AircooledUnderground
Landing Zone for thoughts
Friday, April 22, 2022
Artificial Intelligence is not so artifical
Saturday, February 5, 2022
To AI and all others
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Sold the ranch. Wasn't my idea. Kids and friends said living in the woods with no phone, wood heat, and an old ford 4X4 truck made them uneasy in their minds. So the ranch sold lock, stock and barrel; truly. Walked away leaving everything to neighbors, and scavengers. Just like the place burned to the ground. I don't let myself think of those tools, books, heirlooms, and things that I kept rare and precious if not with utility then with memories both fond and frustrating.
I always wanted the kids to have the place and if not, to know there was always home where they could come and remember what was; good or bad.
It has ended. My son came up and got the process moving. I struggled. We were near the front door when he looked at some boulders near the porch and told me how he remembered stepping from boulder to boulder in a game he made up from the boredom of living in the woods. He remembered the past, being at home, his home for a moment. I guess that was enough for me. It completed a circle of sorts and I realized the loss for me was the mission of maintaining a sense of continuity.
In the greater picture of this world we live in, we live in denial of fundamental reality. We are selective and adopt a philosophy of out of sight; out of mind. We anthropomorphize with regard to reality. Everything is alive and in life, seeks to perpetuate its species through procreation, that is to say, continuity.
My old truck is not continuity but is more a touchstone, a marker, a fetish, a stimulant and symbol triggering moments of emotion both pleasurable and painful along my continuum of memories in my life.
So this object must move on to another or return to the earth and set me free. Freedom is earned and, at the last is freedom is not a choice but a result
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
"Time is relative" (sic) was a rebuttal, long ago, often given when discussing its passage or the lack thereof.
To some extent, aspects of time are, indeed, relative and seem to be circumstantial and in some context clearly subjective. For instance, time in pleasure seems short, conversely time in pain seems, to those experiencing it, to be far too long.
But what is clear to one either on the final act of the play of life or at the rise of the curtain and first act. Time is fluid and mercurial. It is the fluid sense I think best suits here and now.
In river of fluid; water, be it river of stream, seems to be the best anolog I can relate to here and now.
I have been in one of those anomalies of a such called an eddy that are near the bank, with leaves or other floating detritus floating in seemingly undisturbed circles while the steam meanders with subtle yet relentless movement and yet, at once, at it's end and beginnings.
Three years ago the sins of my past apparently caught up with me. Some injuries from my childhood, some from the teen year where immortality was an unconscious thought, stamping "approval" on my reckless behavior. Some injuries in the military, work, play, motorcycles, rock climbing, martial arts and errors of judgement.
They all came to "roost" after a week of falling dead timber and splitting it into firewood.
I woke one morning, after splitting 24 inch rounds on a hill side with a ten pound maul and sledge hammer, unable to get out of bed and in the most pain I had experienced in my life while remaining conscious. A neighbor stopped by and called from my bed I needed help to get to the VA hospital.
Weeks became months until finally able to move cautiously from bed to bath. As a first responder, I was used to giving help and not getting it. Eating crow and humble pie is not a staple to be endured but to pass through. With time I gained a better perspective and was changed. How does this relate to three years of inactivity?
The experience changed me. And in that change my world shrank, as if atrophied, and I became less outgoing, a bit more introverted but clearly more appreciative of things I had lost sight of over the years. I also did not want to burden others with my issues. So I "went to ground" and there I have been. I still split wood, cautiously, and with consideration of my limitations, work carefully and mindfully. I live much of my time in the woods with no phone, no internet, no television, wood heat, and only hot water for showering. I communicate locally by citizens band radio.
My VA Doctor said of my condition, "That's what you get from leading an exciting life"
I take it as a complement rather than an indictment.
Friday, December 4, 2015
The conscious mind is the least informed and last to know.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Coming out of the woods, in more ways than one.
Heading down, from above the lower pasture. (what a sentence)!
In the distance the haze of smoke from the Canyonville fire. It has been burning for weeks. All of Oregon has been on high fire alert. Land owners in my area met and we made plans, and agreed to reduce the fire threat in our area. This meant lots of clearing, trimming dead branches at least eight feet above the forest floor, managing brush and, if possible, setting up auxiliary watering systems. A lot of work, in a bloody hot season.
Over head the jets lay down criss cross patterns of white trails that don't go away but spread across the sky, sealing in the heat. Like a giant green house. Clearly no help from them and certainly not the solution. No matter what, I press on.
The trees in the photo, looking East by South East, are still doing reasonably well, but many trees have died, many in shock and lots of Madrone with black spotting on their leaves are suffering and many have died. Wells in the lower areas have been impacted, but we all have rallied together and...
press on.
I was pulling on some errant chicken wire that had been caught up in brush,( just right of the growth on the right side of the picture), and after giving a yank in came free, unexpectedly. My back to the down hill side, tumbled on to my neck and shoulders. There was the terrible sensation of tearing muscles and tendons, the crunch and crackle of neck bones as a rolled over on to my back and slide down the hill in weeds, dry star thistle, grass and odd bits of field debris.
I thought I had cashed in for a moment, then wiggled my fingers. I figured I had just enough time, while I was in shock, to gather myself up, take my tools up the old logger trail to the shop before the real pain hit.
I stripped, hosed my self off, went in the house and pulled a bag of frozen lima beans out of the freezer. I put it on my neck, laid on the couch and waited.
After a trip to the VA and X-rays the next day I was still feeling beat up but happy I didn't damage any vertebra or discs but I still am healing with a little less discomfort each day.
I will never call the neck brace, I have been wearing from time to time, a "sympathy collar". It does a great job in the slow recovery process and keeps stubborn people like me from re-injuring themselves.
Like all experiences, we come away with something. Somethings we get great insights and other times, well, not so great insights. I took some out of each category and applied one immediately.
don't work alone in the woods.
If I had remarried, I am sure a wife would be down the hill to find me. Maybe it is time to settle down.