Category Archives: Photos

100,000 Miles

2008 Nissan Xterra White Sands National Monument New Mexiso

This afternoon, while driving up to Dayton to celebrate Easter with my family and girlfriend, I’ll be passing over the 100,000 mile mark on my Nissan Xterra. Having a job where I work primarily from home, I don’t put as many miles on the truck anymore. So, this 100,000 milestone has been slowly approaching for some time. And, maybe because of that, I’ve thought about it quite a bit. At first, the thought seemed kind of sad—maybe sort of a reminder of the number of miles I’ve accumulated on my own mind body and soul. But a brief comment from my cousin—something to the effect of “it’s really more of a badge of honor than anything”—quickly changed my mindset.

I bought the truck brand new in January 2008. So every mile, except for maybe the 5 or 10 from the factory and dealership, are my miles—and they’ve been some great miles. Nearly 8,000 of them were accumulated in a short span of 33 days driving around the country in 2013—a trip I so vividly imagined during my first test drive.

So, yesterday, in preparation of today’s odometer turning, I gave her a bath. While, drying her off with a shammy, I inspected every ding, dent and scratch and I was reminded of each and every story of how they came to be.

This may all seem silly to be writing about such a thing, but, for me, it has been fun to think back about my last 7 years and how this truck has been a part of them.

Here is to another 100,000 miles!

IMG_0783 IMG_1175 IMG_1270 IMG_1345 IMG_1627

For Zach

My brother and his family came to visit last Sunday after Aaron and Molly’s wedding. Zach wanted to draw so we had a drawing contest. My submission was a fiery robot—which later inspired Zach to draw a robot too. Before he left he gave me his robot drawing to keep.

Then I got an idea. I remembered seeing an article about a guy who transforms kid’s artwork into amazing paintings. The effect is quite impressive. I thought I’d give it a try:

See full size over at Flickr

zach_drawing_afterzach_drawing_beforeIMG_0049IMG_0047IMG_0042IMG_0041