It is skin-temp and wider than twilight.
On occasion I've found it, but usually it manages a disappearance when gestured to.
So, I'm building a vessel in search, and a container in which to store my findings.
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A 4 cylinder, year 2000 toyota tacoma with only 48,000(ish) original miles, came to me in the first twenty minutes of a craigslist search, after a series of cumulative, catalystic events spanning the better part of a year. Things wound up working out in a hallmark sort of way, with the older couple I bought the vehicle from being able to cover a portion of the woman's father's medical and end-of-life-care bills with the money from the purchase. The truck was only ever driven for, "haircuts and errands", so, with even the tinyiest bolts in the engine bay blasting out shine in an unregulated fashion, the pristine belts and hoses whirring and carrying on as if it were 2000 itself - The kindly, skittish woman and I thrashed up and down hills and around bends on the drive to test who I would later dub 'Elanor Rocket'.
I felt innately and with much conviction that I was 'supposed' to meet this truck.
Things were too unusually flush, and if there's one thing I've learned to do over these past few years, it's listen to the orchestra.
On the day I returned for Ms. Rocket, we test drove around the neighborhood once more.
This time, while driving the same general area, we passed a sign out by a neighbor's mailbox that I hadn't seen previously.
It just read:
"Everything Will Be Okay"
The bank transfer was fumbled for hours due to some clerical error, and during this time there took place a whole bunch of odd discussion between myself and the man of the couple. I'm sure I'll be visiting that in more depth at a later date, but ultimately, at his prompting, we delved into quite a bit of esoteric territory. It felt again, like this was supposed to happen, and I made of that what I would.
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I wanted to build the camper to prove to myself that I could, and the cost and custom nature of building your own anything has always been a benefit in my eyes. So, I measured my truck bed and started conceptualizing. I remembered a nice little stained-glass window, just shy of 4ft, that I had picked up during a house clean-out job. I decided to use it as an over-door window on the roof portion of the pop-top design that was starting to take shape in my mind.
After doing some let's-just-get-the-fuckin-thing-started calculations, I went out and bought a good rough-estimate clump of the straightest 8ft 2x4's I could find at Lowe's and started my frame. My estimates rolled in waves as the plan formulated, so after finishing one section I found myself once again shopping for more materials to begin the next. I did this frequently enough to make a 'friend' at the register, and to be approached by some fast-talking Lowe's-Bot who tried way too hard to sell me on a "pro membership".
The supports for the bed platform were a quick obvious throw together, I just used the wheel-well jut-outs as part of the support system and cut the 'ribs' to match.
Cut 3/4" plywood platform to top
Then came the wall-bones
and roof-bones
To be Continued...