My First Homes [written 210521]

Photo: My firs home [3575 West 26th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., CANADA]

There were five of them, 1947 — March 30, 1957:

1. Upper St. Georges in North Vancouver, a basement suite
2. 3575 West 26th Avenue, Vancouver, in Dunbar neighbourhood
3. The Mays Road farmhouse in the Cowichan Valley.
4. The White House in Chemainus, just inside town limits
5. The Green House in Chemainus, less than a mile South, outside town limits

Then we moved to North Vancouver in Marlborough Heights, where Mom and Dad lived from March 31, 1957 to some time in 1995.

The basement suite was in a white house on a northeast corner on St. Georges above Rockland Street. Mom told me they had to live there after they were first married because there were few places to rent at that time after World War II. This was my first home but only inside Mom’s womb. Mom and Dad eloped and married on October 3, 1947 in Bellingham, Washington State, after picking up two men on the street to serve as witnesses. Mom told me they couldn’t live together at first for lack of rental apartments. And it was sometime in November they found that place.

My grandparents (we calle them Nannie and Grandpa) moved back to Vancouver not long after the end of the war. Grandpa wanted to go back to work again. But he had become hard of hearing and found he could not succeed. They had lived at 47th & Marguerite from the early 1920s till Uncle George joined up and went off to war. At that time they moved to Cobble Hill, a quaint neighbourhood in Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. That is where Grandpa received the notice of Uncle George’s citation for the Silver Cross. Uncle George had joined up on his birthday, October 30, 1942; and was killed in action on October 22, 1944, 8 days before his twentieth birthday. Their new house in Vancouver was at 3575 West 26th Avenue. It has recently become in a state of disrepair and sold by whoever was living there most recently. Mom had told me the address and I started walking by from time to time to take current pictures.

Some time in 1947 / 1948, when Grandpa had concluded he couldn’t return to work, he asked Uncle Don, Mom’s younger brother, what he wanted to do. And Uncle Don said, farming. So, Grandpa bought the 365-acre Mays Road farm, and Nannie, Grandpa, and Uncle Don moved into the farmhouse. And they offered the house in Dunbar to my Mom and Dad to stay in. I was born in Vancouver General Hospital July 3, 1948, 9 months to the day after Mom and Dad married… so Mom and Dad must have been living on West 26th by that time. There is a hospital in North Vancouver where I could have been born if Mom and Dad were still living in Upper St. Georges. They lived there for less than a year.

When I was about a year old, Dad became sick and had to miss one day of work. And his employer, Pappas Furs, did not pay him for that day. While he was supporting a wife and young child, me. That made Dad angry, so he quit. And Mom and Dad moved into the farmhouse with the others. Dad would help Uncle Don to some extent. But at the same time he tried his luck at real estate, selling houses. He has told me he didn’t sell one house in that time, mid-1949 to mid-1950.

Then Dad started working in the sawmill in Chemainus, eight miles North. And they moved into the white brick house just inside town limits. It was small. But it had two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Adequate cupboard space. And a laundry room under which was an oil-fuelled furnace. On the driveway on the North side of the house was an oil tank. Dad built a white picket fence around the yard. He built a garage for the car. Mom and Dad made a vegetable garden in the back yard. Across the picket fence on the South side, and therefore not in town limits, was an orchard. And I was not allowed to climb on the fence and thus on the apple tree on the other side. I have many photos Dad took of us and various relatives who visited from time to time when we lived there.

Meanwhile, Dad started to build the green house about a kilometre South. In 1954 I turned 6 and was about to start Grade 1 and we were able to move in Summer 1954. By that time Mom and Dad were expecting their fourth child and we needed more space. We needed the bigger house: 3 bedrooms, unfinished basement, kitchen, living / dining room, kitchen nook where we ate most usually all of our meals. Wood furnace in the basement, carport, outside deck. LARGE field, small wood. Dad started a henhouse for eggs, but then a friend at work in the mill suggested he apply for a job in head office in Vancouver. In 1956 he had won the lumber grading exam in B.C.; and he got the job. We moved to North Vancouver on the March 30 / 31 weekend, 1957 while I was in Grade 3. My first day of school, of course, was Monday, April 1. April Fool! Some Grade 6 boy had pointed down at my foot and said, your shoelace is untied.

