I was playing around with all of the mapping code I've developed over the years, trying to capture the condos I'm staying at on a Belize island. I happened on Vue, one of my favorites, which I can't even remember when I wrote it, and it grabbed a stretch of sand right in front of the condos, which you can navigate in both directions.
To run it, click the image below:
I will have been here for three years when August rolls around. When I first got here I was drinking water right from the tap because that's what I was used to. We had well water in Idaho and I was the guy who dove under the house to change the filter regularly so I know it was clean and great. I didn't like the taste of this water and assumed it was just typical city bullshit water, and started buying bottled water and setup a large dispenser. A significant amount of my grocery budget has been going to water.
Then last night my neighbor Daniel who was born and raised here and is the utility guy for the entire school district tells me that the water here is great. What?
We were watching a YouTube video of the Jack Daniels whisky plant down the road where the water was pumped out of a limestone cave, and he said that our town water was pumped up out of a well and filtered through limestone. The reason it tastes funny is because the city is mandated by the feds to add chlorine to it. He just fills a jug and lets the chlorine evaporate naturally before drinking it.
So, I got out some paper cups and we did a taste test in my living room. The water I've been buying was so filtered down it had no taste, where Daniels aerated tap water tasted like water.
I'm now going to fill my two big jugs of store bought water with tap water and let them sit for a bit. Thanks buddy!
And this photo has nothing to do with water, it's just the space from which this blog springs.
What an interesting time as Steph and I packed up our possessions in Kent, WA and headed East, with Riley on our tail in the Mazda. I was the transit supervisor, across two large King County outfits, stepping down for an opportunity to unwind in Teton Valley, Idaho and Steph was the mother of two, scattered across dimensions and tagging along with love.
We lived there twelve years, in a beautiful log home. The first year I took a local job as a paratransit driver and ended up doing that until we left, three years ago. Steph mastered everything she touched from the Teton Valley News to Tolbert's Hardwood Flooring and Suburban Propane.
Now, here we are in Tennessee. Steph wipes down baby asses and works at the Dollar General. I have this blog and spend most of my time yelling at Piper to keep her tail out of my fucking drink.
But, I have a passport, a double covid card, and a June hotel reservation for Caye Caulker, Belize. I'm just an old guy moving through life, until I don't. Please wish me well.
I just booked a beachfront condo for a few nights on Caye Caulker island off the coast of Belize. It's right next to where Brian and Nadia are staying and we arrive on the island the same day. Stoked!
I've been taking the same little drive every morning to uncobweb my head. It's actually the ride between the place we dropped tube floaters off last year, and the pickup spot. I know it well, it bops through downtown Lawrenceburg and some cool little spots and ends at Shoal Creek west of town.
As I drove it yesterday I conceived the idea of filming it today. I swapped my bigger tripod to my Sony and straped it down in my backseat with bungee cords. It worked amazingly well, it's one second under six minutes, watch when you can :-)
I just put new plugs, points and fresh synthetic blend into my truck and she's purrin...
I dug through all of my tools today and consolidated them into "ride with the truck" and "stay at home". You need to be prepared to leave your old vehicle by the side of the road, and hitch on home, always. Hopefully you get back to get it, and sometimes you do, otherwise when you leave you carry everthing of value with you in a backpack.
Morning update: These are actually my emergency tools, most are not making it into the travel bag. And those cool hammers on the left are my grandfathers and I don't travel with those. I think I'll take the seatbelt cutter, the tool between the hammers and tripod, and that small prybar thing with it's head near my remote. Also, I don't carry when I travel.
Took my custom hand rig down to the creek this morning to brush it off. Adding the hand-grip with an adjustor at the top and a badass small tripod to the bottom under my Sony A6500 mirrorless with a Sigma 16mm lens, made the rig balanced, easy to carry and I could set it down on things. I also use a Sony 18-135mm zoom lens.
Page 1 of 2