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Luxagraf: Topographical Writings

Luxagraf:...
Notes From The Road Your browser does not support video playback via HTML5. Watch on YouTube
a year ago
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Christmas Cold After a week at Grayton we moved down the coastline to our favorite place in the Florida panhandle,...
over a year ago
72
over a year ago
After a week at Grayton we moved down the coastline to our favorite place in the Florida panhandle, St George Island. This is the wildest, least developed area I know of down here. We've visited St. George more than any other spot in Florida and we never tire of it. We'd spend...
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Goodbye Florida In the evenings the song of whippoorwills echoes on all sides. Spring peepers croak and creak in the...
a year ago
61
a year ago
In the evenings the song of whippoorwills echoes on all sides. Spring peepers croak and creak in the marsh reeds. Here and there through the trees I can catch a glimmering flicker of flames from a campfire. Only the truly committed are having fires in this heat. The air is still...
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Water Under The Bridge Halfway through our stay on St. George we had a little problem called Friday night. The problem was...
a year ago
52
a year ago
Halfway through our stay on St. George we had a little problem called Friday night. The problem was that the campground at St George was full for Friday night. One night missing in a string of twelve nights. We knew that when we came out here, but I was really hoping something...
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I Like New Orleans Better After Galveston we headed north, bound for New Orleans. We broke up the drive with a stop at one of...
over a year ago
52
over a year ago
After Galveston we headed north, bound for New Orleans. We broke up the drive with a stop at one of the gates of hell, located in Sea Rim State Park, Texas. Sea Grim as we call it. Do not go there. Ever. For any reason. We had to abandon the bus there that night and retreat to a...
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St. Andrews Leaving Fort Pickens made me a little sad. We've spent so much time here over the years its started...
over a year ago
48
over a year ago
Leaving Fort Pickens made me a little sad. We've spent so much time here over the years its started to feel like one of our many homes. But there are time limits. We can't stay any more this season, and with our current plans we probably won't be back for several years. I'll miss...
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Lemon Lyme Summer The sun rises as a thin band of orange squeezed between twin blue worlds of lake and cloud. The tips...
6 months ago
45
6 months ago
The sun rises as a thin band of orange squeezed between twin blue worlds of lake and cloud. The tips of the pines above glow for a moment before the sun slides up and behind the distant clouds. The sun rises near the center of the bay when we arrive in April, but by the solstice...
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Bus Work and Baseball Our last few days on St. George between all of us we saw a Scarlet Tanager, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak,...
a year ago
45
a year ago
Our last few days on St. George between all of us we saw a Scarlet Tanager, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, and an Indigo Bunting. The migrant birds were moving through. That's one of our cues that it's time to go. When the birds are headed north it's about time for us to do likewise. A...
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Gone Fishin' Every morning when I step outside I am greeted by a chorus of ospreys circling in the glint of the...
over a year ago
44
over a year ago
Every morning when I step outside I am greeted by a chorus of ospreys circling in the glint of the rising sun. There are between four and six of them, depending on the day. They spend their days fishing, building nests, and fighting. Every evening, sitting out by the fire as dusk...
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The Lost Coast Driving west on Florida's highway 98 is a little like traveling back in time. It's hard to believe...
a year ago
42
a year ago
Driving west on Florida's highway 98 is a little like traveling back in time. It's hard to believe standing amidst the crowds of Panama City Beach, but not ten miles east, once you pass through the actual Panama City, the crowds disappear, along with everything else. After...
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Renaissance Fair One of the things I find most peculiar about our current pop culture worldview is the utter...
over a year ago
40
over a year ago
One of the things I find most peculiar about our current pop culture worldview is the utter disregard for the past. The past is a far away thing that is almost always a-thing-you-are-so-lucky-you-don't-have-to-live-in. Step outside that increasingly tunneled vision the media...
