Getting Closer and a New Blog...

The RV inspection is scheduled for a week from tomorrow. As long as there are no surprises from that, the owner and I should be able to button up this transaction with a couple of days after that.

I feel like I have a massive ball of snakes writhing in my tummy.

For those who are only here for the RVing stuff, I've made an RVing-only blog, Travels with Miranda.

If you're a regular visitor to One Idiot's Tale and want to keep up with the whole tale, then you do NOT need to visit Travels with Miranda. That blog will only host copy & pasted blog RV entries from OIT.

The Future of This Blog

(I probably need to apologize for 'spamming' today, LOL)

My blog is obviously taking on a new direction, but I'm not creating a new one. These new developments are just one more chapter in this Idiot's tale.

I will continue to right about homemaking and frugality and faith and all that, but in the context of the new direction my life is taking.

A Lesson

I got online very early in the history of the net. At the time, I used my real name. As search engines became more powerful, I began to realise that this was a mistake. I'm the only person in the universe with my name, so anyone who searched for me would find things that I didn't necessarily want associated with my name (ah, the follies of youth). I learned very quickly (but not quickly enough, judging by Google results of my name *g*) that I needed to protect my identity online. I stopped doing things I'd be shocked for the 'real' world to know, but realised that just because I wasn't doing anything embarrassing didn't mean everyone I knew needed to know what I was up to online.

So, I came up with a couple of different identities (and accompanying email addresses) to compartmentalize my life. Sometimes, the identities overlap. They're all me; I'm genuine in whatever area I'm engaged in, but my being a Witch isn't relevant to the forum of a game I play nor is the fact that I play that game relevant to those on the forum of a show I enjoy discussing.

Any detective worth their salt could piece together my online identities and link them back to my legal name, so I still try to limit how much information I give in an open setting. I do have a 'private' journal that only a small handful people can read, where I rant about my job in great detail, use my real name, and paint a non-compartmentalized portrait of my life.

Someone I know wasn't so cautious. She kept a public journal where she used her real name, discussed her controversial hobby, mentioned her employer and colleagues by name, and shared truly personal information figuring that she had nothing to hide and who would be interested in her anyway? A copy of her journal wound up in the last place she would have expected and the fallout could be shattering. I hope for her sake that everything blows over with no major repercussions.

When Did It Happen?

This change of priorities that has come over me, I mean?

I've journaled my entire life, so I can understand the gradual little shifts and assume they must be 'maturity.' But how does one go from wanting land and a house filled with stuff to realising that land and a house filled with stuff is to trade your idea of freedom for that imposed by society?

I do want a home filled with lovely things, to wake up surrounded by nothing but prairie, to make my living from the earth. I've always wanted this. I'll always want this. But it's time to let it go. How foolish I feel, looking back on past entries in this blog. One idiot's tale indeed.

My goal for the time I would spend in this house has been met, only not in the way I envisioned. In finding myself, I have lost myself, too. As I take my first steps into yet another new life, I mourn and rejoice.

In the past, when I'd reach a moment like this, I would wipe the slate clean by starting a new journal. Not this time. I like this blog; it is the clearest and most honest record of my path.

And, so, the journey continues, if not as before, at least as it seems it is meant to.

Leaving My Nice, Warm, Safe Cocoon

The more blogs I read, the more I see opportunity to make some money from blogging. I've had AdSense on my blog for a while (reported earnings so far: 21 cents) and then I heard about a 'pay to blog' program called Blogsvertise. This sounds interesting; you're paid to blog about a site and the ads don't have to be an endorsement. So, there doesn't seem to be too much conflict of interest. At any rate, some of the best financial advice I ever got was to do what I love and find a way to be paid for doing it, and I love to write, so....

New blog address

I've changed my blog URL to oneidiotstale.blogspot.com since my old URL wasn't super relevant to what my blog ended up being about. :-)

If you're reading, please comment so I know there's life out there! :-)

Speaking of organizing

I finally took the time to clean up the labels for my posts, removing a ton and consolidating others. Now, my blog is organized. I am definitely addicted.

Well, I'm Not Paranoid

At least, not about this.

Since my blog is largely about my journey to frugality and simplicity and uses clean language, I thought I was a perfect candidate for the 'Frugal Blogroll.' I applied, but heard nothing. I thought I'd done something wrong in the application process, so I tried again. Still nothing.

Now that there are so many blogs on there to compare mine with, I can pretty much surmise why I've been ignored and why the organizers should be a little, ahem, precise/truthful in their advertisements, ie. non-Christians need not apply.

Pity, my blog is no different from a lot of the Christian-owned ones, filled with little domesticities, a healthy does of spirituality, and some good old frugality.

*shrugs*

*waves*

Wow, according to Site Meter I seem to have actual readers! Even someone in India!

If you're reading, please comment to let me know you're here.

One door closes... and the whole of the universe beckons

My father died three weeks ago.

It was expected and I was blessed to have had the privilege of making my peace with any unresolved issues we had before he left. I was there in his final days, caring and nursing for him, assuring him that it was okay to move on to the next part of his life, to sail to a better and easier place.

He did not have a good life. It was one of limitations, abuse, toil, disillusionment, and bitterness. But the little joys he did have, he savoured. His accomplishment was His Girls, who learned from his lessons and built a richer, happier existence for themselves. When he knew that he would be sailing in short order, he was able to accept this because he would be leaving His Girls enough to build a solid foundation for their lives. He wanted us to truly live, to see and do things, to have a lot of stories to tell him when we met up with him again on our own journey to the next realm.

My father worried about me a lot, living as I did in the middle of nowhere with a long commute to work. He was pleased to learn in his final weeks that I'd finally made the decision to return to The City. During his final lucid hours, three days before he sailed, we spoke giddily about the new urban life I would be starting, the pretty house that would be a far cry from the mousehole I was currently miserable in, the extra time I would have now that I would not have a commute. He made me promise that I would make good use of what he was leaving me, buy a house, travel, have something to show for his life as reflected through my own values and dreams. We made plans for the future even when we knew that we would soon be separated, not knowing when our souls would be reunited.

The last five years have been very difficult for me, the last two easier, since I've embraced my faith. I'm currently in the process of making up for years of money mismanaging and have a plan for getting myself out of debt by 2012 (not including a mortgage) and a looser plan to retire by the time I'm 45. My father's death has brought forth options in 2007 that I thought would not be available until 2010 at the earliest. I plan to make full use of them.

My new life begins April 1st and I am giddily planning for it. Now that I will not be wasting so much time commuting and repairing plumbing (especially since I lost my 24 hour plumbing helpline), I want to go back to the urban lifestyle I had late last century, when I had time for homemaking endeavours and the world still seemed filled with possibilities instead of limitations.

My goals for the next year are simple: to start and keep a housecleaning routine, to cook more, to be more proactive in my faith, to continue paying off debt and build up my savings, to be more frugal, and to travel.

I've always journalled and I'm hoping this blog will serve as a chronicle of my journey.