Winter has arrived

Temps went below 0 last night, barely hitting 20f today. Raises hell with my hand when it gets this cold and the Excedrin recall is still going strong. I don't know how I'm going to finish shoveling  I can barely bend my fingers enough to grip the shovel. We got 20" of snow 2 days ago, the motorhome is parked 150' off the road, so far all I've been able to get done is a foot wide path the the street and it took me 2 days 5 hours each to do that. They say we're getting another 20" tonight. I think I'll just get the mailbox un buried and than give up on the rest.

This is the first time I've tried shoveling since breaking my hand Fall 2011 - was in a cast all last winter and as usual no one to help me so never shoveled at all last winter, just waded through the snow. What little I got done yesterday retorn the tendon in my hand, I can't even lift the shovel now. Looks like I either have to find someone to shovel for me or wade waist deep through snow this winter. Frustrating.

 It would really help if I had something for the pain. I'm allergic to Tylenol and most things like it, I have to take 6 aspirin before it's strong enough to do anything but I can't take that anyways because my normal heart rate is barely 60bpm most days and aspirin makes it lower, Alieve and pretty much every prescription pain killer is made by Procter and Gamble, the Excedrin recall is going in 14 months now, and I can't take Advil for more than 4 days in a row.

Until Excedrin comes back on the shelf I'm stuck without pain killers, not only for my hand, but also for my arthritis and my bad hip that never healed after being broken from being beaten up by the lovely local Mormons who pretend on line they are friends and family. Cold makes that worse too.

No heat. No electricity. No way to get warm. And this is only the first week of winter, not even close to February when the temps will go down to -48.

We never get this much snow or temps this cold this early in the season, I've only seen it do this twice - in 1982 when we got buried under 17' of snow during the biggest blizzard to hit Maine and again in 2007 when my tent got buried under 9' of snow in a single night of the second largest blizzard to hit Maine. History suggests we are going to see a big blizzard this winter.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever wonder what it was like to live with Autism? 
--

I have Autism. For more of my life I rarely spoke and was considered "too crazy" to ever live a normal life. I communicated via writing instead of vocally. I did not attend school. Psychologists said I would never drive a car, never get a job, never go to college, never function as a meaningful member of society, never be able to take care of myself or live on my own. They said there was no hope for me, I would need full-time care my whole life. 
--

My progression was long and slow and very hard. Things other people found easy to do (getting dressed, brushing teeth/hair, walking across the street, etc,) I found extremely confusing and hard to learn. I was prone to wandering off and getting lost (I still am). Driver's ed takes most people a few weeks to learn - it took me 5 years. 
--

I determined to prove the doctors wrong, but it was far harder to do, than most people would imagine. I got my first job working at Macy's at age 30 (a very difficult job as I had to deal one on one with customers and I still at that point was not talking in a manner that could be understood by others). I got my GED at age 34. I got my driver's license at age 35. I started college at age 36. By age 37 I had become a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Student and I was finally able to speak to others in full spoken verbal conversation for the first time in my life. 

