First trips in the kayak!

We spent this weekend out at lake LBJ with some friends. My friend brought his new fishing kayak, and I brought mine. The Bronco Sport was pretty full on the way out there. This trip was the longest distance I’ve driven with the kayak, so I was a little nervous on the way out, but it held up fine. Friday morning I took the kayak out in the cold and hit the lake.

It took me a little while to get used to controlling it. On the first trip out the rudder wasn’t down all the way, so once I got that cleared up the ability to steer with my feet is really nice. It also took me a little while to get comfortable standing, but I figured that out as well. The PWR129 has great, “secondary stability,” meaning that it will wobble a good bit but then you hit a point and it just stops. So once I learned to let it just wiggle knowing that I could lean into that stable point, standing up got a lot more comfortable.

It was very cold on Friday. This rod later snapped in half when I was trying to set the hook on a fish Saturday night.

Unfortunately, I didn’t catch any fish in the kayak this trip, so that milestone is still out there. I caught a good size bluegill and a nice size bass from the dock at our house, which was nice. But that cold water and rapidly shifting temps in both directions seemed to be putting the fish in a weird mood. I think in about 2-3 weeks it’s going to be great fishing out there.

The weekend before, I was hoping to get a little time on the water at lake Walter E. Long just east of Austin. But when I got there, got everything all unloaded, and got the kayak in the water I noticed that the trolling motor didn’t have power. It was nothing easy, so I had to pack everything back up and head home. I quickly discovered when I got home that several of my wiring splices had come loose. I guess it was the vibration from the car ride. All-in-all I consider it a blessing in disguise because I got some much nicer butt connectors, a better crimper, and some shrink wrap tubing and redid them all. Now my splices are super solid.

The moon at the lake Thursday night when we arrived.

One last kayak story… I didn’t charge my trolling motor battery Friday overnight. I paid for this decision on Saturday. I wasn’t catching anything, and I knew the wind was going to slow me down coming in, so I decided it was time to head home. I crossed the lake over to our side, made it about three houses, and the motor just stopped. Battery was dead. I had my paddle, but the wind had picked up while I was back in some canals off the main lake. I started paddling and during the gusts it was all I could do to not go backwards. Eventually I got to a point where the lake turned and I was able to get some wind relief from the houses by hugging the shoreline. But that was a long, hard paddle back to the house. But it was good in some sorts, to get to practice what happens when I run out of battery or something else goes wrong with the motor. You can always paddle!

Motor Deploy System Finished, Car Rack Success, and more!

First off, I did a test run of getting the kayak up on the Bronco Sport, getting it strapped in, and driving it around the neighborhood. It’s a little bit of work out (I have something on the way that should help with that, more on that in a later post), but I got it up. Once all the straps are tightened it doesn’t want to go anywhere. It will be interesting to take it on the highway. Also, this practice run allowed me to work out some ordering issues (for example, you can’t load anything through the tail gate once you tie down the back) and work through the packing checklist. I didn’t know how easy the loading and unloading process was going to be, but now I feel confident that I have it under control.

I was able to do some work on the kayak setup as well as several parts arrived while I was in Boston.

With me using the MinnKota Powerguide instead of the MotorGuide Xi3, I had a need to adapt the motor deploy system that came with the wiring kit that I bought. The Xi3 has one big pedal to release and store the motor. The MinnKota on the other hand has two levers. One you see in the picture on the left which is used to hold the motor when it is completely stowed. However, with how the motor sits on the mounting plate, I also need to open that lever when I deploy to get it around that mounting plate.

The picture on the right shows the lever that you need to pull to release the motor to be pulled up. So I had the need to depress two different levers at different points in the process. I used the carabiner that came with the kit to attach to the big lever in the front, and found a very thin carabiner around the house to attach to the metal part of the release pedal. I used spectra cable with some simple loop knots as the pulls for each lever. These run into the hull using the YakAttack thru-hull wiring kits. With the carabiners it’s easy to remove the motor for transport.

There’s another thru-wiring plate where the spectra cord comes out, and I tied on some simple T-pulls to the end of the cable. There was one trick that I learned from the Bonafide guys who sold the wiring kit that I thought was really clever.

