Our house floods of course. I noticed this morning that we had a little water get into the downstairs at the non-distructive side of the trench. I knew that I had more digging to do to get back to the appropriate depth. Damage was minimal. Most water hugged the wall and exited through the garage
Month: October 2006
Moving on…
Yes. The first step is acceptance. I’m poor. So is most of the rest of the world. Life goes on. (sorta)
In the life goes on category, I decided not to cancel our camping trip this weekend. Already this year Noah has missed several camping trips that he deserved to attend. My problems should not impact the children’s normalcy. So, this weekend Noah, Tommy and I will join the boy scouts for some wilderness camping at Camp Pellissippi.
Today, Noah and I will be selling popcorn to raise money for the boy scouts outside of Butler & Bailey in Rocky Hill from 4pm to 6pm. If you are nearby, say hi. If you want, buy some popcorn. It is the best popcorn in the world!
Some thank yous are in order
First, I want to thank Carmen, Matt, Gabe and Abby for the wonderful birthday card and gift. I laughed. I cried. I plan to frame it!
I need thank those of you who answered my undignified desperate plea. I felt like I was on a telethon when I saw the responses! Feel like I should put a thermometer up showing where we are and the goal. You aid is being very helpful! We still have some uncomfortable decisions to make but at least we now have the option of making decisions. Thank you again! I will make it come around.
Being Poor is Exhausting
Stress and weariness got the better of me last night. I slept! I needed to put in 6 hours of work between midnight and 6am but I slept. At 6am I woke in a royal panick. Full out panic attack and lay in be helpless to move while I tried to refocus my thoughts, exercise controlled breathing and generally calm down to be in the moment.
Today is critical. I basically have to make a choice between finishing a project that may or may not result in a check. OR to visit some social services people to fill out paperwork all day in the hopes that they will help us somehow. We basically have to survive another week and a half on nothing. It will take about a week and a half to set up interviews and secure new work to hold me over until I can get a job.
Vehicles for sale
I have a 1997 Mercury Sable stationwagon with 111,000 miles (give or take) that does not run. It tries to turn over but won’t start. Maybe it just needs oil or maybe the engine is shot. The heat exchanger went bad and the car overheated several times. Two windows are stuck in the down position. If this car is of any value to someone as scrap, parts, smashup derby, electric conversion, or whatever, please make an offer. You would need to arrange it have it towed away. No liens. Title is clear.
I also have a 1981 Honda CM400C motorcycle. I am the third owner. It has 12-15000 miles on it. It has been down twice. Once by the previous owner in a low speed stop on wet grass. Once by me at under 10mph in a gas station parking lot. The only negative is it has been stored outside. As I have been told, the C stands for custom; apparently Honda bored the engine out to give it the displacement of a 600. You certainly cannot take a 600 off the line but on the interstate you can match speeds with a 600 at roughly the same RPMs. Great around the town cruiser. Needs new tires, cogs and chain, battery and steering head bearing.
Blogs are for begging
I was trying not to go here. There is a donation button in the sidebar. If anyone were ever feeling particularly generous, this is a good time to hit that button. If you do, attach a note:
- Get a real job then give me my money back.
- Donate this amount to another blogger in need as soon as you can.
- Interest! I say Interest!
- Keep it freeloader, but stop being a burden to society.
- My favorite charity is _____. Give it to them when you can.
Help is available but that becomes your job
We have power until Monday on a technicality. Apparently, so many people are getting their power cut off that the crew cannot get to us until Monday.
So there are organizations that try to help people through the difficult times but they have large, time consuming hoops to jump through. So your entire day becomes making phone calls, and visiting their offices with paperwork and more paperwork. So in the end, you may or may not get help and are exhausted having completed none of your real work. Guess I’ll program tonight while the world sleeps. Thank goodness I am not out of coffee.
I am tickled to learn about these services. Whether or not I end up using them is yet to be determined but when I am able, you can bet I’ll be donating to them!
What next?
So the dominoes are falling. The clients aren’t paying. Child support is delayed. The Internet connection is cut off. KUB is going to cut power. Phones are going to be disconnected. The shelves are becoming barren. The car is running out of gas. Oh! The car. Yes. The car keys are locked in the car!
Answer to How do the poor eat?
I seem to have forgotten part of my post on "How do the poor eat?" There are many ways. One is FISH. By calling 865-523-7900 you are automatically directed to a participating organization (typically a church). FISH only asks the number of adults and the number of children in your household. They ask nothing of your situation. They like it when you can pickup but they will deliver. What do they deliver? One to three days worth of food and some dry goods such as soap.
