Returning To The Light

Yes!!! The days are finally getting longer again. The northern hemisphere has passed the shortest day of the year. No! I will not be drawn into the political/religious arguments of and about Christmas. That is why I am posting this after Christmas has passed. Although I do hope that everyone had a nice dinner and some good times with their family and friends.

12-20 of every year in the northern hemisphere is known as the Winter Solstice. Or the day of change for many reasons, like the change from Autumn (Fall) to Winter being one of them. Now since this blue marble on which, we as a race of intelligent beings call home. Rotates on a tilted axis, the top and bottom halves of Earth, have equal and opposite seasons. Like Summer in the lower half, while Winter is in the northern half. Now to tie this nature/science rambling into what I am trying to convey.

The reason for the above paragraph really is quite simple. Being that for the most part, Winter is the perfect time to dream. To make plans. To even scheme a little, on how to put those plans into motion. Late Spring and Summer is more of a time for action on those plans. While Autumn (Fall) is a time to try to finish those summer time projects, before the cycle begins anew.

Now if someone lives closer to the equator, what I have just mentioned gets blurred by quite a bit. Almost to a point of no seasons at all. There by freeing the cycle of planning, down to more or less doing it on the run as it were. Or to better illustrate my point; plan, build and scheme all while dreaming of an end to a project all at the same time. Or at least as moneys allow ...

I live in the state of Florida in the United States. So Winter here is lessened a bit, when compared with some northern parts of North America. Now don't take this wrong, we still do have cold snaps, frosts, freezes and sometimes even snow. Never enough to shovel though. Also it is usually melted away by noontime. But it is still cold enough to make any outdoor shed, shack, shanty, lean-to and shelter, or what ever is used as a workshop quite chilly.

Now my workshop idea is still in the planning and scheming stage of things. You see my plan is to build a semi mobile geodesic dome. Kind of like those kids playground monkey bars, then cover it with tarps. This way it could be disassembled and packed into a trailer, along with all of the tools, generator, welder and assorted odds and ends ready for travel. I think that I may have forgotten to mention the mobile workshop trailer, on my 'to-build-list' in the first posting here. It is however mentioned in the pdf file for the "H.P.E.A.Vardo", in the last few pages.

You see inspiration is a tricky thing, it seems to follow its own flow. When the idea first struck me to build a 'Human Powered Class C Style Camper/Velomobile' for one (maybe two), as a retirement traveling home. I had no idea that, that idea would act as a catalyst for an avalanche. But it seems to have, as the ideas of one design or another keep popping into my head. Almost faster than I can put them to paper.

Now here is where it gets tricky, trying to catalog the avalanche; (1.) A self powered, off-the-grid, D.I.Y. class C style camper/velomobile combination, I don't believe that it has ever been done before. (2.) To build this would take a workshop ~ But make able to be mobile, so that any repairs could be done on the fly. (3.) Other people who see this project when done (would it ever be done, Hmmmm, I wonder), might also want one. So in a manner of speaking, the mobile workshop might also birth clones? (4.) Maybe a different style would be asked for, or a different design, or set up. The Human Powered Vehicle stable idea starts to take hold. (5.) How do I do this? Build and sell them? Sell plans? Assist the builders with their own human powered vehicles builds? Yes the idea for a business of sorts has now started. (6.) Being small and very compact and once built, being very economical to maintain. Perhaps the unfortunate homeless would like a chance for one of these. How would I go about getting this together, and at what cost? First thought of in 2008 and again in 2009 and every year since, in this economic crisis.

Since my mind will wander from one idea to another, still more ideas present themselves. Like "How do I get the word out there for all to see?"; Maybe a website. "How do I get acknowledged for my designs, without a high end lawyer on the payroll?"; Maybe a blog. "Might there be an income from all of this somehow?"; Maybe a web based business. "So how do I do all of this?";   ??? Suggestions Anyone ???

Now that I have loosely laid my cards on the table, maybe someone, somewhere, somehow will come to my aide. While I continue to work through those, ever evolving plans for a stable of Human Powered Vehicles, a possible business, how do I get a (dot)com website working so that I can manage it, how does paypal work, what is skype and how does it work, let's see ... Oh yes blog postings, migraine headaches, future dreamings, future plannings and still more scheming to try to put it all together and make it all work ...  kind of like magic.

But still that nagging feeling hangs in there. You know the one, "Am I doing enough, or could I do more than all of this ... to help my fellow mankind?"

Has anyone seen where I put that bottle of Excedrin?