--

Something that people often say to me is: "You don't look retarded, you look normal, you seem to be getting by okay, why is it that you need adult supervision?"
--
One of the reasons why an adult with Autism needs “adult supervision” is their brain does not tell them they are in pain. Was just commenting on the FaceBook status of a friend who got hurt, and it occurred to me that a lot of people don’t understand how it is I had 4 root channels awake and without pain meds, or how I also sat through reconstructive surgery on my face, after having my lip ripped off by a rooster, or again when I had surgery for CTS, or how I can go weeks with a broken bone and not know it is broken. Over the years, people who really, really, REALLY know me well, have come to know that if I say the words “I hurt” than, I’m in a state of needing to have been taken to the hospital, several weeks ago, as doctors put it “her propensity for pain is astounding, look at what I’m doing, she’s not even flinching and I haven’t given her anything for the pain”.
--
When I went to the dentist, because my teeth hurt, the girl at the desk told him “she can wait, she doesn’t seem to be in any pain” an hour later he was giving her hell for not rushing me to the hospital, because my jaw was so bad I needed surgery to remove my teeth and have a plate put in. (yes, I have false teeth on one side of my jaw) .
--
I am thinking of all the times I have required major medical repairs, because I didn’t know I was hurt and it took those around me several weeks to realize, I don’t respond emotionally or physically to pain.  I fell down and hurt my arm last year – did the ice thing: for 3 days, than Ben comes over and asks me “what’s wrong with your arm?”, and I tell him I fell down and it hurts, can’t move it, but I’m okay; he looks at it than next thing I know he’s in a panic driving me to the hospital. Yep, it was broken and I didn’t know it. 
--
The doctors where baffled at why the hell did I wait 3 days to go to the hospital, than they look at my medical records “oh, Autism, that’s why”, unfortunately, one of the stranger symptoms of Autism is, a numbing of the senses, the whole being allergic to everything from sunlight to wool to food, means my body is so used to hurting, that when I’m hurt really bad, it doesn’t send a message to my brain telling me I need help, instead my brain goes “ho hum, more pain, so what?” and the chemicals that are suppose to be triggered to tell me “hey, I’m hurt really bad here, I need to go to the hospital” don’t kick in, so I can go for days (or weeks as was the case when I broke my hip 2 years ago) before someone around me notices somethings wrong, and asks “hey, why are you limping”, and I’ll say “oh, got beaten up a few weeks back, hurt my leg, couldn’t walk for the first few weeks”…”why didn’t you go to the hospital”…”it doesn’t hurt that bad”…”but, it’s a broken bone!” … “really?”
--
It’s one of the reasons I need “adult supervision  in spite of being in my 40′s, because my brain doesn’t pick up on the fact that I’ve been injured.
--
I suppose more frightening than “not knowing” I’m injured is when I have a stroke and continue on my day like normal, but wander around with out a clue where I am or who any one is. I’ve had 3 strokes in the past 3 years, that’s why I keep forgetting things when playing D&D, I mean, I know every edition of this game inside out and I’ll be mid game and suddenly have no a clue what to do. I had a stroke again, a few weeks ago, that week I missed the game session, when I told my friend I wasn’t feeling good, I had spent most of the day wandering around the campus without a clue where I was or what I was doing there, missed my classes that day because I couldn’t find the buildings, I only randomly meet up with my friend and for some reason remembered I was suppose to play a game that night, otherwise I wouldn’t have known to tell her I was going home.
--
It’s upsetting actually, to know you are in a place where you should know where you are, but just not recognize anything. I’ve been without “adult supervision” 6 years now, and for the most part I do good, but it’s when I get hurt/injured/sick that I run into trouble, because my brain just lacks whatever it is it needs that would normally tell me to go to a hospital.  I’ve got a permanent injury now from waiting so long before realizing my leg was broken. 
--
Autism is noted for being an illness so painful that the brain shuts down and stops registering the pain. This is why Autistics have their strange little jerks, twitches, and jumpy movements - these are times when pain is registered in our brain. The extreme constant pain is caused by over stimulation of things we are allergic to: lights, sounds, touch, most all foods, most all fabrics, tags in clothes, etc, etc, etc. There are so many things irritating our bodies all at once, that the brain doesn't know which pain to go after first, so it just shuts down and tells us to sit on the floor and hum a song until the pain goes away.
--
Unfortunately another symptom of Autism is being very clumsy, having a lack of proper balance, and thus fallen down frequently, having extreme difficulty maneuvering on stairs and uneven terrain (all this being a result of the fact that our brain is so out of whack because there is so much pain going on, that it can not focus on walking steady) which means I'm more prone to fall and become injured than the average person, but being so used to pain that my brain ignore extra pain also means that even though I am getting hurt more than normal, I'm also getting treatment for said injuries less than normal because I don't realize I've injured myself (not even when gushing blood, as was the case when the rooster ripped my lip off), unless another person is there to point out said injury, or in such instances as the day I tried to walk away and discovered I could not move because may hand had been shut in the door, which was locked and I had to wait for someone with a key to come along and open the door, by which time my fingers had turned black from lack of circulation - pain ignored - I only noticed my hand was shut in a locked door because I was unable to walk away from the door. This is why I need adult supervision.)
--
This is the reality of life with Autism.

--

Now you can find out what it's like Being an Adult with Autism. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning Starshine! Liked this post? Looking to connect with me online? I love social networks and am on most of them. You can find me on: Blogger, Etsy, FaceBook, Google+, Keen, LinkedIn, MySpace, NaNoWriMo, ProBoards, Script Frenzy, Spoonflower, Squidoo, Twitter, ULC Ministers Network, Wordpress, and Zazzle Feel free to give me a shout any  time. Many blessings to you, may all your silver clouds be lined with rhinestones and sparkle of golden sunshine. Have yourself a great and wonderful glorious day!

~Rev. Wendy C. Allen aka Empress EelKat of Laughing Gnome Hollow

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK's Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you know you can now get a FREE Kindle for your PC? Be sure to download your FREE Kindle directly from Amazon today. Don't have Windows PC? No worries! Amazon is also offering 100% FREE Kindles for: Android, Windows Phone 7, Mac, iPhone, and BlackBerry. And don't miss out on over 1.8 million Free eBooks from Amazon's Kindle Store.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAQs: FullTimer income ideas?

I would like to ask for your opinion, but only if it is relevant to this question. LOL I would like to find the ultimate full timer RV'ers position where I get to travel a lot, expenses paid and a decent salary or income.I would like to stay on the road more than workamping but not be a gas leak detector or contractor. Any IDEAS?

Don't know if it's helpful to your situation or not, but I can tell you what it is that I personally do and maybe that'll give you some ideas. I have many jobs, and many sources of income; each one on it's own is not enough to live on, but together they create a pretty steady income. Here is a list:

I am an artist. My largest single income source comes from Zazzle, where I run about 2 dozen shops, selling my art/drawings/paintings on various items (mugs, t-shirts, pillows, tote bags, etc) in addition to prints of my art. This brings in between $80 to $600 every month. Other similar sites I use are CafePress and SpoonFlower.

My original art is sold on Etsy, and also my OoaK dolls, voodoo dolls, hoodoo spells, email card reading services, dice bags, OoaK D&D minis, cat nip toys, quilts, and various assorted craft items.

I have a #900 on Keen - online psychic card reader.

I write the following:

Non-Fiction: articles, essays, manifestos, how-to, self-help, PoPT, and sermons for ministers; most from 750 - 15,000 words. Topics: travel, RV FullTiming Lifestyle, feral cat rescue, cooking, nature writing (esp ocean, birds, swamp, and forest observations), cryptozoology, ufology, faerie/alien/angel encounter/abductions, home schooling,

Fiction: flash fiction, short stories, novellas, short plays, comic scripts, ballet scripts, RPG game modules, and once in a while a novel. Topics: horror, sci-fi, romance, fantasy (as in faeries, mermaids, and unicorns) or any combination of the three. Reader age range varies from children's picture books, to easy readers, to YA fiction, to M/X/A rated porn/erotica/gorn.

