pure fucking joy

Spent a lot of money today. First I made several trips to various hardware stores. The big purchase was a Dewalt cordless router. Also got some peel and stick flooring for the living space of the van, and some outdoor carpet for the garage area. Some sundries as well.

Then I spent 750 dollars on Amazon. I hate giving those fuckers money these days, but it’s gonna happen till I get this project wrapped up. I bought a bunch of campsite cooking gear, like a cast-iron camp dutch oven, which I’m excited about. Other miscellaneous stuff, like a wall-mounted dish rack I plan to install over my sink. A cast iron griddle, a press for said griddle, a big 36″ fire poker, and some leather welder’s gloves for dealing with open-flame based cooking. I also got two laptop desks that are going to be part of my lounge/gaming set up. One for keyboard and mouse, and one for drug paraphernalia (including cups of tea). Or to allow two people to chill.

So I spent like a thousand dollars today, bringing the cost of the build up to about 14k. That’s pretty damn close to the total. I’ll need some lumber, maybe a few hundred dollars worth, and all the drawer sliders. That’s the only major stuff left that I foresee. Oh, and likely some more marine-grade latches for drawers and cabinets. And I’ll be able to put a lot of it on my Amazon store credit, with a “no interest if paid in full in 12 months” deal.

The drawer sliders I found at Lowe’s were all kinda flimsy. I can get heavy duty ones on Amazon.

I’m guessing there will be about 1k-1.5k more, and we’ll be ready to go. Then, when all this is paid off, I’m gonna get some aftermarket aluminum bumpers and a winch.

Ended up replacing both the bolts and nuts that came with my new trailer hitch, and finished the installation of it today. I also realized that I don’t know how to run the wires to allow the brake lights on a trailer to work. Might have to pay someone to do that, but I’ll do some research first. It was gratifying to install the hitch myself. If nothing else I can hook one of those luggage racks up to it.

I’m exercising for an hour in the mornings, then working on van stuff from 10 am till 8 pm, with an hour for lunch and cleanup. Then I wash up, meditate, write here, and do 30 min of math. It’s a good schedule 6 days a week. On Fridays I get to do whatever the fuck I want.

Took a break today to watch the first crewed Space X launch to the ISS. I cheered and laughed, and I wept for the joy and the victory of it. It was glorious. I have issues with Musk and Space X and with the militarization of space in general, but man is it cool to watch the rockets lift off and turn over toward the east and make it to orbit. I love that space craft are real. I was so jealous of the crew. One of the astronauts even said, “Light this candle!” like Alan Shepard. Pure fucking joy.

Yesterday was my rest day, and it got kinda weird. My head was in a weird place, and I kinda worried I was getting sick. Temp is still normal (or “nominal,” as the space-faring folk say). Had a lot of trouble sleeping last night; it was a voices-in-my-head kinda night. Was pretty fucked up early this morning, but work pulled me out of it, and I did pretty well most of the day. I was running a bit hot (moving a shade too quickly in my head and out of it), but I maintained, and it was good. I hope I can sleep tonight.

Watching the protests and riots in response to the recent killings of black Americans (George Floyd and Breonna Taylor) has been fucking wild. So many instances of cops trying to maintain their same dismissive, contemptuous attitude and making things worse thereby. I love seeing how different the responses are now that at least some of these abuses of power get caught on camera. I definitely like seeing the cop-shop get burned more than I like seeing local business get burned, but the burning of local businesses is not the most egregious crime in this context. There are murders to be dealt with first, and if they were dealt with promptly and regularly, there would be no riots. Trevor Noah has some good thoughts on this, which amounted to, “There is a social contract that requires we not burn and loot stores. But what incentive to black people in America have to hold to this contract? This contract has been torn up in their faces repeatedly. If they are not being protected, then the contract is null and void.” And that’s fair.

Frank Wilhoit says, “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect…” That covers it pretty well, too.