Steps

Another day, another.. opportunity to move forward. The morning started in the now usual way and I ended up on curled in my chair listening to tv using Pluto.tv on my phone, a cup of hot tea, and working over my lists- yes, this is plural now.  I’ve given up on trying to keep my life organized on one page, and am going for one pad. I think there are five or six pages in use now, roughly sorted into different projects. On the next blank page, I made my plan for today, by pulling items in wait from the previous pages lists.

First on the list another Amazon pickup from the blind delivery box. A few essential items, a propane refill adapter (so I can refill one pound cans from my twenty pound can,) a few packs of pipe cleaners (real ones, I’m not getting into arts and crafts,) a new tarp zipper (for the next tarp tent mod,) and the exciting part, a new TV.  I have two already, back in Michigan that is, yet both were too large to bring with me. I couldn’t imagine trying to set either up inside this tent.

The new tv is a little smaller. At home the the living room tv was fifty five inches, now, seven. Seven inches on the diagonal. It actually looks a little larger than the online images I purchased from. For its small size, it has a lot of features: component video in and out, hdmi and usb inputs, fm radio, cable tv,  and digital over the air tv. And it runs on a built in four hour battery, that can be recharged with included ac and dc chargers, and it included several antenna that work perfectly for it, and comes with a remote. A fairly good buy for eighty five bucks.

As I type now, it’s early still, only nine twelve, yet I’m exhausted and cozy. TV on my side table playing a Cold Case crime channel, a perfect background noise. Dinner finished (a much better NY strip steak from Albertsons vs Walmart,) and the burners still on warming the tent. I with my thin red flannel blanket across my lap under my laptop, and my tobacco pipe in hand (in between keystrokes..) It’s nice to have the TV content on a different device than my phone.

It didn’t start on my phone, I was using my iPad Air to watch TV (using the Pluto.tv App) connected to my phones hotspot. That worked fine for a couple weeks, until I got a data usage warning. I had used ninety percent of my one hundred gigabytes of hotspot data, although I do have unlimited data on the phone itself, hence I had switched over to using my phone. Now that I have an “inside”, having TV on in the background is natural and comforting to me. Also, it’s nice in a tarp tent that I can hear the TV just as well when I walk out and around my site.

After the pickup of the Amazon items, laundry was the big item on my list. It’s been awhile and although I had plenty of white t-shirts, socks, and boxers, I was out of clean jeans and all of my over shirts were beyond dirty. As I packed to go, even the clean clothes in my duffle had plenty of dust on them, so I threw it all together for washing. Altogether, everything fit easily into a double loader, then two separate dryers- eight dollars in quarters and two hours of my time, and I’ve got my full set of clothing clean again (a check mark off the ‘go to forest’ list.)

A stop at Albertsons for some fresh food, then the Bud Board for a few more pre-rolls and I was on my way home. High winds today had blown out the rear of the tarp tent, yet it only took a few minutes to patch it up.. soon I need to stitch it with paracord.. or maybe zipties would work better (and easier!) Cooked dinner and then set myself up to type.. here I am.

Weary of the mosquitoes again tonight, and with a quickly patched tent, I thought I would just try not to attract them tonight, hence I’ve kept the big lights off and am just typing with the light of the screen (and it’s backlit keyboard) and the tv to my side. Whether it’s the darkness or the high wind tonight, they’ve stayed away. (Now that I think about it, it’s likely the wind.) However, with the lights off, I can feel my natural melatonin kicking in which is why I reached for the laptop so early.

It’s feels good to be back into a little bit of a routine. In so much that I feel I have control over the basics of life.  I can wake, eat, drink, defecate, all the activities of life, and walk a couple miles, and have time to do more.  Lately that more was relaxing and enjoying some TV time.. which was nice. Yet, I’ve got more things to do and I’m going to need to plan out how I’m going to get them done. Two big ones on the list? Sell the house and go to Alaska.  IF I can get those two done this year, twenty twenty three will definitely be one heck of a story.

Okay, thats enough for now, only nine hundred words and it’s not even ten – yet, I did get a third big thing done from my upper lists.. start dropping Amazon links in my writing (yeah, go click that TV up there.) It is an affiliate link, and over time I’m hoping this could be a source of income for myself.  Also, to mention: standing up to fold laundry for thirty minutes is more of a core/hip stretching exercise than I wanted today (or any day.)

Time to rest.