A friend sent me a clip of Leonard Nimoy singing a song called… Miranda.
I’d listen to Spock, er, Leonard Nimoy read the phone book, but I have to say this is a catchy tune.
Personal
Mobility and Community
I’ve been following the adventures of Sean and Louise, fulltiming in Odyssey, a 40′ Neoplan bus, for quite a long time now.
I remember reading their blog for the first time and thinking “Wow, I’d love to do that… but there’s absolutely no way I could.” I credit Louise for indirectly getting me out of that mentality. I had so many excuses for not getting on the road, one of which was that my cats would simply tear up the motorhome with their claws. She presented a solution, Softpaws, and helped me realise that there was a solution to all my excuses. Flash forward many months, and here I am, a month and a half before my own fulltiming dream begins!
Sean and Louise are presently volunteering for the Red Cross. Their current blog entries have chronicled their mad dash from Wyoming to Texas, and they’re about to be on the move again.
I cannot wait to have this sort of mobility.
When my father was ill, I wanted to move to be closer to him. That wasn’t feasible in the amount of time he had left. How nice it would have been to have the freedom to drop my job for a few months, something I could have done had I necessary mobility, to be with him full time!
Or how about those interesting temporary job postings for which I can’t apply because moving house wouldn’t make financial sense and staff housing wouldn’t work because of the catkids?
How about volunteer opportunities during times of disaster?
Or even cases like this week where I realised just how unsafe is the area in which I’m living?
Most of the people I know in the ‘real’ world are extremely sedentary. They would look at this post and say “Yeah, mobility has its advantages, but you have to give up having a community.”
I couldn’t disagree more. In just a few short months, I’ve learned that RVers form a community unto themselves, partly ‘real’ and partly virtual. I can’t wait to compare that sense of community to that which I’ve experienced in the various places I’ve lived.
Time To Go
It’s no secret that I don’t live in a good neighbourhood. I knew that going in, but figured that I’d be fine for a year since the location is so convenient to work. I avoid going out at night on foot and am hyper vigilant when walking around during the day on weekends. During week days, though, the neighbourhood is crawling with civil servants walking to and from their jobs at the various government complexes in the area. I’m alert walking to and from work, but I never would have expected what happened to me as I headed for home today at lunch.
A block from my house, I heard a man behind me, obviously on a bicycle and on the sidewalk. He was muttering. Immediately, I tensed, knowing that ‘something’ was up. I sped up. He sped up to join up with me, pushed me into the bushes, spit on me, and called me a truly vile name.
I spent my lunch hour filing a police report, taking a shower, and washing my clothes.
In the year I’ve lived here, this was the second time I had to call the police. The first time was because I thought my neighbours were going to murder each other. In 2006, I was driving on a highway that goes through the outer edge of the neighbourhood and was struck by a huge rock thrown from the overpass above me.
It’s time to go.
I can’t wait to live a lifestyle that will enable me to leave bad neighbours and scary situations immediately.