It's a bittersweet symphony, that's life.

Happy Birthday, The Dude Abides. It has been one year since I started this little journal. It has been fun for me, in the sense that I approached it like an art project. It is always there in the back of my mind, telling me to get off the couch and get outside, go a little further, climb a little higher, and, by all means, take a few pictures.

It has also been a great way to "keep in touch" with friends and family, albeit in a "one-way" fashion in most cases.

(Would it kill some of you to drop me an email every now and then? Christ, people I don't even know read this thing and email me all the time. And you, yes you, whom I have known for years, check in and read this almost daily, yet you never write. That's some serious douchebaggery right there.)

In two weeks, it will be the one-year anniversary of our departure from Wisconsin. Right about this time last year, I was winding down my final few days as a lawyer.

And what a year it has been.

I spent thirty days snowboarding this year. That is a whole month of days.

I ran (or nordic trak'd) roughly 1200 miles over the last year.

I climbed peaks, hiked trails, and kayaked rivers. I learned to fly-fish. I explored Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I saw bison, grizzly bears, black bears, elk, antelope, eagles, hawks, deer, a mountain lion, a wolf, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, moose...

(Not bad for an old man.)

I now get to live about ten minutes away from my best friend in the world and the best man in my wedding, Bells. (Who, by the way, gave probably the funniest best man speech I have ever seen.)

I customized the sweetest bike in the Gallatin Valley.

I read a ton of books. I watched a lot of movies.

I thought.

I wrote.

I spent more time alone than I ever have before.

And found I liked it.

I made a few new friends.

I kept in touch with some old ones.

Mom, Dad, Molly, Liz, Lucy, Katie, Joey, T-Rex, Alison, JM, Birdy, Vaughn, Jimmyboy, Josh, Carmela, Antuan, Dan-O, Jimmy D, Husker & Lori, Finndawg, Ashton, Demi, Leo, Will Danger (whom I just decided to visit this weekend... I'm going to Seattle!), Carp & Stacey, P., Nanner, The Wave, Celtic Rob, the Vogel-Digmans, etc., etc...

I miss you guys.

Shit, it's all there in the archives, stored as a bunch of ones and zeros on some server somewhere in California.

Are you not entertained?


I hope that you are.

I'll see you all around the bend.

I gotta get on the road.

I'll try and hit you with an update or two from the road.

Molly, Pat, Lucy, Katie, Joey- see you guys in a couple days.

Will Danger- batten down the hatches, I'm coming to Gig Harbor.

As for the rest of you...

Do something fun this weekend.

Then write to me and tell me about it.

It's the least you can do.

Not convinced?

Brace yourself for my top-notch, ace-in-the-hole, go-to, crunch-time legal agrument:

COME ON!!!!!

Seriously.

thedudeabides_01@yahoo.com

That's the email for you blog readers.

Knock yourselves out.