The Difference is in the Noise

Another Successful Weekend in the Van

This time -- celebrating @caitycat's birthday to some degree. Neither of us tend to make a very big deal out of stuff like that, but we still like to spend the time together.

It was so peaceful and quiet out there by the lake. Just listening to the wind, and watching the birds. There was a bit of smoke in the air from some not-too-distant forest fires, and at one point I could see the birds wings cutting through the smoke -- or maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me (I was just staring at the sun and drinking beer for the last few hours).

One thing that I'm really starting to notice though, is just the intensely different levels of noise. During the week, I'm surrounded by cellphones and beeps and honks and construction hammers and excavators and traffic and it just reverberates in my skull all day. Out there in the forest though -- all that we could hear was the wind and a couple birds (as well as a few nearby campers playing BattleShots and exclaiming that "it's a good thing we're playing this in teams -- 17 shots would have been brutal" at 1:00PM).

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I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but each time I go out to nature -- another part of me doesn't want to come back.

No doubt, some part of my mental state stays checked-in at the lake, or the mountain, or the river, or what have you. The smell of the fresh air. The sound of the wind. The feeling of the clean water. The way the dogs just seem to relax as well. I even managed to slow down enough to sink into a book that I've been meaning to crack open for the last year -- that never happens.

We wanted to try shooting a bit of video at the beach and doing a beer review w/ a cool setting -- mostly because I think the series named "Landscape and a Lager" is brilliant. But it was too windy, so we didn't end up doing it. That's fine though, because at the end of the day, neither of us really know much about beer other than "yeah that was super delicious!", or "too sour". At the end of the day, we were still just satisfied with chillin at the beach and playin' with the dogs. Helo did some swimming and fetching (the waves were a formidable opponent -- he hasn't moved much in about 24hrs now), and Roadie just got his bronze on:

For now though, I must make ends meet. Roads wont design and build themselves (yet), and contracts wont manage administer themselves either (yet). Time to hit the streets and get honked at, while I get slightly depressed at seeing how many people are struggling to get by. Makes me wonder why everyone is okay with playing a game where nobody really wins.