A Moment to Reflect on Murphy’s Law Before Leaving

After coming home form the Humanwine and Jason Webley concert I went to fix myself a bite to eat, plugging in the mobile to charge as I did so. Not a few minutes later my dog Pepper tripped over the cord and sent the phone flying. I heard it smack the concrete and slide but hadn’t a clue where it had went. Twenty minutes and three sets of eyes later the phone was nowhere to be found. It had apparently evaporated into thin air. It was under nothing, in nothing, just flat out disappeared. We searched for forty five minutes together, tore apart my room, took out all the furniture and stuff, before finding out that after my dog tripped over the cord she kicked it a few times and it ping ponged across the floor ricocheting a few sharp turns before ending out flying into another room entirely and lodging under a cage. It was 1 or 2 AM, nobody was particularly amused by the timing of all this. Tired we all went to bed hoping this was not an omen.

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May 15, 2011 0

Pimp my Jeep – Camping Edition

I always thought Jeeps were the go-anywhere car that didn’t stop working until they die of exhaustion, like a mining pony! But alas, this Jeep seems to have needed a few little boosts. First the tire winch in the back was broken due to the hasty unprofessional treatment it received at the mechanics some time ago. The result was that the spare tire, an enormous twist of rubber, could only be carried in the car itself, and not riding the undercarriage as it was intended. I called my brother, who happens to be a mechanic, and asked where I could get a wheel winch. He replied, “What the hell is a wheel winch?” My brother’s a good mechanic but a very cheap one, I think he works mostly on $2 lemons the local teenagers get for their first car. When he realized what I was talking about he directed us towards three local junkyards, all of which first asked the same question my brother had, and then replied they didn’t have any Jeep parts that young. A quick search online revealed they also were not available for sale new. I figured I was screwed until after a week of searching I found one in Connecticut and had it sent right up here. Now I actually have enough space in the car to use the new SUV air mattress. My life as a Jeep wheelin’ gypsy is about to begin.

After the wheel winch was fixed a new shiny “radio” was installed. It was a magical music device that could read files off of a memory stick or something similar. I hadn’t realized the technology existed. I’m still stuck in the age of FM and AM I guess. In any event I had to search numerous local stores before I found what I needed at the Wal-Mart in Keene. It came with a jumble of wires that didn’t match the Jeep in any way shape or form. Apparently this Jeep was a prissy little thing that had a “premium” radio which was apparently another species to the regular ones. Back to the store to get different parts. Finally it was working, but now the car battery was dead from sitting in the driveway for two weeks. A quick jump, a little ride to Gardner, and low and behold the radio actually worked! It was loaded up with a psychotic cornucopia of music, anything for any mood, any day. I think if anything this may have given the new device a touch of schizophrenia. It’s OK though, I was having a lot of fun with it and laughing our asses off at various points. I guess trolling for “best of” albums gives you a lot of random weirdness, in addition to the already strange music singing about bifurcated tourists and lessons on how to spell damnation. “With the d and the a and the m and the n and the a and the t-i-o-n!”

So after the battery was charged it was time for some more DIY customizations. First the car needed screens so that if I did sleep in the car we could roll down the windows for air and avoid the bugs. This was easily solved with some sticky Velcro and plastic screening. $12 for one and a half windows worth of Velcro which melted off in the heat, though it is still mostly stuck… for now…

The other thing I needed was a privacy curtain so that people could not look through the windshield and see my sorry figure drooling in my sleep. So I pulled some leopard spotted polyfleece through the handloops on the ceiling and safety pinned it up. Polyfleece blocks out a substantial amount of light for its weight and it doesn’t fray. As an added bonus the leopard print adds 100% kitsch!

Lastly the roof rack need to be added. As sad as it sounds the Jeep’s roof rack did not have horizontal bars, meaning I could not attach a roof container onto it for storage. So it was another trip to Keene, this time to Home Depot where some wood, plastic tubing, and metal bits were procured, to create what was needed. It looks like a pretty sturdy, if not rustic-looking, contraption. I think it’ll work just fine!

For now the car customizations and repairs are done, but this will probably be an ongoing process as necessity arises. Meanwhile everyone is biding us adieu and asking all sorts of questions. The family in particular are concerned I’ll be eaten by bears, other scary wildlife, or in the case of my mother, the crazy homeless people she hears live at free camping sites. I have no doubts whatsoever I’ll see at least a few people with more than a screw loose but I think I can deal with it. As for bears… they’ve got nothing on me.

And to end this entry I decided to post a photo of a couple adorable Chihuahua Dachshund cross puppies. Why? Because my cousin Tanya is visiting this weekend and she brought them with her so I decided their cute must not be kept secret! Though I can testify the solid brown one hates me. Can’t win them all…

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 12, 2011 0

Testing out the New Equipment

So last night I decided to test out the tent and make sure the thing could withstand things like mild weather and an overly curious cat. It sounded like a good idea at the time so I pitched it in the back yard and started a little campfire.

