, look on the side bar. I have to admit, I give up. I tried several different ways of adding a tip jar, using conservative friendly sites (GAB etc,,,) and frankly, not one worked, for whatever reason. I know with GAB, they wanted you to join, or so it seemed, though there was an option, quite well hidden, that didn’t demand signing up. Anywhoos,,, The ‘Donate’ button is active again, yes, PerPuke, but dangit, the link works and isn’t a labyrinth like the others.
And no, I ain’t blegging, I only know there have been messages in my inbox asking how to support me without buying a bakers dozen of my books (though that would please me even more: give em away to people, spread the word,,, OR send me a word and I will see about getting you a discounted rate for multiple: I still make a royalty, and you can resell them and make some back yourself,)
Trip, boop! SPLAT!!!
another trip down memory lane this afternoon,,,,
rain out at the J.O.B. and I ain’t complaining, (except for that ‘no work, no pay’ thing,,, ugh!!!). it was COLD out there, and wet as all get out, and my ‘job’ today was an install of an intelligent (they ain’t) gate. Welding included and I hate welding on icy steel; things can get a bit exciting when a sheet of ice slides right into your welding puddle,,,,
anywhooos, did some chatting with B (he was at work, but slow day for the same reasons we were not at work,,,,) and I sent him a link to my first blog-site.
I’m dying here,,, That picture in the side bar,,,, Yeah, that’s me,,, the year was 2004 and I was on a gig in Newport KY, and the young things I am surrounded by were a dance troupe from NKU. And the Photographer was my Ex,,, (not that this pic led to that demise,,, that was years later,,,). All day today, I kept looking at that pic, thinking, “Christ! I really was young then!!!” and knew NOTHING even though I thought I knew Something,,, I knew sound, and how to turn a wrench, and that was about the extent of my skills. Oh yeah, March in formation and shoot expert on the Marine Corps ranges, both pistol and rifle. (and part of where that moniker snuck in at,,, )
I was thirty-six and felt like I had the world by its short-hairs.
I think the chorus in that song sums up my life then,,,,
and that blog, damn I was a chatty rat wern’t I? LOL. Prolly why my posts tend to be quite a bit shorter these days,,, I feel like I already said it all,,,,
and to what end?
Nothing changed, or at least not for the better,,, Maybe I learned a shit ton more, but the more I learn the more I realize the less I actually know, and that one person is going to have about as much effect as a fart in a hurricane. There are exceptions of course,,, but ultimately, those exceptions are rarer than hens teeth in the short term.
To be honest, reading some of my words from that time, I am surprised as hell we are HERE now,,,
and maybe that’s a part of why I just ‘dongivafuk’ anymore. Oh, I care that there are shitstains in the world that are bound and determined to be the top of the heap even if that means dropping the living standard of billions into the cesspits,,, but what can I, ME, Little ol’ lonely ME on this hillside do????
Laugh at the fucks,,, laugh at the stoopid antics of those that claim to be better people than such as me, or B, who would pull a complete stranger out of the water and try to save his life, or Mark, who just paddled 45 flipping kilometers today and so far has paddled 6600 kilometers (give or take, he has hitched a ride here and there,,,) with the message ‘Reverse the Bad” and not harping on the ‘Glorious leaders pretend” bad shit, but OUR bad shit we do out of callousness or just not thinking.
in one of those posts I talk about the Oblammymessiah and how the turd never did a days worth of work in his life, still hasn’t, and yet,,,, Hell, the turd didn’t even WRITE the books with his name on them,,, And I would bet his ghost writer doesn’t make all that much off them, if anything past the one time payment Oblammy-o-boy coughed up,,,,
Trust me, writing/publishing is WORK!!!! This from a guy that toured the US as a roadie!!!
(and I am not giving the ghostwriter shit,,, any money when you are trying to ‘break in’ keeps you moving forward,,,)
And I am not hammering any political side in particular, just one individual in this case. Actually, when that pic in the blog was taken, we had just hit the $4/gallon mark while The Shrub was in office, so one side ain’t no better than other. Actually they are the same coin,,,, a plug nickle and worth about as much IMO: and looking back at my writing then, I was just learning that,,,thanks to Bill Buppert from ZeroGov, and Larken Rose, and a deluge of other older writing all the way back to Spooner and Locke,,,
Keep in mind, I was also teaching myself Machining skills, foundry skills, gunsmithing, and breaking away from the leftard indoctrination,,, All while faking being an IT professional (I had the certs, but not the background,,, And another reason why I think certifications are a sham,,,, )
My REAL education didn’t start until I hit 40, and I made up for 40 years of wasted bullshit in short order,,,,
And I’m still learning,,,
Doing the work, but you drop that ONE thread,,,
Maybe I was mean,,,
Maybe I was distracted,,,
Or maybe I just didn’t type fast enough,,,,
This morning, coffee cup in hand, Mac in the lap, and. ‘wheres Athena???’
Its pretty silent in my head right now,,,, Maybe I have enough of her story written out, or jotted in notes, or,,, but,,, She’s not here today,,,, It’s jarring, Almost like losing that irritating friend that you somewhat sorta liked being around because they kept you on edge, just enough, without pushing you over: then one day, just gone,,, It leaves a void, not as deep as losing a loved one, but, something is missing and you can feel it.
Lots of notes. and thats unusual for this pantser, (and part of my goals thing from the turn of the year, ‘be more pro, stop relying on gut, and take notes’). so no, the story is NOT dead in the water, Actually, there is quite a bit of it written that YOU haven’t seen yet and even if I hadn’t taken notes, I would be able to pull some rabbit out the mess that is there. I have intro, crisis and tension built, but not the resolution as yet, so it could go several different ways,
but it may take a little longer now,,,, Unless Teena comesback/wakesup/climbs out of that mental hallway she wasn’t supposed to wander down in the first place/whatever,,,,
BUT, heres the fun part for you. I am not writing in Scrivener this time around. I busted out all what you have read so far in Vellum, and have options to post this in different formats. I am thinking I will make it a separate page with an option for DOCX, PDF or EPUB, and you get to choose how you want to read it, including in HTML as a webpage if thats what you would prefer. And Released under Creative Commons, so “Free” Again, like that taking notes thing, this is part of my learning curve to become ‘more pro’ since writing the stories is just the meat of the job, not the nuts and bolts, bones and cartilage, of the ‘job’.
what is????
I’m reading today,,, well, I read EVERY day, but sometimes what I am reading is simple escapism books, to take my mind off the day/week I am having, or just to forget about what a mess things are, even if for a short moment.
