PP #16: What is this life? Plus, malfunction junction.
Project: Pioneer #16, January 28, 2024 (Sunday 9am)
We’ve settled into our new RV home, and it’s been a game changer! After some post-mortem discussion, we mutually agreed we’d both been uncomfortable in Red House but were tolerating the situation, primarily for each other. But, the one thing that was stressing us both is we could plainly see little Pia was struggling. We couldn’t even put her water/food dishes on the floor, and had to put them down a few times during the day because we were always tripping over them and spilling everything. She had nowhere to relax, other than on the bed, and we had to lift her up to get on it.
Project: Pioneer is the live reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle, just at the start of winter. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. (Audio at this link, Apple, and Spotify)
Current Status/Updates
Pia is happy now, back to her ‘norm’ which consists of several comfy places around the house to choose from to chill. She’s happier. We’re happier. We’re now in a much bigger living space, much better built, and now have our window shades open to enjoy our surroundings and sunlight each day. Last night while Giavana was away tending her flock, I relaxed in the comfy heated/massaging recliner and watched an old Pink Floyd concert DVD. Therapy! Bigger tanks, less dumping. Moral of the story for those of you considering this lifestyle—go bigger than you think you need.
Malfunction Junction
Speaking of dumping, I finally went out to hook up the sewer hard-plumbing. Looked pretty easy, using the same PVC and connectors I set up for Red House. All I needed to do was cut about a foot off, since the larger new RV is closer to the sewer. I did that, put it all back together, and went for the big test. Pulled the black tank dump valve and…nothing. Bear in mind this was during the extreme single-digit freeze we recently had. Reasonable conclusion? Blank tank frozen. Ugh. At least it wasn’t quite full, so no emergency. We have two grey tanks—one for the kitchen, one for the bathroom (sink/shower). Those were close to full so I decided to give one a yank, as they are mid-ship and further away from cold than the black tank. Some audible gurgling ensued, followed by a rush of water, visible through the clear joints in my setup. What also followed was water spewing out of one of the connectors and onto the gravel between us and our neighbor. I quickly shut the valve. Thank GOD it wasn’t the black tank!
In the extreme cold, a connector had cracked, likely as I stressed it with the unhooking or hooking back up. I had to order a new one, which arrived two days later thanks to Amazon Prime. By then the temps has warmed significantly, and black and grey tanks dumped successfully. Problem solved (for now?)!
One good aspect of this life is that it gives you a rudimentary understanding of how simple housing/survival systems work—plumbing, electrical, heat/cooling, structural. We covered prepping and survival in a past post. This knowledge is essential, and otherwise will always save you money (which we covered in another past post) by fixing easier things yourself or in dealing with contractors.
All in a Name
In other news, we did the name poll in the last journal post. Folks weren’t thrilled about Lennon House or Imagine House, and voted to pick something else. We felt the same. Kind of awkward, right? Just by default, we started calling this new rig White House. Hey, has a nice ring to it, right, coming into election season?
We’ve fully prepped Red House for sale, listed it, and it sold pretty quickly. The folks are coming this week to (hopefully) close the deal and pull her off to a happy new life. They’re really excited, and getting a good deal. We made a good profit on her as well. We will always love and miss Red House, she started us on this journey!
I did add a second small ceramic heater to the underbelly to prevent any further black tank freeze. I monitor the temps under there remotely, with alarms, using the Govee remote temp/humidity sensor. When it gets too cold, I use the Kasa/TP-Link Smart Plugs to turn the underbelly heater and 150-watt chicken coop light on to warm things up.
We hope you generous paid subscribers enjoyed the post of pictures we sent! More bonuses to come, including previews of Stayer (my next novel) when I get back to work on it. Also, as I write this on a cozy Sunday morning, guess what—it’s been raining and snowing all night and still is. But hey, we’re more than half-way through this winter. We’re back to being pioneer settlers hunkering down through the death of winter, waiting for the rebirth of spring.
“Illegal” Immigration Problem Solved, YES!!
All this makes me think about and worry about the folks out there with nothing. Not just in this country, shamefully, but around the world. With all this wealth, a basic standard of living should be possible for our fellow humans. But, more and more of it goes straight to the top, to the most greedy and selfish of us. This is why people have always migrated, with only the clothes on their backs and small kids in tow—for the hope of a better life.
