It's a bit hard to believe that summer is half over. I feel like I just blinked my eyes and then here we are at the end of July. Okay, technically, we are only about halfway through July, but effectively, we are at the end. Starting in August, my wife is going to be heading back to school with me, and shortly after that teachers will be back in their rooms asking for all sorts of tech stuff they spent all summer thinking about.
Fun right?
I've been hard at work myself doing the things that C-level folks do to get us ready for the next school year, but I already feel like there is so much more to do than I actually have time to accomplish. It doesn't help that I just got back from a significant vacation and I think we can all agree that doesn't usually give you much motivation to dive back into the grind.
The good news is, my sister in law who also turned 50 this year finally decided she would like to go on a trip with her husband, 
Yes, it's a good thing.
She picked Austin Texas which is cool because I have always wanted to go there and I have never been anywhere in Texas, so that gives me another state to add to my map of places I have been. I was close once when we went down to visit family friends in Oklahoma, but that is about as far as we ever made it.
Meanwhile, the markets continue to do market things and it is hard to know where we are going to go from here. The fact that the CLARITY act is still gummed up after more than half a year is pretty concerning. What was once touted as the salvation of the crypto industry feels more like another broken promise in a large pile of broken promises.
I am happy to see BTC closer to $65K than $60K for a change, but I know that is likely fleeting and before long we could be sitting back at $58K. Pending more shenanigans in the middle east or whatever.
The price of fuel certainly hasn't come down, and that was glaringly apparent in our recent trip to the next state over. I did the math this morning as I promised I would and it appears we spend just shy of $596 in fuel for our seven day trip as far west as Duluth, Minnesota and back. It's actually not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be, but when you break it down, it becomes pretty depressing.
For those of you in the US or outside of the US, what could you do with $600 USD? I know for some it would likely feed them for a year or more. For others, it might barely cover half their mortgage or rent. It's a humbling experience for me to realize I can spend that kind of money on something that isn't really a necessity. Yes, it's something we planned for, but it's not something we needed. Does that make sense? Of course, mental health is every important and if taking trips like this helps that, it might actually be a lot cheaper than therapy.
If you are invested in Travala, the current window is open for the SMART Bonus tasks. I did the majority of mine today. They are pretty simple if you have AVA staked. You just need to share some stuff to X and it really only takes you a couple of minutes. The longest one is making a video, but I decided not to do that. In fact, two of them require you to make a social media post, so I just used the same post for both of them. We will see if the flag that or if I still get my tokens. They usually don't amount to much more than $40 given the current price, so it's not a huge deal.
If you are a SPS staker, be sure to check your votes for node operators. Obviously, I'd love it if you voted for me, but I understand if you don't have any votes to spare. I'm still on the fence as to whether it is worth it based on what I am earning. I think I am literally in the red, but I have so much invested in Splinterlands I hate to just give up.
Finally, I think I might have gotten my buddy hooked on precious metal stacking. He has already bought some and then he contacted me the other day asking for one of the sites again because I think he wanted to buy more. It's cool to see someone I know get into silver and gold the way I have over the years thanks to HIVE. This place is really an awesome community!
Or Check out my Grilling and Smoking Community on HIVE
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or
