(no subject)

[ocelot]

We're all still alive.

We bought a boat, which we are now living on. We're currently in Marina Del Ray (Los Angeles), but intend to move to San Diego in September.

(I'm currently using wireless at a coffee shop, and there's this really creepy guy just sitting at a table, looking around and smiling. I keep wanting to look to see if he's still doing it, but I don't want to catch his attention.)

So far it's going well. The boat is small (30'), but this is ok. Enough room for the stuff we need and the stuff we want that we're actively using, and that's really all that's necessary. We're gradually getting rid of a lot, and will store the stuff we don't want to get rid of but don't want on the boat in my room at my dad's.

It's a good exercise in de-materialism.

Will it work in the long run? I don't know. At worst, we should be able to sell it for quite a bit more than we paid for it.

Why do we dare move a toddler onto a boat? Honestly, it's at least as safe as a house, given that Leif is, at most, a few months away from figuring out doorknobs and has a magnetic attraction for roads. At least on a 30' boat, there's no way for him to get out of eyesight.

I turn a quarter century old the 19th. How time flies. We're hopefully heading down to San Diego, and I'll hopefully get to go to the Wil Wheaton book signing on the 21st. Maybe I'll even find my old journal from when I was seven that declares, "I think Wesley Crusher is very nice looking" so that he can sign it. Then, on the 28th, Ray Bradbury is signing books here in LA.

Oops, didn't I say we were attempting to de-materialize?

Comments

[tangodiva.livejournal.com]

Heh. I lived on a boat on and off until I was 18, mainly in San Diego Bay. My cousin has lived on boat full time from birth while circumnavigating the globe. So it can work. I've been trying to convince my parents to move their boat to Buenos Aires so that Van and I can go down there for awhile. So I don't think you are crazy...

[tangodiva.livejournal.com]

Oh and my parent's second boat (that I lived on my senior year in high school) was only 33 feet long, so it can be done...

[zenshadow.livejournal.com]

Very cool :) What kind of boat?

--ZS

[mayna.livejournal.com]

Wow, cool! Although I'd probably want a toddler wearing a life vest at all times... that'd probably get annoying for him.

[figgy-newton.livejournal.com]

Ok, in all my insanity I completely missed the Ocelot and Koyote move back to the West Coast phenomenon. email with details? odg1979@yahoo.com

[oatmeal.livejournal.com]

wow. Sounds like good fun.

and books don't count as far as 'de-materializing' goes. De-materializing sounds especially, fittingly star trek.

You know, Portland isn't so far from San Diego, as the toddler swims.

[silkensteel.livejournal.com]

If you describe the journal, I might be able to tell you which box it's in. If it's in one of the boxes here, let me know - I'll send it along (with the little godling's Yellow Plastic Honking Mjolnir.)

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

Heh, can you imagine Maylie wearing a big puffy thing that restricts her movement 24 hours a day, on the off chance that she managed to escape the house and run into the street, when she can't escape without you noticing because she can't get out of eyesight?

He'll wear a lifejacket any time he's out of the cabin (even though we're surrounding the outside with nets) and any time we're not at dock (or any other time we feel there's a higher risk than normal of something going wrong, like in heavy weather).

Sure, the boat could suddenly mysteriously sink, or he could find a way to get out, but that kind of stuff could happen in a land house (well, it couldn't sink, but it could burn down), and you can't protect agaisnt everything.

[mayna.livejournal.com]

Ah ok, yeah that's smart. Up above, I'd be afraid of her falling off the boat. She's fallen down the stairs enough times, KWIM? Down in the cabin, that'd be different.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm really afraid of him falling off. Any time he's out of the cabin, he heads straight for the edge (and any time the door is open in the house, he heads straight for the street).

It's just that other safety measures make more sense than life jackets for 24-hour use.

[shwin.livejournal.com]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JESSICA!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO YOOOUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

Well, books count when your entire living/storage space is smaller than your living room in Chico, and the easily accessible and non-damp storage space perhaps the size of a bookshelf :)

This is actually one of the things that worries me the most. If we end up somewhere that isn't San Diego, I don't know what we're going to do about books.

I guess that's what ebooks and palm pilots are for.

It's not entirely unlikely that we won't end up in Oregon. We have a friend who lives near Eugene who pays $70 a month for a liveaboard boat slip with electricity, phone line, etc. In San Diego, that would cost like $700. If we can do Internet-based work, rather than relying on shore jobs, it may be a good option.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[oatmeal.livejournal.com]

Instead of trying to ferret out the true meaning of the triple negative you just laid on me, I'm going to cross my fingers and hum a little 'I might actually get to meet Leif some day' song.