We shall see if I add more biographical memoir as the future unfolds. ThanQ.

Advertisement

At the end of 2011 I came up with the idea of making some income from writing poetry

Lost Lagoon, Stanley Park, Vancouver CANADA

211212x At the end of 2011 I came up with the idea of making some income from writing poetry. I wrote my first poem of my own behest in the second half of Grade 12 in 1966 when I was asked to write a descriptive essay. I thought, that was too boring and chose instead to write a descriptive poem about a big house covered in vines, using the Empress Hotel in Victoria BC as my inspiration. The teacher gave me an A-minus — because it wasn’t an essay. In the Spring of 1972 I wrote a letter to the editor of The Province newspaper in Vancouver and they published it. I also wrote a vignette. And then wrote another version. The first version was idealistic and the second “commercial.”

In June 1976 I started writing what I called songs. Only a couple of them had tunes, but they all started slow and came to a climax at the end. From 1976 to 1980, I wrote maybe 500 of those. Over the years I have had the habit of purging from time to time. I did that early 1976. Throughout high school and years after I would have projects, like designing a house and trying to build it out of balsa wood. I was going to weave a scarf for my Mom but after a short while I stopped. And some time later I threw it away because I didn’t like the colours I chose. 

I imagined buying a 100 square mile / 10 miles by 10 miles lot of land somewhere in Manitoba some day and designing my own country. I designed sextuplets, all the same with an interior courtyard. Elementary and high schools. A stadium dug into the ground so it would be easier, almost like ancient Greek theatres. In each corner of the lot, one square mile each would be for forestry, mining, farming and factories, and alternate. I designed a system of government with legislature, executive, courts, and boss (president). Moving sidewalks.

I stopped writing in 1980 but, in 1987 I think, a drop-in centre I attended decided to put out a quarterly newsletter. We had to decide on a name and I thought of Writer’s Cramp, and got one of us, a girl, to like it and it was accepted. In the Fall of 1986 I took a course in Borland Pascal computer programming, as coding was called at the time. But writing, I tried to get one or more piece I wrote put in each newsletter. We worked on it together. Cut and paste. Photocopying. Or printing I think it was at first. We went to a printer. Writing for that newsletter in its various guises went on until about 2005. After that the staff at the drop-in centre reserved putting out the newsletter for themselves. We could submit and have pieces “approved.” Never having it done that way before, at my first rejection I withdrew.

But as I mentioned above, I got the idea of writing for pay; writing books of poetry and vignettes which was my oeuvre. Sometimes I got a piece or two accepted by NSWA and RCLAS. And on September 20, 2012 I read in a café for the first time. I tried to continue doing that but my essays and poems were not seen as maybe good enough to read in front of everyone like that. For example, I had never done that before and I wasn’t good at it. I was by then in my 60s and had no like practice in school all those years ago. And my better subjects were math, physics and chemistry — so that is what I studied at UBC.

It was the Fall of 1966. You needed English 100 but the three books we had to read with assignments pertaining to them, well, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, was so dry and boring. When I finished reading it the instructor said to us it was about religion. I didn’t notice that when I read it. I had no idea what she was talking about. I know that Ireland is Catholic, at least I think it is. And I was not the most religious person. I failed English 100 but passed the supplemental exam at the start of July 1967.

