The program at the whale factory is finally up and running so once again I am employed. I worked the maximum they said we are allowed, which is six hours. My hand hurt after about 3 hours so I switched to the other hand for the last 3 hours. Despite what most people think, using a computer is treacherous work.
I took several breaks to walk around the building and around the neighborhood. The neighborhood is in the rundown area near the airport. I walked around the old drive-in theater that is now long term airport parking. I remember when it was a drive-in. I saw lots of movies there long ago.
Today I found a bicycle hanging from a eugenia tree. I decided that if it is still there next time I go by, I will take it home.
As I walked, I realized how happy I am. It makes me happy that I'm not part of the rat race. I hope I can stay out of the rat race. I like having a job with no stress. I think I need to always live this way. Life is not worth living when it is full of stress no matter how much money they give you.
I have been reading web sites written by people who rejected normal society. It is interesting reading. Some of them live in a way that reminds me of the PCT. They live by trail magic every day. Others of them do other things, such as run an urban homestead growing 6000 lbs of food on only 1/10th of an acre of land in the middle of the city. Some people threw all care to the wind, put on a backpack and traveled the world. It is interesting to read how they get by. It gives me hope for the future.
It's not that I plan to completely drop out. I like to work. I enjoy the camaraderie of the workplace and feeling like I'm a part of things.
What concerns me is that it seems that I no longer have the opportunities I once had. Doors seem less open to me than when I was younger. It may be the economy or it may be permanent because of my age. The southern California sun and all my hiking haven't exactly been kind to my skin. Whatever the reason, it does not seem wise to be too dependent on the whims of the current system.
Reading about how other people survive gives me hope for my own future. I have more options than I thought. Somehow I will survive, too. I just have to take it one day at a time, and stay always in the present.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Gardening: my economic activity for the day
My job at the whale farm hasn't quite begun yet, so I have finally gotten around to planting my fall garden. I had planted some stuff last year and I was surprised to see that after our 4.5 inches of rain the other week, chard had voluntarily sprouted itself. So I planted more chard, beets and cilantro.
My garden is very small. The Man says that gophers will destroy any attempts to plant food. Last year I gathered a bunch of big plastic pots, maybe 3 gallon sized, and so instead of a normal garden, I planted my garden in the pots. I used dirt from the ground and compost mixed together. Some of the pots have planting mix, too, but I ran out of that. It doesn't seem to matter much. The plants will grow.
While I fiddled with my pots, I heard a strange noise. I thought maybe I was about to be attacked by insects. I looked, but it was only the neighbor's chickens staring at me and making little buzzing noises. I've wondered if I put nests in our back yard if the chickens might defect over to our side. They certainly like our compost bin. I have a chicken nest somewhere I bought for our big white bird. She wasn't interested in it, despite how many times we've called her a big white chicken.
Last year I grew lettuce in my garden. I decided to go for beets this time instead. With beets you can eat the roots and the leaves. I made a beet green soup once and served it with feta cheese and crusty bread. The Man thought it was delicious. I think he would have turned up his nose if I had told him I was making beet green soup before he tasted it.
After I planted my garden, using a big spoon from the kitchen and a watering can—that's how high tech I am—I noticed that our tiny little tangerine tree is covered with fruit. There is so much fruit, the shrub (I can hardly call it a tree) is almost more fruit than leaves. So I picked a big bag. I wonder if pulling off the fruit and leaving a big hunk of peel still attached is bad. That is what seems to happen every time.
Nothing tastes better than tangerines. My little green bird likes them, too. I'm not a fan of oranges. I like tangerines and grapefruit best of the citrus fruits.
I also picked up some large, ripe passion fruit that fell off the monster vine that is taking over the yard. Our big white birds likes those. She'll eat a passion fruit bigger than her big head.
Since I've become mostly locked out of the corporate world (and I'm kind of wondering if that is really so bad) I've come to the conclusion that I need to grow more of what I eat and eat a lot less. The 20 minutes I spent today in my little garden was my economic activity for the day. Let's hope it earned me enough to buy a beer down at the Irish session tonight. At the very least, I've got a thousand calories or so of tangerines in the fridge to show for my efforts. And about 50 calories of chard sprouts to show for no efforts at all.
My garden is very small. The Man says that gophers will destroy any attempts to plant food. Last year I gathered a bunch of big plastic pots, maybe 3 gallon sized, and so instead of a normal garden, I planted my garden in the pots. I used dirt from the ground and compost mixed together. Some of the pots have planting mix, too, but I ran out of that. It doesn't seem to matter much. The plants will grow.
While I fiddled with my pots, I heard a strange noise. I thought maybe I was about to be attacked by insects. I looked, but it was only the neighbor's chickens staring at me and making little buzzing noises. I've wondered if I put nests in our back yard if the chickens might defect over to our side. They certainly like our compost bin. I have a chicken nest somewhere I bought for our big white bird. She wasn't interested in it, despite how many times we've called her a big white chicken.
Last year I grew lettuce in my garden. I decided to go for beets this time instead. With beets you can eat the roots and the leaves. I made a beet green soup once and served it with feta cheese and crusty bread. The Man thought it was delicious. I think he would have turned up his nose if I had told him I was making beet green soup before he tasted it.
After I planted my garden, using a big spoon from the kitchen and a watering can—that's how high tech I am—I noticed that our tiny little tangerine tree is covered with fruit. There is so much fruit, the shrub (I can hardly call it a tree) is almost more fruit than leaves. So I picked a big bag. I wonder if pulling off the fruit and leaving a big hunk of peel still attached is bad. That is what seems to happen every time.
