∞

Today we “blast off” 🚀 our road trip to Vermont with a 760 mile drive to Cleveland! 🛣

Apple Maps route from Edina MN to Cleveland OH showing a 10 hour 55 minute drive through Chicago along Lake Michigan.
∞

We head out on vacation tomorrow. I setup my email auto-responders on both work and personal accounts. Created Vacation deferral folders for Sanebox to use. And a new thing, I decided to make my own DIY Vacation mode for Feedbin to mark all new items as read.

Feedbin Vacation Mute rule card showing a wildcard search across any feed to mark articles as read, with an Edit button.
∞

I sat outside for two hours tonight with my book club and now my eyes are burning. The air is very smoky.

IQAir Breathable app widget showing AQI 197, labeled Unhealthy for PM2.5, recorded at 9:00 PM today.
∞

We just sent out the Summer 2021 edition of Reading Things! Here in the Real World, Think Again, My Eyes Are Up Here, Klara and the Sun, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Radical Markets. If you enjoy books, check out our family newsletter.

Six book covers including Think Again by Adam Grant, Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
∞

POAP 604453 at Reading Things First 100.

Reading Things logo with stacked books emoji, raised hands emoji, and text reading First 100!
∞

I’ve been following the development of the Playdate for a while. I love all the innovation — including games by season and the crank! The games look like they will be fun to pick up and play. I’ll be pre-ordering on Thursday!

Playdate handheld game console in yellow with a purple flip cover open, showing the screen, D-pad, and side crank
∞

Vermont 2021 Road Trip

A week from today we depart on our summer vacation! We are heading out on a 2-week road trip to Vermont and back with stops in:

We’ll be driving our new Mazda CX-9.

Google Maps route from Minneapolis to Saint Johnsbury via Cleveland, Accord, and Shaftsbury, totaling 2,940 miles and 46 hours of driving.
∞

Mazda CX-9 Carbon Edition

We had no plans to be buying a new car right now, but with severe hail damage to our Honda Pilot costing over $23,000 to repair the insurance company decided to total it. We have a road trip coming up so we we needed to get something quick.

We were curious to check out the Kia Telluride but those are impossible to buy without a 6 month wait. I had no interest in the BMW X5 since they haven’t done much of anything with it for years. We looked at another Honda Pilot but that just seemed incredibly boring. Tammy did some heavy research and found Morrie’s Mazda had two Mazda CX-9’s on the lot.

She test drove the Mazda CX-9 Carbon Edition in the morning and liked it. Given our time pressure, she told me to head to the dealership later in the day and if I liked it, buy it.

We pick it up this week. One banner feature for me is cooled front seats. I’ve always wanted that. And oddly this is the first car we have owned that has Apple CarPlay.

Dark gray Mazda CX-9 SUV with black wheels and a red leather interior, shown from a front three-quarter angle.

Also see list of vehicles.

∞

“Not being busy is a competitive advantage.

Most people are so strapped for time they can’t take advantage of lucky opportunities or quickly resolve unexpected problems.

Maintain a bias toward action, but leave room for the unexpected.” — James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter on July 22.

There is a lot of wisdom here. Managing your time, and not being fooled into thinking that business is value, is critical to making progress on the goals that really matter for you. This is true in all aspects of life.

∞

The Magic Pines garden is really revving up now! I think we may have planted a bit much. The tomatoes are like a wild rave gone out of control, the zucchini are sprouting like crazy, and the pole beans are out competing the corn!

Raised cedar and corrugated metal garden beds overflow with zucchini, kale, and red celosia, with a metal sculpture and birdhouse totem nearby.Raised cedar and corrugated metal garden beds overflowing with tall bushy tomato plants on cages, lettuce, kale, and other vegetables, with spruce trees behind.Raised garden bed overflowing with large dark zucchini and broccoli plants, with flower beds and a park path in the background.Lush raised garden beds overflowing with corn stalks, pole beans, zucchini, and tomatoes beside red flowers and evergreen trees.