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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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It's been almost a year getting rid of most of my books.
I made a list. Not complete, but as close as I'll get. It's a long list, so I'm throwing in a "Read More..." so it doesn't fill up the blog...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Today my phone - yet again, is cut off because of reasons of non-payment.
As will be my power soon.
Work, 4 pay periods behind for a total probably around $2500. My account is empty, my meds running out, and I'm behind on every bill. This is absurd. The sum of my paycheques alone would see me out of debt, but - I have to be patient. The stress is humming in my ears.
***
Last week, after my big day of chores, work - OK, then off to the Dosed Party, which is fine, only I'm a little annoyed about the state of my finances, and having been up all day and working am less about the party and more about making an appearance.
The party is fine, but I've no appetite for going hard.
***
News; one missing person found dead, another person gone missing, it's fall in the Kootenays. In the paper a despised customer is doing a reading at the library, she's written a book, all about the power of horsies to cure intergenerational trauma, her "Author's" photo shows her supercilious half-smile, she's rude and entitled and - when possible I let others serve her. But she's an "Author" and published, so - clearly a little more efficient than I. I find her book at the library - all the libraries have a few copies - it's a Vanity Press where the author has paid to publish and then provide copies to all the local libraries and hope to make a few sales. I scan it, but I so despise the author I can't bring myself to read it.
Work has gone from dead-slow to busy, checking my phone every day in the hopes I'll get paid, apparently tomorrow but I've heard this so many times before...
Yesterday, the municipal election and all the candidates are promising the same things, reading up on all of them and I can't make a decision, If I could have attended their debates I might have a better idea, but I didn't get a chance to, and so - being familiar with the issues, and the candidates all taking a similar stance, I abstain from voting. I'm not in this educated enough to make an informed decision.
And the upstairs neighbour, back together with her man, and in the wee hours I can hear her upstairs stumbling around drunk, dropping thing, heavy footsteps, in the morning there's the vacuum as she cleans up from the night before...
***
Other neighbour, coming over to install coinbase and crypto wallets on my phone, she's convinced hers has been hacked, it takes me hours to set up an account, scans of my drivers license, this after work, or on my days off, hours of no-conversation, of watching her fuck with her phone, with mine, finally getting her crypto deposited only to lose it all in a matter of minutes...
Meanwhile she's making herself pasta, leaving me the dishes, and when I go to make my potstickers she woofs them down as well, the potsticker, in the pan, on the stove, I'm turned to do something else when the pan slides off the stove, crashes to the floor, potstickers, water, oil, everywhere, and I'm pissed and wasn't I just complaining about the extinction of Poltergeists and yet here it appears I have one of my own...
***
Then there's the Alberta Separatist referendum, refer-a-friend-dumb, Alberta, the dip shit version of our country, when they're done I say the rest of the country should have a vote to expel them; let them live a few years with their leaders and folly, charge them all passage to leave that god-forsaken province, charge visas to visit the rest of the country, and when they change their mind charge them all $100, 000 each to reenter the country...
***
Yesterday, a garage sale, a tonne of art supplies only I'm broke at the moment, and probably I don't need more art supplies and while it's hard to pass on a bargain it's pretty easy when your wallet is empty. Tonight when it wraps up I'll visit again, see if there's a free pile to raid, although when I was there things were vanishing quick...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Yesterday, coming upstairs after work, C*****, just out of a 6 week rehab program, is letting a suspicious girl out of his apartment.
A new face in town, street person, and I run into him again later, in front of the bank with the rest of the homeless, and I'm inclined to point out this isn't the way to discard bad habits, but who am I to say and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't listen.
***
Today, a modest payment on a large balance outstanding. Having done two days off with no food, cigarettes, vodka, and I have some priorities...
First is get me to the grocery store. Lots of groceries, a full bag. Pot-Stickers, Pasta, Gnocci, sauce, coffee, etc.
***
A word about the Pot Stickers. The brand - "O'Tasty" - patently absurd, I mean, I'd trust it a lot better if was something like "Golden Dragon" or "Wings" but - well, the proof is in the pot-sticker. And the other - well, they're made in the USA - not a fan at the moment, but - if you want a pot sticker this is what you have to buy. I heartily endorse this product, which, when taken as recommended (instructions #1, pan fry, steam, fry again until golden) are delicious and - not on the package but trust me you'll thank me later - a tablespoon of crunchy chilies with garlic or shallots, a dash of soy sauce and a couple diced Thai chilis for dipping.
***
The Second priority is to get more groceries. For this I head down to the Co-op and get some Bison meat and mushrooms and sausage and some sparkling water and other essentials. Another full bag of groceries.
