I started my first blog on December 7th, 2003. At the time, I was homeless and living in a tent on some land my family owned way out in the country. I didn’t get a home until later that February after a desperate call for help to my mother. She moved me into where I live now that same night I called. I will never forget her turning on the furnace and feeling that warm air flowing from the vents. It felt like heaven.
Those few months before I got a home I kept a journal everyday and would write my experiences so I could later transcribe them into blogger when I could get access to my computer. Many of those journal entries were just ideas and never published. Nothing really happened today and I don’t feel like writing much so I decided to share one of my entries that captured what my experience was like. I have done some editing to make it more coherent and readable as I transcribed it.
Cold Comfort
This morning was brutally cold. It was well below freezing when I woke up still wrapped in my sleeping bag. I looked at my thermometer on my backpack and it read 27 degrees. I could see my breath when I poked my head out of my bag. No way in hell was I getting out of my warm sleeping bag for that. I got a book and my flashlight and pulled my head into my sleeping bag and read. I was waiting for the sun to get higher in the sky and to warm the air up some. I had read several chapters when hunger overcame my urge to stay warm. I was also very thirsty.
I have learned to sleep with my clothes on or in the sleeping bag with me. That way they are warm when I get dressed. This is especially important with my shoes. The hardest part of this cold is keeping my feet warm and already warm shoes and socks make a world of difference.
I crawled out of my tent to check on the fire I had prepared the night before. It was covered in a thick frost. I had forgotten to put something over it the night before. I can normally get a fire started with just kindling, wood shavings, and pine straw. This morning I cheated. I tore many pages of paper out of my notebook and crumbled them up. I pushed them under the frost covered wood. After several tries and an almost depleted notebook, I finally got a fire going. I took off my gloves and warmed my hands.
After warming up some, I pulled out and lit my camp stove. I made a pot of coffee and boiled some water for ramen noodles. I am so fucking tired of eating ramen noodles though. The thought of another cup of those things makes my stomach churn. The hot coffee is awesome though on a cold morning. It really warms you up from the inside-out.
I need to head into Waverly today and check my PO Box for mail. I also badly need a shower. I haven’t showered in four days. I will probably ride over to the truck stop and buy a shower, but that is a long, cold ride on my motorcycle. I kept hoping that the weather would warm some thus why I have put off bathing for so long. My hair is so greasy it is driving my crazy. God, I am such a fuckup to be in this mess!
1 comment:
memories, memories. i lived in a tent for about a year at one point, when i was a teenager. i left home when i was sixteen and just refused to go back. it wasn't a big deal in the warmer months, and there were actually plenty of other folks living in a tent by choice nearby when it was warm, but when winter came i was out there alone and my summer job kind of dried up. for about 3 months while i lived out in the woods in the winter and waited to start at college (where i had been offered a scholarship and room/board!) i lived almost exclusively on ramen noodles. it took YEARS for me to be able to eat them again after that. my kids love them, but it makes my stomach churn to smell them most of the time, even now. i remember eating them with chopsticks just to break up the monotony a little bit.
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