Life On A B-I7

Day #208

Madeleine L’Engle said: “Just write a little bit every day. Even if it’s for only half an hour.”

This may be the best advice from an author I have stumbled across. I appreciate that she does not attach any expectation to that writing because neither do I…

Writing is also good for old peoples’ brains.

Day #207

Jack Kerouac said: “One day I will find the right words.”

I’m searching. I’m getting closer but won’t get there unless I keep trying.

Federalist Paper #51

James Madison, whom I admire greatly, as much for his role in the establishment of our country as for his sheer brilliance, stated in the Federalist Paper #51 (the following is my paraphrasing) that when a government is formed the first priority is to give that government the tools to control the governed. It seems to me he is talking about laws. The second priority, and possibly most important, is to give the government the structure required to control itself.

The United States has come closer than any predecessor Democracy in achieving “a more perfect form of government.” We can and should learn from our ongoing experience. There may be no “perfect form,” but perhaps we should consider that life appointment to the Supreme Court is not ideal in practice. Might it not be better if appointments were made by a consortium composed of equally represented party membership taken from those persons elected to the Senate?

The Cat Who Taught Zen

“The Cat Who Taught Zen” is a wonderful little book. It is a primer on Zen. A collection of classic Zen stories woven together into a charming narrative that presents the stories in an abbreviated and simple fashion that even I can understand. The book is delightfully illustrated by the author, James Norbury. Many of the paintings are done in the Sumi-e style. A type of painting that uses black ink on special paper. The result gives a wonderfully spontaneous result to the finished subject.

Naturally, reading the book reminded me of my cat, Mr. Tux. I never thought of him as a Zen Teacher, but that is exactly what he is. If he could talk, I would have figured that out much sooner. His quiet non-verbal way of being is deceiving. What characterizes him most noticeably is the fact that he is constantly instructing. His way of being is his instruction. He is always in the moment when there is someone around him and paying attention to him. When he needs to be alone, he finds his way of managing that. I think this combination of being present for those who are around us, and withdrawing to a state of relaxation and contemplation when there is no one around is a fantastic lesson that I can use in my own life. I’ve been trying to practice this without really realizing what I was doing. Now that I have read “The Cat Who Taught Zen,” this has become all the more apparent to me, and all the more desirable.

Day #206

Virginia Woolf said: “So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for the ages or only for hours, nobody can say.”

Thank you, Virginia. Those are comforting words for me. I do hope that some of this will matter to my children. That’s what I think about most when I sit down to write.

Day #205

Edward Bulwerlytton said: “The pen is mightier than the sword.”

It’s nice to finally learn the name of the person that said that.

AHA Blood Pressure Notes

What follows is my handy reference copied from the AHA website…

Your blood pressure is recorded as two numbers:

Systolic blood pressure (the first number) indicates how much pressure your blood is exerting against your artery walls when the heart contracts.

Diastolic blood pressure (the second number)

indicates how much pressure your blood is exerting against your artery walls while the heart muscle is resting between contractions.

Typically, more attention is given to systolic blood pressure (the first number) as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease for people over 50. In most people, systolic blood pressure rises steadily with age due to the increasing stiffness of large arteries, long-term buildup of plaque, and an increased incidence of cardiac and vascular disease.

However, either an elevated systolic or an elevated diastolic blood pressure reading may be used to make a diagnosis of high blood pressure.

Here are my thoughts on this subject…

I’ve been diagnosed with Heart Disease (High Cholesterol) and occasional Hypertension (borderline) as well as non-acute seizures. None of this is particularly disturbing. You don’t reach age 70 without having something go off the rails physically. I can still bicycle, hike, and ski, so I have nothing to complain about I’m also learning not to use the word really in every other sentence, as in “I have nothing to really complain about.”

I also have an artificial Aortic Valve. That’s an interesting case. At age 64 it was discovered I was born with a bifurcated Aortic Valve. That means I have only two “leaves” in my valve instead of the normal three. This caused a “bypass” of blood each time my heart contracted, amounting to a less efficient pumping machine. It may have been discovered earlier and was ignored, I don’t really know. I suspect that is the case because I believe this condition is one that doctors prefer to treat later in life because of the risks inherent in surgery and the longevity of artificial heart valves — they have to be replaced on the order of every 10 years.

I try not to think about the long-term implications of all this. I may not live to celebrate my 100th birthday with younger members of the “70 Plus Ski Club.” Needless to say, that is my goal. It’s a matter of wait-and-ski. In the meantime, I’m following my doctor’s orders, really.

Day #204

Stephen King said: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and get to work.”

Good advice, whether you are writing or not. Although I consider myself an amateur by any stretch of the imagination, it’s also the case that every day I simply “get to work.” Why? I enjoy it. I have faith that someday before I die, something I consider to be worth reading will come off my pen.

