Yesterday almost hit 100 degrees with a very high level of humidity.  It was accompanied by crazy 35 mph wind gusts!  Just unreal, unseasonable heat.  Thank goodness for my tiny fan last night.  If the police would have shined a light in last night they would have got an eyefull.  

     Work has been a handfull recently.  My boss has been struck with medical issues that will have him out for another week.  I have been back to the farm one day in the last eight weeks and it will be another three before I get there again.  This could cause some real issues with getting my equipment ready for various things I have going on next month but I will make it work.  I always do.

     I have been out for longer now than any time since I started doing this.  It is wearing on me a bit.  If I am to adopt this lifestyle long term it will require some adaptation on my part.  As someone who always had a long list of projects on the to-do list I am a bit bored.  Even the normal upkeep of a home is almost completely removed from this lifestyle.  No lawn to mow or snow to shovel.  No cooking or dishes to do.  Just loads and loads of free time.  

     I have spent most of my life cursing my daily toils.  Saying "if i weren't so busy I would have time to do X".  Now I am confronted with that very situation and I am having some trouble shifting gears.  Here I sit with a lifetime of information in my pocket and all I do is look at facebook!  I will adjust and thrive.  

     Here is a fun new machine I put together yesterday.  It's just a cooler with a intake and exhaust port with a fan mounted on top.  It has just enough room to hold two 2 1/2 gallon water jugs inside.  Another benifit of this particular cooler was it had two cup holders cast into the lid that made perfect places for holes to be cut.  I placed the two water jugs in the walk in freezer at work yesterday. Today I am going to take one out and see how the cool breeze blows. 

     I had been considering a unit like this for car camping or tenting it at Burningman.  Out there you can buy ice blocks at a reasonable price and the resulting melt water is a precious commodity for the shower bag.  I feel like one could even make it more convenient if you made it run off a cordless drill battery or some similar source.  I will be sure to keep you all posted on its performance when I get a long test history established.

     I present to you the humble 97 Ford E-250.  I sincerely hope by this fall it will be transformed into a winter weather retreat!  Right now it is my intention to gear this unit tward cold weather living and use the astro for my summer needs.  However, I would like both units to remain flexible enough to be used year round.  If I have a massive break down any time of the year I want to be able to call on the other unit to support me until I can make repairs.  

     What inspired this dual vehicle path?  Several things really.  The Astro has racks for bikes and boats.  It also gets better fuel mileage for long summer gettaways.  The Astro's lp and heating system work well for minor cold snaps but are frustrating for long cold nights.  Its lp storage is not big enough for really cold weather and I have not found a reasonably priced solution to that problem.  The Ford has enough interior space to mount my big tank inside the rear bumper so I will enjoy large capacity once again.  Because it is already gutting I can insulate it in a manner that will better suit winter heating.  And, its larger interior will leave me less depressed on those long cold winter nights.  I feel like it is a solid plan.

     Hey Scott how did you end up with this monster anyways?  Well, I am glad you asked!  Several weeks ago this fellow Kerry told me he was going to upgrade his van and would be selling his old one.  I told him to keep me in mind but I didn't see how I would be able to afford it.  Last week he bumped into me and said the van was almost ready and he would sell it to me for scrap value!  I could not believe it was that cheap but it was still more than I could pay at the time.  That day I got to thinking about my paycheck and realized I would actually have an extra paycheck this month before I would have to make my next mortguage payment.  It was a sign!  I test drove it and told him I would take it.  

     If that was not enough mojo fo yo, I was at addisons house and he had a truck topper that will work perfect for my plan to modify the roof line.  It is exactly the correct width and all the hardware I need is there!  Now if I have a rv water heater fall in my lap everything will be complete!

     So, yeah I am pretty stoked about this bad boy.  It is gonna be hard to keep my hands off it in the coming months but I have a lot of other stuff I need to work on before this thing gets to the top of the list.  There is more to do on the Astro before summer heat is apon us and the rv and bod pod need attention too.  

