NO SERVICE...write me a letter

Cell phones, smart phones, mobile devices, pads, skype, drouds, IPhones, flip phones, car phones.  I remember when they were just phones.  Yep, that is what they used to be called.  The funny thing is that the actual function was to make a phone call.  That is where two people, I mean living humans, actually had voice communication.  You didn’t ask some Chic with an Indonesian name if she could find you a blow up doll, or some alien sounding electronic voice wanting to know your credit card number but an actual human voice.    Real phones are funny looking things.  Large and clunky.  They used to even have wires on them.  Sometimes they were even in two pieces.  Shit....get out...no really I remember that.  The banana shaped things that would deform your ear.  Ours was located in this weird looking hole in the wall in the hallway?  Why the hallway?  I guess was the central location or something.  I would sneak in there and attempt to call Kelley from there.  No real conversation but still it was a big event.  At least I could hear breathing on the other end.  How about car phones?  Remember those?  Those huge grey things with the heavy wires going to some unknown place in the dashboard.  I think you got about 10 minutes for 95 dollars or something like that.  No one I knew could afford to actually call anyone but they looked cool in your ride as long as you had enough leg room for the cast iron mounting system that resembled the underside of the stadium bleachers.  

The “hand phone” brought the world from the hallway into the light of the modern world.  Those cucumber sized things with that weird antenna soon decreased in size.  I mean its obvious size does matter....  Unfortunately, smaller has now gone out of style again.  As our civilization progresses....I use that term “civilization” with some reservations... we are now completely dependent on these strange little playing card looking boxes.  (oh, remember playing cards?  Not the shapes on the computer or the device but paper things).  We can’t live without them.  We design our lives and emotions around them.  They are now an instrument of love.  No...not that just yet....shame on you.  They move worlds and economies.  They coordinate airstrikes,  set off IED’s, find fresh sushi, and the strangest to me....convert the spoken word to text..  Often they are the most looked at, hoped for, feared, and prized things in our lives.  Why?  My own personal experience is just the above.  Hoping for that special text, or waiting for the email or text that you know will just hurt or make you mad and who knows...might just make you smile.   How many times have you just looked at the stupid thing and hoped for it to tell you something.  Over and over.  Waiting...  

So...the big question!  ARE WE NUTS?.  Wait for it...don’t go for the obvious immediately.  Ask yourself what would happen if you ... had no service?  I realize that most of us would walk, crawl, drive, or climb to another place.  You can’t be off the grid.  No way.  Being out in Terlingua and parts beyond has made me do some thinking about connections.  What do they mean?  What could you live without if you had only .001 MB of “data”.  Who would be the text or the email?  It’s like putting a message in a bottle and only having that little yellow stubby pencil that you used to get when you went to play miniature golf with your girl. The stubby tiny things that were completely flat with no eraser.  You know.  You only have a few words and you have to make them count.  I know this sounds like an Ebola Twister game to most of you but just think about it.  NO SERVICE is almost like the announcement,  “Brace for Impact”.    Do me a favor?  Take a few days and turn the “Device” off.  I know I know... you have responsibilities.  But humor me.  You will need to go through the nine stages of device grief and that can be ugly.  

1. The on/off.  You can only keep it off for a few minutes.
2. Separation anxiety.  Going to get it in the car when you are supposed to be  romanticizing. 
3. Sneak checking your mail.   Ugly and usually done in the bathroom.
4. Leaving it for a full day....  peace followed by panic, when you remember you haven’t checked it.
5. A day without connectivity.  The world keeps turning.  The kids didn’t get arrested for drugs...your deal didn’t fall through....your mother is still around... the yard man showed and cut the grass..
6.   A few day of actual conversation, maybe a movie, some whoopie, maybe reading a mag on the john again....  Just a different perspective.
7. The pre- apocalyptic aura phase.  Where you have perceived flash forwards of things you are supposed to do or things to worry about. 
8. Relapse.  The ugly truth about “Device Addiction”.  You are a down trodden, humiliated shell of a human being, controlled by “inbox”, and IM, or Text,  destined to be forever enslaved by a fancy remote control that brings no joy to mankind.  
9. Getting the new bigger, faster, more powerful device with more data.  

Oh, sorry gotta go....I’m in a high spot now.  

The Simplicity of Choice

Complications, simplicity, over generalization, self awareness, despair,

overwhelmenization (my word), and my favorite...ENOUGH.  It seems we don’t have control anymore.  All of the “extra fees” of life seem to drive the bus.  You can’t just show up and have your bag and your toothbrush and your wine opener anymore.  Someone is trying to profile you and take your stuff away from you. In the metaphorical sense unless you live in Houston, then they are doing it for real.   So it’s back to choices...go or stay, say yes or say no, call or don’t call,  do or don’t.  If you think about it, the choices are simple.  They really are.  You already know the answers to all of the questions you are asking?  You just can’t simplify and make your choice.  Too much bullshit getting in the way.  Too much of “you” getting in the way.   So perhaps we should start with the things we know for sure.

