Oh dear where does one begin!!!!?
Last Wednesday, I ran to the store to pick up some things. It was a driving rainstorm Seattle is so well known for - about 1.5 inches of water per second coming down ... okay that might be slightly exaggerated but not by much! It was day two with my new leg, so I was walk careful and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back in the streams of water running through the parking lot! And I could not get up without something to hold on to.
Two guys behind me, helped to lift me - I am terribly grateful to them! Turned out that under the sheet of water, flowing through the parking lot, was a steel plate over an electrical supply. Never saw it, it was invisible under the water! And even at that, if my left foot had hit it first I would have been able to recover - but with no right foot to sense a change - well - SPLAT!!!!!
Yes, you can twist a stump apparently! I never would have guessed that! I would figure the leg or silicon sleeve would have slipped first. Sigh.
Of course there were no scooters available, so I had to walk the distance through the store on an extremely painful stump.
Departure day and I was unable to walk, so I had to go with my crutches (I HATE crutches!), could not carry my luggage and the whole day was really quite the pain in the ass! I wore shorts so the TSA types would see that I do have an artificial leg (which was not working, hence the crutches) and it all went quite well. Going to Tucson the guards all but stripped searched me! Like two feet of titanium exposed was not enough metal. Returning, they could not have cared less other than the machine said I had a metal head and they were most intrigued by that one!
Since there was little I could now do in Tucson, I laid around quite a bit and recovered with short trips I will tell you about in the following days.
I have not seen my old mining partner for many years now and it was sure good to have! I have known him for 38 years and his wife for 40. We certainly have had some adventures through the years! And their home is a wonder. Sitting out in the desert, a true Spanish style hacienda, with kumquat and orange trees growing in the central courtyard of the home, wow, simply wow! When it comes time for them to sell it, I imagine though I may long to buy it, I would never have the money for it if I can not find a real job soon!
So you are going to Tucson:
Caruso's an Italian style secluded restaurant is excellent.
Minidito's a Mexican place where no matter when it is, always an hour wait, excellent.
El Corral, a steak house going back almost a century, longs lines for a reason!
Many others nice places to eat, but these three were at the top of the chart.
The Western Art Museum, a tiny building next to the Tucson Art Museum has a nice collection of paintings and bronzes. I liked it far better than its big brother you have to walk to to get an admission ticket! Also a part of the complex is a old adobe homes you can tour.
Gaslight Theater is a must!
Sonora Desert Museum - part museum, part zoo all associated with the Sonoran Desert was interesting and fun. If you can avoid freaking out, roaming coatamundi's will sniff you, not the most pleasant of animals, not nicest smelling, but terribly cool to see them roaming about freely.
Tucson also boasts several caves, an old central district of adobe homes, Old Tucson where thousands of westerns were filmed and the airplane graveyard.
For me personally, the triggering of so many memories and opening of pathways through my mind was quite helpful. Although I can not speak them, I was able to recover my understanding of German, French and Spanish - which was in use profusely but many of the shoppers (arrogant enough to believe that others do not speak anything other than English!). Perhaps with time I can form sentences freely again, maybe .... I had to use Google to shoot postcards off to my aunts in Baselstadt. But, I could listen and read well enough, but even as with English, speaking is still very hard for me - I stutter and lose words faster than I can think of them if I am talking! sigh ..... very frustrating.
I really enjoy Tucson, but Golden, Colorado is where my soul is able to find rest.
February 11, 2016
February 10, 2016
Tucson Show 2016
So, I am now back from my Tucson trip. I had not desired to be there during the rock, gem and mineral show ... well best of intentions, they opened the show early! And, it is now two weeks long! eeeeepah!
All I can say is that there were some awesome minerals specimens to be seen but the prices were out of this world! Pieces comparable to what I might have sold or bought 25 years ago for $5, and did, were running in the $695 on up in prices! I was stunned!
And, I saw an Azurite specimen for sale at $65,000 and I have a piece three times larger and gem quality .... I wonder that little puppy is worth under those pricing strategies!
