Heavy Lifting

With just a couple weeks b4 we head back to the frozen north I got to thinking that maybe  Mile 14'ites might wonder just what the heck do we do there for so long. Well, the truth is that we're pretty darn busy doing things you just don't always know what and especially when, that's the cool thing about having no schedule. Besides my everyday fishing and the usual problem solving around the terrace and the entire day it takes now and then to have your walk and breakfast , I've been busy on projects.

I'm a frustrated song writer for sure. Instead of finishing the one that I spent so much time on and needed to finish, I started 3 more and  don't really like them to much either....mmm....I have a new start that the working title is ' tough old man' but.....well.... The good news is that I have worked up 3 or 4 new songs. Just 2 days a ago I heard this song on Texas Radio ( K.O.K.E ) if you love real country and Texas swing. It just struck me and thanks to technology I found and  downloaded the song and then transcribed the lyrics. Then I sat down and assigned chords in the key of A which seems to best for me...magic. The songs a little rough, I've only played it maybe 15 times but I love the story....its always the story.

And of course I've read a book or two. I've always read a lot, I think its in my genes. But I used to read novels and now I just want to read non-fiction, I guess I want to learn to things. If  I'd had that same drive and desire about 40 years ago  in college who knows what we'd be doing now. I got the feeling that it couldn't be as good as this or maybe at the best as good as this but with more money....Here's a list, ya know how I like lists, of the books I've read here in  Mexico. So far that its is.

My current book is ' 7 Tipping Points that saved the world', the Miracle of Freedom by Chris and Ted Stewart. ...From the defeat of the Assyrians to the Battle of Britain, all the struggles that might have gone the other way and effected the future of 'freedom'..

'The Search for the gold of King Tut' by Arnold Brackma...the story of the last and only untouched ancient find  and the real story of the 'King Tuts' curse. English nobility with a passion for antiquities.

'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy...a great novel by the same guy that did "No Country For Old Men'...end of the world kinda stuff.

'Serpent in Paradise' by Dea Birket...the real life story of the people who live on Pitcairn Island, the descendant's of mutineers. Pretty cool book. Kinda crazy how to this day these people are so isolated and a culture completely of their own.

Captured....The story of young settlers children who were kidnapped by Indians (mostly Comanche) and brought into the tribal ways. In many cases these kids were conflicted after their eventual rescue and remained Indians the rest of their lives.

The Lost Squadron....The story of a lost mission by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the early 1900's. This story underlines what all of us that live in the far north know....it's extreme, it'll kill ya.

The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris....mostly about his rise to political power. Did you know that he finished a 45  minute speech with a bullet in his guts from a would be assassin ?

The Missouri, by Stanly Vestal....This is compilation of stories about the Missouri River and its part in building our country. Pretty cool, of course Montana which is one of my favorite spots in the world is the headwaters of this great waterway.

Nathan Bedford Forrest....the story of the baddest of all the confederate generals. And he couldn't just let go so went on to form the Klu Klux Klan.

Patton and Rommel, Men at War, by Dennis Showalter. Guys that lead from the front. WW 2  folklore has them as the big rivalry when they actually faced each other in battle only one time. Rommel was involved in the Valkerie project to end Hitler and build a peace.

Mussolini, by Dennis Mack Smith....For all this guys bravado and public machismo he was an insecure manipulated wine guzzling coward.

The Lincoln Lawyer, a novel by Michael Connely....a real page turner,

Lucky Man, Michael Fox....the story of his fight with Parkinsons Disease. But, its really the story of gaining perspective, knowing life, finding life....something I relate to.

West Dickens Ave- A marine at Khe Sanh...What can I say. I got this book form my friend Tony who was at Khe Sanh duriing the 77 day siege. He had it highlighted with references to things that happened to him. It made me speechless. I got no right to complain about anything..and I mean anything.