It's not just about muscle, or body.

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While, for the foreseeable future, that will be the focus, it is only the beginning.  I need to push my body, adding strength to a smaller degree, endurance to a much greater degree.  I am already strong enough to do almost anything.  Almost.  But I can't do it for very long, or necessarily on-call.  Hiking, weight lifting, fishing, and camping will help with those things.  And there is learning, and expanding the ability to do fine detail when exhausted, and such in there.  As well, learning to how to arrange, manage, set up, do without, and care for my person and equipment in it.  Those things are just the beginning.

I am also considering learning ham radio, and before I go to Alaska for the visit, perhaps having some portable equipment set up, a license (though I am not sure it will travel, perhaps there is a way), and some practice.  I would like to get my camera up and running, and begin using it.  While there are problems with photography in the wild, having been behind a gun has taught that tunnel vision, and some other things, that go with photography, exist and how to mitigate.  The thing is, a camera can teach the finer, more nuanced ways, of looking at things.  Seeing the whole picture, right down to seeing the minor details.  This is an excellent skill for survival.  There are other areas I hope to delve into, beyond the simple (if not really so simple) skills of survival.

When the body fails, if the mind doesn't, there might yet be a way.  I knew these things, in my own areas, at one time.  Or I simply would not be here.  I learned to live, to survive, to fight, and to never give up.  Though I have surrendered, it wasn't quite as it would seem.  Given the givens, it was more of an understanding than a surrender.  Do you surrender to an avalanche?  Can you surrender to one?  Or is it just an understanding that you have no control, perhaps no choice?  I survived even that, and am here today, thinking about going to Alaska?  Yep.  So hush it.  *grins*

No, I won't become a famous photographer.  I won't become some mountain man guru, either.  I will miss some shots, I will make mistakes, I will pull mulligans... legal and not.  No man can do otherwise, and even so, survival is not guaranteed.  But if you believed my doctors, even from a few years ago, I should already be dead.  What kind of guarantee are you looking for?  I am so far out of warranty that anything, everything, is a miracle.  And, look at my blog?  I started out pretty green.  A day, a post, a comment, getting caught out in a sensitive moment then making it through, and... there is this.  One small step at a time, a lot of mistakes, so far all have been recoverable, and I have made something with it.  So it will go with each of these other area.

When I return, I will make contact with the local ham club.  I have printed the handbook, if from another site, that they recommend.  I have looked over gear, and found a small portable for starters.  I will need help setting it up, of course.  Though perhaps I can learn to program it as well.  Fly tying might be off the radar, at least for the moment.  But fishing, and fly fishing in particular, is still on.  Along with camping, hiking, weight lifting, snowshoeing this year if I can maintain, and whatever else I can lead into.  I really need to camp, in the winter.  I might not be able to hit it every time I want.  Just so long as I keep up the pace, pick myself back up when I fall.  I've done quite well for the last few weeks.  Just... gotta keep going.

I'll check my list before I go to bed, see what I can check off, what I may need to add.  I might as well clean out the auto tonight.  While getting the oil change and tire rotation, I may get her cleaned out tomorrow.  Then, again, when I return this time.  If I am going to be in bear country, I best start getting and keeping her cleaned out, down to the nubs.  No vehicle is safe from those critters.  Hmm... and I might start reviewing information about camping in bear country.  And real information about living around them as safely as possible.  So much of what the government puts out is... at best... questionable.  They really would rather you get eaten than be safe.  My simple interest is safe avoidance, then personal survival.  The bear just doesn't have a right to my flesh, and sometimes people don't have a choice, save not to be where they might have to be.  Tourists?  Let them offer hot sauce for the meal, bells for roughage.  :p