If Life Has No Limits What Holds Us Down?

I gave up on Twitter/X and now I have pretty much given up on Facebook…aside from Marketplace. I am always pricing trucks, vans, and campers. Beyond that, I have come to understand and begun to embrace the fact social media has nothing for me, not as a person, at least. This blog is going to be reflective. Some would say rambling but if you’re feeling kind we can go with reflective.

I was laid off two weeks ago and am taking this time to reflect, to travel some. After over a year in various trailers I am back living out of the van. Honestly, it’s kinda exciting because I haven’t been able to travel in a year and that was in a very fixed, two week period. I imagine I will travel for a month or so, get it out of my system then get a job and a place to live somewhere. Though….part of me wants to travel next year, write the next American Outback book as I try to do this vanlife thing in Wisconsin and Mississippi and Pennsylvania and all these other states I’ve never been to. Or, spend the summer picking up garbage at all the amazing places I’ve visited. I’m not sure how to make either idea practical. If I started a Patreon only one person in my life would share it so...

The only thing I hold certain is there is way of life I refuse to return to: Living check to check, where every paycheck is life or death. No. Leaving the campground was emotionally trying but it wasn’t stressful on a practical level; I had no rent to continue paying, I was able to save money every month to suppliment Unemployment. In the past, a lay off was a time to crap yourself: How do you keep paying bills (I have those)? How do you keep paying the rent (not a worry of mine)? I’m sure you know all about that, probably been through that situation at least once.

So, I’m not gonna rush back into the stick and brick world. Maybe I’ll get a job in Redding or Chico and rent a mobile home in the area. Take dance classes for exercise and a social element. Play music at clubs and bars again. Live somewhere I don’t have to leave to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. You know, fancy stuff. I struggle with desire, a desire for Chuck Taylors in several different colors, a desire for various electric guitars and clothes and...

Everytime I find myself haunting Amazon I have to stop myself cold: How do those shoes or those guitars fit in with the life I want to lead? Shouldn’t I be using that money to pay down my debt? I like nice things, I’d like to own a couple of suits, and I struggle with those wants. It isn’t easy and I’m sure you struggle, too. I’m sharing this so you understand that when I recommend a life of frugality, of minimalism, I totally get what it is to want nice clothes and other things.

Something I don’t think I’ve ever shared here: I use to wanna be a high school history teacher; I’m kind of a history nerd. So…watching all this crap with MAGA and Trump is disturbing. Now, the media distorts everything, sensationalizes everything, but when you have these MAGA people saying pretty much the same things over a couple dozen different news outlets there is an unsettling consistency. Trump is going to win next year, I’m pretty sure of it, and we barely got him out of the White House last time. Now, don’t take me as some “knee jerk leftist” because honestly the Progressives irritate me as well…they irritate me but they don’t concern me. Those MAGA people concern me. That new Speaker of the House concerns me. The razor thin margin keeping the MAGA people from total power concerns me. I’m a history nerd so I’ve seen those MAGA people many times at various points in the past. Do I want to stay in this country? I don’t know. I don’t want to leave my aging parents to the wolves so it’s something I truly struggle with.

This blog has become longer than the usual blog. Some of you make accuse it of being rambling but it is more reflective. I was very attached to the campground, it was my home for a year and a half, and now it is behind me. I’m not worried on a practical level, I can get another job, another home that is not a fourteen year old minivan. You live out of a vehicle for awhile you become aware of your own resourcefulness and resilience. I’m just looking ahead at all the possibilities, what I want and how that fits in with my philosophies of life or however you want to put it.

Until next time, IDD