Okay, so I fish.

Posted on September 12, 2012 by milt

Since my first memory, thanks to my dad and his love, fishing has been a part of me. And recently, finally, after years of hoping, I made it to Alaska.

Alaska from Alaska Air, mountains, glaciers, rivers. Almost to Anchorage.

Why fish? Because I love wilderness, and fishing takes me there. And over twenty years ago I decided to only fly fish. I’ve fished Scottish highlands, Colorado lakes and rivers over 11,000 feet high, Yellowstone rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico with no other boats in sight. Alaska may be the last great wilderness for me to see, right now. Where we went, you have to fly in on bush planes called Beavers.

Unfortunately, each place I also saw the result of climate change, all of which made me agree with Obama and disagree with Romney: more and stronger hurricanes in 2004/5–Hurricane Ivan drove us out of Pensacola; millions of acres of beetle-killed trees in the Rockies and this year over 8 million acres of forest fires, the High Park Fire visible from our back yard; and in Alaska, fewer salmon. They are moving north to rivers that used to be iced-over. They like it cold. I guess Yemen has salmon, too. I prefer the scenery in Alaska.

Most of the time I have fished by myself. There is something about being alone on a boat in the Gulf, or wading in a mountain stream. The quiet sooths and my thoughts wander wherever they want, mostly writing stories. I love it. Though I have to say, fishing with friends or family has its own draw. Especially in wild Alaska, where brown bears (Grizzlies–big ones)have never attacked three or more people. That’s what my two other friends on this trip kept telling me. Now, in Colorado, where I live, alone is fine. I can be on two rivers in a half hour, fish on. Fish on!

Alaska started out landing in a small lake and putting together the pontoon boat.

Then we floated down this river, 31 miles,

except the first day we dragged the boat a lot. It was shallow. We were tired by the end of the day.

But, way before the end of the day we started catching fish. Ken with a small grayling.

I don’t have all the pictures. The first day I tripped coming out of the tent and did a drop-and-roll . . . right onto my camera. Toast. The disc compilation of photos from my friends cameras is coming, I’m told. Later.

At any rate, once we started catching fish, it never ended. The last day we fished, I think we caught a hundred fish, maybe apiece. I was very lucky. I caught a tiny variety: many, many, many, manymanymany grayling over 20 inches, and then equally as many, okay, more, moremoremore Dolly Varden (kinda like big brook trout), one 26 inches; and few and far between, salmon. I caught a few silver salmon, one big rainbow, a few pink salmon, and more Dolly Varden.

We caught them on . . . basically anything we threw—pegged beads, dry flies, mice, huge streamers, small streamers, nymphs, foam hoppers.

Then the rains and wind came, and I just wanted to be warm.

We crushed the barbs on the hooks, but in no way shape or form did we remove barbs from our obnoxious trash-talk to each other. If you taped it, you would think we hated each other. Not even close. The greatest thing was the other guys, and me I hope, helped out as much as we dissed each other. That is the measure of friendship. You dish it out, and you make sure there is a big bowl and a clean spoon to eat it.

Thanks, Scott and Ken. It was amazing. Now can I please have those photos?

Milt

Are there Miracles Anymore?

Posted on July 18, 2012 by milt

You don’t have to look far. Even the mirror will do. But, you can go to your local hospital nursery, or talk to any new parent. Human beings are born every day. If you don’t believe that’s a miracle, just think about it.

Somehow two random people in a world of seven billion find love and create a new person. If the mom is in Iran or Syria or other hot spot where wars revolve around oil ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_military_conflicts ), to have that great little miracle she must simply avoid starvation or getting shot.

She could be having fun gardening in the good old USA, in Colorado, and smoke from a drought-induced forest fire invades her back yard for days causing coughing attacks that lead her to premature labor. Maybe she lives in New Orleans and is swept away by the next hurricane, or develops typhoid fever from poor water supply.

These could all be due to energy problems, global warming. Or not. What do you think? The next link may take a long time to review, but keep it. Lots of good stuff. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071116112401AArGExE

Okay, so about a mile away on my farm, an oil company fracked a well. No big deal, right? Hey, I own the mineral rights on that land. In fact, if I didn’t get the money from the oil company for fracking, my pregnant wife would be eating rice and ham, and we would have to forget going to the doctor since I couldn’t afford health insurance anymore. I heard that contamination of the water supply by fracking is very rare, so why not? My wife can get that great medical care, she can eat good nutritious foods, and we’re on our way to a healthy baby boy, or so says the ultrasound. And, to top it all off, how great can it be that I’m doing the patriotic thing for my country, making us energy independent. Right?

Joe, my neighbor invited us over for spaghetti last night. That’s not what the MF wanted, though. He flicked his Bic lighter and the water flamed on from his faucet. He’s blaming me and my fracking well. Hmm. Could the water be contaminated from fracking?