BUT, this book (as linked in last post) Fun to read, and probably a bit more to digest for some people, as in, read a chapter and let it ferment in the back of the head for a few days before moving on (had a few books like that, stuff that went off like a time bomb weeks months years after reading it). and in reading it, I realized that some of what he is saying is the same shit I have been saying in other ways, here, off and on, for several years.1 Like the conversation between Mackey and Nudge at Macks deathbed; The two minds thing and the one WE think is in control, isn’t. That gets brought up, and a particularly good case in the debate is made.
Is it truth?
What is???
My truths may not be your truths. You may feel very strongly that the Holy Trinity is FACT, IRREFUTABLE and to say otherwise is HERESY. Ok, thats YOUR truth,,,
Mine is a whole lot more forgiving, but still requires ETHICS and MORALS, and that whole ‘eternal damnation’,,, entirely in YOUR court, up to you, your choice.
Actually, I really liked Sarahs definition of TRUTH (paraphrased because I can’t find the original now).”Truth is what remains when everything else has faded away.” And in keeping that in mind, we will all know, individually, the truth, eventually, when ‘this reality’ has faded away and we leave it. To say yours is the ultimate truth is rather narcissistic, but really, who am I to say you are wrong. I freely acknowledge my beliefs may be wrong, and I may even outgrow them as I learn more. I may even come around to your way of thinking,,, Who knows.
What is TRUTH,,,,
What I do know, we may be created in the image of God, but we are most definitely flawed: that is a truth. Not that its a bad thing, but we are not perfect and thank the lord hallelujah AMEN for that!!!! Perfection across an entire species would be boring and likely detrimental to its survival. We each have individual strengths and weaknesses and those, across the board average out for the better for the SPECIES. Occasionally, one weakness (usually seen as a strength at the time) rises to the surface and things get really ugly for a short spell. BUT, the majority usually reacts to bring that one bad apple back to the fold, or just eject it into the void for recycling.
where am I going with this?
we are broken.
we are not perfect.
we are absolutely BEAUTIFUL in that fact
and I know I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Y’all have a good evening, more tomorrow when I get a near a keyboard,,,,
1 “Learning is finding out what you already know, Doing is demonstrating that you know it, teaching is reminding others that they know it just as well as you. We are all learners doers and teachers.:” From Illusions, by Richard Bach
early mornin’ ‘sits n tinks’
some posts have no point to be made, just me talking to the aether, letting my consciousness see what the other side has been doing in the off-times, or just letting the stew settle so the good bits float to the top. Pretty much whats going on here in this one.
I have a full plate this weekend with the NewYears Get-together of Kayaky Friends. And a slam build of a Ergometer for B. B and I have been handling the logistics of Donor Parts and lumber and other odds and ends that will be needed, and all of that will be coming together on Saturday morning. Gotta keep T happy too, since they are the hosts of the Get-Together, so B can’t be ‘in the garage’ as much as he would like. LOL. Like I keep telling him though, building things is how I “play”, and its ain’t work to me. And with both of us doing it, all the odds and ends already in one place, the build is just details at this point, shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours at most.
BUT, He is going to have zero excuses come race time,,, (evil grin)
about the only aspect of this build that will be different, is setting up some fold-away brackets to lock the unit so it can’t wobble. T may want to play with it and her Duck doesn’t wallow in the water like our boats do and that wobble may put her off: hence B wanting those anchors. (and yes, T raced last year as well, )
Long ass day yesterday, but with the added hours and the added pay increase, my check was ‘comfortable’ to me for the first time in well over a month. IF they can keep the hours flowing in similar fashion, I may be able to turn this financial wreck that has been building since September, around. I can’t say the Zon knocking the price of my books down hurt me, since pennies are all I have ever really seen in royalties, and in one way, they may be doing me a huge favor at this stage: getting my name out there more.
Really need to work on that myself, not rely on others for it. (and I have been, but in drips and drabs.). Self promotion is NOT a introvert strength. And I wonder how many people reading this site swear I am NOT an introvert: lol. It’s a whole lot easier to ‘let my hair down’ with the filters of internet proxies. And when I do similar in public, it takes me days to recover my energy levels: its part of why I am the ‘early riser’ when camping. I need that ‘me time’, silence, watching the world wake up in its own way, to at least get a surface charge on my internal batteries. And I can spend some of that time with four-footed furries and not hinder the recharge. Mostly because the fff’s are so intune with the world around them, they don’t interfere with it.
Remember Sasha watching the sunrise? She sat there ‘recharging her battery’ for nearly ten minutes, watching the sun come up, not twitching a muscle. It was quite sublime seeing a dog acting that poetic.
Obviously, I find mornings to be the best part of every day. There may be those days where its at some other point, but this time,,, where I don’t have to worry about the world interrupting “me”,,, (and why I prefer the Mac over the phone or PC, no pop ups, no annoying programs running in the background that demand attention when you least expect it, and I use the phone as my hotspot, located out on the porch for maximum reception; no pings, dings or whoop-whoops of incoming messages.). Yeah, this time of day is my ticket to peace of mind. And I probably need to become even more of an early riser.
to let those of my readers interested, know what the status of Wings II is, Using the PC for the re-write is a must now. I can not get the Mac to open ANY of my files on WIngs,,, I have tried several options and the best was to use Vellum, only to find out that half of the story was not saved in that format. (9 chapters made it, dunno where the other 20(?) vaporized to.). BUT, it gave me a chance to really play with Vellum and that is what I am going to use for the final format. I really like options it had versus what I had used.
Yea y’all, I am WORKING, even when I am playing,,, i just really TRULY despise using the PC these days, but, if it works,,, The other option is upgrading my Mac, which is in need of it,,,, but, $$$$$. and y’all know how that works.(and NO, emphatically NO, that is not a bleg for help, “I’ve got this” )
Sky is getting light, must be sunrise, and that means my world is about to start getting a little furry as the kittehs wake up and realize that Dads up, coffees on, and that means CREAM!!! little flippin socialist scrounge-monkeys that they are,,,,
strange, productive and strange
gonna start this off by admitting that son of bossman tossed me a bone,,, a little extra on the paychecks. not an insubstantial amount, (though not near what I could be making in a better location, I will say that, but “BETTER”}
And I had to take a short day yesterday because our gas supplier screwed up and dropped us a tank of Tri-mix. 90% helium, 7.5% argon, 2.5% CO2. A TIG welding gas, not MIG. And boy howdy did my MIG hate that shit. I managed one bead and knew something was off. checked the bottle and made the call. Luckily, today was our normal delivery schedule and they made good on bringing my normal refills and replaced that bottle with the ‘right stuff’. I would love to TIG our stuff, but its not profitable for us to use TIG. and its galvanized stuff so quick and dirty MIG is the best way to go. We used to braze this stuff and that went through the roof around six years back. A 10# box of rods for brazing went well over a Benjamin and boss man was livid. I made the suggestion of MIGing everything and Son of Bossman agreed, and even told me later that the MIG had paid for itself in less than 6 months in what it saved them.