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Mobile Bay We maxed out our time at Fort Pickens. After six weeks, it was time to move on. We had planned to go...
a year ago
39
a year ago
We maxed out our time at Fort Pickens. After six weeks, it was time to move on. We had planned to go to New Orleans, and then up into the Ozarks, before heading back up to Wisconsin for the summer, but given how mild the winter turned out to be, we decided to press north sooner...
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Before The Storm Your browser does not support video playback via HTML5. Watch on YouTube -->
a year ago
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Photo Shoot After shining up the bus in Rocky Bayou we headed back over to Fort Pickens where we were scheduled...
over a year ago
36
over a year ago
After shining up the bus in Rocky Bayou we headed back over to Fort Pickens where we were scheduled to meet up with a photographer who was shooting the bus for an article I wrote for Wired magazine. Both Wired and I wanted us to be out west for the photo shoot, but that didn't...
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Pensacola History From Fort Pickens we came around the entirety of Pensacola Bay to a small park on the western edge,...
over a year ago
36
over a year ago
From Fort Pickens we came around the entirety of Pensacola Bay to a small park on the western edge, Big Lagoon. From our campsite there it was a short car ride to Perdido Key, which is another part of Gulf Islands National Seashore. Although it takes the better part of two hours...
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Illinois Cliffs If you look at a map of the U.S., there's a few routes that will get you from Pensacola FL to...
a year ago
36
a year ago
If you look at a map of the U.S., there's a few routes that will get you from Pensacola FL to Wisconsin. They all have one things in common: they pass through Illinois. Unfortunately, there isn't much camping in Illinois, and what camping there is... is generally not great. We've...
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Wagoneer My favorite way to travel is with everyone in the bus, no other vehicle involved. As we've slowed...
over a year ago
35
over a year ago
My favorite way to travel is with everyone in the bus, no other vehicle involved. As we've slowed down our travels though, spending more time in an area makes it nice to have a car to go exploring, run errands, and get to places the bus can't. For that reason we bought a 2006...
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Eight After New Orleans we hightailed it to Florida, looking for some warmer beaches. Our first stop was...
over a year ago
34
over a year ago
After New Orleans we hightailed it to Florida, looking for some warmer beaches. Our first stop was Grayton Beach, where we spent Elliott's birthday -- in the white sands with afternoons warm enough to swim. The sunsets were pretty spectacular too. We'd go down in the evenings,...
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Fly Navy The one upside to getting kicked out of Fort Pickens for a storm that never hit, was meeting the...
a year ago
34
a year ago
The one upside to getting kicked out of Fort Pickens for a storm that never hit, was meeting the pilot. The bus, wherever it goes, is conspicuous. It is especially conspicuous in the middle of an otherwise empty parking lot. Next to the parking lot was a collection of condos,...
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Second Spring Driving 1,800 miles north in a week was like stepping back in time. Spring came and went in Florida...
a year ago
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a year ago
Driving 1,800 miles north in a week was like stepping back in time. Spring came and went in Florida back in early March, by the time we left Florida was well into summer, whatever the calendar might have said. Here in Washburn though spring had barely arrived. The night we got...
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Fortified From Edisto we worked our way south, stopping off a Hunting Island for a few dismal days in the cold...
a year ago
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a year ago
From Edisto we worked our way south, stopping off a Hunting Island for a few dismal days in the cold and rain, camping in a site that was just a smidge above actual bog. We escaped that dreariness for the much more uplifting Fort McAllister, the first of a string of forts we...
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Fort Pickens Just before new year's, Corrinne and the kids rejoined me at Big Lagoon. We had a quiet new year's...
over a year ago
32
over a year ago
Just before new year's, Corrinne and the kids rejoined me at Big Lagoon. We had a quiet new year's around the fire, and then the next day we headed out to the Fort Pickens portion of Gulf Islands National Seashore. If St. George is the best spot in the panhandle, Fort Pickens is...
