Sunday Morning Misc.

Why, there’s a change in the weather, there’s a change in the sea… We had a week of hot weather, and then yesterday afternoon, clouds moved in and the temperature dropped about 25° and we even had a few drops of rain, but not enough to matter. I tell you, if we get some real rain, I’m going to be out dancing in it. A local surfer/fisherman said to me the other day, “Everything I do involves water.”

Work, work… I’m actually out here working seven days a week, or at least every day that I’m not traveling somewhere. I love it all, really — e-mail, blogging, feedback, working on this new book — but I’m looking forward to taking some time off to do other things next year. Fishing, hiking, a trip to some warm water, probably Hawaii; gardening, foraging. One of my goals for the next few years is to greatly increase the amount of food I bring home from fishing, hunting, and foraging. It’s doable, it just takes getting away from the keyboard.

Rock ‘n roll in Mill Valley Sweetwater was a great nightclub in Mill Valley for many years. For example, I walked by it one afternoon maybe 10 years ago, and the chalkboard outside said “Tonight: Pinetop Perkins.” Holy shit! I went, and was he great. 83 years old, immaculate purple suit, lavender tie, sparkling piano, flirting with young women. (Oops, I think I’ve written this before — whatever.) Sweetwater was then closed for a number of years, but now it’s reopened in a larger venue, and is maybe even better than ever. Good food, good stage visibility, good vibes.

Friday night I got a pass from a friend who works there, had a couple of really good sliders, a very dark beer on tap and, along with packed house saw the band Zepparella, a 4-woman band channeling Led Zeppelin; it was a good show.

Confession  I suspect I repeat myself, not too infrequently, these days. Here’s the reason: memory is not infinite. You can’t recall everything you’ve ever done (or written) in the past (unless you’re one of those geniuses portrayed on 60 minutes a few years ago). So as daily experiences, and the years, accumulate, the memory part of your brain has to dump something out to take in the new stuff. Right?

   (I have a feeling I’ve written this before.)

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

10 Responses to Sunday Morning Misc.

  1. That's ok I am old enough not to remember if you repeat something. I am a daily reader and I have not been aware of it. That's not saying much, though. As I said…..

  2. Lloyd,
    Re Memory: maybe it is time for you to adopt Albert Einstein’s view of memory?….he claimed to hold fast to it, and seemed to stand him in good stead. Especially with easy computer search features, these days, easy to look up previous work/comments of yourself…..

    http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
    "I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book" and "Never memorize what you can look up in books."

  3. More of Einstein’s Memory Policy..
    http://sermons.logos.com/submissions/114086-Einstein-s-Memory#content=/submissions/114086
    Einstein's Memory
    A student once asked Albert Einstein, "Dr. Einstein, how many feet are there in a mile?" The student was amazed when Einstein replied, "I don't know.”
    Sure that he was only joking, the student pressed him for an answer. Surely Einstein would know a simple fact that every schoolchild is required to memorize. But Einstein wasn't joking. He really didn’t know. He explained this gap of knowledge like this: "I make it a rule not to clutter my mind with simple information that I can find in a book in five minutes."
    Albert Einstein was not interested in trivial data. His passion was to explore the deep things of the universe.

    so, Lloyd………..just continue to explore/inform/ elucidate………….the rest is trivial

  4. Like Eroca said, some of us will find 're-used' stories just as good the second time because it has become the first time. Keep telling us stories!

    I've dreamed blog posts and then fretted if I'd written it before, worried if I'm plagiarizing someone and realized it was myself and finally just figure, if it's a re-run, I must have really enjoyed it enough to share it twice (or more). That's why god made the delete button for readers!

  5. Lloyd, I have followed you daily for the last several years, I have not seen any pattern of repetition, no worries. And look at the volume of output you produce, you're a dynamo man! You should take all the time out you want but you will be missed, we're spoiled.

  6. Hi Lloyd,

    I've been enjoying your books since I was a 5 yr old in 1970's New Zealand (my Dad's original copy of Shelter which now proudly graces my own book collection).

    I now live in Portland Oregon, between a major river and a slough. And very occasionally I have seen folks in tucked-away spots who dwell in wonderful vintage boats. I haven't had a chance for a proper conversation with any of these folks yet, but it made me wonder if your new book will include any writing about the differences between rolling-home culture and river or water-home culture? (I think a lot more of us are familiar with the former).

    I'm interested in how difficult it is for boat-dwellers to find off-grid places to moor, (compared to buses, trucks and house trailers), and if they tend to find it easier or harder to deal with the authorities or hostile conventional types.

    Rolling homes are more dependent on fossil fuels than boats, so it seems like boats may be a good ecological option for nomadically-minded folks that don't need to travel to specific destinations. And certainly, the river and the ocean have far more romantic appeal than asphalt freeways! But I imagine life on the water involves a lot more challenge than life on wheels (not the least of which is a leaky bus is a lot more useful than a leaky boat!).

    Anyhow, thanks so much for all your great work–the world would be far less interesting without your presence. Love the blog too. And I look forward to the day I can put the new Wheels and Water book on the shelf next to Shelter.

  7. P.S. Do you think there is enough material available out there for you to consider doing a book specifically about nomadic homes that are non-fossil-fuel dependent? In addition to sailboats/wind powered dwellings: mule wagons, horse-drawn caravans, bike or pedal-car towed, tents and yurts moved by pedal or animal power, rustic temporary shelters, or simply home is wherever your backpack is? I think that electric-vehicle based homes might qualify depending on how the electricity is generated.

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