They have done well enough that they bought a new Miller-matic 210 dual voltage unit and that thing is just the bees knees in my world. Made for welders, by welders with all the bells and whistles you could ask for and MULTI-PROCESS so I could TIG with it. I have Stick welded with it and its just as smooth as a MIG weld if I crank the amps up (Like you should to some extent.) It even has dual gas ports on the back side: one for the MIG, and the other for TIG. Son of Bossman has mentioned that he wants to buy the gear to do TIG, but I just can’t see the oldman parting the purse strings for that at this point. and not much need anyway. (but it would be nice to weld our aluminum gates instead of ordering them when needed,,,, Just not much demand of them right now.)
Came home, did some logistics with B for the upcoming weekend. We are not only having a get-together of KrazzeeKayakers, we are building him an ergometer too. GOOD, He is my race buddy and I want him conditioned for doing that 13 mile run as well as me. As long as all the parts are in order, it won’t take but a few hours to rig it up, and get things tuned for use. The second version only took me a few hours and we have mine to copy from. easy peasy.
but today FEELS weird. I mentioned that. and its nothing I can put my finger on. Just odd. Strange weather blowing in? I know ol Arthur was bugging me yesterday mornin’; but not today. We either have a lull in winter on top of us, or we are in for a flippin’ heatwave,,,, But I think the bone chilling cold is away for a bit (February is usually our IceBox month,,,, followed by cold wet March and flooding,,,,)
Dunno.
again, it may be that lack of sleep thing, but this time, I have a culprit. GRIZZYKAT!!!!! That little bastard was bouncing in off my head about once an hour last night, yowling about “its Rainin’ Da!!! Makes it stopS!” *sigh*. Rained off and on all night, but didn’t really get cold. I think the night temps actually came up a couple of degrees. It’s January and I did NOT have a fire, two nights in a row,,,, whoa!!! (I do tonight, but mostly to knock down a ‘damp’ house feeling, and the temps are supposed to drop into the low forties tonight.)
Maybe THAT is whats got me feeling ‘off’,,,,
Totally ignoring the world at large right now. don’t want to spoil the vibe I am building for the upcoming weekend. If there is something about to blow up, LET IT. I’ll be cool on my little island of friends, playing with boats and toys for boats,,,,
Oh I SO WISH,,, purrrrrrr!!!! Not to be YET,,,
Why so serious?
Because no else is gonna take me seriously, ya?
Then again, I can’t take myself TOO seriously either or things could get pretty ugly: that whole INTJ thing, with the last “Thinking” and “Judgmental” being the operative words. I think the Introvert and iNtuitive side keep the other two in check to some degree, at least on the societal end of things. At a personal level I feel they feed the OCD side that the last two induce in me. Been more than a few times I have fallen DEEP into some task and days have gone by and meals not ate,,, Happens frequently enough that keeping my weight down isn’t as much of a fight as it could be: though maintaining a healthy diet can be problematic (because I will stave off munchies with total crap just to give the hands and mouth something to do and keep out of the way.)
And I have to watch myself closely. example. Recent forays into the world via the window of Utoob,,, You know where I mean, and in this case is the exposure to the efforts of Mark Ervin, his Reverse the Bad tour of the Greater Loop (good name by the way Mark)
The desire to get out there and start doing that very same thing became STRONG, QUICKLY. It rolls right up my alley as something I want to do before my days are done. AH, but that’s the catch and the part that IRKS the Judgmental side of me. And where I start saying “Ok, step back, let it sit a week and see where the feelz sit then”. I must do this often on many things. I have a very addictive personality and things can sweep me up in a whirlwind before I realize that I should be hugging terrafirma,,, And why I am so cautious getting into relationships. I have had more than one whirlwind romance that fizzled like a wet firecracker. (and I have a boat named after one of them,,,LOL)
SO, Do I truly want to do the Great Loop? (not the Greater Loop that Mark is doing, but up the Hudson to Erie skipping the Nova Scotia route)
Yes.
But not RIGHT NOW. and thats the whirlwind I must fight.
There are plans that need to be made for something of that magnitude. Arrangements of things, FINANCING because food isn’t free as just a start, plus there are equipment needs that must be met (and while I have quite a kit, I do not have all I would need, LIke a VHF radio to comm with other craft and Locks. and it must be handheld, waterproof, FLOAT, and easily recharged by means I have yet to acquire as well. One thing leads to another,,,,)
Then there is the “personal reasons” things. Is this something I want to do just to say I had done it (usually a bad decision,,, just sayin’) OR do I want it to mean something bigger than just me? Mark’s journey has a purpose beyond just doing the deed, and it shows how dedicated he is at that purpose by his interviews and interactions.
Another side of it, Am I ready PHYSICALLY? OH to the hell NO!!! Could I paddle a 50 km day? Yes. right now, yes. Could I do it 6-7 days a week for 52 weeks? ummmmmm,,,,,,,,,, Probably not,,,, BUT, that’s a ‘Yet’ statement as well. I have done 37 miles in one day, but we sort of cheated. It was during a dam release, and while we kept ‘outrunning the bubble’ of the release, it did give us a boost. Even then, my arms were wet noodles by the time we hit the takeout. (37 miles is 59 klicks.). I can paddle a three-and-a-half mile-per-hour pace for hours on end, and that is also boat-dependent. That three point five is in BJ, I am certain it will higher in Lizzy, who has a higher hull speed and MUCH smoother finish on said hull.
As for the mental side of it,,,,, I’m an introvert: we live in our heads more than we live in reality, so spending days, with little to no interaction with others is not that much a hardship. I have found my limits on it while living in Texas, and how I came to share orbits with Voodoo, but that limit is measured in MONTHS, not days or hours like some people I know. (and some people that orbit me (like Haley’s comet orbits our sun) can’t go 1 minute without getting a little unhinged. They can’t handle the noise of their own minds. You’ll know them by asking them to sit silently for five minutes. In sixty seconds they are squirming like a 2-year-old after a sugar binge.)