You use a piece of bungee cable and tie the spectra cable to it with slack in the spectra cable between the two knots. This helps to create some tension in the spectra cable to resist you pulling and make the process easier.

I had to buy more spectra cable, more bungee cord, the T-pulls, and another set of thru-hull wiring plates. But then it all came together really easily.

The other key part of the system that came in the Bonafide kit was some cord that you actually use to pull the motor up and let it down. This cord is attached to the trolling motor shaft with a loop, and you keep it tight with a YakAttack gear track cleat. Below is the video of me deploying and retrieving the motor:

So this was really the last big thing that I needed to do to make the kayak useable. My current plan is to get it on the water for its inaugural fishing voyage this coming Saturday. I have an appointment with Texas Parks and Wildlife this week, so I should have boat registration numbers before Saturday. Sunday is supposed to be raining all day, so it will be a great day to work on the last little details for the kayak before we head out on a fishing trip with some friends at the lake the following weekend. So this is what the boat looks like all kitted out (it’s missing my safety flag on the back, but otherwise, this is what it will look like on the water).

In Boston

I’m in Boston for a few days for a work meeting. When I have traveled for work in the past it’s almost been exclusively overseas, so it was always at least 5 days if not seven or more. This trip is two nights… fly up, meet, come home. Not bad. I would like to make it back up here at some point as a tourist.

When we were landing we swung over the Atlantic and came in from the east and while we were over the ocean the mist coming off the water was interacting with the setting sun in a crazy way. Just wanted to share that.

Continued progress on the kayak

One big step taken this weekend which is I got the crossbars and cradles put on the Bronco Sport. These are the Yakima cross bars with their Big Catch cradles - the only kayak mount that is actually rated to hold modern fishing kayaks. It’s nice as well because it came with all the straps necessary to secure the kayak. I think I will have to adjust the cross bars a little to get as much distance as possible between them, but that’s an easy fix. I want to give a huge thanks to The Rack Shop. I showed up at 1:30, with them closing at 2, hoping to just make an appointment, and my man went ahead and stayed and got it installed on the spot. Amazing! If you need any sort of rack or accessories, go check them out!

There isn’t a lot of progress from a finished perspective on the kayak this week, but I figured out how to get the trolling motor to deploy and stow from the cockpit area. The kit I got for the Motorguide had some stuff for this, but the MinnKota has two levers that I have to pull, so I was able to modify the setup to make it work. While I did test it with some temporary stuff, I had to order some random things to actually finish it off. I’ll take pictures once it’s actually setup for real.

I will say, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the problem solving of getting this thing all setup. I really didn’t expect to - I’ve always kind of felt I wasn’t good a this. But I think the kayak is looking pretty good and it’s functional. Getting the MinnKota was scary because there was nothing on the internet about this. But honestly, it’s been a real good surprise how much fun I’m having with this.

So it’s been a good distraction from all the fascism going around.

This week I’m heading to Boston for work. I haven’t been to Boston since the mid-00s, so it will be neat. We’re going to be in the suburbs, so it’s not like I’m having a meeting in the middle of town, but it will cool to get this customer visit in.

Hopefully next weekend I can finish up the build on the kayak on Saturday and get on the water on Sunday.

Kayak progress... power!

Today I had some time to work on the kayak. Last week when I posted I was still trying to figure out where to put the circuit breaker for the main motor circuit. You want it close to the power source, but there really wasn’t a good spot. I looked into some options of trying to create something, but it wasn’t panning out.

Then I discovered that you can buy battery boxes that have a circuit breaker installed in them. This concept was perfect. It was the right size to still fit in the battery well behind the seat, it put the breaker adjacent to the battery, and it gave the battery some protection from water. I ordered one of those and it showed up early in the week. I also had gotten my crimpers and wire strippers in the mail this week, so I had everything I needed.

The battery box with the quick disconnect halves attached.

I moved the mount for the wheels back a bit and that allowed the battery box to fit in. It came with a strap that fit nicely through the bracket to secure it down. Connected the battery to the box circuity and the quick disconnect plug to the terminals on the outside. A strip, crimp, and shrink tube and the connection to power was complete. I have the wire routed through the left side of the kayak inside the hull. The next thing was to cut off some of the wire coming out of the motor and attach the plug on there that matches the outlet I installed last weekend.

