Ok, so I know I'm going to bore the hell outta everyone with all this dribble sooner or later, but it'll be fun regardless. Right now, I'm going to continue with the shedding theme, like it or not.
I'm sitting here in my office looking at all the stuff that needs to find a way to keep cranking to run my life-machine even after I hit the road. Big plans seem to have big hurdles, right? Simple ain't always the definition we grew up reading. I guess this is kind of a "storm before the calm" type period in my life. I'm spending more time each day handling more stuff so I can eventually handle less for longer periods of time. Think about that for a minute. Rather than planning on how to get more responsibility or stuff or whatever, what would happen if you planned for less?
For me, it's been a catalyst to what I believe is true freedom. Now, I'll be sure to let you know how all this works out as I'm on the side of some backwoods highway with a blow-out, an engine fire, and some cop yelling in my ear about obscure road laws of West Pennsyltucky, but until then, we'll call this freedom.
I've got my list of 10 essentials from before, and yeah, there are actually more than that, but not many. Now the issues are all about what to do with the non-essential things. Anybody just have a house fire and need a whole jump-start or redo / reset button on their life? I got ya covered if so. If not, there are going to be some happy freaking Salvation Army shoppers in the coming months.
Add to the stress of deleting, the management of additional parts / pieces that are needed to live a mobile existence. Over the last couple of weeks, there has been an influx of everything from window gasket lubrication to fresh water hoses to automatic waste pumps (I like to call it the Poop Muncher). If you need it to live out in the wild blue yonder, I've probably researched it ten times and hopefully only bought it once. I've gotten as frugal as I've ever been and spend countless hours making sure I get the best deal on everything, but get the one that won't need replacing every year if at all possible.
So I dump a bunch and add some more. Since every pound becomes as holy as Christ's britches, every little thing I need to make the road life function equals one less thing that can exist on my "essentials" list. Let's just hope I don't get to the point where toilet paper gets the kick!
All-in-all, I think I have a pretty good bead on the whole deal. My list for gadgets is just about checked completely off and the rig is in need of very little to be the apartment of my dreams. Now I'm down to weighing everything dry so I can start loading in and figuring out what the hell I can take. Have you ever actually weighed your tools?? It's no joke. Balance is the key. Literally and figuratively. Pack a little here, balance it out there. Weigh. Repeat.
One good thing is that the balancing act never ends. You find that cool chingas out on the road, you better think twice about how much you need it, because it could quite possibly mean you have to toss something else out. In a life where everything you were already left with was on the "essentials" list, it makes for some interesting inward contemplation don't you think?
See ya out there.
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