That did not stop my writing in the future. Early 1972 I thought to myself, I’m smart. I should be able to write, too. My marks in Math and Physics were 92 percent in Grade 12. I won the Math award for Grade 10 in our high school, algebra. I got 93 percent in Mathematics 100 at UBC. But that is what made me start writing. 1991 and 1992 I wrote my autobiography to that point. I got my first desktop in 1991. In 1994 I culled the self-indulgent parts and began to flesh it out. Only Chapter 3 about the period when I worked from 1968 to 1972 did I not cull. I thought, if I changed anything I would ruin it.

So, to date I a still writing extensively but nothing I can think of as publishable. But it is all there, so I can’t say I haven’t had any practice cum experience. Just not so much publishable it seems to others. I write endlessly almost every day. And my computer is full of the stuff. Ideas? I seem to have made a multitude of acquaintances. And I hope you enjoyed my little story herein. Thank you….. — And sincerely, George Chris Michas 

Today is like any other day. Not.

210329x I went for a nice walk today, not far away. I had a Starbucks Venti coffee and carried it with me to Lonsdale Quay, where I sat on some steps and drank. The above photo comes from a few days ago near where I sat. Then I walked around taking photos as I am wont to do. I take many many all the time, deleting those I don’t like as much, such as I will take 2 or more photos of one view and keep what I deem the best. Then default enhance them in an app I use.

I walked around and around the Lower Lonsdale area near where I lived and took my usual “quota” of photos. I listened to music on my iPhone, changing playlists or artists from time to time and talked briefly with a busker between songs. A few days ago I went for a 5-hour walk. They don’t happen all that often, maybe once a month. Today’s walk was just local. At 72 years of age I like to keep in shape and walks are my main source of exercise. The Covid last year put a crimp in my style at first last year because everything was too shut down for a while. With some problem solving I improved on that and figured it out. Even now sometimes it is not “good enough” in my mind. But I come out ahead.

Wearing a mask on transit and in malls and shops I accept. Sometimes I will do it in some parts of town too. Social distancing. Be kind. Be calm. Be safe. It is a motto for my area. It is hard when a sidewalk is blocked by some not being helpful. And there are some who do not appear to care. Usually just the occasional person who maybe lives on the street. They have it hard as it is and the extra restrictions are hard for them. I do feel for street people. Why do we not do more for them? But then, when we do, they aren’t grateful. The rules of engagement are too much and they go back to the street. Some of them do decide maybe having a place to stay is the better option.

Other parts of the world seem to have it worse, so I do not complain. I have a place to stay and a roof over my head is very much appreciated. Grocery stores nearby and around the city give me a varied choice of food. Like I say, I go for walks. There is transit as needed but I prefer to walk when I can. If I get tired, there is always the transit home. I am fortunate there, too. The city is built for me. It is a nice place. What would you do?

Today is Election Day in British Columbia CANADA

Get out and vote!

201024 Vote GREENdDownload

Run Run Run

Vote when you’re ready

Campaign when you’re ready

Choose to run when you’re ready

Participate when you’re ready.

They love to hear from you, those who have been elected. If it weren’t for you, they would not know what to do. They could make a bunch of random guesses, but those might be far from what is best for you, them, and for the human race. The more you speak up, the more they, we, all of us can choose the best for progress.

A lot of people are talking about the environment right now, for the health and the life of all matter on this planet. Sometimes to push back gets others to counterattack. Because it’s hard to know wha’s best. For the survival of the human race. And for all life on this planet and in the Universe. Obviously, we have not blown up the Universe yet, so some beings alien superintelligencies have had some success, progress.

Wait till winter’s over and then get out again. But if you wait too long, there will not have been much gained. Today is as good as tomorrow to get out and do. To procrastinate is sad. If we cannot be and do today it is painful. Everybody loves everybody.

So let’s come together with technology and relationship. Love is the only way. Yesterday and today. For then, for now, and for always.

200602x Today is a New Day

You’ve probably noticed I don’t make too many posts here. I do that in Facebook. I use Facebook as though it is my blog. I will make long posts which I will also post in the form of a Note. Which Facebook makes available under “More” on my Homepage.