Plug that connects the motor to power.

I cut off a decent amount of the wire coming out of the motor, and spliced the plug on. I will say, getting used to exactly where you need to crimp is not the most straightforward thing. At least with the heat shrink tubing, it gives you a little more security. This tubing has a glue inside as well, so once it shrinks that glue melts and makes a nice seal.

Inside kayak splice to motor plug receptacle.

I made the last splice inside the hull which connected the main length of wire coming from the battery to the wires coming off of the receptacle I installed last weekend for the motor plug. (I of course disconnected the battery before doing this as this completes the circuit.) Once this connection was made I went back and reconnected the battery and heard the motor beep. At this point I knew I was close.

I went through the pairing procedure with the remote, and then it was the moment of truth. Would the prop spin?

Success!

I’m very proud of this, which I know is kind of silly. But I really have never done anything like this since building my senior thesis hardware component, and honestly, that just involved some soldering and putting things in a bread board. Compared to what some people have in their kayaks and boats, this is trivial. But I brought it into existence, and that feels pretty damn good.

Still left to do before I can get it in the water:

1. Make an appointment with TPWD to get the boat registered and get my numbers put on.

2. I need to get the rack installed on top of my Bronco Sport so that I can actually bring it to water.

3. Still need to figure out the placement for a few things on the kayak. I know this will evolve over time, but there’s some key things I need to find a place for.

4. Adjust the pedals for my leg length. This is a pretty straightforward task, but I noticed today the stock position is really close in. They are very easy to adjust, but I need to actually sit in it.

The junk removal folks are coming on Friday, so that will also mean that I should be able to get things rearranged and the kayak holder mounted.

The Kayak has arrived!

After several years of planning, I have finally acquired my kayak! It’s a Bonafide PWR 129, and I am really excited about this boat. The above picture was right after I got it home. Huge shoutout to TG Canoes and Kayak down in San Marcos for hooking me up with this thing!

The SideKick wheel system is an easy install.

First thing was to install the Sidekick wheel kit that Bonafide makes for their newer kayaks. Since I will be transporting it on top of the car, having wheels built in is really nice. Keeps you from having to deal with a kayak car once you get the boat down to the water. Also, as you can probably tell, I was able to get the kayak up on some saw horses (thanks, Peter!) to get it up off the ground.

The stripped down bow of the PWR 129.

Today I wanted to get the trolling motor mounted to the kayak, even if I wasn’t going to be able to finish the wiring (I’m waiting on a wire stripper to arrive). The first step was taking off the rod strap and the dummy bolts from the bow. Above is the bare bow with also one of the wiring panels taken off. I love this feature from Bonafide - they have these removable panels that allow you to route stuff inside the hull. So you don’t have to drill holes to run wires. If you mess up one of these little panels, they’re cheap to replace.

The Ketch bow mount plate installed.

I then installed the Ketch PWR 129 bow mount plate as seen above. Installing this plate was the one time I intend to have to drill into the hull. But I really like the fact that it’s aluminum, and it’s super stable. It’s very well made, the craftsmanship from Ketch really shows. They had a great YouTube video for how to install it, and I followed along and got it installed without an issue.

This point in the story is where I should insert some context on the particular trolling motor that I got for the kayak. Every video or blog or anything you will see on the internet about motorizing your PWR 129 will talk about the MotorGuide Xi3 kayak trolling motor. It was the motor I intended to put on there. However, MotorGuide announced last year that they were going away as a brand. One of the other brands of their parent company (Lowrance), who also makes trolling motors, was going to be their main trolling motor brand. So all the Xi3s got snatched up. I thought I had a line on one, but then right before I was going to order it… it also disappeared.

After much searching, I found that the guys at NuCanoe, another brand of kayak popular with anglers, had started selling MinnKota PowerDrives with a cut down shaft to 36”. Since they are an official MinnKota reseller, you still get all the original warranty. So the MinnKota PowerDrive is what I went with. I ordered from a company called EcoFishing, but it seemed to still come from NuCanoe. Either way, the shipping was fast and their service was good.