TransAmerica Final Leg

I started the TransAm bicycle route in Yorktown VA in the summer of 2023. I got as far as Missoula MT where I had to pause the trip due to timing. Now it’s time to finish…

RCG - Remote Campground

This is the rough itinerary for the final leg of my TransAm bicycle journey. This is the first cut. There will be some minor adjustments once I’ve had a chance to study the elevation profile this plan follows. This version of my plan is based on the locations of convenient campgrounds. This could change if the elevation between these stopping points turns out to be unreasonable (for a 70 year old man).

The tentative starting date is Saturday June 16, reaching Redmond on Tuesday July 2. I’ll rest in Redmond over the July 4th holiday (allowing the worst traffic to abate). I’ll resume Monday July 8, finishing in Florence on Friday July 12.

Day #203

C.S. Lewis said: “I never exactly made a book. It’s rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say.”

Ray Bradbury would say something very similar. There are writers and there are people who write. Let there be no confusion, I fall into the latter category. Someone close to me said recently, why do you spend so much time writing? My reply was slightly apologetic, essentially I gave as my excuse, you can’t become a writer if you don’t write.

Hike

I went on a hike the other day. This photo is of an old prohibition era still set up in the hills outside Redmond, Oregon. There are several of these in the area. I’m a big fan of whiskey, but I prefer mine to be aged in oak barrels for some time before it is bottled. During the prohibition era, that was probably not the case all that often. I’m glad we now live in a more “civilized” time.

Too Long To Be An Epitaph

…but maybe this could be handed out to guests at the party…

Keep moving, keep learning, keep growing, pay your debts, live within your means, you don’t need two of everything, lemon bars are not as good as they look, be like the people you admire, admire only good people, read good books, listen to good music, don’t let the cat tell you what to do, don’t eat at IHOP, vote for good people, don’t vote for people that you need to make excuses for, pray for snow, don’t leave the water running, don’t drive too fast, listen to your creative self, go to bed early, get up early, ski as long as you can, take naps, be kind, smile, don’t look for compliments, if you receive a compliment be gracious, only eat when you are hungry, stay in the here and now, don’t drink too much, tell your inner critic to go look elsewhere, be patient, don’t stress out, at the end of every day spend time examining your day, watch baseball and keep score, remember that age is a state of mind, you can always edit your life, simplify, organize, focus, when you can’t use facts and information use kindness.

Day #202

Natalie Goldberg said: (I am paraphrasing slightly) “Write about what you are afraid to speak about.”

I’m working up to that. I need to print out that quote and paste it up above my desk… There is a part of me that is afraid to speak out. I’m not quite evolved enough to step into that territory. I joined the Central Oregon Writers Guild this week, not because I’m a writer, let’s be clear about that. I joined in the hope that by meeting with real writers once a month in the Bend Oregon Library, I might learn something about how to do this.

Democracy

We make lots of choices in life. Some of us choose to learn and think, some choose to listen, and some choose to do neither. The result of those choices can lead to undesirable events. When the choice of one or the other is endemic, that can have a dire impact on a democracy. If we look at the many democracies that have come and gone in the past, there appears a common thread. When the populous chooses to discard learning and instead listen to one individual, allowing that individual to do their thinking for them, that has historically led to a fundamental disruption. A disruption that in most cases has been the precursor to the fall of that democracy.

Our founders believed they had designed a type of democracy that had the institutional strength to resist the sort of tyranny that misguided masses can wreck upon their government. While they came closer than probably any democracy that preceded the one they established, we now know that there is no sure thing that can guarantee the preservation of a government, even one as perfect as our own. The key lies in two things that are never guaranteed. The willingness of the governed to think for themselves and participate in their government, and the willingness of their elected leaders to choose the good of the society over their personal preferences. Whether their preference is for power or whether it is for the imposition of their morals over their fellows, in either case, the will of the populous being ignored, the government is likely to fall into corruption.

Day #201

Susan Sontag said: “A writer is someone who pays attention to the world.”

I like to think I do that. As long as you are paying attention, there’s a chance you will observe something that leads to a new understanding. It may be gradual and it may be slight, but it is probably naive to think that enlightenment comes in any other way.

500 Words A Day

Ray Bradbury wrote a thousand words a day starting at age 9. The first work he felt truly satisfied with he released when he was 25. Given that I write only about 500 words a day and have been at it now for 5 years, I will likely be 98 years old before I have produced a piece of writing that truly satisfies me.

I don’t let that discourage me. I’m not Ray Bradbury. I don’t have his skill with language or his creativity, but that’s okay. We bring to the table what we have to offer. If what we bring is the best that we can produce at the moment, we have done our best. The real point is to keep going. The only goal I have for myself is to continue channeling my creative expression. That’s enough. That, and good handwriting.

Day #200

William Faulkner said: “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything good.”

I often find that my ideas are bad, in that case, I don’t share them. Occasionally I do create something “good.” That usually comes after having taken a chance. It’s safe to say, my best work usually comes after taking a chance.

Day #199

Franz Kafka said: “Writing is prayer.”

I’m not the praying type… Perhaps that’s why I write.

