24/7 Chat About Anything

[Sofisintown]

No farm animals for me. They are like children that need the 'parent' around to care for them, 24/365. You can't roam around AND play farmer at the same time.
I will buy the steaks and the eggs at the nearest grocery shop.

 

[Turtlelady]

Our last house pet, a cat, died last winter. I decided not to replace her to make traveling easier.  With the current stay at home choices due to health issues and virus vulnerabilities I have been very tempted to get both a dog and a cat again. But for now the robot vacuum cleaner is our pet surrogate. The grandkids call her Gloria. In Skype visits they chat with us about her, asking to see her. Last week a letter/picture appeared in our mailbox addressed to Gloria, sent by our five year old grandson! He was smart enough to have also sent separate additional pictures to grandma and grandpa! I am getting stir crazy with the arrival of cooler weather. My thoughts turn to how, when, where and with whom to hit the road and how long can I run away from home this time. I feel somewhat selfish to even admit that when so many have recently lost their homes and have none at all.  My thoughts are especially with all the folks impacted by the fires but also those who are facing housing transitions resulting from losses due to the virus. Nature nut's habit of a closing blessing for the nomads, each and every one of us, feels good to me each time.

 

[travelaround]

I wasn't thinking of farm animals... just of plants. But even plants need to be tended to. Right now my plan is to travel for a while. I'll try to find someone local to mow the land... i don't think leaving high grasses would be good there. But even that I couldn't do without getting environmental cleanup by the state done first. Once I sign up for that I won't be allowed back on the property until they permit it.

 

[VanFan]

I am getting stir crazy with the arrival of cooler weather. My thoughts turn to how, when, where and with whom to hit the road and how long can I run away from home this time. I feel somewhat selfish to even admit that when so many have recently lost their homes and have none at all.  My thoughts are especially with all the folks impacted by the fires but also those who are facing housing transitions resulting from losses due to the virus. Nature nut's habit of a closing blessing for the nomads, each and every one of us, feels good to me each time.

I feel much the same way.  I have been restless in a lethargic kind of way, if that makes any sense, and experiencing a little bit of "survivor guilt" given the magnitude of challenges facing so many.

In other news, Moby got his nose fixed. The front grill has been duct taped on since December, when a neighbor's work ride hit it in the wee hours. We had not discovered the damage until we were on the road. The after-market grill looks great, and no more worries about flying parts!

 

[nature lover]

I like the circling the wagons idea. But that’s how it all started. a few independent nomads thought it would be fun or beneficial in someway to be together with people. They formed a tribe, built some infrastructure for the benefit of all, they began to depend on each other And this infrastructure they built. then in a few generations we’re living in a city with all of the problems that come with it. Then a few of the youngest generation got to dream of being nomadic free from all the trappings of that city. And then it repeats itself again. Wouldn’t it be great if mankind could actually learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat them. We think we are so smart but no matter what we do it leads to the same problems. I’ll circle my wagon with yours as long as you don’t say or do anything that bothers me then I’ll build a wall between me and your wagon. I’d be glad to live in a homeowner association if I was the chairman. I’d be glad to live in a commune if I could make the rules. Sometimes I think we’re like a dog that’s chasing its tail running around in circles. Thing is, eventually your circle ends. The dog falls over dead. The closer I get to falling over dead the less I like to be around people and more I need to be around people, And even long to be around people.

It was 38° again last night Here in PA.,and I know that I should be going south after all I am a nomad, but here I am stuck waiting on a doctors appointment that might Make me Feel better, be able to do more or lengthen in my life by a few years if lucky. Today is a melancholy day. I finally got what I want, A van to travel in, no strings to tie me down, a consistent but very small income, and yet I’m not truly satisfied. There a few strings that I didn’t untie they broke. So I’m free of those strings but don’t want to be. “ As a rule Mans a fool, When it’s hot he wants it cool, when it’s cool he wants it hot, he is always wanting what it’s not. God bless the nomads I sure know we need it.

 

[maki2]

The smoke has cleared out but this week will still be grey with cloudy weather. It is due to rain Wds thru Friday. But I have lots of indoor projects to keep me busy. Week after this shows sunshine in the long range forecast. Might be a good time to start heading south. I like traveling in fir weather a lot more than driving in he rain and gloom.

Reading Steinbeck's "travels With Charlie". It is of course definetly relevant reading for anyone who is beginning a van life journey. He talks about taking too many things along. Also about his fears and the days when they get the better of him. There are many Newbie postings here in the forum that share the same kinds of worries and anxieties he describes. The time he starts out is fall of an election year. The atomic missle crisis is happening. But at east no pandemic to disrupt travel and society as well as the economy.


