Across The Universe

It is a very gray day outside, Hurricane Ike is passing about seventy miles to the east of me and it is the perfect day to be thoughtful and introspective. I just finished watching the movie "Across The Universe", a different type of movie. It is the type that makes you turn inside yourself and your memories and make you think. It is placed in the U.S. in the late sixties during the Viet Nam war and forces you to remember and relive the memories of that time in our country. The movie masterfully uses the music of the Beatles to great effect where the music becomes the movie. I love movies that make you think, and this one certainly did. As I watched the movie unfold in front of me I could not help but think fondly of two young women that came into my life last year. They are the embodiment of Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and her spirit. Jaymi and Alex are two individuals who will most likely make a change in our world for the better in our future. If reincarnation exists, they are definitely two souls that have come back from the sixties to help us find our way through the future. It is my wish that everyone be lucky enough to know people such as these women. There are a handful of women in my life that I am blessed to have as part of my life and these two are definitely part of that group along with my wife, my daughters, my California girl and my San Antonio lady. Damn, I am lucky. Peace and love till later.

Still on a Loosing Streak

Just dropped in to say that I have now lost 51 pounds so far. Everything is going well adn I am comtinuing to loose. I have collected one more offer to go skinny dipping. This diet is really worth it. ;-) Check out my newest blog online at www.Thefatoldfartsdigest.blogspot.com . Peace and love til later.

The Hidden Hippie Goes On The Skinny

Well I guess it is time for the hidden hippie to regain his hips of all those many years ago as I have become a little too hippy as it were. I looked more like the bouncing Buddha rather than the hidden hippie. The years fly by and the pounds add on. I have decided to strip myself of all those years of unwanted pounds. I started this quest about seven weeks ago and have lost around 34 pounds so far. My goal is way out in front of me but I have the desire and motivation to get to my slender destination. I am walking at least 5 miles a day and am eating sensibly in order to shed my couch potato visage. As if health were not a large enough motivator, I have two younger hippie chicks that wish to go skinny dipping with me when I reach my goal. Now that is motivation. Peace and love until later.

Fully Refreshed

The trial of the Dude Commune was an unmitigated success. Saturday was a long time coming but once it arrived, it was worth the wait. The day was beautiful, warm sun, blue skies, birds chirping, very few insects. The group of participants were a perfect match of personalities and profiles. We had young and old liberals, older conservatives, and at least one libertarian. We all enjoyed hiking when we felt like it, cooling off in the creek when the necessity arose, and napping when that seemed like the thing to do. For a while, sitting under a tree watching the green meadow grow seemed like the right thing to do. All cell phones were turned off on arrival, some of the participants even made a ceremony out of turning them off as they entered the property. After a wonderful dinner and with the approaching darkness, we gathered around a campfire to discuss life, love, marriage, politics and whatever else seeped into our consciences. At one point, probably around 11, some of us took one more opportunity to take a dunk in a stock tank and then returned to the camp fire. About 1 am we all toddled off to our tents and slept the sleep of innocent children until it began to rain around 4 am. Even the rain was comforting, although there were one or two thunder claps that probably could have been eliminated. Around 7:30 I awoke and started cooking breakfast for the rest of the party. It was still raining but not very hard. It was very peaceful and quiet this Sunday morning in the country. Rain tends to muffle all of the unpleasant sounds of our society. No distant cars could be heard, only the gentle falling rain. As I prepared breakfast, the rest of the group began to appear out of their tents. Breakfast was enjoyed under a canvas shelter, I am not that in love with the rain. After breakfast, everyone loaded up their essentials and we headed back to civilization. From the comments made by the participants in this weekends' activities, it was the most relaxed all of us had been in some time. Civilization and society are a necessary evil in our lives but the lack of them for a few days is heaven on earth. Peace and love till later.

Commune Trial

This weekend I am going to have a small trail run of the Dude Commune idea. I am going camping with some friends on our property. Hopefully the Weather Gods will cooperate with us. I will let you know how our commune with nature develops. Imagine, no cell phones for 24 hours, isn't it great.

