Five Dollars And 12 Cents

Today

78 °F

T-storms

100% chance of precipitation

Howard and I arrived in New Orleans early Sunday morning, and found a place to sleep, in a flower bed behind the Popeyes Chicken place on Chef Menatur Road, on top of mulch.

It was a comfortable sleep, especially since we read that the place didn't open until 10 a.m. and we figured that we could sleep until almost 9 a.m.

We had slept on the train; in fact we overslept and woke up parked all the way inside Oliver Yard, and we had to walk about a mile to get out of that yard and to position ourselves to be at the Winn Dixie and Family Dollar the next morning, so Howard could get cash off of his plastic card, so we could take the 6 mile bus ride into the French Quarter.

My pack seemed to weigh 80 pounds and my first order of business was to wrap the Samsung laptop in the winter jacket that some traveling kids had given me by the tracks in Mobile, and then wrap the whole thing in a plastic tablecloth and hide it about 100 yards down the tracks, in a thicket of bamboo.

Then, Howard and I walked about a half mile to the store; and I picked up 7 pennies off the road along the way.

I bought a salad and ate it and immediately felt better

In between transferring buses, I went into the Quickie Market and bought a Monster energy drink.

There was a black man there, who was complaining about the high prices of snack items in that store. He was about to put his Oreo Cookies back on the shelf...Three dollars, that's crazy!...when I told him that I would put them on my food card if he would give me just 2 dollars.

I wound up putting his cookies and his milk on my card in exchange for 4 dollars in cash. I then had $4.12, because I had found a nickel out front on the sidewalk, to go with the 7 pennies.

Once at the edge of the Quarter, Howard and I went to the "sign" sleeping spot, to see that it was still there; there was no sign of Sue, the Colombian Lady, and where I further unburdened myself of a bag of fruit, some clothing and some canned food items, and concealed them in the branches of the trees, or under the mulch bed.

My pack once again felt like only 20 pounds in weight, and so, leaving Howard with a good book at the sign spot, I went along Canal Street, picking up free tobacco on my way to The Unique Boutique, for one of my first beers in 5 days. My "routine," I guess.

I stood on the sidewalk and watched football through a bar window, and then eventually walked down Royal Street, where the only street musician who seemed to have had a good day was Stoker, who sat on his motorcycle, playing the blues and looked to have about 30 bucks. 30 buck is a good day for the performers in New Orleans who aren't named Tanya or Doreen.

Other performers, whom I had never met before were playing.

One young man was doing Bob Dylan songs and sounded just like the guy.

He didn't want to jam at all.

Then, there was another guy on guitar and a girl playing a flute, further up the road. The guy said "Would you stop hassling me?" after I tried to sing along and harmonize a bit; I was feeling my first couple beers in 5 days. He apparently wasn't.

Then, I got to a spot near Rouses Market where someone who I did know was playing guitar and we did jam a little bit and then, when he left, I assumed the spot and got five single dollars from one girl, along with a guitar strap, in my case.

I already have one guitar strap (from Martin in West Virginia) but I use that as a strap for my guitar case.

I think the implication was that the cops can still give one a ticket for not standing up when they busk.

I then broke my "g" string, but kept playing, using stuff from my "Music For Guitar Minus G String" catalog.

I then broke the "d" string, but kept on inventing music for guitar minus those two strings; that may have been when I got the 5 dollars.

So, that is where it stands.

I am waiting on a parcel from The Lidgleys of London, which I was informed was mailed around the 4th of December from London.

I have re-registered my mailbox at The Rebuild Center.

I need to get a replacement food card, as mine won't swipe now and needs to be keyed in manually by enervated and fuming cashiers.

I hope to make enough money to have the power adapter for the Samsung laptop sent here through E-Bay. 

There is a Ubuntu Linux book at this very library which has an installation disk included.

Other than that, our plan is to stay here as briefly as possible and to leave before the coldest weather arrives, although I DO have a winter jacket now, and the Superbowl