SIX PIECES OF WOOD

Six pieces of wood don’t seem very important.

But to me, today, these six pieces of wood mark the beginning of my next adventure.

Back at the end of June, I was frustrated. I had been staying with friends, waiting to move into my fourth apartment in a year. That fell through in mid-June, a saving grace because it would have been a very toxic situation in the long run and I really didn’t need that again.

But it left me in a massive limbo.

As a self-employed artist living in Los Angeles, it’s almost impossible to find a place I can afford. So my friends assured me I had a place to stay for as long as I needed.

That became, “hey, I’ve been thinking about getting an RV and driving around the country,” something I had been thinking about since I returned from my year in China in 2016. I got a huge amount of support from my community, discovered the world of Teardrop trailers and decided I would build one and then get on the road by end of January, 2020.

Since then, it’s been a long five months of feeling inactive, despite the fact that I have done a ton in those five months. I have researched, downloaded plans, read at least one book on building a Teardrop, watched hours of YouTube videos about builds. I made a 1/5 scale model to try out some things (video is available here) and have started and finished drawing plans. But it seems like I’ve been standing still.

I had hoped to begin the build by November 1 but that didn’t happen. I did, however, obtain a car, thanks to the generosity of a friend getting rid of her old one. I bought a small trailer to be the base of the build, only to discover it was too small and unstable to build on. However, another friend has stepped forward and I should have the right trailer to build on. Going to see it on Sunday, so I can at least take measurements and see what the trailer needs. I probably won’t be able to get it for a couple of weeks because I need to get a trailer hitch put on my car and will need to buy things to the trailer, like new wheels, among other things. Money is a huge issue right now because I don’t have much. But hoping enough will come in when I need it.

In the meantime, there’s not much I can do.

I hate sitting around, waiting. I can’t really get into the build until I get some measurements from the trailer.

But what I do have is a nice pile of 8′ x 2 1/2” x 1 1/2” wood that will be used to build out the base of the trailer and for various other things in the build.

And what I can do while waiting is to at least paint these pieces so they’ll be prepped. They don’t really need to be painted and another coat or two of paint will be needed once they’re assembled into the base of the trailer.

But at least it’s something I could do.

At least it’s the beginning.

It’s something tangible so that it can feel like this whole thing will really happen. Because I’ve been afraid that it won’t.

And just slapping a coat of paint on six pieces of wood today made the whole endeavor feel possible.

I know it’ll happen. I rarely start something and don’t finish it. But it’s a huge endeavor that I don’t have the money for, so it’s going to be touch-and-go all the way along.

But for now, I just needed to do something to break the inertia.

So maybe it doesn’t seem like much, but those six pieces of wood got me excited about the build. I can’t wait to actually start attaching things and building things and actually making the trailer a reality.

In the meantime, celebrate the painting of six pieces of wood with me.