Buzzard,
Thanks for your kind words. I sat here for awhile trying to remember what it is that I wrote. So I had to go back a few pages and look. It was OK, but I spend a lot of time with myself and get used to the way I think and see things. It doesn't seem very special to me. I have a terrible memory. I might have anyway by this time in my life, but I can blame it on a traumatic brain injury from being struck by lightning in the summer of 95. I was hit through a telephone and was left with bleeding burns at the exit points between my eyes, forehead and crown. I got the front lobe of my brain cooked, lost much of my hearing, have a constant noise in my head, developed guillane barre syndrome which is a partial paralysis like polio, lost chunks of my long term memory and have a truly crappy short term memory. I spend so much time looking for what was just in my hand it is kind of funny. I've gotten to where nuts and bolts and tools seem like they hide from me. All I have to do is something else for a minute and it's time to play hide and seek. The stuff is alive, I tell you!
Anyway,I lost much on one level, but gained more on the spiritual side and it keeps life interesting. There's nothing like being dead for awhile to make you appreciate being alive. Every day really is a gift even if some of them I wouldn't mind exchanging for an upgrade. I find that waking up in the morning is a good way to start the day and I'm thankful for being able to dress and walk and all the little things like having something to eat, being able to look around and see beauty everywhere in the forest. There was a time when I couldn't walk very well, fell a lot and was very low, feeling like I'd lived a long time and it was maybe long enough. Then I got my little dog Aaniimoosh, practiced walking so that now people don't know I'm a crip, tried riding a bike and found that I could... and then got the bright idea to get a motor since I couldn't peddle far, remembering an almost forgotten wish from a very long time ago when I was a boy. And here I am, old and forgetful, but among friends who also like to play with their bicycles. What could be better? In a month I'll be home in Minnesota and it will be summer time when the lake country is heaven and I can be Huck Finn. Where Aaniimoosh the Wonder Dog sits by her kiddie trailer and barks, asking for a ride. So we take a little lunch of peanut butter and jelly and cold can of beer, ride through the forest for a time, find a creek or lake to sit by and share our sandwich. She figures the crust must be the best part since that is what I give her. And that, too, is a good philosophy of life, straight from the dog and something to think about. Life is good. G'night, Bud. It's been a long day...
SB