Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Howdy! It's been wayyyy too long!
OK, the novel effort returns. For the one or two people in my life who may have this link still attached to their notifications, etc. I'm back!!! I can't believe my last post was over a year ago when I accepted my current position as a Regional Medical Director. I was effusively excited about taking this opportunity back then. Now, I am effusively excited extremitited and enusifited about it!!! I can't believe that jobs like this exist out here. Why didn't somebody tell me about it years ago? I was staying in a hotel in Lansing, MI when I compared notes to a 32 year-old fellow who works for a major insurance company. He asked me what I did and I told him I have the greatest job in the world because I can travel but set my own travel schedule; work from home multiple days a month; do research; work from my blackberry and laptop, etc. He was quiet for a minute reflecting--he said, "well, sir..." (Don't you hate that when these young pups call you sir?) "Well, that's my job too, I generally work from my blackberry and lap top too." So, I start looking around hotels I stay at on trips--I start looking around me when I am in an internet cafe' and start my epiphany of this world. I run into folks in hotel pools and hot tubs and at the continental breakfast bars, etc. that live in this world and have for 30 years. I never really saw that it was, it is, everywhere. However, I betcha if you ask most physicians, probably 99.7% about this world they would look like a deer in the headlights--clueless. So, I redeem my ignorance in that I am in a small minority of physicians at least who have experienced the blessings of this way of life. I could never go back, I am truly blessed. I cannot believe how fortunate I am to be the Northern Regional Medical Director for Corizon. I am still married to my gorgeous wife of 29 years. I still have the best friends any man can have and I can do this all from my home office that is within touching distance of the most beautiful freshwater sea in the world, Lake Michigan. God Bless, thanks for listening! We're still here!
Friday, September 17, 2010
New Job1
Howdy Friends,
I have just accepted the position of Region 1 Medical Director for Prison Health Services (PHS), Michigan. This is a rare and exciting opportunity. I will be responsible for assisting/supervising physicians, NP's and PA's at 17 facilities. My territory includes the entire Upper Peninsula and as far south as Saginaw and Muskegon. PHS is a national company that supplies health care providers to correctional facilities throughout the country. I have been in office-based medicine now for about 17 years. I have loved it, but at this time in my life a largely non-clinical job is a real blessing. I will be working about half the hours I work now and won't have the daily grind of the patient mill, writing prescriptions, etc. The number one request by experienced physicians of physician recruiters is to "find me a non-clinical job!" This one just fell into my lap unsolicited---Thanks for listening and sharing our news! Take care!
Jeff
I have just accepted the position of Region 1 Medical Director for Prison Health Services (PHS), Michigan. This is a rare and exciting opportunity. I will be responsible for assisting/supervising physicians, NP's and PA's at 17 facilities. My territory includes the entire Upper Peninsula and as far south as Saginaw and Muskegon. PHS is a national company that supplies health care providers to correctional facilities throughout the country. I have been in office-based medicine now for about 17 years. I have loved it, but at this time in my life a largely non-clinical job is a real blessing. I will be working about half the hours I work now and won't have the daily grind of the patient mill, writing prescriptions, etc. The number one request by experienced physicians of physician recruiters is to "find me a non-clinical job!" This one just fell into my lap unsolicited---Thanks for listening and sharing our news! Take care!
Jeff
Sunday, August 22, 2010
A Harp Is Always a Good Thing
My Daughter Sarah said an amazingly profound thing today. Although it’s been said in many ways before, she has put the magic of music into a new light for me. She has been a busy musician this summer with playing a Pop Gig one night, understudy for the lead in an Opera another night, playing Harp in a wedding, bussing tables, doing day-care, and then culminating in her last Gig here for the Summer at Chamberlain’s Old Forest Inn in Curtis today.
