50 years old!!! I saw it coming, knew it was not much different than 49, yet here I am contemplating where I have been and what comes next. Had a huge steak dinner and watched "The Hobbit" in 3D with Vivian. Vivian is teaching an online class along with her job so is quite busy. I offered to bake my cake and she wouldn't let me. I truly do not mind helping. She opted for buying an ice cream cake. I do like ice cream.

Vivian got me a good bottle of rum for my birthday to go along with the aforementioned movie. It was a very nice evening. We do fit well together.

I think the last drink I had was with Steve and Linda last year as they headed south on Yesterday's Dream.     Turns out I still finish off about half a bottle in 4 drinks without catching a noticeable buzz. I wonder if the strong pain pills I was on for so long have something to do with that.
  Whatever....I still enjoy a nice rum. The magazine was the last of a subscription I got for my 49th birthday from Vivian.

Vivian took me to the "TOURIST" part of town before my birthday to have a look. We went to the Gay Dolphin(gift shop) and rode the skywheel. It was interesting seeing touristville but it was after the season so was not crowded.

Got this picture online.

 Vivian bought me a piece of cystine for my collection

 Looking north and south from skywheel

The rest were taken by Vivian. Finished up with an ice cream cone and by then my back hurt enough I needed to be somewhere else. I made the mistake of wearing jeans. Jeans are too binding for me. It hurts my back to move around in them. Bending, whatever. Just part of my life.

  So as I type this 5 days after the big birthday. The foremost thought is about the decade that was pretty much lost to a back injury. It should have been my most productive years and set me up well for my 50's and 60's. No sense crying over spilled milk. Vivian has asked me why I am not angry about it all. Should I be? I had a stretch in there where being mad was the only emotion I could muster. Intense pain does not make you feel giddy. I never had much to smile about.
  I remember a short time after getting hurt where I almost panicked about the level of pain and knowing it may not ever go away. I could feel myself losing it and pulled myself back from the edge.

 I never allowed myself to go there again.

I was single for so many years before I got hurt that I was truly my own  center. Self centered? Good chance of that. I cared what happened to others but I moved around a lot so I had mostly strangers in my daily life for the lions share of 20 years. Being hurt like I was forced me to live with myself and be truly alone for the first time in my life. I came out of it with a deeper sense of caring for others than I had ever known. I also realize that I do not have time for pretentious behavior. I am who I am. I like and dislike for my own reasons. I truly do not care what path others may walk, I walk my own.

I have always leaned this way. I am still true to myself, but lots of time in pain and solitude with the only activity I could really enjoy being deep thought, really brought who I am into sharp focus.

  So what does this contemplation have to do with Mary Lee and my future??? Why ask me? Just kidding!  My future is wide open. The boating is coming. Working? I am confident I will find the right path. I am happier now than I have been in a long time.

All the projects? I realize I need to streamline and quit spreading myself so thin. That is going to be my main focus for the coming year. Yet, even as I think it. I have upgrades to do for Vivian and Mary Lee. Vivian does not require them but her home is in an area that is really building fast. People would rather buy brand new instead of pay the same price for used. Upgrades will make the difference when she gets ready to sell. There is a year or so until that point and anything can happen. I will do what I can. Mary Lee's upgrades are fairly straight-forward. I know what I am going to do and how. Figuring that out was the hard part.

Last but not least.

I finally get to use my cuckoo clock again. In over a week it has not lost any time. It did take a few days to adjust it. I understand most people are not as anal about adjusting the pendulum as I am and just accept the fact that their clock does not keep time well. This is the large size cuckoo clock. When I took it in to get it cleaned, I was told it was easily a hundred years old. We are enjoying it.

Not a lot of pictures to go along with the post this time. Have been sorting through the storage stuff. I am amazed sometimes at all the things I sold for next to nothing, if not just outright giving it away. I really had a lot of nice things at one time. However, I am not missing all the home furnishings. It was and always will be just stuff.
  What I am doing is enjoying the fact that I did what I did to force a change. I know people back home think getting rid of everything and buying a sailboat on the other side of the country was crazy. Maybe?? What I know for a fact, is that doing it was the best thing I could have ever done for my recovery. If I had not done it, there is every possibility that I would still be laying in a recliner with nothing to look forward to. All I really had was a bucket full of willpower.

 Why do I have this on my mind? This past week has been another landmark in my recovery. I mentioned, several times, the exhaustion I felt every waking moment. The sheer fatigue in my legs. It has been a very miserable stretch that was with me for quite some time before I even bought Mary Lee. Every thing I did, even just getting up to get a glass of water, was so very difficult. I literally had to force myself to move. Throw in the excessive amounts of pain and miserable is the kindest descriptor I can think of.

  That first summer working on Mary Lee was just insane. I would drink an energy shot and take a pain pill, then as they kicked in I would force myself to move. When the pain got bad enough, I would do it again. The winter in Montana was exactly the same. I tried everything I could think of. I used supplements, even got into sprouting while trying to figure out where all the fatigue was coming from. I gave much thought to nutrition and its role. I know a lot of what was going on with my legs was caused by my back muscles spasming and likely pinching nerves. That, however did not explain all of it.

 So here I am with a good start on my fourth year of owning Mary Lee. Just this last week I am noticing a much lower amount of fatigue. I know it sounds like a small thing, but I assure you, it most definitely is a big thing for me. I actually get up in the morning and feel like moving.  "WOW" what a change.

