Today
38 °F
Partly Cloudy
Tonight
28 °F
Partly Cloudy
Tomorrow
53 | 41 °F
Clear
3 Dollar Coffee
Yesterday, I went to Starbucks and spent a few hours (and too much money, because it was the one at Harrahs Casino where a "grande" cup is 3 dollars) sipping coffee and reading my Readers Digest Word Power book.
Outside, the wind was howling and sleet or hail (depending upon your mood) was falling, and the temperature was making its way to its eventual low of about 28 degrees.
By that time, I was inside a sleeping bag with 2 fleece blankets wrapped around me inside; a knit blanket over the top; and a heavy quilt type thing wrapped around me like a burrito. It was almost hot in there.
I was too lazy to get out of there and start a fire using stinging cold fingers to snap the kindling. I figured that I would be shivering my butt off before the fire was large enough to be kicking heat. I have to gradually build the thing up; keeping an eye on the smoke emission as I go.
Lilly had called me several times during the day, concerned about me freezing to death.
Rats, My Fish Is Gone!
The rats were beside themselves; rattling the empty tins and nudging me with their noses; as if to say "Where's the food?"
It made me wonder if I had created a monster by feeding them so well.
They have started to learn how to crawl up on the girders (by mounting them at the end of the dock 100 feet down and then tightrope-walking their way to the food above me) and steal things like sandwiches.
Fights break out after the rat that knocked the sandwich down to the rocks and then has to retrace its steps all the way around back to it; finds that it has been devoured by its contemporaries.
They are like hybrids between raccoons and squirrels.
I got pretty mad when I discovered that the 3 pieces of fresh catfish had been breached at some point in the night. I thought that they would freeze and, hence, give off no odor; and be unappealing to them.
But, they weren't quite frozen, and I guess after they gleaned that there would be no hot food; no cookies or sandwiches, etc. they settled upon one of of three (before I caught them) pieces of raw, near frozen, catfish fillets.
There was frozen rain falling through the night, but not on me, as I listened to a lot of AM talk radio and then some classical.
I stayed under the blankets until well past noon, and then came here, to The Royal Blend, where I must wrap this up, or buy a coffee soon.
I am totally broke; no food on my card for 7 more days; but I have a 5 dollar Subway card; and about 20 dollars left on my Starbucks card; and a new set of strings; a new harmonica; and I will probably be sober for a second day in a row....
There's got to be some way you can stash some money away for times like these. I'm making OK money (for a Depression economy) by which I mean $200 a week, but the guy I'm working for has money problems so sometimes I don't get paid for a week or two. That's why I have savings. Plus different ways to make money. You could try some good old-fashioned panhandling, it's an essential skeezer skill anyway.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I guess I could go into Starbucks and offer to buy peoples stuff for them with my gift card in exchange for "a lesser amount of cash," and if I do it gracefully enough (and throw in the skeeze of "I haven't been able to play for 3 days because of the cold") someone might throw me a 10 and say "Save your card for a rainy day" or at least give me a lesser amount of cash....or complain to the manager that they have been coming to Starbucks for years and spending thousands anually and they don't appreciate being skeezed in the checkout line...but, I suppose in NOLA they would be more thick skinned than that...I've been able to stash money in the past; but truthfully, after the first few drinks turn into a few more is when things fall apart and a sack of herb and a couple of McDoubles later, I realise that d'oh! I forgot to stash some money away...
ReplyDeleteYou just basically live day to day, hour to hour really, which is the classic skeezer way. Kinda like a modern version of being an Australian Bushman. The Bushmen would just wander around, catching lizards and hunting kangaroos and stuff, while the modern skeezer just goes from handout to handout. If it rains, they get wet, if the handouts get thin, they go hungry a few days. At least I guess you don't get fat.
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