Clip Clop

I notice sounds. A lot. My whole world is made of sound, and always has. This often irritates me to no end, as in when I'm in a city environment, or around a lot fo machines, or in a noisy suburb with the lawmowers, weed-whackers, chainsaws, band-saws, and leaf blowers going. It also is useful-- though often unsettling too-- when isolating problems with my van. I can hear tiny bearing noises, suspension noises, wheel and differential and transmission noises, etc. I need to be alone and I need quiet. This has a lot to do with why I'm a vandweller. It also has a lot to do with why I spent so much time insulating and soundproofing my van.

But my attention to sound is also helpful when listening to what's going on outside the van. I don't have windows, and my couple fish-eye viewholes don't often give a lot of detail, plus, I have to get up and walk over to them in order to see out. Also, in rain or fog, they get too blurry to be useful. But I can hear better than most folks. So I often know what is going on around me by sound. I can usually tell what kind of car, what kind of people, what mood they're in, what they're up to, all kinds of details, etc.

This morning, I was parked in a rural area, but a fairly upscale one which relies heavily on tourism. And I hear some people-- rich white older people, mostly-- parking next to me and blathering at each other, while making clip-clop sounds. Wha? Horses? No, not horses, I don't hear the sound of horses breathing or chewing or what not, and the clip-clop was different, only two at a time not four. Humans with hooves? No, while I am a fan of Pan, I doubt he is a tourist. Finally I get up and look out the peepholes, and I see people with bright flaming-yellow flourescent jackets. Oh, duh, of course: bicyclists. Yep, they have helmets too. The clip-clop sound was people walking around on their clip bike shoes!

I am feeling fantastic right now because I've found a way to make enough money doing computer-related stuff this month to meet my expenses, and even get ahead a bit, in only a few weeks of work.

This is a big deal, really. I've gotten ahead, for the first time in years. I've made it.

It was hard work-- 80 hour weeks, to be sure-- but not any harder than I've worked for myself for no pay at all on my own projects (home improvement, fixing my van, arts projects, etc.). I am indeed a brutal workaholic when I get onto a project. Now it looks like I've found at least one customer who values that talent/disease enough to pay me for it. It is a bit sad that I've abandoned my vocation in order to obtain this success, but, you know, homeboy's gotta eat.

So, right now, I feel I am close to obtaining-- or maybe have already obtained, on a provisional basis for one month at least-- vandweller success: to only have to work a few weeks out of the month, and have plenty of time and money left over to have a rich and wonderful and stress-free life. Now the task is to see if I can keep this up sustainably, month-after-month, over time.

I think the challenge will be to keep the income coming, while keeping the expenses from growing. A new phase in the journey: not finding a solution, but keeping it.