Rose Owes
I had just mentioned Bette Midler in yesterday's post, when referring to examples of movies that are on the "59 cent VHS" shelf at the Goodwill Store on Tulane Ave...
Then, right after posting that, I lent Rose 20 bucks...
Then, after knocking off from busking that night, I walked past one particular bar, out of which can often be heard the strains of people singing karaoke, and heard someone inside singing "The Rose," by Bette Midler. Mere coincidence?
Or did it portend Rose going into default upon the loan, as, at the time of this writing, that is the case?
Consecutive $23 Nights
I made 23 bucks.
There came a 10 dollar tip when I thought I was jamming pretty good, and a 5 at another such time. And there were other stretches when I thought I was jamming pretty good for the trash can 15 feet away.
I had basically accomplished my goal of getting the money that I lent Rose back into my pocket. The result would be the same as if I had made nothing, but returned home to find the money had been slid under my door.
Plus, it gave me emotional insurance against developing any feelings of disaffection for her, if she somehow didn't come through. I wasn't allowing my fortunes to be contingent upon her being paid promptly by this third party, whose apartment she cleaned.
I just remind myself that, in the winter (these days before Rose and Ed get their check) far beneath the killing frost; lies the seed (their pending cash disbursement) that with the sun's love; in the spring (next Wednesday) becomes the rose (my f***ing money).
So, I put on just about every available layer of shirt and sweatshirt and jacket upon jacket and went out into the 55 degree air, which had been forecast to become 40 degree air "by morning." A strong, cold wind was headed our way and was going to chill things off through the weekend. I peeled these layers down to one tee shirt once I got warmed up playing, and only put about half of it all back on before heading home. The temperature had probably dropped about 10 degrees over the 3 hours that I was out.
It's 54 degrees now, and I will most likely go out and repeat last night, hopefully being at least as productive. The idea is to pile up some money and then meditate upon how to use it, later.
All I need to make the TV that Howard gave me work is a 12 dollar antenna, which I guess will be one that is optimized for the gigahertz frequency range that the new-fangled sets pick up. It will also double as a pretty decent FM radio receptor, I believe.
TV Listings
That would give me access to "network" channels, but not "cable" ones.
One of the 2 dollars that I spent yesterday was on a newspaper, with the intention of looking at a section that I have been skipping past for most of my life: the TV Listings section.
I have determined, after perusing that section that it would be indeed worthwhile to spend 14 bucks on an antenna, as I discovered more than what looked like garbage in the listings. There is one station that airs back to back episodes of Seinfeld in a certain time slot each night, another one that shows a movie every night with tonight's offering being "Tootsie," the Dustin Hoffman movie from 1980. They put a rating of 4 and a half stars (out of 5) on it.
Plus, there is enough history and science and nature material to keep me from becoming a zombie who sits on a couch and watches suspect after suspect after suspect being apprehended and brought to justice.
I'll cough up the 14 bucks for an antenna soon; just not in time for Tootsie. I've gone 21 years without a TV set, and have had 37 years to catch the Hoffman flick, but never did, so I'm not going to rush out and get something that could potentially turn me into a soft couch potato.
427 (CDXXVII)
The other dollar was on a Louisiana Pick 3 ticket for the number "427" which has been a "favorite" number of mine for years and which has not been the winning Pick 3 number since December 2, 2009. The odds are that it should have come up 2.6 times since then.
The number is overdue, and it a matter of interest at The Unique Grocery on Royal Street where I buy a ticket almost nightly, since the Ethiopian cashiers who work there have seen me playing that same number every night for almost a year now, and I have informed them about the over seven years that it has been since it came up. Some of them have started to play it themselves.
Loan Update
I was just asked by Rose if I would defer the paying back of the loan of 20 dollars, giving her and Ed an extension until next Wednesday. She promised to pay me back 40 dollars at that time.
I immediately agreed to the deal, as a 100% return on investment is rarely achieved, even by the professionals on Wall Street.
She said "things didn't work out as I expected" about the apartment cleaning job.
I had just mentioned Bette Midler in yesterday's post, when referring to examples of movies that are on the "59 cent VHS" shelf at the Goodwill Store on Tulane Ave...
 |
| Past Due |
Then, after knocking off from busking that night, I walked past one particular bar, out of which can often be heard the strains of people singing karaoke, and heard someone inside singing "The Rose," by Bette Midler. Mere coincidence?
Or did it portend Rose going into default upon the loan, as, at the time of this writing, that is the case?
"It's the one who won't be taken; who cannot seem to give..." -from "The Rose,' by Bette Midler
Consecutive $23 Nights
I made 23 bucks.
