It is odd how someone who always considered travel to be an expensive bore would end up as a full time RVer who traveled quite a bit. But all along, my loyalty was to early retirement and independent living--that is, treating retirement as a challenging job instead of a brief interregnum of boob toob and crossword puzzles, lying between the Cubicle and the Nursing home.
I won't be RV boondocking or even traveling until the automobile industry tempts me into replacing my aging, full-sized van with one that gets better mileage. Until then I will stay busy living a car-free life as a local wannabee in the Little Pueblo, and wrestling with the roller coaster on Wall Street.
No sooner did I think about these issues than it was time to renew my mail forwarding service. I thought about dropping it, but then went into a panic. Wouldn't that mean I was doomed to never travel again? So I renewed it. Talk about inconsistency.
I could really use ideas for a new blog name, from the readers. Even ideas that don't appear to get used are useful in knocking other ideas loose.
It would be great if the name of the blog helped people find it. Perhaps it's best to imagine what search terms and keywords I would use.
I don't want traveling or RVs in the new name; not even implied.
My favorite word is independence, mental and financial. Financial independence means getting out of the rat race; an early retirement. That requires investing money. But I won't be writing an investment newsletter.
The tagword, alternative lifestyle, means gay or 1968 to a lot of people. Or they might assume this is a greenie, sustainable living, simplicity blog.
Mental independence--the aversion to modern society's formulas--requires historical perspective and a lifetime of classic books or movies instead of new releases. Travel helps, too. But I won't be giving movie or book reviews, as such.
I expect to keep reveling in an outdoorsy epicureanism, but how can I avoid misleading googlers who are looking for a recreational guidebook?
This is not going to become a diary-like, autobiographical blog, full of angst and emotional turmoil. I leave that to the fifteen-year-old girls of the world.
Perhaps Montaigne is a model for the kind of essays I am interested in. He didn't believe in following formulas. Instead, he combined personal observations with cogitation while walking in his tower. Then he integrated quotes from Latin classics. It didn't bother him if any of these components was unoriginal because, like a bee gathering raw materials from here and there, he could take credit for making the honey.
