Nap time? in A small but passable life.

I finished reading “Escape Velocity” by Charles Portis. It was a collection of various writings. Good stuff.

I’m trying to give up the chocolate puffed rice cereal (generic Coca Krispies) for breakfast. I really can’t remember when I started on that stuff. I know it was while I was still living in the van so that was at least over a year ago. Maybe two years ago because I started the habit when the van was parked at the grocery store. I’d buy a quart of milk every morning and make it last all day. So, sometime during that year or two I lived in the grocery store parking lot.

Anyway, I’m trying the oatmeal thing. For two and half years I had oatmeal every single morning. Now I’m trying to re-figure out the system. I haven’t remembered it yet. I know I haven’t got the right bowl. The four bowls and saucers I used for a lid are gone. History. The terrorists (Mikao and Jennifer) broke all four saucers and three of the bowls.

My new green bowl should work. I think the problem right now is I’ve got the wrong oats. I need the “quick” oats. ½ cup oats and 1 cup of water. 2 ½ minutes in the microwave. A spoon of margarine. 3 spoons of sugar. A dab of cinnamon. Stir well. A splash of milk. The milk needs to stay separate from the mush. This requirement makes the consistency of the mush an utmost necessity.

Too long in the microwave will cause the bowl and saucer to vomit out the mush. Not long enough will not cook the oats and leave it watery. There is a very fine balancing point, bordering on artistry.

Anyway, I had to figure it out once so I’m sure I can do it again.

I’m waiting on a shopping list so I can go buy all the fixings for the Thanksgiving feast. The feast will be here this year. It should be nice. I’m hoping I can find a good deal on the bird like we did last year.

One other project seems to have worked out. I had bought an microSD card for the cheap tablet. I had planned on downloading iTunes then copying my iTunes library onto the microSD. Anyway, I wasn’t able to download iTunes for some unknown reason. I went ahead and loaded just the library onto the microSD card. And that was odd because only half the capacity was available for some reason. And yes, I did format it. Anyway, after deleting the “pod casts” the library fit almost perfectly. A little over 14GB of music. And then for some reason I just clicked on the “music” icon on the tablet and there all the music was. Without iTunes. Very odd, but it works. Now I can listen to my own music collection and play the solitaire games. Simple pleasures indeed.

I still haven’t figured out how to copy & paste from google docs to the box on prosebox on the tablet. Can’t really highlight or right click without a right button?

And then I get to thinking about a plan. I’m pretty sure if I stayed away from ALL technology for a solid year that then I’d be so far behind the curve as to never be able to catch up. And that, in turn, would be a good excuse as to not even try to keep up.

There were after all forty-five years without the internet or computers. And forty years without a cell phone. And things were just fine. Kind of peaceful, actually.

I haven’t made any progress on sorting out gear. I have however came up with another brilliant idea. I’m going to try to use those plastic buckets that cat litter comes in to store vittles and extra gear. They should be easy enough to carry and mostly weather-proof. The ultimate would to pack an even thirty days worth of grub into each of them. Label and date them and rotate the stock. Easy, peasy.

I’d use the food list I used earlier this year for that month of March in the woods. And if there is extra room I can pack in extras and goodies.

The only thing I don’t like about the containers is that the labels are infused in the plastic somehow. Maybe I could paint over them.

Anyway, I need to rummage around here and see if I can find a book with a bookmark in it. There should be a few. I’ve got a half dozen or so books on my “hold” list at the library, but I’m pretty far down on the list for most of them.

It is starting to look like Fall out there. Gray skies. Blustery winds blowing leaves around. My last two walks to the library I had to wear my windbreaker and toque.

Anyway, I think it is about nap time.