I was doing OK… then we changed routine. I’m still trying – please keep checking.
My brain, being broken in all the ways I’ve come to know, has been thinking of this trip as a string of four segments. That I do this is actually a bit disappointing to me… like I’m somehow unable to let the trip be organic – I have to dissect it and give it a taxonomy and think of it as a series of beginnings and ends. While I worry about that, I guess it’s just how I do. So, to the point, I’ve been thinking of this trip as a string of four segments: (1) Pre-Hawaii, (2) Post-Hawaii, (3) Cruise-to-Christmas, and (4) the great unknown. We’re in the second segment now, having finished both our Pacific Northwest tour & our Hawaii vacation-from-vacation. Sharaun goes on her New Kids cruise this coming week and after that we have about two months to meander from California to Florida (our third segment, in my diseased thinking).
I’m looking forward to finally ranging afar from home – to striking out across country and leaving the west coast behind. We’ve talked about consciously slowing down the pace, spending more time in each stop, reducing diving time even more. We started this week, spending Monday nearly all week camped in the same place. I loved it. I had time to sit in the sun in my cam chair, drinking a beer and practicing tying knots (what is it that’s so fascinating about tying knots?). Had time to pull out the guitar for the first time yet on the trip and practice chord changes (no, I cannot play a dang thing still). Had time to take a nap in the hammock with Cohen & zip-tie a life-sized skeleton to the ladder on the back of the RV to show our Halloween spirit.
I want more days where there is nothing to do at all. Not even a planned hike or anything. Just wake up, go for a walk with coffee, do school, and then have the rest of the day for reading and thinking and whatever the heck else we want.
I think we’ll get better at this. We’re already adapting in what I see as healthy ways – learning from our time thus far and tweaking. Example: Keaton and I had been averaging about 90min of math every day for school. This was encroaching on the time Sharaun had for her other subjects, and, when I pulled-up the class webpage for the 7th math teach she’d have if she were in school back home I was surprised to discover that we were fast outpacing them through the material thus far. The solution: Change math to ~40min/day and slow down, spend more time on mastery. I switched to the new model this week and it already feels a lot better to me (and to Keaton, I think). We’re learning…
Until later, peace.
Also written on this day...
- just some new pictures - 2010
- fathering gold - 2007
- champagne and scallops - 2006
- is anything real here? - 2005
- i hate 80s cover bands - 2004
- kiling ants - 2003