On the way home from Chamberlains she said to me “Daddy I have been struggling with writing my Essay for my College Applications for weeks.” She said she couldn’t come up with anything concrete. However, she woke up at 2 A.M. last night and it finally came to her. She said she had been struggling with working and practicing music all summer and had very little free time to even go for a swim. She said her fingers were sore from playing the Harp for hours and hours. Nonetheless, she said it was all really worth it because when she played at our local coffeehouse, the Anchor Inn in Naubinway last night, she realized she made a connection with her audience that was “unexplainable” She said that right there she realized she had connected with people in a very special way. There were people who had tears in their eyes as they experienced the joy of the sound of a Harp, an instrument that’s not in every corner music store or one you get to hear live very often. In fact, hearing a live Harp is even a rare thing in Manhatten, New York or Paris, France. But, to hear it on the edge of the “Grid”, in the little Upper Peninsula Town of Naubinway, Michigan, with the cedar trees and the water’s edge all about you, is even more “magnanimous”.
When Sarah played at the Wedding, then the Anchor, then Chamberlains, people said it’s as if the clocks stopped, time stood still, there was nothing else but the music and the feelings of relief that it brought. People said the problems they were thinking about just disappeared, that they were connected for a moment, to something beautiful, and soft, and loving, and ethereal, you know, beyond this little world. I think that Sarah has experienced the love, touch, and voice of God in this music. That is why it was so touching, I think that of all the instruments and voices ever created, that the sound of the Harp is the closest you will hear on Earth to the sound of God’s own music.
As profoundly proud I am of Sarah and her accomplishments, I am most assured and pleased that she has felt the power of connecting to others thru a loving voice. I am well-pleased that she has realized that there is a connection, a communication, a relationship going on here that transcends the physical boundaries of our lives and bodies. She has heard the voice, the Voice. It woke her up at 2 AM and gave her the answer she sought. I certainly hope you too hear such lovely music today, are transcended, and brought to that lovely moment that takes you outside this World. Thank you Sarah, I thank you for becoming the lovely Woman you are, but even more so, we should both be thankful for that Eternal Voice.
Pictures will be forthcoming.
On the way home from Chamberlains she said to me “Daddy I have been struggling with writing my Essay for my College Applications for weeks.” She said she couldn’t come up with anything concrete. However, she woke up at 2 A.M. last night and it finally came to her. She said she had been struggling with working and practicing music all summer and had very little free time to even go for a swim. She said her fingers were sore from playing the Harp for hours and hours. Nonetheless, she said it was all really worth it because when she played at our local coffeehouse, the Anchor Inn in Naubinway last night, she realized she made a connection with her audience that was “unexplainable” She said that right there she realized she had connected with people in a very special way. There were people who had tears in their eyes as they experienced the joy of the sound of a Harp, an instrument that’s not in every corner music store or one you get to hear live very often. In fact, hearing a live Harp is even a rare thing in Manhatten, New York or Paris, France. But, to hear it on the edge of the “Grid”, in the little Upper Peninsula Town of Naubinway, Michigan, with the cedar trees and the water’s edge all about you, is even more “magnanimous”.
When Sarah played at the Wedding, then the Anchor, then Chamberlains, people said it’s as if the clocks stopped, time stood still, there was nothing else but the music and the feelings of relief that it brought. People said the problems they were thinking about just disappeared, that they were connected for a moment, to something beautiful, and soft, and loving, and ethereal, you know, beyond this little world. I think that Sarah has experienced the love, touch, and voice of God in this music. That is why it was so touching, I think that of all the instruments and voices ever created, that the sound of the Harp is the closest you will hear on Earth to the sound of God’s own music.
As profoundly proud I am of Sarah and her accomplishments, I am most assured and pleased that she has felt the power of connecting to others thru a loving voice. I am well-pleased that she has realized that there is a connection, a communication, a relationship going on here that transcends the physical boundaries of our lives and bodies. She has heard the voice, the Voice. It woke her up at 2 AM and gave her the answer she sought. I certainly hope you too hear such lovely music today, are transcended, and brought to that lovely moment that takes you outside this World. Thank you Sarah, I thank you for becoming the lovely Woman you are, but even more so, we should both be thankful for that Eternal Voice.
Pictures will be forthcoming.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Howdy My Friend---although I am doubtful that anybody would still be in ear shot of this BLOG---as I am so far off the GRID---and haven't posted anything since March, 2010. However, if you are "lucky" enough to get this post---let me know!!! This is the season of the year I LIVE for---not that I live for seasons---but figuratively, this is where my joy about seasons begins. First, it will soon be getting cooler outside and I don't like it much over 62 degrees. That means the Salmon start coming in close to my house. In fact, despite the warm weather, they are responding to their Natal Call and are now being caught within 5 miles of my house anyway out at "the can" at Five Mile Reef.
