We’ve done a lot of hiking, my wife and I, these past 26 years. Needless to say, distances used to be farther, and a mile seemed a shorter distance than now. I am embarrassed to say that a mere two mile walk, 700 feet elevation gain, a few days ago, seemed longer and harder than that. But what can we do? Everything, every one ages, some slower, some faster. 

First a side trip, not about a hike, but an encounter. We had settled in to Island Lake Campground last week, and set up for a four day stay. It rests at 9,500 feet in the Wyoming Beartooth Mountains, and has long been a favorite of ours.  Not only is it nice to start out a hike at that elevation, but these days we bring kayaks with us, circumnavigating the lake before breakfast (but at my insistence, only after coffee). 

Continue reading “Postcard from a quiet campground” →

Not much will be coming from me over the next week or ten days, but I did throw together some assorted odds and ends below. Stay safe. Be well. Be smart. Be brave, all of us.

Mullis here is talking about surfing and the 17th century, very interesting. He then talks about how he invented the PCR machine, and did so by not listening to authority figures, instead relying on himself. Most importantly, at 19:40 he talks about the nature of scientific research and how it was co-opted by money after WWII. Better yet, at 21:40, he completely blows climate change out of the water. Well worth a listen.

Even as he does this, the Wikipedia banner is laced across the page as follows:

They cannot let an opportunity to spew their propaganda go by. [See PS]

I don’t much truck at TED TALKS, especially since seeing lifetime actor Sue Klebold go on there about her (fictitious) son, Dylan, one of the two Columbine ghosts who supposedly shot up the place in 1999. But, below the fold here, is one of the most useful TED Talks I’ve ever seen. I was constantly annoyed by shoelaces on hiking boots coming unraveled while hiking and walking. This video put an end to the problem. Decide for yourself. It is 3:00 minutes.

Continue reading “Kary Mullis at Teds, how to tie a shoe, and a squirrel saga” →

Perhaps we’ve all experienced this: A conversation is going on, embedded in which is every lie being told today, that there are viruses, that they are out to get us, that people are dying of “Covid” (rather than obesity, poor nutrition, environmental pollution, etc.), and that vaccines can save us. If we say anything contrary, we are not met with derision or disagreement, but rather with what appears to me to be an eye-dart. It’s not a weapon or something fired at us, but rather a brief eye movement that signals lack of comprehension. People are so deeply brainwashed that the things we know and give voice to simply do not register. It is as if our mouths are moving but no sound emerges. There is not a lack of courtesy or ill will (in most cases), but rather a total lack of ability to understand what is transpiring.

I read once, though I have no reason to accept it as true, that the original Native Americans, coming upon European sailing vessels for the first time, could not see them. The reason is that they had never seen anything like them before, had no frame of reference, and so in their minds filled in water and sky where the vessels sat. That is where we sit with people brainwashed by both Covid and Climate psyops and all the others before.

Continue reading “Living among good and caring automatons” →

Home is a place where I am at ease. Like most people, I enjoy company, conversation, playing cards. The pitter-patter of a card game, the things we say while focused on something else are far more interesting than things we plan to say to others. I am most at “home” when with others and absorbed in something else, as with bird watching. Things pass through my mind, and sometimes I give voice, as one day with a group down on Platte River when I repeated the words of a song … out of the blue: “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried, in my own way, to be true to you free.”

“Where did that come from?”, I was asked. I quickly consulted my phone to find I was quoting a song by Leonard Cohen, but why?

Continue reading “Where is home?” →