old life, old books and raccoons



This is an unused photo from my eight years of off grid hard-wall camping. Sure had quite a few wonderful experiences from those years. I think M&M and I were camped an hour or so east of Silver City, NM, for this photo.

Well, I downloaded the next book in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Earth series, ‘Black Genises. $7 for the ebook. Got home and went to open it. The ebook is locked by DRM. Guano. My converter program could not format it into a readable format. Again, guano. It would be nice to inform a buyer before hand if it is locked by DRM. Not the first time this has happened.
Looks like I’ll have to get the paperback, $29. For a 30 year old sci-fi novel?! Eight more to go. I’ll order the book when I get back to Timberon, so I have a place to receive packages.


Remember these books from Stieg Larsson? I checked out, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, when my library in SLC acquired some. I was in Lisbeth Salander’s corner pretty much from the start. Read the second book, but never read the third one. Kind of surprising since the end of the second book certainly ended with a hook.

Last year I saw all three books at either a book exchange or thrift ship. Other than the hook, I did not remember anything, so I got to read the story again. And I got to read the third book too. Simple pleasures.


This is the view out the back window at one the state parks I’ve been staying in.

This park has always had a problem with raccoons. They used to have a scattering of four steel trash bins with lids(!) grouped together in small picked fence areas. You probably guessed that lids were taken off during the night.
One time I was packing up to leave, and found a raccoon in the bed of the pickup. I saw how it got up there by the scratches it left.

In the past three or four years when I did not do the parks, they installed those bear proof trash receptacles that are in National Forest campgrounds.
Reminded me of a short story I uploaded a few years ago.

Two campers were staying in a National Park. While talking with the ranger who was in charge of maintaining order in the campsites, he showed them how to operate the new garbage cans. The complex models had a rotating upper section and a special door designed to keep out hungry bears. One of the ladies asked the ranger whether the fortified cans were working as intended. Not really; we’re finding considerable overlap in the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest campers.

Some of the coldest night temps this winter, since I’ve been wintering in the parks. Timberon is nearly 7,000’ and the parks are around 3,500’. This is low enough since I hook up to power.

The ball is in your court. Pick it up and go.

Just take the next step.


Table of Contents

RVwest article ‘Following a Free Spirit’

RVwest article ‘The Space Between the Places’

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