"I Had You For Breakfast; You Were Delicious!"

After adjusting my sleep schedule, by forcing myself to sleep Sunday night, after I watched golf on the TV that I hardly ever turn on, I was up at the traditional "start of a new week" time: early Monday morning.

I hadn't used any sleeping pills. I have enough of them so as to give me the option of committing suicide, should life at any point turn into a mockery of my whole existence. They have been in my medicine cabinet, along with some "stool softeners" pills in the one other bottle there; for about 5 years.

Having ceased to view life as something that happens to me, totally out of my own control, it isn't likely that I will ever employ those pills to that particular end (excuse the pun). 

I don't foresee being physically apprehended when some invading army sacks New Orleans, with, in my immediate future, being strapped to a table and tortured until I divulge some secret that I don't even know ("Where is Jr. hiding?") so that death would ultimately be a blessed relief from excruciating agony. Despite certain pundits on Youtube who are prognosticating that, within 4 years, the soldiers of the Chinese Communist Party will be consigning us U.S. citizens to just such fates. 

So, I could have used a couple of the pills to induce slumber, in light of the strides I've made in the area of my mental health, since I stashed them 5 years ago; but The Golf Channel functioned as a drug-free alternative to treat insomnia.

The List Of 5

I was bright-eyed, clear headed, full of energy and focused upon accomplishing 5 tasks.

The first one was to contact the AmBetter "health insurance marketplace" people, who had given me until April 19th to submit to them "proof of household income," to ask them how I should go about getting some such documentation.

I was told, by a representative (who said she is "third party" and, in effect, has no skin in the game) that I had been misled by the guy who had approached me on the street corner and signed me up, promising better coverage than what I could expect using the "medicaid" card that has been in my wallet the past 9 years or so. I used that about once, during a visit to the emergency room, when I had an abscessed tooth that was swelling the whole side of my face. 

In the past, I had treated that condition a couple times using the needle from one of the syringes that I always see on the sidewalks of certain parts of The Quarter, which I used to lance the thing, after sterilizing it with my lighter (the needle; not The Quarter -it would take more than a lighter to sterilize that). When the pain in the gum reaches the point where it hurts more than stabbing your gums with a needle is going to; that's when you go in.

I have since learned to substitute deep breathing exercises, massage, acupressure and switching to a diet of only apple juice for a few days to fight back infections at the onset of them. Speaking of infections...

I was going to see about getting antibiotics for the swelling in my throat, and was calling the AmBetter people to see if I was indeed covered, despite not having sent the "proof of annual household income" documents they'd requested.

The people who prowl the sidewalks, looking for people like me, work on the basis of commission, and will "tell you anything" to get you to sign up, I was told by the last of 3 representatives that I was able to get on the phone, who sounded like a young lady of color. 

The first person had been a guy with an Indian accent, whom I had to disconnect from because (item #4 on the list) my phone, was breaking up. 

The second was a young lady, to whose astonishment, I correctly guessed was in The Philippines ("How did you know that?!") I then provoked her into a fit laughter, after she'd told me her name was "Farina (and, how can I help you?)" to which I joked that I eaten Farina for breakfast that morning. "I put in some blueberries and sprinkled fructose powder over the top; you were delicious..."

It took her a few seconds to regain her composure. "Oh, I can't stop laughing!"

The way I'd guessed that she was in the Philippines started after I had said that I was up "bright and early" on that Monday morning, "trying to get some things accomplished."

"Oh, it's night time here," she rejoined.
Then, imagining a globe in my head, and rotating it about 8 hours in my mind's eye, I chose a country out of the few American allies in that region, ruling out Taiwan and Japan because of her accent; and South Korea, because her name was Farina, and not Kim. The Philippines, America's strongest ally in the region; why not put them to work answering phones...?

After about a half hour of holding, tethered to a wall outlet by a 3 foot cable (because my phone's battery only lasts about 80 seconds) I was informed that the guy that had signed me up had entered, unbeknownst to me, an annual household income of $20,000 on my behalf -a figure he might have pulled out of his ass after giving me a once over and judging me to be worth about that.

