A gun, A mountain, and Paris

April 17th, 1894 is the date on this gun. It is the only gun I have ever owned. It was my Dad's gun when he was a boy. I suspect it was also his older brothers gun and was just one he used. He told me he hunted rabbits and birds with it. It is a single shot. I am pretty sure it doesn't work. It would take a 22 shell but it has no firing pin. It sits on top of a wooden painted clock, side ways, in my home office. From the barrell hangs about 13 Marathon medals I got for finishing alive. The gun has basically spent the last 37 + years in this position. My cousin brought me the gun and told me that he wanted me to have it since he knew it was one my Dad had used. His Mom was my Dad's sister. I also have a typewriter that my Mom's Dad used because another cousin said he wanted me to have it. It is interesting how things that really mean a lot wind up in your hands. The gun, the typewriter, and a recently completed video of Kathy's and my life together. just came to me unexpected. All apprecaited. All treasured.





I live by the Sandia Mountains and it took me about 6 months to get over being mad when I looked at them. For me every mountain in the world will forever be measured by this one, Mount Olympus. It used to be in my backyard. I climbed the back side once. I, almost weekly at times, went up a canyon just to the North (left). I had a couple of friends who climbed the face of it several times. After about 6 months the Sandia mountains started to look better. The name Sandia means watermellon. The colors seem to change everytime you look at them. I really like them now.


I have been to Paris. I enjoyed the trip. We tried to do a lot. Probably too much. I was given the trip for me and my family for the good job I had done managing the company I worked for. They knew I liked to read English and French Literature. I had been to Europe before and had been a lot of places but the people I worked for knew this was one place I had always wanted to go. They presented the trip to me at a year end staff dinner. The owners had felt that the company had gone through some challenges and the gift of this trip was over an above all else that came with a good year. It was probably only a year later that I left the company. The opportunity that followed was ,and is, a good one too. Hard not to look back sometimes. Hard to see how much changes in relationships sometimes. Just left and haven't been back.

I have spent my entire carreer in an specific industry. A lot of people do the same. The outcome of it all is that you get to know a lot of people. The people are really more important than the industry in the long run. A lot of people seem to miss that reality but some don't and they make a lot of difference.

Looking back can be a matter or perspective. The best perspective it the one that sees the good. I like this thought.

To be awake is to be alive

by Henry David Thoreau

Thinking about France makes me think of this book, Paris to the Moon. It compares the USA to Paris. Paris to London and Europe. They seem to hate Barney. Remeber, big dumb Barney? Good that a country seemed to hate him, too. They had a "French" way of looking at things that wasn't all bad.

Anna Quindlen is a good author. She wrote "How Reading Changed my Life". I do like to read about how others see books and this was a good one.