Day 224- National Parks

Day 224- National Parks

I love national parks. They are a great resource. Where else can you learn, explore, and/or be in nature all for free or near free.

Last Saturday, Christine and I went on a hike in one of the 23 national parks in Washington DC, the C&O Canal. We hiked for about 2.5 miles and then turned around and hiked along the Capitol Crescent Trail.

We also took the ranger led mule boat ride for $5 each, we got an amazing tour of Georgetown by canal. All in all, we got exercise, fresh air, sunshine, an educational boat ride and saw amazing things for less than $20 including transportation and snacks.

Next week, we are planning a trip to Rock Creek Park for a hike and a picnic. And our house is planning a trip to Greenbelt Campsite for a house camping trip.

You can find out where your local parks are located by going to nps.gov or by googling your local state park service.

Day 214-And We're Back!

Day 214- And We're Back and Keeping Cool

Well, friends of competency. It turns out that my July Sabbatacal from the blog went a little longer than expected. But, I am back and I promise to really be back this time.

This being the first of August, it would be good I think to talk about keeping cool.

Its summer here in the Nation's Capital and if you ever wonder why government stops functioning in August, you have never been in DC in August.

It is so godlessly hot and sticky, you feel like your face may melt if you were to go outside. Its easy to break out in a drippy sweat, even while sitting still.

Of course, the obvious choice of keeping cool is cranking up the AC and doing absolutely nothing. But the unfortunate thing, of course, is all those air conditioners are doing their part to raise the overall temperature of the earth. And on top of that, if one too many air conditioners are on at the same time, you run the risk of a black out--much like the 20 hour black out our street had two days ago.

So, here are some cheap, easy and environmentally friendly ways to beat the heat.

1. Find places that are already cool- There are plenty of places that have the AC cranked up high. Restaurants and Theatres are obvious choices. But public libraries and museums are also a great choice, too. That way you can keep cool and support public education. Finding a shady tree in a public park is a great place to have a picnic, read and listen to your transistor radio.

2. Drink tap water- Sure, it feels really good to pull that pitcher of water from the fridge and fill a glass with ice and chug it down. But, once the cold water is inside of you, your body works hard to warm that water into body temperature. So, while your body core temperature is brought down, you body actually turns up the heat in order to bring it back to a comfortable level. Its better to just drink room temperature water. Or, drink one glass of ice water and follow that up with room temperature water.

3. Watch out on caffeine, sugar and alcohol- While an ice cold Coke, iced tea or beer may sound wonderful refreshing, you get the side effects of drinking something cold plus the physiological effects of caffeine, sugar and alcohol. The first two speed your heart up, causing your temperature to rise. And alcohol is a diuretic, causing you to loose important fluids through urine rather than cooling sweat. So much like ice water, if you drink a soda or beer, follow it up with some room temperature water.

4. Get some ice packs- When Christine worked at the LA Catholic Worker, they didn't have air conditioning at all and summer in LA can get pretty hot at night. So, they got some reusable picnic cooler ice packs from the local $.99 store. Every day, the cooler packs went in the freezer and every night they got wrapped into t-shirts and slept with. It really helps cool down those hot summer nights. On top of that, it fills the freezer. And full freezers work more efficiently and use less electricity than empty ones do.

5. Jersey Bed Sheets- Jersey bed sheets are made with soft cott0n and have a lower thread count than other bed sheets. The effect is a fabric that resembles t-shirt material. This allows for your sheets to breathe better and lets breezes cool you down. A set of Jersey sheets, an ice pack and a box fan near an open window are pretty much all you need to have a good night's sleep in the summer months.

Good luck keeping cool this summer. And we will see you on Monday.

Day 189- Urban hiking

Day 189- Urban Hiking

Well friends, it has been a month--a whole month since we were last together.

No, I had not forgotten about us. I just needed a wee vacation to get myself all together again.

General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and so I took the train down there and then slowly made my way back up via Greyhound.

It gave me a lot of time to see these fair states of ours with a lot of time to think, and read and reflect.

The highlights of my trip were walking around strange cities and seeing what I can find.