I felt about as insulted as I do when I hear a skeezer trying to skeeze "a couple bucks for a hamburger" out of a better dressed than me person nearby; who then skeezes me with: "I'm 50 cents short of a beer, can you help me out?"

"Sorry, I don't have any coins on me; just large bills...Have a nice day..."

Speaking of being skeezed; I remember thinking: "Who is going to believe that, as I'm out here trying to make a buck; skeezers actually come along trying to skeeze them as soon as I do?" But, luckily for me on that note; someone shot a video of this particular instance of that fiasco. I told this guy (as it's hard to make out) "No, I'm trying to make a buck, so I will have one.."

 

The AmBetter health insurance is a "Federal" program, the young lady with no (brown) skin in the game informed me. She went on to say that it was good that I called her, because the $1,080/mo. of coverage that I was ostensibly entitled to, was only a "credit" -kind of like a lien placed upon whatever taxes I would be paying, based upon the "$20,000" that the guy who works on commission had entered on my behalf, right before I signed on the dotted tablet.

I could have wound up owing "a lot of money," at the end of the year. She said she knew of people being hounded for $30K; who couldn't verify that they made the amount of money that their coverage had been based upon. "They're going to want you to file at the end of the year," she said, adding that, if I have no income, then I would have to pay full price for everything and wouldn't benefit from AmBetter at all.
This is confusing because, I didn't think they took any income tax at all out of people who made less than a certain amount; but apparently, I could get $12K a year for medical expenses, when I supposedly made only $20K?

"Download Your Digital ID, So You'll Have It On Your Smartphone!!"

I think programs such as AmBetter might just be a ploy in order to have the "digital ID" issued to people that is prominently mentioned in the paperwork that they sent me; telling me that they only needed me to verify my income (download it and always have it with you on your smartphone, type of thing).

That way, they can monitor citizens through it, and link it to other agencies, so that, should I ever want to fly out to the Philippines, to meet Farina and make her laugh in person, I might be told that I can't board the plane because I'm on some non-vaccinated-no-fly list. Give Big Pharma their cash, or go nowhere, type of thing. Even though I would be taking on more risk of injury from getting the ugabooga, than I would be from the plane ever crashing, type of thing. (red flag: AmBetter is a Federal program).

She went ahead and cancelled me out of the program, but then warned me that I now have no coverage at all. I need to contact the "state" insurance program i.e. Medicaid, and re-apply for that; as a person with no verifiable household income.

I went about doing that, but, for some reason the holding time, waiting to speak to someone who deals with people who have no verifiable income seemed to be much longer than it had been to get the 3 separate people from AmBetter on the line. No Farina for me, I guess...

My Fill Of Holding

I hung up after about 20 minutes. I had been tethered to the wall for half the morning at that point, and my right ear was starting to stick to the phone, and itch..

Then Jr. knocked on my door, holding a large bottle of orange juice mixed with vodka, and I became side-tracked with only 1 of the 5 things on the list being checked off. I didn't want to go to the unemployment office (item #3) smelling of alcohol, and I didn't want to call to order a new phone (#4) because I'd had my fill of holding for the day. I didn't want to go to the emergency room, pursuant to the swelling in my throat, because I have no coverage at all; so, sure, pass me that bottle again...

Having run out of food money for the month (after being cut from $380 to $215 per month, now that "the pandemic" is "over") made me remember that I don't actually have to fast for the next 2 weeks. I can go back to busking every night; a situation wherein you get handed food nightly, in one form or other, by people. Or you find a pizza box atop a trash receptacle with a couple still warm slices in it, somewhere in The Quarter. Not to mention finding enough drinks that people set down all over the place, for one reason or another (their Uber arrives and they don't want it to spill every time it hits a pothole; they take one sip and decide that it's too strong, too sweet, too tart; or they had just started sipping on it when they came upon the club they were looking for, where "no outside drinks" are allowed.

