Insisting Simplicity

North Shore — Crane Beach (FREE Parking)

Yeomanlike would be a good word to describe my bicycle.

It’s a “hybrid,” which is a fancy way of describing a machine that’s too slow to compete with a road bike and too wimpy to manage any surface featuring rocks or roots, for fear of popping or bending something somewhere.

Buuuuuuuut… I still beat the heck out of it anyway, while having a blast! Maybe I’m not giving it enough credit.

It doesn’t click into top gear anymore and the right-side handlebar end got shorn off in a small crash last summer.

I ride with the seat as high as possible and imitate a “cyclist” at times.

Typically, I’m single-pannierred and doubled-over, laboring along, dry goods and frozen berries from Trader Joe’s, an acceptable drag on performance.

On occasion, this well-seasoned tool accompanies me on an adventure.

Come thither my trusted steed! We’re off to the North Shore! Crane Beach!

Here’s a short review of: A Year of Less by Cait Flanders and Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More and Live Better by Chris Farrell:

I went back to check.

Sure enough, I wrote my first blogpost about a year ago. The exact date of the post was 8/30/2018.

Shortly in, I wrote about a camping adventure on Cape Cod, specifically Truro and the “Outer Cape” region.

We enjoyed the area so much, we thought it might be fun to head back this year… maybe we’ll keep it rollin’, you know, make it our designated Cape weekend or something…

In standard weekend warrior fashion, I’d pick up the lady at the commuter Friday afternoon and we’d battle traffic down that night.

Our foolproof plan (and non-refundable campsite reservation) began looking less attractive by midweek…

I strode into the office that Friday earlier than normal. It’s summer dog days, so it wasn’t a deadline driving the urgency. No, it was the excitement rather for what lay ahead: a camping adventure in the White Mountains of New Hampshire!

I felt pretty good about our rough itinerary. The plan was to shoot up Friday afternoon directly to a restaurant we previously settled upon (based upon a recommendation), then set up camp in the early evening and relax by the fire. For Saturday, we picked out an activity and planned an ambitious hike to follow with more relaxing fireside time carved out for the evening. Sunday, we’d break camp and hit a nature center on the way home. Outdoors adventuring at our own pace, my kind of a weekend.

Meanwhile… Up in JR’s brain land, a different adventure was playing out, something a bit wilder… something… fantastic.

With the audiobook: 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, by Jonathan Franklin and the book book: How to Eat in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Foraging, Trapping, Fishing, and Finding Sustenance in the Wild, by Bradford Angier, close at hand through the weekend, the powers of imagination awoke.

As we enjoyed our (very tame) weekend, I daydreamed sensational tales of survival and self-reliance.

I was the Don Quixote of the Whites…

Painting Anna Film Review

A special thank you to Angela at Tread Lightly, Retire Early for putting the docu-drama on my radar and inspiring me to write this Painting Anna review. The project is close to home for Angela, an intersection of family and career. She elaborates here.

As a follow-up to my recent review of the Playing with FIRE documentary, I thought the two films might mesh well and have some interesting parallels (and maybe salient distinctions?).

Urban Gardening — Update #3

Tomatoes, or “the tommies,” as I like to call them, are clearly the pillar of our urban gardening experiment this season.

But I want to tell you something. Can you keep a secret?

Come a little closer…

I’m one of those man-children who think eating a raw tomato all by itself is, well, kinda yucky!

I’ll eat anything tomatoes related, but just…not…raw…please!

Shhhhhhhh. I know. I’m an eight-year-old. But, at least I’m an honest eight-year-old.

Playing with FIRE Documentary Boston Screening

The Playing with FIRE documentary screened here in Boston last week. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I bought tickets via the Tugg platform and ~~dragged~~ brought my girlfriend along.

Not really sure what to expect, I knew FIRE and some of its voices, but little else. More pressing at the time though, we were lost.

Simplifying Wellness and Embracing Routine or What Tom Brady Taught Me About Vibrating Foam Rollers

Like most folks, I want to see progress. I want to know I’m getting better, that I’m fine tuning, improving, growing.

I’ve written about some personal frustration applying this to wellness. I can be streaky, a good stretch followed by overindulgence, from beastmode to Homer Simpson.

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

What’s the longest you’ve ever been by yourself?

Take a minute and really think.

Is it hours? A few days maybe, if you’ve done some solo adventuring. A week possibly, if you’re hardcore.

For Christopher Knight, the truly unique protagonist of The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit, by Michael Finkel, this solitude extended 27 years.

Crazy Idea? I Insist!

Growing up in my family, summertime meant camping trips. I don’t mean anything too intense or remote, more like extended weekends or weeklong trip to the ocean, maybe mountains.

North Shore — Crane Beach (FREE Parking)

The Year of Less and Frugality

One Year Later and Camping Cape Cod

Camping — White Mountains, NH