Friday. Fire 162. 44 out there. I heard thunder earlier, at least I hope that's what it was. I continue to train a carrier. I look forward to a few days off next week. I remember my Dad working his factory job for 30 years. He started right around the time I was born. He was union. Got paid vacation and all that. Here I am at 50, union, and looking forward to paid days off. The world of work. Off to the mail trail. I hope you have a great day! 3.14.25

Thank you to those who have zapped some of my posts since I joined Nostr. There's nothing like a zap to start my day!

Bitcoin will win. #Bitcoin

"All enterprises must be self-supporting, must pay for themselves. The great art of life is how to turn the surplus life of the soul into life for the body — that so the life not be a failure. For instance, a poet must sustain his body with his poetry. As is said of the merchants, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the life of men is a failure, and bankruptcy may be surely prophesied. You must get your living by loving." -From Thoreau's Journal; March 13, 1853 ### This quote really spoke to me this morning, especially the last line. One of my biggest fears, maybe my biggest, is my life will be a failure. And if I am able to disengage from the post office and make my living growing native plants and building resilient plant communities I will have achieved my living by loving. Fire 161 3.13.25

Yesterday, on the way to work, I saw a big bearded man standing next to his pickup in the distance. As I passed by him at 60 miles per hour he held up his jumper cables. The positive in one hand; the negative in the other. My first thought: I'm late already. My second: Screw it, work can wait. Up the road there was a roundabout. I went around it and headed back to the short version of Paul Bunyan waiting for a jump. I pull up next him, pop my hood, and he's already reaching for the lever to disengage it. I get out and as he's hooking up the cables he says, "Thanks man. There aren't many people that would stop to give a big bearded guy like me a jump." I looked in the back seat of his pickup and saw two little kids eating gas station snacks. A minute later his truck was running. As I unhooked the cables from the battery of my mail jeep, and he from his he says loud enough for me to hear over the hum of the engines: "Thank you, and God bless you." I was only 10 minutes late for work. No one cared. They were happy to see me Off to the mail trail in a few. Hope you have a great day! Fire 160 3.12.25

7:25 AM. I'm usually at work sorting mail at this time. Today I get to start an hour later. Someone is training on my route. I will get some time off next week. I'm a bit nervous. The past 20 months have been a grind of 6 days a week with no days off in sight. I don't know what I am going to do with myself. It might feel like the olds days when we were both working part time. When we had days together as a family. It seemed life made more sense then. Off to the mail trail. Fire 159 3.11.25

I'm a bitcoiner. I'm happy about this. One reason why: I work for a wage. I've been a full time rural route mail carrier for close to two years. I will earn a wage increase after 96 weeks of service. It's roughly an 8% increase. The dollars I work for lose 7% of their buying power a year. My wages can't keep up with inflation. Bitcoin doesn't lose its value. It only goes up in value. Why? Because there is no bank that can print more of it. It is a decentralized and secure protocol. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. No one can change that.. True Scarcity.

"When we fall in love, we begin to imagine; and when we begin to imagine: we fall in love." -- James Hillman Good morning from the front of fire 157. It's later than usual. Talked with my 15 year old son for a while about dating, masculinity, and toxic masculinity first thing this morning. He listens to a lot of podcasts. He's got questions as he gets ready to make his way in the world. It was awkward. I want to be here for him. I want to make sure it all goes smoothly. It won't of course. I look back on my life at that age and into my midtwenties and it was rife with life altering mistakes, successes, and heartbreak. Ironically, I have been thinking about that period of my life a lot lately. It could be because I have been listening to so much Led Zeppelin on the mail route. Who knows why we do what we do. But it's a powerful period of our life, adolescence. I think it's so powerful because we follow our hearts and we get ourselves into all kinds of messes. He's getting ready to get himself into some messes, my son. I can hear the imaginings. Now I get to be like the adults that had patience and the ability to see the good and gifts in me. They helped me get through that period of my life. If he gets himself into a quarter of the messes I get myself into, it's going to be a wild ride. I am thankful for those that were there for me. 3.9.25

I have 5 minutes before I leave for work. I am going to throw a thought out here quickly. The pressure is on. In a conversation at work the other day I had someone tell me that political tribalism is the same as tribalism as a human social organization. It's not. Whether or not you identify as a Democrat, Republican, Green, or Independent has nothing to do with whether or not our species will survive into the future. Humans have only lived in two social organizations: Tribes and Civilization. We lived in tribes for hundreds of thousands of years. Civilization for roughly 10 thousand. That's the difference. One has to do with social organization in an evolutionary sense; the other is what you choose (consciously or unconsciously) to identify as. Off to the mail trail! 📬 Fire 155 3.7.25