I'm going back to my sixteen year-old self...Joyboy...it' all about the joy! The little twinkly lights on the natural tree inside the house...the smooth taste of eggnog in my French Roast cup of morning joe...soaking naked in the outdoor wood-fired hot tub...taking the dog for a walk on the trail behind our house....riding my bicycle, outfitted with studded tires, across the causeway on the lake to drink in the view of Lassen Peak, (the snow-covered volcano to our North)...Ten days 'til the Solstice...What a way to go!
I've been totally captivated by the History Channel series; Countdown To Apocalypse. There are a lot of interesting angles to this countdown to Dec. 21. The religious angles, the historical angle, the mathematician angle, the astrological angle, the environmental angle and amazingly enough, the least important factor is...the Human Factor. There is absolutely nothing we can do about the whole affair....hide in a bomb shelter?
So, my plan is to thoroughly enjoy the next ten days...and then, to enjoy the next ten days after that and... ten days after that...and so forth. We all would be happier if we lived ten days at a time...actually, each day at a time, but that seems a little too hedonistic to humans with a "serious side".
I asked my wife to take Thursday and Friday off work next week, the 20th and 21st. We are going to sit next to each other and drink tea together, followed by a glass of wine... while playing Yahtzee or Encore or Scrabble... "Laughing all the way".
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
Reading Too Much / Riding Too Little
Showing up at work, five days a week... mopped the floor, after the flood... from rain pushing on the back roll-up door... set up a few pair of XC skis...just in case Mother Nature decides to do the right thing and drops an albino shitload of frozen rain on this mtn. county. I fixed a couple of flats this week...there are a few intrepid bicycle riders braving the chilly temperatures and occasional ice patches...they need lube, air in the tires and an infrequent tune-up.
So, what I do with all of my extra quiet hours at work is...READ! I'm like a sponge... I'm wearing out my cheater glasses and drinking cups of Ceylon, Yogi and Lemon Grass tea like I'm on Dr. Oz antioxidant health regimen. Pandora's Moondog channel provides most of my background music...it's unpredictable and serves to keep me awake.
It was 27 degrees when I awoke, 29 when I rode to work on my bike...It's dark and 33 when I pedal home pulling the Lab in her bicycle "conestoga" wagon. Without snow on the ground, I'll have to say, I'm not a huge fan of Winter, especially the dark days here at 40 degrees latitude. I want to write more...but, here's the evidence...I really don't have that much to say.
What do I read? This is where it gets interesting... I read a lot about the conundrum our materialistic society is experiencing....we own too much stuff and we no longer can find work producing more stuff because The Peoples Republic of China's distribution network (Walmart) is flooding the stores with cheap stuff...stuff that we sucker for everytime we go out to shop....stuff that we have to re-buy every couple of months...because, it's stuff that doesn't last. Of course, I'm thinking bicycles when I write this.
Global Climate Change is another favorite subject of mine...that too is a crazy conundrum. We are incredibly reluctant to change any of our behaviors until Matt Lauer or Oprah Winfrey tell us to...and it's our consumptive lifestyles, which include collecting a dizzying amount of electronic gadgets and appliances (all made in, you know where, China, or somewhere in Asia).
So, what activity serves to clean a lot of this static and conflicting information out of my ever-expanding bald head? Yep, riding my bicycle or cross country skiing out into the backwoods...or at the very least, taking the Labrador on a long walk during icy mornings...I'm done, the dog's tail just started wagging vigorously when I wrote that last sentence...that's weird.
So, what I do with all of my extra quiet hours at work is...READ! I'm like a sponge... I'm wearing out my cheater glasses and drinking cups of Ceylon, Yogi and Lemon Grass tea like I'm on Dr. Oz antioxidant health regimen. Pandora's Moondog channel provides most of my background music...it's unpredictable and serves to keep me awake.
It was 27 degrees when I awoke, 29 when I rode to work on my bike...It's dark and 33 when I pedal home pulling the Lab in her bicycle "conestoga" wagon. Without snow on the ground, I'll have to say, I'm not a huge fan of Winter, especially the dark days here at 40 degrees latitude. I want to write more...but, here's the evidence...I really don't have that much to say.
What do I read? This is where it gets interesting... I read a lot about the conundrum our materialistic society is experiencing....we own too much stuff and we no longer can find work producing more stuff because The Peoples Republic of China's distribution network (Walmart) is flooding the stores with cheap stuff...stuff that we sucker for everytime we go out to shop....stuff that we have to re-buy every couple of months...because, it's stuff that doesn't last. Of course, I'm thinking bicycles when I write this.
Global Climate Change is another favorite subject of mine...that too is a crazy conundrum. We are incredibly reluctant to change any of our behaviors until Matt Lauer or Oprah Winfrey tell us to...and it's our consumptive lifestyles, which include collecting a dizzying amount of electronic gadgets and appliances (all made in, you know where, China, or somewhere in Asia).
So, what activity serves to clean a lot of this static and conflicting information out of my ever-expanding bald head? Yep, riding my bicycle or cross country skiing out into the backwoods...or at the very least, taking the Labrador on a long walk during icy mornings...I'm done, the dog's tail just started wagging vigorously when I wrote that last sentence...that's weird.
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