Unfortunately, there really isn’t any content out there about installing this motor. I’m using the wiring kit that Bonafide had been selling for the Xi3, and luckily wires are generally just wires. But coming from the computer world where there are lots of standards and everything is very precise, this whole kayak fishing world is definitely out of my comfort zone. A lot more DIY than I’m usually comfortable with. But I don’t know, I’ve just sort of embraced it. I kind of had to if I want to get out on the water. Ok, so back to the kayak.

MinnKota PowerGuide quick-release puck

The trolling motor comes with a quick release mount, so the first step is to get this puck attached to my bracket. I actually ended up using the screws that were for some part of the Bonafide Xi3 kit that I don’t need, and they were perfect fits. After this, I had to attach the other part of the quick release mount to the trolling motor itself. I always get a little nervous when the first part of the instructions involve unscrewing the side plates off of something, but honestly, it was super straightforward.

Deployed MinnKota PowerGuide

Stowed MinnKota PowerGuide

The quick release is great. You just place it on the puck and slide in the u-bracket. It comes with a little locking pin, but you can also put a padlock on there if you need to leave it for a bit unattended. The mount through the Ketch plate feels super solid. The MinnKota doesn’t have the one pedal like the MotorGuide for deploying and pulling up, so it will be interesting to see how this is going to go when I’m on the water. I have some stuff that I can use to create a pull for both the body and the little pedal, so I might put that one, but we’ll have to see.

The next bit set of tasks revolve around actually wiring everything up. I did a few prep tasks on that, but once I get the stripper and crimper, I will be able to do a proper job of getting everything wired. My hope is to get out on the water on the 25th as we’ll be in New Orleans next weekend for the Krewe of Janus Ball.

I will be posting here as I continue to customize the kayak, and of course the results of actually getting it out on the water!

2025 Goals

While November of 2024 didn’t exactly pan out like I was hoping, I want to make sure that I set goals for 2025 to try to improve myself. I can’t control a lot of things in this world. But I can control me, and I want to end 2025 in a better state than I started it.

1. Get below 200 lbs - this is very ambitious. But I feel like that’s where I need to be weight wise to achieve a few other things. I know there is a school of thought that says my goals should be the things that I want to do once I’m at that weight, not the weight itself. But I need to drop weight - that’s the major blocker to achieving a lot of my fitness goals, and honestly, it’s just physics. Do a pull up, well I need to get stronger in my upper body pulling, but it would also be a lot easier if there was less to pull up. Running a sub 2 half marathon again, or a sub 30 5k. Again, for every kilo you lose you go faster. But that’s not just it, I also just want to fit into more clothes, and have better numbers, and on and on. So I’m going to make the core thing, dropping the weight, the goal. Now, if I hit 205 or even 210, honestly, I’ll consider this is a success. I just need to see consistent, significant movement.

2. Run a continuous 5k (stretch: under 30 mins) - In all the running I’ve done in recent years, I’ve followed a so many minutes on, and then 1 min walk strategy. And for doing half marathons it’s a great way to train and not get hurt. But it isn’t the best for going quickly over a short distance. I really believe I should be able to a) run a 5k without taking a walk break and b) do that in under 30 mins. So whatever I need to do from a mobility, training, or weight loss perspective, I’m game.

3. Do a strict pull up - This is one of those things that has haunted me my entire life. Not only is it important in CrossFit, it just seems like one of those life skills that could come in very handy one day.

4. Go fishing consistently - I will soon be obtaining a fishing kayak, and I am very excited (look for future posts as that progresses). I started trying to go fishing right before the pandemic, but it was really during and after the lockdown that I have really gotten into it. In all the stress, when I’m fishing I feel all that float away, even if I’m not catching anything. And I have always loved being on the water, and now I will have my very own little boat. Like I said, more to come here.

5. Spend more time reading - I really do like to read, I just find it hard to make time for it. Carrie and I have talked about setting aside some time each week to read as opposed to watching random stuff on TV, and I like this idea. I think I need to start to read more non-fiction. I’m not going to set a book goal or anything like that. I just want to spend a little bit of time consistently not staring at a screen, but still learning and being entertained.

