Isn't life strange?

Isn't life strange?
I'm like, 60 years-old now.
I'm nowhere near what I imagined I''d be like when I was younger.
To start with, I never really envisioned any age past 30.
Then it all just slipped past, quite suddenly, while I wasn't even looking.
Suddenly, one day, I woke up going to prison for 8 years, and I was 45 going in.
I got out on my 52nd birthday.
Can you imagine a better birthday present?

What all else?
WOW!
It's almost inconceivable, even in hindsight.

Growing up... multiple states, hardly ever a year in one spot.
Indianapolis, St. Petersburg, Fl. Milwaukee, Wisc., Denver, Co., and back to multiple spots in St. Pete and surrounding area, (including Madeira Beach, Fla. where we had Sugar-sand beaches, New Port Richie, Fl. where we lived in the woods and owned an illegal bar, and even Spring Hill, Fla. where I tried in vain to become normal.)

Then I hit 17 and really moved on.
I've visited almost EVERY state in the contiguous USA, along with a big chunk of Canada,(it's beautiful up there, at least it was back in the early-70's.)

In-and-out of the Army with about 4 1/2 months good time, 13 months AWOL, a month in the stockades at Fort Carson, Co. and a U.D.-in-lieu-of-Court-Marshal-by-request-only. I refused to go to Viet Nam, period.

That's when I went to Canada for a couple years.
I had my discharge, so it wasn't desertion.

Spent time in Toronto, Calgary, and a little in Vancouver, (I especially liked Wreck Beach.)

I've lived in North Carolina, NYC, Iowa City, Iowa, New Orleans, Houston,  Denver, Co., (again!) Santa Cruz, Ca. and the East Bay, (including Berkeley.)

The last few years, (alright, a bunch of years!) I've been here in California, the left-crazy-state.
(I also grew up (mostly) in Fla. remember, the right-crazy-state?)

I've hitchhiked the USA and Canada, including BOTH Continental Divides during winter.

I've been to Las Vegas; New Orleans during Mardi Gras; Fla. in a hurricane, (I played in the eye of hurricane Donna,); NYC and seen the skyscrapers; Denver, the mile-high city, (as well as Boulder, and gone mountain hiking above Nederlands and even seen the tree line.)

I've seen Half Dome in Yosemite, and El Capitan. I've been up to Glacier Point, where you look across at Half Dome instead of up at it. I'm even signing up for the Half Dome lottery to see if I can climb it!

And most of all, I've seen the world change from the recognizable to the unrecognizable and almost the inconceivable.

Anybody remember party lines when we first got telephones?
Now, a major portion of the world has a telephone in their pocket with service, at worst, not far away.

Computers?
You can buy a watch with more computing power than the Apollo Rocket that went to the moon!
Let alone the Internet, which accesses almost everything you could imagine!

I've hitchhiked 2,000 miles from the nearest person I knew, during mid-winter with snow on the ground and no money.
I've done MRI research, (see my write-up, 'I was a lab rat for science,' if you're interested.)
I've lived, (illegally,) in the Redwoods in Santa Cruz, where I also learned leatherwork and for years built awesome assorted things, all with secret compartments. I even started putting secret compartments inside my secret compartments; you had to find the first one before you could even start to look for then next one!

Or, as I started this article, at 45 years-old I went to prison for 8 years, with a strike, did 6 years, 9-1/2 months, I got out on my 52nd birthday, did 3 years on parole, and lived a decent number of years since then, too.

Got out on my 52nd birthday?
Could you possibly ask for a better birthday present?
(Yeah. Let me out early? But it wasn't gonna happen, though.)

God, just so many times, and places I've been, and the things I've done.
I'll keep trying to post some of this weird life.
We'll see what actually happens, though.
Possibly may not ever hear from me again.
That's life.