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Showing posts from February 2, 2025

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...

Bird day at the lake

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The first signs of spring are in the air here in Duluth GA. I took this quick pic of a bird meeting on Canary lake from the deck.

Rituals versus Routines

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Confucious impressed on us the importantance of ritual. The modern world demands our attention more and more. The external grabs of attention continue to steal our precious and very finite time. In practice, we cope with our limited attention capabilities by shorthanding, by repeating what we can do over time, hours, minutes, days and years without thought. Although the words ritual and routine are quite different. Maybe the concept is the same.