Hi, my name's Katt. I'm a bit of a storyteller, so buckle in, haha. I'm not even sure where to start. I love that there is a forum outside of social media giants like fb for this. I'm a GenX'er, turning 50 in a couple of weeks, and I spent a lot of time on forums just like this. One or two even helped me meet people that radically changed my life, 15-20 years ago.
Now it's 2021. I'm sitting here in my bus, which has been parked in an RV space in a small mobile home community just outside of Buffalo, NY since we were forced to move from our driveway in the suburbs last August. Our former home is being rented to a friend for slightly less than the cost of the mortgage, and every month the rent she pays has been going straight back into the house, and then some. I remember when we bought that house. The kids loved it, we all loved it. Now someone else's family is loving it. We're hoping she can buy it in the next year or two.
Across the street from our present location is a storage facility, where we rent a rather large unit full of stuff that was mostly intended to be sold off last spring but didn't because I've been avoiding humanity...like the plague. I literally almost worked myself to death in my career and suffer from some partially debilitating health issues. It is very difficult to hold down a full time job. I was laid off from my IT job in September. My husband, thankfully is still employed and earns a good living working for the same company I did. Things are OK for now, but we both know that anything can happen, just like it did when we both found ourselves unemployed at the same time and almost lost our home to foreclosure just a year after we bought it. My husband worked for the bank that sold us the mortgage for 11 years. Three months after closing, he was unemployed.
A lot has happened since then. You know you're desperate when you take a job as an IT person for a payday loan company. Looking back on it, I'd think I'd rather flip burgers than know I helped contribute to someone else's hardship. My career was radio, from the time I was 16 until I was forced out of my job as the chief engineer at a group of radio stations here in NY for the crime of coming out as trans. I never went to college. I've always taught myself everything. I had some great mentors and got some good breaks. I was lucky and had a decent speaking voice as well. Life has definitely not been kind to me since I came out. I lost most of my family, who are devoutly religious. I won't get into the details. The last 15 years have been the best and worst of my life.
A few years ago as my youngest was almost ready for college, I began talking to my husband about getting out Buffalo and living in an RV. When I was a kid, I had this plan to take my cat and build a trailer for my bike, with a litter box and a heated bed for him, and bike across the country to visit some extended family in California and see the world. But being raised in a devout religious family that drilled into me that life was all about family and kids and church and a home with a white picket fence in the suburbs... Obviously that didn't happen. I've lived many places and traveled a bit, though. I've lived in the Adirondacks. I lived in southwest Virginia for a few years. I've lived in the suburbs, the country, the city, in a house, apartment, and a mobile home. And now, a bus.
Speaking of bus... This thing is a monster. 40 feet by 8.5. It's almost as old as I am and we bought it cheap, knowing it needed a lot of work. We bought a large bus instead of a smaller vehicle, for several reasons; Chief of them being, we also have five cats who are family and there's no way we were getting rid of our cats, especially considering that they're all rescues and three of them are in their senior years. When we are down a few cats, we will likely downsize. Anyway, I drove it 350 miles from Ohio to Buffalo at the very beginning of the pandemic. We parked it at our house and immediately drew the ire of the neighbor across the street who hated me literally just because I'm trans. The village finally forced us to move it. Thankfully we found this spot, but a part of me wishes we had just taken the leap and gone west in August.
So this past week, our next-door neighbor here in our current location decided to be a troublemaker. Once again, a guy who figured out we're a queer couple and he... hates queer people. Thankfully the rest of the neighborhood loves us and are awesome, but this guy was a harsh reminder of the reality that is people who want to hurt or eradicate that which they do not understand. That is one of my biggest fears on the road. That and breaking down, of not being able to find a place to land, or find a solid internet connection so my husband can work remotely. He has a good job, but we are massively in debt after all that job loss and medical issues and we depend on that job. The company is not giving him grief about leaving and living bus life, but if stable internet becomes an issue, it will be in jeopardy. Also, I'm very afraid of this pandemic.
My abilities are limited because of health, but I can do a lot of things and I maintain everything on the bus while my husband works full time and he does the cooking. I have good days and bad. I have cardiomyopathy and connective tissue/arthritis type stuff going on. I wanted to move west years ago to a dry climate, because the humidity here in NY in summer and cold, dry air in winter, plus debilitating allergies in spring and fall has made it so I can only spend very limited amounts of time outdoors where I love to be. We stayed here so the kids could stay in the school they love with the friends they love. But now it's time to go. I'm packing. I have so much to do. The bus isn't even registered yet because the DMV was closed due to Covid. We haven't had our shots yet and we're not sure when we can even get them here. But we both realize, especially after this neighbor incident and then watching--or rather, crying through Nomadland, that it's time to go. We're both rather broken, eccentric people. But we long for community and to be among like-minded people.
