2018: Day 27

Greetings my fellow adventurers. How are you all doing on this cold and rainy 27th day of the New Year? I am sitting here in the coffee shop eating the ham & cheese scone I pick up at the local farmer's market. I am trying to write this but I forgot my glasses, so it is rather hard. Now I know what you are thinking: why not wait til I get home to write this? The fact of the matter is consistancy. I walk, rest at the half way point at the coffee shop, do this little blog and go home. There is something that I find solace in. It is like the constant beating of the waves aginst the shore, over and over and over. I like that, but then I hate it at the same time. It is too easy to get hypnotized by the constant beating of wave and shore that you forget about it and before you know it years have gone by in the blink of an eye. You are left wondering where your life went. I liked my time overseas and my road trip across the country, away from the constant drumming. It is a constant yearning that I have. But at the same time the repetition of a consistant life calls to me. Solace and yearning. I have got to find a happy medium between the two. 

2018: Day 26

At 350 meters tall it is a long way down into the abyss at Tokyo Skytree. I hope you all are doing well my fellow adventurers. It is the 26th day of the New Year and it is nice and cold, still. I want to talk about holding on to stuff. When I was a young lad, I thought that I would be a father by now. That I would have a bunch of kids and a castle somewhere. A boy to carry on my name and four girls named after the four seasons: Winter, Autumn, Summer and Spring. It was a nice dream. As I grow older and that dream fades into my fantasy, I have taken into stock what I have in my life and I am sad to say, it is not much. All I have is my dreams and memories and a bunch of stuff, that is when I think about it, a bunch of junk. It is my junk however, but it must be pared down. I guess what I am afraid of is that that as I downsize, I will have nothing left of myself. Nothing left of me to say that I am here, was here, that I mattered. It is like I am standing at the edge of the abyss that has no is no bottom. 
Sigh. That really got dark fast. I did not mean to tread on such ground but it is the first time I have said this out loud. It is something that I will have to come to grips with. I still have hope. It is small and broken, nothing but embers right now, but it still smolders...

2018: Day 25

It is a cold 25th day of the New Year. I love it. As I have said before, it is perfect cuddling weather. Now I just have to get her to come up here, hehe. Anywho, I just want to say that there is a growing darkness that I see brewing on the internet. A friend of mine just said that he likes my little blog posts because he says that it is not the usual dark and gloomy posts that one finds on the 'net. But I feel that I must post a few of them just to illustrate my disappointment. Facebook is the main cause of my discontent. It seems that every other comment only describes the ugliness I see. It breaks my heart to see and hear of school shootings, religious persecutions, that fool Trump, nationalism, the greediness of politicians and idiocy of people; and that is in the United States alone. So much of this stuff can be fixed without trampling on the Constitution but it doesn't happen. We are at the point where we must think globally for the betterment of all humanity, not just for ourselves or our nation. We are all citizens of this, our Earth...

2018: Day 24

Day 24, a cold and miserable day. I love it. Yesterday I have gotten serveral meals that I am planning on taking on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. I picked up something from Mountain House, the beef stroganoff and I also got some of the Knorr brand meals. Well, that is somewhat of a lie. They were all a buck at Walmart and I got twelve of them, all different kinds. I plan on doing a tasting of them to figure out what is good or not. I am going to do it all on YouTube. I am getting a new SD Card for my camera, so it is probably up next week some time.

Another thing my brother brought up before I left to come here was this online course to become a Google IT Support Profesional. It will take eight months but it is something I am seriously thinking about. I better do this now while I still have the time to do it.

2018: Day 23

It is the twenty-third day, and it is cold and rainy. Mmmm, just like I like it. It would have been a nice night, wrapped up underneath two blankets except for the fact that at 3:55am I received a call. I was half asleep and accidentally hit the call end button insread of increasing the volume. After using the bathroom and getting some water, I tried to think of what and who it was that called. It sounded important and I figured out that a 7.9 earthquake hit off the coast of Alaska and it a tsunami warning. I turned on the local NPR Station, got on the internet and did some quick calculations. We are close to a hundred feet up from the shore, in elevation. I figured we might get some increased swells, but nothing that would reach us. It was some six miles down . I went back to sleep, or tried too. My brother called me and asked if I had a go bag packed. At 4:41am my phone rang again and it was the Sheriff calling ince more to cancelled the warning. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep last night. 

2018: Day 22

The twenty-second day of the New Year and it isn't raining anymore. In fact it is a sunny day with clouds. Sigh. Anyways, I have got two books over the weekend that should help me on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail next year. The 2018 Nothbound AT Guide by David "AWOL" Miller is the first book picked up. I also picked up the 2018 Appalachian Trail Thru-hiker's Companion by Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association. Both of the books are excellent and will give me much to peruse over the next year as I plan my trip. The more I plan the more I will begin to feel the same trepidation that I felt when I went overseas to Japan alone. I hope that once I begin, the trepidation will disappear much like it did when I first saw the Japanese coast.

2018: Day 21

Rain is coming down. The wind howls. A chill in the air. Yea gods, I do love this weather. Day twenty-one of the New Year. Yesterday on the 20th as the Woman's March titled “Resist & Persist Women’s March Lincoln County." According to the newspaper they had over 1600 participants, pretty big for a small town of ten-thousand people. I forgot about it. While sitting down at the coffee shop, I saw a rainbow flag flapping by while writing yesterday's blog. When I finished it, I saw them on my walk home. There were probably sixteen-hundred of them. If I had the time, I would have joined them on their march. I read more about them later that night, and it is to quote the News Lincoln County Internet Resource: “Resist patriarchy, corruption and oppression” and to “Persist for democracy, equality and truth.” Men, women and children who want to stand in support of these goals are urged to join in. Asked why they are marching, responses have been diverse: “for my granddaughter’s dreams,” “to help all of us to feel empowered,” “in support of Dreamers, immigrants, people of color, and all minority groups,” “in support of LGBTQ community members,” “to fight for the soul of our democracy.” Amy Greer of South Beach said “We can vote with our ballots, vote with our money and we can vote with our actions. Americans have the right to do that, but not for much longer, if we don’t protect those rights. Whatever you do, do something.” It is something that whole heartedly agree with.

It cleared up. There is no rain or wind though it is still cold. Hell, even the sun has come out. Blah…