A Day

I start stirring at 4:30. It's dark, and I can hear everyone snoring in this tiny RV camper. I fumble around, find and activate the inflate-a-light, throw on my sweats, and start boiling water for my Great Value instant coffee. I get out some ibuprofen and set four blue gel caps on the counter next to my Darth Vader mug. I find my Bluetooth headphones, and start my daily mix of NPR and music. This is typical of every morning.

This is a Monday, and Monday is the early start day at UPS, my morning job. After I finish my coffee and Greek yogurt, I throw on my Stone Cold Steve Austin knee brace, grab a plain white tee and my FedEx sweater. (I'm wearing it until they give me a UPS hoodie.) I grab my backpack and make sure my huge Nalgene and my sunglasses are in it. I'll be pissed if I get done with work and I forgot them. Again.

I head into town, a ten minute drive from where our camper is hooked up at an employee housing project that's currently up for sale. I get to work about fifteen minutes early, fill up my water bottle with ice from one of the two machines in the cramped little lobby, and water from the fountain. Time to clock in and spend the next three hours relieving a full 53 foot semi trailer of it's cargo, around 3000 boxes this morning.

I clock out, grab my backpack and sit in the car for a second. My white tee is now slightly gray, and there's a line on my wrists from where my gloves ended. I start the car, queue up my playlist, dig out my sunglasses, roll down my window, and light up a smoke. The drive home is almost always my favorite 10 minutes of the day.

I park my old, gold Tercel and pop the hood. The alternator is failing, and the mechanic hasn't gotten back to me in two months, so I've been hooking it up to the trickle charger every time I get home. The kids are in school, and the dogs are at my parents - they have a yard. It's quiet, and I'm beat up from my paid CrossFit. I need a shower.

I lift up the skirting from the back of the camper and drag out the drain hose. I need to drain the gray water and fill up the fresh water. A family of four makes this a ritual around three times a week. I do the dishes first, and then take a shower, leaving evening hooked up so that, when I'm done, everything's appropriately empty and full. When I'm finished, it's after noon, and there's a towel covering the two burner stove loaded with clean dishes, I'm showered, and the fifteen feet of sewer hose is rinsed out and replaced under the camper.

I put on an episode of Yellowstone for two reasons: first, it's TV-MA and the kids are at school. Second, it gives me about enough time to sit down and eat some food real quick, and update my Google sheets budget spreadsheet. It takes a minute because I refuse to use an app to help me budget. I need to know where every penny goes.

It's almost 1 in the afternoon, and it's time to run errands. I close up the camper, disconnect the car from the charger, and head to the Post Office to check the mail and the store for groceries, before I head back here to put the dishes and groceries away and clean up. The music is blasting at this point, which is great. Motivated!

3:00 rolls around, and it's time to pick people up. My first stop is at the Early Childhood Center. My 5-year-old had a great day, no accidents, and no cussing. Plus, he tried a strawberry. It's a huge win. I take him to my parents' house to brag and grab my dogs, one super old three-legged mutt and a 90-pound pit bull.

We get back to the camper, and I set the kiddo up with a TV show. His sister is still at school, and then she's taking the bus to boys and girls club. That's handy, because I gotta go to work again at 5:00, and I need to change and get ready still.

My wife rolls up as I'm getting to roll out. We smoke a quick cigarette, and I get in the car. I'm early, which is nice. I like to un-fuck myself before I get fucked, you know?

I clock in at 4:45, get a beer, and start serving pizza. It's a busy night, and the four of us in the kitchen are talking enough shit to make the night enjoyable. 6-8 seems to fly by, and before I know it, I have another beer and I'm stocking and cleaning up my shit, taking a smoke break in the alley here and there, like when the lead cook wants to bullshit about business or when the Turkish guy in the dish pit wants to tell me about his family back home. It's fun, but I'm tired.

I clock out after I get my tips for the night. Almost a hundred bucks, which ain't bad. I psych myself up for the dark drive home, which my headlights aren't really a fan of. The alternator is still failing, after all. I gotta call the mechanic again tomorrow. For now, though, my wife is barely awake. She wants to smoke a bowl and catch up. I oblige.

I spend the next half hour or so unwinding. I clean up after the kids, take the trash out, wash my hands and face, brush my teeth, and set out my clothes for the next day. Thankfully, I only get to do this a few days a week.

I climb into bed, certain that I'll fall asleep in seconds. Right before I do, my wife rolls over and wraps me in her arms... and my pit bull puts his head on my hips. I'm out like a match.

Christmas

Today is the holiday where we are thankful for what we have and what we've been given, and for what we've had taken away from us. 2023 was a hard year, and it doesn't look like 2024 is gonna be a lick batter.

Solstice

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Amicas listed the employee house, fired their CFO, and filed for Chapter 11? Meanwhile, the camper has been successfully wintered. Solstice is coming, and the fire has been lit. People are getting stuff shipped all over. I am busy. It's not bad.

Struggle

Learning all kinds of things about freezing temperatures and water systems. Like how heat tape works. And skirting. And ice in drain pipes. Lots of things to learn. But we still have running water!

