PP #6: An incident at the theater, and dirty deeds done dirt cheap

Project: Pioneer #6 October 31, 2023 (Tuesday 4pm)

Hallo! (ween) Did you miss us?

I didn’t post as usual over the weekend due to my great shame at not getting the sewer hookup (aka poop chute) done, as I’d discussed in the last post. I’m the opposite of a procrastinator, if something needs to be done it nags at me and I like to cross things off the list. Except when it comes to anything to do with that particular substance!

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. (Audio at this link, Apple, and Spotify)

I’ve been kind of bummed because with all this pioneer work all of a sudden, I’m not getting to work on Stayer much, or at all. I had planned to use the annual November novel writing sprint called NaNoWriMo to get the foundation of it done, but it’s not looking likely. That challenge is what finally got me to get Farawayer done a few years ago.

The new House speaker, the ongoing nightmare in the Middle East, and then the mass shooting in Maine on Saturday night really put a damper on things for us over the weekend. There are pretty good odds that you or your kids (God forbid) will be in a mass shooting at some point. About the same as getting three of a kind in poker, or winning $4 on a lottery ticket. The folks preventing us from getting protection from this don’t have to worry, they have great security and their kids go to high-security private schools. They just keep sacrificing everyone else and their kids at the altar of gun lobby money. Vote. Protest. Get involved, for your kids.

The new house speaker is right from central casting as one of the Commanders in Handmaid’s Tale. If you’re a woman, or you have young girls, pay attention. The dude is a straight-up Old Testament Christo-fascist, meaning women should be subservient to men, basically in the kitchens and bedrooms, and your kids should be indoctrinated as evangelicals. He’s our worst nightmare—Trump but far smarter, far more genial, a monster with a $400 haircut and nice smile. Matthew 24:24, check it out. And, his first move isn’t to solve any of the massive problems we’re currently facing, it’s to stop the IRS from auditing all those mega-wealthy tax cheats, which will cost us $90 billion in revenue. Priorities, amirite?

Some people say guns don’t kill people, but the same people think reading certain books can make your kids gay. Hypocrites. Again, more evidence of the unraveling of society, our species, which is a big reason we’re pursuing this semi-off grid pioneer life. And another example, particular to us, below.

It rained all day Sunday, so we worked on things that had to be done in our apartment (packing, putting more stuff up for sale, scanning and then shredding decades of documents to help remove all the paper from our lives). We were beat by the afternoon, so we decided to take a break and go to the movies to see Killers of the Flower Moon.

I love the simple beauty of those old West times, especially the Native American culture. Like the 50s and today, it was a great time to be a wealthy straight Christian white dude, but not so great if you were anything else. Which is why so many groups of people around the world are big mad.

About halfway through our movie, a drunk fellow got angry about something and walked down the row behind us and slammed the back of Giavana’s chair. Being from Brooklyn and Jersey, she rightfully asked what his problem was. He began loudly spewing f-bombs and threatened her. It scared her, of course. I stood to engage and called him out, but he kept going across the theater, leaving behind a very evident alcohol vapor trail.

I’m proud of myself, because in another day, I would likely have been drinking myself, and it certainly would have become violent. Been there, done that, too many regretful times. I wrote the Vigilante Angels trilogy about a former cop/Marine that gets cancer and decides to become a vigilante killer, and it didn’t end well for Tommy Borata. Maybe I was foreshadowing my own need to change. But, I hadn’t had a drop to drink, and my new outlook on life, death, and afterlife has given me the calm and peace to stand down and forgive people, rather than retaliate. But, Giavana was shaken. We discussed strategy, and she went to report it to the manager while I kept an eye on the guy.

A short while later, two cops entered the front of the darkened theater, their chest badges flashing in the projector light. The dude quickly got up and bolted for the rear exit. Bad idea. Cops love a chase! I also learned this the hard way. He didn’t even make it past the popcorn machine.

We went out to make sure he didn’t twist things, but kept our distance. The cops verified he was wasted, celebrating his birthday (?), and a bit confrontational. They asked if we wanted to press charges. We declined. Mercy. It was horrible having to be on high alert again after the movie, heading to the car in the dark, head on a swivel, Giavana scared and wondering if something was going to happen. Having to be on alert for anyone following us on the way home.

This was in a theater, a matinee show. It feels people are more quickly triggered, post-COVID PTSD or long-COVID-brain, or perhaps the most-watched news channel and major political party whose goal is clearly to keep people angry and divided.

And since that tactic so clearly worked, putting a life-long con artist in the White House with a cult-like sheep following, the tactic is being emulated all over the world. Hate works, apparently. And here we are. If the people are coming after the king with torches and pitchforks, all he has to do is convince the torch people that the pitchfork people are trying to take away their torches, and vice versa, go happily about his grifting and enjoy the show while they kill each other.