Some call this "Urban Hiking" or "Urban Exploring". It is the process of hiking through a city instead of nature. It is one of my favorite hobbies. It is a great way to get to know a city, have some exercise and it is free--or mostly free.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to urban hiking. One is the pre-planned route. Doing a little research of the city beforehand can show preplanned historical walking tours, art crawls, or architectural tours. Boston, for instance, has the Freedom Trail, a historical walking tour of Revolutionary Boston. Washington DC has Heritage Trails sprinkled throughout the city. Philadelphia has a walking tour of the Mural District. Chicago has a walking tour of the Art Loop. Or you can plan your own. Sarah Milstein gives the following advice on planning an Urban Hike for friends:

Plan your route, and — this is going to sound crazy — assume you’ll go a mile or maybe two an hour. With a group, you’ll move a lot more slowly than you expect. We usually aim for about five miles (www.gmap-pedometer.com is good for figuring out distances) and include about six points of interest and two takeout food stops.

The other school of thought is the just-show-up school. That is what I did for my trip through the South. For both Savannah and Columbia, I just showed up. While approaching each city, I would ask my neighbors on the bus if any one could recommend sights in the city to see. I kept a budget of how much I was expecting to spend in each city for food, drinks, and souvenirs. Then, I went to the visitor's center and picked up a map. I would then just walk. I would walk up and down streets looking at buildings, gardens and art galleries. I went to brew pubs to eat and would ask the locals who worked there for highlights. And I would just walk. I saw great things. I read every historical plaque I could find and absorbed the cities.

Some highlights of my trip include:
Paula Deen's Restaurant- The Lady and Sons
The Mercer-William's House from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah--Location where Jingle Bells was written
The South Carolina Statehouse and the Vista Arts District
The South Carolina Holocaust Memorial
The Memorial to the inventor of modern day gynecology

After a week of walking and exploring, I burned off 5 lbs from my waistline and took nearly a hundred photos.

It was a great week. And I have urban hiking to thank. So, head out into your city and see what you can discover.

Day 156- Netflix trix

Day 156- Netflix Trix

I love movies. If it were up to me, I would watch at least one a day. Maybe even two if I had nothing to do.

That is one of the reasons why I love Netflix. It is like a pure and constant stream of movies to my front door.

And with the summer coming up, there are few things I like quite as much as lying flat on my back in the heat and humidity with a frozen drink, a dark room, and a movie. But, on the other hand, with vacations and longer days, summer blockbusters and free concerts in the park, I could also see how people may wish to watch less films. If you find yourself in that boat, you may want to utilize some of these handy netflix "trix". All of these tricks are accomplished by first clicking on "your account" on the upper right hand corner.

1. Downgrade- The standard netflix seems to be the three at a time. But for some folks, a constant stream of three films at a time is just too much. So, why not get fewer movies? By clicking on "Change Plan", you can reduce the ammount of films you receive. Christine and I have the unlimited two movie plan--one for her and one for me. I have some friends who get only two films a month one at a time because they just don't watch too many movies. I know some folks who get four or five at a time because they can't stand the idea of going a single day without watching a movie.

Transfer- Since Christine and I are sharing an account, we each get a disk at a time. But, I am going out of town for two weeks at the end of the month and won't be watching any movies. So, I will probably give her my disk for those two weeks so that she can have two movies and I get none. Click on "account profiles". As you can see, there is an opportunity to "reassign DVD's".

Account Hold- Lets say you are going out of town for a month and you will be constantly on the road, or hiking the Appalachian Trail, or a camp counselor in the middle of the forest, or sailing the world. Or maybe you just are tired of watching movies for a while and have no one to transfer your dvd's over to. Just put your account on hold. Just click on "Put Account on Hold". This will keep all of the movies currently on your queue, save all your film ratings and reviews, plus you don't have to pay. There is just one catch, you can only put it on hold for 90 days. That being said, if you anticipate being Netflix-less for more than 3 months, you might just want to cancel the whole shabang. Just punch in the days you are gone and they will stop sending you movies and stop charging your account.
Well, I wish you good movie watching and summertime fun this season.

We are slowly but surely getting our garden all together. It has been a lot of fun. But recent weather makes it difficult to work longer than a half an hour without sudden and violent thunderstorms. But the morning glories and cucumbers are in. Tomorrow will be squash and corn I think.