Amazon Kindle pays 36% for each .99c-$2.98 or $7.99+ download you sell, or 75% for each $2.99-$7.98 download you sell. (I have only just started doing this, this month, so no clue how sales will be yet. I have a friend who has currently got 30+ books on Kindle and he earns $35,000 a month on downloads, however, I have other friends with only 1 or 2 books on Kindle who struggle just to get a few dollars each month.) A similar site is Smashwords.

LuLu pays me about 40% royalty on cover price of each book sold, which totals about $70 a year. (Lulu is known for extreme lack of marketing, so if have to do it yourself and I haven't done any yet.) Similar to Lulu is RPGnow, where I publish RPG modules and comic books.

My biggest source of online writing income comes from Squidoo ($30 to $270 per month). The other one is Yahoo Voices (formerly Associated Content) (about $10 per month). HubPages doesn't bring in much, nor does Wizzly, but they do bring in some income from time to time. (Stay away from Helium though - that is a known scam, with several dozen lawsuits against it for stolen work - a lesson I learned the hard way, myself being one of the authors whose work they stole and sold and never paid me for).

I run a couple of affiliate link websites, where I consistently earn about $60 every 3 months via Share-a-Sale, about $50 ever 6 months from Amazon, and about $75 a year from Commission Junction.

I sometimes sell used books on Amazon and eBay.

There are several other web sites, bringing in money for me, but I can't think of them off the top of my head right now. They are all similar to the ones mentioned though.

I'm planning to rent a booth from a local flea market next summer, using Craigslist's "free curbside" listings as a source of items to sell.

I build art cars, which I use to advertise my online sites. This includes a rhinestoned Volvo decked out in 2.5million seed beads and rhinestones, and a 1975 Dodge Sportsman Class C motorhome (my full time "house") which is lime green metal flake and trimmed with lime green rhinestones and pink silk daisies. While they do not bring in a direct income, they bring crows to me asking questions about my cars, resulting in my going through a couple hundred business cards each month, in turn resulting in an increase of traffic to my sites and an increase in sales.

And finally, I'm a Voodoo Priestess, I do weddings, blessings, christenings, funerals, spirit baths, house cleansings, exorcisms, spell casting, curses, hexes, hot footing, curse/hex removal, altar work, candle prayer vigils, grave yard work, ancestor work, channeling, spirit communication, scrying, card reading, divination, throwing of shells&stones & bones, spirit board work, as well as making oils, powders, elixirs, potions, lotions, and my biggest income maker of all, the crafting of poppets aka Voodoo Dolls (which sell for any where from $14.58 to $458 each doll, depending on the cost of herbal contents and whether or not it is being used as a blessing, protecting, juju, or wanga)


Okay, that's pretty much my source of income, which like I said, each individual source on it's own only brings in a trickle of income. However by having several multiple streams of little incomes, they pool together to create one larger income, AND have the added protection of not putting all your eggs in one basket, so if one of them dams up and stops bringing in an income, it's only going to have minimal impact, because the rest are still bringing in income.

Now as you could guess, this all means I do a lot of work: writing 5 to 9 hours a day, or painting on days I'm not writing, or sewing on none writing/painting days. A single card reading takes about 45 minutes and pays $14.58 (I charge per reading rather than per minute; I know several online psychics who charge anywhere from .99c to $20 per minute.) SpellCasting takes up many hours a day for many days in a row (usually 7 hours each day for 7 days) per spell. Sewing is done both by hand and by machine. Embroidery and cross-stitch items can take several weeks to make.

This also means that my limited space inside my 21' Class C, is pretty full of supplies: computer, sewing machine, printer, paper, fabric, paint, brushes, canvases, jars of herbs, etc, etc, etc. However, I'm very much an outdoor person so, I basically only sleep in the RV and take my painting, writing, casting, and hand sewing outside most days.

The biggest advantage of all of this is my income is direct deposited into PayPal, which is transferred to my debit card, so I never have to carry cash, but always have access to using money what few times I actually need to.

And, because of the nature of my income, I am able to move any place I want to, whenever I want to. My writing and art is all sold online, no direct need to ship items. My Etsy stuff I ship out, but there's a P.O. in every town, so no problems there.

In my ministry (Voodoo) work, I'm considered a travelling minister (also known as a circuit preacher, or evangelist), so I can find folks who need my services in any town which has a church. And again, most of the work I do in this field is also online, so as long as I've got my card decks, a laptop, and Skype, I'm able to take this anywhere.

So, this may not classify as what you might personally consider to be "a position where I get to travel a lot, expenses paid and a decent salary or income", but technically it does fall into that category, because with this career I am able to travel whenever to where ever, expenses paid for by said income, an income being enough to support me, 15 cats, and a bird, and pay for the upkeep of my RV and my TOAD. But you did ask for ideas, so maybe some of this will give you some ideas of your own.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever wonder what it was like to live with Autism? 
--

I have Autism. For more of my life I rarely spoke and was considered "too crazy" to ever live a normal life. I communicated via writing instead of vocally. I did not attend school. Psychologists said I would never drive a car, never get a job, never go to college, never function as a meaningful member of society, never be able to take care of myself or live on my own. They said there was no hope for me, I would need full-time care my whole life. 
--

My progression was long and slow and very hard. Things other people found easy to do (getting dressed, brushing teeth/hair, walking across the street, etc,) I found extremely confusing and hard to learn. I was prone to wandering off and getting lost (I still am). Driver's ed takes most people a few weeks to learn - it took me 5 years. 
--

I determined to prove the doctors wrong, but it was far harder to do, than most people would imagine. I got my first job working at Macy's at age 30 (a very difficult job as I had to deal one on one with customers and I still at that point was not talking in a manner that could be understood by others). I got my GED at age 34. I got my driver's license at age 35. I started college at age 36. By age 37 I had become a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Student and I was finally able to speak to others in full spoken verbal conversation for the first time in my life. 

