Joshua Streeter
Just one man's view of the world.
Tuesday means TOURIST!
Aug 10th
I bought a pineapple, a Kona Brewery beer, and tried to buy Hawaiian bread…but that was made in California.
Built a worm tea maker today. Then, it was off to the North Shore to deliver a horse trailer. A stop along the way for lunch, the best scrimp scampi I’ve ever eaten:
Then northshore:
Then, the ranch.
The return home was a bit of a fiasco, when the kids a little further down the mountain tried to sell us a big they’d caught.
So, I moved to Hawaii for a bit
Aug 10th
I got off the plane, Glenn and his farm manager, Natalie, picked me up and immediately took me sailing.
Then, we head up this crazy steep driveway overlooking the harbor, to a vacation house where a friend is putting in her aquaponics system. Here’s the view:
So, yeah, that was decent. Then, I finally get to the farm, and a state senator Mike Gabbard was here for a tour. That night, the most amazing meal was served; Portuguese bean soup followed by grilled oysters on the half shell. My neighbor in the cabin next to me runs an oyster bar, and these were the left overs.
Not bad for day one. I told Glenn after sailing, that it was already worth the trip.
Who will you become in the next 10 years?
Jul 6th
Now that I’m a “former fatty” I can look back and laugh it my former, fat self. What the hell was I thinking?
There’s a video, circa 1996, when I was mid fatness, not realizing that I wasn’t the svelte 180 I once was. I was at Red River Gorge, and hiked down about 10 feet to a little “cut out” in the side of the gorge. It’s worth repeating, I didn’t realize the weight I had gained.
So, upon my friends realizing that I’m stuck 10 feet down, unable to climb up a measly 10 feet, they did what any good friends would do…they grabbed the video camera. Doug began narrating in an Animal Kingdom mockery, “Almost never captured in it’s native habitat, here we see the North American Five Toed Sloth…” Hilarious at the time, even though totally embarrassing.
Fast forward to 2006. I’d just climbed all day at Torrent Falls. I hadn’t made the connection when I started the climb, but this was that gorge that I couldn’t climb 10 feet, 10 years prior. I’d climbed to over 110 feet, walked behind a waterfall at 100 feet, and had continued on while some more experienced climbers couldn’t make it. They’re the ones who took these photos from below.
The final part of the climb is beyond demanding. Yes, you’ve got a harness, but the thought of falling 10 feet, only to be slammed into a solid rock wall 100 feet in the air? I figured that I’d die from the shock. Every moment you are 100% present, as the results of a mistake are at the least painful, and at the worst, fatal. There’s a point near the end, the “Leap of Faith” where you must pull yourself up with your right hand, suspend your body in the air, jumping to catch the next rock up. The thought today, 4 years later, still makes my palms sweat as I type.
And I nailed it! Exhilarated beyond measure, I almost lost focus…but you cannot for a moment celebrate when there’s more to traverse. The confidence from that one leap had me quickly onto the final stretch. I looked down at one point to notice that onlookers had stopped on the side of the road to watch me make the final ascent.
The climb commences into a trail that leads you down a steep trail that leads you back down. I had done it! I unharnessed, and started down the trail…and that’s where it hit me. I had been here before, in this gorge. Maybe not me, but a version of me, 100 pounds heavier. In 1996, I had attempted a 10 foot climb and failed. The realization sent to the ground, weeping in joy, weeping in pain that I’d once been that guy.
A decade had passed, and I was a new man. I’m half way through the next decade; who will I become?
Who will you become?