Day 170 : (Please let there only be 36 more to go...)
Several days have passed since the weather has cooperated enough to fly. So what interesting things have I gotten up to lately? No much. Its part of save mode. What I have been enjoying is developing a semblance of home life with the cat and I. I get up late in the morning, leaving the cat in the bag. A changing of guards you could say. Making sure the pad is inflated and with a pat on the sleeping bag I head off to the FBO to brush teeth and coffee.
Lately my days consist of walking up the main street in front of the airport to visit the various ethnic food shops. Get warm 'fresh' air. Then eventually settle in at the airport lounge to internet, catch up on all the cable shows I cannot see on the proper nights, listen to music... generally internally plan my bearings over the next month.
It wont be long until Ill have to push everything into motion. The days of planning are coming to an end.
I'm excited in a nervous sort of way. Im still smiling.
Eventually though you have to shut your brain down and head back to the tent. It has been a couple weeks now for the cat being on the road. He waits for me to speak his name as I walk across the hangar to him. Then crawls out of the bag to say hello.
Tonight seemed like a good time to let him go for a walk. Hes comfortable enough with the tent. He knows its the place to run back to when in danger etc. :) We took a nice walk around the large hangar filled with jets and smells galore. He even walked with me out the doors to roll in the dirt by the 'vintage' airstream. That cat loves a good dirt roll.
It is nice knowing I can say no when he ventures too far and he will mutter and begrudgingly come back.
Once back to the tent he bumps me in the face to let me know he wants food. He loves food. Just cant seem to shake the addiction after all these years. (A decade) ;)
Then off to bed I go. Cat left to his own device and mischief...
When the final photo came in at the track, Kiki found himself by a trailing edge. :(
A while ago there was a posting about how people have happily over leveraged themselves. We of course are quite comfortable with this in most societies. It even has a perfectly acceptable term. Mortgages. It is a way that everyone can have instant gratification. Instead of saving up to purchase land or a home etc we take out massive loans and leverage our future time against it to pay them off.
These last few years owning our home (My first, V's Second) has allowed me to develop my understanding on the whole concept of what is a home. What defines it. What do we personally need as individuals, as a couple, and even an eventual family (I would say the cat and Us comprises a family already. ;) ) in order to be happy. Secure.
I've spent plenty of time scouring the internet and youtube on the subject. One of my favorites, although I enjoy each one we are subscribed to, is Jane's "Hardwork Homestead" blog. It is because of the spirit behind it. Working towards self sufficiency. Although I would boil it down to simply security. A feeling or intuition that makes a dwelling a home.
While we have not 'over' leveraged ourselves with a massive mortgage payment over the next year or so I would like to move towards that goal. Purchasing an acre. Building a 'Tool shed' with the accompanied solar array and rain catchment. The secret hidden bunker underneath to house the potatoes. ;) Paid outright.
I'm learning that it really isn't about how much you make in a year. It is about the margins of disposable income. The meaning of this is simple. If you can reduce your over head to its absolute minimum, then even with modest income, you'll find that you have the disposable income of a higher wage earner.
If your 'home' is paid off. The land is yours. You harnest the power of the sun for your energy needs. A bountiful veggie garden view out the window. What do you truly have left other than taxes? ;)
One could travel the world at that point based on savings from minimal wage positions. Now please do not misquote me on this aspect. I still wish to remain a plane flying career, veggie eating, cat petting, all around cool dude. The idea is to bring life back to what it was.
I am fairly certain that nature did not develop the human being simply to spend the majority of their days working to get by. Personally it seems a shame that we have switched ourselves from the majority of our time gathering food, storing it, creating textiles etc to one of working forever to pay off your 'over leveraged future time'.
On that note should you be so inclined, feel free to watch a documentary that hits all the little nerves inside my skull. :) Oh, yes. I want a tool shed as is seen about 50 minutes in.