I feasted on turkey burgers, turkey dogs, veggie burgers, potato chips, and potatoes and onions cooked over the coals with butter. I was stuffed to the gills when I decided to hang back and play some scrabble. This is always a fun game, played with the aid of the penguin, a small dictionary with penguin standing somewhat awkwardly on the front. This was an all out brutal competition were words were routinely made up. Anything for an edge. Kerfuffle is really a word. Honestly. The bloodshed kept everyone occupied until the last round when the fire had burned down to coals and the fairy of S’mores was calling my name.

I took my perfectly toasted marshmallow in my hands and carefully sloughed its golden skin off. From here I put my prize between a graham cracker and a bar of Hershey’s chocolate. I munched on the gooey molten mess as I returned my skinless marshmallow to the fire to toast it, and skin it, again. This was made all the easier by using giant S’more marshmallows which must be made for this sort of this. It’s amazing how such an act can transport you right back to being an eight year old girl scout. Oh happy days!

From here I decided to have a little morbid joy saying goodbye to Easter. I’d found stale jelly-filled Peep knock-offs on sale for 25 cents a bag, how could we resist? I threw them on the fire and watched them grow into gooey masses of apple-flavored lava. One of them shot it’s filling out like a little sugary squirt gun of mass destruction. It made such a satisfying bursting and sizzling noise as the toxic sludge rocketed to the other side of the fire pit and caught on fire. I added my own sordid commentary, giving voices to the Peeps, “Nooooooooooo! Why me?! Ahhhhhhhhhh!” as one does.

When I turned in for the night it was already pretty damn cold. The air mattress was blown up but I didn’t have a sleeping bag yet, just a faux lambskin blanket, which normally is very very warm, and a blanket to put on top of the mattress. I also had a pair of flannel PJs and a bathrobe I acquired after hunting down the biggest fluffiest Muppet I could find and taking a Bowie knife after it. I’m still unsure of the legality of Muppet hunting so this will remain a secret between my readers and myself…

Anyway! The tent is very spacious, it even has a front porch and let me tell you, putting it up reminded me of one of those building kits you give bored overly intellectual tweens. In the end I could stand up and walk in it at all points and the queen sized mattress didn’t make it too much smaller. It reminded me of the sort of tent people use when they run away to live with the bears in Alaska. I had it lit really well with a little LED light that could outshine any UFO, and I was quite comfortable… except for the fact I had chosen one of the coldest nights I could have. It dipped into the 30’s and with little to keep me away from the mattress I was freezing my ass off. I got up sore and slightly testy after I achieved somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half of sleep. I looked like crap! But I still got up to rummage through the town wide yard sale, after deconstructing the tent due to the rain I was told was coming at noon (it didn’t.)

At the yard sale I bought a teddy bear for 25 cents to feed my dog. It’s far cheaper than a pet store and whatever child loved the bears and bunnies I throw to her will never know they were fed to a pit bull who likes to pluck off their little beady eyes and noses first before disemboweling them and carefully plucking out their stuffing and dragging it’s deflated skin through the house like it’s the best playmate ever. She’s going to go a little nutty without me for a couple months so I’m spoiling her now with toys… I love my morbid pooch. Pepper is her name.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 11, 2011 0

Temporary Housing is Procured!

Well, if you’re going to live the life of a vagabond you probably should have a house with you on your travels. This time around The Coleman Weathermaster 4 seemed a luxurious option with ample space and so it found itself as my first tiny home.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 10, 2011 0

Moolac Beach Oregon

When I got to Oregon I realized there was nothing on the roster, I was just driving through. This is when you know I didn’t proof read before I left… how could I not have something planned for Oregon? Its absolutely loaded with fossils and was the once fawned over home of a college I wanted to attend in grade school. (Yes, I planned WAY ahead. Nothing ever came to pass as life just doesn’t work like that!)

I looked up where to find fossils and there was a ton of confusing information. As I guessed many people just walked the highways, the rivers, and the beach fronts, all finding various artifacts, mostly marine in nature. I looked again and found a forum post about a woman who went to Moolack Beach. She came home with a ton of fossil shells and apparently the beach was popular amongst other rock hounds looking for fossils, agate, petrified wood, and other interesting little things. The beach even washed up some sort of structures from an Asian tsunami.

There was one issue. Low tide was at 7:30AM, meaning I’d have to get up at 3AM, just a few short hours of sleep, and get going. This I did. Initially I wasn’t fond of the idea but once I got there I was convinced. This place was amazing. To most of the local hotel people it was a sandy beach and some waves but if you looked closer it was covered in rocks and had the most extensive and deep tide pools I have ever seen. The water had washed the clay on part of the beach into these fantastic rippled structures. A lava rock full of shells lay on the ground. I found a very nice chunk of petrified wood, and as usual there were two ghastly bloated starfish loitering in the tidepools. One was bright red, the other bright orange, and they were the big suckers.

It was drizzling and I didn’t expect to see anyone else but upon arriving there were three other rock hounds picking the beach and by the time I left an hour later there were fifteen of them. I asked one about fossils but she was clueless, obviously here searching for something else. The search therefore was limited and I am not sure I found much of anything but that’s alright, it was a very interesting little beach full of character.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

May 2, 2011 0