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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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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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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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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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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...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Got paid today. A small paycheck, but any paycheck at the moment would suffice...
The day, at work, deathly slow, a single deuce all lunch. Then - with the paycheck I'm off to get groceries. I'd spent the day salivating over thoughts of BBQ Peking duck, but that's out, at least in Nelson, but there's the possibility of Chinese Pot Stickers and I head down to the "No Frills" or whatever it is and search their frozen aisle and there they are...
$5.00 a bag. A bargain. I grab 3.
Then some other groceries, condiments, a crispy-garlic chilli paste, some cocktail onions, sweet and sour, salsa, Pho Broth, a 6 pack of Lemon Pelligrino, cold-cuts, etc, etc, then home to make my pot-stickers.
They're delicious. It's been years since I've made them and yes, I've missed them. And the chilli-crispy-garlic is amazing as well...
I love pasta, but the Bison/Venison/Elk bolognese has grown boring from the sheer frequency with which I make it, I need to mix things up a bit.
Then head out, again, this time to the co-op, there's a few groceries I missed, some sparkling water, chicken, a few other staples and I'm set for the week. In two trips to the grocery store I got about 30 lbs of groceries, all for the bargain price of $150.
"Bargain" was meant to be facetious, but the pot-stickers, at $5.00 a bag, and dinner was half a bag, they're the winner...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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It has been the most boring last couple of weeks imaginable.
Started a painting, but it goes like they always do in the beginning, and so I take a break from it.
Work, not busy, long hours pacing the restaurant. Extra long hours, as I requested extra shifts and they kindly obliged, I'm inundated with bills that need be addressed sooner rather than later. As of today I am 3 pay periods behind; they always pay but they don't always understand the "urgency" of regular payments.
The neighbour, well, upstairs one has been in her own world, "Kramer" pops by on occasion to get a cup of sugar, "borrow" some cash, get me to cook for her, I'd given her a couple of books, including a Bible, which apparently she lost/mislaid so she pops around to indulge in a bit of "Bibliomancy", wherein you open to a random page and put your finger on a verse and try and divine some meaning in it.
My god there are better dates.
Autumn, here already, days bright, evenings crisp and cool, no need of the AC or the heater, a beautiful time of the year that would be even better if I had wheels, a destination, but first I need cash and when the bills are paid I can worry about this.
This winter, probably long, I need another job, something to keep my busy, keep the bills at bay, something that I can use to save up for the long overdue jeep, take some time off of work and get into the country, out of the country, something, anything, my life has grown far too boring...