And by the way, we’ve seen all over the news recently the awesome news that Republicans and Democrats have finally come together on an agreement to fix the border problem and stop this flow! Amazing! But, then we heard several Republicans say publicly that they have been told by Trump not to pass it, because those images help him. So, when you see those upsetting pictures, remember whose fault it is, and recognize you are being manipulated, played for a fool. Again, Biden had a solid plan to fix this his first day in office three years ago. They wouldn’t pass it for the same reason.
If you think Trump has a better plan, remember when he told you he had a better heath care plan, better infrastructure plan, how he’d build the wall and Mexico would pay for it? None of that was real, none of it ever happened during his four years in office. They were direct lies, there was no plan for any of it. He didn’t stop any of this, his small partial wall (costing billions) has been cut through, climbed over, and tunneled underneath. Walls are a 17th century solution. Taking babies from their parents forever, putting children in cages is sick, and didn’t stop a thing, just made people hate us more.
What Is This Life?
I promised some thoughts on spirituality, life, death, after-life/after-death. I’ve always been curious. I’ve always had this trait where I need to read everything in sight—cereal boxes, whatever, just to understand things better. Me and another dork in elementary school had a contest/bet to see who could read every book in the school library. Spoiler alert—neither of us won, but we learned a lot!
My ultimate challenge was when I was given my first Bible, both old and new Testaments. I began eating that elephant slowly, at around age 12 (even read all those begats which was mind-numbing to get through!). It started out well enough. Genesis was cool. But dang, that old Testament left me feeling that God is a vindictive entity and we are all wretched and better toe the line or else burn in hell. That was a bummer, fer sher.
Then onward to the New Testament. It was much lighter, much more loving. I loved the stories of Luke, John, Mark, especially Matthew. That Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes blew me away! Now we’re talking! And the book of Exodus, with the fascinating promises of Armageddon (the final battle between good and evil), the second coming of Christ (or God), the anti-Christ, the sorting out of souls. That was some crazy good reading!
I came away from it with the feeling that much of it was truth, but as always, distorted and added to by humans with their own agenda. My own experiences in the Catholic church also contradicted quite a bit, and weren’t good. I had questions!
Does God really say not to eat this food on this certain day, or is that people rules to control? '
Why does the Catholic church have such uncountable, massive wealth and still beg/demand money from constituents who are barely making it, and shame them over it, while Catholics and God’s other children starve around the world?
Why so many mean priests, so many child abusers?
Why can’t women be treated equally and be priests?
I later went to work in the belly of the beast, the evangelical organization of Oral Roberts, and documented that in my novel, Farawayer. Oral and his family living in that massive mansion circled by luxury cars up on the hill overlooking the property, and watching the most poor people you could imagine from Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, all over the country come to hand over their little bit of money. And all the hypocritical sex scandals, lusting over wealth, racism. Sick.
All of that, and my own suffering, seeing the suffering of so many other good people, turned me against religion. I saw it as a big scam, a way for people to control other people, divide us, foster hate, and enrich themselves. My sweet, innocent teenage cousin was brutally raped and murdered. What God allows that? What did she ever do wrong, to deserve that horror in her short life, with so many dreams of her future? As well, all the kids I had known who were quite obviously born gay, with those traits since their youngest days, created by God that way, not hurting anyone (most the kindest souls you’d ever meet), but persecuted, called sinners, crapped on mostly by those who consider themselves followers of Christ? Hating immigrants when we are told by Christ to embrace and lift them up?
I decided that God made me this way, to question and look for evidence. I saw none. How can God then deny me entrance to Heaven for not believing, when he made me this way? I gave up, drank too much, did things out of greed, lust, and hurt people I loved. Still, some things nagged at me.
For example, how can this be fake if it’s so well documented and witnessed throughout history?
