You do you. Is that a positive? As in “you are a unique and cared for human, so keep being yourself and doing what you love.” Or a negative? Meaning “I completely disagree with what you’re doing or saying, but refuse to engage.” Perhaps it’s another way of saying “each to his/her/their own.” Maybe it’s uttered as an automatic response when feeling overwhelmed or distracted. Like “you do you ’cause I have my own stuff goin’ on.”

My read? It’s all of the above. It’s meaning in any given context comes down to tone of voice, inflection and body language.

Regardless, you do you is the theme for this month’s Photo Blogging Challenge. It’s going to be interesting to see how everyone captured this idea in photographs. Here are my five attempts:

1. Me Doing Me

A rare selfie, this one taken on my birthday early in the month. I walked solo, because Mr. GeoK had a couple of meetings that day. I wore my favourite purple tuque (knitted by my Mom, years ago), and my hair in braids – something I recently started doing to honour my Norweigian heritage. And because I never wore braids as a kid, so it’s past time!

2. You do You, I’ll do Something Else

Another solo walk (another meeting for Mr GeoK), When I reached the point where the pathway opened onto the meadow, I abruptly stopped. Part of the Canmore elk herd was browsing on either side of the pathway. This is one of those occasions where you think “you do you, and I’ll just turnaround.” It’s also called being #wildsmart! 🙂

3. “You Do You” Changes Over Time

Yes, we used to golf. No, we haven’t golfed for at least 6 or 7 years. This month we decided to officially move on from this past hobby. We spent an hour or two on a sunny afternoon cleaning up, organizing and photographing our golf equipment. We had 6 sets of clubs, 5 golf bags and various accessories.

Wait! Before you form an opinion about the 6 sets of clubs, you should know that includes 3 sets of junior clubs our kids outgrew over the years. After checking with our now young adults, we listed everything for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

After two weeks, we’re pretty much sold out. So many positives…no more guilt over not using the equipment; a little more cash in the bank; less clutter in the garage; feeling good that this gear is back in use; and some great conversations with the folks who bought the various items.

4. New Things Can Change How “You Do You”

In March we got a notification from our utility company that our 5-year fixed price electricity contract was expiring. And when we looked into new pricing, we discovered that power prices in Alberta have more than doubled since we signed the old contract. Yikes! (NOTE: including transmission and various admin/franchise/service fees, our new cost is about 20 cents Canadian/kWh, still a bargain compared to a lot of jurisdictions.)

The steep price increase prompted us to take a fresh look at solar power. The economics simply didn’t work last time we looked. And I’m not convinced the economics are great this time around. But we ended up choosing a contractor that buys carbon offsets for the footprint from fabricating the solar panels, we qualified for a $5,000 federal grant and we’re taking advantage of the federal 10-year, interest-free loan program to finance a solar array on our south facing roof. So we look forward to the installation, slated for July.

Since we have enough south-facing roof area to also power an EV with solar energy, we also put our name on the waitlist for a Hyundai Ioniq 5. To make a long and complicated story short, we’re now the owners of an Ioniq 5. It’s not the trim line or colour we wanted. But by taking delivery an in-transit-to-the-dealer EV, we were able to size the solar array to include the incremental load for charging the EV.

The EV has changed how we drive. The charge/discharge display and dwindling range make you very aware of how best to drive to optimize your use of energy. We’re looking forward to seeing how the Ioniq 5 performs when we use it to drive to hiking trails this summer. And we’re even more curious to learn how it handles a Canadian winter. Plus we have started noticing EV chargers wherever we go.

5. Recipe for Happiness? Us Doing Us

Ha ha! I feel a little bit like King Julian in Madagascar as I struggle to come up with variations on “you do you” that make sense! 😉

With our 35th wedding anniversary coming up fast, we have some experience in things that can help a marriage last. One best practice = spending time together doing things you both enjoy. We have found many such things, starting with hiking, biking and photography. Over the past few years, we’ve added bird photography and kayaking to the mix.

This month we managed to get out for our first bike ride of the year – 54 km from Canmore to Banff and back. It was awesome! Especially because we could both walk the next day! 😉 It was a good shakedown before heading out to ride the Bow Valley Parkway next week. For a better sense of this ride, check out Mr GeoK’s Relive video recap.

Okay, those are my five. Now please head on over to host PJ’s blog: A lil’ HooHaa. You’ll see what everyone else came up with to depict “you do you.”

While you’re there, please consider joining us this month. The theme is Tell a Story. All you need are 5 photos and a blog to share them. The amount of accompanying text is entirely up to you.