Without trying to suggest to anybody that they should change their lives …
I used to live full-time in a motorhome. I’ve long been following “van lifers” on YouTube and videos from (less-than-affluent) retirees who have similarly taken to living in vehicles of various types.
And one common thread was that “life just became about the apartment and the TV.”
For some people – and it ain’t for everybody – this nomadic life offers a lot more freedom, opportunity, socialization, activity, time spent outdoors, independence/interdependence, and – to varying degrees – a lower cost of living.
Nomadland was, IMHO, an interesting primer on the topic, writ large. It also features a paragon of the lifestyle, Bob Wells, whose YouTube channel has a wealth of information on the topic.
Again, @salinqmind1 – not posted as a suggestion to you, but more as a generic thought in response to the situation in which you find yourself.
Same here! I’ve been watching Van Life vids on YouTube for awhile now. I don’t know if ‘Nomadland’ first got me into it, but that movie definitely was a great vignette into the lifestyle, showing it ‘warts and all’. I’m fascinated by the endless innovations people do to their vans, packing a lot of cool features and amenities into a tight space. One of my favorite features are the people who actually have built mini wood-burning stoves into their vans. Seems like it would be a bad idea in a vehicle that’s also a living space, but it seems to work for them, and I love our woodburning fireplace here at the homestead.
I used to do a lot of ‘car camping’ when I was in my 30s, meaning setting up a tent at a rustic, remote campsite next to the parked car, in some pretty wild areas mostly in Michigan’s U.P. So not roughing it as much as backpacking, since you can bring a lot of stuff in a car, but van life would be downright cushy in comparison. Since I work remote, I could even theoretically work on the road, provided I could get reliable wi-fi. Mrs. solost has said she’d be into it too, so maybe it;s an option down the road (heh, so to speak)…?
53 year old male. I got my first gray hairs while in high school and fully gray by mid to late-30s (my beard held color for another 5ish years). The positive is I still have all my hair. I considered coloring my hair at one point, but that was a short-lived thought I didn’t follow through on. At this point, I think it would look ridiculous since any that have known be for a long time have had nearly 20 years to get used to me looking older.
I was glad to return to the office. The forced work from home and not getting out was depressing. I still went for walks, hikes and bike rides, but other than that, I was in our little house. I like our house, but I don’t like being there what seemed like 24/7 for over a year.
I love WFH. And I lost some weight, mostly because I didn’t eat junk food socially in the evening.
Soloist, I highly recommend some hobbies or classes or volunteer activities that get you out and in the same meatspace as other human beings. Something that happens at least weekly.
Thanks puzzlegal, great advice, I know. But…I kinda like being a crazy old hermit!
Seriously though, I have been a bit of a shut-in lately, but I am willing and able to clean myself up and get out there into the world from time to time. Why, tonight in fact, Mrs. solost and I are going out to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary! Dinner and a Tom Petty tribute band.
Yep, married 21 years and haven’t regretted a single day.
I’ve been working almost exclusively from home since the early days of the pandemic, and I love it.
However, I have noticed that I’ve been feeling very lonely, lately. I’ve started doing some social stuff- a foodie group, a community social group, a few online D&D games- but I still haven’t really made any local friends despite being here in a new country for four years.
Exercising has become very hard to do- I just can’t seem to get motivated. Likewise showering- I have to force myself to do it more than two days a week.
I can’t stand the idea of going back into the office, but working from home hasn’t been entirely roses.
Ugh, sounds like the kind of inane conversations I’ll have with my mom on the phone, with her trying to keep me on but not having anything more to say…
WFH for 20 years. A decade ago, I started walking. I now walk briskly at least an hour a day: first thing in the morning I look at my schedule and the weather and pick when I’ll walk. Cow-orkers are used to hearing birds (and occasional traffic), will tell me to mute if they get too loud–with noise-cancelling headphones, I don’t hear them!
It helps that our subdivision has many miles of paved paths between neighborhoods and through woods, and six ponds. Deer, foxes, geese, ducks…it’s wonderful. I know all the neighbors’ dogs by sight, and they know me (well, the neighbors do; I have to assume the dogs do).
But I know I’m lucky that this works for me and my job.
I grew up here and I know this is something people do, but 30 years in Chicago broke me of this since strangers looking to change are looking for a handout or patsy. I’ve had people familiar with big city life ask me where I’m from due to my more focused interactions. I feel a bit bad about it, but I’d still just like to get to my car…
The part I find more of a loss is that if you don’t work with people directly enough to meet with them anymore, they effectively drop off the face of the earth; you don’t even see them in Teams or Zoom meetings. They’re just gone. Never mind that they used to be just down the hall, or even in the next cube.
I like that. I think it’s mostly due to my poor hearing. I only hear about every other word in a group meeting of more than 2-3 people when face to face. It’s very taxing. I spend all of my time trying to weave the conversation together.
With Zoom/Teams (make up your mind already) I put on head phones, and can chat/text as well.
If I could get people to use a good headset and mic, it would help a lot. But that’s my problem, not theirs.
I should have been more clear: I have no problem with the Teams meetings in and of themselves, it’s that there’s basically no personal contact outside of them.
(Re Zoom/Teams: we have Teams. I was trying to be inclusive.)
There is a minor advantage or two using Zoom or Teams-- someone mentions a video or website and can immediately post it in the meeting chat for all to see immediately. That’s cool.
But overall, I find online meetings much more tedious and frustrating than in-person meetings. It’s much easier to have a conversation in person when you can more easily pick up facial expressions and other nonverbal cues. And in online meetings everybody seems to accidentally talk over each other much more than IRL meetings; probably because of the aforementioned lack of nonverbal cues- it’s easier to tell who’s preparing to start talking in in-person meetings.
Not to say I’d ever want to go back to an office job. If I have my way I’ll probably WFH until I retire.
I always feel a little bit like a cult member trying to indoctrinate somebody else, but are you a dog person, or do you think you could be one? I moved to a new city, not even that far from my old city, right before the pandemic, but even that distance was enough to complete isolate me… except that I had a dog, then got another.
Between having an obligation/excuse to do walks around the neighborhood on a regular basis, my dogs making their own dog friends, standing out in the yard in the afternoon and seeing all my neighbors, and going to a dog park on a regular basis, I think it would not be too much of a stretch to say that other than work, my dogs are basically the foundation of all of my WFH “wellness.” They’re a fitness routine, they’re a pretty effective anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drug even on top of the boost from the exercise, they’re a reason to head out into wilderness “alone” without realizing you’re doing it alone, and they’re an icebreaker. It is very, very hard to not form at least a casual friendship with people when you see them all the time and there’s something that makes you happy going on in front of you.
For sure. We were being fairly rigorous about it, but it got away from us the past couple of weeks. Went back this morning and it about did me in, which is a sure sign that I need to keep up with it. I also have to do prehab exercises in anticipation of the knee surgery in July.
We’ve actually got two dogs, one of which was adopted during the pandemic. The problem is we also have a very large dog-fun yard, and it’s so much easier to just toss them out into the back yard if they need some exercise…
