Road Side Running

I put on my stylish compression socks to help battle the pain and fatigue and boosted up my seat with a folded up furniture pad to change the angle, rubbed in some muscle-therapy cream and was good to go for another few hours.

We figured we'd clear El Paso by an hour and turn in for the night.

Beautiful Sunrise
Jon Danniells
October 18
Up and at 'em — with Skye Danniells at Van Horn Texas.

I love sunrises in general more than sunsets.

They take more commitment.

Around an hour after the sun came blasting over the mountain, we hit a bank of fog that did its best to suppress the sun.

All to no avail.

More Traffic Woes

We were trying to make it out of Texas.

And came so close.

Jon Danniells
October 18
Started the day on one side of Texas, been driving all day, still in Texas, just barely — at Tradewinds Tavern.

We stayed at the same hotel we did last time we were in Beaumont, Texas.

That time however was after we had a major vehicle malfunction and it was not the best of evenings, to say the least.

This time however we had had a good day of traveling and were on the last leg before rejoining Cindy in NOLA.

Unfortunately she ended up having to work on Saturday, so we wouldn't be seeing her until the end of the day. The plus side was that we could sleep in and take it easy on the way back to the Big Easy.


Jon Danniells
October 18
near Beaumont, TX via mobile
Looking forward to sleeping into tomorrow

Home and Where Your Stuff Is
(This post is a bit behind due to writer's block and being overwhelmed)

It's been around 3 years since we packed up our stuff, put it into storage and like our hunter-gatherer ancestors followed the food supply, or in our case, employment.

We ended up in Atlanta much of the time, but we also spent most of this last year in Louisiana as well as Los Angeles and all points in between.

Skye and I have made the transcontinental road trip around 8 or 9 times at this point, Cindy came along on two occasions. It's been an incredible experience and we have bonded as a family in more ways than we imagined.

One thing you learn is how much stuff you really don't need. And yet there are things you miss. For me, its been my books.

And there are little things that make life easier, like fans, dish racks, salad spinners.

Making a List Checking it Twice and Thrice

We were very organized when we first moved all of our stuff into storage. I treated it like I would a job, carefully photographing and inventorying what went into each box and then making a map of our storage unit as to where every piece was, where each box was.

A few things have happened since then. We had a second smaller unit in the Marina that we decided to squeeze in. On trips back to LA we'd pull out things we knew we'd want based on our next job, we'd also bring back stuff we realized we wouldn't need or things we acquired along the way.

Each trip things would get moved around, to jam more and more stuff in. We always managed to put more stuff in than take away.

After the first year, I convinced Cindy that there were several items we definitely didn't need. Unfortunately, several of these items were deep in the back. So I had to empty out a great deal of the unit to get to them. Invariably things got more and more out of order.

We decided to keep it simple, opting for the smaller of the two moving trucks available. We chose several pieces of furniture that we would definitely want. And a few other things, but we agreed that there were a lot of items that just wouldn't fit into our down-sized living situation.


Bad Timing Hernia

After pushing my body, again and again, something or rather several things were going to give.  The back wall of my inguinal canal happened to be what gave. It's actually happened before in the past and through rest and a thoughtful yoga program, I was able to rehabilitate without surgery. That was a few years ago and I've had no issues until now.

Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of rest and there won't be to much time for yoga.

A Very Long Monday


Jon Danniells
October 14 near New Orleans, LA via mobile
On the road again, Atlanta Los Angeles here we come

I woke up around 3 am to finish packing and getting ready. We were trying to get out of the apartment by 4:30 am and on the road by 5 so that we could take our time getting to Atlanta.

I was going to try to be more vigilant with our rest stops.

But I was feeling good and my body wasn't hurting for the first few hours. That said I would have been better off if I had taken an extra break or two.

However that little extra time cushion enabled us to take care of a couple of other things on the to-do list.


Jon Danniells was with Skye Danniells at Junkman's Daughter.( Atlanta's alternative super store!) October 14

I was looking for some luggage tags that would stand out from the others and sure enough, I found a couple. More importantly, Skye was able to find a really cool wig for her Halloween outfit.

We had plenty of time to get to a long-termed parking lot near the airport, catch the shuttle, check-in and wait.

And just as we were getting settled in, they changed the gate our plane was departing from and suddenly we were racing across the terminal.

