I’m homeless (again).
This post must be made in the 36 minutes remaining on my library Internet reservation.
That’s going to limit me to just a few carefully chosen words.
I need to be careful and use this time (and your time wisely).
Here’s an idea for a story for your kids. Tell the Three Little Pigs story, but make the big, bad wolf drive a monster truck. He huffs and he puffs, and then he smashes the Pigs’ cars. The first little pigs has an aluminum economy car. The second has a boxy luxery car. The third has a reinforced Hummer or something like that.
Last Thursday, I took about 42 steps backward and decided to kill my computer. I just ripped the SDRAM out of it and broke each stick in half. I was feeling useless and I guess I wanted to make sure I was useless… a computer programmer without a computer.
After killing the computer, I was told to leave, so I picked up the computer and dropped it in the dumpster as I walked out of the neighborhood (I don’t have a car). I didn’t bring anything but the clothes on my back (smart, eh?).
A 16 year old kid made the observation that I’m like a cutter. When I’m upset, I break the only thing I have of value, something I love, my computer.
That kid pulled the computer out of the dumpster, put new memory in it, and hacked his way through Window Vista’s password file and is now using the computer. For his hard work, determination, and observation about The Spider, he gets to keep the computer. I hope he’ll give me my files including my original plans for a real Flux Capacitor.
At 10:30pm, I walked north of Shawnee, Oklahoma towards Stillwater on Highway 177. It’s about 55 miles.
I did the first 10 miles pretty easily.
I did the second 10 miles slowly and in mild pain.
I did the third 10 miles with a frown on my face. I limped. The speed had to have been less than 2 miles an hour. I don’t know — I don’t have a watch. To make matters worse, that third ten miles of road did not have a shoulder to walk on. Ouch.
I was REALLY thirsty. I started stopping at houses to ask for some water, but no one would come to the door.
I kept walking. As I walked up a hill, I saw a “Cemetery” sign pointing to the right. I smiled, because my family used to own a large cemetery in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, called Floral Haven.
I thought about walking to the cemetery and waiting to die.
At the base of the sign was a clear plastic container, like a sherbet container, with little birds printed on it, full of rainwater.
Did the water taste good? It tasted a little like the sand and dirt that collected in the bottom of the container, but I felt a lot better.
I kept limping down the road.
I tried and tried to hitchhike.
No one wants to pick up a middle-aged man (yes, shut up) wearing a tie-dye sun and moon shirt in the middle of nowhere.
But, there was someone!
A farmer pulled out onto the highway from a dirt road. He stopped. He let me get in. He drove me three miles down the road during which time I told him my story. I thanked him for the ride as I got out and then he said our paths my cross again. I said, I hope so.
I walked for another 15 minutes and then the truck pulled up next to me again.
He dropped off a trailer, picked up his son, and then came back my way to take me the next 25 miles into Stillwater.
This was completely in the opposite direction of his farm.
God, please bless those farmers and the crop of winter wheat they planted this week.
I got to the Mission of Hope homeless shelter in Stillwater at 3:00 to find out that without a Social Security Card, I could not stay. The guy said the SSA office was just 1.5 or 2 miles up the road and they close at 4:30 and if I hurry, I could get proof of my number.
So I hustled. (Remember, I walked 30 miles without sleep…)
After two miles, I was concerned.
After three miles, I was slightly irritated.
After four miles, I was hurting.
I got to the SSA to find they closed at 4:00 (I wouldn’t have made 4:30 anyway).
So I walked back to the shelter. I got there at like 7:30.
I let the guy know of the distance and the time of closing (to be helpful). He thought I had walked all the way back to tell him he was wrong. So he was mad at me.
I asked if I could please have some food and he said he would feed me because I was hungry, not because he felt any sort of guilt about sending me all that way (he was saying that I was trying to make him feel guilty… I guess I have that power).
The meal was good. Then I asked if I could sleep in a chair or on a mat and was told no. 🙂
So, I slept outside three nights. That’s a pretty funny story… I’ll put it in the next posting.
And, I made it to the SSA on Monday!
I still didn’t get to stay at that shelter because of my extensive criminal record (I left two voicemails and one email asking about my kids in defiance of a court order. That is three domestic violence offenses in Oklahoma. I was actually facing three years in jail for that. If I call again, it’s a felony, so I am now out of that business.)
More tomorrow.
Sorry I don’t have time to proof read this. The library timer is down to 12 minutes.
I need to get to the Salvation Army Shelter for dinner in the next 20 minutes.
Mmm.
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