August 2010
There will be a little hiccup in the Roll-O-Rooter financing plan this month, as I have made a major balance-transfer deal, moving a large amount of debt to a credit card at a 2.99% rate. Great rate. And it's good for TWENTY-FOUR months. Sweet. The downside is that I added about $400 in new debt from the transfer fees, but that's nothing compared to my overall savings. This is the kind of thing you must always be on the lookout for if you're going to carry debt! I've been fortunate enough to always pay my bills on time, all my life, so I have good credit......and now the good offers are starting to show up again. This brings up the old question, "What's the best way to get out of debt?" Now I know you people just want me to throw everything in a dumpster and climb in the truck and get on with my story already. And I know you don't want to hear about money and finances and debt restructuring. You want stories from the road. And now! "Where are the scenic photos of bridges and skyscrapers...cactus and tumbleweeds and grizzled farmers and dilapidated diners?" "Where are the poems, the music and the screenplays?" May I remind you this isn't a story about packing a suitcase for a week at Summer Camp. This is a three-year preparation to live the rest of my life like Summer Camp. And I have no intentions of returning So I either live in squalor, pestering my family for handouts, or I find a way to be self-sufficient and less than pitiful. And having not been born either a) rich, or b) good looking, that means I have to be c) creative with my approach. So, paying down the debt. Some people say you should pay the smallest credit card first. Start the ball rolling, and get that rush when you remove a creditor off the list. It's a mental thing, and your mind gets more excited about removing a $400 credit card balance completely than it does just removing $400 from a larger balance. It might even propel you to continue. That's a good plan. Then, some people say you should pay the highest interest card first. Why pay off your best rates? Get rid of the guy that's stickin' it to you the worst, right? If you were in a fight with some dude and his two kids, are you going to take out the kids first because they're the easiest, or are you going to focus on who's really kicking your arse? So, yep, that's a good plan too. Sometimes making a little posterboard thermometer might help - like they do down at the library when they're raising money for the new Somali reading room. I think there's no magic bullet - and I am an expert in this area. Really, just find some way to make a game out of it, and stick to it. For me, I'm at the point where I'm just going to force myself to pay everything down in two years. 24 payments. Every month, take every new balance and divide by 24. Then 23. Then 22 and so on. If 24 is too much for you, try 30 or 36. You will get to the end eventually. And nobody's hopping into any trucks until the debt is gone. Forcing myself to pay my debts off in twenty-four months is a little faster than I had originally planned, and it'll probably sting a little. But it's only two years, and I can hold my breath two years if it means I get to be a traveling hippie-gypsy in the end. I mean, I'm already at the point where I have to stop spending, right? Unless it's truck-related, or I'm about to eat it, I have no reason to buy anything. Keep all the jobs and keep working. Two years of debt-paying. I haven't been debt-free since college, so I have no idea how this is going to feel. I'll probably have a heart attack with two months left, and wouldn't that suck. At some point I'll need to pull away from the part-time YMCA job, so I can focus on repairing my home and preparing it for sale. But I think I probably have another year at the Y before I can afford to let it go.......we'll see. * * * You know, I'm not trying to save all my creative energies for life in the truck. I do have occasional bouts of madness where I can no longer stare at a spreadsheet and must write or noodle around on my bass. Those things that make us who we are will eventually ooze - if not burst! - out of us, no matter how securely we have strapped them inside. I was going to make a Houdini-reference here, but you get the idea. So, I'm actually attempting a real novel. Yes, writing one, not reading. After my little Molly Murphy's book, I thought that would be the end of my book-length writing, but I'm kind of excited about trying this. Amy (yes, The Amy) convinced me to read all four Twilight novels, and to be honest, it got me excited about reading again. (and writing) I think the problem is that I haven't read fiction since high school. If I choose a book, it's usually how-to or some kind of biography. Silly me, I had forgotten to enjoy true imagination. More details as this develops. * * * Ready for Burning Man.  It's mid-August, and everything is leading up to my two-week mid-life crisis, adventure, hootenanny, hoedown, roundup, festival of excess. I'll head to Boston Wednesday night, stay over at my brother's place, and get on the train at noon Thursday. Will be in Reno, Sunday morning, pick up the 7-passenger rental van, the rental bike, and a week's worth of food, water, alcohol, shelter, duct tape, and whatever. What I'll be lugging from Maine is as much camera gear as possible, a car-powered ice chest, my laptop, a five-string bass, a few lights, sunscreen and stuff, my cloak, goggles, and hat, and very little other clothing.....pretty much only what I'm wearing on the train. I'll probably make a run at the Goodwill in Reno for a handful of sheets and towels, and I'll be hunting around for some cardboard boxes as well. I'm having a mindflash over cardboard boxes and small tarps as my tent/sunshade outside the van....may also pickup a cheap sleeping bag in Reno. I don't have room to carry this stuff out or back, and I'm so cheap, I can barely stand the thought of spending money on something I'm going to abandon. "Rat" at Rat's Bike's was offering a deal on 10-foot strands of "el-wire" for bikes (or humans) at $12 per kit. That's an excellent price, and each strand requires two AA batteries. So I ordered three kits for my bike rental, and my human parts as well. I ordered the aqua, green, and red. I'm anxious to see what I can do with it all once I get to the desert. I'm bringing TONS of batteries, including rechargeables and a solar battery recharging station. This is all part of the Roll-O-Rooter inventory, so why not make use of it at Burning Man? Here is a found photo of somebody's use of the el-wire........  Tonight I'm printing out all the ticket confirmations, rental confirmations, maps of everything I can think of in Reno, and various other directions I've collected over the past six months. I keep asking myself how I'm going to survive that crazy heat - I absolutely shut down when it gets over 78-degrees - but I'm a trouper, and I'll manage. In addition to the fun and frivolty I expect to encounter at Burning Man, I know I'll probably spend more time alone than anybody else there. Throw in six days of train travel, and that's a lot of free time. But I've got a novel I've begun to write, photos to take, sleep to catch up on, and an electric bass I can work on to get my chops back up to speed. Not that I'll be bored, but I know ME, and I need a variety of solo projects to keep my brain busy......something I can wander into the madness with for a few hours, then return and internalize it, and push it through my senses and into my writing/composing/photography. * * * Ashley and Mike have agreed to keep an eye on my cat Monk, and visit the house every other day or so while I'm away. That makes me feel a lot more comfortable about poor little Monk, and leaving him alone for two weeks. My new friend Rebecca is going through hell right now with her fourteen-year-old cat, Sidney, who apparantly has some type of cancer and has been sick for a week. Sidney's been on the upward swing the last couple days, but Rebecca is now in the position of having to prepare herself for the inevitible. This is something I can't bear to think about. I really think Monk and I will be on the Roll-O-Rooter road together in a couple years, but anything could happen, as I am being witness to with Rebecca. Of course, one day Monk and I will both be gone from this planet. But we'll meet up again somewhere, and we'll be best friends again. Well, there's no need to dwell on that happening right now; I must carry on and remember to love him a little more every day. Here is Monk, my wonderful toilet-trained monkey-boy.  September 2010 Post-Burning Man |