Now, some of what I would need is already in place, like this blog, a way of connecting to the internet anywhere I am, a majority of the gear I would need, BUT, to attract those interested would require more effort on my part, and likely going the whole Utoob route like Mark did. Driving donations, not just to whatever charities I decided to push for, but to myself as well (and I WOULD donate what donations I didn’t need to one of, or split between whatever charities I chose when it was all said and done.). yeah, more work to figure out, and that can wait until I decide when/how/what, IF I ever do.
And there might even be an option of writing about it, book form, after the fact. People DO still read, (even though there is the question as to HOW MANY actually do these days, seeing the ubiquitous nature of video sites and the traffic they generate vs a written word site.
SO, fortunately for me, Mark is taking the Christmas holidays off from paddling. He is visiting his father in Canada for them, and will get back to paddling after the New Year. I have a chance to set things aside and see how I feel about them further down the road without feeding more fuel to the beast,
And in two weeks, this may dilute down to the simple “bucket list entry”
NOW, that’s not to say I don’t want to do an extended paddle with camping involved, A majority of my purchases the last year have been for camping equipment, and boats, so the desire to do that is much longer lived than the recent ‘oh, oh, OH,!!!” of doing a year-long paddle around the eastern half of the U.S. My getting into kayaks spurred that dream from the get-go, and I have always looked for boats that can carry gear (with the exception of the WW boats, and also one reason why I struggle adjusting to them: they don’t fit the profile in my head,,,). I was disappointed in Lizzy on that note, even going so far as finding and downloading the trip notes of the expedition she was designed FOR (the NORDKAPP expedition, 1975). The paddlers of that trip noted how hard it was to stow gear, so I don’t feel so bad in my assessment. BUT, long-distance kayaking has always been in the mix for me: this isn’t a new obsession, just a variation of a theme.
(funny note, Mark and I almost share a birthday, with him being 10 years and 364 days older than me. I found that hilarious when it came up on his Vlog.)
slow start morning and a memory
Its the beginning of my weekend and I like to take it easy getting going. Have found if I start in a huff, things get expensive and with the way prices are, that doesn’t take much.
But I woke slow and was dwelling on a memory of my past. There was a kid I grew up with that was the seed of my thoughts, though what those thought centered on was “Value” and perceptions; Personal perceptions specifically. See, this kid was a die-hard comix collector. He would buy two copies of every X-men comic and all of the various spinoffs. One was for reading, the other would be bagged and tagged and stored in a footlocker. After he had read the one ‘for reading’ IT would be bagged, tagged and stored in another footlocker (he had his “A” books and “B” books and each was labeled as such) Now, that may not seem like a bad thing and it wasn’t: when he went to go to college, he used that second footlocker as collateral for the student loans. The entire footlocker appraised at well over 20K, and that was his “B” books.
But it was a concept I could never understand. I don’t know if its the way I was raised, or just that I don’t attach a monetary value to every single thing in my life. I see value beyond a price tag. Like with Books: yeah, they cost a certain amount of cash to get, and thats expected, but what do they HOLD inside. I’ll use “The Hunger Games” for now. Entertainment, 5 stars. But there is far more in those books than just entertainment: there are mirrors held up to look at the world from different perspectives, allowing the reader to see things in new light. They pull back the curtains hiding the ugly side of people, even the good ones. She mentions frequently that at some point, the decision to kill an ally is going to be forced on Katniss. That may be an extreme point, but there are actions that every one has to make that are not optimal, and that was one way of showing it.
Even as entertainment, there are lessons to be learned. I don’t recall many of the ones from those comix, but I am certain that they are hidden inside, even as I could bet that some of those lessons are closer to indoctrination of Marxist ways. (said indoctrination is insidious and has been quite dominant for decades). But the Value is far more than just some arbitrary monetary value assigned by some accountant. And there are some that are absolutely valueless (IMO) for lack of anything other than escapism, which has some value all its own. Me personally, I want to read about the thoughts in the heads of the protagonist, see how other people think when the shit’s hitting the fan, even if its fantastic and somewhat unbelievable, it may have kernel of truth that gives me options later down the road when I am in some fucked up situation.
Even in books like “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” there are lessons. The various races of aliens are mirrors to differnt mental states of people and how Arthur Dent bounces his way through the Galaxy like a pinball with no control of direction is analogy to how most people live their lives.
Those books have much more value to me than the price tag, and I have copies of them all, and NONE are ‘bagged and tagged’ awaiting some assayer to attribute some monetary value to them. They are all dog eared and torn covers (all but the hardbacks, and those may be missing the outer sleeve, but they tend to be better kept then the paperbacks.).
And every time I move, my ‘friends’ go with me, and take up far more space than my personal effects. (and those boxes are HEAVY!!!). Only one time did I not take all my friends with me, and that was when I split from my last GF and I have been slowly replacing those lost friends over the last fifteen years. It wasn’t an easy decision to make either, let me tell you. But the situation dictated I needed to ’empty my cup’. (and I have picked up quite a few new ones along the way as well as old ones that were waylaid.)
And its not just books. One of the reasons I would probably not make a good business owner is how I see the value of people. I would have a hard time assigning a ‘wage’ to someone, and some people would be given next to nothing (because the bring next to nothing to the table) or so high that I would go bankrupt (because those are the people that actually build your business for you.). And of course, there are all the regulations and Minimum Wage laws, and now, here. locally, demand that certain federal/state fees MUST be accounted for before you can work within city limits. (Workmans Comp payments must be shown or you can’t work as a contractor. EVEN IF, you have never had a workmans comp claim laid against you,,, EVEN IF, you are solo contractor without employees,,,, ).
IMO,That last is an example of “Value perception”. and just how skewed the value can become when Government gets its paws involved.
But I digress. Maybe I have more than a little bit of poet in me, since I see value in things far deeper and richer than just ‘Money”. I see experience as far more valuable and being able to get experience through the words of others, via book, spoken word, or in modern ways, in video, holds more value to me than just the price tag assigned. (and look at how much experience Rittenhouse and the latest Defender gained through FPS vid-games. Maybe it looks like a game, but that level of expertise in shooting, that has career operators applauding, is astounding. Those games hold more value than I formerly suspected.)
