I'm teasing a little. I really want to praise a partly outdoor life. It's not the sort of life that most Norte Americanos can appreciate since most of the continent is under the influence of the Gulf of Mexico half the year and the Canadian Northwest Territories the other half.
By migrating with the weather we can step outside and do something, rather than cocoon inside a climate-controlled box like most people. And yet, migrating with the weather is not as easy as it sounds.
One of the things I will always be most grateful for is the chance to go to Mexico and experience the Mediterranean style of architecture. It made me appreciate how uncivilized we gringos, Yankees, northern Europeans are.
There I visited a Canadian couple with a house in Loreto, Baja California that was designed in the most amazing way. There were about five "climate zones" in the house, that is, stages of outdoorsiness, allowing the resident to tweek his life depending on the weather that minute. That is the only time in my life when I have fallen in love with a house.
This brings us to my recent laptop debacle in Gunnison, CO. While waiting for a prognosis on my old laptop I kept busy with a trailer improvement project. Imitating a mobile amigo's design I replaced the standard, RV industry, roof vent with an unhinged plexiglass sheet, framed by wood. It can be tipped in whatever direction it takes to get some breeze.
Finally I finished the project with solar screen. Solar screen is wonderful stuff. I have it in the main screen door and over the windows.
This might be a small project but it epitomizes the whole issue of living partly outdoors. While bodily indoors, my mind is out-of-doors. I can connect with the monsoon clouds of mid-day and the constellations at night. Now I can tip the vent up, gloriously high, in whatever direction is needed to scoop out a piece of the sky.