--

Something that people often say to me is: "You don't look retarded, you look normal, you seem to be getting by okay, why is it that you need adult supervision?"
--
One of the reasons why an adult with Autism needs “adult supervision” is their brain does not tell them they are in pain. Was just commenting on the FaceBook status of a friend who got hurt, and it occurred to me that a lot of people don’t understand how it is I had 4 root channels awake and without pain meds, or how I also sat through reconstructive surgery on my face, after having my lip ripped off by a rooster, or again when I had surgery for CTS, or how I can go weeks with a broken bone and not know it is broken. Over the years, people who really, really, REALLY know me well, have come to know that if I say the words “I hurt” than, I’m in a state of needing to have been taken to the hospital, several weeks ago, as doctors put it “her propensity for pain is astounding, look at what I’m doing, she’s not even flinching and I haven’t given her anything for the pain”.
--
When I went to the dentist, because my teeth hurt, the girl at the desk told him “she can wait, she doesn’t seem to be in any pain” an hour later he was giving her hell for not rushing me to the hospital, because my jaw was so bad I needed surgery to remove my teeth and have a plate put in. (yes, I have false teeth on one side of my jaw) .
--
I am thinking of all the times I have required major medical repairs, because I didn’t know I was hurt and it took those around me several weeks to realize, I don’t respond emotionally or physically to pain.  I fell down and hurt my arm last year – did the ice thing: for 3 days, than Ben comes over and asks me “what’s wrong with your arm?”, and I tell him I fell down and it hurts, can’t move it, but I’m okay; he looks at it than next thing I know he’s in a panic driving me to the hospital. Yep, it was broken and I didn’t know it. 
--
The doctors where baffled at why the hell did I wait 3 days to go to the hospital, than they look at my medical records “oh, Autism, that’s why”, unfortunately, one of the stranger symptoms of Autism is, a numbing of the senses, the whole being allergic to everything from sunlight to wool to food, means my body is so used to hurting, that when I’m hurt really bad, it doesn’t send a message to my brain telling me I need help, instead my brain goes “ho hum, more pain, so what?” and the chemicals that are suppose to be triggered to tell me “hey, I’m hurt really bad here, I need to go to the hospital” don’t kick in, so I can go for days (or weeks as was the case when I broke my hip 2 years ago) before someone around me notices somethings wrong, and asks “hey, why are you limping”, and I’ll say “oh, got beaten up a few weeks back, hurt my leg, couldn’t walk for the first few weeks”…”why didn’t you go to the hospital”…”it doesn’t hurt that bad”…”but, it’s a broken bone!” … “really?”
--
It’s one of the reasons I need “adult supervision  in spite of being in my 40′s, because my brain doesn’t pick up on the fact that I’ve been injured.
--
I suppose more frightening than “not knowing” I’m injured is when I have a stroke and continue on my day like normal, but wander around with out a clue where I am or who any one is. I’ve had 3 strokes in the past 3 years, that’s why I keep forgetting things when playing D&D, I mean, I know every edition of this game inside out and I’ll be mid game and suddenly have no a clue what to do. I had a stroke again, a few weeks ago, that week I missed the game session, when I told my friend I wasn’t feeling good, I had spent most of the day wandering around the campus without a clue where I was or what I was doing there, missed my classes that day because I couldn’t find the buildings, I only randomly meet up with my friend and for some reason remembered I was suppose to play a game that night, otherwise I wouldn’t have known to tell her I was going home.
--
It’s upsetting actually, to know you are in a place where you should know where you are, but just not recognize anything. I’ve been without “adult supervision” 6 years now, and for the most part I do good, but it’s when I get hurt/injured/sick that I run into trouble, because my brain just lacks whatever it is it needs that would normally tell me to go to a hospital.  I’ve got a permanent injury now from waiting so long before realizing my leg was broken. 
--
Autism is noted for being an illness so painful that the brain shuts down and stops registering the pain. This is why Autistics have their strange little jerks, twitches, and jumpy movements - these are times when pain is registered in our brain. The extreme constant pain is caused by over stimulation of things we are allergic to: lights, sounds, touch, most all foods, most all fabrics, tags in clothes, etc, etc, etc. There are so many things irritating our bodies all at once, that the brain doesn't know which pain to go after first, so it just shuts down and tells us to sit on the floor and hum a song until the pain goes away.
--
Unfortunately another symptom of Autism is being very clumsy, having a lack of proper balance, and thus fallen down frequently, having extreme difficulty maneuvering on stairs and uneven terrain (all this being a result of the fact that our brain is so out of whack because there is so much pain going on, that it can not focus on walking steady) which means I'm more prone to fall and become injured than the average person, but being so used to pain that my brain ignore extra pain also means that even though I am getting hurt more than normal, I'm also getting treatment for said injuries less than normal because I don't realize I've injured myself (not even when gushing blood, as was the case when the rooster ripped my lip off), unless another person is there to point out said injury, or in such instances as the day I tried to walk away and discovered I could not move because may hand had been shut in the door, which was locked and I had to wait for someone with a key to come along and open the door, by which time my fingers had turned black from lack of circulation - pain ignored - I only noticed my hand was shut in a locked door because I was unable to walk away from the door. This is why I need adult supervision.)
--
This is the reality of life with Autism.

