Exploring On Foot

I woke up at 10:41am this morning. It's memorable because I've woken pretty much without fail between 6:30 & 7am for the last couple of years courtesy of a bladder driven alarm clock. The main point is that I've slept pretty well since moving out of South Pasadena, and even though I'm still eating pretty much the same (if anything, I've eaten out more often) and given that the jeans I'm wearing used to be kinda tight and I had to stop and put on a belt before I left this morning makes me pretty sure that I'm losing weight as a benefit; almost 20 years ago I ate my way through France and managed to lose about five pounds overall between walking around all day and sleeping an average of ten (10) hours a night. The last month in South Pasadena, I probably slept as much at my desk as I did on my futon and getting no more than six hours a day total.

Before I moved, I was getting by on about $15 a week (roughly 6 gallons) for gas. My mileage has doubled since then. When you're counting shillings, pence are significant. So today, I was motivated to get a little exercise and so I took a walk to a nearby ethnic supermarket that a few people have raved about. The Yelp reviews have not been kind, and if I had to write a Yelp review, my assessment would pretty much mirror them. But to be completely fair, if you like apples, this place will suit you well - almost all their apples, including the Fujis, were all 2 lbs. for $1. And I got in about a mile of walking.

Going the other direction, the neighborhood public library is only a couple of blocks away and open from 10-6 on weekdays. I'm now here hoping to use the rest of the afternoon working on the ebook rewrite.

Maybe not; around 1:45pm, a number of school kids come in, and the volume level increases noticeably. This is a branch library. There's a main library in the neighborhood about 1.5 miles away. Maybe I should get a bike.

Exploring

It's been raining a lot lately, but that stopped. I'm grateful for that. Probably even more so that the lows temp-wise will be around 50 after going into the high 30's last week.

I have a space heater but am reluctant to use it a lot knowing how much my bill was when an electric heater was used back in my old apartment . So when I woke up yesterday morning at 7am and was unable to go back to sleep. I did a quick search of all the McDonald's between where I am and where I was planning to meet some friends for lunch to observe Chinese new years.

McDonald's offers free Wifi and they currently have a $1 coffee special with free refills. The McD's in South Pasadena has *one* electric outlet, a concession to folks who use it to recharge their phones - yes, surprisingly, there is a homeless contingent in South Pasadena, and one such person who was charging his phone Friday evening gave me a quick list of all the places that give out free food during the week. Apparently if you go to the police station, they'll give you a blanket if you're cold at night.  But I digress.

The McD's closest to me had all their outlets covered. Ditto for the two McD's in Pasadena and there were homeless sleeping in seats farthest away from the ordering stations.

I got to the McD's in Temple City, all outlets covered - and packed with old Chinese scarfing down breakfast. Didn't see that one coming.

My reconnoitering complete for the morning, I went to a Starbucks in Arcadia, and rented a table and outlet for the price of a $1.95 small coffee and chatted off and on with some guys seated at the next table while I surfed the web and did a little rewriting on my ebook until I left for lunch in Arcadia around 11;30am..

In conclusion, the Pasadena library which is open 9am-9pm M-Th, 9am-6pm Fri-Sat & (I think) 1-5pm on Sundays. is still probably the main choice for free wifi and respite from inclement weather conditions. & Starbucks can be the go-to starting at 5am and as late as 11pm for the price of a $1.95 coffee. How you get there and where you go after that, I'm still exploring.

The SAM Leaves A Poisoned Oasis.

Clearly this blog is no longer about living literally in "the valley" referring the the SFV in southern CA; the valley is now a metaphor, and the title is not necessarily optimal. A better title might be the SAM enters the valley; the valley was never intended to be a destination as much it was a place to sojourn. The sojourning continues.

I moved out of an extremely affordable apartment that was IMO ideally situated, but the truth of the matter is that I had to leave what have become a poisoned oasis. To help cover my rent expenses, I took on a roommate with adding that person to the lease. Things were fine for a while until that roommate took in someone who had been thrown out by a neighbor in the complex. That person was bad news, but my roommate was adamant about letting that person stay in their bedroom. That person's presence was actually the motivating factor in leaving.

I never did get that person's entire full name until after I'd moved out, and I elected to run an internet search on that name and discovered a site listing a person with that name (and a picture - so it's pretty clear that it's him) is required to register as a sex offender in the state of CA.

I also found another site where someone with that name is alleged to have run a fake ministry for the homeless, targeting vulnerable homeless people.

I sent a link to the first site to my ex-roommate. They have not responded and I'm really concerned for their sake.

But the main point is that while I was really reluctant to give up what was to me an oasis, the oasis had been poisoned, and the healthy thing was to get out.

The library

I'm awake at 3am because I had nothing better to do  at 8:30 pm than go to sleep after a meal of beans & tortillas induced a major food coma only to have to wake up as I now usually have to around this time of night to have to take care of a certain body function that occurs more often with an enlarged prostate. According to  weather.com it's 43 degrees outside and it feels like 40 with the dampness. It's actually not that bad as long in here as I keep my head covered at night. My hands used to get cold, but I've discovered that I can type (albeit only using my middle fingers) wearing these thick hospital booties I got to wear on my feet during my stay.  Actually, I'm cheating a little bit. There's a small space heater in the RV and I turned it on briefly. I've repented and turned it off and snuggled back under the sleeping bag. Enough preamble.