Oh, my co-worker and I have started our own web comic called The First Strip of Our Webcomic. I would appreciate it if you gave it a gander.

154- Multi-Surface Cleaner

Day 154- Multi-Surface Cleaner

Well our old house has been packed up and moved. We spent an entire day cleaning the house from top to bottom.

For cleaning surfaces and windows, I mixed up a batch of all natural surface cleaner which worked just as well as the commercial product--Clorox Formula 409.

I took a large spray bottle and filled it about 2/3 with water. The final third, I filled with cheap distilled white vinegar and 1/2 tablespoon of dish washing soap.

That recipe again is:
2 parts warm tap water
1 part distilled white vinegar
1/2 tablespoon of dish washing soap.

We use Seventh Generation products at our house, so we know that my surface cleaner was 100% natural and biodegradable. There were no harmful toxins or chemicals unlike 409 Spray.

It cleaned the walls from grease, dirt, oil, and pencil marks in a breeze. And it cleaned windows with a streak free shine. (Use crumpled, old newspapers instead of paper towels to help fight streaks.)

Plus, it was made of things lying around the house, so we had a whole day's supply of surface cleaner without having to go out and buy a bunch--saving literally a dozen dollars.

Whether its for pickles or cleaning surfaces and drains, I always keep a big jug of distilled white vinegar around, just in case.

Competency Moment of the Day: I got my rebate check today! It will be going toward savings and paying off debt.

Day 147- Free Box

Day 147- Free Box

Sometimes, the best thing to do in order to keep your life clean and hygienic is to just get rid of stuff. Stuff has a tendency to pile up and get in the way. Kicking it to the curb is sometimes all you really need to do get our lives in order.

I first discovered the glory that is the Free Box while at Earlham. They had a giant box in the student center where people would put in their old closed, used books, funky CD's or chipped dinner plates. They were free for the taking. I would go there daily to see what I could find. I gave myself one rule, add an item for every one I took away. I would also give up an item of equal coolness to what I found.

This made sure the equilibrium of the freebox would stay fairly constant. There is nothing like finding that same lame book everyday for three weeks in a row. Or that ugly sweater. Or that too broken dish.

But now that I am not at Earlham, I sometimes wish I had a freebox to go to to get rid of stuff. There is always Freecycle, the national network of people who just like to trade each other's stuff. And that is all well and good, especially when it comes to things like furniture or nicer things like that. But what if your stuff is nice, but not "freecycle nice"?

That is when I start my own free box. I grab a large cardboard box and I fill it with my things. I then write "FREE" in big letters and I take it out to the curb.

I live on a busy enough street that most everything is gone by the end of the day. Anything left is usually sent down the the thrift store drop off site a few blocks over.

I have a few rules for the free box:
1. Only put things in there I would be happy to get free. If I don't think any one would want it, it might as well go into the trash.
2. Clothing has to be wearable. Jeans with crotch holes, work clothes coated in paint, ties that are fraying at the end--none of those are free box worthy.
3. Don't let it stay out for more than two nights. That just becomes an eyesore. Lets face it, sometimes people just don't want your stuff. That's OK. You don't want it either.

Day 143--When Cheap Ass Hobbies Become Expensive

Day 143- When Cheap Ass Hobbies Become Expensive

As a photographer, technology sure has made one of my hobbies cheaper and easier to perform. Film has been replaced with reusable digital data cards. And the darkroom has been replaced with photoshop and inexpensive printers.

However, it has not come without its fallout.

In order to stay competitive, Kodak--the inventor of the affordable camera--as ceased to make film cameras. And Polaroid has stopped making instant film.

No big deal right?

Not for me.

One of my personal favorite techniques is the emulsion transfer. It is where the artist takes a professional quality of instant film and before the emulsion dries onto the paper, the artist transfers it to a piece of watercolor paper. The effect is interesting and unusual.

However, with Polaroid ending it is production of instant film, not only are the days of my hobby numbered, each day the materials become more expensive.

What once cost $5 for materials now cost $20, $25, even $30 depending on what site you use.

Yup, one of my cheap ass hobbies has become expensive, and ultimately obsolete.

I bought two packs of film the other day, all I could afford right now. I am afraid they may be my last.

Good-bye Polaroid Emulsion Transfer, you have been a good hobby for me. I will miss you.