Enjoying my time

I've been enjoying my time lately. I need to find a way to make all this time last. Maybe there is a way to get a job that doesn't steal all my time so I can continue to walk during the day, volunteer and play music. I've been considering working in a residential program for people with mental disabilities. I did that before and enjoyed it. I could do it part time to extend my savings and make my glorious time last longer.

One thing I wish I could do is do something about the plastic problem. There are a lot of organizations getting on board with that issue now. I do my part as an individual, but I wish there was more. I read about a junk raft that someone is sailing to the garbage patch in the gyre to raise awareness. That's the kind of adventure I wish I could do. I don't like water or boating so I would have to do something on land.

We had a great session last night. It seemed really fun. I had a better time of picking up new tunes I don't know. The old-time jam where I bring my dulcimer seems to help me learn how to learn tunes on the fly. People stayed a long time at the session and for once I didn't go home as soon as I felt sleepy. I ended up talking afterwards on the sidewalk until 11:00PM.

I learned that the fiddle class will finally return this fall. I have a fiddle, but I think I will bring my mandolin. I like mandolin better. It's easier and it sounds so lovely. Maybe someday I will be able to play it well.

I seem to have had a few days in a row of getting a good tone on my (wooden, not silver) flute. That makes me happy. The flute is a cruel instrument, giving you good embouchure days and bad ones. You feel great one day and then plunge into despair the next all because of embouchure.

I saw an ad for a sewing machine. I really wish I had one. Being able to fix things is good. If anyone has a free sewing machine, I would accept it.

I walked on the beach two times this week for two hours each time. I walked from Hendry's to More Mesa. It always seems to be high tide when I go. I've been thinking of hiking from Jesusita to Cold Springs trail and back. That would be a longer hike than the 9 trails hike, which is 17.5 miles long, and I wouldn't have to figure out a shuttle.

It seems that despite my fruit and vegetable diet, the weight is coming back. I guess when you hike a marathon every day your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolism slows down. That's my guess anyway. I think 2 hour walks and 20 mile hikes may be the only way to slow down the weight gain. I wish I could have done that right at the start of being home, but only now am I starting to feel fit enough for that much exercise.

I've got my journal entries and blog postings into my book up to the last day on the trail. Just a little bit more and I can go back through and try to replace "today the trail was really pretty" with more meaningful descriptions. It is fun to relive my hike. It changed a lot from the beginning to the end. It started out as a regular adventure and eventually became some kind of inward journey. I suppose that's what happens when you spend so much time alone with nobody to talk to and not even an iPod or anything to pass the time.

I wonder if there is a way to make having adventures and writing about them the way I make my living. That would be too good to be true. But that is why I'm resisting returning to corporate life. I want an authentic life riddled with adventure. There is no way to do that if you sell all your life's precious time to someone else. Time is the only thing you have. Everything else is in trade for it.

That reminds me. I have to clean out my junk. I still haven't unpacked from my trip. There are boxes everywhere of things I mailed home. I have too many things. I can't stand having so many things. And my room smells of stinky under arm sweat when I close the door because of my backpack.