Author Archives: AJ Bourg

Over the weekend, I got lost in my city’s website and read some of the published reports on water.

Water is a big deal in the west, everyone is talking about the Colorado river and the mega-drought we are experiencing.

Our city has a pretty sweet water re-use program that takes water directly from the water treatment center and stores it for use to irrigate the many hundreds of acres of city parks and land. I don’t know how common this is for cities (I don’t think it’s terribly unusual) but it was really cool to read about all the pipes and pumps and other infrastructure required to make it happen.

I also read that our city now allows for grey water reuse. You can use water from bathroom sinks, showers and washing machines in your yard. So now I am thinking about how to best and most easily start using our shower water and washing machine water to water some of the trees we have in our yard.

Trying to figure out what is doable from a DIY perspective, and how to make the most use of all this water. We don’t have an existing irrigation system, but I could see routing all the grey water to a central spot and then pumping (our laundry room is in the basement) into an irrigation system that at least waters our trees.

If anyone has done this, please add a comment. I would love to talk to you about it.

I have not forgotten about this blog, even though I haven’t been posting here as much as I had anticipated.

I think one of my challenges has been the thought of who is this blog for? What am I even doing here?

I have a lot of varied interests, from hiking and photography, to foster care, to all kinds of technical topics, and business, and then there’s my musings on politics and faith. (which have evolved and will continue to change over time) Then there are the house projects I could post about, or the backyard chickens, and the bees.

None of this is a problem on Twitter where I have intentionally kept my Twitter locked down, and every tweet feels ephemeral. Here today, gone tomorrow. Nor is this a problem on Instagram where most of my posts are just neat pictures.

But writing a blog has felt a lot more permanent. And if I give you a mixed feed ranging from interesting tidbits I’ve found about the Linux kernel in one post, another post about my thoughts on all the posts about deconstructing the Christian faith in the next, and then a solar update in the next, who honestly gives a shit?

Maybe no one. And you know what, I don’t have any metrics on this blog for how many people are out there reading this. Unlike Twitter, I don’t have a follower count that I can watch tick down as people find the posts I make uninteresting. And that’s a good thing. I think social media has trained us, or at least it has trained me to be too performative. I don’t want to be a tap dancing monkey.

And the blogs I’ve enjoyed reading most have been the ones of people. Real people. Talking about their real lives. Whether they get absurdly interested in running a text-only OpenBSD laptop, or talking about taking their kids down to the beach for one last summer trip, or their rain-water collection system.

Because behind these posts are real people. And real people are really interesting, even if I’m not as interested in each topic.

So, if anyone is out there reading this, I’m changing my perspective a bit. I’m going to post things I find interesting. Maybe you find everything I post as interesting as I do (unlikely), and probably half these things I will lose interest in or change my mind about in the years to come, but this is who I am. A real person. A changing person. Hopefully it inspires you to do the same on your own blog. Because those are the posts that I really love.

Just getting back from a big trip (more on that in a future post) and I had limited access to the internet. My RSS feeds were a great way to keep up with interesting happenings.

Anytime I find a blog with even mildly interesting content, I add it to my feed list. Most days I only have ten or so posts to sort through, and many of them are fascinating reads. This signal to noise ratio is a thousand times better than anything I have ever found on Twitter.

Traveling always makes me appreciate Colorado water so much. It’s always so fresh and wonderful right out of the tap. Everywhere else has water that just doesn’t taste quite right.

I keep coming back, over and over again, to the recently released pictures of the Carina Nebula. Simply spectacular. It’s hard to imagine this beauty exists “out there” in the depths of space.

Joey Cofone has a free time menu that he uses to help narrow his focus during his free time.

I love this idea and am going to attempt my own version of it. Here’s my current free time menu:

Just got back from my last physical therapy appointment. Been feeling so much better since I started going. I’m always impressed at their knowledge of biomechanics.

They had me ring a bell. I laughed because it’s not like I beat cancer but I am glad to be back in a spot where my leg doesn’t hurt anymore.

Okay, sunset paddle boarding might be my new favorite thing.

Finally produced enough power to run our electric meter backwards!

I was super curious how this would show up. I was hoping it would show a negative sign, but instead it just counts down from 99999.

I’m a little anxious mess today, so I missed Friday but let’s celebrate with five things I’m happy for:

1. The past two weeks we have been fostering a boy we have known for a little over a year. The past two weeks have been like the ultimate sleepover, full of trips to Elitch’s, the game Gubs (best game ever), paddle boarding and more.
2. My father’s day started with Noah throwing my chicken Amelia Egghart to wake me. Alissa got me a wonderful Colorado cycling jersey I can’t wait to put on.
3. Last week while biking around, I came across some open space in Boulder county near a bald eagle nesting area. I saw three eagles in a single tree (they’re huge!) and one flying about 5-6 feet off the ground.
4. I installed ceiling fans in all the upstairs bedrooms. It has been a fair bit of work to figure out the wiring, but by the third (of three!) ceiling-fan, I got it. I used these braces and so far they seem steady!
5. Went to the Haymakers for Hope rumble in the rockies, to support a friend of mine who was boxing. I did not expect to enjoy a boxing event, but there was something super cathartic about watching a bunch of grown men try to beat the daylights out of each other! Would recommend.