11 months and change

Holy moly how time flies when you're having fun, freezing yer ass off, listening to the pitter patter of rain or the louder than life hoodlums walkin down the street in the weeee hours of morning...

...when you finally conquer most of the things that are broken on your home, find a driveway next to a garden you can tend, learn just where on the roof feels the most solid, have a sharp eye for finding that fantastic symbol on park signs that means you can totally 'lose your shit' here....somewhere ...


...when driving the beast to WA mile post 11 is a seamless trip that equates more to rockin out and karaoke time in the sunset than a 2 hour stint of white knuckles and carefully calculated wheel-lane position...

...when your adorable kitty kat knows that 'Home is where the Whale Is' (and her collar/tag says so too!), when you haven't used the jumper cables (a most AMAZING gift, thank you Snapper and Scoot) in months!

...when summer months make for the best sleeping weather, early morning wake ups to the sun and breeze inches from your face, and perfect evenings spent with the front door wide open, when housesitting for your parents actually feels claustrophobic instead of spoiling because you're occupying a structure that's so HUGE-MUNGOUS!

...when you've wintered nights cold enough and/or wet enough that almost any temperature between the months of april and september will seem DIVINE! and when your head hits the pillow in the back corner of the sleeping mats on the uphill side and your body knows it's home...

...when telling people you live in a small motorbus comes naturally but still evokes a grin, when you've more than broken even with the costs you would've paid renting an apartment all this time (repairs included, but maybe not gas...hmmm), but you have a sweet WHALE to show for it...

...when you realize you've spent nigh a year living mobile-style AND haven't gotten towed yet (knock woood!)....

...when you realize that most people (in portland) are totally into your self-experiment and support your adventure completely...or atleast support your level of crazy perhaps...

...when ideals fade into realism and survival and then find their way back to ideals with a slightly different flavor, when there is a slight wait-list for 'whenever i decide to sell that beautiful beast'...

...when you are so busy and engaged in real life, and not simply surviving, to feel it unnecessary to blog about La Ballena...

that's when time has found its wings and you realize you've been a bird with sky high views all along.

cheers to 48+ weeks in La Ballena!

Nothing to do with the cutest bus ever, but needing to document that I don't belive I've ever walked as far barefoot as I did tonight and oy my soles

Is it sad or awesome to put on bugspray before going to bed? I vote awesome.

More fun photos!

So, for those who haven't taken a tour of the interior of my bus, here's a small dose (also included coolest bus kitty to ever stalk the earth)

Taken by Snapper quite graciously ;) Thanks Snaps!

oh yeah! and also a small picture of my second tow warning. those days are over! what's up now bright alien green superglue infused notices!

I moved I moved!

Two weeks ago and change, i moved to a new locale with my fancy pants bus and cooool kitty kat. It's a sweet spot with sweet peeps and it's getting better each day. This is what i wrote a few weeks ago, check it:

First night in whale on alberta and 49th. Just home from couchsurfing meeting regarding soak. Total conundrum of a day. Spent first part feeling displaced and wanting to continue to distance myself from others and just be in my own head though I know it will leave me still craving interaction...enjoying the feeling of unfamiliarity and yet longing for the norm. And then to the couchsurfwrs meeting where I knew no one and yet began to feel connected within
Moments and eventually found myself peeling each fiber of myself away from the fire knowing I must be waking and pedaling in but a few hours. From an introspective introverted move to an overly socialiZed outgoing element which I was hesitant to
Leave, though I know it will cost me come the morning . Say la veeeeee

Night número tres

My new hood is growin on me like greg's beard grows on his face, fast and furiously and with intention.

I am exploring and meeting the neighbors and I think I've even almost met everyone who actually lives in the house whose driveway I am currently inhabiting. And funny, when
I do they are all relatively
Nonchalant about it, like "oh yeah ok, nice to meet you, see you around, off to
Go muck about"...
And that's amaZing and awesome and differnt from
Most of the reactions I've had previously!
Still working on the actual space element as the bus fits nicely between the house and the fence and I
Am
Currently negotiating with an overgrown hedge each time I enter or leave home, not so flash as it means I get stuck
Halfway (like pooh bear in the honey tree) when trying to enter/exit while
Carrying my pack...though it does
Prove to
Be entertaining..to me and the lil' green men that must live in the
Hedge and work to keep
It
Slightly
In
Check
I also
Notice
That the way I'm parked puts my poddy right next to
The kitchen window ...not so
Flash

Two weeks in the northeast, today snapper and andie helped me rearrange the bus and i now have easy entry (just to the bus people!) and a shitter where i can open the windows and stare into the neighbors crazy cedar hedge. and tomorrow we build a chicken coop! yip yip!

Backlog posting

MARCH 27th

Sunny sunny day for march. The day felt long, made of more hours than seem real. Time did
Not quicken this day leaving me with a
Sense of things undone. Instead I chose not to
Do
Them and the day crawled along in no hurry, with no real
Intention of becoming something more than just a
Sunny sunny
Day in march

And I bonded again with my legs and
My bike as one amazing combo pack built for fun and zoom
And greg who is built for fun and chill and overthinking and park picnics

MAY 9th

In the bus yet under a starry sky. Magic.
The world is.
Just "is."
The rain begins but the stars remain.
Those lil' wet drops can rehydrate us, and prevent that inevitable sunshine hangover we're all bound to have following spring's first glorious UV doses.

Think I see the north star. So I'll never be lost. Should I change my name to Majonah or Jonagellan?

Don't know where this belongs, so i'll just put it here

So for the past few weeks, i've been house sitting my parents' house in lovely southeast, with one fantastic whale bus parked out front. There are definite advantages to being in a house. (Like, duh! is what you are all thinking right now ;) Anyhow, more on that later...

This morning, i walked to the store and got some edibles and one awesome butterfly balloon in anticipation for the arrival of one fantastic traveller that is arriving tonight. The balloon is the kind that's waaaaaay too big and kinda see-through and the light glints off of it so well. About half way home (i am on foot with a backpack full of food and one inflated monarch in hand), my ears suddenly miss the sound of mylar bouncing against my side.

The butterfly was hovering, newly freed, a foot or so above my right shoulder, and i let it. I watched it then slowly make its way upward and south bound, in no hurry at all and bouncing and twirling around in the air, the sun catching it occasionally. I followed it south for a few blocks, keeping my eye on this IFO as it wandered higher, making a deal with myself that I would only follow it till Powell (busy busy street of many lanes) and then go home. but i didn't. I followed it across Powell and further south, until it lost its shape to my eyes, eventually becoming a small speck in the sky, and then, after i gazed down for just a moment to greet a woman and her pup, it was gone, flying too high and far away for my eyes to perceive.

It was the best impromptu adventure i've had lately, and it seems so symbolically appropriate.
From the moment the butterfly began to float away, it was instantly in my head what a silly goal it was to try and tie down (with a tiny lil' ribbon) any gorgeous thing that was so clearly meant to fly. And on my extended walk with head tilted toward the sky, realizing that having beautiful things in your life is wonderful...

but those ones that are meant to fly

... you can only follow them as long as you can keep them in sight.