My van is actually near completion now, it’s startling sometimes. The stove works, the electric works, I’m finishing up bits and pieces. It’s all coming together, I’ll probably be finished enough for travel next month. I’m in the last few weeks of my job. Granted there’s a big plague going around so that’s jacking up the prices of toilet paper and other staple poor people foods. Still, April or May seems likely given that China is on the down curve for infections and everyone and their dog is taking some measure of quarantine steps.

I was listening to The Moth while driving yesterday and I was wondering if I had any story worthy of it. Drug stories and recovery stories feel like a dime a dozen. Maybe van life stories are becoming that too, now. Yet from where I’m standing it seems like the ground is starting to slide forward. I’m putting down and casting off the lines for the trans support group I help organize, delegating where possible. I know at least half of it is stable, time will tell about the other half.

I’ve decided to set the goal of being stable in holding the eight precepts by August this year. The hardest of which is the restraint from shows/games, primarily Netflix and Youtube and the like. While you can interpret the seventh to be more the in-person attendance of movies and plays and stuff, I think that’s a bit disingenuous. I think my van bed isn’t particularly luxurious by most standards, minimal as I think I can make it without causing pain. I’ve done intermittent fasting (noon to 8pm) for a while now and been successful with that, so I’ll simply switch that around when I quit my job (6am to 2pm I’m thinking). I’d be something like an anagarika, although more than likely by August I will still be unconnected to a monastery.

Anyway, here’s a more current batch of van updates:

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