Author Archive: Jake Breinholt

Recap of the Year 2020 in Jake’s iPhone Photos

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This year was a lot different for pretty much every human on the planet, including me. As a result, the difference in this year’s photo recap, vs those from past years is pretty stark, starting around March. In keeping with tradition, I dumped all of the photos from my phone that were taken this year into a video editor and gave each frame 0.2 seconds. Some of the photos were taken by Britt and sent to me. Some were taken on a real camera and saved to my phone for sharing with others. The effect is the same- a ~9 minute flip book of 2020 soundtracked by a couple of jams that I had on heavy rotation this year. A lot less travel this year (in fact no travel at all except for a work conference in January that took us to Miami for a weekend). A lot more selfies this year. Not really sure what was up with that. There is also 1000% more Lola and nature.

Behold, 2020 in photos from my phone–

 

2020 Photo Recap in Jake's iPhone Photos from Jacob Breinholt on Vimeo.

First Snow

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It snowed overnight last Thursday, and for most of the day Friday. Despite adequate warning and a couple of cold weeks to get us acclimated, it still felt too early for snow. Is sure was pretty though.

My first pair of Sorels since high school.

Good Reads: The Path Between the Seas

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I can safely say that David McCullough is one of my favorite authors. McCullough is a guy who was initially recommended several years ago by my dad, who also loves nerdy books about history and engineering. The Path Between the Seas is a book that I have been working on since the summer. I honestly didn’t have much time to read for pleasure this summer because of the amount of renovation work that has consumed the majority of my free time. So, at 600+ pages this one took a few months for me to get through. Admittedly I also thought the book started out a bit slow. But once I got past the story of the failed French attempt to the part where John Stevens took over the canal project, I had trouble putting the book down. The dude was such a badass that in order to avoid freezing to death one night while scouting railroad lines in present day Montana, he spent the entire night pacing back in forth in sub-zero temps after his Native American guide had abandoned him. Afterward, he proceeded on without the guide and finished the job. They don’t make ’em like they used to.

Anyway, I found the engineering aspects of the Panama Canal fascinating. It is pretty incredible what they built with such crude (by present day standards) machinery. I would definitely recommend this one to any of my fellow history nerds.

Autumnal Views

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Being in nature during these crazy times has really been a game changer. B and I are entering the third consecutive season living in the Catskills (not counting March as part of winter, even though it was still snowing a lot). Fall can be a tricky time emotionally. It is a signal that winter and cold are around the corner. But there are plenty of trade offs: wearing sweaters, enjoying a fire in the evening, all of the fall spices, football (even though my team may not play this year), and last but not least, the autumnal foliage. The changing leaves are so beautiful, even from the windows of our house. By nothing other than dumb luck, we bought a place that is literally steps from one of the best views (my very biased opinion) in the Catskills. Even though Britt and I have been insanely busy with work and are spending all of our free time working on the house, Britt convinced me to do a golden hour walk to the lookout. It was generously rewarded. Thank you, mother nature for all of your dramatic autumn glory.

This timer shot might be one my favorites of us in recent history

October 2020 Playlist

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I traditionally struggle to put together a strong playlist for October. There are several reasons for that. One is that there isn’t a lot of new music being released as summer is winding down. Another is that I’m generally insanely busy with work. Even though this is another relatively short playlist, I’m into it more than the October iterations of yore. I dropped in a couple of clutch throwback tracks. Chemical Brothers will always remind me of autumn. I have a vivid memory from my early years as an NYer- blown away by the dramatic colors of changing leaves. I was still a student at the time, but had managed to get my hands on my first real German built sports sedan. It was late evening and I was driving solo, going through the gears, whipping around on some country back-roads in LI with the sunroof open and heat blasting. The musty smell of damp leaves on the ground mixed with someone’s fireplace smoke had my heart racing. The soundtrack was Chemical Brothers’ “Star Guitar” turned up to 11 on the custom sound system I had built (I was into that sort of thing back then). In the rearview mirror I could see leaves flying up in the air behind the car, like some scene out of a Batman movie. As my current-day self, it seems super corny when I reflect on the experience (as with many other experiences I had as a twenty-something year old boy). But that fall evening I felt a very Zen moment that has stuck with me all of these years.

Get your own autumn vibes right here:

Labor Day Weekend 2020

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Hiking with our neighbors at Kelly Hollow

Britt and I have spent the lions share of our free time over the past several months working on our house. As a result, there has been very little downtime and (for all of the other painfully obvious pandemic related reasons as well) socializing has been almost nonexistent. We are lucky enough to have met a few of our neighbors (more than we ever knew living in NYC), and they are all cool. We took a break from the work around the house on Labor Day and went for a hike at nearby Kelly Hollow with our backyard neighbors and brought our respective dogs along to socialize.

When I say “backyard” I mean, we literally own properties that abut each other at the rear property lines. During this hike, we hatched a plan to make a trail between our two houses. This is awesome for me, because as a kid my best friend lived in the house right behind mine. During the summers I had perpetual splinters in my knees from climbing over the cedar fence in our backyard to go hangout at my friend’s house.

It is a little bit of a different scenario here. But the novelty of it is not lost on me. In the week since Labor Day, Britt has been busy raking a trail up through the woods. On Sunday, she met our neighbors at the half way mark, where they had also been clearing a trail from their end. Pretty awesome, in my opinion. Like a mini version of the golden spike!

Here are a couple more snaps from our Labor Day weekend in the Catskills:

Britt building some planters from scrap wood.

Hanging out at the fire pit.

Some of the leaves were already changing on Labor Day weekend.

One more from the Kelly Hollow Loop.