However, mining equipment was not expensive, it was affordable and interesting to examine and discuss. I walked away with a Mercury crock from the northern California diggings. Never even seen one before outside of an assay office!
My mining partner scored a presentation belt buckle from the old AMAX mining company for which he worked for many years in Colorado ...
I walked away from being a mineral dealer in 1992 due to the vast amount of freaks believing that mineral crystals have special "powers". Sold off my stock and never regretted having done so - but now, seeing specimens of lessor value than what I sold at a buck a piece going for three and four figures - argh!!!!! Oh well, if I had kept them I just would have had to move them all over the world with me.
Saw quite a few people I used to know and some even well. No one recognized me. I even stopped a few of them and talked with them ... so much of an impression I guess I make on people. Even my best customer had no twinkle of recognition in his eyes. Sigh. But, it was good to see some faces I recognized.
So, if you are headed to the gem and mineral show this year, just be aware that prices are ghastly!
All I can say is that there were some awesome minerals specimens to be seen but the prices were out of this world! Pieces comparable to what I might have sold or bought 25 years ago for $5, and did, were running in the $695 on up in prices! I was stunned!
And, I saw an Azurite specimen for sale at $65,000 and I have a piece three times larger and gem quality .... I wonder that little puppy is worth under those pricing strategies!
However, mining equipment was not expensive, it was affordable and interesting to examine and discuss. I walked away with a Mercury crock from the northern California diggings. Never even seen one before outside of an assay office!
My mining partner scored a presentation belt buckle from the old AMAX mining company for which he worked for many years in Colorado ...
I walked away from being a mineral dealer in 1992 due to the vast amount of freaks believing that mineral crystals have special "powers". Sold off my stock and never regretted having done so - but now, seeing specimens of lessor value than what I sold at a buck a piece going for three and four figures - argh!!!!! Oh well, if I had kept them I just would have had to move them all over the world with me.
Saw quite a few people I used to know and some even well. No one recognized me. I even stopped a few of them and talked with them ... so much of an impression I guess I make on people. Even my best customer had no twinkle of recognition in his eyes. Sigh. But, it was good to see some faces I recognized.
So, if you are headed to the gem and mineral show this year, just be aware that prices are ghastly!
February 6, 2016
Musical Saturday Morning
Ah, another first Saturday of the month! Yes and we are not out of good music from the 1980's quite yet! I really do not like Elton John, too much exposure to him up in the Colorado mountains - his excesses were quite the talk in the little mining towns, where someone so bent really stood out! But, at times his music is good. So, a little remnant from the Cold War ...
February 4, 2016
Tucson
So, I am off to Tucson for a week.
I can ill afford to travel but my long time mining partner is now so old he has become frail and if I want to see him one more time while his mind is still around, well, there may not be many more chances. Besides I want to try one more time to discuss his future beyond the grave - no pressure but he so desperately needs to reconcile his life with God! Prayer item for you!
I have no other reasons. I am sure he will want to get out and do some sight-seeing. I hope he has an automatic as I am sure I can not drive a clutch ever again. I seem to remember he likes going down to Bisbee, visiting "his" mines (of which there are many in Arizona he is responsible for building) and visiting Mexican diners.
For me, I just want to lay in the sunshine and feel some heat on this body. Hmmmm ... time to lay and think about life, the universe and what Kris is going to be in the future.
The only real negative is that I will offline until the 10th, when I will be back, tan, svelte and still tripping over things, LOL! But, I will try and find somethings to pre-post for publication in my absence.
So until a week from now, take care!
I can ill afford to travel but my long time mining partner is now so old he has become frail and if I want to see him one more time while his mind is still around, well, there may not be many more chances. Besides I want to try one more time to discuss his future beyond the grave - no pressure but he so desperately needs to reconcile his life with God! Prayer item for you!
I have no other reasons. I am sure he will want to get out and do some sight-seeing. I hope he has an automatic as I am sure I can not drive a clutch ever again. I seem to remember he likes going down to Bisbee, visiting "his" mines (of which there are many in Arizona he is responsible for building) and visiting Mexican diners.
