Just a Happy Dude in the Mountains Introducing Himself

Good morning, Steemit World! I woke up at 4 a.m. excited to finally make a post. :) I've been bouncing around following, upvoting and commenting for a couple weeks now, but today is the day to take it to the next level.

So here I am introducing myself. ;)


The beautiful lady by my side is @carrieallen, my wonderful wife. We have no children, but we love and spoil our animals.

This is Eddie. He sucks at eating cream.

These are my doggies, Banquo and Oberon.

We live right smack up against the towering Sangre de Cristo mountain range in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado. It's the middle of nowhere. Seriously, it's an hour drive to get to the nearest Wal-Mart and 3 hours to get to the nearest city. Having weighed all the pros and cons of city living for years, I strongly suggest you move to the country.

You may wonder what I do for a living all the way out here. In all honesty, that's been the challenge of my life. Since moving to this little mountain town five years ago, I've done some strangely creative things for money. For example, my first "job" upon moving here was to create a little donut stand on the corner.

Carrie and I worked together to build a successful little food cottage business just down the street from our house.|


So for a couple years I was the donut man. I got up every morning at 4 to make the donuts, and I greeted my cutomers every day with a grin. Eventually, new opportunities presented themselves to us from the connections we had made at the donut stand. Carrie began transcribing the talks of a Buddhist Rimpoche who has his main practice in the area.

Some monks and a Rinpoche watching the eclipse

All that Buddhism got me thinking along the lines of philosophy and spirituality. The next few years would be a journey of spiritual discovery.

We began volunteering and practicing with a Native American Church family. The veil was lifted for me on many levels. We were lucky enough to participate in regular Lakota sweat lodges, as well as powerful prayer ceremonies with medicine. We were able to support many of our friends in their experiences of the traditional Lakota Vision Quest. The insights I gained from these ways are still the closest to my heart.

The family we were practicing with underwent some turbulent times, and over time the ceremonies stopped happening. Carrie was working full-time by then. She was given the (busy) job of coordinating our local music festival.
So there I was, with a new outlook on life and tons of time on my hands.

Crestone Music Festival

So I started making stuff. I love making stuff.

I made this...

And this...

And a couple of these.

I like to paint, draw, build, sew... I just like to make stuff.

And I especially like to write rhyming poetry. For me, it's so much more satisfying when it rhymes.

Would I dare write a verse devoid of rhyme?
I'd rather not; Do that in your own time.
With rhythmic bounce it's easier to see
The symbols in the words, at least to me.

I won't share any more poetry now, as this is my "introduce yourself" post, but follow me and stay tuned for some stuff that I'm pretty proud of.

For the last six months I've been working full-time myself. I manage a recreational cannabis dispensary near where I live. I never thought I would enjoy a "job" but this is a great fit for me. I am passionate about the benefits of the cannabis plant and proud to be a part of the legal and medicinal movement. I'll also be sharing stories of working in the dispensary. Funny stuff happens in the weed store.
 

In my spare time time this year, I've been studying up on cryptocurrencies. After several months of making a lot of mistakes and losing money here and there, I'm happy to say I have a diverse portfolio of coins that I believe in. STEEM  is leading the pack, of course.

I CAN'T WAIT to share my ideas and thoughts with all of you on a more regular basis.

I love you, and I love this world that we're creating together. I could go on for hours, but I'll wrap up here. Stay tuned for more musings, stories, pictures, etc.

Thanks! :) :) :)