Finally we were herded onto the plane and crammed into our seats. It was a long and uncomfortable flight, but I did manage to get a couple of naps in.


Jon Danniells October 15
Waiting for our luggage, it's been a long day, can't wait to get to the hotel — with Skye Danniells at Lax- Los Angelos Airport.

After finally catching a shuttle, we got to our hotel around 1:30.

Tumultuous Tuesday

Jon Danniells October 15
Walked out of the room and saw the Hollywood Sign. After calling LA home for so many years, it's weird to never know when I'll be back, for how long or why. — at Four Points by Sheraton Los Angeles International Airport.

Had a nice morning walk, about a mile to pick up our moving van and then headed off to the Valley and our dreaded storage facility.

Back to Storage
It was a bittersweet return to say the least.  We knew we had a lot of work ahead of us, but we also knew it would be the last time we'd be there for a while.

Initially things were going pretty smoothly. A good friend of ours who has a unit there as well, just happened to show up and was willing to lend a hand on few few crucial pieces that would have been much harder on my own.

Skye was helping out tremendously, but there are some things that are beyond her physical abilities.

After several hours, we were tired and hungry, but weren't at a good stopping point. So we had to neaten things up, put several things back in the lock up and hope nobody would bother with the things we decided to leave out.

More clothes, more books, a change of game-plan

After loading the stuff on the list we had come up with and a few additional items, the truck was about half-full.

And then, with a little prodding on my part, Cindy took a 180 on what she wanted me to bring back. We both figured, if we what was the point of storing thing, particularly clothes for 3 years if we weren't going to use them when we did finally resettle.

Deciding to Stay

With this new strategy we determined we would be able to finish, so we packed for a few more hours and then headed over the hill.

We ended up at a hotel near the Marina. I had planned to at least get a nice morning walk on the beach.  But as fate would have it, I was just too tired.

Skye had made plans to see a friend for a few hours. I could get to the beach then.

Nope, but I did manage to drive along the coast and at least see the great Pacific.

One Last Trip to Storage

We ended up loading 8 wardrobe boxes, along with another dozen boxes and bins of clothes and shoes. As well as a very assorted collection of kitchen accessories and then the books.

Like I said before I missed my books and Cindy missed hers as well. We went from agreeing that 5-7 boxes of books would be more than we would have room for to me bringing well over a dozen.

Even after packing our truck to the brim, our storage unit looked full, like we barely took a bite out of it.

Audiobook Revolution

I am an audiobook junkie. I have been listening to audiobooks since I was a teen when my mom started buying me self-help books on tape. What was available and the devices one could use to listen to a book, lecture, etc. were incredibly limited to what's available today.

Now you can find all sorts of things available to download and you're not limited to listening to them in a car or next to a bulky cassette player.

It has made these cross-country trips much more bearable. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of nonfiction. In fact, the other day I decided I needed a bit more fiction in my library and went on-line to go shopping.

True Stories

After seeing title after title, that I didn't recognize and not in the mood to listen to a classic, I ended up drifting back to the non-fiction listings and ended up with The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America  by Langdon Cook.

I downloaded this a few days before our trip and have been listening to it primarily before drifting to sleep at night. It's been incredibly fascinating.

I'm only a third done with it.

In fact I was just listening to it this morning. It makes me really want to learn to forage mushrooms.

Listening to History

Skye and I have listened to a lot of audiobooks together during the course of our car-schooling adventures.

I decided to preview Winston Churchill's take on the War he was so much a part, of before introducing it to Skye.

So far so good.

I meant for us to listen to it before we went to the World War 2 museum in New Orleans, but that didn't happen.

And then I meant to listen to it on this latest trip across the country. That didn't happen yet either, and probably won't, because....

Lance Rules the Road

I've been a big fan of Lance Armstrong for years and still am, in spite of the cheating, but I'm not going to get into that right now. I started watching the Tour de France because of him and still continue to years after he retired.

I haven't read or listened to any of his books. But I decided to go ahead and download the recently released book, Wheelmen, Lance Armstrong,  the Tour de France and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever.

It has been very interesting. It's primarily about Armstrong, but while it goes into the "making of Lance", many other players in the bicycle community are discussed. It is a fascinating insight into the world of professional cycling, and sports in general as well as marketing, branding and the way things "work".