Then my uncle died, one of the few people I’ve ever met who seemed to be on the same wavelength as me. He was a highly intelligent and curious man, and from my earliest days as a kid working on his fence truck, we discussed these kind of philosophical topics. He was the father figure, big brother I never had and a blue-collar sage. Being out in the cold recently, fixing my plumbing, made me feel close to him because we worked in the cold quite a bit. I was grieving him while in a library, looking for nonfiction books to read, and noticed one book jutting out from the rest. It was After, by Dr. Bruce Greyson. Who nudged that book forward to catch my attention? Was that you, Uncle? I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
The book is written in an entertaining, straightforward manner, but best of all in a factual, clinical way, by someone who was previously skeptical, as a man of science. As a doctor, he’d heard many patient claims of some “experience” when they had died briefly and were resuscitated. He dismissed them as tricks the mind play on us when under stress. Then, it happened to a patient of his who had been rushed to emergency, completely isolated during her episode, and described in intimate detail the surroundings and conversation the doctor had with a relative. who had rushed to the hospital. That conversation had taken place moments earlier, in a separate room on a separate floor of the hospital, so there was no time and no way for anyone else to relay it.
There are many books and documentaries on the subject, and I dove into them. Not books or videos by quacks, but trusted, intelligent, thoughtful, ethical people. Those reporting these experiences are everyday people, not looking for fame or fortune, describing what happened to them. These same events are written down and depicted throughout the earliest history we have, everywhere around the world. There were very specific common themes to these stories, far too many to be coordinated. Everything started to make sense to me, finally. My conclusions:
There is a God, there is an afterlife, and its beautiful and everyone we loved in life is there, waiting for us. We get a life-review of our time here, and how our actions have affected others. There’s too much evidence to deny. It’s hard to comprehend this with our limited minds, just as it’s impossible to try to comprehend where space or the universe ends.
It’s possible that if we’re not “ready,” we’re sent back, or perhaps die and reincarnated to start fresh, perhaps with some lessons or memories learned buried deep in our subconscious mind to help us to do better next time around. There is ample evidence of reincarnation, as well.
God does not intervene! Maybe that’s why half of prayers are answered, half are not. It’s just coincidence. The horrible things that happen here may well just part of the test, to gauge our reaction. People like my teenage cousin haven’t been punished or suffered, they are in paradise. Nothing here really matters much, other than how we treat one another! This existence is but the blink of an eye.
Organized religions are just silly human takes. Many people report being told in their short visits to the afterlife that all they need to do is be good, be kind, follow the specific rules we’ve been given on Moses’ tablets and by Jesus in the Beatitudes. No need to do anything else. Eating meat on Friday mattered no more than waiting two hours to swim after eating. Buddhism is the closest thing to this reality. It’s not a religion, it’s a practice of doing just these things. I think it’s close to perfect, and a secret to being truly happy.
Lately we’re seeing a strong tilt toward populism, selfishness, zero-sum mentality (meaning, for you to “win” or get ahead, someone else must lose, i.e. America first, and screw everyone else). The fact is, we’re all unavoidably interconnected on this tiny planet and existence. This coffee and fruit I enjoy every day at breakfast was likely picked by some dirt-poor “illegal” both in another country far away and here in the US.
Imagine if we were all good and kind to each other. What does that feel like? Paradise, right? It all starts with you. What will you do today, tomorrow, what will you teach your children?
We focus on this life as the be-all, end-all. It’s not. It’s just the start. This phase is just an incubator, a chance to evolve in our evil or goodness, perhaps even a test to determine if we’re ready yet for the next level, perhaps eternity in paradise. I love the end of this short video, because it makes clear we are perhaps being tested right now, so many supposed “evangelicals” falling into the trap of the likely true anti-Christ, and failing the test. We may be close to Armageddon, to the final battle, which is why Giavana, Pia, and I are on this pioneer journey.
Interested? Here’s some light further reading or watching!
Proof of Life after Life: 7 Reasons to Believe There Is an Afterlife
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife
No Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners
Afterlife documentary (Youtube)
What’s next? Hopefully Red House sells this week, and that whole huge project is over. We’re looking to get into a rhythm of going to the gym, consistent budgeting/saving without all this recent financial chaos, and planning for our future. We have some log cabin design books, and may start looking at land to put White House on while we build our final dream home, if it looks like democracy still survive in this country come November. We’re looking to become very active in our swing state, to fight the battle against hate, greed, and evil. Walk the walk. Hey, if you have an extra buck or two, think about helping this US Marine combat vet get on his feet. Please share this post on your socials!
Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
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