--

Now you can find out what it's like Being an Adult with Autism. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning Starshine! Liked this post? Looking to connect with me online? I love social networks and am on most of them. You can find me on: Blogger, Etsy, FaceBook, Google+, Keen, LinkedIn, MySpace, NaNoWriMo, ProBoards, Script Frenzy, Spoonflower, Squidoo, Twitter, ULC Ministers Network, Wordpress, and Zazzle Feel free to give me a shout any  time. Many blessings to you, may all your silver clouds be lined with rhinestones and sparkle of golden sunshine. Have yourself a great and wonderful glorious day!

~Rev. Wendy C. Allen aka Empress EelKat of Laughing Gnome Hollow

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK's Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you know you can now get a FREE Kindle for your PC? Be sure to download your FREE Kindle directly from Amazon today. Don't have Windows PC? No worries! Amazon is also offering 100% FREE Kindles for: Android, Windows Phone 7, Mac, iPhone, and BlackBerry. And don't miss out on over 1.8 million Free eBooks from Amazon's Kindle Store.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAQs: Is my income enough to RV full time?

I plan to sell the house in February to go full-time RVing. I plan to spend 5 years exploring Canada and South America. I only have half the trip planned and there is so much to learn. I hope to get some good advice. My biggest issues right now is knowing if my income will be enough and what kind of RV would be the best for this trip.

ANY income can be enough - depends on your fulltiming style - remember a FullTime RVer is different than s FullTime RV Traveler. One LIVES in the RV full time, but may be parked in one spot for months or years to a time, while the other, also lives full time in their RV but moves from one place to the next several times a years - that'll effect how much income you need.

 My income is currently $200 a month, yes, less total per year than the "average American" earns in a single month. However, I'm parked more than moving, so use very little gas; last time I filled her up it was $91, and she's a 21' Class C van conversion, so her tanks are much smaller than what a full size Class A would take...you'll have to figure out how much actual driving you'll be doing, to figure out how much you'll need for gas - I know one guy who says he spend $500 a month on gas in his Class A, but they drive fulltime. Me $91 has last 8 months, I've hardly moved her, so tank's still near full. If I was moving from place to place a lot I wouldn't be able to do it on my income.

From your post, sound like you plan to be the travelling type, so gas money is going to be your biggest expense. Other stuff, depends on your lifestyle: you'll likely eat the same food you do now, but lacking storage space you'll be buying food every week instead of every month or so. (That was probably the hardest change for me - getting used to not having 7 or 8 months of food supply, and having to remember I only have room to buy a weeks worth of food at a time). You'll likely buy less, use electronics less, reduce your wardrobe down to 3 or 4 changes and never buy cloths again.

Boondocking is cheaper than campground which are cheaper than resorts - figure out where you'll park to figure out how much money you'll need for that. I've seen parks as cheap as $10 a night and as high as $500 a night, most seem to be about $40 a night. Are you going full hook ups or will you be doing the generator/solar power way? Each has it's own expenses.

Overall from talking to a lot of fellow full timers it seems the average income I hear most of them say "works for them" is in the $500 a month range, yet I meet one couple in a 48' Class C towing an Escalade who said they were thinking of giving fulltiming up, because he had just lost his job as a stock broker and "can't imagine how we'll survive on less than $200,000 a year" ...?!?!?! I was like - wait - what? From what I gathered, apparently they traveled every day and only stayed at the $500 a night type of resorts, and did lots of shopping to send lots of very expensive trinkets back to lots of grandkids. I was like - wow! I can't even imagine sticks&brick dwellers with that kind of income or lifestyle - how in the heck do you find enough stuff to spend $200,000 a year on! Than on the other end of the scale I meet a woman who lives in a VW Bus/van on zero income at all and gets everything she needs out of dumpsters and trash cans, and powers her van on vegie oil. So yeah, I guess you can make the lifestyle as cheap or as rich as you want to make it! LOL!

Basically, the way I see it, based on stuff I've learned from others and from my own experience, whatever income you are living on right now - you'll only need a third of that once you start full-timing, because about 2/3 of your expenses disappear when you get rid of your house.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever wonder what it was like to live with Autism? 
--

I have Autism. For more of my life I rarely spoke and was considered "too crazy" to ever live a normal life. I communicated via writing instead of vocally. I did not attend school. Psychologists said I would never drive a car, never get a job, never go to college, never function as a meaningful member of society, never be able to take care of myself or live on my own. They said there was no hope for me, I would need full-time care my whole life. 
--

My progression was long and slow and very hard. Things other people found easy to do (getting dressed, brushing teeth/hair, walking across the street, etc,) I found extremely confusing and hard to learn. I was prone to wandering off and getting lost (I still am). Driver's ed takes most people a few weeks to learn - it took me 5 years. 
--

I determined to prove the doctors wrong, but it was far harder to do, than most people would imagine. I got my first job working at Macy's at age 30 (a very difficult job as I had to deal one on one with customers and I still at that point was not talking in a manner that could be understood by others). I got my GED at age 34. I got my driver's license at age 35. I started college at age 36. By age 37 I had become a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Student and I was finally able to speak to others in full spoken verbal conversation for the first time in my life. 

