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|  | | RV Living By Design, Book One
My wife and I wrote this book to document our life due to the economy, in a small 26 foot travel trailer. I added a great deal of extra conveniences and upgrades to make our life more livable.
I used my background as a automotive technical writer and adult education teacher to make the book easier to understand. It is the first in series books of we have planned. It The book has a lot of colored pictures and detailed instructions. It is published on high quality paper and can be considered and coffee top book. I talk about outdoor cooking and living in southern Arizona with modified outdoor oven. We have also planted a nice table top garden. This book is a must read for new RVers and very informative for long-termers. | |  | | The Up Side of Being Down
The book is an autobiography about a Christian couple being forced due to a poor economy and a strange hidden illness, to travel the country for work. The story is about the working poor. The “Economic Slaves” as they choose to call those that labor hard, and get little in return. Kathy and Jim, the married couple were very close to becoming homeless on a couple of occasions and for a time lived in a motel. The two traveled to Sioux Falls South Dakota in search of a promised job with good pay and benefits. They quickly find out that the peaceful flatland of South Dakota will not be their home for very long. Their rental home is broken into shortly after coming to town. The job that looked so good on the surface in Michigan now turns out to be only a test without any of the well-meaning promises being kept. The next job also turns out to be only temporary because the employer needs a mechanic to fill the opening of a vacationing supervisor. They bounce around the country like a hot pinball machine. The two move next to beautiful Las Vegas. This was prompted by more false promises by a potential employer. What makes this move even more annoying is the fact that it was backed up by promises from a well meaning relative, Jim's sister. The road to Las Vegas turns out to be paved by shiny neon and more false promises. The promised job turns out to be of less pay and for only a couple weeks. The local economy is in sad shape because of a building freeze due to a water shortage. The couple was stuck! They were trapped in the local economy.
This forced them to check out surrounding areas for a possible job. Kathy finally strikes pay-dirt in steaming Bullhead City Arizona on the Colorado river (The Valley of Heat). They meet a good Christian couple here however, they are in the same shape as them only with two children. A lay off hits Kathy and the fill-in job Jim takes at the local marina heads him up the river with another false promise. They are forced to live in a motel here. They went to a local food pantry and were almost on the streets.
Therefore, with heart in hand and no jobs, we head back once again to Las Vegas and back to living with relatives. It was at this time, due to living conditions they are forced to put to sleep a long time friend of the family, their dog. The loss is never forgotten. Jim took a job for a short time in a Las Vegas health club and although the scenery was nice at the club, the stay was short lived. These un-kept promises between Jim and his employers shorten his stays. It is an exposé of how workers were treated and the VA claims process as well as how far the Social Security Administration goes to keep deserving veterans their just due during the early nineties. They are forced to move and live on an allowance from Jim’s sister. Shortly after moving in they find themselves moving into a very small apartment. This is because of a surprise guest, an old school friend moved into the sister's household They befriend a nice lady, a native of Australia that is in more trouble than they are, if that is possible. She is sick homeless and in a foreign land. Helping her in a strange way bolsters both of them. They leave Las Vegas after Jim bounces from job to Job and almost broke. They are left without a great deal of personal things and without a best friend. As they look back on this loss it was the most painful part of their journey into hell. This really hurt!
While on the road they meet some very colorful and interesting people. These economic vagabonds shared much of the same stories as them, some were a whole lot worse than theirs. Along the way they find out first hand from shelter dwellers that the economy is a living thing and not just some numbers batted about in the classrooms and boardrooms of the Whitehorse.
They also find out how employers can and do use your bad credit records against you to hold you Out of that much-needed job. We managed to keep some of these job applications to illustrate this point.
After a lot of long walks and trips to the library they both find a place that we liked due to the good job market. In addition, the cheap cost of loving is a safe bet. The area they chose was Louisville Kentucky. This time they decide to separate, Kathy goes to Michigan and Jim strikes out on his own to make a new Kentucky home for them. The parting hits him hard. It turns out to be a lonely soul searching time for Jim one in which Jim lives in motels trying to look for work using a post office box as a return address.
The people of Kentucky seem to be just what the doctor ordered as far as piece of mind is concerned. There is truly a culture shock between Las Vegas and Elizabethtown Kentucky, where we finally stay for about two years. The jobs were there but because of low pay, and job jumping, our troubles with money seemed to follow them. Kathy rejoins Jim in the Heartland of Kentucky, but the job changes continue. Finally out of desperation and despair Kathy asks Jim to seek help because of his job jumping. After reflection on Jim's past he agrees to go to a VA approved counselor as an out patient. He also goes into the VA hospital in Louisville for treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It was the same problem that Kathy had read about and told Jim about back in 1984 that surfaced and caused his compulsive job switching.
They find out after trying to open a small business that there is , "A GOOD OLD BOY" syndrome alive and well in south central Kentucky. A form of geographic prejudice if you will.
Jim also tried to get help also through the State Vocational Rehab because of his disability and was told, “you have to wait until at least six other people in similar trouble signed up so he could attend an orientation”.
This stall job finally makes Jim go into the VA hospital. What follows is right out of a spy novel. He finds out upon talking to the local American Legion board and asking for help for other hospitalized vets. He is denied. Jim's request to establish a trust fund is brushed off.
The counselor never really helps Jim. He also found out on the second to the last visit to this homespun P.H.D. The VA in their grand wisdom is cutting all funding for individual sessions.
Jim finally got a 30% disability granted from the VA. It is through a lot of perseverance, letters he had wrote his mother over twenty years ago and faith make it possible for Jim to get the disability. Their strength and love keeps them together. They both end up becoming investigative reporters. Digging up any and all the evidence we can for Jim's claim. Sometimes the plot gets thick but the journey is worth it. This is a how-to-book for baby boomers and the vanishing middle class.
It also depicts in graphic detail the insidious ways in which employers use their cunning to get around privacy and age discrimination with the full blessings of the states they operate in.
It is a must read for anyone that has had trouble finding a job and has been given
that famous line. “Sorry but you are over qualified’. Which really means you are too old and smart for our company and we will have a hard time pulling the corporate wool over your eyes. They think you will enjoy this story of a period in lives, but for the grace of God, my be yours. Our government is supposed to be,” By the people and for the people”. Nevertheless, as they found out. “It is by the elite and for the wealthy”.
The upside finally comes for this nomad couple. It is not without much sacrifice and doing without. They live a long life in a survival mode. It is their faith in God and each other that brings them into a lifestyle most has enjoyed for years.
A true story about a Vietnam veteran and his wife learning to live with his demons. Living with the monsters of war was harder than dying for his country. It deals with his lost youth and respect of his family. This book takes on a subject seldom mentioned, namely the sacrifices that come about dealing with an emotionally challenged husband in regards to money and relationships. His wife and all wives of Vietnam veterans are the true Angles of The Wall memorial in Washington D.C. The Lord was their savior. Their faith in each other was their life-raft in a sea for darkness as they move abou |
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Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
by Aberjhani
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 At the heart of the eight compelling nonfiction stories and five-article appendix which make up Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah is this interesting question: What would your life mean if you were living someone else's dream of what it should be? |
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Saunas and War Toys
by Kalikiano Kalei
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 An account of adventures in Scandinavia that involved flying dragons, Russian and German submarines, old WW2 era battlefields, Finnish foxes (female kind), Finnish-Mexican cuisine and much more. Written for the most part with a light touch, it ends o |
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