Ambitious plans not realized
Yet still bring about a good result
I had an ambitious schedule for Friday. The preexwife away for the day on a business trip and the kids at school and great weather, I took my tent back down to the riverbank to wash it down and re waterproof it. Slept in a bit later than I planned, but still thought I could get it all done.
Went to the local hardware store to see what kind of respirator I needed for the spray waterproofing and was happy to learn that any would do. Bought the cheapest respirator and goggles, combined, less than $5.. Stopped by a super market for drinks and half a pizza and headed for the river. Planned to scrub it down then enjoy a late lunch as it dried. Took far longer than I anticipated to scrub the tent. It is BIG.
Finally got it scrubbed and wiped down on the outside but realized that there were not hours enough of sunlight left to do more. So I let it dry as I ate my pizza. After eating, I checked the inside. Far better than it was when I set it up before but still in need of a thorough wipe down before spraying. It also became apparent that ALL the seams would need to be resealed as the old sealant disattached as a result of my scrubbing. I have seam sealants, both tube and tape types but this has proven to be a much bigger job than anticipated.
I still get notifications of tent for sale despite buying one. Recently, the exact same model as mine was listed as mint but missing the poles. As mine may take longer than thought to restore to usefulness, and this new listing was also dirt cheap and I had landed more work, I bought it. Looks like I will be using the new tent with my old poles until i fix the first tent. Still dirt cheap and combined far below the going price for this tent new, which is around ¥50,000.
It was a day of some degree of physical labor of which I have not had much of lately, which produced a good tired. I was pleasantly surprised that the tent is no longer sticky from the failing waterproofing. I doubted that water and a brush and rag would be sufficient in removing the old water repellant. While there are areas where I would want to scrub again before applying the new water repellant, overall, it worked far better than I hoped.
While not complete, and perhaps not possible given my constraints, the new tent with out poles still allows me to enjoy the outdoors even if the pleaatsure of restoring the other tent to a useable state is not to be realized. With the sudden pleasant evenings and nights, I have solitary camping to look forward too.
On a camping trip with the family, a good trip I shall add, I was stuck by the number of both men and women camping alone. Despite the good quality of my own trip with family, I was struck by this. We Americans are supposedly much more individually oriented than the group seeking Japanese, yet, in all my years of camping in the US I had never observed a single individual camping on their own. Yet, in this one camp ground I observed half a dozen Japanese camping by themselves. Japanese, who loath being alone, camping on their own. I wonder what sociologists would say of this. The serenity of being outdoors alone seemed a goal worthy of pursuit. Now, I shall.
There are certain activities that maybe many civilizations share, and solitary social activities are probably one of them.
You don't see many people eating alone. Maybe at a McDonald's or other fast food restaurant, this is common, but not in any other restaurant. Very often, there is always another person. "Party of one" sounds like a weird reservation to make. But I often would go to restaurants alone. I would bring a book, listen to a podcast, or both.
I also would go to movies alone all the time. Never understood much about going together, but I could see it as something to do for long-term friends and couples.
A sociologist would say that more Japanese women are throwing their men out, and they have to live rough. A sociologist would say that single men choosing to not live in a house - is financial - much like yourself.