jeez

I did my chopping meditation. I wrapped my head around a number of things and unwrapped a couple others.

I'm working my way through a lot of maple falls right now.The 6lb maul is really effective for most of these. I'm using wedges for the tough ones and a pole axe for the light stuff. It is a good activity for clearing the mind.

I have on occasion pondered (usually when up pretty high) just what would cause my demise.
But in all these years it never occurred to me it would be...


 

I mean... beest was 46. 

Never. Ever. Have a bucket list.  Just do the fun things.  If you think "Oh I want to do that before I die" ...make plans to do it at the first realistic opportunity.

monster wrote:

Do The Things, folks.

Abso-fucking-lutely. Sing it, sister.

The total eclipse will pass through Spain in 2 years.  It should be a sunny August day without a cloud in in sky.  Right across the middle of the country.  I'm going to start looking into it.  It would make a very nice 2 week vacation.  I'm picturing a nice countryside chalet right in the path of totality.

Also, I almost have the Missus convinced that Madeira might not be a bad idea.  I think it was the "effortless and perfectly level" mountain hikes that I promised her.

In Spain you'll be able to camp.  The Iceland one should be pretty good too
 

Looming death is very much a part of my world, right now. My 40-year-old brother has a massive brain tumor (diagnosed 6 weeks ago, didn't talk about it because I had too much to deal with,) and he's got maybe 3-6 months to go if he's lucky. Then this past weekend my dad suffered a very bad fall (after climbing on a bathroom counter to change a lightbulb, because, in his own words, he's an idiot) and now has 5 broken ribs. Which will heal, eventually, but the thing about rib injuries is they make you breathe shallowly, which if you're old is a straight ticket to pneumonia. So he might bounce back from this just fine, or he might suddenly spiral at any point in the next 8 weeks, and I could end up losing both of them at the same time.

Oh yes, we've visited--he lives in town, no wife/kids, no job. He ended his apartment lease when he was diagnosed and moved back in with my mom, partly for support with his meds and partly because, having had seizures leading up to the diagnosis, he wasn't allowed to drive anymore. He's got a positive attitude and is working on some new songs with his old band, so he's enjoying that. Right now he's being held in stasis, basically symptom-free, by an incredibly high dose of steroids. At some point that dose won't be sustainable due to the side effects, and then I expect it will go very quickly. He waited for almost a decade to go see a doctor about his symptoms, so he basically was already tiptoeing the edge of the cliff by the time anyone knew what was going on.

I forget that not every family has scattered all over the world like mine has.

I'm glad he's got the family around.
 

I wonder if, minus the death sentence, you had asked your brother what he would like most to be doing in the world, he would have said, "working on some new songs with my old band" ... It reminds me of Neil Young's lyric that gets me every time.. his confession..

"..One of these days
I'm gonna sit down and write a long letter
To all the good friends I've known
And I'm gonna try
And thank them all for the good times together
Though so apart we've grown

And I'm gonna thank
That old country fiddler
And all those rough boys
Who play that rock 'n' roll
I never tried to burn any bridges
Though I know I let some good things go.."

...

eta: I'm not sure if I ever told anyone, but please find a way to make sure they play this song at my funeral

Last edited by Flint (4/24/2024 1:24 am)

"I'll know that I was a person that you were proud of"  -lyric from that song, still my current earworm