January 15, 2010 by Rae

Feeling Blue

Today’s our first sunny day in over a week and I’m feeling down. I spent a couple of hours this morning troubleshooting my water heater (more about that to follow) and I’m looking at a costly repair.

This is definitely not the winter I’d envisioned or saved up for. Just about everything I had went to the brake repair this fall and the rest to keeping me afloat until I got full-time work hours. It’s already the middle of January and I haven’t done any exploring or renovations. At this point I’ve pretty much conceded that neither is going to happen.

My cashflow has improved slightly, but not nearly enough to make up for how much financial bleed I’ve had since leaving the Yukon. I really don’t like to talk in great depth about my finances, but I think I need to make a comment on the subject. My global financial picture is sound, but my daily budget isn’t. I ‘have money in the bank’, however it is off limits for daily expenditures. The only way I am going to survive financially in this lifestyle of unstable income is to limit my daily spending to what I’m taking in through my various income streams rather than continuously dipping into my investments and savings. Exploring counts as daily spending. Renos and maintenance have their own saving account, but maintenance takes precedence, of course, and there’s a minimum cushion that needs to be in there at all times. Soon as I hit that limit, I can only use the money for real emergencies and not for sprucing up my home.

I’m a homebody, so a part of me doesn’t mind having an excuse to stay home, watch movies, read, and go for long walks on the beach. However, I didn’t enter this lifestyle to have such a monotonous sameness to my days. It’s only the thought of my imminent return to the endless Yukon summer that enables me to remember just what it is I’m working so hard at to build. I can tell that I’m making progress at supporting myself on the road in a manner that will enable me to travel freely. My various income streams are slowly picking up and my writing contract is a major step in the right direction. However, I have conceded that this winter is looking at being a wash and that there probably won’t be much more to blog about until I take off in May.

This situation is of my own making and only I can fix it. I never forget that I chose this life and the financial instability that it brings, that I made a decision to honour my belief that the true riches in life are not material. So, please do not take this post as a ‘woe is me’ type of update, but just an honest comment on where I am right now. I don’t deserve pity or sympathy because I could still be an analyst for the government, living in a nice house in the city with no debt and plenty of disposable income.

In my about me page, I quote Sterling Hayden. Here are more of his words that ring so true to me:

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsman, who play with their boats at sea — “cruising”, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and have the means, abandon the venture until your fortune change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
“I’ve always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can’t afford it”. What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of “security”. And in the worship of security.

I’m off to take a long walk on the beach so I can enjoy some of that fleeting sunshine!

December 23, 2009 by Rae

A Zanier Morning

WHEW! I did in 4 hours what I normally do in what I have thus far considered to be a ‘busy’ 8 hour shift! Our till system also went down for about an hour. The manager tried to lock the doors, but customers were persistent and I was doing well manually calculating things, so we persevered with the customers who were paying cash. Once I got everything entered after the till came back up, we just about balanced, so I think the manager was glad that we stayed open for these cash-only customers. There were a few little tax-related discrepancies because BC’s taxation system is quite different from any other I’ve experienced in this country and I haven’t studied it in depth.

I have a really hard time finding anything special about this season of over commercialism, but this year it sure is easier to be cheery about it.. Compared to last year in Oliver, this week has been pure heaven. Last year, I spent this week moving snow, being responsible 24/7 for the RV park, and being %#( upon by the manager. I also had the stress of dealing with the continuing cold snap while preparing for my departure from Hell-iver. There was also the not-so-fun job of trying to be cheery with customers and get into the spirit of things for our potluck. Last year I did get a nice dinner from the manager at the RV park (fainting almost ensued) and this year, to my surprise, I got a little bonus at the gas station even though I’ve been working there less than two months.

(It was also a year ago tomorrow that I moved the blog to WordPress!)

