Last of the preparations...

I am prepared to go.  I think; I hope.  I spent the last few weeks finally going through everything I own.  I started with the garage.  Every box was opened, most were then sorted and I got rid of books and stuff I'll never use.  I took many things to the thrift store and have much less stuff.  And I know that after the six months of a more minimal existence I will have with this trip, I'll probably be getting rid of more stuff.  I'm just not yet ready to part with some of it.  After the garage I worked on my bedroom.  It is so nice and organized now.  It even works as a guest room for my mom (still the narrow bed, so only sleeps one) and she doesn't even have to apologize for the space.

I finally have everything into the truck.  I am probably going to get rid of some of the stuff along the way.  I've already started throwing away the socks that are more hole than sock.  I feel I still have more clothing than I need so I will probably be getting rid of it as I realize I don't like it and/or don't think I will ever wear it again.

All that is left to do to prepare is making curtains, and putting in more tie points, as things are moving around as I drive and I need to I figure out what is needed to make stuff stay put.

I think it has finally sunk in that I am planning to leave the state of California for the next 6 months (I have to come back this summer for weddings).  I am saying goodbye to friends, but I know I'll see them again.  Today I did my last drive by of the pacific ocean for the next six months as from here I going inland.  That one is odd.  Off to see if I can figure out better was to tie stuff down.

Not much plan but I have something like a plan if that counts

Day 1: January 1, Texas border.  This may sound a little far until you realize I plan to take the southern route (the definitely below freezing temperatures of Albuquerque scare me).  This means that the Texas welcome center just this side of El Paso is my goal and with just barely over 10 hours of drive time from my start point I don't think it will be hard.

Day 2: Make it to the other side of Texas.  This is a little harder (close to 12 hours of drive time depending on route), I do plan to veer up through the Dallas/Ft worth area and after that I haven't decided, go northish through Arkansas and Tennessee or continue east to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.  Oh no the indecision has me clutched tight in its thralls.  A part of me plans to consider weather but going to far south means rain instead of no precipitation but freezing (and below) weather.  Which then brings me to the if I don't know which route I'm taking how can I have a goal for where I'm making it to, much less plan the next day.

Day 3: AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh so much indecision and I don't know how I'll be doing on that New Years resolution of remembering to eat, and if on day Texas I forgot to eat then day 3 will really suck cause that means my energy is fading and I'll need more caffeine/naps along the way, and I am more likely to forget to actually eat and not subside on coffee but I can do amazing things on coffee, 12 hours barely stopping no problem.

Day 4: Will there even be a day 4, I mean if I stay caffeinated and push through, I could do 13 or 14 hour days and thus get to my little sisters by the end of day 3, I mean it is only a 40 drive time by Google maps, and who knows what kind of traffic I'll get, I don't expect much. I look forward to seeing my sister and staying there for a little while, and my bed in the truck is very comfortable so I know I should sleep good once I have curtains, and if I'm not sleeping well then really the reason will be noise and I can get up and drive another hour and find a quieter spot, although if the noise is a constant it doesn't bother me, it is a change in sound that will wake me up, a difference that my mind wasn't expecting.  As a camp counselor this was amazing, because no I didn't wake up at every bathroom trip but I did wake up if someone needed me or if there was naughty camper hijinks in the works; they hated it.  This means road noise, not an issue.  Air planes flying over, after the first no problem.  As long as my brain doesn't notice I'm fine, as soon as my brain goes into panic mode then no more sleep for me. I guess after the long days this semester teaching, I feel a long day driving can't be nearly as exhausting but then ask me again in a week and I might have found that I am wrong.

So that is the current plan, it probably won't happen like that which is why I hate making plans.  The only thing I know for sure is that I need to get to little sister's before the math conference which isn't until much later.