  What do I owe the change to? Well certainly never giving up. But I think it is a combination of Vivian making sure I am eating better, good vitamin and mineral supplements,  and the muscles in my back getting stronger(exercise). Let's not forget a year and a half since I forced myself off pain meds. All this has led to finally figuring out how to get more sleep. Still not enough, but better.
   I just keep moving no matter what.

  So it is a very big deal. I know I am not there yet, but, I now know that I will get there. That, my friends, is what all the sacrifice was about. I turn 50 on September 25th. I do so knowing that all is not lost and my best is yet to come. Beat that!

  Vivian has been so wonderful through the part she has shared with me. Fate smiled on me when we met.

  So.....Where does this lead? OOOOHHHH.....the adventures with Mary Lee have not even really started yet. I am back in the gym for the winter. I will start off next spring on a roll instead of recovering enough to get going. I have a partner in this. Yes, if you guessed that Vivian is going boating you are correct. Her youngest son is in his senior year of high school then off to college. A move to Florida is in the near future. Much better sailing grounds for Mary Lee. All the particulars have not been ironed out but we will be spending time in the Islands getting used to the idea. All very exciting stuff. Now you know why a bunch of the "quality of living" upgrades to Mary Lee are needed.
  Vivian and I have been together well over a year now. Disagreements are very rare and inconsequential, we "fit". Our beliefs are so similar it defies logic. Who would ever believe a mountain man from a small town and a city gal, who have lived such different lifestyles, would be so alike?

 For now...I have just one picture of what I have been up to.

First brake job since getting hurt. It hurts my back to do it, but I won't let Vivian pay for a brake job when I have the tools and know how. It takes longer to get the tools and jack out than it does to put in new brake pads.
  This next week I will finish sorting through stuff and putting what I am keeping into a much smaller storage unit. We need the garage back.
  Not parting with any more tools. I am lamenting the loss of welder and torches along with some of the grinders, buffers, compressor....well, the list is long. I will part with no other tools.

 I have a saying. A man with no tools is at the mercy of the man with tools when he needs something done. With tools there is nothing I won't attempt to build or fix. Throw in a couple books and I think I can do an acceptable job on anything within reason. If I cannot, I will tear it apart and do it better the next time ;-)

  The trip to Corpus Christi, Texas went off without a hitch. It was 1300 miles each way. Took close to 24 hours, straight through, to drive down. I think Vivian drove about 180 miles of it. I couldn't sleep and since I could make better time it made sense that I drive.

   We got there and checked in at motel and took care of uhaul trailer we had reserved. Got a motel and slept. Got up in the morning and spent about 6 hours loading, then took off to drive straight through to Myrtle Beach, south Carolina. I drove all of that as we had a trailer on and needed to make good time.

                                                                 Houston ,TX.

We stopped at Bucee's on the way down. It is a chain tourist trap we had not heard of. Vivian wanted to have a better look on the way back.......she also had picture taking in mind :-)

Wait...it gets better...

and better...

Yet there was no end of picture taking..

We ended up digging through the gemstones to see if there was anything we wanted at the bottom....Or she just wanted another chance to take a picture...   Enough already!!!

Okay...If that is how you want it...my turn...

One shot in the truck with the trailer..

So this...

Is now here...

Already using the mattress and tv.

Bed was very expensive and went into storage just a few months after being bought. Of course that is "Captain Ron" on the tv(one of our favorite movies).

I sold something over 40 rifles and pistols when I put stuff in storage. Sold more the last time I was there. I spent so much on gun smithing tools and reloading stuff that I could never sell the stuff and get remotely close to what I paid. I forgot how much I had. I also had several boxes of books.
  These are a few of the stocks I was working on for the rifles I have apart. The rifle is the first one I built the stock for from a blank. Not the best one(and I never took pictures of the latest ones.

One stock is a synthetic. The other two and the one on thr rifle are all done by hand from a blank like the one on the right. Extra fancy claro walnut. Lots of hours to complete one with files, scrapers, sandpaper, etc.
These are a few barrels.

One of them I have over $700 invested in. It is for a 500 bravo. Oh...did I mention I designed a group of cartridges and bought the reamers for them? The rifle in the last picture is a 416 bravo. The parent cartridge is the alpha, the ones I designed are the bravos.

416 Weatherby improved on the right. 416 bravo on the left. You don't want to know how much work it takes to make this brass from the parent case. The remaining case actually holds more powder than an ultra mag case. The 416 is a handful. I might add, it is also large enough to be legal for any dangerous game in the world.
  So now what? While unloading I picked up a job redoing a stock for a neighbor. Of course I would need a lathe and milling machine along with tooling to really be serious about gun work but I know how to do it all. Anything not requiring those machines I can do now. I really loved working on them and shooting. I was building a rifle for 1000 yard competition when I got hurt. It was very accurate. Sitting at a bench and shooting for long periods is now more than I can handle. Funny how life throws obstacles at you to get you moving in another direction.

  Vivian got a haircut yesterday. The long hair(hers is so very thick) is difficult for her to deal with on the boat.

and it went from this, actually it was a bit longer but I cannot find the picture I am looking for.

To this..

The selfy does not do it justice. It was a good change for her.

A glob of pictures from my past

And at the end of the day, this selfy tells the story

We are good together

But I better hurry up and get those cupboard doors painted :-)