We're only around half-way through after starting it yesterday.
It's kind of fitting to be listening to it as we drove through Texas, the state Lance is from.

We've made the pilgrimage to his bike store in Austin both before and after the admission on Oprah.

But again that's a different story.

A History of the World in Six Glasses

I listened to this for a while when Skye was napping. I wanted to continue with Wheelmen, but she would have been upset.

I figured that how the consumption of various beverages changed civilization was of more interest to me anyway.

That being said, I've only just started listening to this one and I love it. And it's not just about alcohol or tongue in cheek.

The author classifies times of history by various beverages. So instead of the Iron Age or Stone Age, he  presents the Wine Age or The Time of Tea.

Currently in Ancient Egypt with beer.

Non-Fiction Burnout

One of the big differences I've found with fiction and non-fiction is that I once I start a piece of fiction, I keep up with it until I'm finished or decide to stop because I'm not enjoying it. I rarely read more than one fictional book at a time.

However I am often reading several works of nonfiction at any given time.

Also I might be interested in a nonfiction book but can only take it so much at a time, which is certainly the case of The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms  by Amy Stewart.

I don't know whether its the reader or the author or the subject matter, but I can only listen to a chapter or so before I have to put it down, which makes it a good one to listen to at night.

Lots of great information in this one. I'll probably end up buying the actual book so that I can go back and reference things.

DOA

My first visit to New Orleans was on a cross-country road-trip with my family when I was 15 years old, over 30 years ago.

I was enamored with the city then.
I wouldn't make it back for another decade or so when Cindy and I escaped Speed 2 for a few days.  Fell in love with the city again.

We've been able to visit NOLA a few times since.

This year we've spent more time in Louisiana than any other state. We were in Baton Rouge for 4 months while I was working on Maze Runner.

Then Cindy got a job in New Orleans, that goes until  late November.

I was very excited to spend some time as the house-husband in New Orleans, grabbing up all sorts of teachable aspects of the region.

Problem was by the time Skye and I reached NOLA, we were completely fried with traveling.
I'm usually a great tourist. And for the first couple of days, I did my best and it was almost my undoing.

Things We've Seen

That said we've jumped in with two feet plus.

We joined the Audubon Nature Group, we've gone on swamp tours, been to various festivals, been to a fair share of restaurants and bars.

We've hung out with "burners" and pirates We've been to more than our fair share of farmers markets.

I've shared a lot of these adventures via facebook and this blog.

We've also tried to relax and not burn out, which I've also shared via same outlets.

So I won't take up too much of the post on those past endeavors.

So how did the last weekend down in the Big Easy go?

One Can Only Eat and Drink So Much

Eating and drinking in New Orleans is neither a hobby or a sport, it is a way of life.

As such, consumption is practiced on every level imaginable with results that follow accordingly.
If that comes across a bit convoluted, Byzantine or contrived, what I'm trying to say is that there are many restaurants, bars, and other ways and places to get food and drink in this city.

And as one can imagine in that mix you'll find the good, the bad and the ugly.

But since we are foodies to a degree and are almost always up for a culinary adventure, this last weekend found us at a couple of the Louisiana Seafood Festival, Root, and well, some places in between.

After a long work week for Cindy and a roller coaster week for me, I didn't think we'd be going out on Friday night. But we got a second wind and were able to go out for a long overdue and needed date night at the restaurant Root.

It definitely got a mixed review from us. The food was showy and yet unremarkable and the service was not bad but certainly not worthy of a place getting the reviews and charging the prices Root does. Certainly not bad but not worthy of the hype,

City Park and the Louisiana Seafood Festival

We chanced upon City Park on one of our ventures from Baton Rouge while I was on Maze Runner.

There was too much to see then and even though it was high on my list of things to see and do, we've barely scratched the surface, since our first encounter.

Skye and I ventured there a couple of times to bike and exercise. But between hernias and burnouts, we barely did it justice.

I aimed to make up for this slight by spending most of this weekend at the park, checking in at the Louisiana Seafood Festival when we got hungry or needed some musical diversion and then taking in some of the attractions that City Park had to offer.

Problem was how hot it got and humid and oh yeah, all the other stuff we had to do, in regards to our nomad life-style transition to whatever the next phase will be, aka packing.

And thus,.....

