I got nothing (ignorance) on any of that……
But I needed the headline (the crime). Why? Because no comments are coming in (Trump gets ALL the attention).
And my sex life is none of your business but it is safe to say, nothing much to write novels about but it has to be included in the headline to get the numbers.
I am still on the beach, still weaseling my way around the logs, the boat and the rocks trying not to get too wet while always lying on a board in a small stream of run-off from the constant rain. As per one of my OWN comments on the last blog, the patches all still ‘weep’ a smidge like a fat man’s sweat but that is a 97% improvement on gaping holes. I will attempt to fix the cry-babies today.
Squeezing under the boat
It’s NOT raining right now but the tide is up. When it falls away, it may rain. That seems to be the pattern.
Halfway there
I am not a religious person but if someone started the Church of St. Murphy, I would have to join. How could I not? I believe in Murphy.
Positioned for grinding and glassing
The book is delayed a couple of weeks. Waiting on the cover and a few bureaucratic processes – like ISBN numbers and that sort of thing. We have two beta readers unaccounted for but not being accounted for kinda means they are accounted for – they aren’t doing it. That says something.
I have been feeling (about the book) that I have missed something that I wanted to say…..but I couldn’t put my finger on it…..still can’t…but the feeling is dissipating anyway. I am starting to feel as if I may have said it, after all. I think I am good. Rotten book but I am now good with that. So, I am good.
For the last little while I have been doing some research on OTG living (It’s not my style to do research. I am now fully onside with post-truth and alt-facts. That kind of ADHD insanity actually works well for me). But I got side-tracked into focusing for a bit and actually went and learned something. Accidental student, that I am.
Seems the book addresses a series of issues that other authors and documentarians have also identified and attempted. Basically this: “Why the hell do it in the first place?”
In this second, monkey-on-my-back book I try to answer that while, at the same time, describing my own, personal way of defining OTG. In other words, it is entirely subjective and I step into that subjective breach like the know-it-all OTG’er I am pretending to be. I mention this because some of my research has revealed others who have half-addressed it, others who have fully-but-erroneously addressed it and still others who simply went about describing and listing the mechanics and logistics of it without any self-awareness of the whys and why-nots. I hope to do a smidge better in the motivation category at least.
‘Cept for one category that I do not fully embrace anyway: the lone wolf (or pair) of eccentrics in the crazy-remote areas like Deadhorse, Alaska (on the Arctic ocean) or the wilds of Tasmania. I do not believe living OTG requires a mad-trapper mentality and so I am not including that branch of OTG mutants in my book. They are a category unto themselves. The rest of us are sane.
So, after breakfast I will go back under the logs and work on an old boat and contemplate my own sanity.
Doesn’t portend well for the book, does it?
Our Off the Grid Home 
It seems you’re looking more for sympathy than informed comment, but I’ll bite if just to give you something to think about when you crawl back out from underneath your ship.
Now I’ve forgotten what I was going to say. It’ll come back to me and maybe by then you’ll have heard from someone more sympathetic. Meanwhile, I’ve got tires to inflate, batteries to charge and animals to birth. So much for the winter ‘holidays’!
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See? It worked! A comment. Nice. A nice ADHD-riddled comment at that. Lazing about still, eh? Here’s a hint on birthing animals: wait til they are ready…..jus’ sayin’
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Who was it said, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living.’
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Socrates said it first. But I have said it many times because, well, I have had to pause and examine a lot. Screwing up does that to you.
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Good to see the photographs. I now understand the process better.
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Go back to ‘Spelunking’ post (just previous) and read the happy epilogue. Wasabi is back and we are happy to put that chore behind us.
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I’m here, but got nuttin’ to say…………………………
Still like Trump though!
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Glad to hear that, John. I see that as loyal not stupid. You’d be fickle and trendy to abandon him now. But six months more and your basic intelligence may make you change. Nothing wrong with changing your position as more information surfaces. I’ll give him this: no one has mobilized the people more. Never has American politics been so exercised. Never has the OvalOffice looked so ordinary. And his golf handicap is still going down. He’s a 3.5. That’s good. I hope he improves it more.
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Trump fires at least fifty-nine Tomahawk Missiles into Syria. Is the bro-romance with Putin over? What is next as America puts America first?
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Impulsively, I agree with Trump on this one. The world has to send a message to Syria, But, logically, was it a message to Syria at all? The runway bombed all to hell was NOT a used one. No planes were destroyed. Russia was notified in advance. Why such an ineffective ‘attack?’ Maybe it was ‘all show’ and no real ‘go’? Maybe it was Trump ‘showing’ Obama what a real man does? I do not know, of course, but, from here, the US lost 59 cruise missiles in a ‘bluster’ attack and Assad and Russia lost nothing. Such bluster serves propaganda, Trump-Putin, domestic alt-rights who love shows of force and maybe takes some heat off from the left who want Assad attacked….but…geez, it was such a poor target.
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Ok, here’s my comment for you..!
I have also been trying to sum up in a few words what I see, or more “feel” when I find myself in a environment of people. It somehow seems that as everything is built by people for people, (architect, infrastructure, transportation,,,) nobody wants to try to get along. I have often walked invisibly past people stuck to their devices, waiting in line. As our society ?progresses? we are, like your previous article about the South American author notes, we are distancing ourselves from ourselves.
Sorry, but my flight is leaving, gotta go!
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I agree. We seem to be working against ourselves socially speaking but I blame the ‘money society’. Money has introduced efficiency at the cost of humanity, time-scheduling, design and systems to make more money and, for what? Your life is used up trying to avoid scarcity and you die clutching your wallet. Crazy. As mine runs its course, I do not regret playing the game but I am very thankful to have gotten out early. The last 15 years out here have been the best.
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CBC has published a lesson plan called, “Going to a Residential School.” The stated purpose of this lesion is, “To explore the positive and negative experiences of residential schools.” Published in the CBC Digital Archives at CBC.ca. Senator Lynn Beyak is currently under fire for suggesting that during the 156 years of these school were in operation that the schools had some positive attributes. The truth and reconciliation committee will no doubt hear from a range of experiences.
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I know. That’s a tough one. I, personally, do not think that an entire system was corrupt and staffed by evil people but, on the other hand, Beyak defended that very point by pointing out that the good staff converted the natives to Christianity. For her, that was a positive point. And, it may be so if you are a Christian. BUT most people do not see forced conversion while held hostage a good thing even if the hostage-takers had good intentions. I like the fact that she states her mind. I just don’t like her mind. The fact is: that Residential school thing was a mistake but, at the time, a plan that ‘fit the times’ and the government. It was a bad plan made worse by some very bad people that went on for far too long. By and large, it was a total disaster. And any silver linings or rainbow wishes will never change the now reported results. Beyak should never have said it, given her ‘princess’ life and patronage appointment on a Senate committee focused on Aboriginal Affairs. She showed bad taste, bad judgment and bad politics not to mention a stunning lack of self awareness. 100% wrong? Probably not. But what is the point of saying that it was only 97% wrong? And the fact that the CBC has issued (or not) such a lesson plan makes no difference.
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I agree with you and I do think that Senator Beyak has a motivation here to be provocative. BC Studies has an article called “Here Comes the Band” suggesting that the learning of brass band playing significantly impacted cultural preservation rather than cultural loss. This topic of the Residential School is taught in secondary schools with a context and you may hear various editorialists claiming that they were never taught about it. I’m fairly certain that most editorialists are unaware of First Nations 12, a course that gives the history of British Columbia’s First Nations and its many challenging aspects.
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