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Low Oak leaves shimmer and dance in the wind. Morning sunlight filters in through the trees, the rays...
a year ago
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a year ago
Oak leaves shimmer and dance in the wind. Morning sunlight filters in through the trees, the rays fighting their way through wisps of Spanish moss. You can find this scene anywhere in South Carolina below the fall line, a vague geographic boundary that runs along the southeastern...
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Family After a few weeks in the Pensacola area we headed back east, across the Florida panhandle to St....
over a year ago
31
over a year ago
After a few weeks in the Pensacola area we headed back east, across the Florida panhandle to St. Andrews state park, a little postage stamp of protected land off the coast of Panama City Beach. Apparently this was once a gem in the Florida State Park system, but the universal...
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Microcosm We sprinted across Florida, from St. Augustine to the far end of the panhandle in two quick drives....
a year ago
30
a year ago
We sprinted across Florida, from St. Augustine to the far end of the panhandle in two quick drives. We stopped in the middle at the Tallahassee Car Museum, an odd little museum with a few campsites out front (not everything on Harvest Hosts is a farm). The kids and I wandered...
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Bus and Repair Q & A I got a lot of questions about the bus, life on the road, repairing things, and more. I will...
a year ago
30
a year ago
I got a lot of questions about the bus, life on the road, repairing things, and more. I will probably write something up as well at some point, but for now I thought I'd make a video to answer a few of the more frequently asked questions. Watch on YouTube Apologies for the...
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What Vanlife is Really Like I have no idea what Vanlife is or is like. But I can tell you that if you think you're just going to...
a year ago
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a year ago
I have no idea what Vanlife is or is like. But I can tell you that if you think you're just going to cruise around in an old vehicle, living the life, um, yeah, not all the time. Some of the time, sure. Maybe even most of the time, but there's a good bit of work to be done on the...
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Sometimes Fall is the slow exhale of the earth. The sun's rays grow ever scarcer as the frosts arrive. Long...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
Fall is the slow exhale of the earth. The sun's rays grow ever scarcer as the frosts arrive. Long shadows cut the cold honey sunlight of afternoons that begin to fade at three, turning to a blue-pink twilight over the lake before darkness descends at five. Then four-thirty. Then...
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Autumn Every year for the past couple of years, when September rolls around we start getting ready to hit...
5 months ago
27
5 months ago
Every year for the past couple of years, when September rolls around we start getting ready to hit the road, packing away the paddle boards, washing the bus, and burning through the last of the firewood. Sometime around the middle of the month we say goodbye to friends and head...
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Winter Storm The afternoon of the day we decided to leave the Jeep behind a ranger stopped by to tell us they...
a year ago
27
a year ago
The afternoon of the day we decided to leave the Jeep behind a ranger stopped by to tell us they were closing the campground the next day due to a large storm front that was headed our way. Winds were expected to be in the 50 MPH range, with gusts even higher. We've sat out a...
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Going Up North Eight days of travel. Six days driving. 1508 miles from the shores of St George Island to the shores...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Eight days of travel. Six days driving. 1508 miles from the shores of St George Island to the shores of Lake Superior. It was too fast. I knew it was too fast, but we wanted to get out of the heat. I was ready for the toll it takes on us, but I was not prepared for the toll it...
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The End of the Road For a long time I had the idea that one day I would write a book about this trip and call it The End...
5 months ago
25
5 months ago
For a long time I had the idea that one day I would write a book about this trip and call it The End of the Road. It was an incomplete idea, but it seems to me we are, culturally, at the end of a metaphor when it comes to The Road. I had the idea that you could trace a thread...
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California We didn't have long to settle into the cabin. A week later the kids and I flew out to California to...
5 months ago
24
5 months ago
We didn't have long to settle into the cabin. A week later the kids and I flew out to California to visit my parents, trading the last of fall for some warmth and extra sunshine at the beach. I am a stranger in my hometown. The California of my youth is gone. Everything paved...
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First Snow Snow brings a stillness to the world. Life hides away, burrowed under, tucked in. Sound is muted,...
