In My Place 144

May 24, 2026. 40.09771, -75.14366. See the updated map here. See all the blog posts here.

I wonder if I'll ever do another Joe's New Summer. I'm not gonna lie, the thought briefly crossed my mind a few days ago, to do some low-key version of it during the Summer of 2026, just something to pass the time. Maybe think back to what I did during that Summer of 2017 and find some crossover or follow-up versions of the new things I found to do during those three-plus months. But then I remembered that blogging has been really difficult for me lately, due to time and lack of motivation but mostly time. And then I remembered that the Summer of 2017 was my final child-free summer and I had the time to do whatever bullshit nonsense my little heart desired.

Trying something like that now would be sad. I am a better writer than I was nine summers ago, so I could probably stretch the narratives if I needed to. Like today, when we pulled up to dance class, my kids were like "did you know there's a creek over there?" and I did not, so we walked over, and saw the creek, waters raging from the constant rain we've had lately. That could've been my new thing. "I Have Never Discovered the Tacony Creek That Runs Under My Kids' Dance Class's Parking Lot" or some such bullshit. Right? And now here's a picture of the abandoned factory that's right next to it, and I'm typing some highly fictionalized narrative of when this creek was first found and how we are all adventurers in some way and how I am finding my own sense of adventure this summer, etc., etc., you know how it goes here on this blog. I just sit down and type. I could do that for a whole summer for sure.

But at what cost? The cost of being embarrassing? Pretending that my life is more exciting than it actually is? I think about the In My Place project, and how it is the inverse of Joe's New Summer in this way. A picture from each day of my year should and will betray, over the course of the year, how unexciting my life typically is. Most days I have to decide whether the picture is going to be taken near my work or near my home or during my travel in between, just simply because I'm not going anywhere else or doing anything other than what I'm normally doing on a typical day. Nothing is NEW, everything is OLD, and so this current blog project is designed to capture the small beauty of the latter, and for the most part eschew the former.

That's okay! I'm not saying that one is better than the other. I like my life a lot right now. I like my routines. And I like that it's not all routine, that some days, I stumble upon a creek.