StarShip Delilah

She's mine. She needs a little love, but for 400 bucks I really can't complain. Four hundred dollars for freedom. A few days pay to be able to get out there. I got us down to the river in the morning without depending on someone else to give a ride. What an amazing feeling.

I'm still a little rusty when it comes to driving, but I'm getting better. Just need more time on the road. My partner/driving instructor has been very patient thankfully. It's been more than a couple years since I've driven on city streets and even then, I had never owned a vehicle. I didn't decide to go for my license until my 29th birthday as I was always afraid to drive. Fast forward to today, and driving is all I wanna do.

I never said I was especially good at it, but I'm safe. I effing suck at backing in to parking spaces. My next step is to do my road test so I can drive on my own. For now she's our little adventure mobile, but come next year I'd also like her to be making me some money. Having my own vehicle means that I can carry my own tools, which means that I can pick up my own contracts for gardening. Slowly but surely, I'm getting a leg up out here on the coast.

Remember that song, "I'm in love with my car"? I know she isn't anything special, but I got the feels. I smile at her every time I open the door and see her parked outside. She's slowly coming together. We finally found a tail light harness to fix the blinker, wasn't exactly the right one, but with some creative cutting and a bit of silicone we made it work. We found the perfect sized stick to hold the back hatch open, and the driver side window rolls up and down, with a little help. 

Next spring I'd like to do something about the peeling paint. And the falling ceiling fabric. I was thinking some sanding and spray bombs would be kosher for the roof and the hood, and perhaps 'hippiefy' her a little on the inside by making some sort of patchwork fabric ensemble to fix the ceiling. That's the beauty of paying next to nothing for a vehicle for me, I'm not afraid to customize or attempt to fix it on my own.

*Sigh*. So incredibly stoked to have wheels. Going fishing, shopping, this past week I had to empty out my storage locker.. and I didn't have to call anyone for vehicular assistance. Amazing. This weekend we'll be taking her a little bit further.. Sunday we're going to church. Out to the mountains, to the river to fish. The adventure continues..

change- the only constant. [part.1]

I know I've said it a million times... be careful what you wish for, it might just happen. A couple posts ago I was complaining about how my commercial landscaping gig is killing me, and that I should be looking for something else to fill up my work week. That day I'd ended up taking off to go to the doctor as the heat was overwhelming, I was having a hard time recovering after each day out in the field. The following Monday it had finally cooled off. I had come to terms with my job situation and decided that I'd stick it out, considering there's only 6 weeks out of the year that the heat is unbearable. I'd just find ways to cope and carry on.

My boss and I were raking up at the end of the day, and we were talking about our health situations. She's been dealing with some issues for a long time and had told me back when I was first hired that she was going to grow the company and hire more labourers so that she could get out of the field in the next few years. A visit to her specialist threw a wrench in her plans. The state of her health is declining so rapidly that she was advised to stop working in the field ASAP as it's doing further damage. She can't stand the idea of sitting in an office, so she decided that this is it, this year will be the last season before she sells it off. So regardless of my decision to stick it out, I'll be finding other means of making money come the end of the year.

We discussed other ways to rack up some loot. She was considering getting back out on the road to chase forest fires and collect the mushrooms that come to follow. Or pinecone collecting, recycling, anything to make money on one's own time. She was throwing all these ideas at me and telling me that I should consider doing the same thing. Otherwise I'll end up like her, breaking myself to make a bit of cash. Living paycheck to paycheck simply isn't worth the damage that this line of work does to your body over time. I've got to figure it out.. there's two more months til the end of the season then I'm on my own. Again.

This is my 6th job in two years. I know I said I was retired and all when I left Ontario, but money needs to be made. I suppose I was simply retiring from the monotony of city living, from being employed by the same company for over a decade. Retiring from the idea that one needs a long standing steady career to get by in this life. I've already been living an unconventional lifestyle for years, so I may as well come up with some unconventional ways to make money. What to do, what to do.. I'm brainstorming ideas for this coming spring.

Some people find security in the idea of having a long term career to retire from, a pension, a mortgage or a lease.. I've never felt very secure in those kinds of situations. Every time I try to conform to that sort of lifestyle, I lose my shit. I feel far more comfortable and secure in the idea of being free to go with the flow. Change with the seasons, move on to wherever I need to be. It's not always easy to keep up to a pre-determined work schedule based on someone else's time when you don't know where you'll be crashing or camping out from one day to the next, or how the weather will be and what gear you'll need ahead of time. It's time to convert the money-making part of my life to match the living situation. Permanence in transience. The only constant is change.