“The sky was the color of Edgar Alan Poe’s pajamas.”
~Tom Robbins
I spent Sunday and Monday recovering from my Shingles Booster Vaccination. The injection site hurt, but the main discomfort seemed to be in my joints and muscles. I just ached all over. I laid low for a couple of days, recovering from the shot, but also from my 10 days of rowdiness and overdoing it at SkooliePalooza. It was so much fun, but it really wore me out. I’m not used to getting up early and staying up late (I saw midnight several times…that doesn’t even happen on New Year’s Eve.)
By mid-week I was fully recovered, and the weather was in the mid-70’s and I took full advantage of the warm sunshine by taking walks and playing ball with Cosmo. The residents of The Magic Circle continue to parade around the circle on the many paths, sans clothing. I still don’t get it totally. Judging by physique, none of the folks I see walking naked are fitness buffs, yet they walk around and around wearing nothing but hats and shoes. I’m not enough of an exhibitionist to walk through the campground naked, but I have learned to enjoy being naked inside, and if I need to step out to adjust my solar panels, or water my cacti, or play ball with Cosmo, I don’t bother pulling on pants. (When in Rome…) That’s just one more part of connecting with my primal self. When Cosmo and I went outside for our goodnight pee last night, I just slipped on some flip flops. We both stood in the moonlight, down in a wash, and such a rush of connectedness, of contentedness washed (no pun intended) over me. There was such an unexplainable feeling of freedom standing there naked in the moonlight.
From the mid-70’s temperatures we dropped into a cold, rainy day on Thursday. It was dark, damp, and drizzly. It was depressing and a little scary because I’d not been in weather like this for quite some time. Not only did I need to put on pants to go outside, but I had to dig out a sweatshirt to wear inside.
This week has been almost the complete opposite of last week. Last week I spent nearly every waking minute with people I knew and whose company I enjoyed. This week I’ve had a few conversations with people who pass by on the path near my van, but for the most part I’ve felt totally isolated—not in a bad way. I think Cosmo also needed some down time and he spent a lot of this week lying across my lap and snoring. We both are quite content with only each other as company.
As January ends, I’ve started thinking about possibilities for spring and summer travel. The past three summers, I’ve made plans to be in cooler climates and have failed miserably. My first summer on the road, the Dakotas were blistering. I tried South Dakota, Idaho, and Oregon the second summer and was unpleasantly surprised by the heat once again. Last year, I sought altitude over latitude and went to Flagstaff which was nearly as high as Machu Picchu. It was perfect in June and even into early July, but by the end of July, I had to check into a motel for a couple of days to survive the brutal heatwave. This coming summer, friends and fellow travelers have suggested the way to keep cool is to stay close to the coast. I have tentative plans to go up the California Coast, maybe to Mt. Shasta, and maybe on up into the Portland area. A friend suggested that I could hang out in Santa Barbara for most of the summer where the weather would never get above 80 degrees. (I asked when the last time was he spent a summer in Santa Barbara and he said “About 20 years ago,” so I’m not sure if his assessment holds true in this century.) My thought at this point in time is that starting up the coast is a good idea and can easily be adjusted if our “new normal” of blistering summer heat gets to be too much along the coast.
A bigger question is when to head to the coast. I first want to visit friends in Green Valley (south of Tucson) and then head over to Bisbee, AZ which I’d planned on seeing for the past two years and never made it. Bisbee is quite a bit east of my next destination in Long Beach, CA. Bisbee can be quite cold (below freezing) in the winter. The trick will be to get to Bisbee after any chance of freezing has passed and leave to drive across southern AZ/CA before the desert gets too hot to be passable. Add into that the fact that I hate to drive more than an hour and a half each day, and I much prefer to stay at least a couple nights at each stop and this game gets quite interesting.
Lessons From The Road: I found the following two articles (and way too many more like them) in this morning’s New York Times:
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Rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj released diss tracks aimed at each other. Read about what’s going on, and whose side the internet is on
These seem like fake headlines from The Onion to me and as I was skipping over them, I found most of the headlines to be questions and the article to be someone’s prediction about the answer. I remember when news used to be a report of what actually happened during the day. Now it’s conjecture, often by people I don’t deem to be particularly proficient prognosticators. (Except of course, for Puxatawny Phil, whose predictions I believe without question.) I thought to myself “You really need a new, more meaningful routine to start your day.” I haven’t figured out that new routine, but I have made a decision to stop reading “the news” when I first wake up each morning. I suspect I’ll replace that with a podcast, or maybe listen to a chapter from many of the Audible Books that I’ve started and never finished.
I’m getting itchy feet again. The comfort of being settled in at The Magic Circle and my spot in Ehrenberg is gradually becoming mildly stagnant. I think I will finalize some plans and get back on the road by the end of this month.