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I thought it might be fun to post what’s going on in my life from a more real-time perspective. And I don’t do social media, so this is as current as you can expect to find of me online. I’ll try to update this each week, but we will have to see how that goes.
Sep 7, 2026
We went glamping for the Labor Day weekend. I love camping proper, but it was surprisingly nice to not have to set up and take down a tent. Oh, and the beds. I felt like a spoiled (and cozy) brat each night crawling into that comfy bed.
This week I’d like to make progress on the Vanagon bodywork (front, rear quarter, and rear hatch). I plan to spray some epoxy primer, glaze, and prime again. Hoping to be ready to spray some color by end of week, but we will see how well that plan proceeds. I’m a sucker for scope creep and this van is the embodiment of potential scope expansion. Wasn’t I going to sell this thing?
Aug 22, 2026:
I’ve been mostly involved this week with the ‘85 Vanagon, sprucing it up, ostensibly to get it ready to sell. It’s been an interesting internal battle about what all to replace or fix up. I would like to hand it off to someone in a condition that makes me feel good about it… but also not in such a nice condition that I wind up wanting to keep it! Haha. Paint repair has been the biggest thing: figuring out which panels really should be repainted, which ones need a few spots repaired, and which ones will simply suffice with a good polish on the DA sander. In any case, it’s looking pretty swell already with a bit of rust repaired in the windshield and hatch window and a lot of polishing. I did manage to break the windshield getting it out, so the new owner will also get a shiny new piece of glass up front. Oh well, it was pretty dinged up anyhow.
I’ve found myself reading a lot more this week than the last few weeks. I decided to revisit the book The Alchemist, started a Bernardo Kastrup book, and cracked open the intro to ‘Is a River Alive’ by Robert McFarlane. The Alchemist is a quick read and I really enjoyed it. When I first read it in my 20’s, I didn’t like it. Perhaps a mismatch with my mindset at that time. Funny how books read so much differently at different times. Perhaps a subject for a future essay.
Aug 13, 2026:
School is in session and my daughter is enjoying third grade so far. It’s been nice to get back into the swing of the school year. I’m finding more time for projects, contemplation, and walks with Lily each morning. My energy has been high and projects are progressing:
- I’ve started the outdoor shower. Design is complete and I bought a few sticks of redwood yesterday that will become the frame. Teak from the old deck will be used for the slats.
- I moved the 1985 VW Vanagon into the garage to start doing some repairs to get it ready to sell. This is primarily centered around repairing rust in the windshield frame, patch painting an old repair, repairing a few other ugly spots on the exterior, and replacing a number of funky components.
- Writing has been kind of intermittent. I’ve got some ideas brewing and have been sort of switch hitting between those and finalizing another one.
- The high energy got me thinking (and writing) and I wrote this recently.
Aug 2, 2026:
- My daughter starts 3rd grade this week, so we are enjoying the last few days of summer and gearing up for the first day. It’s been a busy busy July filled with friends and activity, so much of these last few days we are trying to take it easy :)
- I’ve lots of projects in the backyard as we recently renovated to make the space more inviting. I’m designing and getting ready to build an outdoor shower, fixing up an old fence, painting, figuring out how to shade the patio, and several other smaller scale things. Also, I’m dreaming up some things for future me: setting up the narrow sideyard for our water heater, future heat pump, shed, and surfboard storage; replacing the last old 80’ fence; and even thinking about DIY’ing a new roof. It feels good to spend so much time outside and my body is slowly acclimating to the increased heat load.
- Working on this website! I’ve been on a real energy high and oriented more to building and doing than contemplating or writing. So, I figured I’d direct some of that energy to building this website.