For me, I just want to lay in the sunshine and feel some heat on this body. Hmmmm ... time to lay and think about life, the universe and what Kris is going to be in the future.
The only real negative is that I will offline until the 10th, when I will be back, tan, svelte and still tripping over things, LOL! But, I will try and find somethings to pre-post for publication in my absence.
So until a week from now, take care!
February 3, 2016
Melonseed
I am in love ... it has happened ... it all started last Friday:
I bounced out of bed bright and early, cleaned up, put my leg on and then sat down and wondered were Swede was. I had expected him to be here by now! He showed up at 11, four hours later ... But we were still down two people, my old college time friends Bruce and Joanne. I almost never get to see them as they live in the northwestern most tip or Washington State, hard to get to from here when you cars have sucked for so very long. They arrived at noon.
What should have been a great time rapidly went right down the toilet. Anything and everything went wrong, impeding us from reaching our destination. I have become good the past few years at trying to defuse tension and we continued on and just ignored the roadblocks and everyone began laughing it was so weird!
At long last we arrived at the Seattle Boat Show. I remember going to one back in about 1980. A huge dome covered football field completly covered in HUGE sailboats! I remember Dutchman and I were building a 32 foot displacement hulled cruiser at the time. Dutchman was interviewing all of the radar and sonar dealers, I was checking out head technology and bumper options. That boat sank in 1981 right after being launched ... sigh, five years work on the floor of Puget Sound because someone had put a copper penny in a fuse box. That coin burned an entire marina down and sank some 25 boats, ours was the smallest!
But I digress from my new found love!
So I managed to hobble the entire show and was the end of the displays at the southern most end of the building, there sat a woman with her foot in a walking cast, seated on a kneeling scooter - I felt for her, too many years on one of those things and I fear for the rest of my life. :( We talked about her foot mash up, she fell into the engine compartment of her boat and broke it. And then I saw her ...
A Melonseed. Seventeen feet of well thought out fiberglass, blue gel coat, mahogany trimmed twin rowing/sailboat! I was instantly a sickened calf gazing upon the most beautiful sight ever! And the people at the show responsible for her - well, they knew NOTHING! Let me get this straight, you in the possession of the most beautiful boat at the show and the only thing you have is the ability to do is play dumb games on your cell phones (and you are over 40! REALLY?????) !
I gently ran my hands over her smooth lines. I caressed her sailing rigging. I so easily saw myself sailing a large lake or even Puget Sound on calm days. Times of quiet and peace.
Yes, my new love brings me peace! :)
Okay, okay, in my dreams! :)
Now I will be forced to whittle myself a peg leg .... maybe get a parrot too!
Sorry I have to leave now, my love calls me back to dreamland!
I bounced out of bed bright and early, cleaned up, put my leg on and then sat down and wondered were Swede was. I had expected him to be here by now! He showed up at 11, four hours later ... But we were still down two people, my old college time friends Bruce and Joanne. I almost never get to see them as they live in the northwestern most tip or Washington State, hard to get to from here when you cars have sucked for so very long. They arrived at noon.
What should have been a great time rapidly went right down the toilet. Anything and everything went wrong, impeding us from reaching our destination. I have become good the past few years at trying to defuse tension and we continued on and just ignored the roadblocks and everyone began laughing it was so weird!
At long last we arrived at the Seattle Boat Show. I remember going to one back in about 1980. A huge dome covered football field completly covered in HUGE sailboats! I remember Dutchman and I were building a 32 foot displacement hulled cruiser at the time. Dutchman was interviewing all of the radar and sonar dealers, I was checking out head technology and bumper options. That boat sank in 1981 right after being launched ... sigh, five years work on the floor of Puget Sound because someone had put a copper penny in a fuse box. That coin burned an entire marina down and sank some 25 boats, ours was the smallest!
But I digress from my new found love!
So I managed to hobble the entire show and was the end of the displays at the southern most end of the building, there sat a woman with her foot in a walking cast, seated on a kneeling scooter - I felt for her, too many years on one of those things and I fear for the rest of my life. :( We talked about her foot mash up, she fell into the engine compartment of her boat and broke it. And then I saw her ...
