Living Rough Again on Oahu
by Vago Damitio
(I wrote this on a blospot blog back on June 25, 2004 I’m glad this isn’t my life any longer.)
Alright…I can’t resist. I’m living “vanlife” again. This time on the island of Oahu. I got the van for $175. It’s a plymouth voyager and it seems to have fuel injection problems. It gets me where I need to go though, so far. I’m having a hard time sleeping at night. maybe because it’s an island, it’s a littel different than my old VW days. The main annoyances….there are no parking signs everywhere mostly 10PM to 7AM, Hawaiians love to play loud music and have impromptu parties in Marinas and parks without no parking signs. I tend to avoid drunken gatherings of big Samoans, Hawaiians, Tongans, and Filipinos. People in neighborhoods are so f#*(ing healthy, they wake up at 5AM and start raking leaves, running, watering plants, etc) which makes it hard to sleep.People actually know each other in neighborhoods here, I stand out…people look and say “who is that guy in the van?” not like the mainland where no one knows anyone else.
Despite all of that, I’m figuring it out. I generally sleep in two stages, moving at least once during the night. In the day, I make coffee in the van, swim, shower at the beach, go for a sunrise run (yeah, I’m healthy too!), read for a while, then go to the library where I work on my novel. One very cool thing is wifi…I can use peoples internet from my van with my laptop. Very cool. I usually buy what I want to eat and then cook it. Why have extra. All in all. Life is pretty good. Hopefully, I can get my van fixed soon, the fuel injectors seem to be going out…crapola.
While I know I could not handle being basically homeless (due to physical issues)… there’s still a part of me that thinks it’d be worth it, to get to live in Hawaii!
While I know I could not handle being basically homeless (due to physical issues)… there’s still a part of me that thinks it’d be worth it, to get to live in Hawaii!