Creeping Hippie Bus

All my life I have functioned under the apparently mistaken belief that I am living a low-profile existance. "NOT!" scream my friends and coworkers. I've never been sure whether their reaction is a case of THEM not understanding just how much I keep myself reigned in, or of ME not understanding how vanilla the majority of the world truly IS. Peter sez "you vibrate at a higher frequency than other people." *Sigh* True or not, my inTENT is that of a low profile. And so the intent of Towanda's look is low-key. The plan still IS to paint her pale tints of a lovely moss green hue, with white on the roof and hood for practicality's sake (I'm pratical in the extreme, no matter how high my vibrational frequency). The interior was always intended to be white, and indeed the cabin area has already been painted thus.

But...

The cockpit is a clear line of demarkation from front to back, and as such, it didn't get coated with insulating primer OR final white enamel, and is still the basic skoolie interior almond colour. My crazed artist's eye kept looking at that space and seeing - well, shall we say "special" treatments. I kept mentioned one or another to Peter, and after about the fifth different wildass idea, a running joke grew in place. "Creeping Hippie Bus!" Peter will exclaim when I mention another idea clearly borne of another place and time (aka my youth). For example, I said "Wouldn't some Guatemalen fabric look nice as curtains?" "Creeping Hippie Bus!" Or "Look at this cool Talevera Day of the Dead skull on eBay...wouldn't that look cool on the dash?" "Creeping Hippie Bus!" Or "I have this great stencil of a skeleton...I think I'll stencil one on my front bumper for every year I'm on the road...sort of an homage to DeadHeads everywhere (though I'm NOT one, never have been)" Yeah, by now you know the response I got. *deep sigh* But the cockpit...

Well, the cockpit spoke to me, loud and clear, and no matter how I tried to step around the idea with my own internal cries of "Creeping Hippie Bus!" I kept coming face to face with the idea again. So this morning I got up and began mixing a load of paint to my personal spec. I'm writing this while taking a break after masking and then painting the front steps with that colour...when rested, I resume by painting the ceiling next. The colour? An indigo purple, atop which I plan to paint stars in gold and silver. Yeah, I know, but it's REALLY pretty, and the only person who has to live with it is ME. And I LOVE it. Call it "Creeping Hippie Bus Syndrome." Now where did I stash that lovely purple and gold fabric from Guatemala...?