While We Can

“While we can,” is probably as good a reason as anyone has come up with for doing something now that you may not be able to do once you get older. I’m talking about things that may be beyond my capacity in the not-too-distant future. It’s why I cycle and ski as much as I can now. I hope to be able to do those things for a long time, but there are no guarantees. Even if you’re younger than I am, you might want to give this a bit of thought.

My goal is to be skiing at age 100. Of course that will take a bit of luck and I won’t be skiing then, the way I do now. It will be flat-skiing on blue runs with body weight carefully distributed over the center of my skis in as leisurely a manner as possible, but at least if the future unfolds the way I want it to, I will be skiing or something that closely approximates that.

Keep Your Expectations Under Control

I woke up this morning to 3 inches of fresh snow on the back patio. In early April, that is considered a good thing if you’re a skier. I packed up my gear and headed up to Mt. Bachelor. Yes, there was fresh snow there as well. The downside is the fresh snow was sitting on top of some crunchy bits, and here and there, some scraped-off surfaces. That makes skiing a bit harder work than it would be in mid-winter, but considering it’s April, I’ll take that any day.

It was a fun day of skiing. I stuck to the edges of the slopes and occasionally ducked into the trees where I found unpacked openings. That was the best part of the day, as well as simply working on the skill set I’m currently focusing on.

I need to preface this paragraph with a disclaimer. A loved one recently reminded me not to focus on myself too much, and also not to be focused on what other people have to say about me. That said, when good things happen, I think it’s okay to share, as long as you don’t make it a daily habit. Yesterday when I came off the mountain, the ski shop manager stopped me in the lodge and told me she saw me on the hill, and she said that I was “a pretty skier.” I’m going to take that as a compliment. She might have been talking about the color of my ski pants and jacket, but I’m going to choose to think she was talking about my skiing technique. The reason this makes me happy is I have been working very hard this season to advance my technique to the next level. I’ve had some success at doing that. Frankly, the success has exceeded my expectations. I tend to “Keep your expectations under control,” that way “You just might surprise yourself to see how far you go.”¹ This season has been surprising in that regard. I’m especially happy I can still learn new physical skills, even at 70. I’m also aware that is not going to continue into infinity…

Day #198

Martin Luther said: “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”

Of course, it has to be worth reading and it will also need to be read. Nevertheless, he is correct, even if the world you are changing is only your own.

Day #197

It may be that humans evolved the ability to practice science. Evolution, as the saying goes “does not plan ahead.” It may well be that the ability of humans to think scientifically evolved from the practice of tracking wild game. A skill developed by the earliest humans that was necessary for survival. It has been demonstrated that tracking is a science and not an art which could be the very evolutionary stimulus that has brought us to physics, space travel, and AI today.

Unlocking Another Secret

I went skiing yesterday. The season is winding down. I did not have the proper wax and by 2 pm my quads were burning. If you don’t get it, that’s okay, trust me, it’s a thing. I had a good day on the snow. As the title suggests, I unlocked another key to the mystery of good skiing. (One might say great skiing, but at age 70, I’ll settle for good.) The secret is — keep your hands out in front of you. Elbows bent, hands low, but as far in front of you as you can push them, and keep them there all the time.”

The beauty of this is it helps to get your weight forward onto the tips of your skis. The skis are designed to turn tips first. By engaging the tips, particularly of the turning ski, you allow the ski to take over and do what it was designed to do. This can’t happen if your weight is not forward on your skis, having your hands out in front is the secret sauce that helps to keep your weight forward.

When you look down from the chair lift and you see skiers with their hands by their sides you will invariably see the tails of their skis releasing halfway through the turn and sliding downhill. That’s a sure sign that their weight is not over the front of their skis. Their weight is on the center of their skis, or worse on the tails of their skis.

Day #196

By locating the thing that sheep desire, a herder can bend the flock’s will in that direction. You cannot do that by bullying the sheep, you must create in them a desire to follow. That is the key to herding any animal — humans included.

A Special Event

I recently wore this Tie Tac and Ring to a Memorial Service for Nancy Evans. What’s unusual about this is I was the only man out of several hundred (that I observed) wearing a Tie Tac. I guess they have gone out of fashion.

Nancy is the wife of the former Governor of Washington, Daniel Evans. Some say the best Governor Washington has ever had. That view was conveyed to me by one of his successors, who was also in attendance. Be that as it may, it was a privilege to attend the memorial. I was there escorting one of Nancy’s Nieces.

Back to the jewelry. I’ve started documenting some of my Father’s memorabilia that I have had in storage since his passing a few years ago. The Tie Tac and the Ring were among the items I retrieved from storage. I was very happy to bring them out into public and wear them for a very special event. That said, no one noticed (or at least commented). That’s okay. Wearing them made me feel a connection to my Dad. He would have loved to have been there. (I’m sure he was an Evans supporter.) He probably would have done a better job mixing with all the folks in attendance than I did, but that’s not the point, he would have enjoyed the event as much as I did. I was glad I could be there, and, in a small way, have him with me.

The Tie Tac is a replica of an ANA Airlines 747. The ring my Father picked up in Indonesia at some point. My siblings and I can’t fill in the back story on the ring