Travel Tips From An Old Guy

I've done a fair bit of travel in my day and I'd like to share some travel tips, mostly based on things I've messed up over the years.

Don't get me started about packing and luggage.

Top 10 Lists

Ready to laugh? Nothing beats a good Top 10 List if you ask me.

If you're of a certain age (1946-1964) you'll appreciate Top 10 Signs You're A Baby Boomer

Tide Tables: high tide, low tide

Even if you don't live on the beach sometimes you need to know when high tide & low tide is. You need a tide table (or website).

Spelling Alphabets

Able, Baker, Charlie

Maybe Alfa, Bravo, Charlie sounds familiar. It should. The NATO phonetic alphabet is the root of WTF, as in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Simple Syrup Recipe

Everything from lemonade to fancy cocktails rely on simple syrup. Use this recipe and keep simple syrup in the refrigerator so you'll have it when you need it.

Sand Mandalas

Buddhists, especially monks and nuns, make sand mandalas. This ritual practice creates a map of consciousness in an impermanent context.

Contemplatively beautiful.

Red Wiggler Worms

Red wiggler worms are what you want in your compost bin. Not night crawlers.

The former live close to the surface and eat kitchen scraps. The latter burrow deep and are better as fishing bait. So, if you're composting you want red wigglers (Eisenia fetida).

That kid's toy that spins in the window...

Trivia question: what's the name of the thing that spins in the light inside the glass globe?

Give up? It's called a radiometer. A Crooke's Radiometer to be exact.

There's nothing like walking in the house and smelling puerco bibil in the oven. I make mine with chicken or turkey.

Thank you Robert Rodriguez!

Probiotic Soil

Cannabis call it "probiotic soil". Others use the term SBO, soil based organisms, or simply living soil.

If you can compost, you can make your own probiotic soil. In fact, composting is at the heart of it all.

Prime. Numbers, not beerf.

I'm transfixed by prime numbers. I gravitate towards them.

Tell me to pick a number and inevitably it'll be prime.

I call this one No Hotdogs, No Donuts.

Take a look at these photos and you'll see what I mean. Or at least why I gave it the title I did.

Pi. No, not Pie.

Number geek that I am, I like pi. The 3.14159 kind.

Though I love pie too. Better than cake.

Orchids and More Orchids

Truth be told, I love orchids. I don't just like them. I'm enthralled by them.

It'll come as no surprise that I take photos of orchids.

Nerds Aren't Geeks, Nor Are They Dorks

When you hear the word nerd, what comes to mind?

I'm proud to say, I'm a nerd's nerd. Software for 30+ years.

That's me holding a Timex-Sinclair and a Captain Crunch Whistle.

Mallomars

If you're from the East Coast you know what a Mallomar is.

If not, you're missing out.