How Does Liberation Smell?

Today is the second day that John has been out of work. He ended seventeen months of "temporary" employment for Monterey County (Central Coast California) on Tuesday. During his seventeen months of employment in the California building services world, I performed live-on volunteer duties first at Pfeifer Big Sur State Park, then at two Monterey County parks - Laguna Seca and Manzanita.

I had forgotten how comforting it is to have John around during the day during a "regular workweek." We rise in the morning, take care of Gingee's needs and head out to breakfast at McDonalds. This morning I had oatmeal and a small non-fat cappuccino while John and I calmly talked about what's next for us.

So what is next for us? We don't know. We can remain as volunteers at Manzanita Park through the end of July - another five months from now. That is comforting. We love this park and are familiar with all that is required to live here rent-free in The Jazz.

John wants to take a vacation before he begins to earnestly pursue work again. He hasn't had a vacation for over a year and a half. So we may head out for a few weeks, if we are allowed to take off by current supervising Ranger Kenny. If not, we'll make the most of where we are until our direction becomes clear.

Months ago, I completed immigration papers for Canada and today we'll mail them off. We're opening up the options again. I go for my immigration physical in San Francisco tomorrow - which is about a two-hour drive.

You may be asking what happened to John's job. Over his seventeen months of employment, he had four new bosses. (Does that give you an idea of the environment that he was working in?) His latest boss ended John's job by taking away all of the responsibilities he was hired to fulfill. The message was pretty clear. So on Tuesday, John surrendered to the fact that he was no longer needed there.

A day and a half of "new freedom" confirms for both of us that this juncture is timely and desirable. We'd hung on to the other path to living and working on the Central California Coast as long as we could. We gave it more than a fair chance to be the path to our dream.

I don't know what tomorrow holds. Frankly, I'm not even sure what I want anymore. But I do know that life is good in this exact moment. And I do know that I'm going to enjoy this daily opportunity to spend time with a more-relaxed John for as long as we can sustain it before starting another more demanding period where we work hard to make money to prepare for full "retirement".

For those who are full-timers or aspiring to be, when did you know that living on the road was the lifestyle for you?