Tuesday, November 24, 2009

12 Days And 12 Nights In Jacsonville


A S"Karrie" Experience
"The Purple Bus Snafu"

We Arrived in Jacksonville on that Saturday night that we hitch-hike ed there, after being mis-informed of the schedule of the purple bus, (which goes all the way to Jacksonville for only a dollar,) by one of their own drivers. It was the driver of the red bus who told us when and where to catch the purple bus all the way to Jacsonville in time to arrive at Altel Stadium for the letting out of the Florida/Georgia crowd (of drunken college kids with their parent's money, and alumni, with the money which was left over.


We worked the game. It was the most pathetic Florida/Georgia game as far as tips which I have ever seen in my 2 years of playing guitar outside of Florida/Georgia games, as noted in the prvious entry which I did in downtown Jacksonville, after having wrapped my guitar in plastic and hidden it in the deep woods of Mandarin in the palmettos, as guitars are not allowed in the Jacksonville downtown branch.


After the game, we eventually made it back to the camp, which was pretty much the way that Larry and I had left it, months before, with the exception of one large plant, which had resisted Larry's attempts to raise (translated: kill) it.

We slept on our brand new cardboard which Karrie carried on top of her head, right up San Jose blvd, through the most "posh" part of Mandarin, and over the creek and to the camp, with that total lack of shame of which she has made a science . I walked along beside ber, carrying my guitar, proud of her, and of science. Mandarin; the classiest, richest part of the city. Even the forests offer the homeless the finest of hardwood, privacy, closeness to nature with a rich variety of songbirds and interesting racoons, water and convenience to shopping, etc.


The next morning, we awoke to the sound of birds chirping; quality birds only found in the most affluent areas, not like the ghetto birds that you hear downtown, by any stretch of the imagination. I told Karrie about the boat ramp and it's private restrooms with running water, and soon, we were running ourselves, towards them, laden with soaps and lotions and potions of the most exotic order. Karrie had her full arsenal, right down to the foot scrubber!

We arrived at the boat ramp and were greeted by a Jacksonville Sheriff's Officer, who wanted to know where we were going and where we had come from and if we had ID. I resisted an impulse to be a smart-ass, but not totally. I told him that we were going northward on San Jose Boulevard, "just like you see."




When asked what we were doing, I told him that we were enjoying our constitutional rights as United States citezens to walk down a public way without fear of unreasonable harrassment.
He (they) handed us flyers which gave the addresses of all the homeless shelters downtown, and told us that if we were seen sleeping on the sidewalks in front of businesses then we would be arrested.


The Jaguars Game




Having spent the week in Jacksonville, and finding that the people in Mandarin were generally generous (on several occasions, cars pulled up and windows were rolled down and money handed out, with "Have you eaten today?" or something similar said), we passed the week this way; I had moderate success playing at the Barnes and Noble, and then Sunday came, and we headed for the Jaguar's game. They were playing the Kansas City Chiefs, who's stadium is shown above, and there was a sparse crowd, due to the fact that the Jaguars are not doing much better than the Kansas City Chiefs.

It was a miserable experience. I sat and played and made about 9 dollars from at least 2,000 who walked past.

Karrie asked a Chinese man if he had any money that she could have. He handed her 20 dollars. I fought the urge to be jealous or resentful. I suppose one of my ulterior motives in bringing her with me, was her ability to solicit money from Chinese men. "At least now, we can get some liquour," said Karrie, alluding to the biggest counter-motive against bringing Karrie with me. Yeah, and a bus ride out of this ghetto before the sun sets, I didn't say.


Taxes To Be Filed As Self-Employed Street Musician...
Now I am at the library on the following Wednesday. It rained all morning. We had neglected to safeguard our clothing from such an act of God, and so, spent the morning at the laundromat, where no lizards crawled out of our stuff, and we dried the clothing. Karrie occupied the ladies' room in a state of near-nakedness while her clothes spun in the drier. Still, with the temperatures forcast to be in the 40's tonight, neither one of us is equipped to do anything except sit in front of a fire or curl up in a sleeping bag.
I am about to work on a spreadsheet which will document my earnings for the past two years, so that the IRS can pore over them and hopefully send my "earned income" credit in the form of a hefty check.

To Be continued...




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