Tag Archives: survival

Where Were You When The World Ended?

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Old Jules | 11 comments

The End Of The World by Archibald MacLeish

Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot
The armless ambidextrian was lighting
A match between his great and second toe,
And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting
The neck of Madame Sossman while the drum
Pointed, and Teeny was about to cough
In waltz-time swinging Jocko by the thumb
Quite unexpectedly to top blew off:

And there, there overhead, there, there hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark, the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the cancelled skies,
There in the sudden blackness the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing — nothing at all.

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read. I’m the more profoundly enlightened, severely evolved creature who used to be Old Jules before the Mayan calendar ended.

As for the Mayan calendar, I think we have to assume the ancient Mayans were referring to Greenwich time, midnight. I can’t see any way around it. It all had to begin somewhere and I think the ancient Mayans were sufficiently wise to begin it in a place where everyone in the future would be able to agree when it happened.

For the cats and me, that was Big Lake, Texas. A city park there with dozens of RV connections and three free overnight connections, according to information online. But when the Mayan calendar ended I happened to be walking on the pavement near a dim sign I’ll paraphrase as saying, “Welcome to Big Lake overnight RV connections. $15 per night, enjoy, stay as long as you wish and come back often.”

As the Coincidence Coordinators would have it, I’d been there a couple of hours, trying out a new harness and leash I’d bought in the Walmart store in Midland, Texas, on each of the cats. I’d noticed I was the target of repeated scrutiny by a Big Lake City Police officer driving slowly by, me smiling and half-waving as he went by. Him not smiling, not waving.

Then, cats all battened back down into the RV, I took a longer walk and found myself more informed about the Post Mayan calendar calendar and surviving the coming times with the least possible bullshit for all concerned.

So the cats and I celebrated the birth of the new era by topping off the gas tank and heading off down the road where the glow of headlights might shine on someplace free to sleep off the emerging shock of sudden evolution.

Ended up in a Rest Area somewhere between Ozona and Snora around 10:00 pm the Day the World Ended.

I’ve some retrospectives about the people and places of the previous several days, but I’m shooting this off just to suggest if you’re ever looking for a place to spend a hassle-free night parked free with cats purring on your chest, stay out of Big Lake, Texas.

But I’ve digressed. About that photo at the top:

Very few white men have ever witnessed what honest-to-goodness, eat-it-down-to-the-rocks over-grazing looks like unless they’ve visited the Navajo Reservation in the four-corners area of New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona.

Or Texas.

The New Old Jules

11 Comments

Posted in 2012, Adventure, America, Native American, Native Americans, Nature, Police, Senior Citizens, Solitude, Survival, Texas, Transportation, Trucks, Y2K

Tagged animals, cats, culture, environment, History, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, Nature, philosophy, poems, poetry, psychology, sociology, survival

Smug Self-Congratulation and Slow Rapid Advancement

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Old Jules | 38 comments

Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

When I brought up the screen to post I noticed it’s November 18. Old Sol’s muttering to me that he’s becoming bored with all my scurryings and goings on every time I go around him again without becoming a bit wiser in any way discernable by alert human beings.

But tomorrow I’ll have gotten by with it 70 times despite a persistent, continuing foolishness and determination to smack head-on into heavy, solid objects. One such object I’ll be telling you about here, but that’s later on in the post. But first, a few other matters.

My friend Rich and his wife Lisa came to visit a few days recently. We spent a lot of time just savoring the company, hours and days flashing by in such rapid sequence I’m reminded of those strobes a person used to have a to deal with on dance floors during the 1980s when I try to remember the details.

All I can say for certain is the time passed more as a pleasant dream than some feet-on-the-ground experience anchored in reality.

But somewhere during all that Rich fixed my computer so’s it connected online through WIFI. When I left one evening he was downloading several years of updates to Windows Vista and AVG, which turned out to be a considerable task.

Rich has an amazing music collection and he brought along an 8gb flash drive loaded with some I didn’t have. Took a T-drive back with him I’d freed up 600 gb from and he’ll be sending me the rest of what he has.

Amazing times we live in, where a thing such as that can happen.

Reality did rear up and whinny, however.

The second night I was driving home, moderate speed, and saw a dim shape in the oncoming lane ahead. Thought it might be a deer and moved my foot to the brake, but before I could press the pedal it became a frightened, full grown buck.

I stood the RV on its nose while the deer ran in front, reversed himself, ran back, then back again before the WHACK. A catastrophy for the deer, but a wild stroke of luck for me.