COVID-19 has kept me stuck at home since the beginning. After a point, I needed to get out and go for walks. It was hard to find washroom facilities so that cramped my style a little bit. But the panorama at the top of this Page was taken during one of those walks.

When COVID-19 started, I had a hard time believing it was true. There were things going on in the United States that seemed implausible. In Europe you were hearing about right wing radicals taking over the governments. And besides all the other weird things going on in the World (China, the Middle East), I thought the right wing government had taken over and COVID-19 was an excuse to make everybody stay indoors. And everybody had bought in and were actually eager participants. Until people started threatening to block me on Facebook if I didn’t “buy in” myself.

That was very awkward and difficult. It was the end of the World as I knew it. I could refer back to books like “1984” and “Brave New World” for predictive examples. I could refer back to innumerable apocalyptic books and movies that predicted a virus or some other agent taking over the world, infecting everybody, or not quite everybody, and there was a battle for survival by the uninfected few. Movies like “Terminator” seemed to have come true. It was no longer a free world in any sense at all.

And now we are still not allowed to gather in any great numbers. In the USA there are riots going on like you would read about in books and see in apocalyptic movies. And the president was threatening to call out the armed forces to put down what appeared to be the rebellion. As the common people were protesting over police brutality and murder.

I am getting old and long in the tooth. I wonder how much longer I will be able to hold out in this world and society. I can’t go see people. If I want to see people, I will have to learn the software. I have an opportunity this evening. I had my first opportunity yesterday and it was successful. The only thing was, the day before I had to figure out how to download the new version of the software we would use or it wouldn’t come off. Somehow I succeeded.

Sitting at home so much of the time, I am not as physically able any more. Even in the early days of the COVID-19, I knew that if I was cooped up for too long, I would die of weakness due to not getting any exercise in my usual form, long walks, rather than the COVID-19. I was not afraid of the COVID-19. I would either come down with it or I would not. It would be either serious and I might die or it might be mild. But if I got weak from inactivity and died that way, the point would be moot.

I will be 72 in 1 month and 1 day, July 3. I love music. I like to take photos on my walks (see above). I follow physics, cosmology and NASA, like the recent SpaceX launch of 2 Americans from American soil astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). I follow archaeology and fossils and evolution. History and prehistory. Green issues to some extent, only it seems we are not taking these too seriously. Like one day we won’t have needed to address them in the first place or something. We are hoping technology comes along and does it for us, or something!

I write poetry. I am good at a number of things. Yet I haven’t worked for money since 1976. I get by, wth more difficulty as the years go by for more reasons than just lack of money. I used to get together with people in a number of settings. I used to go to the occasional “rock” show, about 2 a year. I am not happy with having to stay home to get most of my social interactions. I don’t want to stare at my computer endlessly for this. I am very sad. It is nice to use the new technology. Like it was something that was going to come along anyway and it has just happened now. Like we are using the bought into COVID-19 as the excuse to socialize in any manner at all. Like it was going to happen anyway, the COVID-19 imaginary, that it doesn’t exist at all, and the governments and the people are just using it to force everybody to buy into the new system, most of our interaction online. Because it was going to happen one day anyway. So we have made it “now”.

Of course, everybody who has lost people close to them, family or friends, to the COVID-19 are very extra sad right now because the COVID-19 has taken away a few more people than would normally have gone in any short time. Stay 2 meters apart. Practice social distancing. Wash your hands. Be safe. Be kind. And we shall get through this together.

Today is a new day. It’s a brave new world we face. I am sure we will get through it. Chin up, as they say. And I love you.