My only plans for the 25th are to have dinner with the mother and step-father of one of my best friends. What are the odds that they’d live here? I’ll be working 10 to 6 and then heading over there for turkey. If I hadn’t done that, one of my former colleagues at the gas station was going to bring me leftovers from their dinner. I might be a solo RVer, but solo does not have to equal alone.

December 4, 2009 by Rae

A Gentle Repeating of History

Augh. Another day, another day of being employed only part-time. Part-time might pay the bills, but it doesn’t pay for groceries or extras like new glasses because the arm on your pair snapped off! I did yet another round on foot with the resumes today. All but one store (Zellers) accepted one and most said that they are hiring for the holiday season. Hopefully…

It has occurred to me that my situation right now is really not unlike that in Oliver last year, except that my ‘free’ rent comes at a reasonable cost and is not making me miserable! There isn’t really any place for me to go, unless I want to go pay the park rates in the big cities of the Island like Nanaimo or Victoria, so I’m not considering moving. The extra hours come January are going to help, but won’t make up for two months of only part-time employment.

Even if financially things are as they are, I can see my RVing life slowly improving and I imagine that things are only going to get better. It’s just the ‘in the meantime’ that can sometimes be hard to get through. I have to remember that building a new life takes time and patience and that good things come to those who wait.

December 2, 2009 by Rae

It Happened Again!

A man came in today to buy lottery tickets and identified himself as the one who left me a generous tip. He bought a 20$ scratch ticket, scratched it right there, won 35$, and gave me 5$!

What an easy and inexpensive way to do something nice for someone.

October 17, 2009 by Rae

Back on the Horse

As promised, Miranda was ready to go by 10 on Thursday. She’d undergone an oil change, thorough mechanical inspection, and been washed. I hooked up without fanfare and slowly drove out of there.

In my exploration of Pemberton, I had concluded that the AC Petroleum gas station was the most RV friendly, so I went there to fill up and then across the road to the information centre next to which there is a sani-dump and a potable water tap.

It had rained all morning, but the sky had really cleared up, and I had ideal conditions for getting back on the proverbial horse as I drove out of Pemberton. There was one hill with a steep grade and a couple of hairpin turns that was going to make or break me. I approached it bravely, heart in my throat, geared down, and got down safely, having to tap my brakes only once. They held up fine. 😀

I was caught in a bit of conundrum, time-wise. It was too late to get to Horseshoe Bay, grab a ferry, and arrive at Croft’s place in daylight, but it was much too early to stop for the day. I decided to stop at the Starbucks near the Canadian Tire in Squamish to do some online stuff then go park at Shannon Falls to hike and kill a few hours before pulling into the Walmart for the night.

There was no really convenient place to park at the Canadian Tire, so I took up a bunch of spots and tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible, but I ended up not feeling comfortable enough there to stay as long as I could have on the Starbucks connection. So, after a catch up session with Will and a quick check of my email I proceeded to Shannon Falls Park.

There, I paid the 3$ day parking fee, squared Miranda away, and went off to explore the falls and trail network. It was a nice way to wile away a few hours, but I was exhausted and ready to stop for the day.

Three o’clock is too early in my book to park at Walmart for the night, but I decided to make an exception to my rule provided the Walmart folks were okay with overnight RVers. The Walmart in Squamish is really not set up for big vehicles, so I wound up having to park almost in the middle of the lot, taking up a full row of spots. When I came out of the rig and saw a Walmart employee coming up towards me, I figured that he was going to tell me to get lost. But no, he just came over to save me the trouble of going in to ask for permission to park and to let me know that I was parked fine!

The long evening passed quickly as I watched movies and set off on a three hour marathon blog post writing session in eager anticipation of being able to post with pictures. I went into the Walmart a few times to get various sundries and the fourth time the greeter told me “I know you’re parked in that motorhome. Don’t feel obliged to spend the night in here!” LOL!

It wound up being a pretty good night in Squamish, quiet and reasonably dark by Walmart standards. It started to rain in the wee hours of the morning.