The incident revealed all the cabinet doors in the RV suffered from metal fatigue. Every item I’d carefully arranged in those cabinets, securely stored, came down, forward, cans of cat food hitting the back of my head, all manner of articles filling the floorboard underfoot. A crucial piece of knowledge I’d hate to have learned under different circumstances.

So the past few days have been spent scratching my head about the best ways for securing belongings in a vehicle destined to travel at highway speeds with the potential for sudden stops. Studying those cabinet doors for ways to lock them shut.

Trying out cargo nets as an option.

Installing recycled refrigerator shelves and ways to secure what’s on them, along with a platform from a grader-ditch cooler-top for the comp to sit on when I need it as a GPS, a place for incidentals the rest of the time.

Which is all to say, these are things I needed to know, bought at the price of minimal damage to the RV, the life of a buck deer, and enough expense making repairs to cut into the gas money I’d been hoarding.

Well worth the cost of setting back departure clock enough to accomodate it.

I’ve been waiting almost 70 years for this trip and the cats assure me a few more days won’t matter.

Old Jules

38 Comments

Posted in 2012, Adventure, America, Animals, Emergency Preparedness, New Mexico, Redneck Repairs, RedneckRepairs, Senior Citizens, Texas, Transportation, Trucks, White Trash Repairs

Tagged animals, cats, culture, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, Nature, philosophy, senior citizens, survival

Interlude in posting

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Old Jules | 22 comments

Thanks for the visits folks. Long hard days on the RV here, trying to get me and the cats something that will go all the way down the road. Blown tires, support springs, damages, unanticipated other are dominating my life at the moment.

helper springs

trailer

trailer 2

exhaust damage

I’m obliged to all of you for coming by.

My current plan is to try getting out to West Texas on a trial run before November 1, establish something that rhymes with an address somewhere out there for various legal purposes, then come back and wrap whatever’s left to be done up.

After that it will be catch as catch can online, depending on imponderables.

The cats send their regards to all of you.

Old Jules

22 Comments

Posted in Adventure

Tagged animals, country life, culture, economy, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, society, sociology, survival

Re-Post: Who Has Been an Inspiration in Your Life, and Why?

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Old Jules | 7 comments

Posted on August 23, 2011

I’m not an admirer of human beings as being particularly inspirational, on the whole. Yeah, a lot of human sentences find themselves trapped between quotation marks in fragments people find supportive of viewpoints that won’t stand on their own hind legs. Pithy wisdomoids giving authority to vapid premises. Often this does happen in a synthetically inspirational context. But the sources of those quotes usually don’t appear so wise or unblemished under careful scrutiny.

Maybe ‘inspirational’ isn’t the appropriate word to capture the concept I’m hoping to convey.

Maybe ‘has had an influence on your life you believe helped you to be a person you came nearer admiring than the one you were previously’ would more accurately describe it while filling the need for cumbersome rhetoric. The inspiration derived from firing wisdomoids back and forth at one another isn’t made of the strong stuff I’m trying to communicate.

For instance, I used to be acquainted with a Vietnam vet, who lived in an Econoline van in Albuquerque. He had a route of parking spots and a time schedule he’d follow to hang around each place for a while. The street guys who were dumpster-diving knew his schedule. They also knew he’d pay a fair price for anything he could get his money back on that they’d salvaged out of the trash. After making his rounds, the Econoline would head to the flea market and he’d sell first to the crowd, then whatever was left to the flea market merchants.

By reselling it from homeless guys dumpster-diving, he provided them a means of getting some cash for a lot of things they’d have no way to sell for themselves, or would have had a lot of difficulty getting more than a few cents for. His route superimposed an economic network devised to offer those submerged in hardship a trickle of income, a safety net. He provided a valuable service.

But what I particularly admired was that, when he came across someone he believed was ready to try drug or alcohol withdrawal he’d pack them up in the van and head off somewhere to the middle of nowhere, usually a small town with a restaurant or grocery store where he could pick up food and supplies. Once out of the city environment, he’d keep the addict in the van a week, two weeks, a month, drying them out, getting them clean, being there for them.

I came across him once parked at Vietnam Memorial Wall park in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. I didn’t realize at first what I was seeing. I just saw his van with the white Ministry sign roughly painted on the side and recognized it and him outside it. I stopped to chew the fat with him, then heard the moaning in the Econoline. He caught my eye and shrugged.

“Trying to kick smack. He’s on his second week. It ought to start getting better in a few days.” The odor of vomit, urine and human excretions was strong near the truck, so we drifted further afield as we talked. Probably he was used to it, but I wasn’t.