Secondly, despite the warm weather the leaves are starting to change to a panorama of colors that help me recall memories of cutting wood with my Dad, starting fires in the fireplace, and fishing, fishing, fishing for Salmon and Steelhead Trout. Then, not too long after, the leaves recede and the rain turns to the beautiful snow. I can't tell you how much I love snow---I like to watch it come down from the sky and slowly take control of the Earth. I like to roll in it, play in it, ski in it and enjoy the solitude it brings by chasing the non-winter people away. I am always taken aback by the folks that say they "gotta get outta hear before the snow falls." They have to get to Florida or Arizona and into the traffic and the heat before "it's too late". As they look at me and talk to me they assume I feel the same way. I scratch my head because soon I will go out and cross country ski, snow-shoe, drive a dog team thru the Wilderness, fire up a snowmobile, enjoy the solitude of a frozen lake as I watch the Wolves run accross it---make a bonfire on the snow piled frozen beach and generally just enjoy this incredible land without all the crowds.
Well, to thier credit they don't know I did the tropical thing for many years and enjoyed the warm, humid weather and lifestyle of Florida---cleaning green mold from my leather shoes, killing scorpions in my shower, and spraying for german and palimino roaches at least once a month---trying to find five square foot of beach to myself at the Ocean---and on and on. I like such things for a week in February, but that's about it!
I have found it's a lot easier to get warm than it is to get cool in my life. And perhaps I've arrived in that the Prisoners I care for now refer to me as "Dr. Cooler who is better than Dr. Cool". You can have Florida and Arizona---just compare and contrast such places to my day tomorrow when I am trolling over crystalline waters in front of my house catching salmon---and the nearest boat is 30 miles away. I have the "Ocean" to myself for relative pennies on the dollar. I have it made. Wish you were here to enjoy it with me. God Bless, Jeff.
Secondly, despite the warm weather the leaves are starting to change to a panorama of colors that help me recall memories of cutting wood with my Dad, starting fires in the fireplace, and fishing, fishing, fishing for Salmon and Steelhead Trout. Then, not too long after, the leaves recede and the rain turns to the beautiful snow. I can't tell you how much I love snow---I like to watch it come down from the sky and slowly take control of the Earth. I like to roll in it, play in it, ski in it and enjoy the solitude it brings by chasing the non-winter people away. I am always taken aback by the folks that say they "gotta get outta hear before the snow falls." They have to get to Florida or Arizona and into the traffic and the heat before "it's too late". As they look at me and talk to me they assume I feel the same way. I scratch my head because soon I will go out and cross country ski, snow-shoe, drive a dog team thru the Wilderness, fire up a snowmobile, enjoy the solitude of a frozen lake as I watch the Wolves run accross it---make a bonfire on the snow piled frozen beach and generally just enjoy this incredible land without all the crowds.
Well, to thier credit they don't know I did the tropical thing for many years and enjoyed the warm, humid weather and lifestyle of Florida---cleaning green mold from my leather shoes, killing scorpions in my shower, and spraying for german and palimino roaches at least once a month---trying to find five square foot of beach to myself at the Ocean---and on and on. I like such things for a week in February, but that's about it!
I have found it's a lot easier to get warm than it is to get cool in my life. And perhaps I've arrived in that the Prisoners I care for now refer to me as "Dr. Cooler who is better than Dr. Cool". You can have Florida and Arizona---just compare and contrast such places to my day tomorrow when I am trolling over crystalline waters in front of my house catching salmon---and the nearest boat is 30 miles away. I have the "Ocean" to myself for relative pennies on the dollar. I have it made. Wish you were here to enjoy it with me. God Bless, Jeff.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Chco is Finally Home
So Choco is home for good. Sarah and Jeffy went out to the sled dog kennel and picked him up. There was a lot of preparation though. I sunk a heavy duty chain stake near the front door so we can let him out in the morning and not have to worry about him chasing seagulls---his new favorite hobby. Then, we had to get him a new collar, doggy bowls, etc. My arms are so sore from excavating his kennel that I can barely type. You ever try to dig a trench near Lake Michigan? Well, you can’t dig---you take the pick-Ax and inch by inch slowly chip away. I have piles of rocks. I finally got the treated lumber down horizontally about 10 inches so he can’t dig himself out. Then, I put the twelve inch treated lumber up vertically around the edge of the kennel and back filled the whole thing with pea-gravel on top of landscape fabric. I don’t remember bow many wheel-barrow loads of pea gravel I moved. I only know I am pleasantly sore and tired.