We made it out on Saturday, after braving the public transport system, which is good, but when you're faced with high temps and humidity, waiting for a tram or bus can be less than pleasant.

Give to the Arts

I usually join museums rather than paying for a day pass.

I do this for practical reasons as well as philanthropic ones. There are usually reciprocal programs involved. So when you join an art museum in one part of the county you can visit art museums all over the country.

And such was the case for us.

We signed up as members at the High Museum in Atlanta and were able to waltz into NOMA and the Japaneses-fest, as well.

Talk about win-win.

Some of What We've Missed

It's hard to say you've missed something when you've seen and experienced so much....however
I did want to wander down south a bit to explore Houma.

But we didn't for a variety of reasons. So I was very curious when we ran across an exhibit about the Houma culture at the New Orleans Art Museum.

I found it interesting on bunch of different levels, particularly with its being juxtaposed to the Japanfest going on all over the museum.

It made me think about what ends up in an art museum, its presentation , as well as bunch of other stuff.

(Unfortunately I am once again beyond pressed for time. It's Monday morning. I am not packed. And we need to hit the road in a couple of hours. Yikes!!!)

The list of activities, places, etc that I still want to experience in Southern Louisiana is too long to get into at this moment in time.

What We Saw

A Tea Ceremony

Anime Shorts

An odd "Lolita" fashion-show

And some art and such

Home Sweet Home

We didn't last much longer at the festival.

And we never made it out again that night.

And didn't get much more packing done.

Leaving us with a ton to do on Sunday. So we opted not to make a second trip to the park and festival.

However (facebook cut and paste cheat).....

Jon Danniells
16 hours ago near New Orleans, LA via mobile
Packing(again), getting for the upcoming week of more packing and another road trip. Yikes! NOLA-ATLANTA-Los Angeles-NOLA-Atlanta and unpack

Saying goodbye to some friends — with Cindy Carr at Audubon Butterfly Garden & Insectarium.

Jon Danniells 12 hours agoRelaxing aka putting off packing — with Cindy Carr at Sylvain Resturaunt.

And then our requisite Sunday evening TV made up of Homeland and Boardwalk Empire.

And now at just a bit before 6 am, an hour or so before we plan to get on the road, I'll shave, shower, pack and try to get out of here.

Still on today's To-Do list, a 7-hour drive from NOLA to Atlanta and then flying to Los Angeles.

A Broken Record

I wonder sometimes how many sayings of yesteryear will carry on after the technology that
created them ceases to exist.

Anyway....

Once again, I am trying to get back in shape. And once again, I'm finding it harder and harder to start for a variety of reasons. 

We Interrupt This Program...

I started this particular blog post a few days ago. I was going to talk about how my last epic road trip physically destroyed me as well as other things that have influenced my physical-not-well-being, and I still intend for that to be the subject of this post, however, things have gone from bad to worse in that matter.

Are You Sure?
 
A while back, I'm pretty sure I had a hernia, an inguinal hernia, it was self-diagnosed, which I've actually become pretty good at for a variety of reasons. I'm not opposed to seeking medical advice, but I take it with a grain of salt for a number of reasons.

That said, I did talk, informally to a doctor friend and he agreed with me that I should avoid going under the knife if possible. So I dialed things back, focused on a yoga treatment and after a few weeks the symptoms were gone and I was back in action.

Once again, I am faced with a possible hernia. There is a good part of me that would like to consult with a physician, but here it is Thursday, we hit the road Monday to Atlanta and a flight to LA, and Tuesday, Skye and I are in our storage facility in the San Fernando Valley packing up a truck to drive across the country to our condo in Atlanta, setting up our first home-base in around 3 years.

I could find a doctor somewhere between here and there, I suppose.
In all likelihood they would confirm my diagnosis and tell me to take it easy, which I would love to do, except for how much that would cost, both financially and emotionally as well as "strategically".

So I'll buy a funny hernia belt and wear compression shorts and will probably be fine.

I had to skip my juijitsu training last night which was a drag because it was the last time I would be training at American Fight Club, with Joe Savoian and his wonderful group. At least Skye got to play.

We Know Return to Your Regularly Scheduled Program....

I really pushed myself on that last transcontinental trip.

I've realized how bad driving is for me in the last few years. It's messed up my shoulders, neck, back, legs, etc.  But I have had to chalk it up to an occupational hazard. And even though I know better, our industry/culture doesn't like whiners and I have built up a reputation of being able to endure, perhaps much to my disservice.

