My Lucky Day

I’m getting around to looking at the glass being half full, and I’m half way there, but I have to admit that I’ve been bummed that my ex-wife, Kristi Winett, decided that my son Josh may have the $50 I sent for his 13th birthday, but that he may not open the card, nor see the card.  It’s great that I was allowed to send him a gift at all, and my father told him that I love him, but my heart tends to experience grief the old fashioned way — it’s a process and it doesn’t start with acceptance.

I’m feeling better now, but I did blow off work on Thursday and then on Friday, intending to work on both days, and then into the night on Friday until Saturday morning.  The deal is that Friday, May 23rd, was the last day on my timesheet for the June 1st check date, and while I’ve done enough work to cover my bills and feed my face, I’ve not earned walking around money, nor thrilled my boss with output.  I wanted to complete a milestone by the end of this check and enjoy some walking around.

That did not happen.

I ended up chatting with a friend online until late, and then visiting with Stephanie, Pluto, and Riot until hitting the sack at around 3:30 this Saturday morning.

I woke up around 8 to an email from my boss, a reminder about time sheets being due.

I responded with a request to send my sheet in later this afternoon, and explained I had been somewhat bummed because of the creepy and mean way that my ex-wife, Kristi Winett, did not allow my son to open his card and read my handwriting telling him that not a day has passed that I had not wished that we were hanging out, that I was proud of him (enumerated a couple of his recent achievements), and that I loved him, finding his gift inside.  She instead just had him handed a $50 bill. 

I’m appreciative that he received a gift from me this year.

Then I made coffee and mentioned on Facebook that I needed to get to work because I hadn’t worked because I was somewhat bummed out about the aforementioned subject which I shall not reiterate again in this post.  

The mentioning of me not working is sort of a running joke I have been putting into my social ramblings of late.  I’m reminding myself that this not working as much as I can is a problem.  I seem to have ADD.  (Duh?)  

Instead of getting right to work, I made more coffee and then read a friend’s post commemorating the 30th anniversary of him losing his virginity.  I responded that I believed this year to also be the 30th anniversary of my first journey into the wonderful passage, but when I really thought about it, I couldn’t decide if it will have been 30 or 31 years for me, this autumn.

So I decided to make more coffee and then blog about when I lost my virginity to the aforementioned Kristi Winett, the mother of my babies:

Then I updated Skype and logged in and wrote a message to my boss asking again if I may please delay the submission of my timesheet until this afternoon.

He was writing a reply when I heard an explosion outside.  The power went off.   My UPS beeped.

I powered down the computer.

I called the power company.

I went outside to look at the transformer — an investigative mission for which I recorded video. 

I realized that this power outage was timely, quite funny because I was at that moment telling my boss that I needed to work (was really getting to that point of actually doing it); but, panic was looming, and I could feel it curdling up from my gall bladder, bile in my throat, feet in my toes, and sweat on my brow.

Air conditioning was the most important human advancement after electricity.  The importance of electric light pales in comparison to the greatness of chilled air.  The communication convenience afforded by the telephone means nothing if I must sweat all summer long.  Also, the internet, my beloved communication platform over which I blabber so much, is total crap without air conditioning because I find it torturous to blabber and blog with sweaty fingeanrs.  

Salty dripping does not a happy Joe make.  

I am currently at the library.  

Canteen Kitchen at the Sally

I have enjoyed the air conditioning at the library before.  The joy of air conditioning always comes first.  Then I always appreciated being able to access the Internet.

At the time, I was homeless, living at the Salvation Army shelter here in Shawnee.  

Thank God for the Salvation Army.  I thanked the people at the Sally often.  They usually said they thank God, and I was welcome.

Here is the first post of my series I wrote, from this very library, just down the street from the Salvation Army… in October, 2009: 

Stephanie was downstairs, and we had discussed the electricity.  She asked me to go make her deposit this morning and I was happy to do it because my car has air conditioning.  I planned a slow, chilly drive because the bank was only a few blocks drive.

On the way, I listened to SiriusXM.  I don’t pay for it, but this Memorial Day weekend is free!

I can’t remember the song that was playing while I drove, but I do remember thinking that it seemed oddly appropriate for the situation of this week, and of not working.  

Say what you will — that we look around and pick out the signs we want to find, or maybe that you believe, as I do, that the Universe is a large role playing game designed for entertainment of the One thing, that our lives are a distraction from the boredom of eternal life, and that God does change things, and send signs, and cause chance meetings, all in order to make a better story.  

Remember Agent Smith’s explanation in The Matrix to Morpheus that there had been previous versions of the system?  That the original systems modeled utopia where humans had everything they ever desired, and they failed miserably because people would not accept the program?  

Another interpretation might be that they didn’t have any reason to live without struggle.

Jesus said that a feast every day is no feast at all.

Winning means nothing without losing.