My Sarah is home for break and asked for shish-ka-bob for one of her meals. Thus, I trudged in after excavating and washed up and made an incredible meal. I had some filet of beef that is very tender and I cut it up in chunks enough to make a chef cry. However, I kept a few outside chunks for Choco. I never saw a dog eat raw beef quite that fast---but it’s ok, he had a ten-mile run with the team tonight before we picked him up. He is very happy in his new home with all the attention and the new digs.
I took him outside after dinner and ran him around the yard. I fell down on the grass and wrestled with him for a moment---but he didn’t stay with me. He kept going back to the door and wanted to go inside. I thought that is unusual for a sled dog---wanting to go back inside. In fact, he just always seems to want to be inside now. I guess that’s because Sarah and Lorhel and Jeffy just continually pet him. Not only that, the “She-Bear”, Queen of the Naubinway Nook has taken to him too—giving him little treats here and there and filling up his water bowl continually, etc. What the hell, can you blame him? He’s been sleeping outside for four years---tied to a chain and his only pleasure being to tow the sled and get a snack of chicken fat after. He must be in frickin’ doggy heaven right now. Yeah, he’s definitely adopted, he’s definitely home. He’s definitely aspiring to be an inside dog now.
In a way that’s a bit sad---taking this wild thing inside from the great outdoors and domesticating him. On the other hand, I think he’ll still want to run. We have Jeffy’s light-weight ATV available for him. We’ll get him a harness and let him tow the ATV up and down the road for the warm months. Come winter, I’ll share him with my other sled-dog loving buddies and team him up with other local sled dogs and run, run, run.
Choco had lightened up my life beyond belief. He’s a happy go lucky bundle of joy. He puts life into perspective---eat, drink, run, what else is there? I gotta teach him not to jump up on the dining room table though. You just haven’t lived until you see a 70 pound sled dog jump up onto your thousand dollar dining room table and smile a huge smile. I was laughing so hard I didn’t care about the scratches. It’s a damn good thing Jomay didn’t see that.
My Sarah is home for break and asked for shish-ka-bob for one of her meals. Thus, I trudged in after excavating and washed up and made an incredible meal. I had some filet of beef that is very tender and I cut it up in chunks enough to make a chef cry. However, I kept a few outside chunks for Choco. I never saw a dog eat raw beef quite that fast---but it’s ok, he had a ten-mile run with the team tonight before we picked him up. He is very happy in his new home with all the attention and the new digs.
I took him outside after dinner and ran him around the yard. I fell down on the grass and wrestled with him for a moment---but he didn’t stay with me. He kept going back to the door and wanted to go inside. I thought that is unusual for a sled dog---wanting to go back inside. In fact, he just always seems to want to be inside now. I guess that’s because Sarah and Lorhel and Jeffy just continually pet him. Not only that, the “She-Bear”, Queen of the Naubinway Nook has taken to him too—giving him little treats here and there and filling up his water bowl continually, etc. What the hell, can you blame him? He’s been sleeping outside for four years---tied to a chain and his only pleasure being to tow the sled and get a snack of chicken fat after. He must be in frickin’ doggy heaven right now. Yeah, he’s definitely adopted, he’s definitely home. He’s definitely aspiring to be an inside dog now.
In a way that’s a bit sad---taking this wild thing inside from the great outdoors and domesticating him. On the other hand, I think he’ll still want to run. We have Jeffy’s light-weight ATV available for him. We’ll get him a harness and let him tow the ATV up and down the road for the warm months. Come winter, I’ll share him with my other sled-dog loving buddies and team him up with other local sled dogs and run, run, run.
