Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.
Mount Shasta, California, December 28, 2019 — When I was a child and a teenager, I was very insecure. And needing reassurance all the time, in the tough-guy culture of Northern Texas, I became a loud show-off smart-alec, even though I was actually an introvert.
As a result, even when I gained confidence over the years, I had to *learn* how to talk to strangers, and how to approach women. I did learn. However I wish I’d seen this article, which is both simple and [Read more…]
Mount Shasta, August 31, 2019 – Today on Facebook, someone was railing against low-carb, animal-based diets.
But you know, my current way of eating — low-carb, moderate protein, with lotto lotto veggies … it’s working for me, better than anything I’ve ever seen. I stuff myself every day, and I’m dropping excess weight, but before going into that …
In fairness, I gotta say I see a lot of extreme variants of “low carb” approaches, and my guess is some are not optimum. I settled on the formula that Dr. Joseph Mercola espouses in his “Fat for Fuel” book. (See it on Amazon here.)
So, yeah, I eat “low carb,” usually no more than [Read more…]
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Mount Shasta, March 2019 — On Facebook recently, a young woman asked “I need to come up with a new business name for my catering and food booth business .. So I connect with mountaingoat .. I’m a double Capricorn born in the year of the goat and live in the mountains … and it’s my email address .. so I could use some input .. which of these do you like?” And then she listed these business names …
Using an image of a goat in connection with food is a bad idea, because [Read more…]
January 28, 2019, Mount Shasta, CA — Do you ever feel sad or worried?
Well, no problem! Here’s how to let it go in under 3 minutes.
Just follow these steps …
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October 19, 2018, Medford Oregon –– Tomorrow a big truck with moving guys comes, and nearly all my home is packed into boxes. The last few weeks have been overshadowed. As the leaves were turning gold and falling from the huge tree out front, I worried that packing up seemed overwhelming, but bit by bit …
Behind the house of the neighbor across the street, her name is Linda, her trees have turned bright and colorful. It’s Autumn.
The neighbors next door had yet another fiesta last Friday. Although it’s sometimes noisy near my bedroom window, I like the sounds, men talking in Spanish, kids yelling and running around.
After tomorrow, I don’t live here any more.
I’ve felt this before. Maybe you have, too …
It’s time to go, and the rooms become empty again, until finally the place looks vacant like the day you moved in. And you walk around these empty rooms, and whether or not you liked the time spent there, nostalgia comes over you.
In my bedroom, in my mind I again see gooddog Charlie. This is where he died, not that long ago. I feel like I am abandoning him, because I am leaving the room. I miss him and feel like somehow I am also leaving him behind, because it’s the place where I hold his memory.
But he will not miss me here.
A few years ago, I moved here with Susan, before she lost her sight and went away to learn how to be a blind person. I thought it likely that the relationship was completely gone. I felt no different toward her, but had to accept letting it go.
A few months ago I was surprised to hear from her reaching out by phone again. And a few trips to visit over the last few months where she’d landed again in Mount Shasta. Surprised and happy to discover the relationship was not gone after all. And so I am moving back to Mount Shasta.
Unlike some other moves in the past, this time I do not have the feeling of moving forward. I feel like I am moving backward, retreating. But it’s what I want to do. I cannot remain, no reason. Though I’ve made a few good friends here, there is nothing to keep me in Medford.
I just didn’t have any other place that called to me.
Until now.
Medford, Oregon, June 6, 2018 — This morning as usual, I got up and dressed, and then I took myself for a walk.
As some of you know, usually gooddog Charlie takes me for my morning walk, but not today. Because last night at 8 o’clock my good Charlie died.
And this morning when I returned from my walk, his body was still lying upon his bed, his eyes open as if seeing something very faint and very far away.
And he remained so very, very still.
A year ago, on our morning walk to the little hidden park a block away, while I was petting him and putting his leash back on, I discovered a lump on his chest. About the size of a half lemon. A few days later, the vet said she didn’t know what it was, but we should take it out.
She quoted an amazing amount of money, and frankly I didn’t have it. And over this year, [Read more…]
Panda Express, Medford, Oregon, May 14, 2018 — My favorite, and pretty much only place I get lunch when I don’t want to cook/prep, is Panda Express, because you can get vegetables instead of rice, and while not perfect, it’s a pretty healthy meal.
I take gooddog Charlie so he gets an outing, but I don’t let him out so I bring him the fortune cookie. (He eats them, but I do not.) And so naturally that means the fortune is actually gooddog Charlie’s fortune.
Lately I’ve begun to question these Panda Express fortunes that he gets. I was suspicious last week when he got, “You will be a great success, both in business and socially.”
And now, after yesterday — when he got “Good news will come to you by mail.” — I am seriously questioning the accuracy of these Panda Express fortunes.
