We’ve adopted a regular schedule for the first time in years. Charlie needed structure badly, and it probably won’t hurt us either. He now has designated times to go outside, times to eat, and times to play. It’s only been a week and it’s already helped him a lot. We’re waking up earlier too, which is long overdue. Now, my phone is chiming every few hours with whichever block of time is scheduled next. I almost feel like an adult, right up until I walk into my giant garbage-fueled wheeled fort.
Category: Blog
The Winter’s Tale
Nishi managed to get tickets to The Winter’s Tale playing in NYC. We managed to convince Ned and his girlfriend to come along. It was a pretty cool show, and a pretty unique adaptation. Earlier that same day, we caught a play directed by a friend of Nishi’s, also in NYC. Someone to Watch Over Me had a much different tone, and was pretty powerful.
A rough Friday
A few weeks back, Nishi, Charlie, and I drove out to the Finger Lakes to see Scott get married. Being so far from so many of the attendees, they made a weekend of it, with events from Friday night through Sunday morning. We decided to spend the weekend in a campground near the event, since we wouldn’t need to board Charlie somewhere, and it was about a quarter of the cost. We drove up Friday, and it might have been the toughest Friday of my life.
Two days prior, I started feeling really sick, complete with a fever and cough. I only get sick once or twice a year, and when I do, it hits me hard. Nishi was a wonderful caretaker, but I was really not feeling well.
The day before, I checked in on the little camping stove we were bringing along to cook. The fuel tank was not only full, it was pressurized – when I opened it I covered my hands in naptha, which apparently causes “contact dermatitis,” which I now know means causes blisters wherever it touches. The blisters are still peeling off my hands.
Friday morning, I took a shower in a tub that had been soaking clothes in OcyClean, and I didn’t rinse it. Apparently, OxyClean also causes contact dermatitis, or something similar to it.
With painful blisters on both my hands and feet, and a nasty cold, we drove the six and a half hours out to the finger lakes. Over nine hours later, we arrived at the campground, and set up camp by the headlights of the truck.
I had a great time at the wedding anyways, but damn, that was a tough day.
Grey Fox 2014
Grey Fox was a blast this year. Our yet-to-be-named camp was completed by the bus. Our roof deck was nice, but we ought to figure out a shade solution. Its use is limited in direct summer sun. Good music, good times.
Time keeps whizzing by
It seems to be going faster and faster. I’m sure I’ve said something similar to this on here, but I think I put it particularly well in a recent email:
My favourite hidden feature of my bus is that it’s a bit like a time machine. Whenever I spend most of my days with the bus, time slows down to an appreciable pace. It’s still a construction zone, so I’m still spending my time in a real house, and it’s easy to hit a routine that just obliterates parts of a day. I tend to tuck and roll into a pattern, and time just flies by. It’s that whole “Did I remember to turn off the oven?” trope where you do things for so many days in a row you can’t tell one from the last. The bus puts up a barrier to this, and I’m able to appreciate little things each day that get lost otherwise.
A notable exception to this is construction of the bus. My days are flying by presently, even though I’m elbows deep in buswork. I don’t remember much of the last year’s worth of work on this bus, and I certainly don’t have very much to show for it. One of the things that keeps me going is envisioning relaxing in the bus during my future downtime. Even now, when I choose to take breaks in the bus, I can feel its time-stopping power. I can’t wait to have that back in my life in a big way.
Charlie
This is Charlie. We chanced upon him at a pet supply shop’s adoption day, and now he’s here with us. He has an unbelievable amount of energy, but he’s really trying hard to make us happy. None of the toys we’ve bought so far have been able to survive him, so that’ll be fun to figure out.
Dog
We’re looking to adopt a dog. Nishi has been lonely, and longing for the constant companionship she had with Jack. We both miss him terribly, and Nishi made it clear how very much she wanted to get another dog. We’re going looking this weekend – there are a bunch of shelters in the area.
Just briefly looking online at the dogs photos local shelters have posted, it’s shocking at the amount of dogs out there. Definitely depressing.
Smooth
Things have smoothed out a bit for us. The job with Hosmer is steady money, I’m getting a few web gigs on the side, and we’re not in a dire situation anymore. It’s amazing how little money it takes to increase the comfort in your life. Once your needs are met, that extra money can be spent on a new hobby, saved for a big project, spent on a night of pizza and pool with friends, or all of the above.
Visiting the Y and exercising regularly has certainly be helping. Not the money situation, but the mental health side of things. It’s one of those stupid things that everyone knows about, yet choses to ignore. Exercise does make you feel better, in many different ways.
Winter has been having it’s last hurrah this week, but hopefully next week will bring more mild weather and work on the bus can begin again.
YMCA
Nishi and I got a membership at the Y this weekend. We got their cushy premium membership, which includes a private locker room, steam room, sauna, whirlpool, and access to the racquetball court. We’ve been swimming laps, which is something I’ve never really done before, with the exception of when I was first learning how to swim. It’s really nice, and I’m already feeling better. That exercise really does wonders for the mind.
Soda man
I got a job with Hosmer Mountain Soda. They found out the clerk who worked at their outlet store had been taking money from the register, and fired him. In need of someone they trusted, they called me and asked if I would be interested. I was, and started shortly after getting back to CT.
It’s an easy job that has plenty of downtime. So far I haven’t been able to use that time too constructively, but I’m starting on a few online classes. One just because it’s interesting, and the other to further develop my web design skills. I’m only doing three days a week at the Soda Shack, so the other four can be devoted to freelance web work.
Steady money from Hosmer, with opportunity for much more on my own terms, is a really nice situation to be in. We were pretty low for a while there, with problems mounting and opportunities dwindling. Friends, family, and fortitude got us through it, and things are looking up again.
There’s a newspaper clipping in the Shack of the obituary of the man who worked there for many many years. Though I don’t think he was ever an owner, he was a dedicated employee of the company, and had the epitaph ‘Soda Man’ put on his headstone. Looks like I landed a -man job after all.