Choco had lightened up my life beyond belief. He’s a happy go lucky bundle of joy. He puts life into perspective---eat, drink, run, what else is there? I gotta teach him not to jump up on the dining room table though. You just haven’t lived until you see a 70 pound sled dog jump up onto your thousand dollar dining room table and smile a huge smile. I was laughing so hard I didn’t care about the scratches. It’s a damn good thing Jomay didn’t see that.
Monday, March 29, 2010
New Addition to the Family
We have a new addition to the family. His name is "Chocolate". You can find his pedigree and pertinent information at "natureskennel.com". He is affectionately called "Choco" for short and is winning the hearts and minds of many of us in Naubinway, MI. Choco is about 60 pounds or so of pure Northern Michigan Dog. He is a black and white bundle of solid muscle who loves every human being. Choco is a veteran of the Iditarod and ran to Nome in 2008 in the middle of the pack. I first met him in February when he helped pull our team through the Seney National Forest on a beautiful sunny day over piles and piles of snow. My guide joked that all the dogs and all the people love Choco, but he doesn't pull his weight. He'd rather stay in the middle, smile and hug and run in circles than tow the main weight of the musher and sled. Such is why he is being retired. Although he comes from a prestigous line of sled dogs, he's more into having fun than doing any work. Thus, he and I hit if off from the git go. I was immediately taken to him---as I too have run a few Iditarods but only did it because I had to. I too am looking to be in the portion of the line that has a lot of slack.
So, we took Choco home on a trial run for a couple days. He instantly acclimated to home life. He helped me find all the drafty places in my house because he sought out the coolest places in the house to sleep. Unlike most dogs who try to find a warm place to sleep---Choco was seeking the cool of the tile or a place near a window. Afterall, he's used to sleeping outside or running sled thru the minus 20 and digging himself a bed in a snowbank. However, he is very open to placing his head on your lap and getting petted for hours on end.
He also had many other character flaws. He doesn't bark much at the door knocks, is not territorial at all and loves everybody. Thus, as a watch dog he doesn't offer much up front. However, get up front and personal with somebody he loves and you are going to feel a lot of pain. He's like the Phantom he is so fast. You open the door and let him in, turn around again and go back to the door and he's already there. He's like a streak of lightning in speed. He doesn't go very far away from you---he's always looking to get harnessed and pull a sled. Thus, he's always within twenty feet of you when you are on the move.
Choco has lightened us all up. The kids love him and we can't wait to bring him home again. We had to go away for a few days and take him back to his outdoor home. He went right back to his house and perch when he went back and seemed very happy at first. However, when we started to walk away he put his head down and looked downright depressed. It's almost as if he said "what, aren't I good enough for you?" Didn't I acclimate to your home? Why are you leaving me here? I did all I could to make you love me, isn't it good enough? Well, yes, Choco, you are more than good enough. So good in fact that I have been to Wal-Mart and bought you a new collar, leash, yard chain, bones, treat, dog-food and am building you a great kennel with your own new dog house. I will probably be out there with you for a few nights---as we go through potty training together and my beautiful wife uses up all the carpet cleaner and deodarizer. Actually, considering you are an outdoor dog---piddling on the carpet only twice in three days is a pretty darn good start.
Can't wait to have you home again, helping to pull our team through the woods and Iditarod of life. Welcome home Choco, welcome home indeed.
So, we took Choco home on a trial run for a couple days. He instantly acclimated to home life. He helped me find all the drafty places in my house because he sought out the coolest places in the house to sleep. Unlike most dogs who try to find a warm place to sleep---Choco was seeking the cool of the tile or a place near a window. Afterall, he's used to sleeping outside or running sled thru the minus 20 and digging himself a bed in a snowbank. However, he is very open to placing his head on your lap and getting petted for hours on end.
He also had many other character flaws. He doesn't bark much at the door knocks, is not territorial at all and loves everybody. Thus, as a watch dog he doesn't offer much up front. However, get up front and personal with somebody he loves and you are going to feel a lot of pain. He's like the Phantom he is so fast. You open the door and let him in, turn around again and go back to the door and he's already there. He's like a streak of lightning in speed. He doesn't go very far away from you---he's always looking to get harnessed and pull a sled. Thus, he's always within twenty feet of you when you are on the move.
