Trapped.

Just a series of rants and an opinion of family and societal issues. But hey; At least I'm not in a high tower unloading my issues on an unprepared & unsuspecting populace. This is a publicly acceptable method of blowing off steam and loosening the frustrations I've run up against.

Trapped;
Have you ever felt as if you're trapped with almost no way out of your predicament except to follow the course you've embarked upon? A philosphopic problem in a world where free will and mirad branches of permutations branch out before us as we look for ways of changing our lives or ways our lives are progressing.

The trapped feeling doesn't just apply to those in jobs where one may be pigeon holed to a position, but sometimes to our family lives as well. I was raised in a clanish type of family where familial responsibilities where given a priority and sometimes the encompassing effect is extended on to outhers out side the immediate grouping. That in some part explains the support and close relationship I've had with my fellow soldiers when in the Army as it service became a surrogate family of sorts. You protect family regardless of the blood relationship. It also leads to my current predicament with my brothers and their families. I'm boxed into helpinjg them because of my mind set; and the sense of abandonment if I where to take a course of action branching immediately away.

Well, I'm providing my brothers a time period where, I say, I'm walking and we need to wrap up events by then. Yes, in order to branch out yet again I need to set a limit on what I'll do to assist my brothers.

Well so much for the current feeling of being trapped. After I finish some personal commitments I've made over the course of the last few months I'll be free to wander where ever the roads and trails may lead.

I think also I shall be headed again to the Florida Keys for the winter, as the milder weather there is more agreeable. That and being able to stay on the islands for roughly $400 a month not counting the costs of food and entertainment is an enticing feature. So a stay from November through March could be supplemented by picking up a part time position; To that end I've also reconstituted my mechanics tool box. While the tools are geared to the American Inch Standard/SAE. I also am able to slide to the metric side of the house. Although my heavier tools include wrenches ranging up to 1&1/2 inch open & closed end. I'm also limited in the I do not have an Impact Gun for some more difficult nuts & bolts although I do have sets of Impact sockets SAE & Metric. Where does this lead to you may ask? Back to my last purchased vehicle the Cargo Van. Where would I place the tools in a sedan?

Even vehicles can trap us in a sense. It really depends upon how we percieve ourselves the type of vehicle we want vs the type of vehicle we need. If we have a desire for a sports car and choose that route we are then limited by financial considerations and space accomdations within the vehicle type for what we can bring along on trips. While I found a pick up truck useful, placing a cargo top on the bed reduces the full payload space and functionality while allowing one to be able to better secure goods from theft. A cargo van allows longer bed space than a pick up truck, higher interrior height than most caps will allow and the ability to add a rack system to carry some items overhead if needed. So now in a sense I'm trapped with a 20th century vehicle model that does not achieve fuel efficencies that should of drasticly improved from the 1960's 70's and 80's.

Why does our fuel economy suck? Is it because we can not build more economical vehicles or is it because we've been sold a false bill of goods? Truth is we've been sold a false bill of goods and still continue to buy into it. We as a society do not need ever more powerful engines and faster vehicles which become burdened by safety innovations which further increase vehicle weight neccessitating more powerful engines and requiring more fuel. We need to think logically about how we use our vehicles and how we interact with technology. We're trapped again by the mind set that we are smarter and better than our forebearers. Oh we are clever enough and we use technologies they may only of dreamed of, but we use it in stupid ways.

We as simple biological entities can still only provide focused thought and action to one complex task at a time. Driving an automobile is still a complex task although it has been made easier by the development of automatic transmissions and power steering; we still need to focus on speed, angles, trajectories, vectors, road conditions and other items over which we have limited or no control what so ever. The majority of drivers have a severly limited skill set. They don't realize they can more closely control their vehicles by selecting what range of gears they can operate in even with automatic transmissions and most almost always choose faster speeds than conditions warrant. We are again trapped into a faster is better mode of thought.

So we with our limited technologies want to achieve faster speeds in vehicles with design limits that can not accomplish what we want on roads never designed for those types of speeds let alone the volumes of traffic experienced today over the assumtions of traffic loads projected in the 1950's. Again we've trapped ourselves into an unsustainable model of transportation based upon pavement, tires, fuel types, space available and volume of traffic. We've about reached end point and are trapped by what we've achieved.

Trapped, a interesting way of describing what we done to limit ourselves. I feel trapped by famial commitments; we as a society by grasping for things we don't really need have trapped ourselves into an unsustainable economic engine and developmental mode; As a creatures who are clever but not overly smart in the ways we adapt to our changing technologies.

Trapped by unsustainable transportation models; Trapped by unsustainable economic models where greed closes jobs and ships positions overseas; Trapped by the very nature of our constructs. Homes too large to maintain properly without outlays of capital beyond the ability to be earned. trapped by roads and bridges built on the cheap and crumbling in disrepair due to costs. Trapped by building a disposable society based upon the concept of a disposable income.

