Random thoughts, musings and things I think are interesting…

  • Knowing when to give up when doing stupid things.

    The stupid thing we were going to do got stupider with 3-4 inches of packed snow on the trail so I pulled the rip cord about 12 miles in. I was way off my min pace (glad I had that sheet calculated ahead of time and with me). And the snow was not melting off.…

  • Making stupid plans

    In 11 days a buddy and I are going to attempt the 4 state challenge on the AT. 4 states/~44 miles in less than 24 hours. I’m not sure how I ended up agreeing to this, but once committed…I’m in. It’s going to be a bit different than any other hikes I’ve done. No camping.…

  • Added a hitch to the skoolie this weekend

    Picked up a 15,000 lb weld on curt hitch a few weeks ago. Spent a few hours on Saturday and Sunday getting it installed. A little more difficult than I thought, but really happy with how it turned out. Just have to get it welded up and then get the wiring setup and I’ll be…

  • Quarter million

    Picked up my 2008 MB E320 Bluetech in May of 2011 with about 32k miles. Just crossed a quarter million.

  • Historical vs scientific facts

    Slowly making my way through Ernst Cassier’s “An Essay on Man” and ran across this gem which seems particularly useful in our attempts to recover from fake news.

  • First live music in 15+ months

    We went out last night to Southgate revival for our first live music in more than 15 months. We saw The Avett Brothers in Lexington in fall of 2019 and The Newbees last night. It was a great start to what will hopefully be a concert filled 2021.

  • Adding nav to the skoolie

    This weekend’s Skoolie project was getting a mount and power setup for an old cellular enabled iPad that we had sitting in a gear closet. Won’t need the cellular (will pair with my phone for data) but the gps let’s maps work so it will be a good enough solution for nav.

  • Resetting the clock

    Added 165 days to the clock today. Been considering it for a bit and I think it makes sense to tack on a bit more time to move on at a natural transition. Makes the math a bit easier although I won’t get to brag that “I retired in my 40s” ;-).

  • Book notes: The Hidden Wound

    I picked up 6-7 books (and a couple pounds of coffee) from my favorite local bookstore in the height of quarantine to help support them while everything was closed.  Three of them were for me: Hillbilly Elegy, Appalacian Reckoning (notes on those two coming later) and The Hidden Wound by Wendell Berry.  I have (and…