Choco has lightened us all up. The kids love him and we can't wait to bring him home again. We had to go away for a few days and take him back to his outdoor home. He went right back to his house and perch when he went back and seemed very happy at first. However, when we started to walk away he put his head down and looked downright depressed. It's almost as if he said "what, aren't I good enough for you?" Didn't I acclimate to your home? Why are you leaving me here? I did all I could to make you love me, isn't it good enough? Well, yes, Choco, you are more than good enough. So good in fact that I have been to Wal-Mart and bought you a new collar, leash, yard chain, bones, treat, dog-food and am building you a great kennel with your own new dog house. I will probably be out there with you for a few nights---as we go through potty training together and my beautiful wife uses up all the carpet cleaner and deodarizer. Actually, considering you are an outdoor dog---piddling on the carpet only twice in three days is a pretty darn good start.
Can't wait to have you home again, helping to pull our team through the woods and Iditarod of life. Welcome home Choco, welcome home indeed.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Anywhere Is A Better Place To Be
Harry Chapin wrote a song entiltled: “Anywhere Is a Better Place To Be.” In many phases of my life I felt that way, like all humans, I was always looking for greener grass on the other side of the fence. I hoped that someday, I would find a place to live that I wouldn’t want to leave, well, a place that had it all---a place that I had no reason to leave. I thought I found it when we bought this place up here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Our place is right at the top of Lake Michigan in fact.
We are blessed with incredible sunrises and sunsets and we see the weather come and go and kick up waves that you can surf on and it pushes the salmon in and I can walk into the woods from my back door and see the eagles fly and the seagulls bellow and we watch the commercial fishermen right in front of my beach haul in tons of fish.
Yeah, I thought I’d found it all and seen it all. However, I realized it isn’t perfect at all, it isn’t at all what I wanted. No, you see, it can’t suit my needs. I have to be able to go to the river on my way home from work and cast for egg-sucking rainbows. I have to be able to fire up the boat and troll out in front of my house and catch silvery salmon. This is not enough, well, yes, of course each day is fulfilling and beautiful. It is, even when I have to drive to work in the early morning hours---I cannot get over how beautiful the drive is in the fall—when the golden/red leaves are falling and occasionally it snows a bit—but then melts. I can’t believe how green it is when I drive to work in the summer---the evergreens and the green deciduous trees---blasting you with fresh oxygen and wavy undulations of leaves delighting on the wind.
The problem is, I only have one lifetime in which to enjoy and experience and smell and taste and see this place. I cannot walk out onto my beach enough. I cannot light enough beach fires. I cannot catch enough brook and rainbow trout and salmon. I delight in the experience of not wanting to go anywhere. I don’t want to get on an airplane and see the world. I don’t want to go fishing anywhere else. I don’t want to do anything but be here, just experience here, see here, breath here, sleep here.
A 20 year-old would be squirming by now---how could anyone want to stay in a place where you can’t buy drywall screws on a Saturday? Why would you want to live in a place where you have to order special supplies and lumber days to
weeks in advance. You can’t just drive to Lowes in the middle of the day and get that last piece of corner-round molding you need---you have to stop when you run out and go to the next project and think about replenishing the other supplies next week. If you run out of butter at 7 p.m.---you have to do without, there’s nowhere to go unless you want to drive a half hour or two. It’s insane that anybody would want to live here. Witness winter---70 mph winds blowing over the ice and knocking down trees around your house and making it exceedingly difficult just to get in. Sometimes you have to shovel four times a day---even then the drifts still get the best of you. Why? Well, if it isn’t obvious, I guess I have to spell it out.
I don’t have light pollution. I can see the stars and the planets when they appear. I don’t have noise pollution---in fact, I can’t hear anything but the wind most of the time. I don’t have neighbor pollution. My nearest neighbor is about ¼ mile away---and she likes being by herself too. Well, most of the time she’s traveling and visiting children anyway. I can walk into my front yard in my underwear and pee in the grass and not give a shit about the neighbor next door.
