As much as this life is laced with lament and challenges these days, there is still progress most days and today Curly and I (mostly him) worked on the pipes to get hot water into my bathroom. We paused and hope to finish tomorrow. I get a hot shower tomorrow at his place. These few weeks without hot showers have taken their toll on the body and spirit as it is a daily (life in this body is a moment to moment experience not always easy to ignore) reminder of the potential return to street life and of the lack of income and all that can go wrong in thise culture when the money runs out. I know way too much about that from my personal and professional experiences.
I know I could shower in hot water daily as I have at least a half dozen people (several nearby) who would insist I use their house if they knew the full scope of my situation but I do not like taking so much from a lot of others and I do not like others treating me like I am a failure (and some would because that is how we are trained to see someone in my position in this culture) and I am lazy and don't want to drive to take a shower every day. I could just move in with Curly yet I would be far from softball and enjoy this privacy. I am probably also punishing myself in my own simple way for not taking the good fortune and great income I had seriously and putting myself where I am. Hey, I could even spend $10 a month on a gym membership ($1 for the first month, $99 a year) where I could shower multiple times a day if I so chose to, but driving there (no less exercising) has been foolishly avoided by my selfish belief in natural consequences and again, laziness. Change your ways, old fool, or prepare to die.
Subtle, I am not. So anyway, would you like to swing on a star?
Yeah, I am still easy to amuse and laugh away most challenges by remembering there is always hope and I can survive just about anything this body can survive. So today was another sleep-in day after another night I went to bed after sunrise, but Curly woke me before noon and we started on the plumping. After we paused we went to buy more parts we need to finish the job and then headed to his place for a shower and cards. Tuesday night cards, remember?
Tusday night cards was fun. We only had four so we played spades and we split four games (Curly and I are usually on different teams because we are good at the game. It was after midnight when the fourth game ended so we did not play another. Farewells were shared and I headed home and here we are. Tomorrow Curly will call when he is ready to head over and I will wake up and help him finish the plumbing improvements and I will have hot water and a washing machine. Yay for that. Clothes lines or a trip to the local laundromat are preferable to heating up the place and the cost of running a dryer at the moment. Besides, the laundry room does not fit my large modern front loading equipment.
Same for the air-conditioning. Keeping costs down and making maximum use of the space (once accessible window and the best option for now is a window unit). Once the plumbing is completed I will return to unpacking and sorting and reducing the clutter. Now if I can only find someone with a huge truck willing to drive my stuff down from New York, I'd sort and finally reduce all of the material clutter in this life and in my head and who knows what might happen then.
Jackson just texted a smile in response to my midnight goodnight (Hers was sent at 11pm but I missed it. That must have been when I went to the bathroom during the card games). Before I could ask why she is up so late she texted back that she got up to pee. We really are a strange pair of adopted siblings, no doubt. And on that note, I wish you a goodnight too. Hope your day was fun and productive and hope, hope your night was fun and full of love, and hope you make tomorrow even better.
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