Long productive day

After getting up way to early, trying to wash all the dirt out of the back of my truck (I failed, but got most of it), driving toward the evil day star for two hours, sitting and grading for a couple hours, wandering away to get some lunch, and then pretending to grade but really taking a nap for another hour, my truck got a camper.  I then got to drive home and toward the evil day star again this time the distance took 2 and a half hours.  Look isn't it pretty:

Very tired, must sleep, but had to share, hopefully tomorrow I can find time to see if things I have will fit the way I want and then more pictures.

Gadgets and things.

Now I personally don't really care if I can actually talk to people while on the road, but some of the people in my life want me to be able to still call if I have some sort of emergency and I would like to still be able to post and look things up on the internet.  And as I am tired of paying for my smart phone each month, I have canceled it, and that makes me happy.  But then how can I call people? Well I can set up google voice on my computer which I have done, and so now can make phone calls when I have wifi, and even receive them when I am expecting them (the computer needs to not be asleep and have wifi).  This wasn't enough for my mom, so I have a prepaid internet box now, that I can use to have wifi anywhere that there is cell service.  Now I can make phone calls anytime from my computer and again if I know to expect one can receive them also.  I also now have a 12V to my computer charger and the wifi box is just a regular usb style charger.  Which means that now I can charge all my electronics while driving and have signal in many places without having monthly payments, and I guess that this is what I am trying to get rid of, I don't want all the regular monthly payments anymore.

It is nice to be without the Leash of a cell phone, but at this point people expect you to be leashed and get slightly put off when you (a) don't answer immediately or (b) say things like please just leave a message and I'll call you back when I can.  But I no longer care.  We lived for many years before the cell phone, and people lived just fine before the phone in general, it just means less of the instantaneous gratification that society expects nowadays.

I am looking forward to this adventure.  And now that I have all the electronics as charging from the car while driving I should be good to go.  Tomorrow truck butt cover, then the moon.

Truck bed cover

I did it, I put a down payment on a custom built camper shell.  It will give me lots of space, and Then I just have to build the interior. This is really happening.

Do you know how hard it is to buy something, sight unseen that needs to be built to my truck size and I only have a vague idea of what it will end up looking like because the pictures are on all sorts of different trucks and were not measuring exactly what I was thinking that they were measuring.  But I ended up deciding on one like this http://belairshells.com/camping_shells Bed rail to top will come in at 44 inches on the exterior so that when I use the internal lip to hold my bunk, the interior height should be at 40 inches, thus allowing me to sit up straight on my bed.  I'm getting the side windows higher up than normal so that someone looking in won't see me, and so that on the other side my table won't block the window.

The interior build will be interesting also, but that is one of the things I have really had to consider while trying to decide on the exterior.  I need storage space.  I believe that if I'm traveling at winter I should try to have at least a few days worth of food and water (hopefully a week) and I need space for clothing and cooking and dishes.  And if I'm going to be trying to barter sewing for miscellaneous other things then I need to bring my sewing room. Ok so I can not bring my entire sewing room as that would fill this entire space, but I do need to bring more than just a basic sewing kit.

With this layout, I'll have about 20 cubic feet under bed storage, probably another 20 cubic feet under the table storage, somewhere between 5-10 cubic feet in the cabover area.  I will need something to hold the stuff in the cabover space and I'll probably use that for clothing, the underbed space for sewing room and the under table space for kitchen/emergency rations.

I may or may not get it installed at thanksgiving.  I'm hopeful but they say three weeks to build which puts it at just after thanksgiving.  In which case I wouldn't get down there to put it on until finals week.  I was hoping to use that week between thanksgiving and finals to take measurements and mentally and physically plot out the interior.  So then while needing a break from the stress that is finals I would be able to use it to do somethings with the interior space.

Making a "dresser"

Because I'm working with such a small space, all space must be usable space.  Drawers take up a lot of space and weigh a lot.  I don't really want to be living out of a duffle bag (Mostly because I can never find anything in it)  So I decided I'll make pouches, as long as I can find a way to make it so that they don't slide out of the little cab over space it will act like a dresser.  The only problem is how will I know what is in which pouch?  Label them of course.  So I'm appliqueing pouches to use for a dresser in the tiny space I plan to call home for awhile.