-George Chris Michas

200315 What Are We Waiting On, a poem

A paradise awaits us all
Down the street, and around each corner
There is a better corn field
A chicken coop, or pen

The house of the madonna
The palace of the rich
The cave of the withdrawn
The ones who must dig the ditch

We live together in this world
On land and on the sea
Soon we will reach again
Beyond our meagre sky

One wonders what is out there
What is it really like
We peer into the distance
Where have the aliens gone

We think that we must be alone
We know that is not true
So where the heck are they all
Busy with their own

The evolution of all species
No two at all the same
Even here upon our planet Earth
Mankind seems supreme

We communicate with the others
They communicate with us
But different as we are
Even individual humans are not the same

How can we expect to relate
To an alien different as we expect
We will relate and so will they
I wonder what we’ll say
And how.

The reach of Mankind
The reach of alien kind
How far out are we reaching
What is out there beyond our eyes

We see the edge of the Universe
Yet the edge it is not
It’s only that it’s as far as we can see
We wonder what’s beyond that

Is it the same so far out there
We hypothesize multiple Universes
But like so many things in our past
Are there just concepts we know not yet

The Earth was flat to early Mankind
And yet we were so blind
Blind we are still our limits
We wonder wonder we

What is the quantum world
Can we control and manage it
Like we manage all we know
We know it not where will it lead
What is a human soul

Where does our essence come from
Is it natural or somehow given
Will we seek more than is out there
I wonder aliens be

We have our minds we have our brains
Ruled by quantum fields
Can aliens from far away
Read our minds with us communicate

Do we really need to physically
Go to stars afar
If there is quantum entanglement
Can we not travel that way

Would we link up with aliens
In some engineering quest
To do what we must do
Just like them all the rest

On Earth we can communicate
From one side to the other
Something called Skype from one side
To the other magic age

If we can do this presently
And we have come so far
In such a short time
The beginning of Mankind

Our progress seems phenomenal
It was just the other day
The Planet Earth looked flat to us
And it did not rotate

What can we learn
How quickly learn
In the flashing of a light
We soon could see the other side
The future our delight

(c) 200315 George Chris Michas 

Photo: Mine, March 20, 2020, City of North Vancouver CANADA, at 3rd & Chesterfield

I write all sorts of stuff

200117w Dear My Case Manager:

The reason I do not enjoy seeing The good doctor is that he does nothing for me. That can be good in some ways in that I am forced to figure it out for myself and do it on my own. And when I see him, I am shut up in a tiny room from which there is no escape if the good doctor decides to call the police on me. The same is of my appointments with my family doctor. He can call the front desk if he chooses, and get up and say he’ll be right back giving some excuse for leaving. It does not make me feel comfortable or relaxed. Any small excuse might be enough to call the police.

The following is something I posted on Facebook for my Friends a couple of days ago. The first couple of sentences were because I sent them by Messenger to a Friend. And that’s how the writing got started before I fleshed it out and posted the entire thing:

200116w I was so delighted to see you at UBC last Wednesday. You learned a bit about me. I am not good at conversation. I never have been. I have thought there is a missing connection in my brain or something since I was a teenager. Much as I try to determine the principles, subtleties and intricacies of conversation, I have been unable to make any headway “decrypting” [decyphering] them. Ever since I was in Grade 2, I expected to grow up, get married, and have kids. I have always worked toward that goal. Now I am starting to realize that if I had a child, there could be a 50-50 chance they had the same social skills as me. I have not worked for pay since 1976. I volunteered on and off since, the last time in 2009. As the minimum wage goes up again and again, me on fixed income will eventually starve to death. For 25 years since I moved in my present apartment in 1985, I always got by on $10 per day for food. Since the NDP got in, it is more like $20 or more. Having kids is a non sequitur or maybe the phrase is non-starter. I have plenty of schooling, 3 years university in engineering physics in a 5-year program. But I couldn’t continue. Despite some good marks I have gotten, in certain types of schooling I am not as good as in others. I am good at algebra but not at geometry. It is like the latter part is related to my inability to learn social skills. And why I have been unable to get a paying job in more than 40 years. I am fortunate. I live in subsidized housing and have some income. I do not have a car or a tv. I have a pair of shoes, a computer and a cell phone. They get me by. But for how much longer. I have been able to keep up with the technology to date. But I wonder for how much longer. It is just the way I am no matter how hard I try. I have limitations and I am not pleased about it. Of course, everybody has limitations, even the most successful. Will we one day live forever? Depends on your definition of forever. If the universe ends, will we be able to figure out how to go to another one. Maybe some will and some not. As at the gambling casino and on Wall Street, the house always wins. In the game of life, too, the house will always win, some day. See? I can think of some things, but not of others. We all have limitations like that. I am 71 and a half. Life goes on, for now.

