It is Wednesday night.
Earlier, there was a "community meeting" at the Sacred Heart Apartments.
There have been several occasions upon which someone has knocked upon my door; more days than not, so far.
We each (residents) have one specific "caseworker," whose job it is to knock upon our doors and make sure that we are happy, and well adjusted; and even IN our apartments.
Yes, some people have been placed in a unit; but have been out on the run; crashing here and there; maybe out of town; and not in their units.
They ask that we notify them if we plan to be away for more than a week.
I am 4 1/2 hours from having my food card charged up with $194, and am planning upon toting prune and apple juice, along with distilled water; honey, apple cider vinegar; olive oil, sesame oil -and that's about it; the shortest distance from where I can get it to the cable car; and from the closest cable car stop, to my apartment; to set myself up to go on my cleanse and fast.
Today is my 2nd day without drinking.
It is very hard to start the juice fast upon the day when the food stamp money arrives; it is easier to want to splurge upon a steak, complete with A1 Sauce, or a pasta dish, complete with some kind of sauce which is too expensive for everyday consumption.
But, the only way to slay both the tobacco demon and the alcohol demon (and the pot demon, while at it) is the fasting route; I have proven to myself repeatedly..
I was up working on the Perl program, trying to automate it more; and learning that there are more ways than one to do it.
I think I will just type "bbb" before a word that I want boldfaced and then get the program to boldface the word; but not print the "bbb." That way, it won't trip over words like bubble, or Hubble Telescope...
The rest of this post will have been typed last night and run through the mangle of my program, which has been choosing some pretty good colors at random for the paragraphs -still need to get it to not choose the same, or very similar, colors for consecutive paragraphs, though..I will qualify for a job as a Perl programmer, by the time I get my text formatting thing up to speed.
After the community meeting, where concern was expressed over whether or not Howard was allowed to come to my room on Superbowl Sunday, I recorded some pretty righteous rhythm guitar parts for "My Friend Sue," a song which I wrote in Baton Rouge and did one crappy recording of, which will be replaced.
I have chosen the tempos and laid down the metronome beats for about 5 out of the 16 songs that I plan to put on my CD.p
It is time to think about the fast and cleanse and my plans to attempt to eliminate tobacco from my life; and never again be bothered by a request to "give me a cigarette," but will rather smile inside and pity the poor addict.
In about 4.5 hours, my card should be charged up with food money.
It was towards the end of October that I got the replacement card which I now have; after having completed the biannual status report. That should give me until April or May before I have to submit another one; and if I change my address with them to my current apartment; then I shouldn't have to fear missing the letter and having to go through another period of 21 days without the thing having any funds on it.
I must do something to counter the fact that Rouses Market no longe puts food out at the end of the night; due to slovenly skeezers who, looking no further than their immediate appetites; left trash and garbage all over the sidewalk and sealed the fate of all who were once able to literally live upon the still cold and only expired by minutes; food.
With free food to go along with my free place to stay; I would really be in a position to apply the whole $7,000 (by my estimate) towards some nice things.
"All things must pass," George Harrison was not the first person to once say.
Tonight, I went into the Quarter and sat in Starbucks, hoping the light rain would let up.
It wouldn't; and it continues to fall now, almost 12 hours later.
There will be nothing for me to do; except get a little bit of reading done; get up reasonably early; get a little bit of recording done; and then use the last of the 2 dollars which I borrowed from Gloria, one of the cashiers at Rouses Market, to take the streetcar into the Quarter and re-try the whole thing.
At least at the end of tomorrow night, come what may; I shoud return to the apartment laden with all the materials to embark upon the fast and cleanse -my third one within the past year if you are keeping track.
It seems, from looking back at this blog, that I went for periods of 30, 7, 9 and most recently 12 days of not drinking; with positive results; especially in the departments of finance and education; myself being able to sit up and read at night while sipping coffee; and still be full of energy the next day.
I am sipping coffee now; and about to read some Charles Dickens.
The Sacred Heart Apartments now has a book rack near the entrance; and I have snatched a few books off of it.
I need to read the Harry Potter books numbers 2, 3 and 4 though, before being ready for books 5 and 6, which I now have in my posession.
First is probably to get a CD put together, with a colorful cover on it, then when you can sell CDs as you play, your income will come up. Then you can think about a "busker" amp like a Roland Street Cube or something, then you can croon instead of pushing your voice so hard to be heard, which should further increase your income.
ReplyDeleteI assume the apartment building has washing machines and dryers, you now have a shower, all kinds of infrastructure you didn't have on the street, and as long as you behave you have it indefinitely, right?
So, this really is a step toward "making the big time".