Carrie and I in front of the NY Public Library. So glad we got to make a quick trip to NJ and NYC in December!

So that’s this year’s goals. I would say some more general goals would be making sure we travel, see our friends and family, and do more things in the two cities that we live in. Life is short, and I’m definitely at the point where I just want to seize it.

I hope everybody has a great 2025.

Henri and Gigi in a rare moment of being snuggly.

We made it on the plane!

We’re on the plane heading back to the USA. 🇺🇸 It’s been fun, Europe, but it’s time to go see our cats!

Didn’t see this coming

Woke up this morning to our flights out of Zurich being cancelled. We had been rebooked, but since we were on separate reservations, the system had put us on separate itineraries. So I spent a while on the phone with United, but the guy I talked to was very helpful and got us all rebooked. I even got some of the miles I used on Carrie’s ticket back? Airline fare rules are so weird.

So we’re headed to Zurich today, and I made a reservation at the Zurich airport hotel. I feel very fortunate that we’re at a point in our lives where we can absorb this without an issue, I know that’s a privilege that I’m very thankful for.

We’ve had a fun time in Geneva. We visited CERN, so the academic in me was very excited. Here’s to no more changes!

We are done!

We’re waiting for the train to leave Chamonix, and I definitely have mixed feelings. I’m sad to leave this beautiful place with the amazing food, great wine, and just mind blowing natural beauty. But I’m also looking forward to getting back to our house, our cats, and our friends and family.

We ended up hiking 7 miles yesterday, with a pretty steep climb that allowed us to skip the ladders. We had a rain storm come through (though we luckily dodged the thunderstorm that came through across the valley). We also used our water filter bottle for the first time to get water out of a mountain waterfall. But it was a good hike, and we topped it off taking a cable car down from the mountain.

I’m going to write a more in-depth day by day review of things when I get back to my laptop. But in short, it was very hard, very beautiful, and really required leaning on each other. I’m just glad there is no hiking today!

Crossed into Switzerland yesterday, rest day today

Yesterday we crossed from Italy into Switzerland on foot, which is a crazy thing to say. I ate an energy bar on an international border, while staring down a valley where I could see another international border. Wild.

It was a very pretty hike, but it was the first time my fear of heights kicked in. I had a panic on this one part where I had a hard time putting one foot in front of the next and moving my poles. It was something about the angle of the trail and the very steep we were on. But I pushed through and once we turned the corner up the switchback the feeling subsided.

It was the first part of the whole experience where slipping had very bad consequences. It was also just straight up steep. It took us a while to get up to the top of Grand Col Ferret. But the view at the top was pretty amazing. The rest of the day was just hot and dusty as we descended into Switzerland. We ended up taking the bus one town sooner than written, but we were both done.

We did have the unique experience of having a cheese sandwich while looking at the cows from which the cheese is made.

We had lovely accommodations in Champex Lac last night. Dinner was great. The hotel was super cool.

Today we took some trains to get down here right north of Chamonix in Angieterre. We are going to hike our way to Chamonix tomorrow, but we’re not doing the ladders. I don’t trust myself not to freak out. But there are several variations depending on the weather and how we feel in the morning.

It’s raining here for the first time this trip, but the weather has brought a nice cooling breeze. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler, which will be welcome.

The day hike was a great call

I’m so very glad we decided to go do a shortened day hike today. The scenery was the most postcard-worthy things we have seen yet. We took the bus down, and after about 2k of solid uphill we were rewarded with the most amazing panoramic view I think I have ever seen (this shot doesn’t do it justice, the album has the pano shot I took).

We had a light lunch of spec and brie sandwiches, an espresso, and a delicious piece of apple cake.

After that we had a very lovely 5k hike that was net down the mountain. Every time I turned around there was some new beautiful thing or a new angle on the mountains. I took an obscene amount of photos today. We also got to see all the wildflowers, as well as the cows eating the wildflowers which will eventually lead to the special summer cheese.

We ate enough, we stayed hydrated, and we kept our heart rates under control. It was a perfect active recovery day.