So, what brought up this memory? I heard that when my friends dad had died, he had his dads library ‘bagged and tagged’ and sold it piece-meal through EvilBay. I recall that library and those books and just how large it was ( all four walls of the basement, ceiling to floor and several stacks of boxes full). I wouldn’t be surprised if he had multiple copies of every single early release of Heinlein (and I know he had them all the way to “Friday”, because that was my introduction to Heinlein, and I picked it up from his library.). I can garan-danged-tee you that said friend NEVER read a single book in that library. No pictures, so they held zero interest to him and were only worth, to him, what someone else was willing to pay for them.
I don’t get that. I guess I never will.
And I am okay with that.
Life carries on,
Way back in me early years, I read Orwells 1984, and before that date. I was like 12 when I read it, and while the story gave me the willies, even then, my early years, I ‘knew’ that it was a story and that no society could go so far down the tubes as described.
Boy howdy was I frickin’ wrong.
What I didn’t understand at the time was the “Mob Rule”: That a mobs intelligence is one half of that of its dumbest member. And a society is a Mob in a very real sense.
Look around you. We joke about the Enemedia being Orwells MiniTru, but when I read articles like Doctor Malone discussing how mRNA tech history is being re-written,,, Are we really all that far from it. Constant surveillance through devices we readily carry daily,,,, Maybe the information flow is far too great to keep up with, but the point is the same. Once you become a target, getting your information becomes stoopid easy, and the way the laws are arbitrarily applied, and as numerous as they are, they will find something to stick you in a cage. Yah, we have the MiniTru, We have the Big Brother surveillance. Our ‘military’ is rapidly become the Ministry of Love with our perfumed princes of the potomac ignoring the basic premise of a military and pushing the inclusivity and diversity schtick. We have a figurehead that fully represents what the shadow government thinks of our Untied Staatz (HT to BCE for that’un).
BUT,
There was a poll recently (and while I don’t give much credence to polls, this one seemed ‘mostly honest’) saying that 28% of the population feels they may need to take up arms against our government. and 68% of the rural population feel threatened by our government in a very real way. (Personally I think the numbers a tad higher, but people will tone down in a state where they are paranoid of being targets.)
I think whats bugging me the most is how the US, while it has been at the forefront of most everything the last 100+ years, is lagging behind across the board this round. Canada had the Trucker Convoy and stalled an entire country for months. The US repeat was a popcorn fart in comparison. We have the Dutch Farmers shutting down thier country in response to government overreach, and here,,,, crickets. The Yellow Vest riots in France, that as far as I know are still off and on, and the people rising up against totalitarian overreach ’round the world, yet here,,,, The only riots we have seen are the burnlootmurderwegetpaidtodothisshit groups that have Soros fingers so far up their anal cavities,,, The only “Insurrection” event was so peaceful,,,, you know the one, the one that AOC swears she almost died in. yeah,,,,
And yet no one ever mentions the burning dumpster fires and pink pussie hats of 2017 with minimal arrests and near zero coverage (and only positive coverage of the pussiehat shit) by the enemedia,,,,
Do I want a fight? Not really, but its obvious that TPTB DO!!! They either want it here so they can ‘find reason’ to implement the ‘final solution’, or they want a world war so they can ‘rally support’. And the attempts are so farcical that even the dumbest member of my work force sees it.
They know if they really push for the gun control thing, going straight to confiscation, they will spark off the next Civil War, and I think even they know that is a game they won’t win. BUT, they so want to be “The Power” all while having this delusional game plan.
I look at the “you will own nothing and be happy” plan. And I can see how they think it will work. If you could get it in a static laboratory environment, it MIGHT work for a few years. Problem being, the world is NOT a static environment, and people are NOT widgets that Always operate perfectly. We are human, we make mistakes, and we adapt. People like owning things. Even apartment dwellers like being able to say that they OWN something, even if its just the car they drive or that superwidescreenTV with the 30000W sound system and the 64bit octocore processor gaming computer they play with. You want proof that people like owning things? Look around at all the storage rental places. If that isn’t sign that people want to own things, even if they can’t keep it with them and are willing to pay for a place to keep it,,,, Storage rental is a big business with lucrative cash flow.
Personally, I don’t want to ‘rent my life’ from others, knowing that if I were to say the wrong thing to someone, that I could be doxxed and suddenly all those things I ‘rent’ would be pulled, up to and including my means of income. That situation, which is what Soros, Schwab and the Davos peeps want for the rest of us unwashed masses, would lead to a three tiered world. You would have THEM, (S,S,&D crowd) US, those just trying to get along, and then the shadow world, blackmarket etc.
Even Orwell described that in 1984. Winston bought his notebook from one of those people in the shadow world. He ‘rented’ his hideaway crib where he had his dalliance with the girl from the same people. There were three tiers there as well.(while not a proof that the ‘new world order’ is a failure out of the gate, but it does show that others have thought this through to fruition and the fallacies are obvious.)
I don’t want to live in Winstons world. I’d rather load the Ghostboat with as much as I could carry and head out, tempting fate and the environment. At least there, the rules aren’t arbitrary and applied at whim. Mamanature may be a bitch, but she doesn’t shift the rules ‘just because’.
Not that I am worried about things going that far. The backlash is growing, and while the MINITRU doesn’t cover it, the internet is NOT silent, and the signal is still getting through. Look at Sri Lanka, look at the how certain countries are getting very little coverage (India is one that ‘isn’t playing’, China, Russia, none of them are ‘falling in line’ with the NWO plan,). The signal is there, IF you know what to look for, and that keeps this thing from rushing headlong into that ‘utopia’ they envision.
Even if things fall so far, life carries on. Look at how people lived during the seige of Stalingrad. There was still day to day taking place at the end of the German Reich, and after the firebombing of Dresden. It may not be anywhere near the levels of comfort we are used to, but people carry on, food makes it to a table, even if that table is a napkin on a lap in the basement of a burned out basement. It may not be filet mignon, more likely rat or cat or a can of cat food, but someone is going to be eating, and able to carry on the next day to do it all again. Selko was very good at describing life in Bosnia, and if things continue forward at pace as I see it, WE will see that here. At least in the cities, maybe not so much in places like where I live, but even here things will get ‘rough’.
Ok, enough with my meandering thoughts today. Part of my thinking is due to a weather shift today. I am thinking that we are in for one hella bad winter forthcoming and maybe I need to double up on my wood pile. At least I still have time and resources to do so. So, think about what we are seeing, what I discussed above, and then get your butt in gear to do some prep of your own. IF you live in a city or the burbs, and can’t get OUT, by all means prepare anyway, but think seriously about “SmellSec”. The smell of cooking food will carry for miles and when people are hungry, their noses are as good as a dogs. Its not just the means, but what you do to insure you can KEEP IT.