I pulled under the portico of the bank’s drive-through.  The satellite radio started to blank out, its display exclaiming “Loading…” and it played short snippets of a song which I do not recall.

The teller asked what Stephanie does at SYI Studios and I explained that she runs our portrait studio, takes photographs, does graphic art, sculpture, crafting, and design work, logos, illustrations, and whatnot.

She does all the Photoshop stuff like blemish removal and additions to backgrounds, even mixing people from different photographs so that a family can get a few of everyone smiling when one kid or the other (or dad) is not.

She asked where we are located and I told her at the corner of Highland and Kickapoo here in Shawnee, Oklahoma — just diagonal across the intersection from Mr. and Mrs. Kim’s Kickapoo Market, a convenience store and gas station.

http://www.syistudios.com/

http://www.facebook.com/SYIstudios

I was thinking about where to sit in my car sucking up air conditioning.  Sonic and ice cream came to mind, so I pulled out from under the portico and SiriusXM finally caught up with its stream.

Wild, Wild Life by the Talking Heads was just beginning.  I turned it up.

Wild, Wild Life is from the album True Stories which, in my humble opinion, is a statement made from the perspective of God about Life, The Universe, and Everything.   They’re all true stories.

That particular song is saying that He provides situations, good and bad, for the thrill because he knows that we like a wild, wild life.  Lyric: “Everything falls apart.  It’s scientific.”

I LOVE the band, that album, and the movie.

I made this video that interprets Dream Operator, written by David Byrne, performed by Talking Heads, on the album, True Stories:

I thought, wow!!  That was so lucky, hearing that song starting right then.  Just after making a deposit for Stephanie on the morning that I was stopped from working for walking around money because of a transformer explosion or other sort of mishap caused by a squirrel.  [see: Hot Tub Time Machine]

I turned right out of the bank, and left onto this street, and down to that intersection and waited for the green light.  

I was sort of considering that the song talks about bad things being part of the story, and starting to reconsider my course when the light turned green.  I had to wait for a wide load and its flagging truck to finish their turn in front of me.  

Stephanie saved me around my 40th birthday by importing me to Shawnee… into her mobile home.

We were a couple for about six months.  I continued to live there for quite a while even after we broke up.  She got me a job.  Sweet, eh?

Mobile home — definitely a sign.

I followed the mobile home down to Hardesy Road where it turned right.

I turned right.

SiriusXM switched from Wild, Wild Life to Fire Woman by the cult.  I thought of Kristi.

We came to the casino, I turned left.

I parked next to this car that looked a lot like Stephanie’s.

Outside, next to the entry, I walked past a lady that looked really familiar.  She was brunette, but resembled Kim, my partner in crime.  She looked down and out… Sort of methy.

I got ice cream and went to the location of a machine that was in my head.  It is one that I’ve seen Stephanie play before.  It wasn’t there any longer and besides, someone was sitting there…

So I went to another machine I have seen Stephanie playing.

When I sat down, I noticed the woman sitting next to me was the lady who I saw when I was walking into the casino.  Her boyfriend was next to her.  He also looked sorta methy.

I stuck in $20 and enjoyed a little ice cream.  I played a bit.  I didn’t really win, so I decided that I would stop and leave the casino now that I had spent $5 — about what I would have spent at Sonic — maybe a little more, but I had been sitting inside, in the chilly air.

Then I considered that perhaps I should just give the $15 ticket to this chick and her boyfriend.  They had just been arguing about something.  Then he gave her $20, so I stood up.

I decided that I wanted a bit of Coke float before I left… I’d paid for it.

I did make that little float, and stood right by the ice cream machine and the High Roller room, enjoying it.

Then I thought… what the heck.  Famous last words.

I walked in, ate float, and considered whether and which machine.

Then I decided to choose a VGT machine because I’d once gotten a job there (I didn’t take it).  And it was a machine with a red head on the front.  And I remembered Kim telling me that bingo machines were the best to win big jackpots on — she told me they don’t pay off often, but sometimes they pay off in a big way.

I’d once received an MMS text from Kim with a picture of her screen showing a $1200 jackpot on one of these machines.  I was excited because we had talked earlier that day about her coming to see me in Shawnee, but she didn’t have gas money… I assumed she would be on her way.

Hours went by and then I received another picture from Kim, this time with more than $2400 on the screen of a different machine.

I was excited — surely she would be on her way.

I waited up until 3 in the morning.  She showed up at 5pm that night with about a gallon of gas left in her tank and $0 in her purse.  🙂  Gotta love it.

I slipped a $5 bill into the machine, and pressed SPIN!!  (a $5 bet)

Nothing.

I put another $5 bill into the machine, and pressed SPIN!!  I won $50:

I thought, SWEET.   $50 — what a number!!  I gave $50 to my son Joshua a couple of days ago for his 13th birthday!!

Here’s the story:

Then I pressed SPIN!!! (another $5 bet) and won $60 more dollars!!!