Find joy in you day today. Reading a chapter or two in a good book is "taking time to smell the roses". But so is going for a walk, reading in the forum, enjoying lunch or a beverage, listening to some music, etc. Don't let you mind run around and around on the hamster wheel of worries and negative experiences from the past that are not part of this particular day.

 

[Qxxx]

If you pass through Salinas CA on your way south, Rocinante is in the Steinbeck Museum there. If it's even open these days.

 

[JohnnyM]

Good one, NatureLover, how true.

True, it is starting to get cool at night up there where you are, but to me it's the prettiest time of year. The Fall beauty and the chill in the air always bring a touch of melancholy, though. I guess that's the part that makes Autumn so intense.

When everything turns to brown and grey, I'm done for the year.

Keep up the good work.

Johnny.

 

[travelaround]

Hi yall.. I'm here in why-reka still.. just took a walk across town... more than 7000 steps so far today, but who's counting? (My phone counts for me.) They say 10,000 steps is the perfect amount for each day but 7000... well, I walked from about 11:30am to 2pm... I guess I could have walked faster. I ambled. I stopped by the library and got a few books.

I also went to the "Yreka distribution center" for survivors of the Happy Camp fire who want to see what people have donated to try to help us. I got talked into taking a shirt and took two clif bars from the food room. The lady who talked me into taking a shirt was a survivor of the Paradise fire which happened almost two years ago. She told me something I'd never realized before: in raging infernos, toilets and wood stoves melt, evaporate, or something because you usually won't find anything like that in the ruins. I thought you needed to know that. In the ruins of my place they also won't find anything that looks like a refrigerator because I gave mine away a long time ago, and just had my vandweller fridge in there (an Iceco) and that was the last thing I grabbed out of that place before I got in the van and evacuated. Didn't want to take a chance on losing a 500 dollar van fridge. It is safe.

Lots of the food donated is for people who are cooking, but I don't have a kitchen in my hotel room and besides, the Red Cross is still offering three meals a day ... delivered to the hotels we're in. So many kind volunteers working for the Red Cross... I'm very impressed with them.

I heard a couple people from FEMA are in Happy Camp now looking at our incredible collection of burnt out home sites. I have no idea what comes next and how long I'll have to stay here while the cleanup process is going on. Now, I shouldn't complain... you know... I have this awesome hotel room and a lot of books to read and a nice flat little town to walk around in for exercise. And a coffee kiosk I'm appreciating quite a lot.

I read Travels With Charley: In Search of America - long time ago - and even put a little book review on my blog back in 2007.
http://lindajomartin.com/travels-with-charley-by-john-steinbeck/

Sheesh... no wonder I wanted to be a vandweller! Blame it on John Steinbeck and William Least Heat-Moon!!

Right now I'm mainly reading Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman... finally decided to read the poem and continue reading the long essay about how important poets are, a paragraph or two at a time simultaneously. I'm getting through it. I just finished an audiobook copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - now that is great literature! I always thought it was a children's classic novel but having read it I think it is for everyone... I wouldn't give it to a young child since many of the family saga themes are not really for kids.

 

[Qxxx]

Some us love Pied Piper conspiracy theories.

https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/boo...fficially-mostly-fiction/stories/201210140200

 

[travelaround]

The things Bill Steigerwald claims are fictional are pretty common in the world of memoir writing. Of course we don't remember conversations word for word and have to reconstruct them from memory mixed with imagination. The actor's name could have been changed for privacy - there's no proof he never existed. Event timing could have been changed.. that doesn't make the book into fiction. Memoir writers do the best they can to piece together a comprehensible story. I think Bill Steigerwald was just miffed he didn't get enough attention for his accusations so he wrote this article to get more attention and praise. [Just my opinion about the article I just read.]

 

[maki2]

Steinbeckn disscses openly right at the start of Travels With Charley that it is loosely.based  on his journey. He did not want to keep a daily journal. It was all about his feelings and impressions of America and how it was changing. He went on the journey because he had not lived in the country all that much in his adult years other than time now and again in larger cities. He felt out of touch with his native country. But also talks about how his impressions still cloud the reality of the life the people he met were actually living.  He also stopped at hotels and motels every few days for hot showers and baths. He was not doing cheap RV living. He even special ordered a brand new truck and camper for the trip. His writing had made him a substantial income by that point in his life. Liken many older persons he had had a health scare and wanted to go on a road trip while he still could.

Everyone is a critic and being a critic earns a living for many persons. Controversy makes big $$. But of course it also increases the sales for the person who is the subject of the criticism because people are curios to see if the critic is right or wrong.