Volunteer or contribute by calling 865-691-9174.
Oops! That’s not private
Note! If you are going to use the private status on a WordPress blog and you hit "publish" it will NOT be private. That’s dumb. My apologies to Suresh.
How do the poor eat?
I had an experience a week or so ago. I was at the self-serve checkout of Food City. The person beside me rang her groceries, then swiped her card. The volume on the machine seemed to dramatically increase as the electronic voice chimed loudly, "Welcome EBT customer!" You know. The machine didn’t say, "Welcome, Visa debit card customer to me." Next it beeped then loudly exclaimed, "No qualifying items for food stamps." Something went wrong and she had to run the card again and again. The machine must have given its "welcome ebt customer" message a half a dozen times. The machine seemd to want to punish her for using food stamps by drawing attention to her method of payment. How cruel!
If you have never seen food stamps they are no longer perferated sheets of green stamps. In modern times, it is a credit card with the picture of an American flag on it. Watch for it as you shop. I would guess that about every 4th person in the line is using one.
Noah and I were selling popcorn for the Boy Scouts this past weekend and a college age girl giddily hopped by and struck up conversation with Noah. When he finally tried to close the sale and asked if she wanted to buy popcorn, she held up her red, white and blue card and said, "not unless you take food stamps" then bounced off into the store.
So, as I watch our pantry slowly empty, I begin to wish I had one of these cards. The irony is that we don’t even qualify for reduced lunches at school! Something seems amiss.
As you go the polls to deliberate over whether or not we should legislate who is allowed to love whom, perhaps you should ask how many people could have been fed by the money spent lobbying on such an irrelevant and stupid law. Perhaps our political leaders should be asking, "why 17.2 million people a month are on food stamps?" and would it be better to apply legislation preventing the banks and credit card companies from profitting on the poor because they bounced a check trying to feed their family instead of declaring two people in love can’t marry? Which situation is more threatening to America?
Already, a political action committee funded by a wealthy activist in Bolder, Colorado has given $25,000 to our opposition. [Source]
Do you have any idea what a difference $25,000 would make in the quality of my life? It would be the difference between struggling for the coming decades and being in a position to help others in that same time period!
Good news/Bad news
In good news the interviews are starting to be scheduled. Setting one up for a week to a week and a half from now. In bad news, KUB is going to turn off the power at 5pm tomorrow.
Another interview complete
This past Saturday I had a phone interview with a fantastic person from Net Solutions NA. I felt very good about the position and the interview itself. The company founder and I share similar philosophies.
Have I quit working for myself? No! Even someone working a job that they love must occasionally entertain an interview. Until an offer is made and accepted, I still am marketing myself strongly and even if I accept a position a condition of hire must be that I must fulfill my obligations to existing clients. As of yet, I have no offers.
Being Poor Is Expensive!
So, when you run out of money and bounce a check, the bank charges you a $35 fee for each overdrawn draft. Typically one leads to another like a snowball running over dominoes. If you are poor, probably with bad credit, and work for yourself, you cannot have a credit card to act as overdraft protection. Society doesn’t permit that. Ironically, if you have money, you can also have as much credit as you like; I know this – once upon a time I was "the credit card kid!" I overheard someone tonight bragging on his cell phone that "I can put my child’s college education on my credit cards." The poor person that is not provided the leniency of credit during their difficult times is further punished for not having money by being charged a $36 per day overdrawn fee by their bank. Quickly, a poor person that has drained their bank account trying to purchase store brand food and necessities can come under the hammer for several hundred dollars in non-tangible fees.
Out of curiosity, I called LaborReady yesterday to see how they worked:
Me: How do you work?
LaborReady: You work today, you get paid today.
Me: Excellent! Do you have any jobs that pay $300 or $400?
LaborReady, laughing: No. Show up at 5am [20-30 minute drive] dressed for construction and fill out an application. At 5:30 we will tell you if you are working that day. Pay is $6 per hour.
$6 per hour! After taxes and cost of lunch, that will about pay the gas it took to get to the LaborReady office and job site. How could a poor person even consider paying the banking fees doing something like that?
Current Status
Due to the debacle with my non-paying clients, our hosting and many other things were suddenly in danger. A kind soul helped with the hosting situation; however, Comcast decided that we could live without a connection to the Internet. That is like taking away my air supply! Fortunately, a friend has let me move my computers into his business office to allow me to continue my current project. Cathy will return to posting as soon as I get something worked out. Phones are next on the chopping block. So, how does one communicate with clients and arrange interviews without email or phone?