Nothing tastes better than tangerines. My little green bird likes them, too. I'm not a fan of oranges. I like tangerines and grapefruit best of the citrus fruits.
I also picked up some large, ripe passion fruit that fell off the monster vine that is taking over the yard. Our big white birds likes those. She'll eat a passion fruit bigger than her big head.
Since I've become mostly locked out of the corporate world (and I'm kind of wondering if that is really so bad) I've come to the conclusion that I need to grow more of what I eat and eat a lot less. The 20 minutes I spent today in my little garden was my economic activity for the day. Let's hope it earned me enough to buy a beer down at the Irish session tonight. At the very least, I've got a thousand calories or so of tangerines in the fridge to show for my efforts. And about 50 calories of chard sprouts to show for no efforts at all.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Our phone is ringing off the hook
Literally. Our phone rings off the hook. In fact, if I engage the receiver of our disconnected phone and then plug it into the jack, there is usually someone on the line.
Sometimes I hear a telemarketing operation at work, or someone hears me, says "oops" and hangs up. Sometimes I hear faint muzac like you hear when you are put on hold. Sometimes I hear a phone sex call with someone saying, "If you are gay, press one. If you are lesbian, press two" and then I hear someone pressing the buttons. I usually hang up before I have to hear the rest.
The other day I picked up the phone and the person on the line said, "Hello? Can you hear me?" So I told him I could hear him. Then he asked if he could speak to Michael. I told him he certainly may not (there isn't even anyone named Michael in our house.) He then started arguing with me. "Why not?" he asked. I told him I didn't appreciate all the harassing phone calls and then he denied harassing me. Perhaps he had no idea he was working for some kind of criminal employer using someone else's phone lines. I hung up.
We tried calling the phone company to have a technician take a look. The first time I called, they said it was a nuisance bureau issue, but the nuisance bureau was not helpful at all. The only thing they could offer was to give us a new phone number. We did not want to do that because we've used this number a long time and lots of people have the number. Also, I think we are interested to find out what is going on and nab the crooks.
The second time, calling a technician worked because we now had a history. And also because I just picked an easy issue from the phone jail press one, press two nonsense just so someone would come out. The technician tried to fix the problem by switching us to a different cable. She acknowledged that she could hear traffic on the line even when the line was not ringing or being answered inside the house. She said it was an odd problem she had never encountered before. She could see no evidence that anyone was physically connected to the line. How could someone use our line if they were not physically connected to it somewhere? We didn't know, either.
The calls continue to come in. So we've decided to escalate by taking our trouble to the police. Our phone line will be traced. We'll see what happens after that.
My hope is that they discover that there's some new kind of phone hack coming from evil spam companies overseas (all the people on the line have accents) and that they'll nab them. It would be an interesting story and very satisfying to know I helped bring down evil spammers. I hate spammers.
At the very least, I hope the police can stop it because the phone is ringing constantly and I'm supposed to let it ring, according to the police.
Update: Shortly after I wrote this, I got a call from my boyfriend. He was at the post office talking to the postmistress who said the same thing happened to her once. It turned out an ex-boyfriend who had hired a service to make harassing phone calls to get even with her. I hope that the police can find this service and put them out of business. It is a felony. I wonder if it is a felony to use a service like this. If so, the person we suspect may have done this could end up in the news.
Sometimes I hear a telemarketing operation at work, or someone hears me, says "oops" and hangs up. Sometimes I hear faint muzac like you hear when you are put on hold. Sometimes I hear a phone sex call with someone saying, "If you are gay, press one. If you are lesbian, press two" and then I hear someone pressing the buttons. I usually hang up before I have to hear the rest.
The other day I picked up the phone and the person on the line said, "Hello? Can you hear me?" So I told him I could hear him. Then he asked if he could speak to Michael. I told him he certainly may not (there isn't even anyone named Michael in our house.) He then started arguing with me. "Why not?" he asked. I told him I didn't appreciate all the harassing phone calls and then he denied harassing me. Perhaps he had no idea he was working for some kind of criminal employer using someone else's phone lines. I hung up.
We tried calling the phone company to have a technician take a look. The first time I called, they said it was a nuisance bureau issue, but the nuisance bureau was not helpful at all. The only thing they could offer was to give us a new phone number. We did not want to do that because we've used this number a long time and lots of people have the number. Also, I think we are interested to find out what is going on and nab the crooks.
The second time, calling a technician worked because we now had a history. And also because I just picked an easy issue from the phone jail press one, press two nonsense just so someone would come out. The technician tried to fix the problem by switching us to a different cable. She acknowledged that she could hear traffic on the line even when the line was not ringing or being answered inside the house. She said it was an odd problem she had never encountered before. She could see no evidence that anyone was physically connected to the line. How could someone use our line if they were not physically connected to it somewhere? We didn't know, either.
The calls continue to come in. So we've decided to escalate by taking our trouble to the police. Our phone line will be traced. We'll see what happens after that.
My hope is that they discover that there's some new kind of phone hack coming from evil spam companies overseas (all the people on the line have accents) and that they'll nab them. It would be an interesting story and very satisfying to know I helped bring down evil spammers. I hate spammers.
At the very least, I hope the police can stop it because the phone is ringing constantly and I'm supposed to let it ring, according to the police.
Update: Shortly after I wrote this, I got a call from my boyfriend. He was at the post office talking to the postmistress who said the same thing happened to her once. It turned out an ex-boyfriend who had hired a service to make harassing phone calls to get even with her. I hope that the police can find this service and put them out of business. It is a felony. I wonder if it is a felony to use a service like this. If so, the person we suspect may have done this could end up in the news.
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