A New Idea for Vacation Trip Logging

I've never been one to keep a trip log. I've taken some trips where I wish I would have. I'm usually too lazy to take the time sit down once I get home & write something about it. I'm too forgetful to bring a notebook with me to write in. Besides, if the notebook had details of past trips, I would be too afraid of losing it (thus losing all my trip logs) if I lost the notebook. I also never think to just bring paper to write on, that could be added to a notebook later.

Another issue is that I tend to get wordy when journaling. So, I have a hard time motivating myself to start writing. Even though I have the best intentions of keeping it short & not spending much time on it, if the perfectionist in me takes over (and I know it will) then I know it will take awhile & be lengthy.

I just came up with an idea to extend a vacation tradition that I have had for a long time, & combine that with a way of journaling that will force me to keep it short.

The tradition

Every time I go somewhere on vacation, I buy a postcard. Not to send; this postcard is for me. I have a wall in my computer room that I hang each postcard, in chronological order left to right, like a border near the ceiling around the room.

Why do I do this?

I think it started by something in the back of my mind that was put there by my mother as a kid. When we would take family vacations, we were each allowed to pick out one souvenir. I would usually pick out something that I liked & knew I would use or play with. Inevitably, if it did not have touristy words on it, she would say something like "Are you sure you don't want to get something that says [name-of-place-where-we-went] on it, so you remember where you got it?"

I'm sure there were times I put it back & picked out something else that did have [name-of-place-where-we-went] on it. I'm sure there were other times I insisted that was what I wanted, & didn't feel good about the fact that I really had to justify it. I'm sure there were subsequent times where I would not pick something I wanted, but pick something that said [name-of-place-where-we-went] instead, just so I wouldn't have to spend the time defending my choice.

As an adult, buying a post card is an inexpensive way for me to "get something that says [name-of-place-where-we-went]" on it, & at the same time freeing me to pick out a souvenir that I really like or would really use, or freeing me to not pick out some other souvenir if I don't find anything I want. I've found that I tend to remember where I got the things I really like anyway, regardless of what is or isn't written on the item.

The extension of the idea

I just thought of this during a vacation I took about 6 months ago with some female friends to Cancun. I thought it would be fun to jot down on my post cards some of the inside jokes that happen during a trip, or nicknames people got for the duration of the trip, or places that we went that we particularly liked (or didn't). The inherent size of the post card then forces me to keep what I write short & simple. Sadly, I never got around to writing down any of that after I got back.

My next vacation was a cruise with some friends where we had 4 ports of call. I bought a postcard at each port, & had full intention of writing down what we did on each of the separate postcards. I did not get around to that after I got back, either. Too much time spent catching up on stuff at home after my return.

Last weekend, James & I went down to Cape Canaveral, Florida to see a space shuttle launch. Then spent the rest of the long weekend trip going around various places on the East coast of Florida, like Cocoa Beach Pier, Melbourne Beach, Kennedy Space Center, etc. I bought 2 postcards, one that just says "Florida" & one that says "Kennedy Space Center."

The brilliant thing I did this time was to do my writing on the plane on the way home, instead of waiting until I got home.
1. it's freshest in my mind
2. helps me reminisce on the trip as it's winding down
3. I'm tired, so in addition to the postcard being small, the tired contributes to my wanting to keep what I write short.

I hope I can keep this up in the future. It will be nice to be able to look at one of my postcards at any time & know I can flip it over & reminisce about a trip in more detail than my faded memory allows.

My mom has a blog!

I've been working for a couple of months to help my mom set up a blog. A few years ago, my mom wrote a book about Planning Church Family Camps.

Back when I was a kid, my parents along with another couple started an annual family-oriented church camp event. On occasion people have written to my mom asking questions about starting their own camping ministry for families. Since then, my mom has thought it would be a good thing to address some of these questions and answers publicly for the benefit of others with similar questions. So we started discussing creating a blog for her where she could continue to write. And last week, her blog came to fruition.

She's done a great job learning the technology behind having a blog, and I've tried to help out wherever I can as "system administrator" of sorts. :) She seems very happy with how it came out, and I'm glad I could help.

Lawn Mystery Solved, & my dad was right :)

A couple of years ago, I blogged about a mysterious patch of grass in my yard.  Snow would melt there.  Grass would not grow there.  I wasn’t sure what was up.

Several people I told about it, in person and on my blog, people had ideas but nobody was really sure what it could be.

I planted more grass again last fall, and this year the new grass was not dying, but just not growing at all. For some reason recently I decided to (carefully) dig under there to see if I could figure out what was going on.

Here’s what I found:

My dad had it right in the Comments section of my aforementioned blog post: it’s where the water and sewer line runs.

And I have to wonder several things.  Like, why is this here in the middle of the yard, and not in the easement section between the sidewalk and the street? (as I’ve seen before at my house growing up, and at other people’s houses.)

And I usually see these things at or above the grass level.  Why did they put it so low under the ground that it has to be covered with dirt and grass to be anywhere close to level with the ground next to it.

Here’s a side view, with my shoe to demonstrate the size of the hole.  It is approximately 4” or so lower than the surrounding yard.

And lastly, what can I, should I, or shouldn’t I do with this information?  I feel like I’m not supposed to cover it up - as if I should not block access to it.  (Yet it was already covered way before I moved in.)  At the same time I feel like I shouldn’t leave a deep hole exposed in my yard either.  If someone were to trip they’d probably be upset. (Although nobody should be walking through that part of my yard anyway!)  But I certainly don’t want to cover it with dirt or grass that’s just going to die again (Plus that makes it look like I don’t know what I’m doing with my lawn to have a giant bare patch there.)

For now, I put rocks there to level it out and not leave a big, open hole. The rocks are easily removable in case access is necessary, and the rocks won’t die or melt.

I guess I need to figure out how to go about figuring out what I can or cannot do there, if there’s a better way. 

Until then, at least the mystery of what is there has been solved!