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…

2018: Day 20

An old dog that I see at times on my daily walks. It is the twentieth day of the New Year and the say that you can't teach on old dog new tricks. Maybe the old dog is just tired of trying to learn and just wants to be left alone, but occasionally petted. Never the less I consider myself to be tbe eternal student. I want to learn more of this glorious world, endless space, wondrous people and amazing cultures. And that is something that I find to be totally baffling. All the science naysayers that have popped up in the years of growing social media. Flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, creationists, politcians, people who don't take the science that is right before them. Of course if you don't believe in something you should challenge it, put in the work to prove it. All science is theory. We are built on a history of scientific theory. All science goes through many levels of peer reviews to prove if it is right or wrong. 2+2=4 is still basically a theory. It is just that no one has disproven it...

2018: Day 19

The sun had just gone down while I was staying at Pismo Beach a few years ago when I came back from over seas.

Day 19, a cold and rainy day. Man I do love this weather, hehe. I have been going over my previous days and finding many typos. I am not one for typos or double words and I have caught many of them. Sigh. The problem is I am doing most of it on my phone when I stop at the coffee shop on my walks. My phone is old and it doesn’t have spell check and therefore, typos. I am sorry. Come to think of it do phones come with spell check?

It goes and makes me think of why I am doing this. I am doing this for many reasons. The first and foremost is that I am doing it to for the repetition. I have been writing more and more, but not constantly, day-to-day. I want to get used writing, even if it is for this crappy blog I am doing. Now I will not get every day, but I will try my damnest to do. Another reason I am doing this is for my writing. To try to put down and in flowery words, to use words that I have would not use in a fortnight. Hehe, like fortnight. Reason the third, because of the strokes I have suffered. I really don't want any others to plague me, for you never know if the next one will be the one to put you away permanently. I have had the good fortune to not to so far. So I try to write, and I warch how I write, looking for any evidence of a stroke coming my way. Número veir... hmm. I had four or five reasons but I have forgotten them. Well rats...

2018: Day 18

The month is fast coming to an end.  It is the 18th day of the New Year.  It is over half way done, much like I am in years.  Over half way done.  Now I am not one for bucket lists, the things you would like to do before you die.  To me it was a reminder of what you couldn't do because of whatever reason.  There are so many people out there who will just say that, that is an excuse.  I call it for what it is: the realities of life.  Some people are lucky in the fact that they can do whatever they want.

As for bucket lists, I keep mine rather small to avoid the inevitable disappointments that they will occur.  Hiking the Appalachian Trail, travelling to all the National Parks, to wake up in the morning with the woman I love.  And oh, there is a Japanese wrestler who people say I look like, I wanna meet him.  Small things that I  can accomplish, that I can look back and say, "good job, I did it."

There is something that I want to add to the list.  Doing the Rim-to-Rim Hike in the Grand Canyon.  It is something that I have wanted to do now ever since I have gone to the Grand Canyon in 2015.  It is something I would like to do by the end of this year.  It is a strenuous, twenty-odd mile hike down one rim, across the canyon floor and up the other side.  Crossing the canyon is not that hard.  Going down isn't that hard.  Coming up the five-thousand plus feet... that is hard.  But so is the twenty-two hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail, and I am looking forward to that.

2018: Day 17

Day 17 of the New Year. I remember when I first left for Japan all by myself around three years ago. It was the first time I have left the United States in twenty years and I was sick to my stomach. I wasn't ill, I was unsure of myself and this trip I was going on. Like I said, I was going by myself. I couldn't help but to think of my life until then. I have tried to convince my lady friend to go with me, but she had just started a new job. My parents were dead as my mother had just died a year before. My brother had just sold his house so the place I was staying in was no more. I had nothing, really to anchor me here. So, the last day in August, 2014, after a game convention, I boarded a plane and left. 

Still, I was sick to my stomach. I could sleep on the long trip as I looked out the window at the clouds below that opened up into the vast ocean, like it would swallow me whole and not even notice. However the coastline came into view and at that moment, all my fear and trepidation about going to Japan, about what I will see, who I will meet, vanished. I knew then that it was going to be all right. That no matter what would befall me, that this wasn't the end of my travels, it was the beginning of them.

