Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Car = Life

Two years ago today, I was driving across the country, from Corvallis, Oregon to Albany, New York.  It took me 8 days to go the ~3000 miles, from about the 10th of September to the 19th.  Slow because I stopped in Colorado and Cleveland to visit with friends.  Plus, since my car doesn't have cruise control, anything more than about 500 miles a day was just painful.  I hadn't started my job, hadn't seen the property that is my house, didn't have dogs, cats or chickens.  Two years ago I was a city person.

One month ago, tomorrow, the goats died.  It seems longer ago than that.

Over the year and a half-ish that I've been blogging, I've shown pictures of various things in the back of my car.  Once it was a spinning wheel, once it was a chainsaw.  A few times it was flowers on their way to work.  I won't go as far as to say that a snapshot of the back of my car is like a snapshot of my life at that point, but sometimes it seems that way.

Here's what's in the back of my car now.

Monday night we practiced getting in and out of our gear in less than a minute.  Into the gear, check it, get out of the gear.  In, check, out.  In, check, out.  Later, we'll add the SCBA to that and have 90 seconds to get suited up.  Later still, we'll run an obstacle course suited up and on air to see how long the tanks last.  Class, practice, read, study, drill.  Repeat.  This picture accurately depicts my life right now! (outside of the 11 hours a day that is work and commuting)

5 comments:

  1. You must sleep well at night! That seems like a lot of gear to get on and off in a minute. It's so interesting, isn't it, to reflect on how much has changed in our lives in just a matter of a couple of months/years?

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  2. Eleven hours a day away from home working and commuting. I'm home all day. Makes me think I should be getting a whole lot more accomplished than I am.

    Just two years ago today you were driving to your as-of-yet unseen new home/homestead. You've come a long way, Baby!

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  3. I applaud you for going through all that just so you can go save somebody and/or their belongings. I could never do it, but I'm sure glad there's people like you that can!

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  4. I'm sleeping well, but getting less sleep! I'm getting home, amped, at 10:30 (already after my bedtime). Then it takes an hour to calm down enough to get to sleep. One of the big draws for me is the community of great folks nearby.

    Mama Pea - you ignore how much time you spend supporting this community of bloggers new to homesteady stuff!

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  5. Thanks for the kind words, Jordan, but I truly don't feel I offer that much compared to a lot of homesteading bloggers out there that are true researchers and teachers. I just yammer on about what we have done and still do, stuff that works or doesn't work for us.

    By the bye, I haven't forgotten your request that I write about how we first got into goats and why we stopped keeping them. Sounds like a good winter time blog. Or two. :o)

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