Things I know for sure

Kissing is a lost art

You should play out the third set

Grandma doesn’t always mean that

Always use a flame with Creme Brulee not the oven

You can do anything you want or come damn close if try

Actions speak louder than words

Always put milk in your scrambled eggs

Rabbits and deer really do have a death wish

One friend is worth a thousand acquaintances

Slow is better than fast most of the time

We are all one people no matter what they say

We are not alone.  They have just decided they don’t need our stupidity 

Silence is golden

It’s never too late to have the best day of our life

Old people have sex too

Always make your bed

Please feel free to add.  After all the choice really is yours...

Just Five Miles

642 am.  Not being a morning person or so I thought, I was not prepared for the beauty of the morning sky.  At a glance it looks much like the expansive brilliance of the night sky I said good night to a few hours ago, but it’s different.  There is a calm and stillness to it.  Like it’s settled in to it’s rhythm and is now ready to say good bye to the world.  It’s got softer edges.  Most of us have a routine I suppose and I have settled into mine.   It’s simple really but has come to be a very important piece of my life.  My simplified existence as it were. It is the crisp cool air wrapping around me as I sit in 1299 and drink my hot coffee.  I know the desert will cool down soon and make this rendezvous with the sunrise a little more challenging soon but for now it’s crisp and cool and perfect.  It’s been years, if ever that I have allowed myself the time to watch the night give way to the dawn.   The clutter of life with it’s baggage of worry, tension, fear, and schedule always seemed to muddy up the scene.  With most of that behind me, at least for the moment, this hopeful voyeur will no longer allow the dance of light and dark to go without an audience.  

Having successfully engineered the sunrise, the next duty has turned out to be my favorite part of the day.  Each morning I am tasked with making a five mile drive to make sure things are working.  It’s only five miles there and back.  Nothing fancy, no lights and sirens, no speeding, no excitement.  Just a short trip in the morning light.  It’s familiar to me now.  Like a walk around the lake out in front of the old homestead in Mesquite.  The sun is fighting to get high enough to spread it’s light over the western landscape.  The scattered buildings of this small place are waking up to start the day.  Two and half miles out and it’s time to turn around.  I am at the edge of civilization. a tenth of a mile more and the desert will engulf me.   I have come to expect the same people along my route and I believe they have come to expect me.  It’s the casual but important raising of your hand slightly from the steering wheel as you meet them on the road.  Not all the way, just a few fingers.  Being brought up as an Urbano driver, I rarely see the speed limit on the dashboard without the hint of radar around.  Now, I find myself moving along at a crawl on my way home.  Not because I fear the law, but because I really don’t want my journey to end.  It’s just five miles.  

Terlingua Olympic Moments

I realize that it's not an official Olympic year but that doesn't really phase the bike rally folks in Terlingua.  The crowds were not that big this year but it as still some ferocious competition.  You could tell that everyone appreciated the ambulance presence since some of these events are a little frightening.  I'm torn between my favorites....the hotdog bite and the straw stuff.  Maybe it's the skill involved or maybe you just have to be lucky.  Riding on the back of a bike going super slow looks a little shaky.  So, don't think the scenery is the only thing going on in Terlingua.  "Let the games begin".

Enjoying a Good Screw

Every day seems full of surprises out here on the frontier.  A sunrise or a sunset, maybe an eclectic Terlingua character, or even an overhead story at the local coffee bistro.  Today it was getting a 10 cent screw.  Now, let’s just be honest here, a screw will almost always cost more than 10 cents.  It doesn’t matter if it’s in the country or a big city.  There is always a cost.  It doesn’t matter if you are a man or woman.  Even old people have to pay for a screw.  Right?  Today I was badly in need of one.  You know what I mean?  Lot’s of stress, things falling apart, I just needed to get a fix.  In all honesty, I was not going to be able to wait much longer.   You would think that an establishment that would sell a screw in this part of the frontier would be far and few between and being rather picky, would I even want it if I could find one?  Well, I am here to tell you that I got a screw in Terlingua.  Yep!  it was wonderful.  Perfect size and fit.  Now I’m not as stressed as I was and for all that are interested.....things are working just like they used to.  To top it off....it was free.   A free screw anywhere has got to be the dream of any guy.  So you can certainly see the smile on my face and the swagger of my rejuvenated rear end.   The last time anyone gave me anything for free  that didn’t require a shot or therapy,  was a long time ago and I was a few glasses of chard into the home shopping network.  You know, buy one get six free.   I don’t even think they sell  screws on TV?  Do they?  If you come to Terlingua and need to get a perfectly safe and 

Cracks

My ass if firmly placed in 1299 out in front of  the Terlingua Medics just watching another beautiful sunset.  I was sitting here contemplating the twists and turns of life and thinking about things that have managed to fall through the cracks.  We all have them.  Some are small and random and others are more significant and consistent.  How important they are just depends on the individual.  I wonder what yours are?  What are mine you ask?  That is what I am sitting here listening to the wind and trying to get a grip on.  It's not that easy.  If you are reading this, "both of you", then you must be friends and if you see this on Facebook or something you most definitely are friends because Mark Zuckerberg told me you are.  It says it right up front.  So, here goes....