3 months ago
22
3 months ago
Snow brings a stillness to the world. Life hides away, burrowed under, tucked in. Sound is muted, lost in the hush of falling flakes. Only the soft brush of wind through the pines. I would like to say that Winter's first snow dumped a substantive number of feet, but it did not....
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Repair Fail One of the most underappreciated, least talked about aspects of repair is the hierarchy. There are...
a year ago
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a year ago
One of the most underappreciated, least talked about aspects of repair is the hierarchy. There are repair wizards and there are newbies and there are the rest of us, somewhere between those two poles. This hierarchy of skill and experience requires that you earn your way to the...
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Ready to Start If you're not excited about where you're going, you're going the wrong way. Where you're going may...
a year ago
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a year ago
If you're not excited about where you're going, you're going the wrong way. Where you're going may be challenging, difficult, a real pain in the ass even, but come what may, you should be excited about getting there—both the getting, and the there. That's how you know you're on...
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In The Dunes Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried.—Henry David Thoreau,...
a year ago
18
a year ago
Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried.—Henry David Thoreau, Journal, March 22, 1842 Mornings grow colder with every passing day. The sunrise edges a little further south every time I crest the dunes to watch. The wind howls most mornings, a...
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Canada When we plotted our route east we planned to duck south of Lake Erie. The more direct route -- along...
a year ago
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a year ago
When we plotted our route east we planned to duck south of Lake Erie. The more direct route -- along the north shore of Lake Erie -- involved going into Canada, and the kids' passports were expired. About two weeks before we left Washburn we mentioned something about that to our...
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History We crossed the Mason Dixon line on our way to Assateague, but it didn't really feel like we were in...
a year ago
17
a year ago
We crossed the Mason Dixon line on our way to Assateague, but it didn't really feel like we were in the south yet. No offense Maryland, but it wasn't until I stopped at a gas station in Virginia that I heard the friendly twang of a southern accent. A few miles later I passed a...
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Fort Klock We left the shores of Lake Ontario on a blustery, cold day. Fortunately the wind was with us. The...
a year ago
16
a year ago
We left the shores of Lake Ontario on a blustery, cold day. Fortunately the wind was with us. The bus blew down the road into the Mohawk Valley, to a small town on the shores of the Erie Canal where there was a marina that also had a few campsites. The campground was wedged...
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Halloween in the Outer Banks From Virginia Beach we drifted south, making the short drive down to Oregon Inlet in the Outer...
a year ago
16
a year ago
From Virginia Beach we drifted south, making the short drive down to Oregon Inlet in the Outer Banks. Our plan was to spend a couple of weeks there, visit friends, get some time at the beach, and then head to Ocracoke for Thanksgiving. It was pretty good plan, but it didn't work...
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Shoreline If there is a theme to the places we go, it's water. Lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, creeks. We find...
a year ago
16
a year ago
If there is a theme to the places we go, it's water. Lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, creeks. We find them. Even out west, far from any large body of water, "the desire of water is scribed across the desert like graffiti."1 While I like almost all places with water—the bigger the...
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Little Girl's Point The rest of my family loves rock hounding. I don't even know if that's what you call it, but that's...
a year ago
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a year ago
The rest of my family loves rock hounding. I don't even know if that's what you call it, but that's what I'm going with. They enjoy walking around, hunting for rocks. Agates are especially popular with rock lovers, and one of the best agate beaches in the area is across the lake...
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Everyday It's 1984 Nostalgia is commonly used pejoratively. As if the very idea of looking backward in time and saying,...
a year ago
15
a year ago
Nostalgia is commonly used pejoratively. As if the very idea of looking backward in time and saying, hmm, maybe we lost something between then and now were... bad? The American Psychological Association considers nostalgia a subset of depression, which is, ahem, depressing. But...
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Baseball Diamonds We would never have come this way if weren't for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York....
a year ago
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a year ago
We would never have come this way if weren't for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Not that I wanted to go there that badly, but when we took the kids to a baseball game back in Florida the Baseball Hall of Fame somehow came up and I remember Elliott saying "can...
