Late January, 2008. Joshua Tree, California:

It is raining now; one of those dreary coolish rains that tend to put one into a quiet introspective mood; a time for thought, not a time for action. The rain is welcome as it waters everything and settles the dust but I still glance out the window from time to time waiting for it to end, knowing it will probably not be soon – one of those all day rains. There are important things to do out there but now they will have to wait, so I do those inside things that I have been putting off, like writing these thoughts.

It is 8:00 AM. I'm on my second mug of coffee. I got up at 6 after hearing the rain pattering on the tin roof off and on through the night. I like that sound.

Performing my usual 6 AM routine, I get the new big heater going in the bedroom and carry away the small one that had held back the chill through the night. I quietly close the door behind so Eileen can sleep on. The little heater will now take the chill out of the living area as it also pre-heats my coffee mug. I turn on the rechargeable lamp since it is still dark this time of year and take my thyroid pill before I can forget. That is a recent development but I am told that it is working.

I am going to need heat in the van so I get my old medium sized heater going. This is the same heater that was mentioned in our 2002 journal where we used it to keep our '94 mini-van warm, our primary living quarters at the time.

Meanwhile Molly is waiting patiently inside her cage/den, resting her jaw on the open door sill as her eyes follow me back and forth. She knows the routine.

The night before, I had set a pot of water on the propane stove out in the utility house so that it would be one less thing to carry out in the morning. I had also taken my notebook out to the van for the same reason. I like to keep things slow and easy in the morning.

As I donned my coat and new felt hat, Molly emerged from her cage. I threw a towel over my shoulder, put a tissue in one pocket and a flashlight in another.

The idea is to get out the door with everything I need so that I don't have to return for what I forgot. This is a !WAKE UP! door; it cannot be closed quietly. With the absolute silence that permeates this valley I am sure that not only Eileen but the neighbors can hear it SHUT. It is a tin lined door trying to fit within a tin lined jamb, both of which have become a bit distorted over the life of the trailer, perhaps 60 years or so. The hollow wooden door within that tin frame resonates like a bass drum. Slamming it is the only way to fit the door into its jamb, especially when it has been raining.

This also needs to be done as gently as possible to avoid ripping the wall from the floor. The trick is to push the bottom right corner with one foot while pushing the top corner with a hand as the other hand is holding things being carried out. So far the wall has held up since I reinforced it 7 years ago but I'm thinking about adding a few angle-irons just to make sure.

The first thing I do is carry the heater out to the van and set it so that it will heat the area where my feet will be, but without burning the seat or the numerous wires that lead to the various chargers. I also bring along my 'communications center', a small Wilsons leather bag containing camera, cell, GPS, all of which probably need charging, and my wallet, comb, aspirin, etc..

Meanwhile Molly is supposed to be heading towards her favorite area to relieve herself. I do have to keep one eye on her in case the neighbor's dog is out or an early morning jogger is passing by, both of which have happened, where Molly is suddenly off in a black blur to play with the unsuspecting passerby - or even the occasional coyote.

Remember what is really matters here – my first coffee; absolutely noting must interfere with that. However, there are times that I have found myself loping down the road or groping through the semi-dark canyon below quietly yelling “COME HERE!”. Thankfully she eventually responds and does so.

Usually there are no distractions. Molly has done her thing and we return peacefully to the utility house (which includes a custom made urinal) so that I can light the fire under the water and do my thing which has been a matter of some urgency since I woke up. While the water comes to a boil I give Molly a bowl of food and I go to the spigot outside the trailer to throw water in my face. I have been known to skip this part when there is a layer of ice on the water in the catch basin. It is also possible for the water in that spigot to be frozen and I have learned not to mess with frozen spigots; the PVC cracks and snaps way too easily. Then I have to climb the hill to the water tank and shut down the system, leaving it off until everything thaws so that I can repair the thing. This is not something I want to do when I am trying to enjoy a cup of coffee and keep things at a leisurely pace. Though I am still a relatively young man, I have come to treasure my routines. I need to plan things accordingly and deal with them one at a time.

