And so it goes...

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here. I've just been incredibly busy... and lazy.

To wrap up the RV saga, we sold it off. Both buyers we had lined up flaked out on us (I guess it's just a Craigslist thing), so we were worried that we would just have to scrap it. But at the last minute, our neighbor at the RV park decided to buy it. But he can only afford $200 a month. What the hell, it's better than nothing.

So here we are in St. Helens, OR. I've put in a whole assload of resumes and applications in this tiny little mill town, and have only managed to score two interviews (one of them is tomorrow--wish me luck). And now the Tracker's on half a tank, and I've used up my last paycheck. Throw in the fact that my child support (which was paid up when I quit my job) is starting to rack up, and you see I have some serious cash flow issues.

Think that's bad? Try this... soon after we moved in, Diane's aunt (who we are staying with) received a 30-day notice to vacate her apartment. So we need to find a place to move into within the next couple of weeks. That's not going to be easy, as there is only one member of the household who is working, so there's no money to pay for the whole "first-and-last-plus-deposit" thing. So it sucks to be me right now.

In other news, I've been looking into the history of Columbia County. So far it's been a pretty sad state of affairs... the county museum is shut down, with no plans to reopen. The local library doesn't seem to have too much info on the subject. And the average yokel seems to think that the local history begins and ends with Lewis & Clark. So I've made up my mind to fix that, with my own special twist, of course. I'll be starting another blog about it soon, probably today.

Hopefully I'll be able to track down some local historians to help out with leads, fact checking, etc. I don't know how agreeable they'll be--it's not the kind of history they'll want to focus on--but it's a hell of a lot more interesting than a couple of white dudes paddling down the river, on their way to somewhere else.

Favorite Entries

I'm a writer. I write stuff. It's what I do. And this blog is where I put some of it. Most of what I post here is a diary of sorts--day-to-day b.s. that no one really cares about. Some of what I post here are outtakes from my book, and you will find those on the Articles page.

But sometimes I'll write something not related to the book that's worth reading. Something that I think should be available to readers, without them having to dig through the archives to find it. So those will be linked here.

Like the articles, these are free for the taking, under certain terms and conditions.

(no entries yet...)

Bookstore

Yeah, someday I'll get the book written. And when I do, you'll be able to get it here.

Articles

Not everything makes the cut. Sometimes a place is cool enough to write up, but not quite cool enough for the book. Sometimes there just isn't enough to write about. Sometimes a place isn't accessible anymore or no longer exists. And sometimes even though a place is cool, for some reason I really can't do it justice.

So I post them here.

These articles are all free for the taking, under certain terms and conditions. Feel free to use them for your website, magazine, newsletter, or whatever.

WASHINGTON

The Govan School House: In the tiny hamlet of Govan, class is apparently still in session in the dilapidated two-room schoolhouse.

Down to the wire

So this is it. We leave for Oregon tomorrow, and we still haven't sold the RV. But we do have a buyer... in fact, we have two.

After hearing virtually nothing all week, we had two guys come out to look at the rig yesterday. The firat one I'm not so sure about... it was a little too big for him, and I could almost hear the internal dialog going on. He said he would call us.

But the second guy I have a good feeling about. He seems like a decent guy, and he has a reason he wants the RV that I won't get into because it's his own private thing. So I'll just say that I'd feel really good about carrying an owner contract to help him out. Plus, he gave us a dollar amount he could pay, and said he'd be by this afternoon with cash in hand.

I gotta say that I like the security of having a couple buyers on the hook, but I'd hate to have one jump through a lot of hoops to make arrangements to buy it, only to be told that it's been sold to someone else.

Diane's been running herself ragged getting everything packed up and ready to go. I haven't been able to do much of anything because I've been finishing things up at work. Today is my last day there, and even though I've hated the job with a passion for the last couple of years, I know I'm going to miss the place.

And if all this wasn't enough, I have to make a court appearance Monday. When my wife and I split up, my oldest daughter Brittany stayed with me. Then in October she went to live with her mother, who signed her up for welfare benefits. That triggered a child support issue with the state... but a few months later, Brittany came back to live with me.

So I need to make arrangements to appear by phone and explain the situation to them -- especially the fact that they want to go after me for back child support, most of which includes the time that she was living with me! This is a subject for another post altogether, but all I've seen from these child support officials is lies and incompetence. I love my kids and I'll do whatever it takes to see that they're provided for (without having the government's nose in my business, if I had the choice), but it would be nice if child support would work with people to make it happen instead of just coming up with an arbitrary dollar amount and forcing you to pay... and it would be nice if they did their homework first.

Like I said, that's another post altogether.

Well, crap...

So... yesterday I was jumping through hoops to get this RV sold. A few minutes before I was supposed to leave work, I realized that I didn't have a bill of sale or any other kind of paperwork to sell off the motor home. So I ended up staying in the office an extra twenty minutes while I cruised the internet and found one I liked, and printed off a few copies.

So then I'm off to cash my check and make the last payment on the RV so I can get the title. The guy we're buying it from is hard to get hold of... Diane called his number a few times, but was only able to leave a message letting him know I'd be stopping by. Lucky for me, he was there. But apparently that was the only bit of luck I had yesterday... because he didn't have the title.

So I made the final payment, but have to wait a couple days to get the title from him.

I drove home, wondering what I'm gonna tell the buyer when I see him. Then when I get home, Diane tells me that the guy stopped by, looked at the RV, and she wasn't sure if he's gonna buy. He says he'll call us today. I won't hold my breath.

I dunno what it is with people... my ad was completely honest, and I'm only asking $2000 for the rig (it's worth at least twice that, and triple once it's fixed up). But I guess for $2k they expect it to be made of gold or something.

But I do have a Plan B. I've been talking to a guy who wants it to buy an RV to live in, but he can only afford to make payments. Not the most attractive option, but if it helps us both out...

And it's a hell of a lot better than Plan C -- which is to call a junkyard and get $100 for my $2000 rig.

Good news?

I've been stressing pretty hard about getting our RV sold off, and it looks like that's gonna happen today... hopefully. I've had an ad for our RV and some other stuff on craigslist since last week, and I've had a few people interested, but no takers.

I reposted it yesterday, heard nothing all day long, and finally got a response from a guy who is supposed to be showing up this afternoon with cash in hand.

But here's the deal. We don't own it yet. So after I get paid today, I need to spend virtually every dime I have to make the last payment on the RV and get the title (assuming the owner will be home -- haven't been able to get in touch with him), run home with it, and hope the buyer doesn't flake out on us. Otherwise we're screwed.

If all goes well, then we'll have some money to set aside for a camper van. Originally, we were goint to travel in the RV, but this beast is just too big. Especially with gas prices being what they are. A camper van would be perfect. It would be a bit... uh... cozy... but it can go virtually anywhere, and if we get tired we can park overnight just about anyplace without having to worry about The Man tapping a flashlight on our window.

But keeping our hands off the cash would be a challenge. Diane and I are not known for saving money...