Plains Feeder Neglect to End Soon

Beatnik Sleeping Accommodations

It has been a busy Summer and Fall for the old feeder. Fundamental changes have been effected. Blogging has been almost non-existent. I expect to resume daily blogging in a month or so. For those of you that might be interested and don't follow P.T. Gustan on FaceBook, I shall recapitulate the odd adventures that explain the current dearth of feeder posts.

Last Summer, feeling a desire for more personal liberty and a warmer climate, I freed myself of all but a carload of worldly goods. Most of this Karmic luggage I simply gave away, discarded or abandoned. Some of the stickier items had to be tricked into believing I might come back for them some day (maybe I will, maybe not). This trickery means I'll pay a never-ending storage rental, but as Epictetus advised, I try to think of that as the price of a peaceful mind. I was almost ready to relocate my new, lighter self to my schemed-up hideaway in the New Mexico desert when Labor Day rolled around.

Some time before Labor Day I contacted my second ex-wife (we'll call her NeeSmart) to see if she wanted any of the stuff, much of which used to be ours, before I locked up the storage shed and left town. Sure, she said. She made her holiday plans to include a comping trip to a Platte River State Park not far from the feedlot. I ended up joining her for several beautiful sunny days and full moon nights in a nice cabin by the river. We decided almost immediately that we should move to the desert together.

Since then I along with my carload of stuff have been staying at Nee's house here in Ames, Iowa. We went through the same process of streamlining her life and it's worldly attachments as I had done this past Summer. It was a bigger job here. She owns a house, which means she couldn't simply abandon her accumulated furniture and junk as I did when quitting the old feedlot. Its been a great deal of work, but we are nearly finished.

The house in Ames is so empty we are living like beatniks, sleeping on the floor and eating Chinese take-out. We need to get rid of a few awkward pieces like a full-sized treadmill that we are going to have to hire professionals to get out of Nee's basement. There are a few more legal niceties before we hand over the sale of the house to our realtor and one of Nee's brothers. We will hire a cleaning service to shine up the house before it gets shown. We want to visit a bit with family and friends in these parts. Then we will hit the road for New Mexico. Target departure date: the middle of this month.

The plan is to hole up in a modest rental somewhere near Placitas, New Mexico, live like Spartans and look for more permanent digs. Next Spring we will consider returning to our two storage facilities, mine in Gretna, Nebraska and Nee's here in Ames for such stuff as we'd like to have for our new home in the desert. We plan to call this our retirement.

As a retired old feeder (who will always be a Plainsman at heart), I should have plenty of time to engage in blogging. First I'll patch things up around here; I did a heap of damage when I deleted the domain where the Plains Feeder's images reside. I need to work up a new blogroll, including the old stalwarts from blogrolls past along with some new ones. If I'm feeling up to it, I might even spiff up this old blog. I have a couple of other blogs I'd like to revive as well.

This should start happening soon, in the coming months. God willing and the creek don't rise.