--

Something that people often say to me is: "You don't look retarded, you look normal, you seem to be getting by okay, why is it that you need adult supervision?"
--
One of the reasons why an adult with Autism needs “adult supervision” is their brain does not tell them they are in pain. Was just commenting on the FaceBook status of a friend who got hurt, and it occurred to me that a lot of people don’t understand how it is I had 4 root channels awake and without pain meds, or how I also sat through reconstructive surgery on my face, after having my lip ripped off by a rooster, or again when I had surgery for CTS, or how I can go weeks with a broken bone and not know it is broken. Over the years, people who really, really, REALLY know me well, have come to know that if I say the words “I hurt” than, I’m in a state of needing to have been taken to the hospital, several weeks ago, as doctors put it “her propensity for pain is astounding, look at what I’m doing, she’s not even flinching and I haven’t given her anything for the pain”.
--
When I went to the dentist, because my teeth hurt, the girl at the desk told him “she can wait, she doesn’t seem to be in any pain” an hour later he was giving her hell for not rushing me to the hospital, because my jaw was so bad I needed surgery to remove my teeth and have a plate put in. (yes, I have false teeth on one side of my jaw) .
--
I am thinking of all the times I have required major medical repairs, because I didn’t know I was hurt and it took those around me several weeks to realize, I don’t respond emotionally or physically to pain.  I fell down and hurt my arm last year – did the ice thing: for 3 days, than Ben comes over and asks me “what’s wrong with your arm?”, and I tell him I fell down and it hurts, can’t move it, but I’m okay; he looks at it than next thing I know he’s in a panic driving me to the hospital. Yep, it was broken and I didn’t know it. 
--
The doctors where baffled at why the hell did I wait 3 days to go to the hospital, than they look at my medical records “oh, Autism, that’s why”, unfortunately, one of the stranger symptoms of Autism is, a numbing of the senses, the whole being allergic to everything from sunlight to wool to food, means my body is so used to hurting, that when I’m hurt really bad, it doesn’t send a message to my brain telling me I need help, instead my brain goes “ho hum, more pain, so what?” and the chemicals that are suppose to be triggered to tell me “hey, I’m hurt really bad here, I need to go to the hospital” don’t kick in, so I can go for days (or weeks as was the case when I broke my hip 2 years ago) before someone around me notices somethings wrong, and asks “hey, why are you limping”, and I’ll say “oh, got beaten up a few weeks back, hurt my leg, couldn’t walk for the first few weeks”…”why didn’t you go to the hospital”…”it doesn’t hurt that bad”…”but, it’s a broken bone!” … “really?”
--
It’s one of the reasons I need “adult supervision  in spite of being in my 40′s, because my brain doesn’t pick up on the fact that I’ve been injured.
--
I suppose more frightening than “not knowing” I’m injured is when I have a stroke and continue on my day like normal, but wander around with out a clue where I am or who any one is. I’ve had 3 strokes in the past 3 years, that’s why I keep forgetting things when playing D&D, I mean, I know every edition of this game inside out and I’ll be mid game and suddenly have no a clue what to do. I had a stroke again, a few weeks ago, that week I missed the game session, when I told my friend I wasn’t feeling good, I had spent most of the day wandering around the campus without a clue where I was or what I was doing there, missed my classes that day because I couldn’t find the buildings, I only randomly meet up with my friend and for some reason remembered I was suppose to play a game that night, otherwise I wouldn’t have known to tell her I was going home.
--
It’s upsetting actually, to know you are in a place where you should know where you are, but just not recognize anything. I’ve been without “adult supervision” 6 years now, and for the most part I do good, but it’s when I get hurt/injured/sick that I run into trouble, because my brain just lacks whatever it is it needs that would normally tell me to go to a hospital.  I’ve got a permanent injury now from waiting so long before realizing my leg was broken. 
--
Autism is noted for being an illness so painful that the brain shuts down and stops registering the pain. This is why Autistics have their strange little jerks, twitches, and jumpy movements - these are times when pain is registered in our brain. The extreme constant pain is caused by over stimulation of things we are allergic to: lights, sounds, touch, most all foods, most all fabrics, tags in clothes, etc, etc, etc. There are so many things irritating our bodies all at once, that the brain doesn't know which pain to go after first, so it just shuts down and tells us to sit on the floor and hum a song until the pain goes away.
--
Unfortunately another symptom of Autism is being very clumsy, having a lack of proper balance, and thus fallen down frequently, having extreme difficulty maneuvering on stairs and uneven terrain (all this being a result of the fact that our brain is so out of whack because there is so much pain going on, that it can not focus on walking steady) which means I'm more prone to fall and become injured than the average person, but being so used to pain that my brain ignore extra pain also means that even though I am getting hurt more than normal, I'm also getting treatment for said injuries less than normal because I don't realize I've injured myself (not even when gushing blood, as was the case when the rooster ripped my lip off), unless another person is there to point out said injury, or in such instances as the day I tried to walk away and discovered I could not move because may hand had been shut in the door, which was locked and I had to wait for someone with a key to come along and open the door, by which time my fingers had turned black from lack of circulation - pain ignored - I only noticed my hand was shut in a locked door because I was unable to walk away from the door. This is why I need adult supervision.)
--
This is the reality of life with Autism.

--

Now you can find out what it's like Being an Adult with Autism. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning Starshine! Liked this post? Looking to connect with me online? I love social networks and am on most of them. You can find me on: Blogger, Etsy, FaceBook, Google+, Keen, LinkedIn, MySpace, NaNoWriMo, ProBoards, Script Frenzy, Spoonflower, Squidoo, Twitter, ULC Ministers Network, Wordpress, and Zazzle Feel free to give me a shout any  time. Many blessings to you, may all your silver clouds be lined with rhinestones and sparkle of golden sunshine. Have yourself a great and wonderful glorious day!

