05-23

call time 3, got off a little before 8am. i've decided to start getting gas when i'm near a quarter tank since the commute by itself is 30 miles now. i pulled in at unik, saw that the parice had gone to $2.43 while the place across the street was at $2.39 - but i had only $3. that 1.25 gallons is about another 30 miles, so i have time to go to the bank today and draw a little gas money.

it occurs to me that i didn't get paid yet this weekend. have i already got direct deposit? i didn't get a email notification.
i slipped and fell onto a metal walkway at work. that hurt, but my knee seems more tender now. and i don't heal as quickly as i used to.

the inside of my left elbow hurts from time to time at work.  but my heart rate seems to be about 70 now, so i assume i'm ok. probably wouldn't hurt to buy some baby aspirin and take one a day as a blood thinner. i think i might have aspirin in my supplies. i need to check.

got finished  charging by 10:30, checked email at 11. by the time i'd gotten a reply back on the address at noon, i'd gone to take a nap and slept until 2:30. no harm, i met the potential landlord. they like me,  but they've interviewed other people, they want to paint the room, so they'll let me know on tuesday who they've decided on. i've applied for a few other spots. we'll see.

stopped at circle k for another polar pop, coke this time, sushi from ranch 99, impulse stop at walgreen's to pick up my first new deodorant in years (i bought so many on sale at less than $2 and i've also been using every last bit before i throw them out, using toothpicks, etc. to scrape out the stuff stuck in the cracks. should have remember to check for aspirin and picked some up if i don't have any.)eating at eaton blanche park. contemplating go back to the metro for another recharge.  it's only 5:30 and i've got 2.5 hours before it gets dark. aim for fedex around 9pm for my 2am call time.  yeah, why not? hopefully this won't turn out to be my last post ever.

here by 5:35. surprised that there aren't more people here; just me and a lady at another bench. i discover that this bench is downwind of the portapotty while the remaining bench faces west directly into the setting sun. for once, i'm grateful for the mask, and particularly that i've washed the mask for the first time this morning.

i'm back down to about 40% not bad for 2.5-3 hours on the new battery, and estimated 1.25 hours to full recharge. ugh! the wind shifted due east for a moment.
it actually hasn't been all that hot today, so i've put on a hoodie in anticipation of being in full shade which i am now. no breeze, please...

more on the prospective landlord with whom i'd be sharing a bathroom, a stout black woman named dana lynne. i suspect she's (ugh! breeze picked up again) a believer. she worked in the pasadena public library system for eight years, so she might know more homeless people than i do! got a really nice pit bull mic named daisy. having been a meter reader for four summers, i knew better than to just open a gate and enter a yard. i rattled the cage, got no response, and then daisy came around the corner doing a 3/4 sideways canter and i knew i was in no danger.

if this is meant to be, i suspect this will stretch me.

a homeless guy walked up to the portapotty, opened the door, took a look/whiff, shut the door and asked me if i had a cigarette on me.  i have to laugh; when a toilet is so bad a homeless person won't use it... this reminds me of derek and i reminiscing this past week about something 23-24 years ago when he rented a room from me in alhambra. he parked on the street beneath where the birds liked to sit on the power line, and the birds deposited a layer of droppings that covered the entire car: hood, roof, trunk, front and back windshield. you could not see the car.  not realizing the car was his, i began speculating on the potential response of a worker at a hand car wash assigned to clean the car: "I QUIT!!!!!". the thing is, it wasn't until this week i finally understood that it was derek's car when he told me he tipped the guy at the hand car wash. et's face it: scatalogical is funny. and it's important to find reasons to laugh. i know i feel a lot better right now, even as everyone else must think i'm on something, laughing my head off muttering: "i quit!"

i'm actually started to get accustomed to being downwind of the portapotty. or maybe my own aroma is competing with it.  washing up in the morning is nice that i feel fresher in the morning, but then i go through an entire day and show up for work that way. should i get in 15 minutes sooner and also wash up before work?

if i could find a free wifi spot in between the metro and fedex, it would be ideal; i could recount my day, then cut and paste it into my blog when i have wifi.

i just offered use of my power strip to someone looking for an outlet.  it occurs to me that as i meet people here i can selectively advise people that i bring a hot meal to central park in pasadena on tuesday nights. and they can take the metro to the del mar exit. i have 2-3 extra power cords i just stored at karl's. should i consider bringing them here and giving them out?

disposable/rechargeable batteries for recharging a phone - there's be a market for that if the technology was feasible. but i expect that the price of the metals needed would make the expense prohibitive. i saw an aftermarket bicycle attachment that would not only charge a USB operated device, but it would also store a charge if nothing was plugged in. i thought it would be the answer for dave but he was already too discouraged to try after he found out i'd be moving out and depriving him of a fallback for charging his phone.

if only you could recharge a laptop from your car....

my knee hurts. i hope it (ugh! wind picked up again) doesn't affect my ability to get the job done tonight.

just finished novel #22 of #23 of the kirk mcgarvey series by (now deceased) david hagberg. i haven't reread any of clancy's stuff since he passed, but then he's got people continuing the story line of jack ryan jr. i've started reading the spy thriller works of these authors. and today i downloaded a new novel by david baldacci, #6 in the amo decker series. that gives a couple more books to read, but i either need to find another series to start reading, or start writing instead of reading. the writing makes more sense. the reading is just a means of making the time go by. the series is finite, and truth be told, not entirely believable to me. he's more a peer of clancy, but clancy's jack ryan is still the quintessential hero to me. but courtland gentry, pike logan, and others still interest me enough that i'll follow their stories. baldacci has a few characters i follow as well: puller, robie, decker, etc. (guh! wind picked up again).

i think i'm going to make it a rule that while i charge, i need to be writing, not reading.

now i'm eavesdropping on a conversation between two people taking about where to find food in the area. after the guy tells the lady she could probably find housing in pasadena as a single woman, i've chimed in to concur and to mention tuesday night in central park.

it seems like a natural extension of what i should be doing given my circumstances. Turns out the lady is hungry so i'm going to give her some nutragrain bars in the car; I'm up to 86% charge. once i get to 90% i'll call it and go back to my car.

i gave her 10 nutragrain bars and a couple of oranges. she was grateful, which was nice. she left, kept on talking to the guy who bragged he could eat for all week for free. he probably won't be coming to dinner, but that's ok. he told me that REI wifi is free, and apparently it is!

and that's where i'm posting from. i now have free access to electricity, wifi, and can go recharge if i need to with an extra battery of 2-3 hours to boot. i just have to not be a pest about parking in the REI lot.