Idle hands, devils tools
Creativity is not a blessing, its something of a curse as well. As Sarah points out over at the Mad Genius Club, the price of being creative is that you have to create.
Self admission of late tells me that I have been lax as all get out on that note. I have had to be ‘creative’ in finding some solutions, but that is not creating, thats problem solving: totally different animal. I haven’t made a dent in any re-writes, or the sequel to Wings, or any shorts, even my writing here is taking a major hit. Even in my kayak-y world, I have been leaning on what others created, and done nothing of my own. I have a paddle that is half finished and no drive to wrap it up. Its been on the wall for 3 months now.
Oh, I could likely ‘create’ all sorts of excuses as to the why I am not doing anything, but the fact is, I am NOT doing anything creative and its taking a toll on my psyche. My anxiety levels have increased.
When did it start?
That is part of the problem. I know damned well when it started and that point was so far out of my control that only DOG had any say in things. While I don’t want to open up that crate to expose to the world, it is still trimming my rudder for waters I would rather not be in, and while I have to be in them, its effecting other things, like my drive to create. That isn’t an excuse, its a fact that I need to find a work around to. If I don’t, it becomes the excuse and those start to accumulate like snowballs into avalanches.
And why so many of you are seeing me hit the escape button so often. What I have to deal with is inside, and I try to get away from myself more than is probably healthy.
Even my drinking is back up, and I know where that road leads.
And some of that has a lot to with the work environment; what was convenient, has become a burden.
What am I trying to do in this post? Vent? Rant, (no, there would be a lot more cursing,,) Beg for help (nope, Other than for a friendly ear,,,) Am I trying to sort out whats eating me? Maybe. But there is only so much I am willing to expose to the world at large, and whats eating me is NOT on that list. Trust me, it ain’t just the J.O.B. or “The REAL world” (which ain’t,,)(and thats another post completely, one that has been written about here a time or twenty)
Vent? yeah, maybe a little. Kittehs aren’t the best ears for spiritual issues of the human kind. They just look at you like “just be the cat, if it irritates you , KILL IT.” and Oh, there are days where that simple solution runs strong (and I know I am not alone in that,,,).
So, at what point do I grab the reins, yank hard and tell the horses pulling this damned wagon that I have had enough? This week? Next year? or do I just keep the grumbles under breath and slog on, slowly dying inside? Cuz that is how this is starting to feel. (so I am taking Sarahs advice and getting on the keyboard and typing something anything to try and pry that valve back open.)
I have NO desire to delve into the political shenanigans of the THE FRAUD or World Power Shuffles, (even though that is exactly what is going on, and if things continue at pace, the US is going to be as effective as Rwanda on the world stage. Not that I see the Ameri-CAN people allowing this country to fail that far,,, Too many markers saying that things are about to turn around, and for MUCH better.)
And I am only willing to expose myself so much to the world at large. Call it my Introversion if you will, but its fact that there is only so much me I can let out. And probably why I am 54 and single (and have been for 12 years) and maybe that is part of the problem as well (ya think?) (Hey, did I just let part of the beast out of the bag?) (Yup!). (but by nowhere near all of it, trust me!!! That was just a pinkie finger of the beast,,,)
I guess ya all can see how this post is going to end today. I’m going kayaking again. and I may even take a tent and stay overnight, no phone, no fuzzie purrbox distractions demanding lap/foodies/snugz, no ‘new’ neighbors running a generator in the wee hours of the night (gah, that thing is irritating,,,,). Just me, the trees, water and a kayak,,,,, But mostly me, so I can take my soul out and see what needs patched.
This too shall pass, right?
Yay, Four day weekend!!!!!
NOT!
Long story, but plans that were made back during the early parts of summer (say three months back) have been hulled below the waterline by Bossman.
IF, I don’t use that lever of mine and tell him to FOADIAF.
He “generously, gave us” Monday the fourth off, (without pay,,,) but to make our hours back up, we get to work that following Friday. Umhmmm,,, Well, I had made plans to be at the camp on Thursday eve, since we have been working Mon-Thurs the last month, and have two full days/three nights with friends, and NOT have to inconvenience the work environment.
NOT SO MUCH NOW.
To say that the last month or so, my frustration with the J.O.B. has started stripping out any benefit I receive in Monetary compensation. I fought tooth and nail with myself the last week, maybe two weeks, to get up and go in.
And the key point is this one.
And when you find out, inadvertently, that said person makes the same rate as you,,,,
As happened Thursday evening, on my way out,,,
Makes me think that I may be taking a Vaca week, without warning, and spending some quality time getting my head in order, and damn the finances for a bit.
Maybe this is the nudge I need to get off my ass and walk away permanently from a VERY Toxic relationship/Job.
Is the timing optimal? Hell no! Is it EVER?
But one thing I am is resilient,
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ROAD SIGN, SHIFTING LANES AHEAD.
Sat on the porch yesterday as I was tapping that out, dusk coming down fast, and suddenly Mama-kats’ ears perked up and she was all attention towards Unc’s garden. First glance all I see are the usual 5 rabbits playing and eating my yard/weeds. (I really need to mow that section, but I like watching the bunnies,,,). Well, that wasn’t it, Mama never gives the Buns a moment of attention (with the exception of that one she tried to adopt 2 years back.) OOOHHHH!! Now I see it. Ear flicks from the bean patch; Three Doe wandering through the garden. Unc is on vaca in Floriduh and that section of our little hollar has been VERY quiet the last week, AND, my Cuz moving into the hollar on the other side of me has created a disruption in their usual pathways.
While I like watching them, what I thought was “well, I know when things get tight, where dinner is coming from”. Between Thumper and Bambi, the kids n I are not going to starve, but gonna have to be a stealthy hunter and keep the bangy bangs subdued.
It’s funny, I have a dog for security, but its Mama-kat that always warns me when wildlife is on the move. The first time she did that ear perk thing from the porch was when the Bear was eating up the corn patch, and she went all growly about that one. Voo? notsomuch,,, Even with the breeze blowing bear stink his way, the most noize he made was a snore. Great security eh? LOL. Love the mutt, but other than companionship, he is about the most worthless,,,,,
Today, to get rid of some of my stress from the opening subject, I did my usual therapy: I Went kayaking. Did some exercises I picked up from “Dancing with the Sea” and while I am still shaky on that whole edging thing, I did see improvement. Just have to keep at it. Will say that my confidence in waves is better, and not just because of the exercises, but because of a boat that was designed for that stuff. Blue Jean is one hella boat and I would be even more ecstatic about her if she weighed 30# LESS. She runs right at 70# empty, which means nothing much ON the water, but that transition between transport and the waters edge is beastly. And most of my put-ins are not at boat ramps where I can use a dolly/cart.