***
Having dropped these off at home I'm off to the third priority; which is get more groceries, sparkling water, juice, capers, etc.
***
It's just 11:00 AM and my chores are done-ish, there's more, there's a few weeks of stinking laundry piled in the bedroom to be sorted and washed and so I charge the laundry card, then sit down to scroll the interwebs, read the news, make potstickers, etc.
***
The groceries, well, go a few days with Mother Hubbard's cupboards and you'll understand. Food. I don't mind the intermittent fasting, but it's become too much of a thing as of late, and I'm done with all this, my figure's trim as is, I don't need it any leaner.
There are still a multitude of bills outstanding, but there are as well a multitude of cheques outstanding, and until I'm paid they'll have to wait. No bills will be paid if I've starved to death...
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makes Rod a dull boy.
Working lots, extra even, to try and pay down a few bills, only we're behind on a few paydays. And hence I'm behind on a few too many bills.
At home, enough tomatoes and onions and pasta for maybe 2 meals. Maybe. And the meds run out and I owe everyone and their dog money. Which - if paid - I would owe nobody money and so - this forever going without meals, cigarettes, well, it's getting to be a constant annoyance.
***
Books, finally I'm done. The last of the books to the bookstore yesterday, I have a rather long list of what I'd read, now to organize it and ... ?? I'll get ChatGPT to organize a virtual library for me. The hall, largely empty of boxes now, the desk and windowsill overflowing with books I have yet to read, I'm back onto Sir Walter Scott's "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" - borrowed by the neighbour as she's convinced she's under some sort of Hex.
***
And, today off, looking at what to do, what to do, $2 in my pocket, waiting on a payday so I can buy some meat...
I might need to find another job.
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I'm fucking late on my rent, and this is stressing me out. It's not because I've not been working, if anything I've been working more to clean up some outstanding debts - power, credit card, etc, etc, but - work is behind in paying me. 3 pay periods, next week it will be 5.
There's no sign of them paying me.
I sent them a text, apologizing, requesting at least a couple of cheques so I could pay my rent, utilities, etc, etc.
And this morning a cheque, but not enough to pay my rent.
Today, a double, and this whole shebang is stressing me out. I understand - short, late, whatever, but this is carrying on to me and the burden is mine to find the difference and I'm not so happy about this. Interest alone on debts is accreting faster than I can pay it off. And I'm out of cigarettes, vodka, food, and all this on a day off which is just annoying me further. I need to find more stable, regular employment.
****
Anyways, annoyed and had to vent. Yesterday was a long day without alcohol, cigarettes, peanuts for the crows, food in general. I had enough to buy a gummy and try and forget it all; but - like any stoner I found myself with the munchies and raiding a largely empty fridge for snacks, looking for the mini-pickles, the tapinade, cheese, crackers, salsa, whatever might satisfy the craving...
Nada.
***
The neighbour, she's learning chess, ways to fill the perpetual boredom of unemployment, she comes over to pay back $20 she borrowed and brings me some cheese and some grapes.
She hasn't repaid me a single loan in over a year. But there's a reason.
She wants me to install a trading app on my phone, hers has been “hacked’ she tells me, this may or may not be true but contradict her and you’ll hear about it so I just set it up on my phone and watch her do her trades. The next night she's over again, only she’s discovering she has no talent for this, the easy money is eluding her, her balance on the app dropping like a barometer in the eye of a Tornado, I warned her, still she makes her trades but by the next day all the money she deposited in the app has vanished.
She’s indefatigable in her rising up to meet defeat, she says nothing but I can read it on her face, pursed lips twitching, the mass of tics, micro-expressions, she doesn't rise up to meet defeat rather than she manifests it, in her pursuit of easy money she only gets to see the hard money vanish...
***
Playing Chess with her, now that we have a shared interest - better than sitting around watching her read the Bible (My flat, apparently, has a more saintly air), we play. She's still learning the moves, the pieces, what she can and can't do and is surprised that she loses. It's to be expected, really, and while I've handicapped myself greatly with a drink (or two) and a gummy and I've no interest in this, even with these monkeys on my back she's no contest (it would be worse if she was, I'd have to revise a few opinions...). Three games and we're done, she's won none.
***
The crows, I've run out of peanuts, they follow me down the street, they don't understand paycheques or being low on cash, they're annoyed. And then a couple take it upon themselves to drop chestnuts in my path - perhaps, now, it's time they fed me? I crush them under my heel, this is what they're looking for, and no sooner are they crushed than they fly down to eat them.
***
And now, time for a quick shower and off to work to plead for any portion of the cheques that are owed, a larger portion that I might pay my rent and - with luck - some other bills, but this is all a very "good luck" sort of proposition...