I gently ran my hands over her smooth lines. I caressed her sailing rigging. I so easily saw myself sailing a large lake or even Puget Sound on calm days. Times of quiet and peace.
Yes, my new love brings me peace! :)
Okay, okay, in my dreams! :)
Now I will be forced to whittle myself a peg leg .... maybe get a parrot too!
Sorry I have to leave now, my love calls me back to dreamland!
February 2, 2016
Going Forward
So, I am now at 3 months with no trace of a memory. Anything I have for a memory is because something was said, which opened a narrow doorway into my mind surrounding that word. For instance someone I know was telling me that their real name was, Mary Katherine. It triggered something, but I still do not know what! But the name does have a meaning ... like the name of a boat or someone with a boat or ... ? Simply no idea, first time that has happened - you know there is a memory but it will not be opened.
So, I have pieces of me from the past - pictures of a childhood but no attachment to them, notes on my computer - old letters - pieces suggesting a past, but there is nothing there. Random pieces but I am not a part of them. Sigh ... I truly am learning that I have no identity.
So, I have thought long on this ...
How do I regain whom I was? I want to go back to work. It would be nice if I could speak to my resume but I have no memory of people, places or even companies! Were it not I am living off of royalties for my accidental creation of an addressing system for disk drives - I would not not even have proof I ever worked on computers - apparently since 1972! Gees, that is how bad it is!
And then I realized .... I do not have to be whom ever that old Kris was! (and between you and me, pre-2014 Kris was a bit of a POC!) I can view this as a gift - I can do or become whatever I want. I have the ability to relearn old Kris - or something new! Same amount of effort it seems to me, simple logic. I guess. But, if I could do this - and I do not know if it is even possible - by extension, wouldn't this also be true for almost anyone? Hate you life? Change it. (note the period there!)
So, who is it I want to be?
What is it I want to be or do?
Lord knows, I am clueless here, but I am sure hoping He knows!
In the meantime, I have been selling off my artifacts. I have been reading my archaeology and anthropology books and they are interesting, actually fascinating, but I do not need boxes and boxes of artifacts - remnants of long past cultures. Besides, I need to pay off my debts this year if that is even possible ...
If you have bright ideas of what I should do - let me know!
So, I have pieces of me from the past - pictures of a childhood but no attachment to them, notes on my computer - old letters - pieces suggesting a past, but there is nothing there. Random pieces but I am not a part of them. Sigh ... I truly am learning that I have no identity.
So, I have thought long on this ...
How do I regain whom I was? I want to go back to work. It would be nice if I could speak to my resume but I have no memory of people, places or even companies! Were it not I am living off of royalties for my accidental creation of an addressing system for disk drives - I would not not even have proof I ever worked on computers - apparently since 1972! Gees, that is how bad it is!
And then I realized .... I do not have to be whom ever that old Kris was! (and between you and me, pre-2014 Kris was a bit of a POC!) I can view this as a gift - I can do or become whatever I want. I have the ability to relearn old Kris - or something new! Same amount of effort it seems to me, simple logic. I guess. But, if I could do this - and I do not know if it is even possible - by extension, wouldn't this also be true for almost anyone? Hate you life? Change it. (note the period there!)
So, who is it I want to be?
What is it I want to be or do?
Lord knows, I am clueless here, but I am sure hoping He knows!
In the meantime, I have been selling off my artifacts. I have been reading my archaeology and anthropology books and they are interesting, actually fascinating, but I do not need boxes and boxes of artifacts - remnants of long past cultures. Besides, I need to pay off my debts this year if that is even possible ...
If you have bright ideas of what I should do - let me know!
February 1, 2016
Up In The Air
So many issues/questions/opportunities in my life and no direction nor interest really to pursue any of them! I have to admit I am physically and emotional exhausted. There just seems to be no let up of demands placed upon me - and I just need to rest.
