Occupation of Independence

Once this winter I camped near the van tramp bunch, with the idea that it could be thought-provoking. And it was. This occurred near Quartzsite. Granted, it is easy to have a negative attitude towards this bunch. The vaunted "lifestyle" of theirs has become such a formula.  from Kombi Life But I tried to put that aside and see what makes them tick. As luck would have it, I checked out an excellent book at the local library by Jerome Blum, "In the Beginning." It sounds biblical, but actually the book is about the explosion of modernity in the 1840s. Some of what happened then is  relevant to today's van tramps. It only takes a couple encounters with them before I concluded they were urban people. Actually you can decide that in a couple seconds. Just observe their dog-leash and clean-up fanaticism, their diet, music, tattoos, dreadlocks, etc. So I smiled when reading Blum's book about the 1840s:   the revolutions [of 1848] were almost exclusivel

Coming back from a sunset walk with my dog, I had the pleasure of looking at yet another crinkly chiaroscuro of desert mountains. I hope I never get tired of them. In fact it is quite remarkable how some pleasures never wear out.  Why so? We get used to the idea that most things get tiresome and old very quickly. It is even worse in a media-saturated society, because the media is always chasing novelty. It is worse yet in a citified culture, where people live 'fast', and chase the latest fad as if it will raise their self-esteem. Naturally I didn't have my camera along, but even if I had, the result would not have been a noteworthy postcard. The scene was ordinary, but I loved it. As the opposite of hectic, citified, fad-and-novelty chasing, consider breathing. We never refuse to take a breath because it is old hat, repetitive, or un-novel. Perhaps natural cycles of use and non-use are the explanation. Certain things will always give pleasure, but only after they

I must be turning into a sweet little old man. I deliberately drove through Quartzsite, AZ during the madness of its annual crowdfest in late January. Rather than scowl at everybody, it seemed entertaining to me. Anyway, I drove a loop around the town, and made a game out of it: did I know a clever way to get from A to B? The trick to doing this is to renounce certain driving habits, such as left-hand turns. Also, there is a relatively uncrowded freeway interchange on the east side of town. But there is a more fundamental trick: simply renounce excessive expectations about human beings, and your frustrations end.  I used to make fun of the mundaneness and banality of RV travel blogs. But that hardly matters now. It seems that blogs (that you read) have become passé and have been superseded by vlogs, their YouTube equivalent. It might also be that travel bloggers have retired from traveling due to age. Have you watched some of these vlogs? I put one on pause and went to the thes

There is a great deal of supposedly practical information out there, for RV camping. But I think it misses the point. The lifestyle is not greatly challenged by physical or material difficulties. Most of the struggle is psychological. It is largely concerned with reconstructing habits. This struggle comes to the foreground in the winter, when too many hours of darkness chase you into your tiny den. I have tried to use those hours beneficially by reading, but an answer like that can be spit out too easily.  Reading has never seemed like a very natural activity. Too many hours of it can lead to grimness and sullenness. That is why I posted recently about my efforts to change my reading (and other habits of the evening) into something more light-hearted. It would help if writers used a multi-media approach, instead of relying purely on the written word. So, let's praise photographs and other images that tell a story, or represent a visualization of the ideas being posted about.

Change is happening in the world, and it ain't all bad. For instance you see more bicycles and solar panels near Quartzsite, AZ. And there is a new bakery in town, with a decent parking lot. Unaccustomed as I am to squandering time and money at such places, I did make an exception today. Here is what I saw:  That's a sleepy three-month-old miniature Australian shepherd in there. Let's hope the owner was not exploiting her as a chick-magnet. I let the little darlin' chew on my finger with those sharp puppy teeth. My goodness, was her fur soft! He says that the dog didn't need a leash to hold her in the basket. And I believe it. It is a good sign that you see eBikes popping up more and more, and hopefully coming down in price. I refuse to feel embarrassed by my increasing tendency to gush over pretty little girls, young women, or puppies. It is a nice trend in old age. To honor the occasion I will pop on my new headphones and listen to Gilbert & Sulliv