Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 15:32:44 -0500
From: Charlie Ford <cford@mindspring.com>
Subject: Losing track of time

This morning I woke up early.  I lay there for a few minutes rubbing the
sleep from my eyes.  i suddenly realized I had know idea at all what day it
was.  "Is it Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday?" I said to myself.

I think my mind and body are going through changes brought on by being free
and easy.  The fact that I have forgotten my schedule, my destination, and
the date has to mean that I am being moved from much of the life that I
suffered through while working the nine to five grind.  I still use my
Dayrunner, but now only for names and addresses.

I must say it makes me wander what will come next.  Will I actaully slow
down to the point of being easy with being lazy.  I keep picturing myself
sitting on some rock in the southwest, with a fire before me, doing some
indian chant to summon the Gods of wisdom.  hey!, stranger things have
happened and besides the beatles did it so why can't I?  : )

I met a couple the other day at a place along the highway that makes
Monolithic Dome Homes.  They live in Conroe, Texas and doing a sweat lodge
there.  Now, mind you, we don't have sweat lodges in Georgia that i know
of, but this is something I have heard about and wouldn't mind
experiencing.  I hear it is a very enriching and cleansing experience.

These folks were so nice.  They invited me to drop by there place and camp
if I got over toward Conroe, and although I haven't made it there yet, I
may eventually and I will take them up on thier offer.  They also gave me
the name of a gentlman near Big Bend national Park that they say will let
me bunk in for a few days.  The way they described him as sort of an
independent in search of nirvana stimulated my curiosity enough to make the
trek due east from austin after I finish what I have to do here.

Yesterday, whatever it was, I left Smithville's Buescher State Park and
headed back to Austin.  I didn't even realize it was MLK Day.  When I got
to town I figured I would go over to the University and try and find a
place to go online.  I quickly found out that everything was shut down
becuase of this very worthy holiday.  To me all holidays are worthy.

I saw an art store that looked as if it might contain a cuple of VW Bus
appreciators, so in I went.  The lady inside asked if she could help not
knowing what she was asking.  After a few minutes of explanantion I told
her that I was trying to find a cheap place to crash for the night.
Somewhere the cops wouldn't roust me out of bed at 3;00 in the morning.
She told me I should go and hang around Whole Foods Market at the corner of
6th and Lamar.  She said it was one of those trendy esoteric food joints
where the customers are either VW drivers or wannabees.  The place sounded
interesting so off I went.

As soon as I left the parking lot I spotted a 78 Westy across the street on
the oppisite side of the redlight from me.  I waved, she waved, I motioned
for her to pull over and she motioned whe would.  The young lady driving
had just gotten her bus.  She said she was in the process of getting a
computor next, so I told her about the list.  She said she would get on as
soon as she got a techno box.

We exchanged names, compared busses and off I went into the Austin
entanglement.  I arrived at Whole Foods, found a parking spot, and lumbered
toward the building.  there was a table set up outside and some guy was
collecting signatures on a position.  He asked me was I an Austin Voter, I
said no, and asked him what he was doing.  he explained that he was a
candidate for Mayor of Austin, and rather than pay a 500.00 entry fee he
was trying to gather 402 signatures that the city would accept in lieu of
the money.

His name is Max Somethin-another (quite hard to pronounce and even harder
for me to spell).  I could tell he was the Whole Foods type dude.  he had
sort of long hair covered mostly by a baseball cap.  he seemed like a good
enough guy, I went in got a cup of coffee and we sat and talked for a
while.  he said the city is going through some issue's like whether the
public should own the electric system,a nd they are also didling with some
campiagn reform stuff.  His platform sounded real good, it sounded as
though he had his mind in the right place, but I have seen politics do
strange things to a person's heart.

I started asking a few folks as they walked in about somewhere to safely
crash around Austin.  None were of any real help.  Then I asked this guy if
he knew of a place, he immediately said "yeah, you can crash in my drive if
you wanna".  His name was Charles Whitenberg and he is a language studies
student at UT.  Helluva nice guy.  He gave me a key to his house so I could
take a shower.  It is not the most beautiful nieghborhood, but it is
certainly not the worse I have seen or lived in at sometime in my life.  It
is mostly hispanic, and appears to be in transition, hopefully for the
better.  He referred to it as the Austin Barrio'.  he said the bohemiens
are starting to move in and rent is starting to go up a bit.

He kept mentioning gangs, but so far no gunshots.  I really haven't seen
that much gang grafitti.  I am sure they are around here some, but my
observations is that we have put the word "gang" to any group of kids that
hang out together whether they are bad or good.

I am comfortable in the backyard, and all is well.  I just wish I knew what
day it is, or maybe then again I don't.  : )

This week I am steady camped so I will be posting some about a few places
and people I have met or seen.  Stay tuned.

Charlie




"79" Transporter, dressed for the road
The Mothership

 The"Turning 40 Nostalgic VW Service Tour, and
Search for the Beginning of Wind".

www.armory.com/~y21cvb/charlie/charlie.html

"Wider still and wider.....shall thy bounds be set"