2018: Day 16

Azaleas at the Huntington Botanical Garden. A peaceful picture to show the undercurrent of anger that used to rule my life. Day 16 of the New Year. I've been walking to the coffee shop pretty much every day now thinking of what to write every day. I get some fresh air and some exercise, so win-win. I think, much like I always do and usually I can think of something to write. Not so much today. I have been thinking of how my intelligence has been stunted by my strokes. People tell me that a stroke does not affect overall intelligence but I find that it does. I cannot recall and access the information quickly or at all. That has got to affect intelligence, right? I used to be very smart, I have read all sort of books and could recall all manner of odd or esoteric information. Now, not so much. The problem is that I was lazy smart. I never really applied myself and because of that I have wasted that part of my life that was, I guess formative in my life.
My strokes have done something good for me. I do not get that angry any more. I used to have a great anger problem, and my mother talked to me about it one day toward the end of my shop. I have always known I have had a problem but that crystallized it. It didn't end it right then and there but I recognized the problem. I find that when I had my first stroke several years later, that I just don't get that angry any more. Well that is a lie. I do get angry at the a-holes that speed up to pass me but then end up going slower than me once they get in my lane. Yea gods, it is infuriating. Hehe. I get upset and sad; my empathy has gone through the roof but I rarely get angry anymore. One thing about that time was that I am glad that I was not hurt anybody. I learned from a young age that I was strong and could easily hurt people. It got more evident as I got older and learned a variety of martial arts. At least I had the self control not to strike anyone, that no one got me so blindingly angry to make me attack them. There just isn't time for it any more as I have hit the middle of my years. There is so much more that I want to do and not that much time left...

2018:Day 15

The three people that stayed in my campsite at Yosemite. 

It is day 15 of the New Year and I have come to the realization that I like to have a house full of people, even if I dont deal with them a lot. But it could be the size of the house. I mean it is like some 3000 square feet split between three floors. We are social creatures after all. When I was young, so many year ago, my father picked up the game of Dungeons & Dragons. We first plyed it at the college he was attending at the time in Pennsylvania back in the 70s, via the GI Bill. Eventually the games moved into the rambling farmhouse we had. The thing was, that for like thee or four years there was always people at our house. I really liked that feeling and that is one of the reasons why I opened my game store back in the day. The people. I have made some excellent friends because of that. Even though the shop has been closed since the start of the millennium I have always searched for that lost feeling of home. For example when I went to Yosemite a few years back, I just went with no plans, no reservations. I had to sign up for the first-come, first-served at the Rangers hut. For both days I have gotten a campsite and because all I had was my little Prius, and the sites can hold two cars and six people, I invited another car to stay at my camp.

We are all social creatures. Keep that in mind... 

2018: Day 14

Day 14 and it is a rather nice day, though clouds in the distance do threaten it.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow… mmm, I like the rain.  I like the clear and sunny days too, but I really like the rain.  I am getting a little too comfortable coming to this coffee house just about every day.  Sure I walk it, it is a good 4000 steps there and back, that is why I like it here.  It is pretty much the only coffee house in the distance that I could walk too that has a seating area inside.  I guess I am getting to be too complacent.  Bad!  Bad!  Bad!

I noticed two dead bird when I walked here.  The third bird was atop the powerline.  I hope that it isn't the beginnings of a new superbug that affects the birds first…

2018: Day 13

Making carrot cake with my niece... yea gods I miss baking. 

It is the thirteenth day of the new year and it is a bright and sunny day. It knows that my niece is leaving tomorrow, hehe. They say that 13 is an unlucky number but I don't see it. It was my mother's lucky number and it was never a symbol of bad luck for our family. I just find it weird that numbers, among many things are considered to be bad luck. Walking under ladders, opening umbrellas indoors, breaking mirrors, the poor misaligned black cat. All those things can be explained. Walk under a ladder enough times and something will fall on you. Umbrellas are large and unwieldy outdoors as well as indoors. Mirrors used to be expensive, so you really didn't want to break them. Black cats were a scapegoat that used to be applied to evil witches. I've known and know many witches and none of them were evil. A few of them were... odd, but none of them evil. Thirteen is not unlucky. Nothing is the embodiment of unluck. Only our own perceived notions. Now I know I must seem hypocritical in saying that, but I never considered a specific thing as the embodiment of unluck.

And oh, the carrot cake was good... 

Sooooo good...

