Archive for March, 2014

Newer Entries »

March 2 – Detroit to Barbados

Monday, March 3rd, 2014

The view from our place on the beach.

The view from our place on the beach.

The trip was easy, albeit long. We left late from Detroit because we had to wait to be de-iced. I was shoveling four inches of snow at 2:15 am. We were the last two people on the plane in Miami because of our tardy arrival. I slept a fair amount on both flights.

Once we got through immigration and customs, we met Raymond, the guy from Bajan car Rental. He had my name on a sign outside the arrival gates. I love that! We sat in the car and did the paperwork. The steering wheel is on the right hand side if the car and they drive on the left side of the road. The turn signal lever is on the right hand side of the steering wheel and the wipers on the left. I signaled with the wipers at least five times before getting it right. Holy cow, what a brain switch! I think “It’s not raining” might be one of those catch phrases that takes hold on a vacation.

Round-about after round-about we made our way to the West coast of the Island. Maria, the property manager was waiting for us. She showed us around, recommended the Italian restaurant next door, and left her phone number in case we need anything. We ate at the Italian place and were ready for a good night’s sleep.

The pilot reported 83 degrees when we landed. The predicted low is 75, about 75 degrees different than the predicted low in Ann Arbor.

Posted in Barbados, Travel | Comments Closed

Day 28 of the Minimalist Game

Saturday, March 1st, 2014

Today’s the last day of February and the last day of The Minimalist Game, http://www.theminimalists.com/game/. I’m going “play again” in March, since I’m not done getting rid of things.

Some of the things on today’s list of items include: punch bowl with matching cups, sleeping bag (not ever going to camp again), badminton racquets and birdie, four college yearbooks, four t-shirts, five milk crates, two kites and kite string, and 30 years of photographic negatives.

During this purging process there have been places I have bumped up into emotionally difficult groups of things. Other times it’s felt too tough to deal with either the shear volume of stuff (either sorting through or lugging it out of a closet or the basement) and I have turned away. The negatives were the first really emotionally difficult thing to toss. There were a lot of them, organized and labeled, neatly and carefully stored in a couple of containers. But, like the kites and kite string, I hadn’t used them in a very long time. And, realistically I’m not ever going to. They aren’t adding value to my life and they were just taking up space. They remind me of what I haven’t done (some sort of photo project) instead of inspire me to do something creative and new.

I can already feel the freedom that comes with less clutter. With fewer things I feel lighter and more able to just get stuff done. There’s a lot more to go, and I’m sure there will be hard things to part with in the future. Even so, I’m looking forward to playing another round next month.

Here's (most of) the stuff from February's Minimalist Game.

Here’s (most of) the stuff from February’s Minimalist Game.

Posted in Minimalism, Photography | Comments Closed

Newer Entries »