Dreaming About a Smaller, Quieter Life

You’ll probably think I’m crazy for saying this, especially given my inclination for consuming overpriced skinny vanilla lattes in fancy coffee shops, but I can see a day when I won’t live in the city.

The traffic, the demands, the violence, the pace — it all feels too much.

I know I could avoid the traffic and the demands, and I could certainly set my own pace (which I do, unapologetically), but as I write this, I can hear the distracting whir of a leaf blower someone is running a house or two away. And I have new neighbors down the street who occasionally insist on blasting music until midnight. Yesterday, a guy who was selling windows rang my doorbell when I was in the middle of an editing project and interrupted my flow.

Distraction, for me, is unsettling.

And the physical landscape of my neighborhood has changed so much. I hardly recognize it anymore. My old grade school is now an apartment complex. The playground across the street from that school is now a housing complex. The park I used to play pickup football games has been completely revamped. And most of my neighbors have turned over.

In other words, my city roots have been snipped — not from a family and friends perspective, but rather, from a noise, congestion and landscape perspective.

While I’m nowhere near to making a change, I have been browsing tiny house and RV websites because, well, a guy can dream, can’t he?

I’m learning so much as I research. Did you know that both tiny houses and and RVs are regulated, either by the government or RV parks? For example, some RV parks have a ten-year rule, banning older RVs.  

Even so, the tiny lifestyle is intriguing to me. It’s portable (regulations not withstanding). It’s cheaper (I found an RV recently that would only cost $109 per month). And it’s simpler (way less stuff). But for me, the most attractive feature is the quietness.

I know, lots of questions come to mind.

Where does a person park a tiny home or RV, especially if you don’t intend to travel much, but rather, just find a place outside of city limits that is quiet? How does a person hook into the electrical grid or get water in such a scenario? And what about the loneliness factor?

I’ve have found a few preliminary answers to the first couple of questions and the third one doesn’t concern me. I’m an introvert. I prefer extended periods of alone time. And I would never be far from the city, so I could still meet with friends whenever I wanted.

If I ever get serious about considering any of this, I’ll have to answer a lot more questions, but for now, it’s kind of fun to dream.