Brew day

I got a bit of a late start today, but I brewed a batch of prickly pear mesquite mead and a heady topper clone. That obviously used up a great deal of water, and I'm now left with eight empty jugs. I took the opportunity to scrub my water filters to improve their flow rate; I have four full jugs, which should be enough to see me through any hiccups while I build my reserve over the next week or so. If necessary, I can always filter more with my katadyn.

I'm thinking more and more about life at sea. Not perpetually, but mostly. Daily life would be utilitarian; solar distillation of water, checking weather and charts, sprouting seeds, that sort of thing. It would be simple in some ways and complex in others. Right now, aside from sailing, I think that the two most useful skills to have that I don't have already would be scuba diving and welding. In any event, I'll find some entertainment by making lists of what I would have to bring for such a lifestyle.

I really just want a life where I'm free and alone, so I can wait in peace.

The purge continues

Today, I got rid of 24 more things. Well, I earmarked 24 more things to go away; they're now on the pile of "going away". I've felt essentially no regret about any of the things in the pile. On Sunday, I sorted the pile that existed at the time into "donate", "electronics to recycle", "leave at little free library", and "trash". I'm not pleased to be throwing stuff away, but it was going to go in the trash sooner or later. It might as well be now. In any event, I'm fairly confident that I still generate a fair bit less trash than most people, at least most Americans.

Everything in the pile that was going to a little free library has gone already. Tomorrow, the existing pile of stuff to donate will leave. When I got home today, I got my bike trailer ready to travel (repositioned one of the inner tubes and aired up the tires) and brought my full-frame bike down off its trainer stand, swapped the rear wheel, and generally got ready to bring my trailer along tomorrow. So my trip tomorrow will be on a conventional upright bike, but I'll hopefully get a lot of stuff brought to Boomerang's; some of it is pretty good stuff.

I have found myself looking into a lot of cabinets and lockers to find stuff to purge. Of course, if I have to dig that deep, it's probably to get at stuff I never use, AKA stuff I won't miss.

The simpler I make my life, the more I enjoy it. Well, really, the less I regret it.

An anticipated shift

I went on vacation to visit family, in a place where there was no provision for swimming and where I could neither reasonably bring nor ride a bike. So my 80/20 triathlon training has essentially not happened at all for the better part of two weeks. I have ridden my trike a great deal, and I went for several runs, but these exercises were essentially unstructured. I also didn;t have a 10-pounds weight with me for my strength training exercises, but I did 101 reps of each anyway.

I've purchased several pairs of boxer briefs made in the USA of 95 percent bamboo-derived rayon. My wardrobe slowly approaches being of high quality, simple clothing made in the USA of mostly natural fibers. I also received fenders for my trike, which I plan to install tomorrow.

My purge has been going well. It's amazing how quickly any anxiety over the loss of a thing goes away; admittedly, any anxieties I have are very minor. I'm planning on keeping out one bowl, one plate, my spork, and my enamel mug, and putting any other dishes, drinking vessels, and utensils that I end up keeping into a "for when company is here" container.

Duty calls

On Thursday, I took a personal day off from work. I rented a uhaul van (changed at the last moment to a truck by uhaul for no apparent reason and without any option otherwise except to not rent at all) and drove about 40 miles to buy a used TerraTrike Rover for $350. It even came with a cargo rack, bottle mount, front mount for handlebar-compatible accessories, and a Princetontec swerve. When I got back and was sitting at work ordering bike parts (I wasn't on the clock), it became apparent that the upcoming night shift supervisor had called out sick, so I volunteered.

Whew.

That meant that I was up around 7AM, ran around all day, volunteered at the bike kitchen from 1800 to 2030, triked to work, slept in my office for about 2 and a half hours, stood the night shift, triked home, slept for maybe 5 hours, then went back to work to do shutdown checks with my trainees. It was a full day, but I managed to get just about everything in including my stretches and strength training. This week, I've included a 10 pound weight for the first 40 reps of my situps and squats, but I didn't have the weight with me at work where I did my exercises yesterday, I just did 101 of each exercise. The fullness of the two days did mean that I missed out on my cycling workout, but I think that the amount of triking I did at least somewhat makes up for it. I'm also planning on taking a toothbrush and a few sets of daily supplements in to work to allow for such occurrences in the future.

I ordered 8 pounds of prickly pear fruit. When it arrives, I'll make a batch of prickly pear mesquite mead. I also need to find the time to make my knockoff heady topper. I also ordered a pair of underwear made in the USA. A few years ago, I bought several pairs of mid-tier made in China boxer briefs, ostensibly made for athletic use, when I started exercising regularly; they are now barely holding together.

Today is day 7 of my month-long purge of "get rid of as many things each day as the number of the date". Getting rid of even 7 things was remarkably easy. I'm not sure I can get rid of just shy of 500 things this month, but it wouldn't surprise me and even the effort thus far has produced worthwhile results.

The meaning of success changes

Yesterday, I enjoyed my day off for the week. I slept in, got some cleaning done, stretched, lazed about a bit, and biked a long round trip to pick up 150 pounds of litters and food for my cat. I think this trip takes place perhaps twice a year; it involved taking down my full-sized bike from its training stand, swapping out the rear wheel, hooking up the trailer, etc. Once I got home, I finished a 50-minute training run and took a nap before heading in to work at midnight.

I worked for several hours, and then there was about a 3-hour gap where I wasn't needed. I suppose I don't mind sharing this here, since no one reads this but me and a few bots, but I slept at work. I didn't charge my employer for the hours, but I'd rather sleep for 3 hours at work than bike half an hour home, sleep for two hours, and bike half an hour back. Anyway, after that, I worked for another 8 hours or so and biked home. I had two workouts today for my triathlon plan; a swim that would have taken about 75 minutes and a 1-hour bike ride. The swim did not go off as planned; the current was far too strong and the waves much too high. Frankly, I consider it good that I decided to stop as early as I did. Instead, I came home and executed the bike ride, and a solid ride it was. Today, sucess for me meant accepting my limitations as a swimmer.

I'm making this a purge month. Since today is day 1, I picked 1 thing to get rid of. Tomorrow, I'll pick 2, and so on. All told, I'll get rid of nearly 500 things. Today's thing was a bottled octopus. I'm giving myself this one out; I don't actually have to get rid of all the things on that specific day. I can pick them out to dispose of, but I cannot go back on any decision unless it's on the same day I decided to get rid of that thing and I pick something else to get rid of in its place. Maybe one day I can get down to only what fits into a backpack.