Back when I first got out of college, I couldn't find a job. I made it a habit to leave the house around 8:45am to go to the library so I wouldn't be home when my father woke. He had to be at work around 11am so I'd come home for lunch. The point was that the library became a refuge and I began to notice that the same people were often there. I noticed an attractive woman who couldn't have been more than a few years older than I was. I couldn't work up the nerve to start a conversation so I never did learn his story of why she was always at the library.

It's not that different now, except that instead of reading books, I'm there to tap their wifi. There are a number of homeless who spend a lot of time at the Pasadena public library when it's open, especially given how rainy it's been. It's actually a routine for them. They more or less live there during the day when there's no place else to go.  I found myself wondering where they went this past Monday as it rained most of the day but the library was closed in observance of MLK day.

I was at the library this afternoon when a homeless person got belligerent and started shouting. I could see the same look cross everyone else's face; a combination of worry that he'd escalate and somehow get them involved as well as a concern that he'd ruin things for everyone else who use the library as their refuge during the day.

I still carry a laptop, but nowadays at most libraries there are computers available with internet access that anyone can use as long as they have a library card. IIRC a library card requires that you have a physical address to apply for one. I'm curious to find out how the homeless manage to circumvent that requirement.

I Never Specified Which Valley...

I have been back in the SGV for almost a week,  and it has rained almost constantly, which put a serious damper (pun intended) on my driving around. There are a few spots on the convertible top that need a bit more taping up.

The bottom line is that I am grateful to be here, more so now that the USB wireless adapter I ordered from ebay has arrived and I now appear to have decent wifi reception. I suppose I need to elucidate; I am now residing in an RV parked in a driveway with an extension cord from the house providing electricity to power the small refrigerator and lights and other appliances. Before I got the adapter, I had to open the door to ensure decent reception, something not so appealing when it's raining with temperatures ranging from the high 30's to the upper 50's depending on the time of day.

The sun was warm this morning. I should go outside and keep blogging there.

Nice idea, but the glare is making it difficult to tell if I'm making any spelling erros, er, errors. Back inside to see if this works in the back of the RV.

Nope, not so much, but now it seems like I can get consistent wifi. It may not seem like much, but for the internet junkie which I clearly have become, yeah, it matters. I had considered the possibility that the limited wifi might be an external means of me cutting down my internet time. We'll see.

I replaced the microwave that I had given to Angel last night. I celebrated by microwaving dinner; tortillas with ham, cheese and kale folded into pseudo quesadillas. I had toasted them the night before using the toaster oven that's missing the knob requiring me to turn it on using a set of vice grips. It's the little quirks like that that endear me to this situation as I continue to adapt.

I should go out and enjoy the sun while it's out. That thought never occurred to me while I was still living in South Pasadena. So I'm changing already.

The End?

Most everything is repacked, with boxes sorted into piles marked 'Glendale' & 'Altadena' for where the remainder of my worldly possessions will either go into (relatively brief?) storage or with me to my future lodgings.

To be true to the title of the blog, this should be my last entry, but I'm thinking the title can become a metaphor to describe how you plan and expect certain things to happen while things end up turning out very differently. One such thing would be the tutoring position for which I have a second interview to be scheduled not panning out, especially I'm banking on that coming through to be able to make sufficient income moving forward. Well see, I guess.

Detour

My brief physical sojourn in the SFV apparently ends tomorrow. It's not been a great week, I'm not sure I should say anything more than that, except that there are times when it really is a good idea to try and identify and then articulate all possible expectations before offering or accepting help.

Of course, that's easier said than done; it's not natural to stop and consider all the potential ramifications when the waves seem to be closing in overhead over yourself and someone tosses you an apparent lifeline or if you see someone apparently about to go under when you're in a dinghy that's already at  full capacity.

I guess what I find most frustrating about it is the sense of the cost/effort expended to pull myself up that lifeline hand over hand, flop over the edge of the boat feeling completely exhausted, only to be told while you are struggling to just catch your breath, that the act of trying to do so results in being told that you have to go back overboard for fear that the vessel will capsize.  It's difficult not to personalize the judgement and I'm trying not to do so. Yet I had no other lifeline in respect to trying to preserve possession of some of my belongings - the amount being a factor leading to my being told that I need to leave.

Fortunately, I have since found a place to store a lot of the stuff I'd like to keep but will not need in the short term, and even as I compose this entry I have been informed by email that I now have a place where I can lay my head when I move out tomrrow and I will be returning to the SGV. So there is some relief in sight. And since I did little unpacking, all I have to do is repack a box or two, and sort through my stuff and organize how to load the truck tomorrow.

I am still feeling very fatigued by the process. Yet active rest is denied me here, which prompts more feelings of frustration.

But I see this as a learning process, and I want to post about that at some length. But that can wait.

The SFV

Circumstances have led me to the SFV. This may be for a matter of days, weeks, or months, I remain committed to promoting Barry's Kitchen, but I wonder if this will lead to a BK SFV. It's Tuesday, and I have to pack up and head to Pasadena for tonight's dinner.