Christian guy. One of the Christians I’ve known that kept me believing there are honest-to-goodness bona fide Christians in the world.

I surely admired his guts, his determination and compassion. There’s a lot about him I’d admire in myself if I looked inside me and surprised myself finding it there.

Nice to come across a Christian occasionally who isn’t all hat and no cattle.

“I wonder what Jesus thought about sin. Jesus did his talking about loving neighbors, compassion, peace-making, mercy, that sort of thing. Hardly said anything about sin. If he could speak his mind today I wonder if he’d forgive Saul of Tarsus the way he did Judas.” Josephus Minimus

Here are a couple of blogs you might find of interest:

Urbandumpsterdiver’s Blog

Doing It Homeless

Old Jules

Kingston Trio-Reverend Mr. Black
http://youtu.be/sKJiDbvKbZs

John Lennon– Cold Turkey
http://youtu.be/n6wxTkkfLqM

7 Comments

Posted in 2012, Adventure, America, War on Drugs, Welfare

Tagged culture, economy, Human Behavior, humor, lifestyle, philosophy, psychology, society, sociology, survival

Brief Out-of-Sequence Flashes of Yesterday

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Old Jules | 4 comments

Scene: Highway 479 midway back from Kerrville.

Boom! Riiiipppp-like drumbeat roar from somewhere in the back of the truck. I pulls over first opportunity, no sign of anything wrong. Squat down peek under boxing the compass. Nuthun.

I re-mount, pull back onto the pavement, nothing seems wrong for a few miles, then the unmistakeable sound of a tire flopping. Pull over again. Yep, inside rear dually tire’s blown. What the hell.

Tire’s destroyed, but it’s a blessing. I’ll just have to sort out how sometime later.

Scene in town, me and a guy I stop in to see when I’m there and have time, sitting on the porch telling one another how glad we were for the rain.

“By the way, I’ve decided to swap you that trailer if you still want it. Let me know and I’ll take the stuff off it and we’re in business.”

“Yessir. Thankeevurymuchsir. I wants it.”

Behind the scenes – RV air conditioner listing San Antonio Craigslist potential potentate:

“I won’t give you more than $150.”

I ponders. Seems to me a new tire’s likely to cost $200.

“I ain’t taking less than $200.

The RV Air Conditioner Universe takes a powder, hopefully considering.

Scene – Elsewhere, Out-of-Nowhere Political Remark:

“We’re in deep doodoo if this guy gets re-elected!”

“We’re in deep doodoo no matter who gets elected.”

“Yeah, but more so if this one does.”

“We’ve been in deep doodoo from the time we first started letting kings make the deep doodooism decisions. If one man’s capable of getting us up to our necks in doodoo he’s going to do it. Ain’t nobody to stop him, so he has a moral obligation to the doodoo delivery dingus.

“Simple as that. If you don’t like it, don’t elect anyone.”

Old Jules

4 Comments

Posted in 2012, Government, Human Behavior, Politics, Texas, Transportation, Trucks

Tagged country life, culture, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, politics, psychology, rv, society, sociology, survival, transportation, truck

Cooking Thermos Bottle Beans and Rice

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Old Jules | 4 comments

I came across this on the cheaprvliving forum and decided to give it a try.

http://www.cheaprvlivingforum.com/post/Cooking-with-a-Nissan-Thermos-5995048?trail=15

I’m making a breakfast of garbanzo beans and rice cooked by that method even as I type this. Seems to me there are some kinks to be worked out, but overall it’s a shockingly easy, economical, energy-efficient way to cook up a simple meal.

4 Comments

Posted in 2012, America, Solitude, Survival

Tagged cooking, country life, cuisine, culture, economy, food, Human Behavior, Life, lifestyle, psychology, senior citizens, society, sociology, survival, technology, thermos cooking

Escape Route [or Rout] Projects and Such

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Old Jules | 10 comments

Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

I suppose any vehicle as old as this one and built as this one was built would inevitably require some fixup before becoming a cabin on wheels. I mentioned in an earlier post about the springs sagging, and the springs have arrived, waiting for the new shocks to get here.

But I’m going to remove that AC unit up there to get rid of the weight, replace it with a roof vent, which is in transit. That’s a lot of weight up there to be carrying around for something I’m unlikely to use much. And there’s evidence the roof structure doesn’t need the challenge it provides.

I covered that crack in the front window with Gorilla tape for now, but ultimately I’m thinking I’ll cut a flat piece of panel to place behind it and fill in the bubble-void with insulation foam.

Probably put a compartment in it for a GPS receiver with a better view of the sky than I’d get from the dashboard.

