Reserved Parking Must Be Nice

I hate to keep bringing this up, but it keeps happening to me: My favourite parking spot was taken this morning. 

It happens and it has happened in all of the places that I park in. At some point someone else has parked there, this happens, this is normal and expected.

I park on public streets and so, as I have said many times before, those streets belong to everyone and no one, as they belong to the city.

Yet, we all have our favourite places to park: at home, at work, and while out shopping, I am no different.

This morning it wasn’t a large truck that took my spot, it was a pickup truck towing a boat. 

This person didn’t even park considerately, as I do. I park as far up as I can, so as to leave as much room behind me to park. 

This person was parked smack in the middle so that nobody but them (and cars) could park on either side of them. 

I was then forced to park beside work again, something else I don’t want to do, due to the increased risk of being “asked nicely to never park here again” by a representative of the condo association. 

I will continue to do my best to acquit myself with grace and dignity as I make my way through life. 

I keep reminding myself that there are always a million other places to park, and just find and use one of them.

Yet, there is something about having a spot (or place) that is yours, that says something about belonging, that has a nice ring to it.

I am nomadic, and so nomadic is what I shall be. 

Yet one day soon, I will have a place of my own, a place to put down roots, until then I shall be tumbleweed. 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

The Gasoline Pinch

So, yesterday was payday, and part of my running around was to buy fuel at the cheapest place in town (a large wholesale store that sells gasoline only to its members).

I was hoping to save, and I suppose that I did, but it cost me $58.66 and I was over budget (by $8.66) despite my best efforts at saving fuel.

Even worse was that my generator went through the full 20 Litres of fuel in its tank. Again, this is what I get for buying a larger generator. 

Sure, it will have its uses on the property when the homesteading and early construction phases are underway. 

It is also nice to have full power, but a smaller generator would use less fuel and therefore save me cash now. 

It looks like I will have to raise my fuel budget, for the mid-term as these higher fuel costs are not likely to subside anytime soon. 

The other worrying thing is the fact that my trip to Banff is coming up and that will likely triple my fuel budget. 

It also looks like trips to my Mountain Home will be few and far between for the foreseeable future. 

This part of my life is about putting savings in the bank in order to correct a lifetime of fiscal mismanagement in as short a period of time as possible. 

I will get through this, I will adapt, and I will constantly move towards my goals. 

All I can really do is adjust what I am doing in order to deal with what is happening right now, so I can still constantly move towards my goals.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

The First Summer Weekend

Okay, I know that it is not officially summer, but for me I am in Summer Mode (almost). 

I know that I have not de-winterized, so I am not officially in Summer Mode (as I don’t have running water, yet), but for me summer is here.

Why do I say this? Here are a few reasons why: 

• I had my door and all windows and vents open as I enjoyed the light breeze wafting through the trailer.

• I didn’t use my furnace once.

• I put my cold weather gear into storage.

• I actually took two quilts off of the bed (and I was fine).

• I had to roll those quilts back for part of the night (to cool down). 

• I was in shorts all weekend.

It is nice that the warm weather has returned, but it is also nice that things are looking up and non-freezing temps are back.

I know that things can and will turn on a dime, yet with all things I will adapt and roll with whatever comes, yet I will also enjoy the little nice things in life as they come along.

As always: Keep your head up,  your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Jittery Neighbours

As I mentioned yesterday, my parking options (near work) have been reduced as of late. This has led to some (as expected) jittery neighbours.

Okay, so where I work the road bends about half a block up from where I work. I like parking here because it is therefore the widest part of the road.

This is important because in the dead of winter and the pattern of ploughing of the roads that the city does, I am shoved into the street due to the formation of snowcrete burms. 

(Mental note: get a hold of snow shovel before next winter so as to shovel my favourite stretch of curb bare from the first snowfall to the last.)

Yet there is a warehouse at that corner which has large trucks that come and go. 

Frequently this means that one or more of those trucks are waiting for their warehouse door to open up. 

This means that they are parked on that street. Again they have a job to do and have as much right to that street as I do, I begrudge them nothing.

There is one truck that is there on a regular basis and they park down the street a half block, so as to leave my little spot open for me. I greatly appreciate this. 

Yet, there is a cube van that is mucking the usual order of things up by being parked in a very inconvenient spot, and not moving for about a month.

They are parked in the spot that the considerate trucker parks. 

This then means that the only other place on that stretch of road, without going out and coming from a different direction is my favourite spot at the corner. 

So, I then took to parking in front or behind of that cube van, because I could fit (and had to park somewhere).

Yet, a manager from the business that the cube van is parked in front of “kindly” asked me to never park in front of their place again (because my trailer is hard to see around when coming and going from their lot.)

