“A penny for your thoughts?” aka “What’s a penny worth? A reflection.”

I had the opportunity recently to come across a bunch of pennies tossed onto the ground in a parking lot.

I work. I make money. And I try to enjoy my life to my level of comfort. Rich and poor are relative notions. To someone living off of food stamps, finding a better paying job, or a job in general, might the best thing to happen that year. To the pro basketball/football player, a million dollars over a 5 year contract might be a negotiating point. Just the concept of having a million dollars in the bank even after a lifetime of work seems like an astronomical amount. Continue reading

Trip:Earth:USA:Carlsbad Caverns:Day 3

Awesome night.

Slept so well that I slept through my alarm. That’s ok. Mother nature and her sun woke me up. Got food started and had lasagna with cheese for breakfast. While that was cooking up i broke camp again and put everything else away. Ate and quickly drove up to the center for my next two tours.

Left hand tour is done by candle light. Not tons to see by but that isnt the point. You get to see, literally, what it was like for the original explorers trying to venture in the tunnel. Your eyes adjust as well to the decreased light. The pictures were taken on the way out. I got lucky to be the last one out. Continue reading

Trip:Earth:USA:Carlsbad Caverns:Day 2

Drunk douches last night. What a pleasant way to start a day.

Loud and crazy all night long. The manager had to come out to try and get them shut up. Of course being drunk, i was worried they were going to get into a fight as i could hear voices escalating as i was trying to sleep. I passed out sometime around 3am and woke up around 6:30am. Cold but a beautiful day. It was also very very windy last night. Glad I had staked down my lines and had the fly on. I broke camp down and threw it into the car as I wasn’t sure where i would be spending the next night. I had a vegetable medley and tea for breakfast and off for my day at Slaughter Canyon

It was beautiful. We started with a quick intro then got our helmets and lamps. We caravaned about 30-45 min to the parking area then hiked up to the entrance. Yup. I’m out of shape. The pictures of course don’t do the area justice. I did learn that all minerals fluoresce, some just faster than others so you don’t see it. It was a cool trick in the dark cavern at the end. There were slick spots from water and from being worn away from foot traffic. Afterwards i came back to the center. I got info on the backcountry camping and went to see the big cave.

Ok.

That was impressive. And it really is big. Again i wish i had my slr/tripod. I thought i couldn’t use the tripod at all but it’s just on tours. Drat! My point and shoot did its best with the direction i gave it. I need a tripod or stand for the point and shoot. Afterward I had a late lunch at the picnic tables and read while enjoying the warm weather and view. Finishing up I went back to get a permit. Yup. Spent too much time enjoying the view. They were closed again. Back to the campgrounds. The gentleman was nice and i got a second night for $10. Not sure if that is the going rate or because of the loud people the night before. I’ll take it either way. I set up camp and had a very quiet and peaceful night. Not even windy. Hindsight for taking off the fly even if it was cold. Alarm set for the next morning. I get to sleep in an extra 30 minutes.

-SFA

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Trip:Earth:USA:Carlsbad Caverns:Day 1

Why start with this kind of title? I hope that at some point in my life, long or short that it may be, i will have the opportunity for space travel and specifying that i wrote this from earth might actually mean something.

Day 1

I woke up late and then got a late start to the drive. I had hoped to get a very early start to not only make it to the visitor center for a backcountry camping permit, free by the way, but to also check out the two main public caves and the city itself. As expected, and thankfully, i got 0 out 0 bars on my phone most of the trip. I was ‘forced’ to take the time to write in my journal instead of just typing away each day. I felt good writing down on paper my thoughts, like i was releasing, pardon the imagery, the spiritual constipation within me. Continue reading

Adaptation – addendum

watching the news during lunch i saw that there is a debate brought on by the worldcup. apparently the run by the us team had a record number of us  viewers and this has caused an issue. some people see this as a good thing that we might be integrating more with the world while others see this as a possible diminishing in identity as a nation.

just makes me wonder how will we adapt to this.

food for thought.

-SFA

Adaptation

So there I was contemplating continuing my blog but not publishing what I write. For what purpose? Well, it would go back to the original purpose of being a journal. I get to keep writing and putting my thoughts down. Here’s how my decision went down and it’s ok if it doesn’t seem to make sense…

Continue reading

Trip:Earth:USA:St Thomas, USVI

Ends can be beginnings….

There aren’t that many people that I know that don’t like to go to the beach at some point. There are some that just don’t or are  so pasty white the idea of the sun might cause a sun burn. I have been fortunate that even when I have burned it doesn’t hurt. Regardless… Continue reading