2018: Day 12

The 12th day of my blog.  Here is a little thing about this blog that I am writing that I never mentioned until now.  It is kinda like a journal of the day.  Not a journal that recounts the events of the day, but more like just a thought that I have or need to talk about.  That is why some of what I wrote seems like it is written by a thirteen year old, or it is the incoherent ramblings of a man on the verge of insanity.

Hehe.

I was talking to my lady friend last night and she is starting to feel under the weather, a sore throat to start with.  I gave her a herbal remedy that worked for a friend of mine many a year ago.  I was pretty good at it, even though I wasn't a master by any stretch of the imagination.  It has been years since I have used herbs for anything more than cooking. The reason I have got out of it was the fact that there were too many voices giving me too much advice.  That and I wasn't too sure about some of them.  I am sure that everyone had their own ways but it wasn't for me.  I do better trying to unlock the secrets on my own.

2018: Day 11

Day 11 and it is a cold, wet and windy day!  This isn't the old day that was like this, but this day got me to thinking of something.  I have read or watched on YouTube a while ago that if you are planning a thru-hike that you should get out there in inclement weather to see if it is truly a think you will want to do.  Well, despite the fact that I actually love this weather, I am still planning on doing the thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.  I set out with my coat and cloak and stamped my way up to the coffee shop.  I have been doing this ever since last July when I decided to do this.  My brother told me that I didn't want to go out there, but the weather wasn’t that bad.

My coat and cloak 

2018: Day 9

Day 9.  Well, it has finally come to pass.  For weeks I have been stuck on how to proceed on a story that I have been writing.  It is all based on a world I created for a game.  It is part steampunk, part scifi, part fantasy that takes place on an alien world that two warring factions have crash landed on after a great space battle a thousand years ago.  That is something else that happens when I write.  If I just put it aside for a little while, I can approach it from a different angle.  That’s what I did.  For a couple of weeks I have just set it aside and last night, I was just thinking some random thought and boom!  There it was.  I am writing it now, well not exactly at this moment, hehe.

Now here is the thing.  Last night, I thought of the perfect response to yesterday's blog.  To add on to what is written.  The silly thing is that I forgot it.  I knew I should have written it down.  I had the notepad and pencil sitting right there…

2018: Day 8

Day 8, and it has been over a week all ready.  You know if it wasn't for the weather, I would probably be doing more.  But these chill days filled with rain are days made for snuggling with someone you love.  Or hate, whatever floats your boat. 

Oh, I want to make clear about what I write here.  These are mainly stream of consciousness type writing.  Just blurbs that I write during my walks that I take every day, rain or shine, much like the picture that is with this post.  I usually stop for coffee or tea in the middle of my walk.  Not like yesterday when I forgot my phone and my notebook.  I forgot everything!  I stopped by a store and bought a notebook and wrote out the basics of what I wanted to say, rewrote it when I got home. 

That is how I wtite.  I sit in a coffee shop to write.  It is strange when I think about it.  I like, or maybe I need, the little distractions, the noise, the life as I wtite.  When I am home, I have to have the radio, or television, or computer on to remind me that I am not alone.  When I sleep at night, the same thing.  I usually have Alexa playing something in the background to lull me asleep.  Is it like I said?  To remind me that I am not alone even in that vicarious way?  It makes me think...

2018: Day 7

Day 7 of 2018 finds us on another cold and wet day.  But the thing is, I love the weather up here in Oregon.  It is one of the few things I like about the Beaver State.  Well, that and no sales tax.  That is pretty nice here as well.  Ever since the holidays however, I have been stuck in limbo, one of which I must, no WILL, free myself.

One of the things I must do is garner a more sustainable source of income.  For years I have been thinking about this problem and winning the lottery is not a viable option, hehe.  But then what is?  I have to be able to think of something and all I can think of is two options.  The first is stocks.  Now my knowledge of stocks is quite pitiful and I know little of the market.  My father however was quite knowledgeable and he figured it out by study and hard work.  It is something that I will have to research.

The other thing I have thought about is writing a novel, a book, a script, something.  I am by no means a Hemingway or a Tolkien, but I do have some good ideas for writing.  I think that I am rather good at creating a world around a simple idea.  I have written before and tried my hand at the National Novel Writing Month, but I didn’t finish.  It may seem like it is an easy thing to do, but it is not!

So, those are my two choices… I am doomed.