Tonight we have reservations a restaurant in town, so I’m sure that will be delicious.

Tomorrow we head into Switzerland 🇨🇭 and spend the night in Champex. Will report back then!

Calling an audible for a short hike

We’re going to take advantage of the free bus to go for a short hike today. This way we’ll get to see some of the scenery, but not have to be out all day. Courmayeur is absolutely lovely, and our hotel here is amazing. I’ll report back again this evening.

Day 2 was great… until it wasn’t 🤣

Day 2 started well. Generally we had our nutrition better situated and our water plan was better (definitely both could be better). Amazing views crossing the Col de Bonhomme.

Once we were done with the climbing, however, we realized that we only had 45 minutes to make it to our taxi. I also misread the instructions so I thought we had less distance to where the taxi was.

At some point on the descent Carrie and I decided to split up and I would try to get down as quickly as possible to hopefully catch the taxi driver and try to convince him to wait for Carrie. It was during this process I realized there were several more kilometers to go down than I had previously thought. I went hard and when I got to the taxi guy (who was still there, thank goodness) I had to use my very bad French to make sure it was our guy. He eventually smiled and told me not to worry and that he would wait for Carrie no problem.

Carrie was also going down as fast as she could. When she got down there we both rode over to the hotel pushed to our limits.

Because of that, we have decided to take today and tomorrow off and just enjoy two days in Courmayeur, IT. Our hotel here is very cute, and it’s the first good internet connection we’ve had in a while. Looking forward to some rest and Italian food. We will take up the hike on Tuesday to do stages 5-7.

If there’s one thing the great coaches at CrossFit Renew have taught me, is that you have to listen to your body. As Tim often says, let your breathing dictate your pace, not your pace dictate your breathing. We had that mantra in mind yesterday… well until the end lol. But we’re listening to our bodies and getting some recharge so we can finish the last three days strong.

And for what it’s worth, stage 2 was the hardest, so at least we checked that box.

Took a lot of pictures yesterday, they should all be in the shared album. A few samples are on this post. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B105oqs3qlprcQ

Well that was hard

Today was something else. The short version: we didn’t eat enough and probably didn’t have enough water. All things that can be fixed (former cyclist Taylor is judging current Taylor for making such a rookie mistake). The views were amazing, however. And honestly, I felt pretty great other than the last hour.

The internet isn’t great here, so this will be text only. The hotel we are at is super cute and supper was included which was nice.

This trail is no joke. Tomorrow is more climbing, but more refuges and the last 40% is actually all downhill. I am also going to switch my watch to kilometers instead of miles so that we can have a more accurate notion of where we are using our directions. I will say, the GPS course on the Garmin was great to have. Also, the signage really is amazing. There are times when you are like, really, we go over here? But yes, you do.

I’m also hoping we’ll get a little more acclimated to the altitude every day. Things that looked like nothing hill-wise had us both huffing and puffing.

But with that, I’m going to drink more water, use the theragun to hopefully get my muscles recovering, and get to sleep. Bon nuit!

Today we start hiking…

I’m very excited to start hiking but I’m also pretty nervous. We’ve been planning this for so long and now we are about to just start walking to our next hotel that’s 9 miles away. Crazy…

Our time in Chamonix has been great. Glad we get to come back here one more night at the end.

I will hopefully figure out the Garmin links today. If not I’ll hope to get them going tomorrow.

Travel update

For those following along, we had a great couple of days in the Netherlands. 🇳🇱 We are currently traveling to Zurich to see some friends there and tomorrow we head into the Alps at Chamonix in France. 🇫🇷

Will report more once we get settled in Chamonix.

Tour Du Mont Blanc here we come!

Well, it’s been a while. Looking at the previous post - goals for 2020 - a few things may have happened since then. But this isn’t the post to get into any of that. I’m here to talk about something that Carrie and I are very excited about: hiking the Tour Du Mont Blanc (TMB)!

We head out tomorrow, flying to the Netherlands to hang there for a few days before heading down to Zurich and then Chamonix to start hiking.

I’ll be posting links every day we hike to track us on our Garmins, so if you’re up in the morning US time and want to see where we are, check it out. You can get the links here or @djwhitebread on threads.