I was out in a shallow spot, wedged between two spits, the water is only 3′ deep and its along a route to a wider area that the power boaters love to get to, usually bow up making lots of noise and waves. Well, those waves focus into that little bay and being shallow, the waves even whitecap. I sat out there, about 100′ from the shore, and those waves were hitting me from all directions and I never once felt ‘tippy’. Mostly the boat, but there was that ‘paddle’ thing Paulo talks about in his course, and it DID change the game. One set of waves washed my decks off, from the side, and I never wobbled.
I paddled back to my put in with a shit eating grin on my face.
Im knee deep in water, to show how shallow this part is.
I love this boat!!!
I have some serious thinking about what I want moving forward, and there is a set of ears I need to borrow, real soon. Some things just don’t translate well in blogging and when you need to bounce ideas off someone else, blogging lacks.
(and a lot of this transition thing with the J.O.B. is why I have been dropping the ball with the world at large. I have to live my life as best I can, and right now, I feel like that has been way more difficult than it should be, and NOT because of the inflation hitting us sideways. No, this is at the spiritual level and I need fix that before I can ‘fix’ the world, if ya know what I mean.)
And the world turns on
I’m actually in a fairly good mood today. Took Blue Jean to Laurel Lake and put a few miles on. Several broad reaches across wide open water: quarter mile and half mile types. Then the sea-doos and yayhoos started running amok, and while I am well used to the waves, what I could never get over is being ran over by one of those fast movers, and from the way they operate, I don’t think they watch FORWARD too well. Saw one fast mover catch air off a wave and the way he landed, I don’t think it was an intentional ‘jump’. No thanks, I’ll get my narrow long self off the water and let y’all play. I had a few hours of goodness out there.
Came home, and took the new to me boat back on the river for small spell. Last night, talking to B, decided to try moving the seat position back a notch (1″) and see if that slows down the turning transition in her. Not that it was out of control, but I had to make a lot of corrective strokes to keep her in line, Moving things back did seem to help ‘some’, but I think the nature of the boat is for that sort and nothing else. A boat I have to grow into,,, That ain’t a bad thing.
And kittehs,,, The boys are off sowing their wild oats. Grizzy finally hit his hormonal levels, and is staying out all night now. Haven’t seen him or Zooms in two days, with the exception of a few minutes in the wee hours last night: Grizz came in around 3 am and greeted me/demanded more food in the bowl. I’m hoping the little rat will keep out of trouble, but he is a Tom, with the gear, and I know better. He’ll get his butt kicked and come home to be tended to for awhile, then when he gets that urge again, back at it. I know that one day, one or both of them won’t return home because they went ‘too far’ and met an end. I could ‘alter’ them, but after the experience with Voodoo and his alteration, I swore I would never subject another animal to that travesty, no matter what, and all the ‘its better for the animal’ arguments, won’t sway me an inch,,, IF God had intended them to be ball-less and hormone neutral, he’d have made them that way: Who am I to think I know better. The only argument that might sway me is the “so many homeless pets”, but when all of my pets have been abandoned by others,,, That argument is bunk as well. My boys have a good home, if they chose to stay here 24/7 and its far enough out that their efforts will be few and far between in success, so even that argument doesn’t hold a lot of water with me.
ON THE HOME FRONT,,,, As if I needed any more incentive to want to move from my location,,,, Who ever said that God doesn’t have a sense of humor. One rather like my Da’s: Morbid and twisted, but kinda funny after the fact. The property next to mine was owned by one cousin for years. He never did a danged thing to it. There is an old abandoned house on it that finally succumbed to gravity a couple years back (after a couple of poplar trees had grown through the roof). 3 acres, mostly returned to a natural state.
Well, Seems Cuz 1 needed cash in a bad way. Cuz 2 just sold a house in a neighboring town and wanted to buy something ‘closer to his roots’. Doesn’t sound too bad so far does it? Problem is, Cuz 2 is a wastrel, and his kids are known thieves, and there have been several instances of him and Ol’lady having rather loud and intense squabbles that usually involve police. (and this area is on the edge of two counties, so jurisdiction gets questioned or shunted off a lot, and State Troopers have to pick up the slack. Time to response is usually measured in HOURS and occasionally in DAYS unless a body is involved.)
For the first time in seven years, I started locking my house and shed. I had to shift some things around in the shed to store the tools I used to keep on my porch for working on kayaks. I’m locking my truck and its tool box up, at home, where I used to not worry about such. (I had to dig through keys to find the door keys, if that says how comfortable I have been leaving my place unlocked. Not anymore,,,)
He moved a fifth-wheel camper in last night, says he is going to build a house there. He is a masonry guy, but knowing some of his history, I see that camper becoming ‘the house’ and a shed or two added in to spread the family around, but a house??? Not so much. At best, I expect him to lay a block foundation and move in a trailer, maybe. Yeah, its family, but being family does not automatically earn respect, it only gains you forgiveness others would not be given. This particular case has, in my opinion, worn that forgiveness paper-thin. Also, my opinion: He and His are the epitome of “White trash”,,, I don’t hold it against Cuz 1, but danggit, my little corner of the world just shifted in a bad way, and I don’t like it.
At least I don’t have to worry about him or his stealing my kayaks. There is no way they could sneak them off this hill without passing 4 places that would see it. It’s the little stuff like tools and computers that I worry about. And the pets. Not sure how the brats will act around animals that aren’t people shy.
Elsewhere is sure looking damned good to me right now,,,, And I don’t even know where that is,,,
But I am still in a better mood than I was 12 hours ago. Water therapy is a wonder,,,, Wave actions do amazing things to lower back pain too.
Mi vida loca
Man, if there was a way to get something completely F!ed up, I found at least one alternate version today. Even managed to cut the cables to my solar panels while I was out shaving the rocks in my Minefield/obstacle course that is loosely called “the yard”.
