Day: March 2, 2011

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Response to an Email

The following email just landed in my inbox:

Hi – I subscribe to your blog. I wish you could please write more about travels and less about the personal woes. Thanks!

I’d like to remind my readers that full-time RVing pre-retirement is not a perpetual vacation. It’s real life. And this blog serves as a chronicle of my full-timing life. I wish it could all be about travel, but I can’t ‘travel’ all the time. Those who want me to write more about ‘travel’ are welcome to contribute to this part of my budget by buying my ebooks and hiring me for contracts.

In retrospect, I realise that the name of my blog doesn’t reflect the daily reality of my life, but, really, how much travel does one person need to do to qualify as having a ‘traveling’ lifestyle? In the last twelve months I’ve gone from Vancouver Island to the Arctic Circle, the Okanagan to Quebec, the Vancouver area to Washington state. All while addressing the same mundane issues of real life that I had while stuck in a fixed residence.

I practise a policy of honesty when writing the blog. I got up this morning and realised that I hadn’t updated in a while. Why? Nothing’s been going on. Why? I got screwed over by a client. But it’s not all bad; I have exciting plans coming up! I’m heading into Oregon! I have some major changes ahead! Yeah, I’m paused right now, but things are going to pick up. And my teasing tone showed, I thought, that I’m in really good spirits and enjoying my down time.

A few days ago I wrote about health issues I’m having. I guess this could be considered sharing ‘personal woes.’ It’s relevant to this blog because it’s going to affect the choices I’m going to be making over the next few months. It’s also relevant to my readers because it offered evidence of the problems with the Canadian health care system, an issue pertinent to Canadian full-time RVers.

Obviously my blog can’t be to everyone what they wish it could be. It certainly isn’t to me because I really do wish I was independently wealthy and could treat full-time RVing pre-retirement as a perpetual vacation.

But this email has made me decide to explicitly state something I decided on about a month ago: I’ve given up on using this blog as a way to generate some income to finance my life. So, I’m going to stop worrying about how often I post.

That said, there are thousands of resources for RVing around North America, but this is the only one about full-time RVing in Canada pre-retirement. My readers only get a glimpse into a very tiny part of my life, but I feel that what I share is relevant to the purpose of my blog. So, I’m not going to stop including contextual information when I do post.

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Electric Blanket

This week, I bought an inexpensive 12V electric blanket to see if it would make any difference in my overnight comfort level. I decided to start with a basic plug-in model before investing in a pricey warming pad with temperature controls and the like.

The blanket arrived the day before last. I spread it out under my comforter and plugged it in, then went for a shower. Did the same thing last night. I unplugged before going to bed and climbed up into a toasty nest. What luxury! And even though the blanket was off all night, I remained snug and cozy.

So, I’m definitely going to want to invest in a proper warming pad at some point! I’m going to use this blanket for curling up in on chilly mornings instead of running the furnace. I wish I’d thought of getting such a device earlier on in my travels; the 6A draw is about half of that of my furnace, plus it doesn’t use up propane!

To that end, I’m going to start adding 12V sockets at strategic points around the rig.

This post foreshadows Miranda’s impending electrical makeover. Da da da dum. 😀

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Paused

Nothing much to report at my end. The week or so of cold weather we had was conducive to finally getting some real downtime at home and my days have pretty much been filled with cat cuddles, movies, and embroidery.

Without going into too much detail, a large payment from a client is very long over due so I’m having some cash flow issues. Resolution is in sight, but I don’t expect to get much more done here in Blaine except for perhaps a day trip.

It feels like I just got here, but incredibly enough, I’ll be pulling out mid-day on Tuesday! And I’m heading south, into Oregon! And it will be in Oregon that my RVing life will change forever. Da da da dum.

(I won’t be offended by the eye rolls that result from that last bit. 😀 )