Stop.

How often is it that I can say that a week where I went camping over the weekend was far less eventful than the past three? Well, this week I can. And this week, looking back on it, had a bit of a theme.

Getting back into the swing of work after like three weeks of being gone was honestly nice. A little stress here and there, but it was almost welcomed. What wasn't welcomed was the state of my poor car. Day one of getting back to work, I found my battery drained and deader than a door nail in the morning. A 5 minute charge, jump-start and 30 minute drive to work resurrected it... but only kinda. It was evident every time my car started that I needed a new battery. So, I got one... and upon opening my hood to replace it, I made an odd and not tragic but not fun discovery- I have a part missing, and it's my brake fluid reservoir cap. Between that evening and the next morning, I learned just how difficult it is to find that part. Power steering fluid cap? Easy. Windshield washer fluid cap? Cake. Brake fluid reservoir cap? May as well not exist.

You might think I'm exaggerating a bit, but I went to my local junkyard to find one to replace it (after checking a couple of auto parts stores) and spent probably a good half to whole hour walking up and down rows of hundreds and hundreds of cars. There were three in the junkyard I could spot that were identical to mine; but not only were those cars missing their cap, but virtually almost every single car in that lot was missing one. WHAT the heck. I finally found one on the ground, gobbed up and almost unusable, but it fit on the reservoir, and with some duck tape, it even stayed. And that worked out for a four and a half hour trip over hundreds of miles to our campsite near Yellowstone. Speaking of, after getting to camp and setting up, I was about to commence to make dinner, when I realized another misfortune had landed me- I had remembered all my cookware, food, ingredients and stove just fine- but I forgot the propane tank. Made a trip into town and... well, let's just say 80 bucks a is very pretty penny to pay for a new tank of propane. Ouch.

But after the oh-so painful bandage was ripped-off, the rest of camp was perfect. We sat around, enjoyed doing whatever we wanted, and we only froze for a few hours the first morning. At one point, we decided to make our way to Yellowstone and check out whatever part we felt like checking out. With daylight waning, we decided to just head towards Norris Basin, and saw some cool sites in that area. One such site, as you may have noticed in the photo, is rather intriguing. Norris Campground; 1 mile... except there appears to be one small issue for those wanting to head that way, and it manifests itself in the form of a fairly acidic lake that covers the entire trail. I just sat there wondering who the last people to have ever camped at the place were, and how it went.

And as we left camp the last day, we went into Yellowstone to see a few more cool sites. Naturally, we couldn't help but head towards Old Faithful. We parked, walked to the lodge, found food, ate, and then looked at how long it was til the next eruption. And then, we decided to just go ahead and leave for home.

However disjointed these accounts might seem, each of these experiences shares something in common, and it's a popular underappreciated word that goes something like this: STOP. I could've kept trying car after car looking for a proper good gas cap- but I knew I was already running behind that morning, so I changed my tactics, stopped seeking out something perfect, and looked instead for something adequate. In perhaps a counter-example, With all the firewood we brought and the campfire grill feature, looking back, I probably could've avoided having to spend the premium for my forgetfulness. In this situation, perhaps there was no right answer, as it would've made things a little more tight with our firewood supply, though. Giving up on Old Faithful? Yeah, that sounds pretty silly, now that I pen that down the way I did- but had we stayed and waited, not only would we have not gotten home until about another hour later, but we'd have to deal with the burdensome traffic of everyone else leaving at the same time.

And my favorite, the campsite. No, we obviously had NO plans to camp there, but imagine for some odd reason we did. I know myself well enough to admit I can be overly persistent on seeing something through to the end. Maybe it's the stubborn viking blood deep within me, maybe it's something else- who can say. But let's face it, even without plans to go to this camp, I was already formulating in my mind how one might be able to still traverse that path safely enough using a boat. I'd like to think that, had I been in the situation where I was faced with the real conundrum, I would be wise enough to say "Um... yeah... no".

Sometimes the hardest challenge in front of me is not to endure and persevere, but to stop in my tracks, and reconsider. I except I'm not completely alone in that. Those who get to enjoy the effects of ADHD may also know how hard it is to stop in the moment and consider whether or not to keep going on something. And sometimes it's not a bad thing to continue, of course; it always depends- that's the beauty and challenge of life. So, there I leave my invitation, however hypocritical it may appear to be, to stop, think and reconsider.

Until next week, see ya!

Stop.

Adminisk8or

07/10/2023