Among many others, I believe it was Bon Jovi,who said Love Hurts.

Love is like a flame, it burns you when it’s hot
Love hurts, ooeee-ooeee yes, Love hurts
ooeee-ooeee yes, Love hurts
Love hurts

Na na na na na yeah
Love hurts

To that, I say let’s hear it for Henry…

“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
~ Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

I used to be a hopeless romantic, often doing silly things to show my undying appreciation for my loving wife. Just because I don’t do these things as often anymore, doesn’t mean I appreciate her any less. In fact – following Mr. Thoreau’s advice – after 13 plus years of marriage, and nearly four years of living together 24/7 in a 200 sq.ft. space, I love and appreciate her even more every day.

One thing I appreciate most, is that she would appreciate the following heartfelt sentiments much more than flowers, chocolates, or a Hallmark greeting card. Well, maybe not more than chocolate…

“The pleasure of love is in loving.”
~Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680)

“Love flies, runs, and rejoices; it is free and nothing can hold it back.”
~Thomas a Kempis (1380 – 1471)

“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”
~Sophocles (496 BC – 406 BC)

“We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.”
~Agnes Repplier (1855 – 1950)

“Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.”
~William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

Ooeee-ooeee yes, na na na na na yeah.

Overheard at the Slab City Library: Champagne Living on a Beer Budget? … Hey, can I have that? … Serendipity in action.

Funny how I kicked off the new year that way – remembering the old adage momma would often cite. And funny that this 1969 guide by Mike and Marilyn Ferguson for How to Buy the Best for Less came to my attention while boondocking for free among both shiny monster RVs and deep rooted old buses.

As mother would also often question though, “Funny ha ha or funny peculiar”?

Either way, funnier yet are various applicable quotes I turned to throughout Champagne Tastes on a Beer Budget:

Happiness is being rich enough to ask the man to show you something cheaper.
~ Johnny Carson

We choose to live like vagrants here for a while because it is much cheaper than the alternative of paying for comfortable amenities, and richness is measured in many more ways than wealth. Others live on the slabs out of need, all rich in their own ways.

Necessity never made a good bargain.
~ Poor Richard’s Almanac

It’s all about give and take, I say. What are you willing to give up to get what you want? And if you want freedom, for free, you might need to go without quite a bit. As most do here in Slab City, USA.

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
And I’ll show you a filthy house.
~Author Unknown

There seem to be many more people here this year. But you don’t see much of them, being rounded up in their safe little RV caravans as they are. Safety in numbers I suppose, among the regular miscreant vagrants, loving hippies, wandering loners and hobos.

Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What’s that make me then? Well, I’m not quite smelling like roses these days. And I gave up a lot to enjoy the beauty within. Yes you must look past certain filth, but I’m not spending a dime (out of pocket), and am rich in personal freedom and fixed in perfect reality.