Noble Love

I am familiar with two young women who are about to graduate from college and embark the most noble profession that I can think of. They are about to join the Peace Corps and give two years of their lives to help people in third world countries that they do not know. Can anything be more noble, in a time when most people go through their lives with their heads shoved completely up their own self-important asses. One of these women seems to be filled with self doubt about her future, this is normal in almost all graduating seniors from college. What is exascerbating her situation is a group of self centered individuals who are filling her with this self doubt because of their own self interests. They are telling her that she does not love enough or even worse is incapable of loving people. This is utter nonsense. Can a person exhibit more love for her fellow man than by joining the Peace Corps to help people in foreign lands. She will most likely live in a small hut or home miles from nearest other Peace Corps member with a family that she has never met. This is a display of caring and courage that humbles me. Doesn't love? This women's aura practically glows. She could light up a dark room with her warmth and personality. Being in either her presence, or her Peace Corp bound friend's presence makes you feel better and happier. Both of these women are representative of the very best qualities of the sixties ideal and human nature in general.

Both of these women are passionate about their beliefs and values and have no problem defending their positions to anyone. It is rare today to find individuals with these qualities and I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to call these two women friends. Anyone who questions either of these women's motives is self absorbed and just plain foolish. All I can do is give them my undying admiration and support. Bless these two young women in their future and wherever it takes them.

The Rat Race Is Calling

I hope everyone is enjoying their own version of a Happy Holidays. It has been stated many times in the past by many people that we are all in the rat race of life. We all trudge along on our own personal hamster wheels spending our days and nights trying to maintain our balance. If you happen to change jobs, in reality, you are just jumping onto a new hamster wheel. I suppose the best that we can hope for is to find that particular wheel that suits each of our own personalities and desires with the best fit. In a more perfect world, we would all be happy with our positions in life but too many people are never happy with were they are. Advertizers have convinced most of us that we all need the newest widgit for us to have a happy and fulfilling life. In most cases, this is bullshit. All you really need is yourself and enough clothing and money to be protected from the elements and starvation. If you are fortunate to have a family around you then in most cases you really do have all you need. Don't let the rat race and technology run your life.

I was at work last night and had a group of six women come in and spent the better part of several hours in my busines. During this time, even though there were more than enough people present to have several rounds of rousing conversation, these six women never let more than a four or five minute period of time go by without the necessity of text messaging someone or calling someone, usually with no other purpose than to see what they were doing. Are people really that fucking nosey or are they so insecure that they can not stand the thought of someone doing something or being somewhere that might be more exciting than what they themselves are currently doing. At one point they even joked about how did they ever get by before the advent of cellphones and text messaging. Do we really need to stay in this tight of a correspondence loop with everyone we know. I doubt it. The existence of the free world really does not hang in the balance. Later in the evening, after 1 AM, to be exact, three other customers all came in wearing their Star Trek-like Blue Tooth cell phones in their ears because apartently they are all so important that they need to be in constant contact with fan base but still need both hands free for drinking. At least they have their drinking priorities straight. I can appreciate that.

I predict that within the next couple years that there will be another back to the earth revolution. I think that some people will hopefully realize that they still control their own lives, technology does't. They will discover that they have become captives of a technological world and retake control of their own lives. Heaven to me has become the time when I go out to the country and walk for hours with no phone calls or text messages. No one to bother me and my wife in our all too brief commune with nature. Maybe my wife and I are the strange ones but neither of us desire to be in constant communication with the rest of the world. As the author of this blog, it is obvious that I enjoy technology but I hopefully keep it in its' place and I control it rather than it controlling me. Try regaining your life. Try turning off your cell phone for fifteen minutes once a day. I know it will be hard to do at first but it is a good starting point, and by the way, when you are out with your friends, try paying a little more attention to them and less to your cell phone, it is the polite thing to do. Have a great year filled with peace and love.