by aramatzne@gmail.com | 15 Jan 2016 | Musing
The papers are signed. The house is empty. The truck is full. Big Cat and I are finally ready for the road. Well, I’m ready for the road; he is not yet convinced.
Big Cat and I are moving into the camper and going walkabout (yes, I know we will be in the truck, but “driveabout” doesn’t have the same ring). After a little camper prep we will be living on the road for the foreseeable future.
I have a few destinations in mind – first to the East Coast to visit long lost friends and family. Then, back to the West. There is so much to see and explore; so much I haven’t discovered yet.
I plan to write and take photographs along the way. I hope you’ll join me whenever you can – both physically on the road if you have the inclination to spend a few days on Tamara Time (a little bit like Island Time on speed; it’s always an adventure) and virtually via the web.
Find me here:
https://www.facebook.com/RoadNotTakenEnough/
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by aramatzne@gmail.com | 12 Jan 2016 | Musing
The couch left first, about a month ago. My bed went next. A week after that, the kitchen table and chairs walked away. Unworn clothes, unwanted gifts, and unused kitchenware, old books, plants, and appliances have all gone. Things I have dragged around for thirty years; same box, new place. Things that I never liked, things I felt obligated to hold onto. No more. They are all gone.
Assembling a life is often an unconscious thing. Pieces come together a little at a time, each with some emotional tie. The slow accumulation is almost unnoticed, a new job here, a new chair there, a blender, an end table, a relationship, occasionally mixed with a toy, say a bike or skis, a bigger house, more rooms to hold more stuff.
So often we come into our adult self in the form of an unconscious, slowly accumulated, life. We are pieces of our childhood and our schooling, our learned behaviors and inherited objects glued together with time, maybe with love. We do not always see that these things formed us but we do not have to be them alone. We can choose what to keep, what to give away, and what to change. This requires first taking apart the pieces.
Disassembling the life I have accumulated has been almost an act of joy. Removing the physical objects has been emotionally cathartic. Yes, it has been difficult to choose what stays and what goes. Yes, I have mixed feelings about many things I have given away. Yes, there may be some regret down the road. Regardless, I feel like a house that has been gutted in preparation for a complete remodel. The 1950s asbestos tile? Gone. The 70s shag rug? Oh, so gone. The 80s avocado-colored refrigerator? Yup, junked. The bad 90s couch? Toast.
It is my turn to be refurbished, to build an all-new interior. I will start with an open floor plan so there are no walls, new windows for lots of light and beautiful views, and new floors for a solid grounding. Nothing that is not beautiful, functional, and joyful can enter this new space. The exterior may look a little worn but there is a new life being assembled inside, this time with careful thought.
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by aramatzne@gmail.com | 23 Dec 2015 | Musing
In 1997 I moved from western Massachusetts to Maine. Several people asked me, “Are you going to get a gun?” I laughed. I thought this was an odd question.
When I left Maine to work in Alaska, many people told me, “You better get a gun.” I guess Alaska is a scary place relative to Maine.
After that summer in Alaska, I spent the winter in Utah. I went back to Alaska the next summer and then worked in Wyoming the following winter. I moved to Montana. Each step along the way, people said the same thing, “ You better start packin’.”
I left Montana and moved to eastern Washington State. My boyfriend at the time gave me his shotgun. It remained in the back corner of a closet until we broke up and he asked me to return it.
Now, I am leaving Washington. I have bought a camper for the bed of my pick-up and plan to spend a few months, maybe years, cruising around to the many places I haven’t had time to visit during other busy travels. And, once again, people have begun asking me if I have a gun or if I am going to get one.
I have never owned a gun. I have used them for clay pigeon shooting on occasion, I have carried one as a mandatory safety precaution in polar bear country, I shot at woodchucks when I was a teenager.
How many school shootings, mass shootings, random shootings have there been this year? How many people have been killed in the U.S. this year by a gun, self-inflicted, accidental, or intended?
I’m not anti-gun. I don’t think gun control will resolve all of the insanity of our society.
I may lead a charmed life.
I choose to step into the world unarmed. I believe that adding a gun to my travel gear will not make me safer.
Rather, I believe that choosing not to carry a gun will make the world safer.
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by aramatzne@gmail.com | 20 Nov 2015 | Musing, Roads Taken
Talk is cheap and it’s time to walk the walk … Yesterday I did an epic 19-hour, 848.9 mile round trip to Canada to buy a pop-up, slide-in, truck camper.
My life just got a whole lot more interesting.
I signed a sale agreement on my house the other day. It should go through by the end of the year. Everything will be sorted, gifted, sold, or stored and the cat and I will be on the road.
Destination: anywhere, everywhere
Duration: unknown
The Road not Taken Enough is about to become my home.
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