Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

I am back from NY. I flew up from Georgia and drove my truck down with a load of stuff from the farm. Having "stuff" is fine except it all requires attention especially as you move and more repositories you have. I am sure the day I die it will all be much simpler (at least for me). I did some electrical work to my church. The cat is out of the bag now. More work is sure to come. I went skiing for a couple of days. I am proud of myself and my progress. I can actually ski! Like flying, skiing is a good way to escape. It's hard (and downright unsafe) to think about work pressures when in the air or on the slopes. We saw a number of paraplegics on skis. That is inspiring. The drive back to Georgia was similar to last time I drove down, but this time I noticed minute by minute, mile by mile: The gas getting cheaper (near 4 bucks in NY and near 3 buck in GA) The temperature getting warmer (Teens in NY and 60s in GA) The sky becoming much sunnier The rain and snow stopping ...

I was talking with a friend of mine in Russia who travels a lot. She firmly agrees that folks in the US are losing freedom everyday and she can make the comparison with their former Soviet Style of government. It really is time to wake up in the USA. Today, US Citizens seem to be more interested in superficial things than some of the fundamentals lots of folks have given their lives for in the past. I was in Kansas this week. Took a nice walk in the mountains, saw some puppies. Here is the New sign for my lake. I am working with the neighbors to improve the access, which is adjacent to my property.

I finally took a picture of my Georgia house from the air. Taking pictures from the airplane is a bit like fishing when you have a boat.

It has been cold and crappy here in Duluth. It got down to 30 degrees F last night and cloudy. I seem to have forgotten how much the weather can affect your mood, maybe when I was in NY I blocked it out of my mind. Even though it is the middle of winter we still have planted flowers here. It is good to remember to look at them. Since I spend a lot of my time in South it only seems appropriate that I go on a Skiing trip up North somewhere. It is in the works. I am trying to catch up on house work and related chores over the holidays. I am going through everything deciding to keep or save and what to do with "stuff". It can be difficult to decide what to do with stuff. Sometimes it seems you are being disrespectful or something. I have also been spending my down-time catching up on "Vice Guide to Travel" and David Choe's "Thumbs Up" Episodes on YouTube. Very entertaining. Life without fear or filters. I have an interesting mix of travel lined up for t...

I am back from my hiking and camping trip on the Appalachian trail in North Georgia. I went solo. They call it hiking, but it is really mountain climbing. When you are on the AT and you see a mountain ahead, you can be pretty sure you will be hiking to the summit. One of the benefits of winter hiking is that you can see the mountains more clearly since the canopy is not obscuring them as much. The area has lots of black bears. I have to admit I thought a little of them. Although, I certainly did not get preoccupied with the thoughts of bears. I slept long and hard. I awoke about 3:00 AM by a large tree falling in the forest. I guess I was supposed to be there to hear it fall. I am sure no other human heard it. It was rainy, and cold about half the time, but absolutely manageable. I did some night hiking as well. At some points, the fog was so thick I had a hard time seeing the trail. It was a little bit extreme and a very good way to spend Christmas.

I am somebody. I am the 985,632,518 viewer of Gangham Style on Youtube. Consider me an early adopter as the video is sure to be the first to hit a billion views. There will be 14,367,482 after me before Christmas. It is trending at least 3 million hits a day.

I went to a presentation a couple of Saturdays ago by a ex navy pilot who had hundreds of combat missions in Vietnam. He had lots of photos he took from a hand held camera in the cockpit, very dramatic and never really seen before. The pilots started taking their own pics seriously to confirm damage and for intelligence since it was better than what they got otherwise. The end of the presentation focused on pilot friends who were killed, their pictures, stories and descriptions of their personalities. It was quite moving. I am in LaGuardia airport in NYC at the moment. It was a quick trip up to NY. 4 days in NY, 2 upstate and 2 in NYC. I drove the truck up, slept in the truck when I got tired. The most interesting thing was about sleeping in the truck was realizing how much more comfortable it was sleeping in my truck in the cold temps than it is sleeping in an airline seat on an overseas flight. I slept hard in the parking lot of a car wash with temps below freezing, weird.