~Rev. Wendy C. Allen aka Empress EelKat of Laughing Gnome Hollow

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK's Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you know you can now get a FREE Kindle for your PC? Be sure to download your FREE Kindle directly from Amazon today. Don't have Windows PC? No worries! Amazon is also offering 100% FREE Kindles for: Android, Windows Phone 7, Mac, iPhone, and BlackBerry. And don't miss out on over 1.8 million Free eBooks from Amazon's Kindle Store.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAQs: Why the hell do people advertise their books on LinkedIn?

Why the hell do people advertise their books on LinkedIn? It's like trying to sell stock options in a welfare office.

 I agree that authors have to have exposure. But you also have to ask yourself, what type of exposure do you WANT? Just getting your face/book splattered all over the web, isn't going to help. Why? Because it makes you look like you are either desperate or a spammer or worse, a desperate spammer.

Here's something to think about:

A writer can be one of two things: a professional or a hack.

People are watching you.

Future readers. Future agents. Future publishers. Fellow writers.

You want these people to notice your book, you want these people to notice you. But what do they see? What do they notice? They don't just see your book. They see everything you write.

EVERYTHING you write effects your reputation. EVERYTHING.

Still thinking I mean your book? I am a publisher. An indie small press publisher, but a publisher none the less and as such I get submissions and emails and cover letters, even though it plainly says on my web site "closed for submissions" and "now only works with our already established in-house writers". Sending me submissions, tells me a lot about an author's intelligence, or should I say stupidity and lack of an ability to read?

Harsh? No, not really. After the submission comes the emails: "Did you read it yet?" ... "Did you read it yet?" ... "Did you read it yet?"... I send back an email saying: "Did you read my site yet?" You expect me to read your submission, when you didn't even read my web site which says I'm no longer accepting submissions? Hello? Am I supposed to think there is a brain in your head?

uhm-huh...like I said - stupid.

But what does this have to do with posting links on LinkedIn (or any place else)? A lot actually, because the last thing an author wants is for a publisher to look at them and think "Ohmigawd, this person is so stupid!"

When an editor or agent or publisher is looking at your work, you want them to be thinking: "Now this person really knows what they are doing. They took the time to do it the right way. Very professional."

These link posters say they need to get their work known, right? Well, this is true, yes, but think about this too:

Every text, every email or private message you send is a representation of your work, every misspelled word and text-speech word tells publishers you are an immature incompetent writer not professional enough to be published.

Every comment you post online, on blogs or forums, is a representation of your work, every misspelled word and text-speech word tells publishers you are an immature incompetent writer not professional enough to be published.

Every link you jam up Google's filters with tells publishers you are an immature incompetent spammer not professional enough to be published.

If you are an embarrassment to yourself, no publisher will pick up your work, because it's bad enough you've smeared your own reputation, they don't want your unprofessionalism online dragging their company down into the mud with you. They are NOT going to risk their reputation in the hands of a spammer!

Remember this: Publishers are NOT looking for good writing, they got editors to fix your bad writing. Publishers are looking for that smiling face, a people friendly winning attitude, and a highly professional attention to public relations, when they look for a new author.

Ask yourself: What would a professional do? Not sure what a professional is? Than ask yourself: What would Stephen King do? Is Stephen King sending bad text messages to agents? Is Stephen King emailing links of his new book to every potential reader on the planet and posting links on every group under the sun?

Before you post your next link, think about how it makes you look to the eyes of a publisher, and ask yourself, is it really worth it?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever wonder what it was like to live with Autism? 
--

I have Autism. For more of my life I rarely spoke and was considered "too crazy" to ever live a normal life. I communicated via writing instead of vocally. I did not attend school. Psychologists said I would never drive a car, never get a job, never go to college, never function as a meaningful member of society, never be able to take care of myself or live on my own. They said there was no hope for me, I would need full-time care my whole life. 
--

My progression was long and slow and very hard. Things other people found easy to do (getting dressed, brushing teeth/hair, walking across the street, etc,) I found extremely confusing and hard to learn. I was prone to wandering off and getting lost (I still am). Driver's ed takes most people a few weeks to learn - it took me 5 years. 
--

I determined to prove the doctors wrong, but it was far harder to do, than most people would imagine. I got my first job working at Macy's at age 30 (a very difficult job as I had to deal one on one with customers and I still at that point was not talking in a manner that could be understood by others). I got my GED at age 34. I got my driver's license at age 35. I started college at age 36. By age 37 I had become a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Student and I was finally able to speak to others in full spoken verbal conversation for the first time in my life. 

