I’M A LOSER!

and other benevolent interventions

Jul 29, 2026

∙ Paid

This and more in this week’s edition of HarperTheFox news.

BUTT FIRST!

Wilderness Survival Tip #1:

Stay Home If the Wilderness Is on Fire

Last week, I confidently announced that my family was finally setting off on our first test camping trip before we begin living on the road full-time.

Reader, we did not go.

In fact, we didn’t even come especially close.

We had worked like crazy to get our camper ready, but there comes a point where you have to admit that “almost finished” is not the same thing as “ready to disappear into the desert with three small children.” Add in the fact that much of the West is currently on fire, and we reluctantly decided to stay home a little longer and finish things properly.

I hated that decision.

I’d already told my kids we were going. Worse, I’d just told several thousand of you on this list that we were going. Walking that back made me feel like a real big dummy-dumb loser.

But one lesson life keeps teaching me is that what first feels like failure is sometimes just providence wearing a very convincing disguise.

Cope? maybe. But get this.

The place we had been planning to camp became a wildfire evacuation zone almost exactly when we would have been there. And then, just a few days later, our SUV developed a substantial coolant leak. It’s fixable, but I’d much rather discover that in my driveway than halfway down a forest road with no cell service.

None of that means we made the “right” decision because we somehow foresaw what was coming. It just reminds me that I don’t have to. Sometimes the wiser choice is simply to acknowledge reality instead of trying to force my plans onto it. Sometimes disappointment is just protection that hasn’t introduced itself yet.

So, for now, we’re still home.

The camper is getting better every day. The car will be fixed. We’ll leave soon enough.

And in the meantime, I have done what any sensible adult does after a crushed dream: I have obsessively perfected a whole wheat pancake recipe.

It’s ridiculously good.

Paid subscribers will find the recipe below the fold.

AND NOW!

SONGS ROUNDUP

Social media sites are notorious for only selectively showing you posts by the people you follow, so for you dear subscriber, I like to gather up all the week’s posts for you in one easy place. Here you go!

“In The Summertime” parody