By the time we were on the last leg of our journey, I had to ice my knee while driving and was downing 5-hour energy drinks with Advil.

When I got on the treadmill for the first time, my knee, ankle and hip were giving me trouble within a couple of minutes.

In Worse Shape Than I Realized

Running was difficult. And then I started playing with my Indian Clubs, my neck and shoulders were not well. My toes are still suffering from nerve damage from the 50K. My flexibility is the worse its been in as long as I can remember.

I first became aware of the hernia when we were doing simple body-weight exercises at the park. 

Failing to Sleep

I have long prouded myself with how little sleep I need to function. Again I thought this was good and it did help me do some amazing things.

Crazy hours that are appreciated in the film business, on road trips, at Burning Man, however the more and more I research the matter I am once again doing myself a disservice to the point where I don't even realize how tired I am and what damage I am doing to myself emotionally and physically, which ends up effecting those around me.

I have started to let myself sleep. And it has been good.

Navel Gazing

This amount of introspection about my physical state does verge on a Milley Cirrus, look-at-me level, however because of how we're living, I couldn't pin down when I had my last hernia episode or how long it lasted and what I was doing at the time. Skye, Cindy and I sort of put it together piece-meal, but because I didn't blog about or face-book it last time around, I am just not sure.

Back in the Saddle

Like I said, I will more likely than not make it through this without my guts spilling out. But I do plan to take this as a lesson to pay attention to my body. And I do plan on coming back with a bullet-proof core.

Yoga, yoga, yoga

And of course my girdle/hernia belt.



Broken Record

The Story of Milagro Vertical Farms and Professor Danniells

Ironically, I decided to blog about my latest project, a worm-farm because I thought it would be a short concise little piece I could grind out relatively quickly.

Then I started going through my various worm bookmarks which lead to me going through old pictures and blog posts.

You see, worm-composting is nothing new to me. In fact, I had considered selling "worm-farms", worm-castings and worms at one point.

Farmer Jon

Initially my interest in worms was for the worm-castings to use in my garden.

It grew and evolved because of an ecology class I started for Skye and a handful of home-school kids. Our back-yard and garage became a classroom and experiment.

We ended up with all sorts of "live-stock", ranging from rabbits and chickens to beetles, crayfish, tilapia and of course earthworms.

Waste Not Want Not

I learned more than the kids did in the process and it really got me thinking a lot about a lot of different things, including how much food we waste. A very eye-opening book on the topic is American Wasteland.

We had gotten pretty efficient when it came to diverting trash from landfills. Junk mail ended up going into the compost bins or the worm farms. Table scraps went to the chickens or the worms or the crayfish. Stale bread fed beetles and their larvae which got feed to the chickens and tilapia.


When we decided to go nomadic, it became harder and harder to have much control over where our waste would end up.

As soon as we had found a place to stay in Atlanta, I decided to purchase myself a house-warming gift.

Nothing Endures But Change

The Worm Dude doesn't sell, the Worm Factory anymore. Now its the Worm Inn. It looks very cool and interesting and I was really tempted to give it a try.

However since I was already familiar with the ins and outs of the Factory, I decided to go with it.

But now there is the Worm Factory and the Worm Factory 360.

I decided to upgrade to the 360, from Wormfactory.us

TMI
Along with an upgraded Worm Factory, I received some supplements for the worms' ecosystem which included, coir(ground coconut fiber), pumice, and "minerals", along with a DVD, and a booklet, The Complete Guide to Composting with the Worm Factory 360.

It was a bit intimidating even though I had already owned several worm bins, made my own, owned a couple of books on vermiculture and conducted several class sessions on the subject.  But after, flipping through the pages a bit, I got into the swing of things and was back to playing with dirt, garbage and of course my favorite, Annelida, the red wigglers and their pals, the European nightcrawler.

I did end up buying my worms from the Worm Dude, for old-times sake.

Constantly Looking for Balance and Limits

I don't remember the circumstances that I came upon this quote and thought it was one I might use to navigate through life.

My mom was big on quotes and self-help books. 

The halls of learning, aka schools and classrooms always had quotes from learned and amazing people strewn across the walls.

I guess in hopes that we might soak it in.

