I'm going to call myself out here. I've done an excellent job over the past three years of collecting camping equipment. I'll spare you from reading a 70 item list but my room looks similar to this picture.
Unfortunately camping equipment is one of those things that is only cool if you actually use it so that is what I'm going to do. Hopefully by the end of the year my tent will have some suffocated insects packed up in it, my hatchet blade will be dull and my hiking poles will need new tips.
I found it only appropriate that this goal fall into place this week when i received an invite this morning from my good friend Jackson to go camping in August. The further and further I find myself diving into this lifestyle experiment the more things seem to fall in to place like that. Meanwhile the changes have brought about some feelings of isolation counterweighted by feelings of confidence as a result of leaving old habits behind and pursuing and chasing my goals. So here is to getting out there where I am at my best twice a month for the rest of the year!
Unfortunately camping equipment is one of those things that is only cool if you actually use it so that is what I'm going to do. Hopefully by the end of the year my tent will have some suffocated insects packed up in it, my hatchet blade will be dull and my hiking poles will need new tips.
I found it only appropriate that this goal fall into place this week when i received an invite this morning from my good friend Jackson to go camping in August. The further and further I find myself diving into this lifestyle experiment the more things seem to fall in to place like that. Meanwhile the changes have brought about some feelings of isolation counterweighted by feelings of confidence as a result of leaving old habits behind and pursuing and chasing my goals. So here is to getting out there where I am at my best twice a month for the rest of the year!
End of Week 27 Update
I did not get a chance to go camping yet so I don't have much to write about in that area yet. However it was all but a dull week, especially during trash pick up. I was wandering the tall grasses along 460 filling up my 39 gallon garbage bag, stopping every now and again to check my legs for ticks and being grateful this time that I had picked up an old can of Altoids so that every time I opened my trash bag a warm burst of minty air came out as opposed to any other smell that a trash bag produces. I looked up and there was a police car headed towards me, lights on, not speeding by to go to an emergency, rather slowing down and headed straight for me. I probably looked somewhat like a gopher popping up and down out of the tall grass. A police woman stepped out of the car and asked me what I was doing. I told her, "jus' pickin' up trash." The K-9 unit pulled up next. I realized that to the police I probably was looking less like a gopher popping up and down in the tall grass and more like someone that had just taken a solid dose of methamphetamines and had taken to the interstate for a live version of Frogger. The police woman, realizing that I was out doing a little community service was very understanding and even though she admitted "it sure does need it," still had to do her job and tell me that I was not allowed to be out there because it was a "restricted highway." She offered to give me a ride back to my motorcycle so I took it. At first I was a little frustrated but tried to make the best of the situation and asked her how I would legally go about picking up trash on the highway and she redirected me to VDOT where I might be able to Adopt a Highway. I've taken a few steps towards getting this accomplished but in the mean time I'll have to stay on the smaller roads around town for this goal.
End of Week 27 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 97.03 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 336 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $496.89
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 140
Pushups - 1160 Crunches - 1040
Days Flossed - 124 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 16
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 327
Items planted -12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a
bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers, 7 Red Maple Seeds, 30 brussel sprouts, transplant 34 pepper plants,
Letters written - 12
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation,
Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative,
YMCA Thrift Store, Volunteered at Plenty!
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil
and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing, Pan Bagnat with grilled peppers and basil vinaigrette and a side of Classic Gougères, Vegetarian Feijoada and Brazilian Bananas, Baked Eggplant
Parmesan (mixture of this and this recipe)
Miles ran - 280.2
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, currently reading The Other by David Guterson and loving it!
Nights camped - 0
I did not get a chance to go camping yet so I don't have much to write about in that area yet. However it was all but a dull week, especially during trash pick up. I was wandering the tall grasses along 460 filling up my 39 gallon garbage bag, stopping every now and again to check my legs for ticks and being grateful this time that I had picked up an old can of Altoids so that every time I opened my trash bag a warm burst of minty air came out as opposed to any other smell that a trash bag produces. I looked up and there was a police car headed towards me, lights on, not speeding by to go to an emergency, rather slowing down and headed straight for me. I probably looked somewhat like a gopher popping up and down out of the tall grass. A police woman stepped out of the car and asked me what I was doing. I told her, "jus' pickin' up trash." The K-9 unit pulled up next. I realized that to the police I probably was looking less like a gopher popping up and down in the tall grass and more like someone that had just taken a solid dose of methamphetamines and had taken to the interstate for a live version of Frogger. The police woman, realizing that I was out doing a little community service was very understanding and even though she admitted "it sure does need it," still had to do her job and tell me that I was not allowed to be out there because it was a "restricted highway." She offered to give me a ride back to my motorcycle so I took it. At first I was a little frustrated but tried to make the best of the situation and asked her how I would legally go about picking up trash on the highway and she redirected me to VDOT where I might be able to Adopt a Highway. I've taken a few steps towards getting this accomplished but in the mean time I'll have to stay on the smaller roads around town for this goal.
End of Week 27 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 97.03 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 336 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $496.89
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 140
Pushups - 1160 Crunches - 1040
Days Flossed - 124 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 16
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 327
Items planted -12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a
bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers, 7 Red Maple Seeds, 30 brussel sprouts, transplant 34 pepper plants,
Letters written - 12
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation,
Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative,
YMCA Thrift Store, Volunteered at Plenty!
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil
and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing, Pan Bagnat with grilled peppers and basil vinaigrette and a side of Classic Gougères, Vegetarian Feijoada and Brazilian Bananas, Baked Eggplant
Parmesan (mixture of this and this recipe)
Miles ran - 280.2
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, currently reading The Other by David Guterson and loving it!
Nights camped - 0