Category: Blog

Flagstaff

After much research and many phone calls, it seems that Flagstaff may not be the best place to spend the winter. Not only will the weather pose a challenge (though, one we were prepared for), but the city seems to have a decided anti-RV stance. Flagstaff appeared with a handful of other U.S. cities that try and discourage RVers, almost certainly because of their proximity to the Grand Canyon. The few RV parks in the city won’t have us, because of our nontraditional vehicle (not surprising), and the few calls for a parking space on Craigslist went unanswered. I have no interest in driving across the country for a city that doesn’t want me, so it will have to wait until later, when I can properly experience the city from an apartment or some such.

So what to do for now? We can’t keep living in my parents’ garage. No one likes that arrangement. My grandfather is in assisted living, and his savings are starting to run down, and they are considering selling the house he used to live in. It needs to be fixed up first, so an exchange of labor for rent may be worked out. All up in the air.

Unemployed

Officially unemployed. Though thanks to the pay schedule of the Census, I’ll be getting paychecks for a few more weeks.

Now, on to other shenanigans.

Post-Fox

I got back from Grey Fox late last night, and it was certainly a good time. I ended up staying with my normal camp, which I think may have been a mistake. Most nights we went out to other camps, since that’s where the people are. Next year, that’s where we’ll be. The bus did a spectacular job, and there was only one minor malfunction (there has yet to be a trip of considerable distance where nothing went wrong). On the way home there was a bizarre exchange between another car and myself, where they looked up the bus’ website while driving alongside me. That caught me off guard.

Back to Census work, for as long as they’ll have me. I’m hoping I can stay on for the next operation, since it seems that I will be staying in Middletown until mid-September. I have to challenge a tax assessment on my bus, since they valued it about $22,000 more than it’s worth. But once that’s taken care of, it seems like I’ll be heading for Flagstaff. I think.

On To Grey Fox

Just as the next Census operation is kicking off, I’m leaving for Grey Fox. The bus is receiving some TLC to make living a little more comfortable, and things are looking good. This will be my first year with my own camp at Grey Fox, so I’m really looking forward to that. I love the camp I grew up with, but the current members are quite different from those of twenty years ago, and I’m not sure they would appreciate us jamming well into the night. Anywise, it looks to be a good year, and I’m looking forward to being back.

Big Brother

NRFU is finally over, and I must say it’s a relief. Towards the end it was getting a bit frustrating. Another operation is coming up, and I won’t have more than a few days of downtime, but I’ll use that to reflect on something NRFU taught me: People are still scared of the government.

There’s an important distinction to make here – I don’t mean that people do not trust the government, or that they don’t have any faith in it getting things right, but I mean that people are actually scared of the government. Even after Hollywood abandoned the Top Secret Government Agency for the vigilante movies of the late aughts, because the very thought of the government pulling off something extremely complicated and secretive was too much to ask for the audience’s suspension of disbelief, people still fear the feds.

I find this incredibly interesting, but maybe it has always been this way. And I’m by no means interacting with a perfect cross section of Americans – these are the people who didn’t send in their Census for one reason or another. I guess I don’t really know if this is a popular sentiment, but it is out there.

I also got to learn a bit about bureaucracy from the inside. This reaffirmed some of my assumptions, and shed some light on things I didn’t know I didn’t know. In the field, we would have a running joke about the incompetence of the people at our LCO, but after many visits to the Office, I began to realize it was just a mutual misunderstanding that stemmed from the very set of rules that tied us all together. Bureaucracy itself is the problem, not the people inside of it. Interesting.

Options

The short bus is coming along nicely. I can’t wait to see it in action. It keeps triggering these visions of a veggie fueled caravan with a dedicated fuel pickup truck so the systems can be separate from the living quarters, and attached to a more maneuverable vehicle. Sadly, I don’t think I’d be able to convince enough people to dedicate the time and resources such a project demands. I’m not sure I could.

Census work plods onwards, though some of my enumerators are starting to jump ship. One greets me as I walk in the door with a smile and “I quit.” “OK, I just need you to write that down so they don’t have to take my word for it.” He begins to write, and after a moment shows me the note: ‘I quit.’ “Good, but you should probably date it.” A moment later: ‘I quit today.’ “Could you make it sound more official?” He thinks for a second, and sets to writing again. When my attention returns to the note he is holding out for me, I read, ‘I quit today, the first day of the six month of the two-thousand and tenth year of our lord.’ “Good, they’ll like that.”

I’m told there is another operation after this one, and I’m in a position to stay on board (or even advance). There is one sticking point of a week where I’ll be away at Grey Fox…I’m not sure whether that will be an issue or not. And I’m not sure about how long this current operation will go on for, and whether the short bus (henceforth referred to by its Christian name, Caesar Rodney) will set off before the Census decides that it is tired and going home. Joe Hollay has said that he will be onboard this time around, which is a huge incentive to get my ass on the bus. Or on my bus. Ass and bus must meet.

Prom, Jr.

I just got back from driving my neighbor and her friends to Junior Prom. In the bus. They thought it would be cool, and I agreed, so tonight they all piled in and we made the short trip to the restaurant that was hosting prom. As usual, the bus attracts a lot of attention, questions, and stares, but I can’t honestly say it had the desired effect of awesomeness. I don’t really know.

I skipped prom, both at X and MHS, and I don’t regret either. It’s not my thing, and I don’t really know how arriving in a bus would change it. Whatever. They seemed happy, and that’s what matters.

Also, note to self: renting out the bus may be a marvelous method for making money on the move.

Whine

The days are blurring together. I find most of my nights booked with something or another commanding my attention. And work is pure grind. Same thing, every day, I could do it in my sleep. And truth be told, I’d do it for years upon years. A small price to pay for freedom. Sadly, my Census stint will soon be up, and I’ll have to go back to crappy hours and crappy pay. Hopefully, a change of scenery will balance that out.

Dipper

The big dipper is in the wrong part of the sky. It’s far too high up, and should be nestled in the tops of the trees to the West. Something must be wrong. It always used to be there, like clockwork. Maybe I blinked.