So, even a crappy busker who doesn't get tipped can eat, drink and be merry every night in The French Quarter. Of course, having food allergy issues, it's incumbent upon me to make at least enough to buy something that won't give me an eczema flareup (we hadn't even taken our instruments out of their cases when a guy offered us a couple egg rolls, which I deferred to Jacob on, due to my soy sauce phobia). Of course, a good dose of alcohol acts the same way as most anti-histamines do, I have found -I guess your skin won't itch when your whole body is numb...

Initially, when my food stamp money ran out; I was in a slight state of panic.

I thought I would just start going into the Quarter in the early afternoon every day, and just find different places to play at, for maybe a half hour or 5 bucks, whichever came first. Then, maybe grab a shot of brandy for a buck, and maybe even a McDonald's hamburger, no mayo and probably have a dollar and change left over to put in my tip jar, to start the process over again.

That seemed to be the third best option, inferior to fasting until the end of the month. 

Fasting would cure the swelling in my throat (if it's a cancerous tumor, my body would eventually use it for fuel, once all my fat had been metabolized) It would bring me mental clarity and focus, as well as take advantage of the fact that I wouldn't be needing to keep any protein or iron levels up, so I could sell my plasma.

And, of course, the penultimate solution would be to busk in the state of not having eaten in a week or 10 days; something that has never failed to fill my tip jar (from looking so "skinny?") with money that had no claims made upon it in the way of food, alcohol, tobacco, weed, kratom or anything that isn't water or air; as the desire for all of those former things goes away around 5 days in.

Failing that, I could subsist on all of the food that gets donated to Sacred Heart residents which winds up in the dumpster, as it is usually all kinds of beans, along with rice and cans of vegetables. I looked in a cabinet under my kitchen counter and found, behind a pillow sized wad of plastic shopping bags, about a dozen bags of various beans. Most residents seem to stock-pile such things, going so far as maybe eating the macaroni and cheese, the powdered milk and the "brick" of cheddar cheese which, along with the cans of tomato soup and a loaf of cheap bread can put them in grilled cheese heaven. I avoid dairy, so it is no loss to me that most residents would have eaten what they do; but I would imagine some of them opening a cabinet full of beans and saying: "Grab all you want."

Sunday, I made a large pot of quinoa, which I ate along with some "turtle" beans, which are small and black, and that was the precursor to me being able to fall asleep and wake up full of energy, bright and early Monday morning.

Monday, I repeated that, but with kidney beans. I didn't feel quite as well Tuesday morning; but that experiment may have been tainted by the amount of vodka that Jr. had given me -cheap vodka, to boot. Perhaps that's what contributed to the slightly depressed mood I was in upon waking up Tuesday; until I drank some coffee and shook it off. 

It's Wednesday morning, April 19th now. I could start some (Great Northern) beans a-soaking, then call the phone company about a replacement phone; then maybe the Medicaid people -I'll plug my speaker into the headphone jack so I can roam around the place while being on hold- and maybe even ride over to the unemployment office to see if I can get at least the minimum benefit of $107 per week (out of which Sacred Heart Apartments will eventually hit me up for about $11 out of.

"In order to get unemployment, you have to work," said my neighbor, Wayne.

But, I seem to recall that, for the pandemic, I was able to apply as a "non-filer" (of taxes) and they just asked me to estimate how much I made busking; which I did as honestly as possible, referring to records kept on this very blog.

I started to get the minimum amount of $107 a week, but then my account started receiving deposits of an extra $417 per week as "pandemic" assistance, along with lump sums of $600 "out of the blue." That might have been because Louisiana voted for Trump, because those payments sure stopped as soon as fumbling, bumbling, blathering Biden was installed as president...

I don't mind putting it that way; I've already lost 100% of the readership made up of those who would never read any blog they think might be authored by "a Trumper." There is no one more foolish and hopeless than he who blithely hates another man because of the way he thinks that man voted in any election. Now several nations are being run by the oligarchs of Big Tech, Big Pharma and the Military Industrial Complex, ours included. Any fool should be able to figure that out, despite what that smartphone they're staring at right now is telling them...

Gee, if I'd only had the foresight to buy Pfizer stock with those extra "pandemic" funds...that's the kind of 'wealth transfer' I'm talking about....