 

[maki2]

Syill hanging around in Monroe Wa. Just ordered my directional antenna and cables on Amazon. They should arrive in a couple of days. The first antenna I ordered never showed up but Amazon agreed to reimburse me the funds. This time I am having it deliveted to a local Amazon facility instead of going into Seattle to pick it up at my private mailbox. 

Making use of the shore power this evening by cutting more inventory for my Etsy shop. But I will take a break soon and go pick up a few groceries so I can cook some meals ahead to put in the fridge for later this week. My fridge is small but by keeping things in Zip lock bags after cooking them I can fit a lot more meals in it. I cut all the fresh fruits and veggies up and zip lock bag them as well. Apple wedges get treated with lemon juice and the dont turn brown after cutting if you do that. I rarely want to eat a whole apple at a time.

Almost getting to the season for hot oatmeal for breakfast or dinner.  A great, low buget, meal treat a few times a week.

 

[crofter]

... Don't let you mind run around and around on the hamster wheel of worries and negative experiences from the past that are not part of this particular day.

Thanks for telling me that. I can get off now and get on with it.
~crofter

 

[Qxxx]

Steinbeckn disscses openly right at the start of Travels With Charley that it is loosely.based  on his journey. 

I've not read it for several decades, so good to know he was up front about the fabrications. Good story teller, what! I have read several of his other (fictional) books, and also visited Monterey several times. Always liked to stop and look at Doc's laboratory (outside viewing only), as well as piddling around in the tide pools at Lighthouse Point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Biological_Laboratories

 

[travelaround]

My parents took me to see Cannery Row many years ago before it became a tourist trap. Back then it was just an industrial area. So much has changed. I probably should not mourn for the past, but tourist traps are not so much fun.

 

[travelaround]

I just want to add that I am SO angry at myself for not grabbing EVERY book I owned and tossing it into my van, and for forgetting the boxes of things I've written including all those songs, and for not taking my sewing things that had something I'd been meaning to give back to a friend who accidentally left it with me over 20 years ago - and so many more things. Some things I don't care so much about, and then I remember things that can't be replaced. Thanks for listening to me being angry at myself. No reply needed.

 

[maki2]

Travelaround.... remember to forgive yourself. After all you would easily forgive others who were under the same stress if they had forgotten some items that belonged to you. You would instead do your best to console.

Disaster recovery is an emotional roller coaster ride. You are going to be up and down on one of those twister corkscew rides for some time yet.  It was an extreme and sudden change, one that has not yet played out to any resolution or solution and you can't get off it for a while yet.

 

[maki2]

This rest of this week's forecast is RAIN. It is going to be dorwnright soggy. But at least there was a small sunbreak between the clouds of smoke and the clouds of rzin. I am looking forward to Monday when nice weather is supposed to return for most of the week. I wont be getting much solar power for the next few days. Good thing I have soome shore power to give me enough light to work on doing some wiring inside. That will keep me occupied with making some important  build progress while beimng able to stay warm and dry while I work.

The otner night while at a store I thought I could rent a RedBox movie. So I went to the kiosk to see what new movies there were. I had not done that since last winter. Then it got slamed into my head that Covid 19 meant there are no new movies this summer and fall, no new TV either for the fall season. I  really am out of touch with things this last few months and plan to keep right on being that way for the falll and likely much of the winter. Practicing social distancing on many levels  so that I can stay healthy. My health truly has improved from doing this. i suspect this spring I will feel like a buttrtfly newly emerging from a cocoon. Spring comes early in the south

 

[travelaround]

Disaster recovery is an emotional roller coaster ride.

Thanks - that means so much to me.

Today, I don't know. It did occur to me to go to Walmart to buy another bathroom scale, since I'm supposed to be on a diet. I keep logging the same weight day after day because I have no idea what the right weight is.

Walking is going well... food, not so much. I could be overeating ... I'm not paying attention to calories right now.

Reading - well, I DNFed Crime and Punishment because I had a nightmare related to it and I'm in no condition for nightmares right now. Leaves of Grass continues to go over my head but I'm reading through it. I started an audiobook - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine . . . just entertainment, so far as I can tell.

Traveling - not possible right now as I have to keep this hotel room thing going until I'm really free to leave the area. Right now I have to stay and take care of business related to land cleanup. There's going to be a community meeting about this tomorrow with the Office of Emergency Services (county agency I think) it will be in Happy Camp and will be streamed on Facebook.

Other than that.. not much to say. My son wants to use my cargo trailer to move to Reno. I'm going to put the boxes in it into a Yreka storage place. I'd also like to get more boxes out of my van.