Starts and Fits

Every day can't be the best day. Do what you can right now. Don't hesitate.

True words. Sometimes life sets you back a step or two, but you can either stay where it puts you or you can keep moving.

Sunset-splosions

On my various social media pages, I've been posting images of this mountain, Shavano, the angel of which is a guardian of this valley. She's a magnificent mountain. I hope to stand on her with my children someday.

Pumpkin Patches

Pumpkin patches and folk music. Can't really go wrong, especially when Rory gets to be the drummer.

Autumn

Yesterday, Cat and I made a quick trip down to Cañon City to get some food and a night away from the kids. We caught this light on the mountains east of Howard.

Good Dogs are Better than Good Cats

To this day, I feel like a good dog is harder to find than a good cat. Good cats are usually a dime a dozen. Yes, they're independent, but they're snuggly, warm, to and they purr. A good dog, though, is those things plus active, willing to do fun things outside with you. They trust you. It's a thing. I think it's a fact.

Be Happy

At some point, I need to get organized about my objectives and life and whatnot. In the interim though, this is what I do. I work at a restaurant that makes delicious wood fired pizza and serves awesome beer. Life isn't bad in the in-betweens, I assure you.

Finding Motivation

I'm thankful for where we live, but it's the most beautiful prison ever at this point. We are making some slow progress, but it's hard to keep the momentum. We shall see how things shake out.

Pausing to Reflect

Every once in a while, I go through this mental slump, and the last few weeks of this summer have been no exception to that observation. Weird happens with friends and family, on the most intimate scale to the largest known scale: globally. But then I stop outside of where my front door is now, and damn, I'm thankful. It's great. I love it.

Catching Up

This is a screenshot of the budget I look at and modify every single day for the last 5 or 6 years. You'd think that, with budgeting like this, we would be rich, but no, it only tracks in detail every single expense that is unavoidable. The American Dream is a sham. Get your van and be free if it ASAP!

Shavano

I can't get enough of the sunsets and sunrises here at the new digs. It's pretty damn incredible. 

Arkansauce

Today, we traveled to Del Norte to go see Arkansauce play at Rhythm on the Rio. Wonderfully small festival. I took my two oldest, and we all had a fantastic time.

Awe

The grocery bills are getting higher despite the massive cut in housing costs. But the sunsets are still pretty.

The Summer

Settling in to this camper life, we are adjusting to the new every day of dealing with water tanks and propane. The money isn't getting saved as quickly as we would have liked, but we are doing the good work to get everything comfy. Life isn't bad at all. 

Moving Along

Yesterday, the canyon looked spectacular. Layers of clouds and haze added to the depth and richness of the geography.

Life is moving on, one step at a time. The camper life is settling down. Everyone is getting more comfy with the situation, learning to do more things outside and be more creative with quiet time.

Back in the Hills

The day before yesterday, I made an attempt to climb near 14,000-foot Mt. Ouray. I made it to 13,000 feet. It was awesome 

Returning to Normalcy

We've been in the camper a little less than a month. It's been great so far. The learning curve has been short, and the family has been adapting well. 

The Birthday Update

It's been a crazy month or so. We successfully moved out of the old Walnut Street house and into our brand new Coleman camper. Everything is working well, and we are cozy. Warm when we need to be, cool when it's hot out. It's been wonderful. The place we parked had full hookups and everything we need to stay self contained. And the view is spectacular.

Double Down Time

This is a van full of life. My life. My family's life. It's going to go away, and we are moving into a tiny camper, hopefully soon, pulled by this very BattleWagon. The camper is our means to see the world, to refuse to acknowledge the bullshit world that is destroying so many lives. I refuse. We refuse. Life is ours.

Reinvention...

A short time ago in a high mountain river valley, relatively closeby...

Things are happening over here.  The BattleWagon Chronicles have been dormant for too long.  The old Safari van has been dead for almost 15 years.  The big gray van died in Alaska.  BW3 had it's own tale in Alaska, where it was left to vanish.  The original BattleWagon, the Blue Bomber, the Big Blue Van, is still kicking, and it's what we have.  Between that and our '86 Tercel, we are doing okay.

The homestead is going away as of the end of this month, about a week from today.  Our replacement for our home rental is going to be some iteration of a bunkhouse camper.  It'll be me, the wife, and our three kids for the summer, with our dogs.  We got a bomber parking spot with full hookups.  It's a lot to take in, as we would prefer to buy a house.  However, it's 2023, and it's Colorado, and houses are for rich people and corporations, so here we are.

The long-term goal this time around is to save enough money to either buy property to build on, or build on property that our family owns outright.  Either way, it's beyond our reach at the moment, but we'll get there.  One tiny step at a time, but we'll get there.

In the meantime, family fun and adventures will be the themes for the summer.  Any chance we get to go fishing, hiking, climbing, driving, camping, whatever we want to do, we are going to do.  I feel like tricky things are coming, and I worry that, without each other, we won't survive.  But I'm optimistic that we'll all have each other, and that we'll be alright, no matter what.

Who Knows

Who cares?

That's where we are this morning. Contemplating our five months from homelessness. Coming to terms with the punishment exacted at us for simply being... us.