January 2011
Looking back at the past year, it seems like I've just been treading water with the whole nomad-lifestyle idea. Up until a couple days ago. I think it has finally hit me what I am doing, probably because I now consider myself at the one-year point for getting rid of everything. Even if it takes me another year to sell the house, I still want to be able to live it with only the "clothes on my back" - that is, only what will fit in the truck. I've made a lot of progress paying down my debts, and I've acquired eight properties. The truck starts every time, and runs like a dream. I've found that even in the coldest cold, just a couple hours on the block warmer, and it starts up 100% of the time. And that, my friends is a sweet feeling. I'm completely confident that as long as I can plug in for a couple hours it will always start, no matter the temperature. And if I have to park someplace cold, away from an electrical outlet, I simply have to start it every hour or two to keep it warm....or just keep it running. I think my general rule will have to be to never turn it off in the cold until I can drive to an outlet. Some days ago, reflecting on this whole lifestyle change, and my whole preference for living in a homemade fort rather than a nice home, I think I figured out where it all began: a little book I must have read in the 5th grade, "My Side Of The Mountain," by Jean Craighead George (1959). Ever since reading that book, I have wanted to live in a hollowed out tree like the boy in the story. I have always felt happier in a cardboard fort. Or a tent. Or a treehouse. Or a pit in the desert. Or a step van. And movies like Swiss Family Robinson or Into The Wild only added to the Romance. I have a few friends who cheer me on, and I often get the feeling I should feel stranger than most people....but I never do. It all feels so normal to me. I sometimes try to see myself through other peoples' eyes, but I still don't see anything weird about this lifestyle. Some people choose to live in Alaska, some in Mexico. Some choose to live in renovated churches or lighthouses....I guess I just see my truck as a similar choice. I mean, I don't understand how people can live in apartment complexes. Humanity just stacked on top of each other...each person's wall is the next person's wall...little boxes stacked neatly. People crammed into cracker-box apartments in long rows where you only keep your individuality by buying different furniture and knick-knacks than your neighbor. I am amazed that people in apartment complexes don't all go mad and initiate great killing sprees every week. I have to assume these tenants in their chicken coops have all found great avenues elsewhere to experience life, because packaged into one of a row of infinite rows of apartments is not going to lead anybody to anything beautiful. As for me? I'll take my rolling box on down the road...perhaps park in the lot of one of your chicken-coop complexes and smirk from a distance. Smirking and drinking and enjoying my freedom, my variety, my mobility, while you trudge up the stairs after a long day at the grind.......smirking while I watch you rush to pay the bills from the confines of your little third floor cell, in a row of cells, in a wall of cells, in a building of cells, in a town and a world full of tiny little cells. * * * I sold the old RV furnace for $20 today. That's almost an inside joke, because I really should have just thrown it in a dumpster. My mindset this year is to unload EVERYTHING as quickly as possible, and forget about trying to get a good return price. It needs to be about volume this year. The house has to be empty in a year. Sold the weight bench and weights for $80, and an ultrasonic pen cleaner for $9 (which is kinda funny because it was still sealed in the box, brand new from about 1988). I think I'm going to start doing some overnighters in the truck. Yes, in the dead of Winter. Probably Saturday night when I get home from the Y, I'll turn the furnace on, and connect a space heater, and live out there until I go to work Monday morning. I need to start doing that, and bringing Monk out and testing everything and get the true feel of that life. The time to create and trouble-shoot is now. I've been hesitant to start going back and forth with Monk, between the truck and the house, but a couple nights a month will be a good way to begin. Now.  * * * I got myself a little toy today - a Garmin 1450T GPS thingy.  Sweet. I was going to wait until I hit the road, because there's no need to spend money on it now, and they'll only get better and cheaper, right? Well, Jose (my housemate/house caretaker) came up with one from a guy who owed him money (I don't ask....) and I scored it from him for $40. Hey, it's a $200 unit, folks. The 5" screen is very nice, and it does exactly what I really wanted: I can see the exact coordinates of where I am (latitude/longitude) on the planet, or type in the coordinates and be taken there. This will allow me to find the boundaries of my properties, so when I dig a pit in the desert, I'll be in the right place! I had a crazy idea this week, and as are all my crazy ideas, it will be up to my friends and acquaintances to decide whether to act on it or not. In the spirit of the original Burning Man, I think I may have my own little annual soiree out on the Needles property. Maybe pick some unobtrusive day in February, and send out the call to my peeps to come to the desert, dig their own pit, pitch their own tent, drag a trailer and knock back a few with me. Campfire, BBQ, whatever. I mean, Needles is only 5-6 miles away. The airport is right there a couple hundred yards away, so people won't feel stranded; they'll have their phones. The nearest major airport is Las Vegas, two hours away. And you know anytime you throw Vegas into the deal, people will respond. And I'll be there anyway......what have I got to lose by making it happen? Certainly sounds like fun to me. First one is 2013. Stay tuned. * * * Sold some cross-country skis for $25, a motorcycle helmet for $20, and a new-in-box closet organizer shelving system for $46. My old 1980 classic Franz metronome for $23 (another old friend). The lifesize pouting Negro corner doll mom handed to me - $7. And I've had a pretty good run on Amazon selling off my personal collection of dvd's - the good stuff. And, as always, I haven't even made a dent. I talked to my good friend Susie about the soiree in Needles, and she thinks it's a good idea too, so it's definitely on. Jellybean & LaBoone's Annual Dirt Floor Soiree. It has a nice ring to it. I'm trying to figure out a trip to Needles this year, but I don't see it happening. I'll definitely make the trek in 2012 though, and then I'll have a better concept of how the Dirt Floor Soiree can thrive. I finished reading Catcher In The Rye tonight - just one of those books people always read, and I don't do much reading. It takes me forever to get through a book; I can barely finish two pages before I fall asleep. So I decided I should really try to read some of the well-known works and try to broaden my palette. But after this one, I'm kind of excited to read My Side Of The Mountain again. I hope I find it as inspiring forty years later. Ahh...inspiration. So, you may be asking whatever happened to the novel I was going to write? (August 2010) Let me just say, as a slacker and lazybones, I have put it on hold for a minute. I lost my muse in October (let's not go there), but I have direction for the book, and I will finish it. Regardless of the cooperation of The Muse. And in the spirit of fair play, I offer to you Chapter One in its entirety.
February 2011 Re-Stocking The Stocks Buying Property In Beryl, Utah |