The church had quotes, mostly biblical all over the place, although I doubt that's where I came upon this one, though there is the reference to heaven, so.....

The point being, that for the better part of my developmental stage, (as if we should stop developing), I was indoctrinated in the mostly Western concept that pushing oneself, testing one's limits, etc. is a good and worthy goal. Hard work and industry was good, Animal Farm and commie-red bastards be damned.

Actually, upon a few moments' inspection, the concept is hardly Western.
It's just skewed differently.

Skye and I recently listened to Siddhartha and the whole journey of Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin involved in self-discovery and testing one's limitations. 

And I believe this to be beneficial endeavor, both to one's self-fulfillment and to human-kind, for better or for worse.

That being said, I have found that self-preservation and self-awareness are also to be valued, although I've had to pick up those qualities on my own. 

My mother, as well as other well-meaning mentors who helped get various ideas swirling about my head during those "formative" years, also harkened to the ideals of Nietzsche  "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." as well as a plethora of others

"A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave." - Benjamin Franklin

'Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Helen Keller

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.” Thomas Edison (1847-1931);

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826);
3rd U.S. President


I don't consider myself a workaholic or a perfectionist, although there are those that would argue that statement.

Getting There from Here; More Than 10,000 Miles

It was only a couple of months ago that I was finishing decorating a movie.

I had sworn off decorating more than once, but here I was doing it again.  And it wasn't a bad experience by a long-shot.
But like so many things I take on, I didn't make it easy for myself, and even though it is totally pertinent to this blog post, I won't go into it right now.

I will tell you this, decorating a feature film can really take it out of you.

So when I was packing us up and getting ready to drive across the country to get to Skye's Shakespeare camp, I was already beat down and done and ready for a vacation.

That didn't happen.

In its place a monster/amazing/soul-searching/physical/mind-bending road trip happened.

A lot of people would think that camping up in the High Sierras for a couple of weeks, followed by driving up the Highway 1 on the California Coast, couldn't be anything but a vacation.

And then there was a week at Burning Man and another cross-country road-trip that included time in Yellowstone National Park and Mount Rushmore and then "idle-time" in New Orleans, and one wouldn't be faulted with thinking that that was one hell of a vacation, or even stay-cation.

Or....

It can be seen as exhausting, especially given that the whole time I am doing my best to home-school our 15-year-old daughter.


"The Emperor Has No Clothes", "Cutting Off One's Nose to Spite One's Face", "Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater" and other Well-Meaning, Yet Distracting Pithy Maxims

Or are they?

And that is the next part of my plight, a "First World Dilemma" , but one that might have real trickle-down impact.

If you're still reading at this point, you might be as much as an endurance junkie as I am.

But seriously, actually I was being serious....

When we started out on our home-school Odyssey, I had no intention on re-inventing the wheel or going off-the-grid or becoming a community activist or reawakening my childhood/adolescent/young-adult circus fantasies.

However...
Once you take off the emerald glasses, oh all sorts of things might happen.

"You Had It Coming"
I have been training in Brazilian jujitsu for a long time now.

Almost 20 years, which freaks me out to say the least.

When I started, there were only schools in Los Angeles and New York, so when I went on location, I had to be OK with a Judo or wrestling studio.

And I was fine with that for a while. But it became a drag and I eventually gave it up.

For a few years and then I went back at it. And even then it wasn't easy.


My semi-nomadic life meant that I was never at a studio long enough to earn a belt.

When I bounced down to Baton Rouge, I ran into a Machado Bros, completely by accident. I had been given the name of a different studio, but a google-search and gut-feeling prompted me to go to AFC, American Fight Club.

As it turned out we were both "Old school Machado Vets" , so when he put this brown belt on me. It felt good. It felt deserved. The Atlanta crew I had been training with had more than hinted at giving me one.

At the end of the day, it really made sense to get it from Joe.

I want to go into this more but back to burning/spinning to make sense.

Putting Down Roots, Literally

I did the vertical/small-space farming when we were in LA.

I had a great time, but swore that our next house purchase would be a turn-key condo that could be rented out easily if we weren't there.

We've committed to that to an extant in our latest rental in Atlanta.

But I still couldn't resist buying a worm farm and already I'm looking into friends who have parcels where I might plant.


I could go on about my revelations and reservations, but I think I've rambled on enough.