- Where have I been?
- What have I been doing?
- Am I still alive?
- Same place as always except for in here.
- That’s a question I can’t answer quickly.
- As far as I can tell.
I received approval for SSI and have been trying to get some positive changes in my lifestyle underway. I am still homeless for 75% of the time. The meager monthly SSI payments are not nearly enough to support oneself except in the meanest of conditions and it would seem that I am meaner than the meanest.
I need transportation and shelter. The 25% of the time that I am not “houseless” is at the first of the month when I get my SSI and rent a weekly rate motel room and that is as far as the SSI check will let me go — one week at a motel.
So, I have been looking around for a rooming house where I can get a place for $400 a month or less. It ain’t happening, folks, not in this area anyway. There have been a few, but they are precious few. Rare, I say. And nothing has worked out in that respect.
I have made a deal on a van, something I can go outside the city and it’s higher cost of living and find a cheaper place to live. If I go outside the city I will be off public transportation routes and still need to get to doctors, groceries and etc. With a van I can live in it as long as necessary while I cast about for something with a foundation — not to mention toilet and kitchen and running water.
It’s still a long way from ideal. It’s still a dangerous and threatening situation, but it has improved. If you look with a magnifying glass you can see it — barely. The important thing is that it a move in the right direction.
The van deal ought to come through in a week or two — that’s a long story, but unwinding as it should.
Soon as I can, I plan to be back in Closing Remarks on a regular basis. I just don’t know when “soon as I can” is.
I haven’t forgot the “Losing Faith” Series.
Thanks for your patience.
Ham