2018: Day 5

Yesterday I went to a RV show hosted by a big dealer.  I knew what I wanted to see.  I wanted to check out the Class B vans.  I went to the show at the local fairgrounds and wouldn't you believe it, they didn't have the Winnebago Travato 59G there.  I was called two weeks ago saying that they got them back in.  Anyway, they didn't have them at the fairgrounds but at their store front.  Sigh.  That and the food truck I wanted to go to, was closed for the winter.  Why, General Bao, why!?

Anyway, I  went to to the storefront and patiently waited for the the salesperson.  He didn't show up.  A few calls well after the time he was supposed to be the, ge said that he couldn't show up, that his manager told him he couldn't go.  Long story short I did get to see the 59G and run over it.  I just wanted to check out exactly how big it was compared to me.  All in all it wasnt that bad.  I fit in the barhroom and behind the dinette table.  The shower could have been designed better though.  The only thing I couldn't figure out was how to spin the captain's chairs around.  All in all, the experience started off good but ended up leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway (again) my brother went to pick up my niece.  One could tell because the weather is turning bad... I swear every time she comes up here.

2018: Day 3

Day 3 of 2018.  I am thinking about what I am going to do for the rest of the year.  The only major thing is a wedding my friend Gary and I have been tasked with cooking.  My friend Greg's daughter is getting married... my god it makes you think about how fast time is flying right past you.  It seems that time goes by faster the older you get.  I don't want it to go by.  I would like to catch, to hold on to those moments for a little longer.  It is strange that when you are younger you wish that you were older.  You couldn't wait to be older, to do all the things that you couldn't do.  To see an R-rated movie, to drive, your first drink, to get married.  

Other than that, I don't have anything planned for the year.  Unless something better comes up, I am still planning for next year to do the Appalachian Trial.  Fifteen months to go... oh god... fifteen months.  But that means training.   To continue to go on and do my walks and hikes.

2018: Day 2

Whoa.  It is the second day of the New Year.  What am I going to do?  What am I going to add?  What am I going to drop?  What am I going to be?  Four important questions and it is only the second day.  I am sure that I will have more in the coming days, weeks, hell, even months.  That is why I am trying to write here an a consistent basis.

A long time ago, back when I was still a babe, my mother said she took me to a fortune teller.  This was back when we were still in Taiwan.  She asked the fortune teller about my life and my mother was told that I would have a good life.  That according to my astrological signs (I was born in the Year of the Rooster) that I would be a lazy rooster and glide through life.  That I shouldn't get married until I was at least 30 to have a happy marriage.  She didn't bother telling me until I was well past 30 though!  Despite the series of bad luck I have had in the past, my life has been fairly good.  But, that is to say that it could be better.  I am trying to be a better person, better than I already am.  Maybe I just have to say it, to put it out into the world.  I am a big old introvert but maybe I will have to be more of an extrovert.  I will have to change, to evolve, to be the better person I aspire to be.  Leaner, healthier, a model of success.  I have got to be open to more things.  I have got to stand up for the causes that matter to me and of course to the world.

2018

It is January 1, 2018 and it is a cold but sunny day.  It is looking to be a nice day, but I am thinking that it is going to be like every other day.  I am not going to be pessimistic, after all according to general concensus it is supposed to be a new year that anything could happen.  2017 is gone and it was a year that was filled with controversy, horror and an absolute fear for the future.  As such we will have to fight for our future, to make it better for everyone.  That is everyone, even those whom we hate and fear, and even as they still hate and fear us.  But, let us also remember that it was a year that was filled with laughter, with love and with hope.  Hope is important.  Hope is what makes us dream for a brighter tomorrow.  Even though I do not approve of our president, I approve of the reason why a good friend voted for him.  It is not because she agrees with any of his ideas, but the change that is before us all.  That it will bring down the parties and make us in four years think about what has gone wrong and fix what was done.  I just hope that there will be something left to fix.  Sigh.  How did this become political?  Stream of consciousness, I blame that.

2018 I hope will be filled with new adventures, new friends, new horizon and new travels.  I hope to banish old fears and replace them with new experiences.  I hope to stay in contact with my old friends, to strengthen them.  I hope I will have love returned for I do have so much to give.

So, to everyone who is going to read this, I hope for you as well to have those things.  I hope that you will all grow to love, to laugh and to have your dreams come true.  Even if it is just the small dreams that matter to only you.

So to me, it is just another day.  Catch me on the Year of the Dog, that is when it really will begin...