and on July 16th ,

we went to see the movie Oppenhiemer and I was reminded that my birthday was also the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb. 

I'm a lucky guy. All of us have wonderful people from their lives that didn't make that milestone so for me I carry on and want to be as good a guy as I can for them, for me , for my boys.....for everybody . I'm looking forward to a great decade through my 70's as I also reminded myself that late July found the 50th anniversary of a terrible commercial fishing accident that altered my life forever....I still have things to do. Here's pic of me at 6:a.m. the morning of my birthday.

So, all of you that have read Mile 14 know I like lists. Every season I would be kept on task by a list of goals I would post in a place that I saw every single day. I'll do my goals next time but this time I'll do some pro's and con's of being three 20's and a ten . Lotsa Pro's, less con's is what I'm figuring my soul searching will find.

PRO'S

1. For 50 years  I've felt like I've been having to ' prove up ' . I've felt like that I've had to show that I deserve to be here, to be on the planet, to have been saved.....well, I'm done with that . I've graduated and I like the guy I see when I look in mirror and that's all that counts....as Jimmy Buffet sings " it just takes a while " and turning 70 is that while.

2. Life's turns has taught me a good sense of right and wrong. I like that . Me and my friends call it the code of the west and I apply it everyday . I try to treat people the way they treat me . And being an older guy now when I ask a question I generally get an answer . Because I've seen and heard so much I'm on a serious search for the new and fresh things in life.

3. I ain't scared .

4. I've learned perspective....don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small stuff .

5. I'm a musician...I know this is no surprise to anybody that knows me . But for me it's taken soooo long to like my sound and progress is so slow it's easy to gloss over how hard it is and how much it means to me in this trip around the sun. I got my first guitar in 7th grade, 58 years ago.  I love to communicate through music, sing my story and ask others of theirs.  When things are good I reach for the guitar to celebrate life, when things get tough I reach for the guitar to try and  explain it....Here's a link to a song I sang at a remembrance for a wonderful friend .   https://www.facebook.com/100000216794240/videos/640889487992727/

I got a roof over my head, 

someone to love me and a 4 poster bed.

And I can play this here guitar

and thank my lucky stars, thank my lucky stars.

                                           Jimmy Buffet

CON'S

1. Ouch : I got me some aches and pains . My neck problem is now 2 years old and seems to be finally getting a little better and I could probably benefit from surgery for the Carpal Tunnel syndrome I have. But my strategy is to see if it gets better... I know a lot of people my age and older that get kinda obsessed with their health and I don't wanna be that guy, I got fish to fry, songs to sing places to go . My old friend Charlie McDonald told me to look at a little pain as a good thing, what he told was this   " if you get  out of bed in the morning and nothing hurts ...you could be dead ". 

Team X sit rep : 

It looks like the July heat is history so we'll back in the Minnow 5 real soon and will be continuing our Montana cold water learning / exploration. I hope everybody comes back to Mile 14 and if any of you to my east want to meet up in the middle just holler and we can plan it out.....and of course if you're traveling through the Big Sky give a shout out .

TO ME