1. The other night I was
trying to sleep when I heard the sound of a cricket outside my
window. I figured it was close by but eventually, it got quiet so it
had to have hopped away right? The next night I started hearing the
cricket again but this time closer. At first, I thought it was in my
wall. It turned out it was on my windowsill, but it was obscured by the
towels I packed around my air conditioner so that no cool air leaked
out. Once I figured that out it was game over, I peeled back one of
the towels and sprayed a little Raid in there, and I haven’t heard the
cricket since. Of course, the joke will likely be on me in a few weeks
when I take the a/c out and a dead cricket lands on my foot.
2. I was listening to a
favorite podcast of mine this week. The host was answering questions
from his listeners. One question asked what the best way was to
remember/honor a loved one who had passed away. The host’s answer
has stuck with me ever since. He said to try to live the life that
your loved one who had passed want for you. It made me step back and
seriously reassess my current life.
3. I know I have mentioned it
before in these blogs but I have to reiterate how much I love the
downtempo music. It is like a shot of good vibes to my brain and also
helps me relax, write, and think. It’s to the point that my Pandora
station has at least a few dozen ‘thumbs up’ songs. I’ll put a
favorite of mine at the end if you want to dip your toes in.
4. For the first time in 5
years I planned an overnight road trip. I am headed to Northern New
Hampshire to stay at a place I stayed at in 2012. I can’t believe
it’s been so long since I spent a night off of Cape Cod. My only
hope is this return trip to Lincoln, NH goes better than the last. Oh
don’t get me wrong the place I stayed was amazing, and the places I
visited were as well. The only problem was that I drove all the way
up there and forgot my memory card for my camera so I had to use my
iPhone 3. Not exactly high quality.
 |
| Hoping to get lots of much higher-quality photos this time! |
5. Being semi-smart I actually
(re)signed up for AAA before my trip up to New Hampshire. I got the
Plus package half-off, what a deal, $51!? Now I almost hope I blow a
tire or lock my keys in my car. Almost.
6. I follow that last thought
up with being semi-stupid. I scanned a steak at a supermarket and the
sale price didn’t come up. I asked for help and the employee came
by and voided the original scan. He then scanned the steak again and
put in the sale price. I was only half paying attention and saw 2
steaks listed on the screen not realizing one had been voided. So
when I asked ‘what about that steak?’ he calmly said ‘I just
voided it you’re all set sir.’ I hung my head and apologized
before leaving. The steak was good by the way, to end the story on a
happy note.
7. When out for a run on the
bike trail I was getting passed by, and then passing, a mother and
her young daughter who was probably 7 on their bikes a few times. The
daughter seemed really nervous when getting to road crossings and her
mother had to coax her across. After seeing this once it was
happening again at another crossing and instead of running past I
slowed down and looked at the daughter and said ‘don’t worry I’ll
walk across with you too.’ She slowly followed her mother across
and I was on my way. It doesn’t take much effort to be a
compassionate human.
8. I take my bottles to the
supermarket to recycle them. I typically take a few weeks to fill a
trash bag with plastic liter bottles. Each time I go I end up leaving
with about $1.25 on a receipt. Rather than go right into the store
and cash it I try to wait until I have a less embarrassing amount to
get. This week I took roughly 4 months' worth of recycling receipts into the supermarket to cash in. My total? A whopping $14.10. What is
my plan for it? This is the only time I will buy scratch tickets.
I’ll likely lose on them all, but hey it’s basically free money
so whatever.
9. With 3 full days of
vacation coming up I am well aware of, and prepared for, needing to
hit the gym hard upon my return to Cape Cod. I plan on driving a lot and taking tons of photos and videos. One thing I don’t plan on doing
is any formal exercise. That coupled with ‘enjoying’ the
restaurants of each area I visit means it’ll be running and weights
aplenty starting next weekend.
10. A
highlight of the week for me was recording a foolish video filled
with inside jokes for my oldest friend while on a run on the bike
trail. Part of it consisted of me angrily yelling at a butterfly for
not staying still to allow me to get a photo. Too bad the people
going by while I filmed didn’t get the memo that it was a joke, I
looked like I needed to be sent to the nut house.
David Arkenstone - Falling Stars