After that there has always been (surprise, surprise) a vehicle parked in front an behind of that cube van.

This means that I now have to park (when my favourite spot is taken up) on the other side of the street. 

Due to how things are situated, this means parking right next to the building I work in. I don’t like doing this because it is too close to work, and the people around here are a bit jittery. 

There have been a few break-ins in this place and so I suppose that is understandable. 

Where I work is situated in one of those “commercial condos” meaning that each bay is owned individually, yet there is a condo board to look after everything.

Even worse is the fact that the company I work at doesn’t own the bay we operate out of, we rent it from another company. 

This sets up a tenuous situation, where I don’t want to do anything to tick anyone off thereby causing problems for the company I work for (due to crap rolling downhill).

So it was aggravating, yet understandable to see not one but two trucks slow to a stop next to me before turning to enter the place that I work.

I am not exactly a new sight on this street. I have been parking my trailer on this street every workday since July of 2014.

The one day I park beside the building everyone sees me walking to and from, every work day, all of a sudden they are “concerned.”

We shall see if there are any notes, nasty or otherwise, left on my windshield or if I am “encouraged” to never park here again by some “concerned citizen.”

It is funny how people are used to certain patterns and if you disrupt that pattern, they get concerned. 

Fuel Savings Mode Engaged

So, with fuel extortion being top of mind, we are all looking for ways to save on fuel, myself included.

I typically go through an 1/8th of a tank of fuel between paydays and budget between $30 – 50.00. This was before the inexcusable extortion began. 

The last time it was $83.00. Now, I did do a bit of running around, but still that is blowing the budget, I would say.

So, in order to try to bring the budget back under control I am driving less. As in I am moving my house fewer times throughout the workweek.

Typically, I have one place that I park during the workday, and then move to another place that I park at night. This is about 1km door to door. 

I just decided to skip that and stay in the working spot, for Monday and Tuesday nights. 

I moved last night because I needed to run my generator, and I don’t like running it near work. (I don’t need to tick people off in this area.)

I plan to stay in my work spot, for tonight, and then off to my Western Home, where I won’t move all weekend.

So far the fuel gauge reads full (or barely off of full) and payday is on Monday.

We shall see how good I was at saving fuel then. We all need to do something to combat this fuel extortion, and driving much less is one way to fight back.  

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Preparing the Hope-Not Package

The most noticeable thing about my lifestyle is that I am mobile. That may sound fun, but that means that I take everything I own around with me.

Again, this means that technically I could traverse the open road and go wherever my whims may take me. 

Sure, that sounds fun, but that also means that if anything were to happen to my truck and trailer, I would be totally screwed. 

Any number of a thousand things could happen, but let’s just say boil it down to destruction or theft. 

In either case I would lose not only all of my stuff but all of my important documents as well, as in all of the stuff that proves that I am me.

This is why I am putting together a package of all of that vital stuff and putting it into a bank’s safety deposit box. 

You might have guessed that I am calling this package the “Hope Not” Package, because I hope that I never have to actually crack that package open and use its contents.

Along with the important cards and documents that I need to have, yet not carry around with me, I am putting photocopies of all of the other cards, the ones I carry around and need, yet are still important.

One final thing that I will be putting into this safety deposit box is a hard drive of all of my vital data, the stuff I can’t afford to lose.

This way, in case of any number of a thousand things, I will at least have the necessary papers to prove that I am me.

While those of you out there living in a fixed address may be feeling all smug, just remember that you are in no less of a danger than I am to something bad happening to your house and all of those vital docs.

This is why, in my humble opinion, the cost of a bank’s safety deposit box is a worthwhile investment to guard against something so catastrophic. 

Imagine not only losing everything but not being able to legally prove that you are you?

With that happy thought . . . 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

What Personal Space?

I had to do a double-take. There was a man walking right by my window, and I do mean right by; as in his shoulder was inches from my trailer.

I would like to say that this is a new thing, but it is not. I have had people walk right by my door as well. 

Those are understandable, as at those times, they are walking along the sidewalk. I also understand this time as well, as he was just walking to work. 

Let’s face it, my home is a vehicle, so people interact with it like it is a vehicle. He was walking right by it, as he was passing my trailer on the street side.

I have had only one person look in the trailer window at me, though that person was trying to get my attention. 

He wanted me to park my trailer in the lot of neighbouring business. I declined, as I don’t do that sort of thing, as I would feel obligated to be the night watchman, and I don’t want to be the night watchman.

I don’t have any personal space around my home, as I have no right to it, despite my desire for some. 

This is just a fact of life, and one that I have long since accepted as I live this Urban Nomadic lifestyle. 

One day soon I will have that land and have quite a lot of personal space. That day, is not today, but I will still get by, I will be okay, with or without personal space.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!