How to:

2. Interfaced fabric

1. Find scrap (or cheap) fabric.  This means go through your entire fabric stash and decide most of it is to heavy for this project, need to keep it light.  Find cotton sheeting fabric, think yes this is the right weight, oh god where did this fabric come from it is ugly, don't want to use it. Find some nice scraps in of all places the large scrap bin of the stash.  Think now why didn't I start there.
2. Iron double sided interfacing to one chunk. (I choose plaid)  Of course this means finding the iron the ironing board, waiting for the iron to heat up hoping the cat doesn't try to "help" and knock the ironing board over.  Iron the wrinkles out of the fabric. Spend some more time trying to find the double sided interfacing, and then finally ironing it on. Unplug iron as this next step will take hours and if the cat does try to knock over the iron, nothing gets burned.



3-4. Writing Backwards and Cutting out

3. Learn to write block letters backwards, so you can pencil them in on the paper side of the plaid interfaced fabric, as this will be coming off and you don't have to worry about a stray line.
4. Cut out your block letters.  Those inside holes are always fun, remember just fold the thing and be careful that you cut all the threads before pulling it off so you don't have messy corners.  This is extra fun when the cat sees a lap and decides now is petting time and starts to do the loud purring demand attention by putting her head in your hand that happens to also be holding a pair of scissors thing that my cat does.
5. Turn over letters and make sure they are the right direction and look ok.  Check that you have all the letters you think you need and that it looks that you spelled everything correctly.



7. Position on pouch fabric

6. Find large scraps for actual pouches cut out a piece that is twice the size of the finished pouch plus a bit for seam allowance.  I'm actually a tear person when it come to cotton sheeting fabric.  Snip a little and the rip.  Such satisfying sounds.  Remember these are pouches and the size is only somewhat important in that if it is a bit to big it won't take up that much more space, because it is smoshable.  Go ahead and turn that iron back on and iron the pouch piece, after coming out of the scrap bin it must be very wrinkly. 
7. Peel off paper back of letters, position them on the pouch fabric and iron those things down. Remember to pick the iron up off the fabric to move from one letter to the next because they can easily get crumpled up if you don't, especially those s's. Be sure to leave seam allowance when positioning.
8. Sew those edges down.  Double sided interfacing is nice and all but we want this to look good, and I find that my corners start pealing if I don't sew them down.  Besides then if the bag needs washed we can wash it with so much less worry that the letters will come off in the dryer and stick to something else.  Invisible sew a bunch because you are using the thread that was already in the machine and you didn't check your bobbin before starting out. 
9. Sew into pouch:
1. Fold in half, with applique work on inside.  Sew long seam from fold line to opening leaving a couple inches not sewn at opening.
2. Sew the bits near the top open so that when you thread the casting you make in the next step the drawstring will not catch on the fabric. 
3. Sew casting for drawstring.  I always sew this with the drawstring already in it so I don't have to thread it through later on. 
4. Turn right side out.
10. Fill with things and appreciate your handy work

A couple of done pouches.

In other news, the dollar a yard store is now closed and it looked really closed, like gone out of business closed.  Where will I get my cheap dollar a yard cotton plaids and fabulous stripes now?  What will I make bloomers out of??? My limitless supply of cheap fabric is now limited.  This makes me sad.