I’ll run Delorme Street Atlas on the laptop when I’m trying to navigate around towns, but I truly love Terrain Navigator where there’s enough variation in the terrain to justify using it. I’m rigging a stand for the laptop to swivel from one of the passenger-side neck-support posts.

This thing just posted by itself. I’m just going to finish it, editing in the rest, I reckons.

Anyway, once I get the AC off I’ll do a complete over on the roof with this stuff, and new caulking anywhere my imagination leads me. The critical path on this part is that I can’t pull off the AC until the 14×14 roof vent arrives to replace it.

I’ve been feeling the walls and ceiling inside and out, drilling through and squirting in a lot of that Great Stuff foam where I find a void, of which there are a sufficient number to allow me a sense of accomplishment.

Then there’s the matter of the cats. I’m making that overhead into a travel space for the cats to enjoy themselves in while we’re on the road. A place where they can’t contrive to get underfoot, or jump out at a gas station to find a new life for themselves.

Once we’re parked somewhere it will go back to being a bed, whatever, but on the road it will be a cage. They won’t like it, but they’ll like it better than all the alternatives they’d find in the alternative Universe they’d be choosing for themselves if they got loose.

And against the advice of people who know a lot more than I do about these matters, I’m going to find, or construct a small trailer to pull behind for large bags of cat food, tools, extra clothing, and probably some prospecting gear.

This thing’s for sale in San Antonio [Converse] on Craigslist for $100. If I weren’t so far from SA I’d snap it up, gut it and convert it to a light haul trailer with a top to pull behind the Toyota. Might be a ragged out popup is sitting behind someone’s house within a 40 mile radius they’d part with at a similarly righteous price.

But I’ve messed this post up enough for now. Maybe I’ll go into this more later on a post I haven’t already posted.

Old Jules

10 Comments

Posted in 2012, Adventure, Animals, New Mexico, NM, Prospecting, Redneck Repairs, RedneckRepairs, Texas, Trucks

Tagged animals, cats, delorme earthmate, delorme street atlas, home, Human Behavior, humor, Life, motor home, pets, philosophy, popup camper, redneck repairs, rv, RV pets, society, sociology, survival, terrain navigator software, Toyota RV, transportation, travelling with pets, trucks

New Mexico Farmer Nomads Circuit Community

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Old Jules | 23 comments

Hi readers. I posted this on the Intentional Communities website. http://www.ic.org/

http://directory.ic.org/24101/New_Mexico_Farmer_Nomads_Circuit_Community

Figured I’d run it up on the flagpole and see if anyone salutes:

New Mexico Farmer Nomads Circuit Community

New Mexico Public Lands, New Mexico

Proposed [forming]migratory community to occupy BLM and National Forest lands with water available capable of growing food crops. Members would occupy each site and tend gardens 14 days maximum to stay within BLM and USFS regulations, then rotate to another community site at least 25 miles away, replacing another rotatee[s] who’s been tending the garden there.

No permanent structures are allowed on these multi-use BLM or USFS public lands, though if, say, a mining claim is filed [a cheap, easy means of establishing certain legitimate, defined rights of occupation], a storage for ‘tools’ building is allowed.

Members will need to be willing to live in tents, RVs, campers, or converted school bus shelters while occupying the sites.

The only reason ‘community’ is an issue is to assure crops get planted and tended at each site through the growing season, and because of the 14 day occupation limit per site.

Some rules regarding wood cutting, site cleanup and maintenance, and waste disposal will be needed, along with a rotation schedule for each member unit.

My thought is that if there’s sufficient interest in this alternative lifestyle it should begin before spring planting, 2013.

contact me at josephusminimus@hotmail.com.

You just never can tell until you try, I figures.

Old Jules

23 Comments

Posted in 2012, Adventure, America, Government, Homesteading, New Mexico, NM, Outdoors

Tagged community, country life, culture, desert nomads, homesteading, Human Behavior, humor, intentional community, Life, lifestyle, Nature, New Mexico, nomad, nomad farming, occupy, philosophy, society, sociology, survival

Slab City, California – An Impromptu Community

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Old Jules | 14 comments

http://www.eugenecarsey.com/camp/salvationmountain/slab01sign02t.jpg

Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

I’ve been getting some fascinating emails for the past couple of days, maybe from one of the readers here, maybe from one of the Toyota RV forums I’ve been visiting to learn about problems and solutions encountered by others who have more experience with this particular method of escaping reality.

