End of Semester Pondering

I did my last final yesterday and have finished my first semester of librarian school. I have another year of this to get the AS degree and certificate, but I'll be starting my Masters next Spring if all goes well. I don't expect to get a serious job at the library with only the Library Technician certificate. You need a full MLIS to get paid a living wage, one that covers rent and food, and a car payment. I do want to replace my car eventually. I bounce between the cheerful fun of a Ford Fiesta STI (turbo) because it is small and fun, or the more complicated combination of an Airstream trailer, a puller truck, and a 350cc motorcycle on a rack. Most of the places I've been looking at working as a librarian are in snow country. I look at those places because people like me live there, and tend to be more sane than lowlanders.

Figuring out whether to have a little car that's fun to drive and deal with house rental costs and moving from one to another with a 1500 pound trailer on the back, with my stuff inside, is probably the right answer. As I reduce my stuff and find ways to get down to proper minimalism, it becomes easier to be properly mobile. You can fit a big library onto a PC and the Cloud (servers), which is less stuff to carry when you move. I don't need a huge bed because its just me, so I'm settled there at least. Insulating a trailer or RV and setting up the heaters on the water and drain pipes is important too, since that makes year-round living possible. The bigger problem is safe hookup locations, with people who aren't malignant and evil so I can be there and not get robbed.

Pure mobility rather than stay and get abused by an employer, that's what I learned from my last decade in the Bay Area. People are scum, and they hurt each other because they enjoy it. Why stick around? Get in, do the job, get paid, leave. That's the answer to evil human beings. If you stick to that creed you can avoid the worst of them, who like to get their hooks into you before they up the ante. If you don't stick around, they can't accomplish as much evil on you. All they can do is superficial things. And then you leave and they'll find someone else to hurt. Its human relationships that cause the most damage, after all.

Something California teaches us is that if you stay here, you are asking for it. Whatever it is. Nevada is pretty awful too, though the views are better and the population density is lower. I don't put my faith in finding a "good community" because I already know that having people in it means you'll find nastiness and economic factors offering the excuses for the evil that grows there. Its never the direct cause, because the cause is people themselves, but its an excuse. People are nasty because they like to be. All contrary statements are self delusion, or the efforts to sell something.

$100K and a fair bit of room in 29 feet. Do I need this much space?
How much is sanity worth in year round living?

I need to keep looking after my Dad, and that's forcing me to stay close to him. I can't be super-mobile with an RV until he's in a home, or has someone else to look after him. If I have to work at a library within commuting distance, then I do, but that's at least the opportunity to buy an Airstream trailer or RV and fully renovate it from the frame up, complete with doing proper PV panel roof and water heater and cleanout valves so I can actually do the maintenance on it to keep it clean and habitable. From what I've seen, letting your trailer get dirty drives you insane, so keeping it really clean inside, and a comfy temperature, is crucial to living in one year round.

If I am careful about my renovations I can distract myself from the various far-left politics that mire the local libraries in trouble. I can build a beautiful place to live when I am finally free to use it. I wonder if my neighbor would rent me a parking space in his spare garage? He just might.

Well, I have more semesters to work through, and another school to apply to for that Masters degree. I need to keep thinking about this in the meantime.