233 – There Are Always Options

There Are Always Options…

After a very long period of silence It is I, Alf Herigstad, back at the Being A Better Man Microphone.  It feels really great to be back.  It seems like a very long time since I recorded an episode and in reality it has been exactly 3 weeks.  21 days since I have released an episode.  That is the longest absence I have ever had and I was a little worried about what the consequences would be.  I was concerned that everyone would just go away and listenership would plummet.

I’m happy to report that during my absence 8,476 people still listened to the podcast.  That’s awesome.  Thank you all for hanging in there.

As I told you in the last episode, the reason for my absence is that I was going to the Burning Man festival with my wife, father, and uncle.  I was going to be separated from technology for  a while because I was going to be camping out in the Nevada desert.  Now I am back though, and I have some stories to tell.  Some insights to share.

The first thing I want to report is that we had an amazing time.  It was a fantastic experience with my dad and uncle who are both in their 80’s.  We saw epic art and we witnessed extreme cases of human innovation.  We met people from many countries and made a lot of new friends.  It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbow’s though.  There were some hard lessons to learn as well on this adventure.  Hard lessons are the best kind, because they teach you the most.

Before I continue with the rest of this episode I want you to take a wild guess about what I was wearing the whole time I was gone.  That’s right!  I was wearing Stump Town kilts…what else?  I took my black kilt and my green kilt to burning man with me, and I trashed them.  The black one was especially destroyed.  When I got home it was no longer black.  It had become so impregnated with dust and dirt that it was gray.  I thought it would never be the same but after it came out of the wash it looked black and beautiful again.

I’m telling you guys, these are the best kilts out there.  They are durable beyond measure, comfortable, and the unique design makes them extraordinarily useful as well.

Stump Town Kilts happens to be a sponsor of this show and if you go to their website:  stumptownkilts.com and pick out your new kilt you can receive 10% off your entire purchase by entering the code:  betterman, at checkout.  All lower case, all one word.  Check them out today at stumptownkilts.com and enter the code betterman to receive your discount.

The overriding lesson I learned from this experience is also the title of this podcast;  “There Are Always Options”.  As I go on you will understand what I mean by that. 

The plan was that my wife, dad and I would drive down from Washington to meet my uncle in Reno and then head up to the event.  We were in a 2004 Dodge Grand caravan and it was loaded well beyond capacity with all of our provisions.  Even the top was stacked up with about three feet of stuff. 

You need to take a lot of stuff to a thing like this because nothing is provided for you.  All of your infrastructure, food, water and other supplies are up to you.

Anyway, we were happily making our way towards Reno with no problems until we where about 20 miles from our destination.  That’s when our car threw a rod.  It started knocking like crazy and lost power.  We coasted down a mountain and limped into the hotel parking lot where my uncle waited.  We got a mechanic to come and give us an official diagnosis.  After looking at it he said the worst thing that he could have said.  He said we needed a new engine.

So there we were, 6