Mowing & Sunburn

IMG_0978Since the rain finally moved out of Knoxville, I decided to take the opportunity to mow the jungle growing in the front yard.
Of course, not really caring about the time of the day, I took out the mower and started to make paths in the yard. Just for a reference – It was noon and quite sunny. Since the temperature was in the low 80’s I wore shorts, an a-shirt tank, and my sneakers to try to stay nice and cool. Needless to say, at the end of my mowing, I think my fair skin acquired a sunburn.

This is what happens when I act all macho and forego protecting myself from the summer sun and heat. At least the yard looks nice. Lesson learned, but I make no promise that it will not happen again in the future.

Summer Already?

Time has passed so quickly and another summer is beginning here in Knoxville. The days are becoming warmer, the sun is rising earlier, and the birds are singing songs of summer. It feels as if only a few weeks since celebrating the new year have passed and we were making our summer plans. Reflecting on the months that have seemingly passed in a blink of an eye, I have realized that the time has come for us to start our summer plans and leave Spring behind.

Everyone has moved into their own apartments or starting summer work, so the house is pretty empty most of the time. This has been eye-opening for my wife and me as we now understand there is just too much space in our current home. Over the past few months, we have worked on raising our credit scores and browsing the housing market. The time has come in our lives to downsize our living area and replace it with a smaller home that is large enough for only us and our pets. It does seem weird to think back on the past years and realize that we have come to this point in life so quickly.

We have made a choice to forego buying a home at the current time and wait patiently for my graduation. We will let fate, and job placement, decide where we will settle in a new home. In the time leading up to that point, we are going to make good on our planned events for summer.

Forney Ridge

A few weeks ago the family and I decided to go for a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We set our destination as Clingman’s Dome and drove off towards the park. As we made progress through the park, the weather became foggy and slightly rainy.

Arriving at our destination, we were met with a gate stating that Clingman’s Dome was not open during this time of the year. Since we drove this far and made all the necessary backpacking arrangements, we decided to take an adjacent trail, Forney Ridge.20160327_190054490_iOSContinue reading “Forney Ridge”

Ultra Productive?

A while back I came across an article posted by Forbes which discussed the 15 things that productive people do differently. After reading through the list, I found that while I already follow some of these items on a daily basis, I go against a few and lack the others. Nevertheless, I have been actively trying to implement some of these into my life in an effort to be more efficient.

agendaWhen I decided to try and incorporate more items from this list into my every day, I found the results to be quite promising. I have not only become more productive but have successfully freed up more leisure time in the process. One area that I have made a great improvement in is project management. I am in my senior year of college and classwork went from simple papers to team projects and larger scale class projects. These new approaches of trying to be more productive have really helped me in achieving my goals. Now I am in the habit of spreading my work across different days and not focusing on one task at a time. I feel less stressed and more productive.

While I still have not given up my to-do list, since it has helped me tremendously to remember things that need to be completed, I might one day consider the alternative approach mentioned and schedule everything in my calendar. However, I do not think I will ever be carrying a notebook around, I still prefer my digital tablet.