Okay, so forget about babies for a minute. I am, by virtue of my middle class USA standing, in the top 1%, economically, of human beings in the world. My son graduated from high school. He’s done well. He’s used those one-hundred billion neurons in his brain to rank him in the top 10% of the top 1% of humans in the world. I wanted him to go to college, but he wanted to serve his country. Why not? He goes to Iraq. I’m a very proud parent. He goes to Afghanistan.

Then today someone knocked on my door in full dress uniform and had an envelope in their hand. Yeah.

Yes, miracles occur every day. A human is born, creates a painting, writes a song, or maybe despite being raised by his mother after his worthless African father runs off, he becomes President. And he’s got a weird name like Obama and he’s black. Or maybe a baby boy I loved my whole life goes off to war, and doesn’t come back. Don’t guess that last one was a miracle.

For some reason we ignore all those daily miracles by doing stupid things to preserve quick and easy energy for the USA. We have become a nation of quick and easy—news, money, food, energy. Has this translated to quick and easy lives of the few that we risk for the quick and easy comforts of many?

Are we willing to modify our comforts to make sure those human lives are not put at risk?

Would we be willing to give up two hours a day of lights, or instead of driving to work all by myself carpool with three other people at work?

Power is in numbers. If only a few do it, nada. If millions do it then we may no longer use so much oil every day, need so much coal for energy, and perhaps, just perhaps we could become energy independent. We would not need to frack our country to death.

Do would not need to kill thousands of human miracles every year to maintain our comforts or would we be willing to do a few simple things to keep us from having wars over oil?

Milt

How to End War

Posted on January 26, 2012 by milt

After the last post, I got to thinking. My anger at war is getting too much. So here’s a different approach.

If you make a funny face you'll feel better

The Power of Numbers(Oh goody, says Dan)

It’s not so hard, really, to end war. You just have to make that your goal, every day. Get rid of hate and rage; make it your goal to push for love and peace. War is an act of hate. If all of us get rid of our own hate, how can war start? Every day ask yourself what you can do to get rid of any hate or rage and do something that shows your love. You will feel the peace. Others will notice, too. It will catch on. Then one will become many. I need to try this. The other way isn’t working. (So, where’s the numbers? asks Dan. They’re coming.)

Examples of How Love can End Hate:

I’ll bet when your kids won’t do their homework you get angry. So get in there and help. It shows how much you love them, and all those angry arguments will not happen. They will love you for it.

Maybe you hate it that your mother is dying of cancer. Take her places she loves; play games; hug her. Hating the cancer won’t take it away, but loving her more will take away her fear of dying alone.

Are you pissed the bank is going to foreclose on your house? Sit in the rooms you love and talk to the house, tell it how much you will miss it, and what great times you had. Talk to the banker. Ask her how you can help her to make the transition easier for both of you. It’s likely she will fight to keep your home.

You’ve got PTSD from the Iraq War and hate the thought of war? You, most of all, must embrace what has happened to you, realize it was not your fault, that what you feel is natural, but can be turned off. Remember the comraderie of your service, and talk with the men and women you served with, making plans to celebrate peace, and plan for a future of peace. You are our best envoys of peace.

The Economic Cost of Hate: (Finally, numbers! But their not even primes, says Dan.)

Wars have cost the USA over $1.2 trillion since 2001.

http://costofwar.com/en/

If you saved $1 every second (that’s $31.536 million per year-Hello, Mitt Romney), how many years would it take to pay off $1.2 trillion? 38,051 years (Dan studied that number for a microsecond. Why couldn’t it have been 38053–that’s a great prime!)

However, if 100 million people paid $100 per day, it would take 120 days to pay off $1.2 trillion. The power of numbers works. Hence taxes.

Hate Can Destroy Humanity, Tomorrow

Could hate at sometime cancel out all the love and destroy the world? All it takes is one super hateful person with a few nuclear bombs, a very bad virus or bacteria, or the right wind and poison gas. How about spiders with nanobacteria that eat oil? Surely you jest.

What You Can Do

Show a neighbor how to make love and peace destroy their hate. If everyone does it in the world–7 billion people now–that’s a lot of numbers. Now we’re talking. (Dan beats his fist. Could you at least make it 7 billion and 1–that’s a prime! Yeah, I’m sure we’re there now.)

Bring it to the attention of Congress and the President. Ask them to make a law that compels them to debate ending any war we are in, not once a year, or once a month, but every day we are at war.

Is it possible?

I don’t know if I can do it every day. This peace, love stuff may be too much. What about you. Could you at least start? Would you email your Congressman and the President about passing this law? Is this possible? What do you think?

Dan (Dan’s War) would say, My grandson is worth it. I say the same.

Have a cookie. It will help.

Dan’s War is an award-winning techno-thriller with heart, about the end of world oil . . . in two weeks. Cajuns and one lone computer geek try to save us against an ecofanatic and his army.