Quest: Organize all the stuffs also known as cleaning

So one thing I will need to do before I go on my epic adventure is go through all my stuff.  Get rid of stuff I don't want anymore, and organize what I will want after my epic journey.  Yesterday evening I started and have continued today cleaning out and going through all my stuff in the garage.  No where near done, but can I just say oh so therapeutic.  I have half filled the recycle bin with just old paper and notes and readers that no one would want to read.  I have two boxes of old text books to go up to school because maybe someone there will want them.  These are mostly the ones I have kept because as an instructor it is sometimes nice to have equivalent books to pull problems from and I realized that I have never done that, so goodbye basic math through calculus books.  I have added more things to the give away pile and have started organizing my string/yarn collection.  I have some for weaving on the big loom, and some for the little loom and some for crochet.  The big loom will not be going with me but my mom expressed some interest in doing something on it while I'm gone, so I want to be sure all the stuff for it is in one place, so she can use it.  Little loom may come with me and may not I have not yet decided.  Crochet stuff is definitely coming, I will need crafting projects and books to read and other things to do when I don't have internet.  I plan to take at least a couple of my unfinished hand work projects with me, because if I can not find the time to do them on this journey, maybe I need to find them a good home with someone else.

I have pulled some fabric for some of the projects I want to do before this journey and I am ready to get started on them.  I need to organize the stash more but for the most part I think it will stay here.  I do plan to at least do a drive through of California this summer so I know I can change my mind and pick things up that I want or drop things off that I don't need.  Or when I finish an unfinished project, I won't feel the need to go out and buy another project, I'll just wait and pick up the next one when next I go through.

But I think my nose is done with the garage part of this project for today, I can not stop sneezing.  Laundry, re-ball yarn and start on the organizational tool of pouches, I think is my job for the rest of the day.

After math.

After quitting my job, which yes sucks for the school but I do not feel bad about it, I actually feel so much better.  I know there are many other adjunct faculty at the school still looking for a full time job and I really hope that one of them gets a job for spring semester, just so that maybe I won't feel the fall out quite so much.  The school really needed to be actively looking for new adjunct since before I returned two years ago, just the facts that I was hired the day after the semester began and I am the most recently hired adjunct would tell most people that.

The giant rock on my shoulders has been lifted away.  I still have to deal with the problems of this semester and make it through to finals, but that is all.  I know that I won't have to deal with these same things again next semester.  I no longer dread the grading because I know there is an end in sight. With this lack of fear, I can be much more effective in my time and thus get stuff done.  To the point that I actually have all my grading done for this weekend, I was mentally capable of staying and getting it done on Friday after office hours.  I still need to write a test for Tuesday but the rest of my week is already prepared.  I know that I can write the test in a few hours Monday afternoon so can actually spend this evening and Sunday on some of my other projects. Like laundry and going through stuff to organize and get rid of it.  I can start the hard plotting of what do I want to take with me on my road trip of doom and what will I want when I return.  I have some things that if I ever set up on my own I will want, and some things that I can just get rid of, lucky for me my mom will probably let me store some stuff as long as I organize it better.  And I agree with the fact that it needs to be organized better. So giant pile of boxes, here I come, we will start with the easy stuff, books and fabric and then work from there.

I quit my job today (WARNING: rant)

I work in academia, which is a very hard job.  Today I quit.  Now in academia this means that I informed my department head that I will not be returning next semester.  Since he is never available, this means via email.  His response "Thanks for the short notice," and then continued from there.  Next semester doesn't start until the end of January, three months from now.  In what world is this short notice? Only in academia.  On the other side of the coin my hire dates have been a week before the semester starts to my most recent the day after the semester had started, even when continuing from one semester to the next I usually have not even received my contract for the semester until after I started teaching it, I only know I'm teaching because my name appears on the schedule.  I am adjunct faculty, I know it sucks to have to find more of us willing to work for a fraction of what the full timers get and without benefits but lucky for you it doesn't take a committee to hire one of us.

It's not that I'm giving up on students, I'm giving up on the people pretending to be students.  When my students overall average homework grade is failing and homework is graded on completion and did you turn it in on time, I can not be surprised that they fail the tests.  On a 10 point quiz where I told the students to check their answers with their neighbors before turning in the quiz, I had a student score 5 points, I can NOT think that the problem is with my teaching. The problem is with these people pretending to be students.

And I'm done.

There I hope I got that out of my system at least for a little while.