maybe 16 inches wide

this narrow slit between two stores

hot as a furnace when these century old bricks heat up

if it wasn’t for the fence I would have squeezed through

emerging in what I believe is another world (or so I thought when I was younger)

these passages still catch my eye and images wander through my mind

I was walking the neighborhood tonight on my way to vote, I just made it with a few minutes to spare.

Across the street from the school is a house that stands out, I would guess this place has been here much longer than many of the surrounding places.

The garage was built with cinder blocks, unlike anywhere else.

I see two side.

The place is aesthetically unpleasant.

The other side is someone built this with their two hands. Built it to protect investment of tools or a car. It is functional. It it sturdy. It serves a purpose.

It stuck me today.

I wonder how often I look at things or people.

Sometimes it isn’t easy seeing deep.

I was listening to episode 170 of a podcast on a short walk around the neighborhood tonight.

There is something that really stuck out to me. It was talking about ownership.

If something goes wrong, even if it isn’t your direct doing, do you take ownership?

I think maybe it was the Corps but I tend to say WE a lot if it is positive, if there is a negative I say I did this or that.

There are times when I miss that.

While we had our fair share of people who thought, rightly or otherwise, that they should get some type of accolades or leadership. There is a lot more of that in the civilian world, people hustling.

I sliced last week about doing our part to save the earth. Getting your protein from a cow is very costly on our natural resources. 2000+ gallons of water but getting the same protein from crickets only takes 1 gallon, that is an impressive savings.

I bought some of the flour on Amazon. What can’t you buy?

Today Sammi and I waited for Jenn and Aidan to leave. We wanted to bake some chocolate chip bars without them knowing we enhanced the batter with just 1/2 cup of cricket flour.

We really wondered if they would even know if we didn’t tell them.

I had to share our small kitchen with Sammi as she was making some kind of scones, without any bugs.

There are times when she isn’t as organized and a tad messy. I have no idea what is going on with the butter wrapper.

If I didn’t tell you this was made from crickets, wouldn’t you think it was cocoa powder?

I do have to say it had an odd smell. Kinda earthy and kinda crickety. It didn’t deter us as we kept going. After all, how much would a 1/2 cup really impact the overall taste?

A shot before we put it into the over. It looks very similar to every other time we have made these bars. I did use all brown sugar so the batter is usually a tad darker. I do not think it smelled any different.

I also learned that crickets are considered a crustacean, I had no idea.

So we had Aidan and Jenn try it. Both said it was good. Jenn did mention there seemed to be something missing. I did mention that maybe it was not enough crickets, she was a good sport and had another bite!

I would say we would do it again but maybe next time we will make bread.

I am pretty sure this place used to have two sizes of salads, large and small. Maybe it was actually large and mini.

Same old salad but they changed the names.

Is it because eating a large salad is too much but a regular is just right?

I would love to see the data on this, after the name change I imagine they are selling more large, I am regular, salads.

What can I call dishes to make the kids rush to get them done? Or cleaning their rooms?

Sometimes you just gotta entertain yourself.

There are times when you need to stay in the office way too late.

It is Friday at nearly five. Maybe I have overstayed.

Aidan is flat out of things to do. He tried to see if he could crawl under this chair. Seems reasonable.

I have said being bored is actually when your brain starts to grow. I’m pretty sure both my kids think this advice is some type of made up teacher knowledge.

I wonder what new ideas I could come up with this weekend if I let myself become bored. No books or digital things, would I have a breakthrough or start crawling under chairs?

If you look in the distance that thing kinda looks like a long silver snake. You can find at the very back of the sculpture park. This is what Aidan wanted to find, last time it conquered him and he wanted to reverse that on this trip.

We have earth day, recycling drives, taking electronics to be taken apart responsibly.

We eat organic fruits. Grass fed beef is on the table from time to time.

Is that where you stop? Can you go farther?

What if there was a way to get the same amount of protein you need but reduce the impact you have on the earth, would you be interested?

What if you could save THOUSANDS of gallons of water per ounce of protein?

Doesn’t that sound better?

Well we bought some flour today. That flour is full of protein, easy on the earth and made from crickets.

Crickets.

The bugs.

Stay tuned… we are making cookies some time this weekend.

We are new to Canvas and there have been days that been difficult as we solve the issues that come up. Today I was on the phone a few times because one tiny aspect was not working.

I was shocked they could not solve it in under a minute. Every time I called in the past they usually solve the issue in a minute or two.

This issue seemed huge.

But it wasn’t.

And I figured it out.

It was one of those times I wanted to jump up and run around the office getting high fives from everyone. Or maybe get a cake to celebrate.

But I just hang up the phone, did a self high five and get back to solve other issues.

There were summers when I would spend the summers with my grandparents. It was a full two and a half day drive from our house to theirs.

One tiny memory I have is our nightly walks. Nearly every night after the dishes were done gramps and I would go for a walk. Maybe a mile maybe three, it just depended on the heat of the day.

I found his old house and instantly recalled the names of the streets.

The last few nights have been pretty nice so I have been taking short walks around the neighborhood. I hadn’t really thought about our walks until I turned the corner.

The picture does not do the colors justice. It reminded me of a late Georgia sunset.

Some days we need these little glimpse of happiness to steel us for tomorrow.