So now that I recognize that I am trapped into a limited selection of choices on how to progress without becoming further ensnared in the identified problems. The open ended questions to be identified are all related to how should I proceed next? I can sense a way out and there is no trapping me, if I can think my way though the course of actions I may need to follow.

The Independence Day Weekend and a rant about it.

Well the Independence Day, July 4th, weekend is about over. Not that this one was overly impressive. Nor did I have much in the expectations of it. But it marks a passing of sorts as well. Other Bloggers can cover the political implications, both nationally and internationally. I just don't see it as a day of much anticipated excitement anymore. Oh there are the fireworks displays, the bar-b-ques, the various parties; yet none of that seems to stir my interests. I can't say why, its my own fault for sure; still maybe having been stuck in positions where I couldn't seem to enjoy them has dampend the anticipation of the celebrations.

So July 4th, the big events were walking 8,800 meters through the woods on a trail dedicated to a victim of September 11th, 2001; Practicing with my bagpipes and realizing I'm not playing a few tunes as well as I should and stopping at Burkes in the Hamlet of Patterson for a few beers. There I met with a person I should of remembered from high school and his sister. Yet for the life of me I couldn't quite place him. Well it isn't a big deal as I've been quite a few places in my 51 years on the planet, met numerous peoples on 3 continents, several islands, and a host of nations and states. Remembering more than a few if I stumbled across them accidentally could prove to be a trick. Still we could name the folks we knew in common.

I purchased a new MP3 player today as my previous one went tits up on me. It wouldn't indicate that it could take a charge let alone be turned on. The most difficult part was finding a cheapo unit under $30.00 with 2 gigs of memory. Finally I broke down and went to Wallymart for one. lets just say the pink color is hideous and leave it at that, a magic marker can improve the outward appearance but the functionality is more important to me. I use the MP3 player for my longer runs, as I usually am a solitary runner without anyone to talk to and it eases the monotony of the runs.

Finally the weather has improved! yesterday and today there was no rain! The 27 days out of 30 that it rained in June was psychologically tormenting. Still I'm gladdened by the break from the sodden grey pattern.

So now I'm taking a short break from the day to put down my missives and listen to some music of which one tune was banned in England for damning the justice system there. But the lively lilting tunes will be added to the new MP3 player for when I go a running.

As for running, I've started compiling a log of the distances I have covered since June 1st. this is partially an attempt to help keep me motivated to train up for and run in another Marine Corps Marathon as well as a way of keeping a journal of the days' events that observe and jot down. Much of that won't make it into the blog, but it'll be referenced from time to time as I update the blog. But that is all from me for now and I'll down load this into the blog a bit later.

Alternate Realities or A Rant about my holiday Weekend;

Thank goodness its Monday and the USA Birthday Mash is over; maybe the refugees from the Twilight zone I came across this past weekend have crawled back under their rocks or gone to work with severe hangovers at best or looking to score some more crack.

Surrealism has nothing on some of the devolved bipedal life forms I've encountered. Neanderthals and troglodytes would be more highly evolved than a few of the freaks and geeks I came across. If I were a sociologist I could of captured living breathing specimens for the need of selective sterilization.

If there is such a thing as a Moron Magnet some one must of slipped it into my pocket as they were coming out in droves. A couple probably would of been more comfortable shacked up cuddling large bore weaponry and contemplating how to pull off a successful Guy Fawkes style change of government.

Escapees from the state home for homicidal maniacs would of been more sane and easier to deal with. At least the fictional Hannibal Lecter had a cultured personna when in public. But these future contestants for the Darwin Awards had little to no socially redeaming value and if added to the list of animal parts added to dog chow would of rendered the processed meal unfit for animal consumption.

Granted I may be a candidate to contract Bovine Sponiform Encephalopathy aka Mad Cow Disease. But even folks with Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease or its variant at least have a physiological reason for their lack of social graces and ill behavior. At least two folks this weekend have descended into depths of insanity that would require a straight jacket and a padded cell in less progressive societies.

One was the anti-government ranter who railed against taxation, presumed corruption, terroristic threats from the taxation offices, etc etc etc.

The other, a female of dubious mental capacity who apparently earned a living as a speed bag in a gym from the looks of her face and displayed pugilistic tendencies while demanding some one pay a bit of attention to her where as if she had walked upon the pedestrian path as a Police Officer where to pass by would probably be taken to the neasest hospital for psychiatric observation.

Total intoxication and severe myopia coupled with beer goggles could not of rendered that specimen of womanhood into anything resembling a potential object of sexual gratification. So dark was the attitude placed upon public display, you'd think she were a devil as her tongue went clickety clack and she wasn't wearing a tongue stud.

The rural residents of Appalachia have grace and decent manners compared to the urban half wits I've encountered over the past weekend.

Thank goodness the weekend is past and many people are going back to the drudgery of every day employment, I'm not sure I could of kept from going ballistic upon an encouter with another escapee from a Forensic Psychiatric Care Facility, aka Jail for the insane.

End of ranting opinion.
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Aging is manditory; Maturing isn't.
I signed up for what? A Marathon!? Am I nutz?