On the 3rd, I have to pull the skirting off this bus, disconnect it, and take it to a shop a few miles away to have the oil changed and make sure it's ready for the road. Then we have to stick around until the 7th, when my husband's vacation starts. Then we hit the road. Not even sure where we're going yet. I'm scared to death.
--Katt
Now it's 2021. I'm sitting here in my bus, which has been parked in an RV space in a small mobile home community just outside of Buffalo, NY since we were forced to move from our driveway in the suburbs last August. Our former home is being rented to a friend for slightly less than the cost of the mortgage, and every month the rent she pays has been going straight back into the house, and then some. I remember when we bought that house. The kids loved it, we all loved it. Now someone else's family is loving it. We're hoping she can buy it in the next year or two.
Across the street from our present location is a storage facility, where we rent a rather large unit full of stuff that was mostly intended to be sold off last spring but didn't because I've been avoiding humanity...like the plague. I literally almost worked myself to death in my career and suffer from some partially debilitating health issues. It is very difficult to hold down a full time job. I was laid off from my IT job in September. My husband, thankfully is still employed and earns a good living working for the same company I did. Things are OK for now, but we both know that anything can happen, just like it did when we both found ourselves unemployed at the same time and almost lost our home to foreclosure just a year after we bought it. My husband worked for the bank that sold us the mortgage for 11 years. Three months after closing, he was unemployed.
A lot has happened since then. You know you're desperate when you take a job as an IT person for a payday loan company. Looking back on it, I'd think I'd rather flip burgers than know I helped contribute to someone else's hardship. My career was radio, from the time I was 16 until I was forced out of my job as the chief engineer at a group of radio stations here in NY for the crime of coming out as trans. I never went to college. I've always taught myself everything. I had some great mentors and got some good breaks. I was lucky and had a decent speaking voice as well. Life has definitely not been kind to me since I came out. I lost most of my family, who are devoutly religious. I won't get into the details. The last 15 years have been the best and worst of my life.
A few years ago as my youngest was almost ready for college, I began talking to my husband about getting out Buffalo and living in an RV. When I was a kid, I had this plan to take my cat and build a trailer for my bike, with a litter box and a heated bed for him, and bike across the country to visit some extended family in California and see the world. But being raised in a devout religious family that drilled into me that life was all about family and kids and church and a home with a white picket fence in the suburbs... Obviously that didn't happen. I've lived many places and traveled a bit, though. I've lived in the Adirondacks. I lived in southwest Virginia for a few years. I've lived in the suburbs, the country, the city, in a house, apartment, and a mobile home. And now, a bus.
Speaking of bus... This thing is a monster. 40 feet by 8.5. It's almost as old as I am and we bought it cheap, knowing it needed a lot of work. We bought a large bus instead of a smaller vehicle, for several reasons; Chief of them being, we also have five cats who are family and there's no way we were getting rid of our cats, especially considering that they're all rescues and three of them are in their senior years. When we are down a few cats, we will likely downsize. Anyway, I drove it 350 miles from Ohio to Buffalo at the very beginning of the pandemic. We parked it at our house and immediately drew the ire of the neighbor across the street who hated me literally just because I'm trans. The village finally forced us to move it. Thankfully we found this spot, but a part of me wishes we had just taken the leap and gone west in August.
So this past week, our next-door neighbor here in our current location decided to be a troublemaker. Once again, a guy who figured out we're a queer couple and he... hates queer people. Thankfully the rest of the neighborhood loves us and are awesome, but this guy was a harsh reminder of the reality that is people who want to hurt or eradicate that which they do not understand. That is one of my biggest fears on the road. That and breaking down, of not being able to find a place to land, or find a solid internet connection so my husband can work remotely. He has a good job, but we are massively in debt after all that job loss and medical issues and we depend on that job. The company is not giving him grief about leaving and living bus life, but if stable internet becomes an issue, it will be in jeopardy. Also, I'm very afraid of this pandemic.
My abilities are limited because of health, but I can do a lot of things and I maintain everything on the bus while my husband works full time and he does the cooking. I have good days and bad. I have cardiomyopathy and connective tissue/arthritis type stuff going on. I wanted to move west years ago to a dry climate, because the humidity here in NY in summer and cold, dry air in winter, plus debilitating allergies in spring and fall has made it so I can only spend very limited amounts of time outdoors where I love to be. We stayed here so the kids could stay in the school they love with the friends they love. But now it's time to go. I'm packing. I have so much to do. The bus isn't even registered yet because the DMV was closed due to Covid. We haven't had our shots yet and we're not sure when we can even get them here. But we both realize, especially after this neighbor incident and then watching--or rather, crying through Nomadland, that it's time to go. We're both rather broken, eccentric people. But we long for community and to be among like-minded people.
On the 3rd, I have to pull the skirting off this bus, disconnect it, and take it to a shop a few miles away to have the oil changed and make sure it's ready for the road. Then we have to stick around until the 7th, when my husband's vacation starts. Then we hit the road. Not even sure where we're going yet. I'm scared to death.
--Katt