     This past weekend I got a rare oppertunity to spend the weekend in a different city visiting a friend.  There was a last minute change of plans with my son so I had a weekend completely free and open.  I siezed the day and soon I was relaxing in Lincoln Nebraska.  

     This is the very thing I had hoped van life would mean for me: Going to new, cool places and strengthening connections with awesome people.  Sadly, the chances I have had to go on this sort of adventure has been very few and far between.  Life has a way of nudging in front of the best laid plans some times.  My new schedual has me on call every other weekend and the rest I spend with my son.  I would love to take him on little trips now and then but it complicates all aspects of travel to have him along.  

     At this weekends destination, I was able to sleep in the van as I would any other night and leave my gracious guests to their nightly rituals.  Putting boots on the ground offers so much more than a freeway driveby.  I sampled many new foods and got an idea what this city feels like at its core.

     And so-far as my host is concerned, I now know her better than I ever have.  Yet, it would seem i have only scratched the surface of a deep and fascinating human being.  Her son is pretty cool too.  I appreciate them allowing me to step into their space and sample a tiny snapshot of what it looks like to live their lives.  Even the seemingly mundane can be exotic and interesting when experienced outside of ones everyday grind.  

     In my travels, I was able to meet up with an other aquantance, whom I parted ways with as a friend.  Even my time spent on the road I found useful for catching up with some people I hadn't spoke with in a wile.  All in all, it was a great weekend and I only spent about a hundered bucks on the entire thing!  

     who knows when I will get back on another untravelled road?  who knows were that road will take me?  I can only hope it is soon and that the results are this memorable!  Special thanks to Kathy and Becky for this one.

     We survived Interfuse!  No breakdowns and no jail time so I will chalk that up as a win.  The bod pod and the van both performed spectacularly!  I am still recovering from the 13 hour day I put in driving back to Owatonna on sunday.  

     One thing about a big drive after an event like this is it gives you a lot of time to think about what you experienced.  I am not going to say this burn was a great deal different then some others I have attended, but just getting the opportunity to step into a different world for a few days makes you notice things about the default world that you are stepping back into.  It makes you re-evaluate your priorities in your life and think about your lifes direction in depth.  

     Direction is something I have been really lacking as of late.  

     Every day after work I go to the post office to check my mail.  I walk back to my van and get in.  I drive up to the stop sign, still thinking about my bills or whatever else I got from the box.  Some days I don't know what I am going to do with the rest of my evening beyond that point.  As I come to a stop at that sign I am snapped out of my distraction by the realization that I have no idea were to go!  I have three choices before me and I have no idea wich one to take.  I briefly struggle to come up with a plan for the next few hours but realize that I can't sit here and plot my evening out because there is traffic all around me.  The moment of panic passes and I just pick one.  I almost immediately feel wasteful becouse I am driving around with no destination in mind but relieved that I am not holding up traffic.  

     This is a perfect metaphore for my life right now.  Moving down time line tward a destination but then suddenly faced with a lack of direction.  Right now I don't know if I want a relationship or not.  I don't have a clear idea of were I want to live or what I want to do there.  So, as Dori would say, I just keep on swimming.  

     How did I arrive in this situation?  It seems to me that we human beings have anchor points in our lives.  Relationships, dwellings, jobs, even faith are the roots we put down that hold us to our communities.  Some are physical, others emotional, some are even spiritual.  These forces can effect us in many ways.  Most bring stability to our lives.  Others bring joy or conflict or even confinement.  Recently, I have lost several anchor points.  Others have been weakened.  In many ways I feel a new found freedom from this lack of connection.  In other ways I am fearful and lonely.  

     When I sit at that stop sign and realize society is not going to choose my direction anymore, it is a wake up call.  Its time for me to truely take command of my own ship and destiny.  Now i just need to figure out were I want to go!