If you want to keep track of the photos I take as we go along, you can check out this shared album over on iCloud.

While we will miss our two kitties while we’re gone, we’re looking forward to celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary by doing something hard and challenging. I have a fear of heights, and there are some interesting parts of this hike, so it’s going to be an adventure.

Ok, time to finish packing. Look for updates soon!

Personal Goals for 2020

I always thought to myself, “Yeah, I have goals…” But I never wrote them down, or told anybody about them, or really thought much about it. I mean, there were big things I knew I wanted to do… get married, graduate from grad school, get a job, etc. But I never really thought about it on a yearly or monthly basis, “What’s the thing that I need to be doing right now?”

And I’m not talking about career goals here. We have an entire process at work for that. I’m talking about my personal goals. I figured this year I’d try something new, and write about them here. Make it public, help to keep myself accountable. A lot of these are hobby related, I’m not really getting into deep emotional growth. Those sorts of things I will keep to myself. I mean, I can’t share all my secrets, right? ;)

So here we go, my first ever yearly goal listing!

1. Continue my improvement as a golfer:

   1. Shave 2 strokes off my handicap: I finished the year in 2019 with my lowest handicap every: 18.5. That’s still not where I want to be. I’m hoping to get to get down below 16.5 by the end of 2020.

   2. Make the Daniel Cup team again: We have a fun Ryder Cup style competition at Great Hills every year. I made the team last year for the first time, and it was a blast. I’m hoping to play well enough to get on the team again this year.

2. Get under 200 lbs: I guess technically the goal is to continue to get healthier and keep our good exercise and food habits, but this number is the thing that I’ve put the bullseye on. I haven’t been under 200 lbs since 2013. That was when I sort of let my weight get away from me. But Carrie and I had a great 2019 on the health front. I’m really enjoying running for the first time ever, and I’m in the best position to hit this number than I’ve been since I went above it.

3. Learn to fly fish: Last year I had a goal to go fishing on my own, and I hit that! I didn’t catch anything, but I made it out there. I still want to continue to do that, but I’ve finally given in to the mystique of fly fishing. The goal here is to learn the basic technique, go on at least one guided trip, and go out on my own at least once.

4. Re-embrace fermentation: There was a while where I had at least one thing fermenting at all times, whether it be beer, bread, pickles, or kombucha. But I’ve really gotten on off the fermenting train lately. That ends this year! My goal is to make one of each the following: beer, bread, and kimchi. Anymore than one are bonus.

5. Go camping: This was the one goal that I didn’t hit from last year. I’ve never really been camping, and I’d love to give it a shot. I’ve felt this distinct desire to connect more with nature as I’ve gotten over, and this seems like a good place to start (baby steps and all that…).

6. Not let laundry stay unfolded for more than a day: I think that I’m pretty good about getting the laundry washed and dried. However, I am admittedly horrible about folding and putting away laundry. I’m generally bad at picking stuff up… this is I feel the low-hanging fruit on changing this part of my nature.

We only have so much control over the dumpster fire that is happening around sometimes. But, right now at least, I do have control over these things, and I hope to make my free time worth it. More creation, less consumption: creating experiences, food, fun, a better me, what have you. Here’s to a great 2020!

Here we are...

Well, today is the last day of 2019, and it appears that I didn’t write anything here all year. It was an interesting year for various reasons. Some good, some bad.

I always used to put a picture of Pierre on these posts, but unfortunately we had finally say goodbye to our little old man this year. It was tough - I had had him for 17 years. That’s 17 years of coming home and having him run up to me and say hello. That’s a long time to all of a sudden not see him.

There were good things this year as well. I got glasses. We had a great time going back to Mardi Gras for the first time in years. I went to Kentucky and visited some awesome distilleries with my best friends. We had a wonderful vacation to Sonoma. I am at my lowest weight since 2013, and feel in really good shape to drop below 200lbs in 2020. Carrie and I also ran two half marathons, and I’ve enjoyed running more than I ever have. Lastly, I’ve continued to get better at golf, which has always been a goal of mine.

So while there was sadness this year, there was also joy and hope. Here’s to a great 2020!