Two and a half months
On Friday night I went up to Lynden and did another backyard test of my gear. Similar conditions: 40 degrees and raining.
Last time it was too chilly to comfortably sleep and I bailed around 2 am. This time, thanks to an improved shelter design, it went really well. Spring allergies have been giving me an annoying dry cough the past few days, which made it harder to sleep, but the temperature was fine– practically as cozy throughout the night as sleeping here in bed. (I’ll describe a full rundown of this setup in June or July, once I have a chance to use it in summer weather. Until then, I’ll just mention that mylar is an amazing substance.) Today I’m declaring camping season officially ON.
There are now only 75 days remaining until I’ll be leaving Bellingham, and I plan to spend most of them outdoors. Planning a two-night trip to the Chuckanuts this Thurs-Sat. (Tentatively. Still waiting to hear from Qous’s sister Meagan to find out when she’ll be bike-touring through B’ham this week.) Next weekend I plan to do it again, though getting back early enough on Saturday to go to a [local brewing festival] with Jet and Rolo.
Starting in May, I hope to be camping at least three nights a week. By June, I’d like to be outside more nights than in, maybe only returning home to B’ham a couple nights per week. I can keep clean work clothes at the mill. There’s even a shower in the mill’s upstairs bathroom. As I get the last few bits of backpacking gear dialed in, coming back to the house at all becomes mostly unnecessary except to socialize with my friends and housemates, use my PC, and knit-up the loose ends. Looking over the map last week, I realized that it’d actually take *less* time to get off the 80X bus at Alger and hike to a camping spot than it would to continue on to Bellingham and then home.
Most of this year so far has been a dull progression of work, saving money, buying gear, and waiting for the fickle Northwestern weather to improve. Now things are getting interesting. I may not be leaving Bellingham for another two and a half months, but for me the trek has already started. It’s going on right now.
Recovering
In short: I’ve been very sick. Let’s review the timeline. March 3 – March 7: influenza w/ fever, nausea, vertigo, the works. March 8-11 seemingly recovered. March 12 – 20 (today): upper respiratory tract infection w/ sinus congestion, bronchitis and laryngitis.
Looking back, if you lump both illnesses together this has been the worst bug that I’ve ever experienced, even from childhood. Straight up the sickest I’ve been in my entire life. I guess I can be thankful that a prolonged flu is the worst sickness I’ve had to face in my 29 years? I’ve never claimed that I live anything other than a charmed life, you guys. Right now I just want to push all these dull, empty days aside and get back to what I was doing.
Today’s the vernal equinox, “first day of spring”, and it was a beautiful new morning. Some sunshine, warm, a little bit of breeze. As good a time as any to get up and press on.
So I’m getting up and pressing on. We’re rapidly coming up on 100 days until July 1, the day I leave town. This afternoon I took a stab at drafting a final gear checklist over on [the page I have for that]. Looks like I’ve collected about 60% of the items I plan to take on the walkabout. Or, coming at it the other way, in the next 100 days I’ll need to shed thousands of possessions that I won’t need and acquire the thirty-odd things that I will.
Looking over the list, I keep reassuring myself that all of the big-ticket items have been bought and paid-for, but there may still be lurking gotchas in there if I don’t keep an iron hand on the budget. I’m starting to regain a little of that unstoppable feeling along with my health, but this vagabond transition in July is still going to be a close-cut thing.
Tomorrow: back to the mill. This Friday: first night of camping in the Hennessy on Chuckanut? Ohmigosh that’d be amazing. Hope the weather (and my constitution) holds up.
Getting serious
E-filed my taxes today. And, like a complete tool, I managed to eff up my exceptions for my summer job at the greenhouse again last year and didn’t withhold enough. Result: I have to pay $400 in taxes this year, which eats another chunk out of my savings.
Losing chunks out of my savings at this point is a big deal. Living out of a backpack is extremely economical, but it’s not cost-free. The shoestring budget number that I like to shoot for is $10/day. As a rule of thumb, I like to have $2000 in savings before I leave on any extended vacation. At $10/day, that affords you the better part of a year before going broke.
Of course, going broke sucks. So I generally draw the “start worrying” line at $1000. If you’re dipping into that last thousand, it’s time to stop what you’re doing and start devoting all of your attention to getting a steady income again.
As it stands right now, this latest setback is going to make it difficult to get to $2000 savings by July. Which would mean that I’d be hitting that $1000 threshold a lot sooner this summer than I’d like. Which would mean that I wouldn’t be able to travel as much as I’d like. Which would suck.
The question then is “how to keep it from sucking”? And the answer is to get serious about making some extra income in the next four months.
That’s going to take some brainstorming, because I *really* don’t want to give up my weekends to a summer job (that’s been my go-to solution for the past 3 years, and it’s a drag). I have another idea or two. I’m going to devote some time this month to developing them into something I’d be willing to say out-loud. I’ll keep you posted.
Not pushing it
Going to bed at 9:30pm today, not wanting to push it and run out of steam this week. Got my monthly budget worked up tonight, but otherwise didn’t accomplish a whole lot. Tomorrow. zzzz
Healthy again
I’ve been ensnared in the jaws of some horrible tropical elephant-flu for the last five days. Tonight, though, I’m finally back to reasonably sound vitals and my usual unflappable (or at least flap-resistant) self again. I’m celebrating my renewed good health by eating a jelly donut. Heh. Also, a fabulous dinner of instant mashed potatoes– which, you guys, is srsly becoming one of my favorite things– topped with some delicious french-onion soup that James made. (The bad news is that James is also now sick. With the exact same hell-bug that I’d gotten.)
What did I have? INFLUENZA. Felt fine on Thursday night, woke up from a fever nightmare at 2am Friday morning with the full suite of classic– nay, iconic flu symptoms. Being too hot and too cold at the same time, muscle aches, fever, headache that makes even moving your eyes hurt, cough, nausea, epic unrelenting vertigo. By mid-day Friday I was experiencing some kind of platonic ur-flu. Time moves really slowly when the only action you can muster is to shift listlessly in bed and watch a clock through a haze of fever. Frustrating.
I’m a busy guy, germs. I have things I needed to do, flu. Email to send. To-do items to ignore. Now that I’m back in good health I’d better do those things. *ahem* So.
Got a few items checked-off today. Renewed the tabs on the Honda. Payed the rent. Mailed a postcard. Still more to go. Tomorrow.