Thank you, My Case Manager. Sincerely, George  

Dear George,
Thank you for the update and insights. Please take care of yourself.
Regards,
My Case Manager

200117 = ‘yymmdd’

I haven’t made a post lately

…but I would like to…..

If it weren’t for this planet, I wouldn’t be living here. Where would you be? I’m trying to figure out what they have done with WordPress. This text should be appearing below the photo. What gives?

Dippity doo! Somehow I done it.

This is a view I see quite often. It can be sunny; it can be rainy. Today it is just cloudy. And I got a lot done today.

I got autism it seems. I’m relatively smart and they call that high functioning autism. But like a lot of autists (makes more sense to me to spell it that way) I am not too good socially. People like me yes but I don’t have a one-on-one friend. It’s like I want something from them they aren’t willing to give, and I’m trying to figure out what that might be.

Girls are attractive. I am affected simply by the fact they are girls. Or maybe women might be a better word. I react to the fact they are women.

Then when it comes to men, I don’t want to socialize with them at all. I’m not quite sure what men want with me. Sometimes they ask me for coffee. I might say yes then later cancel. I might say no. I have socialized with a guy three times over the past six months. I wonder what he wants with me. He says he is married and has a son. And he has introduced them to me. But the whole arrangement just looks like to me that he just picked them up somewhere and brought them along. They are a very strange threesome to me. Consequently if he asks me again I am going to say no. I’m interested in girls / females / women.

I seem to scare them off. I’m just not good socially. I am obviously doing something completely wrong in their eyes.

I’m so busy all the time. I did many things around the apartment today. Rearranged some things. Did some laundry yesterday. Added an app to my phone so I wouldn’t need to use cellular so much and actually be able to use the phone any time I need. I’ve done so many things around here lately it’s too trivial to list. Up until the Spring I got out more and was spending too much money. Around the beginning of July I strained a knee and had to take it easy over the Summer. It’s feeling a lot better now and taking things carefully, I have started to walk again. I walk long distances and take photos among the other things I do. What do you do?

I love music, cosmology, politics, archaeology … just too many things. I haven’t been able to work for money in a long time. But I have a small pension and I am able to be careful with my spending and buy essentials. Up until the Spring I had been going to lots of events, like poetry readings (another interest), but so often when I go to them I have to buy a meal some place more expensive than eating at home. It wasn’t working out. My sore knee was almost a blessing. But I was worried it might become permanent so took very very much care. It still hurts if I go too fast so I pace myself more. But exercise helps too. No exercise is not the right path.

It’s splendid where I live. The people in the apartment above me are annoying but in some way it is better than no interaction at all. In fact it has been very beneficial. I have been in the same one-bedroom place now for 32 years as of October 1. Go figure. I can’t afford to move and really the location is ideal. Sometimes I get over-upset about the people above me and sometimes they do with me. It ain’t the end of the world. It helps me learn how to socialize. I wish it could be better but having that wish makes me work in that direction. I don’t quite understand the girl and her son above me. They don’t seem to do much most of the time. I have ADHD compared to them. I almost always have to have something to do.

So, that’s autism and ADHD. My analysis of the human race is that we are all human. And the many things they call handicaps or whatever, well, everyone has some of them to one extent or a another. No one is completely totally perfect. We all have different skills. Some of us are good at this or that and some of us are not. We complement each other.