There came a 10 dollar tip when I thought I was jamming pretty good, and a 5 at another such time. And there were other stretches when I thought I was jamming pretty good for the trash can 15 feet away.
I had basically accomplished my goal of getting the money that I lent Rose back into my pocket. The result would be the same as if I had made nothing, but returned home to find the money had been slid under my door.
Plus, it gave me emotional insurance against developing any feelings of disaffection for her, if she somehow didn't come through. I wasn't allowing my fortunes to be contingent upon her being paid promptly by this third party, whose apartment she cleaned.
I just remind myself that, in the winter (these days before Rose and Ed get their check) far beneath the killing frost; lies the seed (their pending cash disbursement) that with the sun's love; in the spring (next Wednesday) becomes the rose (my f***ing money).
So, I put on just about every available layer of shirt and sweatshirt and jacket upon jacket and went out into the 55 degree air, which had been forecast to become 40 degree air "by morning." A strong, cold wind was headed our way and was going to chill things off through the weekend. I peeled these layers down to one tee shirt once I got warmed up playing, and only put about half of it all back on before heading home. The temperature had probably dropped about 10 degrees over the 3 hours that I was out.
It's 54 degrees now, and I will most likely go out and repeat last night, hopefully being at least as productive. The idea is to pile up some money and then meditate upon how to use it, later.
All I need to make the TV that Howard gave me work is a 12 dollar antenna, which I guess will be one that is optimized for the gigahertz frequency range that the new-fangled sets pick up. It will also double as a pretty decent FM radio receptor, I believe.
TV Listings
That would give me access to "network" channels, but not "cable" ones.
One of the 2 dollars that I spent yesterday was on a newspaper, with the intention of looking at a section that I have been skipping past for most of my life: the TV Listings section.
I have determined, after perusing that section that it would be indeed worthwhile to spend 14 bucks on an antenna, as I discovered more than what looked like garbage in the listings. There is one station that airs back to back episodes of Seinfeld in a certain time slot each night, another one that shows a movie every night with tonight's offering being "Tootsie," the Dustin Hoffman movie from 1980. They put a rating of 4 and a half stars (out of 5) on it.
Plus, there is enough history and science and nature material to keep me from becoming a zombie who sits on a couch and watches suspect after suspect after suspect being apprehended and brought to justice.
I'll cough up the 14 bucks for an antenna soon; just not in time for Tootsie. I've gone 21 years without a TV set, and have had 37 years to catch the Hoffman flick, but never did, so I'm not going to rush out and get something that could potentially turn me into a soft couch potato.
427 (CDXXVII)
The other dollar was on a Louisiana Pick 3 ticket for the number "427" which has been a "favorite" number of mine for years and which has not been the winning Pick 3 number since December 2, 2009. The odds are that it should have come up 2.6 times since then.
Loan Update
I immediately agreed to the deal, as a 100% return on investment is rarely achieved, even by the professionals on Wall Street.
She said "things didn't work out as I expected" about the apartment cleaning job.
And .... now you know why ghetto pawn shops and loansharks charge so much; it's because they have to when dealing with skeezers and skanks like Rose and Ed.
ReplyDeleteI once lived in a neighborhood where you were either a wetback or white trash, and the white trash were certainly amusing. "Why aren't you all tatted up?" was about the 2nd thing one of 'em, holding a perpetual garage sale across the street, asked me after we met. One guy has a POS Harley (redundant, I know) he'd kick and kick and kick for 15 minutes or so trying to get it going in the morning, and there was a sort of "sea" of TVs of questionable origin (stolen) guitars of mysterious background (stolen) and such things floating around, with someone always buying something from someone else, with money to be paid on Tuesday etc.
The wetbacks were not that interesting, they just worked for a living.
Rose and Ed have been money in the bank on the first of each month, them offering to pay me back double makes me think that the 20 dollar bill I might bring home at the end of a night which is at the end of a month becomes one of the only ones in the building...
ReplyDeleteBut, as Shakespeare wrote, neither a borrower, etc. (I had thought that was Ben Franklin, when you quoted it before).
But, yeah, they could probably pawn their car title at a better rate than 100% (over 7 days! the APR on that would be 1,000% I think) unless they already have...
I think anyone with a spare 20 sitting in a jar on the refrigerator would take the opportunity to double it in a week; I just might be the only one here with cash on the 27th of any given month if I make any busking...
Just be careful, so far they've only said they'd pay you back double, not done it. And skeezers can be a vengeful bunch. I can see scum like them trying to get you kicked out of there as the culmination of a series of loans where they end up owing you $200 or so. You really want to stay away from skeezers.
ReplyDelete