Crazy All-Nighter and Product Review From the Road - Personal Water Filter

What am I Thinking?

Greetings from Anchorage! The springtime weather pattern, whereby the vibration that one normally associates with noon finally kicks in around 6 or 7pm, seems to be coming into operation, with the back-kick that it is getting so light in the mornings that it's hard not to wake all the way up around 5am with that exciting feeling of the sap rising. 

Fatigue still keeps my life-experience fascinatingly psychedelic and occasionally fugal, and what am I thinking driving through the night tonight? The beekeeper who picked up the huge shipment of colonies for beekeepers all over south-central Alaska has had one boondoggle after another down on the West Coast, and will finally make it up from Portland at midnight tonight (instead of yesterday). So, since I'd already come up to town, I said I'd hang around and pick up the bees for our end of the highway tonight. Have a mercury removal to get back for tomorrow morning.

What am I thinking? I'm thinking raw cacao, peppermint, guarana/kola nut capsules, bee pollen, and possibly even resorting to some green tea! My adrenals can't really afford it at the moment: that kind of 'jump start' is short-lived in its effect these days, and I pay back with interest. But I will need to be alert for those moose in the dark, who think that they can barge into anything with impunity owing to their bulk.

Personal Water Filter

The other thing I'm thinking is a nap if at all possible this evening, and lots of water. And that's one of the things I was thinking about when I mentioned products that, despite their being 'stuff,' feel somewhat life-enhancing to me. We're active and we move around a lot, go out in town and also out in the wilderness. I've been wanting a portable water filter for both those purposes, because I really cannot drink the chlorinated water that comes out of those ubiquitous drinking fountains - but if I had a way to filter it, then I wouldn't be having to carry gallons of water around. There have been a few times both in town and in wilderness that I've been caught with inadequate water and really suffered for it.

After doing a lot of research, I ended up buying the Sport Berkey personal filter through Amazon. Back in Hawaii, where most folks were on catchment water (with risk of leptospirosis, giardia and possibly worse), the Big Berkey was the filter of choice, so I knew that this was a good name. It claims to be good for about 640 uses on city water and about 150 uses with wilderness water.

Since receiving it, I've been better hydrated when out and about! The filter doesn't add a lot of weight to the bottle (which is sometimes a problem) and although it doesn't produce the most delicious water I've ever tasted, it's definitely drinkable and doesn't taste of chlorine. The bottle doesn't hold an enormous amount, so I imagine that in the wilderness I'd carry a half-gallon water pouch for untreated water and pour in as necessary. 

My one concern is with the bottle itself. Generally, I avoid plastic as much as the next health-conscious person (within the limitations of being on the go in situations where broken glass would be inconvenient). This bottle is a plastic that is soft enough to be squeezable. I don't detect any plastic taste; however, I wonder whether my recollecting of the stainless steel Big Berkey as an imperative to trust that they know what they're doing is misleading.

Another thing that I should say is that the functionality is a matter of taste. You flip up the top (which doesn't leak) and a funny little wiggly drinking straw pops up at you, which connects to the filter. You suck through this and up comes your water. I like this just fine, it works great for me. But I had Phil try it and he didn't like it - said it was too slow for him. I'm a sipper, he's a gulper, so the value to you of my recommendation may rest somewhat on whether or not you fall into the same category as I do! 

Yes, I am grateful for this...