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Showing posts from May 13, 2007

100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
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It is actually kind of hot out today, and in. I am trying to prioritize items worthy of endeavor. There is a lot of stuff to do no doubt about it. I will have a regret when I leave this world. It will be I couldn't do more. It is what it is. I bought a new truck, shown below. I pick it up Wednesday. It is a basic truck and last years model, but it will do me just fine. The diesel was a bit of an extravagance with all the features it had, but I got a great deal in 1997. I bought my first Chevy truck in 1984. I traded it in for a 1985 and had the 1985 one until I bought the red one in 1997. I am selling the red one myself just like I sold the blue 1985 one. They sell fast. "Pre-enjoyed" is what they say. I used most of the enjoyment up on both of them. The blue one had about 105,000 miles on it when (as my brother says) went to truck island and the red one has a low-low 154,000 on it. It has been said that the diesels don't run right until they have 150,000 miles on...
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Here is a picture I took on February 19th when I was snowshoeing on the farm just after getting back from Antarctica. There is so much life in this picture. It was pretty amazing to me to see that Winter in Upstate NY is teeming with life compared to Antarctica. It was (is) like a dense jungle in comparison. One of the biggest misconceptions about Antarctica is that there is all this wildlife. Outside of the sea there is no life, wild or not. The sea harbors life very nicely because the sea ice seems to protect a lot of species from predators for at least part of the year. But outside of the sea it is incredibly lifeless. It is hard to describe how lifeless, because I have nothing to compare it to. There are no aromas. I have been in touch with my friends I made on the ice. It is interesting to see who is going back this year and all the other related stories. I have several projects still going on related to the ice. This weekend I have been doing farm work including skidding, cut...