I retired in 02. A friend happened to see a little clip about the slabs on TV one night and told me he had just heard about a place that he thought I’d like. I googled it and agreed. A couple weeks later I loaded up my old 1971 Volvo 144 and left Tennessee for the slabs. I spent a magic 10 days out there living under a bush on a hammock. Meeting people who were, like me, searching for adventure and fun. In that short time, I found everything that a man could want. And for the next 10 years I have returned again and again. I have spent winters out there in motorhomes and tents. It dosen’t matter. Every visit has been good.

http://www.eugenecarsey.com/camp/salvationmountain/slab02t.jpg

There are several clubs on the slabs. I belong to the Oasis club. There is also the Traveling Pals Club and LOWS, Loners on Wheels Club. Everybody fits in somewhere. There is no mayor, There is no law. (The imperial county sheriffs and CHP do come onto the slabs if there is a problem.) There is an anarchy that functions, a collective justice system that operates that seems to do the job. If someone is behaving in a manner that is unacceptable, a group pressure will build and build until that person decides to change or to go elsewhere.

http://www.eugenecarsey.com/camp/salvationmountain/slab03flag01.jpg

There is the Range, a magic spot on Saturday night where musicians come and people come and best of all it is free.A big party under the stars. It is hard to describe. When you are there and the music is playing and people are dancing and you just know that you are in the best place that you could be even if you could be anywhere else. Magic.

The 1 mile square abandoned military base that is the slabs has been settled in different areas. East Jesus, an art colony, is situated in the NE corner. The LOWS in on the opposite SW corner. There is a Canadian area on the south central side. After a while you will know it like a monopoly board. And wait until the first time you find yourself lost at night walking across the slabs in an endless maze of campers and cresote bushes. You will soon learn to recognize the local landmarks, the blinking lights on the towers in nearby Niland, or the lights of the prison located about 6 miles south of the slabs..

http://www.eugenecarsey.com/camp/salvationmountain/bunker01.jpg

Many people hear of the slabs and drive into it for a look see. You can spot them a mile away. Eyes wide, windows up, they’ll circle a few “blocks” and then drive out, never stopping and speaking to a “local”. They can’t get by the the ultra casual dress “code” of the slabs, but appearances are misleading. There is no average person at the slabs. Everybody there is special with a story that is usually bigger than life. At night, by the campfires, the stories gradually materialize until you begin to know these individuals. And then you are hooked.

http://www.eugenecarsey.com/camp/salvationmountain/shower02.jpg

Just from the litle we’ve talked, I feel that you would find that you fit in there just fine. Its not perfect. There are some bad people there. Outlaws, fugatives. But you can be sure they are keeping a low profile. Amazingly, there are plenty of women there, too. Its really hard to describe, it would take a book, and it changes every year. We will be going out there again this winter (my new wife and I). This time we are going to rent a motor home that is parked out there and just drive our car out-which should save enough gas money to pay for the rental.

Oh ya, forgot to mention the nearby town, Niland. It has a lot of support for the winter campers. There are 2 stores in town, May’s that has about everything you might need. food, meat counter, beer and liquor, drinks, bread, toilet paper and even some hardware, and Mike’s Store, he has less but also has shorter lines. I go to them both. There are 3 restaurants in town. Balestero’s that serves great mexican food, and pretty good hamburgers. They also have a bar and a pool table. Across the street there is Uncle D’s Pizza Shop that also serves breakfast. And there is a new restaurant further North on rt. 111, Buckshot I think, that serves pretty good stuff. . There is a laundromat. And a flea market at the “fair grounds” that operates on the weekends. Vendors are moving through every so often so its good to run by there once in a while. There is also a public health building there that treats less serious medical problems. And a gas station that fills propane tanks, too.

8 miles south of Niland is a town names Calpatria. It has a library with internet, a donut shop, and a great hardware store. Also auto parts, and more. You will have to drive another 10 miles south to get to Brawley and the nearest walmart. You can get just about anything in Brawley, but if all else fails, another 10 miles south to El Cantro where I think you could find anything.

Being California, there are a million nearby things to do. trails to hike, roads to drive, hot springs to bask in. It just occurred to me that you might be more interested in this than my earlier description.

If the distance weren’t so great, the money so dedicated to various other priorities I’d be sorely tempted to spend some time there. But Slab City’s 1250 miles from Kerrville, Texas. At current gas prices I could spend half a months pension check getting there. And there’s no telling what manner of bowling balls the Coincidence Coordinators would throw into the route to distract me along the way, have me taking all manner of routes elsewhere.

Old Jules

Slab City links:

http://www.dogpile.com/search/web?fcoid=417&fcop=topnav&fpid=27&q=slab+city%2C+ca&ql=