I wish I had continued playing the guitar when I was a kid.  Yes, I tried....Red River Valley and all that.  The truth is, I own a very good guitar as evidenced by it being one of two things I grabbed during the great mountain fire of 2014.  Of course I picked up the vacuum cleaner too...

Ballroom dancing seems to always come up in conversation when someone asks me what I do with some extra time.....No one can forget "Scent of a Woman" and Al Pacino..."When you get tangled up...just tango on.."  Words to live by I think.

If I could have a nickel for all the Spanish tapes, books, dictionaries I have owned in my life I would be able to do a little more high dollar living for sure.  Somehow that language thing just seemed to fall through the cracks somewhere.  Now, I'm doing it again.  Books should be here Monday.  So yep, I would love to be able to Habla!

So what is it about doing things that you want to do that is so hard?  We all say that we let life get in our way but when you think about it it really is just an excuse.  Certainly, that's
what I have found.   So I'm going to fill in the cracks and stop letting things fall through.  I wonder if doing that will make my path more smooth and even.

Remember What Mark Twain said,

When you are in the rocking chair at the end of it all you are surely going to regret the things that you didn't do much more than the things that you did.  

Adventure before Dementia

I’m sitting here alone in Cottonwood campground with the wind blowing through the cottonwood trees.  It’s a beautiful place and so amazing because of the grand trees.  Trees are a rare commodity in this part of the world.  The sounds they make in the wind is worth the drive out here.  I can hear the Rio Grande just on the other side of the scrub brush and The high mesa walls on the Mexican side dwarf everything in sight.  It’s been another couple of days exploring and I suppose at some point I will have gotten down most of the roads in the area.  Yesterday was 4 hours on the old ore road.  Damn!  That was about the roughest road I have ever been on and was able to get down.  Let’s just say my body feels like I have gone the distance with Mike Tyson.  I may even have lost a few fillings in the adventure.  So, today is a pavement day for the most part.  I was so tired I didn’t get up for the lunar event.  Yes, I’m a slacker.

I ran across an Aussie couple this morning from Brisbane.  Now Aussies have been hard on me this year but these two were great.  They own an RV that they leave in the US and spend 6 months a year on the road then go back home.  It seems like the road is calling me in just about every thing that I do.  Hum?  They have a great tire cover on the RV.  Makes you wonder doesn’t it?    Still, I keep running into real estate where ever I go.  I was hoping for vaulted ceilings but you really have to go with the local architecture.  Funny thing is that this structure and I have history together dating back more than 25 years ago.  A late night drive turned into a romantic interlude in the “house of dwarfs”, only to be interrupted by a very zealous park ranger intent on making an arrest.   Extreme begging managed to save the day but I can see the paragraph now on those online applications.....1. Have you ever been arrested?  If so, please explain. .  It can be a hard life in a hard land....  Don’t forget...Adventure before Dementia.  

Fast and Furious..Terlingua Style

Most of the time things don't move too fast in Terlingua.  People walk slow, talk slow, drink slow, and live slow.  That's what they like.  It's part of the culture and the desert.  All of that changes for one weekend a year when the Shelby Mustangs come to town.   Mr. Mustang was the original Carroll Shelby.   The man who started it all.  As it turned out he used to own about 240,000 acres in the Terlingua area that is now Terlingua Ranch.  Well, Mr. Mustang is gone now but his legacy still remains.  He started this weekend and now it brings a little speed to the desert.   It's a little scary to stand on the closed highway next to the "ambulance" and feel these machines run by.  190 MPH is the record.  It felt like it as they crested the hill and blew by.   Now to "stangs" are gone and all is quiet again.  Sitting in the sun now waiting for something to happen...rain?  Nah...

Musings from the End of the Road

Everyone wonders what they will think about when they get to the end of the road.  I know I did.  But with the help of my trusty sitting apparatus that I now refer to as 1299, I was able to ponder and then simply enjoy the view.  The Pine Canyon road and the perfect end of that road at Pine Canyon trailhead.   Another hidden find in Big Bend.

In the evening I was pondering the questions of life at another wonderful spot that has become my outdoor crib of late.  As I was sitting there this tiny owl stopped by just as he did the night before.  What you can't see from this photo is this little guy is about 6 inches tall.  Really.  He or she, I'm not sure how to figure that one out but it must have been fresh out of the nest because it was only about 5 feet from me.  Humm.  End of the road and meeting the wise....ok, not so old...owl, What is life telling me?  Later in the day I decided to drive the East River road.   Well something told me that there might be a river at the end of it.  After 22 miles of hot boring driving on awful dirt roads only to find no end and no river.  I did find some choice real estate however that seemed to be cheap.  A fixer upper you say.....indeed.  Could that be the message I was supposed to get from the owl and the end of the road?   Real estate.....  Any thoughts?