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Copper Harbor After getting kicked out of our site in McLain State Park we weren't thrilled at the prospect of...
a year ago
14
a year ago
After getting kicked out of our site in McLain State Park we weren't thrilled at the prospect of more time in a Michigan State Park, but there's not really anything else in Copper Harbor. We pulled in around 3 and asked for a site. The woman at this check-in station was very nice...
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Stop Breaking Down I had a bad feeling pulling out of Washburn. The bus had sat for nearly four months. The bus hates...
a year ago
14
a year ago
I had a bad feeling pulling out of Washburn. The bus had sat for nearly four months. The bus hates sitting. I had time to drive it to the upholstery shop and back and that was the extent of my test driving. I was hoping, whatever was going to break, would do it in a populous area...
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Niagara Fails We left Long Point Canada bright and early, headed back to the United States to check out Niagara...
a year ago
14
a year ago
We left Long Point Canada bright and early, headed back to the United States to check out Niagara Falls. We originally planned to see the falls from the Canadian side because the view is better, but then there was a lot of traffic and on the map it didn't look like there was much...
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Greenfield Village It's always seems slightly perverse to me to head east in a country that once lived by the slogan,...
a year ago
14
a year ago
It's always seems slightly perverse to me to head east in a country that once lived by the slogan, go west. Whatever the case, we're eastbound again and when planning our route we ran across something called Greenfield Village. Greenfield Village is difficult to describe, but...
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Farm Life One day this past summer a man stopped by our site to talk about the bus. I wasn't around, but when...
a year ago
13
a year ago
One day this past summer a man stopped by our site to talk about the bus. I wasn't around, but when I got back he was telling Corrinne about something called Harvest Hosts. It's a clever idea, wineries, farms, other people with land provide free camping in exchange for you...
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Drive My Car After last summer's sprint north, we swore we'd never try to move that fast again. We are heading...
a year ago
11
a year ago
After last summer's sprint north, we swore we'd never try to move that fast again. We are heading back down south for the winter, but we're going to take months to get there. We're going to wander, at a leisurely pace, stopping frequently, the way we traveled when we first set...
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Build When in doubt, build shelves. Building things is an essential part of life. Shelves are easy and...
a year ago
11
a year ago
When in doubt, build shelves. Building things is an essential part of life. Shelves are easy and satisfying to build. They're useful too. Everyone needs more shelf space. Everywhere I've ever lived I built some shelves or bookcase or some sort of flat surface on which to put...
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April White The mild winter of 2023-2024 brought very little snow to Wisconsin. We watched the weather for...
11 months ago
7
11 months ago
The mild winter of 2023-2024 brought very little snow to Wisconsin. We watched the weather for months, waiting for more snow to fall but it never did. Last year we arrived in Washburn after Memorial Day and there were still patches of snow in the deep shade of the woods. This...
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Frozen The last few years in this area have not been good to ice fishermen. At least that's what I hear....
2 months ago
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2 months ago
The last few years in this area have not been good to ice fishermen. At least that's what I hear. Last year the lake barely froze over. By March it had thawed. This year started more optimistically. Parts of the bay were already frozen by New Year's -- the shallower, calmer water...
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Sport "Nothing will work unless you do." –John Wooden Humans are one of the few large mammals that don't...
2 months ago
4
2 months ago
"Nothing will work unless you do." –John Wooden Humans are one of the few large mammals that don't practice for life by playing. Watch wolf puppies, lion cubs, young bears, elk, deer, pretty much any mammal and you'll notice that all they do is play. There's really no teaching...
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New York Work sent me to New York City in January, for an annual meeting. It's something I've avoided in the...
2 months ago
3
2 months ago
Work sent me to New York City in January, for an annual meeting. It's something I've avoided in the past, but I was curious to see what New York City is like these days. The picture painted from the outside is quite grim, but if you learn anything from traveling it's that the...