05-24

got to fedex by 8:30. a folks saw me so i got out, smoked a cigar with my laptop on the roof of my car.

somehow the sound got turned off on my phone, and i overslept! to 4:30. i went in anyway. they would have sent me home as it was a light day, but josh wasn't feeling well and i replaced him on the belt. turned that he had neglected to load half the trucks correctly, so i had to review all the packages he handled before i started loading any others. i still ended up putting in 2.5 hours to 7am and i got an easy day as my knee is still kinda sore...

turns out memorial day is a holiday for fedex, so i don't go back in unil 1:15 tuesday morning. i'll probably work both days this week to make up for the half day today and missing monday tomorrow. asked for my paycheck from friday and got it today. should be getting direct deposit next week. wow. i clocked 17.5 hours out of my 23 at $19.25. just a tad short of $500 take hom this week. i should be able to clear the BOFA credit card before the end of the summer, especially if i go to a 6 day work week. yay. and if  chess comes back i can really put a dent into the discover balance.

the place selling gas at $2.39 wasn't open yet, so i had to settle for $2.43 across the street with 10% ethanol. now recharging and should be good to go . checked my bathroom stash and i do have aspirin, circa 2002! i took one anyway.  will try an advil for the knee as well.

the black guy i met before was sleeping on one of the benches, a guy in a wheelchair was smoking near the bench downwind of the portapotty, so i went to the 3rd bench, only to discover that the outlets apparently don't work. approached the guy in the wheelchair and told him the other outlet wasn't working. he kept smoking for a while but moved off into the sun after a bit. i think he was talking on the phone.

i've blogged on this before; holidays don't mean much to the homeless. if anything, life is more inconvenient - most of the places at which they'd normally congregate are closed - but they are anyway because of the quarantine. for me, i think it's a day off without pay until i get enough hours under my belt. but my knee needs to heal, so it's probably a good thing.

this paycheck will take me over $2000. it'll be the first time i've had this kind of balance since mid 2016. assuming i can find a place here rent/utilities will run about $800, i can budget about $200 a month for gas/insurance, another $150 for groceries and another $50 or so doing some sort of weekly lunch event. $350 for my cards, that's  $1500.  if i can take home $450 a week that gives me about $300 a month i can apply towards my cards. and once chess starts back up that's an extra $200 a week, plus whatever i get at huntington. i could resume my downey lessons as well....

went and surfed REI but forgot to go into battery saving mode. decided to top off the battery before heading out. it's not like i'm in a big hurry to go somewhere. a gentleman i've seen here offered me his bench in the shade. i told him a little civility went a long way nowadays. he was kind enough to point out that one may need to hit the circuit breaker to reset the socket and i commented on how the circuit breaker button had been broken on the third outlet. we started talking about how some folks ruin it for everyone else. i said i was willing to give out a couple of extra power cords and he replied that addicts would just start hitting you up for free stuff kinda like a faucet. the point is that there are all sorts out here. you've got people with addiction issues, folks happy to game the system, etc. but there are some decent people out here.

i chose not to mention that the bench currently in shade is also downwind of the porta-potty. i was prepared; i'd brought an umbrella for shade and typing one handed is slow, but adequate for the mount of time it'll take to recharge. in battery saving mode, this battery will last over four hours. intersperse that with nap time and that takes me through dinner and a potential patio recharge. now to decide what to do for lunch. and where to cash my check. i'm sure there's a BOFA within two blocks of here.

it occurs to me that i *could* cook using aluminum foil and the heat from my engine. chicken/vegetables. there's probably plenty of internet articles to use as a guideline.

i'll mention in passing one ad that provided little detail and was kinda rude in his first response. i told him i'd rather sleep in my car rather than have a dick for a landlord. he responded illustrating what kind of dick he was. if i cared enough i'd have pointed it out, but he struck me as being the vindictive type in his response.

splurged/gorged on sushi which led to food coma until 4:30. eaton blanche park is a nice place to crash in the afternoon. there's always a nice cross breeze.

i'm really not hungry but want to get something to eat. a burger of some sort. i could munch on some granola but i'm also wanting another polar pop from circle k.

i finished 24 novels by david hagberg since mid april. i read his last one first but since it was a prequel i ended up reading them all in chronological order. i did this mainly to help the time pass in quarantine. ebooks are relatively easy to download for free on the internet.

gave in got more sushi at ranch 99. i'm clearly medicating.

i let a lot of people see me when i went back on parked on my apartment street after 7pm. i pretty much need to wait until 9pm before i show up to tap the outlet.