Easy enough fix, but dang-it!!!, I know I buried those daggum things when I put the panels on a rack. (formerly installed on roof. NOTE: do NOT do that. Bad bad Juju happens to people that do that!!!). and I know it because there was fresh dirt where the mower grabbed them and pulled the remainder out of that trench. That’s part of the problem living on this hill. Nothing stays buried. Rocks grow better than weeds, and the weeds grow better than anything that resembles ‘grass’. Every spring, my liitle rock retaining wall grows a little bigger as I add rocks to it as they pop up in front of and underneath the mower. I replace the blades on the mower at least once a year. Twice last year as I broke both. Amazingly, I didn’t destroy the engine.
In about 20 years of annual mowing, this yard may become civilized. Sure as heck isn’t right now. Maybe I just need a herd of sheep to keep it trimmed,,,,
Sorry for the lack of posting lately, I just needed to take a break from things. I didn’t even take the phone to work with me on Monday. Left it here at the house and reveled in the peace of mind that settled in without the deluge of email notices, and other things.
As was quoted of John Ross, RIP, talking about his sequel to Unintended Consequences: He said that he hadn’t been able to finish the book because the FRAUD kept giving him new material every morning. I know exactly how he felt: I have the same problem coming up in the sequel to Wings for that very same reason. I guess I should have written the whole thing further into the future or just ignored ‘current events’ while writing the original, but now I feel like I am locked into using our ‘history’ as it unfolds, and the FRAUD just keeps piling on more crap. Even when you think things can’t get any stranger, they dump a shovel load of “WTF?” on and turn the valve open just a little further.
Ok, Confession time. I am HIGHLY distracted right now, and it has NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING, to do with world events or any of that. My distraction explains why I am having little “oops” factors popping up on me too. Nopes, I found another deal of the century in kayaky goodness, and I am trying my dangedest to make the connections that make it MINE!!!! Don’t want to go into too many details, like make and model, or what not, but I can tell you it is a legitimate Seakayak, 17′ long, and honest to Dawg fiberglass construction. Need some TLC, but from everything I can see in the pictures i have of it, the TLC is outfitting only. The glass appears ‘factory fresh’, and I can see that the skeg is in working order. So, new deck lines, possibly new hatch covers ( most likely) and I would have a ship-shape seakayak for a tenth of the price of a new one. No, I am not kidding, ONE. TENTH. 
(not the exact version, but a good example.)
yup, its eating me alive trying to figure out how to get tab A into slot B and make all of this happen. So, apologies to you all for my lack of focus on the bloggy stuff.
Last of the ooff!!! posts(and a detour)
short by long day today(read BORING) at the salt mine. four hours, *sigh*…
Lats are letting me know that we paddled 6+miles Saturday, but that seems to be the worst of it. Good to go otherwise.
Spent a little time surfing the nets today, and while yeah, not much is going on, a shit ton is going on at the same time, and not a whole lot of people seem to be putting the dots together.
Some are though, and when it goes sideways later this year, say around late September, early October, a LOT of people are going to be looking around and asking questions. There are solutions that can be implemented RIGHT NOW, and to work, they would need to be done, well, yesterday would be best, but right now would work too. The biggest thing that could be done right now is for the asshats that are causing shipping issues in Grain and Fertilzers to unshackle the rail distribution. That ain’t gonna happen though: As BCE states, “ I mean WHO ordered this ‘force majeure’ measures? Someone Somewhere knows Something “. Looking at the ‘accidents’, and how they are spaced with increasing regularity, we ain’t seen the end of the funhouse games either. Wait until Smithfield packing starts shuttering plants for the coronaphobia. Chinese owned plants spread out around the country and already (witnessed by mine eyes, Had a gate install at one recently) a very totalitarian lock down. Surprised I didn’t see employees in full on level 4 Bio gear, but it wasn’t all that far from it either.
Its not the actions that worry me, its the timelines. They are stretching this fuck up out over as long as possible and the longer it takes to hit peak, the worse it will be, and the harder to correct. That they can’t win is simple reasoning: Reality ALWAYS wins and their plans are NOT based in reality. But man!!! they can sure leave one hell of a mess for the survivors to clean up.
And I worry about friends. I am set up pretty sweet, in an out of the way place, with quite a ‘buffer area’ between main roads and myself. I’m elevated with a good undeveloped area behind me that isn’t easy to traverse without making a ton of noise. My biggest issue is my ears: they suck. I can’t hear said noises easily, (unless its really low frequencies, like helo blade thumps) and Voodoos ears are purt much ruined these days as well. Kittehs have been pretty good about letting me know when things are moving (when they come racing into the house, skid to a stop and all ears and eyes and whiskers are pointed outside, Sumpin’s up!!!). But my friends are NOT set up as well. I don’t preach, no point in wasting my breath and alienating someone at the same time. That ain’t my style; I try to lead by example, and in this case if example is ignored, so be it. An offer is out for sanctuary (to a very few) if it gets to that point, but there will be no luxuries or amenities to be taken for granted: Rationing is a must, and the more mouths, the slimmer the rations. AND NO DEAD WEIGHT. You don’t work, you don’t eat.(and if it gets real bad, dead weight becomes fertilizer or dog food. Voo won’t mind long pig,,,)
Harsh? Harsh times require harsh methods, and hardened hearts. Thats LIFE. I have stated here many a time “Best get it in your head NOW, how you would respond to hard choices.” and there is plenty of Survival Pron out there in fiction to get your head around what could be ‘worst case scenario’. (example is what happens when one of your littles gets wounded in a fatal way. Not a quick fatal either: more like getting their liver or kidneys shot up, and there is zero chance of getting to a Trauma Unit. Slow and painful. How are you going to deal with that, and NO, folding up in the fetal position is NOT an option.)
deep breath. relax. Think water,,,,
I have thought about these things. Hell, I am always running worst case through my head every day, even on the day to day. That I haven’t gone on a shooting spree doesn’t tell you I am not dangerous, it tells you that I keep the beast on a very short leash, made from the anchor chain of the Tarawa. And I look for people who aren’t ‘safe’. B is one such: I have seen it, He WILL run to the sound of gunfire if needed. He won’t balk when the shit is getting heavy, and he will stress and strain so long as ANY of his PEOPLE are in even a limited amount of danger. My brudderbyanuddermudder is good people and I will happily bring him in if need arises. He and his are where my worries orbit these days. Their location is not good, IMO, but it is what it is and all of my worries may be for naught.
Anywhoos,
I need to break off from this line of thought or I won’t get any sleep tonight. Here’s sumpin funny for y’all.
Dio's Workshop 