Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

I write my last post for True/Slant a bit worn out from a full day of kayaking yesterday. It was easy river kayaking, mainly, with just one madly technical section of Class 2 stuff, but a full day of paddling and some porting in the sun saps you a bit.

The sights and experiences were very nice: Osprey and kingfishers working the water. The boughs of huge sycamores whispering in the breeze. A shore nap of 15 minutes that felt like an hour full of dreams. A dash of adrenaline while being spun in the rapids.

Thanks for reading the Beaufinn blog. It was fun. If you would like to continue along, this blog will migrate to www.beaufinn.com/blog (or some iteration of that; Google the name) by mid-August. Web designers really slow down in the heat, don’t they?

What’s next for me? Working two contract writing jobs (corporate stuff), teaching at The College of New Jersey this fall, and staying on the ever-present quest, along with my agent, to sell one or all of the novels. Beyond that, I’d like to finally put some serious effort into the kind of mountain climbing/trekking I’d like to do. I might start in the Shawangunks, in the Catskills. I should, however, set some summiting goals for the next decade.

I have two requests of you, Beaufinn reader:

continue »

Image by greyloch via Flickr

As the T/S farewells pile up, and tears are shed and toasts are made (midnight July 31 is endgame; even Gawker gave kudos), I have realized one thing about all my outdoorsy bloggin’: I never once talked about duct tape.

The reason being is that duct tape is as regular as air and water to the outdoors person. You really don’t think about it. It’s just there.

Look, I don’t know if you can repair an SR-71 or a Formula-1 car with duct tape, but tonight I did indeed duct-tape shut the inseam of my bathing suit in preparation for a day of kayaking tomorrow. Is that a total bachelor move, or just pure River Rat? Yeah — both.

Check this out: The duct-tape wallet — continue »

Image via Wikipedia

While engaging with friends last night in the debate of the week — whether the Wikileaks Afghan Reports release is the digital-age version of The Pentagon Papers (it is) — we came upon a site called The War Project: Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Tell Their Stories.

The main page last night featured a statement by Sgt. George Zubaty, a native of Kentucky, Army infantryman, and son of a Vietnam War veteran, who said, in part: continue »

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Before this week gets old, and July is over, I must inform you that this is my last week blogging for True/Slant. Numerous other T/S’ers are saying their farewells these days.

Once the sale of T/S to Forbes went through, back in May, everyone here wondered what that meant. Ultimately, it means that some T/S’ers have been or might still be snagged for Forbes work, while others received a letter dated June 22 telling us that our services were no longer required 30 days hence, and I was one of those (Forbes wasn’t about to take on all of us, and all those “unique hits” count for something). Not long after that letter arrived, I learned through direct contact with T/S staff that blogging was to continue as “normal” until August 1, and so I shall.

Here we are now, July 27, Tuesday, a day that in the past I used as “Off-Topic Tuesday” to take a break from the outdoors-related interests I usually pursued to discuss other matters of relevance.

This Tuesday is time to tie up a few loose ends — topics I jumped on that intrigued me, and so far don’t appear to have any conclusion. continue »

What do you think will happen when folks scamper after a full-grown bison and someone throws a stick at him to get his attention?