150 days of living and coding in a van

Re:150 days of living and coding in a van by munificent on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @12:11PM (#15442951)

Introverted Dad with a wife, two daughters, two dogs, and two cats reporting in. Wife and kid #1 are both high energy. I love my home life, but there is definitely some part of my psyche that is drained by it.

I took a couple of days to drive to the middle of nowhere in Oregon to see the eclipse by myself. My goal was literally to be as far from other people and as solitary as possible for the whole trip. (Not exactly easy given the expected crowds, but that was my hope.)

I slept in the back of my truck and barely spoke to a soul in 48 hours. It was absolute bliss.

I'd like to figure out to get a little more of that solitude in my life, but it's hard. Anytime I'm out recharging my spiritual batteries, my wife is at home solo-parenting with the kids draining hers more than twice as fast as usual.

Pics and video of the eclipse:

https://imgur.com/gallery/AWPxf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8PDDX1vnXM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsuxK81KnPw

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Re:150 days of living and coding in a van by toomuchtodo on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @12:25PM (#15443064)

We should start a club, one where none of us meet up in person :)

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Re:150 days of living and coding in a van by pavel_lishin on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @12:33PM (#15443130)

There might be some sense in that - pool together resources to rent or lease a large area to camp in, with centralized things like hot showers or kitchens with refridgerators, and maybe wifi, but otherwise mostly just spread-out campgrounds where people can go and not be bothered, but not so cut off as to be worried about breaking a leg and getting eaten by a coyote.

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Re:150 days of living and coding in a van by toomuchtodo on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @12:35PM (#15443147)

A commune of solitude if you will.

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Re:150 days of living and coding in a van by pavel_lishin on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @01:34PM (#15443692)

We could call it a peculiune, given that "commune" comes from the Latin word for things held in common, and "peculiaris" would seem to be its antonym.

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Re:150 days of living and coding in a van by hackeraccount on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @02:27PM (#15444144)

What do kids want? Your soul. How much do they want? All of it.

I love my daughter. That's the truth of it though. Sometimes it makes me you happy and you want to give and give and give. Sometimes it makes me you unhappy and you want to curse them for their wretched selfish neediness. It doesn't matter though. They'll take and take.

Of course I was the same way with my parents so it's all fair enough. But like you say, sometimes I find myself humming Hungry Heart ("I got a wife and kids in Baltimore Jack, I went out for a ride and I never came back") and just wishing they'd all just leave me along for a week. A day. A couple of minutes.

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