And that is what makes up the human race and how the world goes round. Till next time, I am yours, George Chris Michas …..

Paradise is at your door

When I got up this morning, I felt awful. I got out and out the door and went a long way. It was hot. I couldn’t take it. I took a different route just to see where it took me. I was 12 minutes late. I looked at the room and the door entered at the front, and everyone would see me walk in. I was uncomfortable. I sat in the lobby 10 minutes playing with my phone. And left.

I went back to Skytrain and went home. I laid down. I was still awful. But not so hot. The heat of the outdoors had not reached inside yet. I’d left only one window open. I thought that was smart. I ate the flat of strawberries I got Thursday throwing out 4 or 5 that did not look the same. I’d eaten the other flat the last two days. Two flats for $20: I thought that a bargain but was wondering if I would get through them.

I walked past the building above on Thursday. It wasn’t so hot and I felt good. I don’t feel the same any more. I am 68 and will be 69 on July 3 next week (2017). Canada Day July 1 is on Saturday but will be observed on the Monday July 3 conveniently my birthday. My birthday is a holiday this year, not especially for me. In 1608 on July 3 Quebec City was founded by Samuel de Champlain of France, exactly 340 years before I was born. Now isn’t that exciting. I had to find something special about my birthday when I was young and growing up and this was the special day I found. I learned more recently that Prince Charles of England was born in November 1948, so I am a few months older than him. I am glad they did not get the babies mixed up. I would not want to be in Prince Charles’ position. I would not want to be Prince Charles. He has all the money in the world and privilege to boot but it must be boring.

I have done many things in my life. A lot of people like to travel. Not for me. I lived in Toronto for 23 months but otherwise have lived in British Columbia: in a small town called Chemainus (my first memories) until Grade 3. And then in Metro Vancouver for the balance. When my parents first married, they lived in a basement suite in the upper reaches of North Vancouver. When Mom’s parents moved to Duncan, they let Mom and Dad live in the vacated house in Vancouver. I spent the first year of my life there.

Now I am an old man not so old but fading it seems because I am getting tired of my little ills that seem to be increasing and I hate it. I have been fine up until almost a year ago. Now I am getting very tired of all the little ills that are popping up. The doctor says they are normal. Thanks a lot. I try to eat perfect diet, get lots of exercise, and get out and see people. I often feel people don’t like me much. I have never been good socially. It was only in 2003 that I realized that it was fear that was stifling my ability to learn how to socialize a all. When I was 55. People had been saying to me around that time it was best to take risks socially. And when I started doing that, I figured out the fear part. I think I have autism. I am very smart and functional.

I have no specialty or special interest. I have many. You have to be an expert at one thing to do a job. And I have never been able to decide on one. I think they are either too easy thus boring, or too hard and I can’t do it. You have to start somewhere. Maybe that is the lesson I just learned now. Instead of pandering my little body day in day out, I should pick something and start at the beginning. What am I good at?

A Post Is Known 170208

It’s been a while since I made a post….. Like an earlier post, I post in bunches. I haven’t posted here in a while because I seem to get little exposure. I suppose there are many possible reasons: 1) I am not using exposure tools very well. 2) Much of my writing is boring. 3) It is not on topics of interest to people that come to my page / See 1) and 2).

You can see on my photo when I took this photo. “Crow on a Pole” sums it up simply. I would ask what things you would have me write on. I’m not sure.

The World today is becoming dystopian. There are Big Brother eyes everywhere: those little cameras on ceilings and walls. Satellites in orbit in near Space. Ostensibly for our own safety and protection. Security people looking at everybody. Does he / she look guilty? Are they appearing guilty under my gaze?

The planet. What will it be like in 100 years? Will we be living under domes? If it heats up enough, water and oxygen will escape into Space and we will be like Mars, with a rusty surface as nature erodes what is left. Siberia and the Canadian North will be agri-able. But what will be the point with no water or oxygen?

Next week I will present my solution.