The aforementioned mini-van meant an untimely and slow death a few years back after hitting an ice storm in Nashville. We replaced it with a comfortable old '92 Caddy. Two years later we also purchased a large '98 Dodge Ram 'luxury' van on eBay. Its heating/cooling system is out, hence the need for the propane heater. I do plan to take it in for servicing soon. However it is our primary power source with a 1000 watt inverter constantly recharging everything we use, so we cannot even spare it for one night. We also have a 5000 watt generator but it is a heck of a lot louder than the van, something we and our neighbors would not appreciate hearing. The Caddy is now gone; I traded it in for a Prius last summer.

After the water boils I return with the pot to the trailer, make my mug of coffee (needs milk from the cooler) and try to exit again without waking Eileen. If all has gone well, and it usually does, we are heading for the van with my coffee in one hand and the lamp in the other. As Molly climbs up onto her bench seat I take my first exquisite sip of coffee. I start the van, turn on the inverter, plug everything in that needs charging and then turn on the notebook. Hopefully my neighbor's wireless signal is working so that I can see what is happening in the world and download email. In exchange for use of their signal, I burn their brush.

Those emails include orders for my client, Grafstick Tape & Label out of Stoughton, MA, which I process and forward on to their shop. I had previously set up a web site for them, an Amazon account and an eBay account. Orders and enquiries arrive daily from all three and I get paid to process them. If the local wireless “ Flashbyte Inc” connection is not working, as is too often the case, I will take the notebook into town later on where I can connect wirelessly outside various places.

Eileen has a good life; she does not even know about most of the trials and tribulations that may occur before dawn. We have a signal system set up. When she awakens, she opens the blind on the window adjacent to the bed. When I see the blind open I wrap up what I'm doing, grab my empty coffee mug and return with Molly to the trailer. Now I don't have to worry about the door noise. I boil another pot of water, making myself another cup of coffee and Eileen a cup of tea. I then return to the van while Eileen either digs into a book or calls somebody. We each have our own cell phone. Thanks to the AT&T (formerly Cingular {formerly AT&T}) 'Rollover Minutes', we accumulate a lot of unused minutes while on the east coast which Eileen then uses lavishly while here on the left coast.

However, you have to watch those 'Rollover Minutes'. Our monthly bills were relatively normal through January, from $75 to $92. On January 30th our minutes ran out, but we did not know this. The first call following that final rollover minute, a casual chit-chat call, cost us $40. There were more like that; some worse. AT&T is certainly aware that this kind of thing happens and they let it ride because it pays big. They could have let us know that the minutes had run out but I guess they don't choose to do that. They could even display the remaining minutes on the cellular screen if they chose to, but they have inherited a real cash cow from Cingular so they just let it be. Our bill for January 11 to February 10 was $617.50.

I had received this bill after Eileen departed so I called her first (free between us) and she agreed to stop using the cell phone. I then called AT&T. They knocked $260 off the bill. By the time I received this bill even more charges had accumulated so the next bill was for $229. The bills after that were relatively normal again: $84, $96, $79, etc..

I have stopped the paper statements; an emailed statement arrives faster and I can see it immediately online. I have also discovered that they have something called “ AT&T Smart Limits” where I can put limits on daytime calling. I will institute that $5 charge before we return to Joshua Tree.

Note: My writings can get a bit wordy, even after I have gone through it many times over, cutting, slashing and rewording where a more elegant and concise perspective may come to me. Of course I also may discover things that need 'enhancing'; things I forgot to say that need saying.

Now there is a new factor at play, one that encourages 'wordiness'. The search engines grade a web page on many factors, such as how long it takes the page to load. Another is the code to text ratio. A page with minimal formatting and fewer pictures (which require lots of code), compared to the amount of raw text, gets a higher score.

Google believes that this will give the search results more relevant information at the top. In other words a picture counts for nothing (especially since the search spider can't see it), but the caption under that picture and the text around it count for everything. I suppose that kind of makes sense. Also pages with pictures do take longer to load. That means that my stuff will rarely make the top of a search list because I like to throw in lots of pictures that help tell the story and/or that make it more fun and interesting. Back to the story …

Copyright © 2008, Van Blakeman