AstroGypsies

Heading South, always the question, when, where, what route. The winds are howling outside tonight and the temperatures will be dipping close to zero°…celsius that is. Myrtle is very comfortable in these temperatures, the DRV’s are known for their excellent insulation and RV values, it’s just getting…well, cold:( yup, we are wusses;)

I don’t often photograph our wonderful trailer or its able companion Hagrid, the Dodge Ram 3500 that hauls her about, yes, a she, like the sailboats I was raised on;) and I should more often. I tend to veer away from man-made things and towards nature but it is good to share how, and why we choose to live this way! Being mobile, sometimes for months at a time, and sometimes stationaryth , as we love this lake near Mike’s home town of Perth. No there are no RV parks or campgrounds here but we have made do over the years, squatting is a great technique;) on our wonderful friends property, and next year, on a property we now co-own with them next door that includes a cottage and a bunkie! The sewer is set up, as well as a 30 amp service, a bit of gravel will even it out and presto, we have a spot to call home, or a base over the summer. Now this is the view…instant smile:)

Right now we are waiting for parts covered under our Good Sam Warranty that are backordered. Four weeks they told me at the RV Store, I call every week, yes, we have not forgotten about you, no, still no parts…and now the microwave/convection oven gave up the ghost, just in time for Halloween…the old cat is looking at me with horror in his eyes..”How will you heat my food? I can’t eat it cold” says the soon to be 19-year-old Burmese..aka..Beezil…sigh…what to do, what to do, our first world problems;)

Makes me think just how comfortable we are and what my ancestors lived with, farmers and fishermen, not exactly upper crust. I was told my great-great grandmother’s family sold all they had in Indiana and made their way West, only to have her return, with nothing, farm and land had been sold, after the death of her husband on the way West. No running water, outhouses, if you were lucky;) and your transport was 4×4 hooves, horses and mules and carts;) We are so incredibly fortunate today, almost too much. Kids think food comes from a supermarket, not a farm. They view their steak and hamburgers and I think they might not be able to eat that if they had to kill and butcher it themselves. Things have changed, so quickly, we are too far removed from our roots at times. 45 years ago I scraped coconut meat from a coconut for cream, now I can buy it in a can. I miss sitting on the back deck of the boat rasping it out of its shell, then putting it in cheese cloth and wringing it out for Poisson Cru-check out the recipe, a Polynesian fish dish with lime and coconut, like ceviche, come to think of it, someone on the boat had caught the fish as well.  As a teenager I was shown how to roast coffee beans in a cast iron skillet, then they were ground, by hand in a wonderful little box that smelled like heaven. Everything today is so fast, we want it now, we become frustrated with waiting for the smallest thing. Is this evolution, or are we running in the opposite direction.

Time will tell. Our politicians and elected representatives line their pockets at the expense of those with less, disregarding the huge changes happening on our planet. The reefs I swam over and among as a child are starting to bleach and die, what will the dolphins eat that swum at the bow of the boat, our entertainment. Not a phone, or a device, but the real deal. Will todays kids ever really get to experience that? Sad isn’t it. Cold does that to me, a feeling of sadness perhaps as I know we can not stay, the cottage is not made to live in at -30° Celcius in January. Not going to happen. Heading South, I also feel a deep sense of melancholy, those states we go through, the beliefs, the religion, the racism, it makes me feel ill at ease. With the increase in massive hurricanes and coastal destruction will these people move to the cities? The ever overflowing cities…Blade Runner seems more real today, it was science fiction in 1982…

I like seeing the dirt on my food, the imperfect carrots I have to wash, it tells me they did come from the ground. Not the perfectly shaped ones for sale at the “farm market” stand  going into Perth. These came from a box bought at a wholesale Market in Toronto, it starts with all these little lies, or little omissions, this is not farm stand food, it is just made to look that way and so many will not question it, I guess they don’t like to wash the dirt off their food, how “inconvenient”, many prefer it comes in a bag pre-cooked, just reheat and eat…sigh…we had to catch ours as kids, with a hook and line, or more often with a speargun, gut it, fillet it and cook it, now I can buy it frozen in a bag. Doesn’t feel right.

Are we a generation that will look back at what we gained, and or, what we have lost. I had the incredible opportunity to travel the world young, no outside influence from schools or indoctrination or religious beliefs. We went to many churches, usually just to hear the singing, it was so beautiful these other languages that caressed our ears. We believed we all were equal regardless of skin colour, language, religion or social status. Our church was the open sky, our playground the ocean. I’m sure words like Bohemian were tossed about by mother’s parents and friends, and worse;) We had no shower, we bathed in the ocean, we had no TV, we listened to the radio. I gave away most of my dolls and toys, or traded them for a cool dog’s teeth necklace and beads made from seeds and once a beautiful mola blouse in the San Blas that I still have:) My mother finally had to tell me stop giving stuff away. I had a few pairs of shorts and T-shirts, we had flip-flops for shoes, no pants for the longest time, we didn’t need them, a bathing suit was more highly treasured. And we were happy, with so little, as so many people are. Far from malls and shopping centers, far from the marketing on TV and social media. We didn’t “have to have” things based on what others had it seemed. I try to keep that in the forefront of my mind whenever I see a desirable shiny trinket or get stuck in the boxed cereal aisle at the supermarket;)

The space I live in now is not far from what I as raised on, a small space, but the world is our back yard, then and now…and I try every day to keep an open mind and respect others beliefs but it seems to be getting more difficult every day to do so. To see the ignorance and sub-education, the racism, misogyny and the hate. All that hate…people praising “The Lord” when their electricity comes back on after a hurricane, that their “Lord” theoretically created…gets me a bit confused, how about you? Maybe I think, read too much:)

Did you know we are related to mushrooms? Read about it;)

Time to go, I feel better, sometimes writing it all out helps. It doesn’t change the madness, but it makes me smile. I really would love to be related to amanita muscaria;)

Stay tuned amigos:)