Long out of print, previously mentioned before here at the 'swamp, and now $42+ a paperback copy (travesty!), Rancho Costa Nada is back as a $5 kindle download. It's the story of washed-up newspaper editor Phil Garlington who describes himself as not smart but merely a smartass with a talent for turning a phrase. Smarting from his latest firing and having nowhere particular to be, he decamps for a scrap of worthless desert picked up for $325 a few years prior in a moment of irrational enthusiasm while doing a news story on tax auctions.
There's enough content to keep the covers apart, dealing with topics such as how to build a sandbag hut, how to run your power system off a 3-cylinder Geo Metro's battery, and how to deal with the functional-yet-deranged neighbors. All those little life skills we need to have in our back pockets.
I don't recommend doing this, and neither does Garlington. In fact, the last chapter is titled "Don't Do It." However, this mope shows that it can be done, and push come to shove it is an option for almost anyone if pushed and shoved hard enough. I do recommend reading it, mostly in case Plans A–Z fail and you're down to Plan Greek Letters, in the manner of an extremely bad hurricane season.
Really, don't do this. Go camping for a couple of weeks instead. When the chiggers and ticks have had their turns at you, go home and have a shower and a sleep on clean sheets. But always know deep down inside, rock-bottom FU money is only about a month's rent.
In closing, the main point here is that Rancho Costa Nada is around again, for a very reasonable $5.
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