Do you know that feeling, that you have to do something.....but can´t quite remember what?
This story is just that.
I remember being told to write it but I can´t remember what I was supposed to tell you. What I do know is that everything I am going to tell you really happened, even though it may unbelievable sometimes.
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Chapter 32
Returning home felt like a warm bath, a warm bath I had to take every day throughout that summer. Because building a cemetery with nothing more than stone, cement, and muscle is tough as Fluff. All that heavy lifting and working outside resulted in me being in better shape than I had ever been.
Just to get to the building site I walked 40 minutes up the mountain every morning and 25 minutes back down. That was on top of doing seven hours of pure physical labor each day. This was my cleansing and my redemption. This job and its timing once again proved that in the darkest hour, the solution is often presented and you only need to reach out grab it and hold on.
I held on to this job for six months, till the project ended. Well, not really it ran out of money but that was not a second too early. This work put me in good shape but a lifetime of this work would brake me. My back needed two months to stop aching.
It got three months after which there were some funds found to finish the project and I was part of that team as well.
That second part of the project was just enough to get me some extra benefits because I had worked for over six months. The money I made was minimal, but compared to the nothing I was making before it allowed me to get back on my feet and add some self-worth in the process.
That first project left me with many lessons learned and I did not need any visits to learn those lessons. The main lesson I learned was, I will do everything that is legal, and if some stuff which might not be legal to pay the bills.
The second lesson, working in construction is a great workout, but it has hardly any future. There is little room to grow, and half of the time you are standing around waiting on orders.
There was one more thing, I started to notice that I had this nasty itch. Life here off the grid was a challenge, and I had succeeded, at least so far.
I had lived on this hill all by myself, sometimes for over a month. That month was due to some unexpected circumstances with Stephie´s sister. It meant that for over a month I had no car, almost no money, no neighbors, and no work as this happened around the time I was finishing part one of the project.
That period was amazing, I worked the land, grew my veggies, and gathered wood for the winter. That winter had also a nice little Christmas gift in store for me by the way, digging myself out of a landslide on Christmas morning to ensure the road was free just in case we needed to go to the hospital.
That month I walked for hours, to the nearest village for food or dragging wood, and was never in a hurry. I loved this lifestyle, this is definitely where I want to end up.
End up in a year or twenty, but not just now, and that was that annoying itch that was just out of reach.
Something pushed me to go out there and do what I do best, start from scratch, and work myself up. Challenge myself one more time, prove myself one more time, kick ass one more time before I settled down. I was too young and eager to live in harmony with nature already.
That little itch spread like a rash and started a fire under my skin. In the past, I worked my way up several times in several places and I enjoyed it.
Just walking in with no skills, and growing until I got bored. Because so far I always got bored at some point. And when I get bored, I tend to find myself a new challenge.
Guess I had done the same this time, I had proven to myself I could do this, and now I was getting bored. That didn´t mean I could switch from one day to another. But that rash would drive me, I knew it would.
I did some more of these projects that were funded by the Junta de Andalusia. Building a wall from natural stones to stop earth slides from hitting little mountain roads, maintenance on a hiking trail, and even guarding the mushroom forests. Nah nothing magic about those mushrooms but something weird did happen there.
I took my last draws of a joint there. I stopped smoking weed like five years ago. Why I tried it after so long, boredom and good memories I guess.
My colleague offered me a smoke and I took two or three draws. Now before that would have absolutely had no impact, but this time I got so stoned.
It felt horrible, I was woozy, sleepy, and feeling like my blood sugar dropped to zero. In the past, I must have built up all these THC transmitters and they have been lying dormant ever since I quit. Well, they wore awake now and I needed two red bulls to find some of my strength again.
That was definitely the last and worst experience I ever had with the grass that used to bring me so much joy, or at least that is what I thought it did back then.
As always I am getting sidetracked, guess my short-term attention span is still not what it used to be as I was talking about jobs.
Those were all wonderful outdoor jobs and I picked a lot of skills and some very bad Spanish along the way. But again I was dependent waiting like a dog to be handed a bone. I am no dog, I am a wolf and will hunt my prey, and go my way.
That hunt became serious because those jobs for the unemployed became scares when the crisis peaked in 2011.
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