Now there’s more genocide, as we see in the Middle East, as we saw in the Old West, Hiroshima and Nakasaki, napalm in Viet Nam (that image of the naked little girl running, her skin melted), the Crusades (more Muslim slaughter), carpet bombing Germany, Hutsus/Tutsis, the Uyghurs, just on and on. Microbes dancing on the head of a pin, slaying each other en masse in the name of God.

I don’t see us learning to live with and love each other, to help those not as fortunate. I think we’re well past that, unless the big guy finally gets fed up again and incurs another natural disaster to wipe the slate clean (see: Arc) and start over, or sends his emissary back down to try to sort us out (we killed him, too), or the aliens decide to show up and lead us to some sort of reason, or they eat us and put us out of our hateful misery. We no longer have that ethical, moral leadership figure to bring us to reason, because public office has become a reality clown show, all for donations, clicks and giggles.

If we’d just follow the principals in just about every holy book, we’d be just fine. And, if it turns out there’s not a supreme being, hey, we did a good thing and had a more loving, peaceful life, probably a lot happier, and live longer.

I digress! So, I drove out to Red House this morning through Henrik’s frosted windshield to get the dirty job (finally!) done. The drive was spectacular, I found myself going quite slow to take in the brilliant fully complete peak fall foliage, herds of leaves playfully dancing and swirling across the road, making the pavement and lines invisible, the trees in their autumn season, me realizing maybe I like the fall now because I’m also in the autumn of my life.

Anyhoo, the sewer work is done, so I’m posting with a clear conscience. I never even got a whiff of anything objectionable. What a baby! Will it work? We’ll know soon! It sure looks nice though. I’m going to start including some pictures (Red House, Henrik, our beautiful new home scenery) and bonus content for the paid subscribers (in a separate post) since I haven’t figured out another way to reward them yet for their generosity and helping us to defray our costs.

With an RV, even with a sewer hookup, you keep the gates closed and fill the holding tanks. The black tank is human waste. The grey tank is water from the sinks and shower. When they’re full, you go outside and pull the black tank gate open and the rush is on, down the pipe. When that rodeo is over, you close the black gate and pull the grey one, which helps to clean out the pipe. Sounds fun, right? TMI?

So, the outside of Red House is now ready for winter. Just in time as it’s going to get very cold this week. It will be a big test. The outside is skirted with foamboard and winter aluminum tape. I was one of the early ones to get that done. Now that the lifers have done theirs, I notice that they put the shiny side of the foamboard facing inward, whereas I did not. Whoops!

I also ripped out the jackknife sleeper sofa from the slide and installed a workstation for us, so we have a desk area. It will also serve as a dining table. In cramped quarters, everything has to do double or triple duty. We put it in storage and I’ll reinstall it when we’re done with Red House. I also hooked up the huge 100 lb propane tank.

I installed the following items:
Remote temp/humidity monitor (to make sure the undercarriage stays above freezing)
Adjustable height RV stepstool
Outdoor security camera (not going to disclose type, for security reasons)
Three-chamber body wash/shampoo/conditioner dispenser
Dual-fuel inverter generator (similar to this one but dual fuel)

We got the generator at Costco, a store we love, but it’s interesting there now because almost everything in the place is irrelevant to us (except the rotisserie chicken, num!). I notice that on the postings for expensive stuff we’re selling online, the words “rarely used” appear often. Think twice before you buy yet another specialized small appliance, like that left-handed crepe maker.

It was cold today, so I had the furnace running for the first time. Red House was very cozy and the small space heats up in seconds and for pennies! For the first time, I left the hot water heater on, furnace on (set low), heated hose left on when I went back. When are we moving in? We finally pulled the plug and gave notice at our ridic-high luxury apartment complex. We’re outta here at the end of November! Given the lease-busting rules and regs, that was the best we could do.

What’s next? We’re going to start on the rest of the inside stuff, and organizing. It’s going to be rough fitting what we need in that small space. This will be primarily Giavana’s deal, she’s got great taste and ability in things like this. Me, not so much! We’ll do a test run soon and spend some nights there. I also found out this lifestyle is called stationary RVing! This young lady does a good job of explaining the pros and cons.

And guess what? I have a shelf full of paperbacks from old book signings and shows, and no room for them at Red House. I’ve asked our friends at Wild Lake Press to mark them down to half off, about $5, while supplies last, just for you pioneer journal readers (discount may not show until you check out). That’s pretty much my cost. If you buy any, you can let me know if you want a custom inscription and signature on it. Remember, many authors don’t get famous until they croak, so it could be an investment! Or, not. Sigh.

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