This happens to me every time I go shopping

This morning I woke up and declared: Today, on this day, I will buy myself some shirts! America!

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I had other tasks I wanted to get done so I made a list and tucked it in my wallet. This was going to be the morning of adventure, success, and awesomeness!

adventure with a few other tasks I needed to get done, because combining trips, that’s what I do. I also needed a shirt for my dog (to possibly help her non-stop itching, as noted here), natural peanut butter because it’s amazing, more trash bags, swing through CarMax and try to avoid actually dealing with anyone, like what happened here), and if there was time do the same at Carvana, which was only a few minutes from where I’d be anyway.

I parked in front of Ross, where they always encourage me to dress for less, then strolled in letting dollar bills flow out of my pockets like a chocolate fountain at a wedding reception, because I was there to spend! OK, that’s not completely true. I did park at Ross,  but then walked (not strolled) in maturely and carefully, with my dollar bills securely in my wallet (no fondue fountains).

I found a t-shirt, a windbreaker, and a hoodie. I tried all of them on and of the three, the hoodie and sweatshirt were a nice fit. So there I was naked in the dressing room faced with a gigantic decision. To buy or not to buy? I began mentally sorting through my wardrobe at home, wondering if I really do need to splurge on these things. I mean, do I really need a windbreaker? Am I all out of long-sleeved sweaters? Why am I naked?

Kidding. I wasn’t naked. Ever. Promise.

Butt you see ;), this is what happens. I find a few things I like, then ultimately decide they feel like luxuries, even when it wouldn’t hurt to get a few new clothing items now and then.

So I came back home with one new item of clothing… for Asia… my dog. She gets a nice new trendy Ellen DeGeneres shirt and I don’t even have a new jar of peanut butter because Wal-Mart only had crunchy!!

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from the Ellen DeGeneres collection.

-Out of the Wilderness

FHFYFUFU

I have a little phrase I’ve been repeating to myself as a reminder of my appetite. And no, I don’t mean peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, although I’m down if you have some to share. I mean appetite as in what I’m hungry for, what I want my life to be about and in turn, what I’m feeding it and how I’m feeding it. What am I doing each day? What am I not doing each day? More on all that here.

For her, for You, for us, for us.

The her is my future ________ (insert “girlfriend” or “wife” here).

The You is God.

The first us is for the relationship I’ll have with previously mentioned girlfriend or wife.

The second us is for the relationship I have with God.

It might sound simple, I know what you’re thinking. Love can walk through…wait, what? OK, it might be simple but it’s been a good reminder to keep my eyes pointed towards God– my savior, my helper, my provider. I don’t always get it right, but that won’t stop me from trying.

-Out of the Wilderness

I accidentally almost ran a half-marathon

Yeah, I almost ran a half-marathon today, 11.01 miles, completely on accident. I’m going to let that sit there for a second.

To put this in perspective, it’s more than I’ve run in the last 20 days COMBINED.

I ran over 11 miles when the original plan was to run 3, maybe 4. But I ended up at Percy Warner Park, which is where I ran a few weeks ago, and saw a sign that said “5.8 mile loop.” Crap, I can’t say no! Problem is, that’s the last time I saw any sign that said “5.8 mile loop.” I totally blame lack of signage for what happened this morning. It’s definitely NOT because I made 2 or 3 or 15 wrong turns.

Needless to say, I had plenty of time to come up with more things to write about! And in the 10th mile I saw 2 horses. That was the highlight of the morning, for sure. The owners let me pet them and they were beautiful, majestic, and I was really wishing I had 4 legs right about then. Although I would’ve passed on letting someone sit on me.

Here are a few screen shots of my ill-advised run…

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Creating time-lapse videos

img_20170926_133846307_hdr.jpgLately I’ve been on a time-lapse kick with my GoPro. Not sure why I’m obsessed with them right now but I am. I’ve recorded a lot of clouds, shadows, and a few other things. The settings I observed that work best are as follows:

Device: GoPro Hero3

Clouds: 1 pic every 5 seconds

Shadows: 1 pic every 10 seconds

Rivers/water: 1 pic every 5 seconds

People: 1 pic every 2 seconds

img_20170926_124717998_hdr.jpgYou will need at least a total of 210 frames to make a 7 second video (30 frames = 1 second), so make sure to do the math on how long you’ll need to record to get 210 frames, more or less depending on what you want. If you’re shooting 1 pic every 5 seconds, that’s 12 frames per minute which means for a 7-second time-lapse video, you’ll need to record for 17.5 minutes (210 frames divided by 12 frames a minute = 17.5 minutes).

If you’re recording a frame every 10 seconds, it’ll take longer to get a 7-second video. The math works out to be 35 minutes of record time.

Here’s a few of the time-lapse shots I’ve recorded recently.

-Out of the Wilderness

My very first Tom Petty memory

News broke today that Tom Petty has passed away so I thought I’d share my first memory of him and his music.

I was in middle school in the late 80s/early 90s and our family had recently moved to Stafford, Virginia. Our next door neighbors had kids around my sisters ages (high school) so they naturally became friends pretty soon after we arrived. At some point they started talking about music and my sisters’ new friend gushed about Tom Petty. I couldn’t help but laugh and think, “What a dork!” Who would like Tom Petty or his music? I thought I was so hip and evolved and my neighbor was out of touch.

Boy, was I wrong!

As I got older, my exposure to music expanded. It was probably some time in college or just after college that I thought back to that middle school Virginia story and was embarrassed again… but this time it wasn’t for my neighbor, it was for me. I was the one who needed to learn more about good music and it wasn’t just limited to the tiny handful of songs or groups I liked.

Tom Petty is a legend and sadly, it took years for that to become a reality for me. He was singing adult music and I was just an immature little child. Here’s a list of my favorite Tom Petty songs:

Free Fallin’

Don’t Come Around Here No More

You Don’t Know How It Feels

I Won’t Back Down

Learning To Fly

 

-Out of the Wilderness