--

Something that people often say to me is: "You don't look retarded, you look normal, you seem to be getting by okay, why is it that you need adult supervision?"
--
One of the reasons why an adult with Autism needs “adult supervision” is their brain does not tell them they are in pain. Was just commenting on the FaceBook status of a friend who got hurt, and it occurred to me that a lot of people don’t understand how it is I had 4 root channels awake and without pain meds, or how I also sat through reconstructive surgery on my face, after having my lip ripped off by a rooster, or again when I had surgery for CTS, or how I can go weeks with a broken bone and not know it is broken. Over the years, people who really, really, REALLY know me well, have come to know that if I say the words “I hurt” than, I’m in a state of needing to have been taken to the hospital, several weeks ago, as doctors put it “her propensity for pain is astounding, look at what I’m doing, she’s not even flinching and I haven’t given her anything for the pain”.
--
When I went to the dentist, because my teeth hurt, the girl at the desk told him “she can wait, she doesn’t seem to be in any pain” an hour later he was giving her hell for not rushing me to the hospital, because my jaw was so bad I needed surgery to remove my teeth and have a plate put in. (yes, I have false teeth on one side of my jaw) .
--
I am thinking of all the times I have required major medical repairs, because I didn’t know I was hurt and it took those around me several weeks to realize, I don’t respond emotionally or physically to pain.  I fell down and hurt my arm last year – did the ice thing: for 3 days, than Ben comes over and asks me “what’s wrong with your arm?”, and I tell him I fell down and it hurts, can’t move it, but I’m okay; he looks at it than next thing I know he’s in a panic driving me to the hospital. Yep, it was broken and I didn’t know it. 
--
The doctors where baffled at why the hell did I wait 3 days to go to the hospital, than they look at my medical records “oh, Autism, that’s why”, unfortunately, one of the stranger symptoms of Autism is, a numbing of the senses, the whole being allergic to everything from sunlight to wool to food, means my body is so used to hurting, that when I’m hurt really bad, it doesn’t send a message to my brain telling me I need help, instead my brain goes “ho hum, more pain, so what?” and the chemicals that are suppose to be triggered to tell me “hey, I’m hurt really bad here, I need to go to the hospital” don’t kick in, so I can go for days (or weeks as was the case when I broke my hip 2 years ago) before someone around me notices somethings wrong, and asks “hey, why are you limping”, and I’ll say “oh, got beaten up a few weeks back, hurt my leg, couldn’t walk for the first few weeks”…”why didn’t you go to the hospital”…”it doesn’t hurt that bad”…”but, it’s a broken bone!” … “really?”
--
It’s one of the reasons I need “adult supervision  in spite of being in my 40′s, because my brain doesn’t pick up on the fact that I’ve been injured.
--
I suppose more frightening than “not knowing” I’m injured is when I have a stroke and continue on my day like normal, but wander around with out a clue where I am or who any one is. I’ve had 3 strokes in the past 3 years, that’s why I keep forgetting things when playing D&D, I mean, I know every edition of this game inside out and I’ll be mid game and suddenly have no a clue what to do. I had a stroke again, a few weeks ago, that week I missed the game session, when I told my friend I wasn’t feeling good, I had spent most of the day wandering around the campus without a clue where I was or what I was doing there, missed my classes that day because I couldn’t find the buildings, I only randomly meet up with my friend and for some reason remembered I was suppose to play a game that night, otherwise I wouldn’t have known to tell her I was going home.
--
It’s upsetting actually, to know you are in a place where you should know where you are, but just not recognize anything. I’ve been without “adult supervision” 6 years now, and for the most part I do good, but it’s when I get hurt/injured/sick that I run into trouble, because my brain just lacks whatever it is it needs that would normally tell me to go to a hospital.  I’ve got a permanent injury now from waiting so long before realizing my leg was broken. 
--
Autism is noted for being an illness so painful that the brain shuts down and stops registering the pain. This is why Autistics have their strange little jerks, twitches, and jumpy movements - these are times when pain is registered in our brain. The extreme constant pain is caused by over stimulation of things we are allergic to: lights, sounds, touch, most all foods, most all fabrics, tags in clothes, etc, etc, etc. There are so many things irritating our bodies all at once, that the brain doesn't know which pain to go after first, so it just shuts down and tells us to sit on the floor and hum a song until the pain goes away.
--
Unfortunately another symptom of Autism is being very clumsy, having a lack of proper balance, and thus fallen down frequently, having extreme difficulty maneuvering on stairs and uneven terrain (all this being a result of the fact that our brain is so out of whack because there is so much pain going on, that it can not focus on walking steady) which means I'm more prone to fall and become injured than the average person, but being so used to pain that my brain ignore extra pain also means that even though I am getting hurt more than normal, I'm also getting treatment for said injuries less than normal because I don't realize I've injured myself (not even when gushing blood, as was the case when the rooster ripped my lip off), unless another person is there to point out said injury, or in such instances as the day I tried to walk away and discovered I could not move because may hand had been shut in the door, which was locked and I had to wait for someone with a key to come along and open the door, by which time my fingers had turned black from lack of circulation - pain ignored - I only noticed my hand was shut in a locked door because I was unable to walk away from the door. This is why I need adult supervision.)
--
This is the reality of life with Autism.

--

Now you can find out what it's like Being an Adult with Autism. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning Starshine! Liked this post? Looking to connect with me online? I love social networks and am on most of them. You can find me on: Blogger, Etsy, FaceBook, Google+, Keen, LinkedIn, MySpace, NaNoWriMo, ProBoards, Script Frenzy, Spoonflower, Squidoo, Twitter, ULC Ministers Network, Wordpress, and Zazzle Feel free to give me a shout any  time. Many blessings to you, may all your silver clouds be lined with rhinestones and sparkle of golden sunshine. Have yourself a great and wonderful glorious day!

~Rev. Wendy C. Allen aka Empress EelKat of Laughing Gnome Hollow

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK's Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you know you can now get a FREE Kindle for your PC? Be sure to download your FREE Kindle directly from Amazon today. Don't have Windows PC? No worries! Amazon is also offering 100% FREE Kindles for: Android, Windows Phone 7, Mac, iPhone, and BlackBerry. And don't miss out on over 1.8 million Free eBooks from Amazon's Kindle Store.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------