I can live a lifetime of one----but, I cannot live enough lifetimes in one to get enough of living on the frontier…I am
living on the edge of the greatest fresh water lake in the world and waking up and in and experiencing Paradise.
I know there is a God in Heaven. I know he created me. I love Him, I am pretty
sure He loves me. I hope he loves me enough that when I pass on, He will create for me a Naubinway Nook. I hope that I will find my swing in my front yard looking at the Lake. I hope that I will see my boat next to the garage, ready to go, ready to fish. I hope I will still have my big garage---with all the tools in the tool crib ready to go and Northern Exposure on and a couple of guitars ready to play.
I hope that I will find you there, sitting in a chair, ready to talk, bond, and take it all in with me. Because this, well, this is a much better place to be….
We are blessed with incredible sunrises and sunsets and we see the weather come and go and kick up waves that you can surf on and it pushes the salmon in and I can walk into the woods from my back door and see the eagles fly and the seagulls bellow and we watch the commercial fishermen right in front of my beach haul in tons of fish.
Yeah, I thought I’d found it all and seen it all. However, I realized it isn’t perfect at all, it isn’t at all what I wanted. No, you see, it can’t suit my needs. I have to be able to go to the river on my way home from work and cast for egg-sucking rainbows. I have to be able to fire up the boat and troll out in front of my house and catch silvery salmon. This is not enough, well, yes, of course each day is fulfilling and beautiful. It is, even when I have to drive to work in the early morning hours---I cannot get over how beautiful the drive is in the fall—when the golden/red leaves are falling and occasionally it snows a bit—but then melts. I can’t believe how green it is when I drive to work in the summer---the evergreens and the green deciduous trees---blasting you with fresh oxygen and wavy undulations of leaves delighting on the wind.
The problem is, I only have one lifetime in which to enjoy and experience and smell and taste and see this place. I cannot walk out onto my beach enough. I cannot light enough beach fires. I cannot catch enough brook and rainbow trout and salmon. I delight in the experience of not wanting to go anywhere. I don’t want to get on an airplane and see the world. I don’t want to go fishing anywhere else. I don’t want to do anything but be here, just experience here, see here, breath here, sleep here.
A 20 year-old would be squirming by now---how could anyone want to stay in a place where you can’t buy drywall screws on a Saturday? Why would you want to live in a place where you have to order special supplies and lumber days to
weeks in advance. You can’t just drive to Lowes in the middle of the day and get that last piece of corner-round molding you need---you have to stop when you run out and go to the next project and think about replenishing the other supplies next week. If you run out of butter at 7 p.m.---you have to do without, there’s nowhere to go unless you want to drive a half hour or two. It’s insane that anybody would want to live here. Witness winter---70 mph winds blowing over the ice and knocking down trees around your house and making it exceedingly difficult just to get in. Sometimes you have to shovel four times a day---even then the drifts still get the best of you. Why? Well, if it isn’t obvious, I guess I have to spell it out.
I don’t have light pollution. I can see the stars and the planets when they appear. I don’t have noise pollution---in fact, I can’t hear anything but the wind most of the time. I don’t have neighbor pollution. My nearest neighbor is about ¼ mile away---and she likes being by herself too. Well, most of the time she’s traveling and visiting children anyway. I can walk into my front yard in my underwear and pee in the grass and not give a shit about the neighbor next door.
I can live a lifetime of one----but, I cannot live enough lifetimes in one to get enough of living on the frontier…I am
living on the edge of the greatest fresh water lake in the world and waking up and in and experiencing Paradise.
I know there is a God in Heaven. I know he created me. I love Him, I am pretty
sure He loves me. I hope he loves me enough that when I pass on, He will create for me a Naubinway Nook. I hope that I will find my swing in my front yard looking at the Lake. I hope that I will see my boat next to the garage, ready to go, ready to fish. I hope I will still have my big garage---with all the tools in the tool crib ready to go and Northern Exposure on and a couple of guitars ready to play.
I hope that I will find you there, sitting in a chair, ready to talk, bond, and take it all in with me. Because this, well, this is a much better place to be….
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