Life On A B-I7

# 179

I read the poem “Horses,” by Pablo Neruda. It was so beautiful it made me cry. So did the poem “A Blessing,” by James Wright, as did the poem “First Days of Spring — the Sky,” by Ryokan.

Needless to say, I wish I could write poetry (anything really) as beautifully as those poets.

Sidebar: I sometimes ignore Grammarly. It suggested I delete the phrase “Needless to say”. I like my way better. Of course, I am frequently accused of being verbose and not just by Grammarly…

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# 178

Turn On The Berm

Don’t use the top.
Don’t use the trough.
Turn on the berm.

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# 177

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday. I love you. Thank you for being a part of my life. I once got a ride from an Uber driver, and when I told him what a wonderful family I had, he told me he wanted to join my family. You are a big part of that.

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# 176 - Betrayal of 1776

I watch in horror, as
They storm the steps
With no idea
What they are doing.

I am witnessing
The calculated destruction
Of democracy,
One man’s dream.

It saddens me
That so many allow themselves
To become
Ignorant tools.

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# 175

Have you ever seen
an elephant standing on one leg
on top of a stack
of tea cups?

I have.

When I looked more closely
I saw a reality
where elephants
weigh less than tea cups.

It was an optical illusion.

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# 174

Seek tranquility whenever you can. The thoughts that come to you when you do that are the best guides you can have.

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# 173

How you live your life
Says a lot about
How you will be viewed
Once you are gone.

It doesn’t hurt to keep that in mind…

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# 172

Today I wrote down the names of 64 poets.

That’s a lot of poetry.

I would like to read them all.

It looks like I may be getting a late start on that one.

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# 171

Impermanence. I suppose that sort of sums it all up. One day you are cruising along and the next day a broken water pipe sends you into chaos. The best way to deal with that is to live without water pipes. I’m working on that…

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# 170

There is a part of me that wants to live apart from the world. I would like to be alone with my thoughts, surrounded only by nature. I’m comfortable with my thoughts and with nature, but I have never given my thoughts free rein to roam like the open space that nature gives. I’m curious to see where the thoughts would go given that opportunity.

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# 169

It doesn’t matter where we are in time at the moment. We are where we have always been, and where we will be in the future — unless we open our eyes.

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# 168

Winter has withered everything
in this cold mountain place:
dignity is in
its desolation now, and beauty
in the cold clarity of its moon.
— Saigyo (1118-1190)

Yes, winter has its effect, but behold
the perfectly carved track in the
freshly fallen snow.
This is one man’s compliment to nature’s
cold mountain place.

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# 167

Nothing that can be said that is worth saying, can be said in words. That could be why I struggle so mightily with writing.

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# 166

I would be remiss if I did not mention my love for my brother in these entries. Of course, I never had a biological brother, but that doesn’t matter. My true brother has been a part of my life for all my best years. He knows me too well. He knows when I last changed the tires on my truck and what size I run. You know who you are. Thank you for being there for me. I love you.

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# 165

When I go to see my doctor and the nurse asks me to step on the scale, I like to say: “Do you mind if I take all my clothes off… I’d like to get an accurate reading.” It never fails to get a smile.

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# 164

I like my life. I’m reaching a point where I can actually appreciate that feeling. That doesn’t mean I know what tomorrow holds, quite the contrary, I don’t, but I have some good ideas about what will make tomorrow a good day.

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# 163

One must stop periodically and listen. Pay attention to what is going on around you. Unless you stop and pay attention, everything you experience will only be a reflection of yourself. That would place you as far from reality as you could possibly get.

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# 162

I have realized the reason I write is that someday I will no longer be here. If I place these words in the right hands, perhaps they will survive me by a generation. If I’m really lucky, maybe two.

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# 161

Life is a combination of joys and sorrows. They must be accepted together. Neither one should be allowed to rule.

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# 160

Always look ahead and not back. I have tried to live by that rule all my life. Occasionally I forget some past event that I probably should have hung on to. A hazard I suppose of adopting this approach to living. I’m not sure there is a solution, but as a precaution, I’ve started keeping a journal. That may prove to be beneficial, but only if I read it…

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# 159

Kill The Banker - Manhattan

• 2 parts Bullet Rye
• 1 part Amaro Averna
• 8 dashes Abominable Bar Spiced Apple Bitters

I named this drink after a run at Revelstoke. I haven’t skied it yet, but by god, I’m going to, and when I do I’m going to have one of these to celebrate.

Note: You can only get these bitters from Mike at the Sitzmark Bar at Alta Lodge.

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.zshenv

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$HOME/bin:$PATH"
alias wsea=‘ansiweather -l “Seattle” -u imperial’
alias wket=‘ansiweather -l “Ketchum” -u imperial’
alias wslc=‘ansiweather -l “Salt Lake City” -u imperial’
alias jday=‘date +%j’
alias zsh=‘cd $HOME && source ./.zshenv’
alias clear=‘clear && figlet badkins’
alias rp=‘cd $HOME/RubyProgramming && clear && ls ruby .rb’
alias ror=‘cd $HOME/RubyProgramming/Rails && clear && ls’
alias pwm=‘ruby $HOME/RubyProgramming/password manager.rb’
export PATH="/usr/local/opt/node@12/bin:$PATH"
export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/node@12/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/node@12/include"
figlet B-RAD-1
echo B-RAD The Dude Abides

If you find this mysterious, don’t worry, I used to love this shit, now it’s mostly Greek. If you are inspired to set up a customized terminal, but don’t know what you would use it for, you can always use it to check the weather without having to deal with a lot of boring advertising.

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My Favorite Artist

Adam Hanson in Seattle created these pieces for me. All I asked was “Give me a portrait of Bernie Sanders.” I liked what he came up with so much that I followed it up with “Einstein,” “RBG,” and “Dr. Fauci.”

Adam is amazingly talented and I feel privileged to have his work hanging where I can see it daily. If you get a chance to check him out, don’t hesitate.

Check out Adam on Instagram @addictedtopaintdotcom or his website AddictedToPaint

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Living

Live your life in a way that prevents people from feeling compelled to say mean things about you on social media.

If you feel compelled to say mean things about people on social media, you’re not living your life correctly.

You can also avoid this nastiness by simply not participating in social media… The goal of social media after all is to control you, you’re better off controlling yourself.

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Skiing

I’m skiing today. It’s a beautiful day. I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing at this moment. When Spring comes, that will change, but today could not be better.

I signed up for a ski lesson. I told the lesson coordinator I would like to be placed in an expert class. That’s just for the initial assignment. Once the lesson begins, the instructor you have been given evaluates your skiing to make sure you are in the right class. I call this the “sorting hat.” When I got to the bottom of the first run, my instructor said “You should be teaching the class.” Man, that gives you a satisfied feeling.

It was a great day. The instructor was inspiring to watch on the steep and deep. I skied better just watching him. At the bottom of one pitch, a woman skied up to me and said “You are a beautiful skier.” Another moment of feeling deeply satisfied. Two in one day. At my age, days like today come with an expiration date, that’s why you have to appreciate them.

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