I was forced to rest one day last week because the cup on my titanium leg decided to fail on me. Sigh ... I needed the rest but I had things I had to do, which when left undone left me on the receiving end of my mother and Gaelic Girl's sharp tongues. Yeah, I ALWAYS have an excuse it seems. I would laugh but I am just too exhausted still. And everything remains up in the air!
The entire month of January was such a disaster I was unable to write my series on Christian Warfare :( Which really irritates me! So February will now require me to do this in two parts: The Art of War and then in March probably Christian Warfare. It really bugs me to not kept on a schedule!
It is not like I am into procrastination, I am in some regards to the appearance of others, but this is real exhaustion and never having been emotionally exhausted before - I have no idea what to do or expect. I just want/need ... something I can not even define. "Rest", is the only term I can understand at the moment but it is not bedtime, it is not being left alone, it might be not having anymore demands placed one though. Who knows, not me.
It was January 2013, I remember I was at the end of myself. I had nothing but frustrations and all was quite negative. Everyday I would leave college and look to the south and think, "I could just chuck this pack and start walking ...". The joke with myself was that I would walk to Argentina, the end of the Earth. What then? No idea. Sit down, watch the waves and fade away?
And though I would not suggest that what has happened to me was God stopping that idea, but it was but weeks later that my leg was injured in an auto accident, which began the downward spiral for my leg. Certainly, Argentina is but a humorous point in my life now. But, what if .... Well, not going to happen now, but separation from this life may well be what is needed for me to actually recover.
Dutchman came and saw me, the first time in two years (I think?)! We talked about his landlord problems, son problems, etc. He is not so sure that he did not agree with me that it is time to move on in life. He nibbled around the edges of getting me to move to Sand Point, Idaho - his latest small town love. I told him as long as it has a GREAT hospital ...
Now, I need a new name and history to disappear to ..... Hmmmm, there is always my German birth name, unused since my father was evacuated from Germany in 1969 by NATO paranoia. But do I really want to serve 2 years in the German Army now, at 61 years old and one legged - to get my passport? LOL!!!! Such an idea and such a sight that would be ...
I was forced to rest one day last week because the cup on my titanium leg decided to fail on me. Sigh ... I needed the rest but I had things I had to do, which when left undone left me on the receiving end of my mother and Gaelic Girl's sharp tongues. Yeah, I ALWAYS have an excuse it seems. I would laugh but I am just too exhausted still. And everything remains up in the air!
The entire month of January was such a disaster I was unable to write my series on Christian Warfare :( Which really irritates me! So February will now require me to do this in two parts: The Art of War and then in March probably Christian Warfare. It really bugs me to not kept on a schedule!
It is not like I am into procrastination, I am in some regards to the appearance of others, but this is real exhaustion and never having been emotionally exhausted before - I have no idea what to do or expect. I just want/need ... something I can not even define. "Rest", is the only term I can understand at the moment but it is not bedtime, it is not being left alone, it might be not having anymore demands placed one though. Who knows, not me.
It was January 2013, I remember I was at the end of myself. I had nothing but frustrations and all was quite negative. Everyday I would leave college and look to the south and think, "I could just chuck this pack and start walking ...". The joke with myself was that I would walk to Argentina, the end of the Earth. What then? No idea. Sit down, watch the waves and fade away?
And though I would not suggest that what has happened to me was God stopping that idea, but it was but weeks later that my leg was injured in an auto accident, which began the downward spiral for my leg. Certainly, Argentina is but a humorous point in my life now. But, what if .... Well, not going to happen now, but separation from this life may well be what is needed for me to actually recover.
Dutchman came and saw me, the first time in two years (I think?)! We talked about his landlord problems, son problems, etc. He is not so sure that he did not agree with me that it is time to move on in life. He nibbled around the edges of getting me to move to Sand Point, Idaho - his latest small town love. I told him as long as it has a GREAT hospital ...
Now, I need a new name and history to disappear to ..... Hmmmm, there is always my German birth name, unused since my father was evacuated from Germany in 1969 by NATO paranoia. But do I really want to serve 2 years in the German Army now, at 61 years old and one legged - to get my passport? LOL!!!! Such an idea and such a sight that would be ...
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