Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 15:32:44 -0500 From: Charlie Ford 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"