Irony and Wonder

My polling precinct is directly across the street from my apartment building and tomorrow I hope the noise from the crowd wakes me up at dawn- it'll be worth waking early just to know that people are voting- I'll wait as long as it takes to get my vote counted. I've waited eight years for this- a few hours in a line won't kill me.

My boss sent a memo today stating that tomorrow he "wouldn't be closely scrutinizing" our time sheets and that we should make sure to vote...I like that. I fear that some GOP-ish companies may not be so generous- stupidly, there is no law requiring time be given to employees to vote...sure, some voters would abuse such a rule, but most would not, I would like to think. I'd wager that more people would vote if their jobs allowed a few hours off- perhaps workers could submit a copy of their paper ballot to the boss as proof of voting - yet another argument for paper ballots!

Here's some irony: tomorrow afternoon I also have an appointment with an agency to determine if I am eligible to have some "wealth spread around" on me. I could use some Food Stamps, rent-money help and medical care, among other things...I had to collect my financial records and paycheck stubs in order to prepare for the meeting; perusing my banking documents makes me wonder how I've been able to survive lately.

I have a 40-hour -per-week job (at just over 1/3 my year 2000 wage, not adjusted for inflation), I seldom spend money on anything except food, gas and bills/rent and yet I find myself applying for Food Stamps- on Election Day, no less!

A lot depends on who wins this election I'm thinking.

Anyway, I felt my groove coming back during my radio show Saturday; I've been sick and depressed for so long that I've forgotten how music can make me happy (Hi, Jackie Sue!) and I'm hoping that this feeling continues for weeks and years to come...

A small wonder: yesterday, my Dolphins won another football game -I'm hoping for more victories- and not just in football!

Another wonder: Today I got an email from one of the artists that I played on Saturday's show- she congratulated me on my awesome musical selections, of course -she is from Colorado, but after a couple of emails, she told me that she has family right here in my town- perhaps one day I'll have the pleasure of hosting an appearance by her on my radio show. I love having live guests!

In any case, it was gratifying to know that my efforts to promote underappreciated music are not falling on deaf ears, so to speak. I sure wish we had the internet back when I was still musically active...it's really a great way to match musicians with audiences and to share good tunes.
(A tip-o-hat to BP)

Note: Some of you have pointed out that I never have mp3s of music posted, despite being a DJ and musician. There are reasons for this:

- I know the odds are against it, but if I got in trouble it could- in theory- reflect badly on the radio station and I don't want to risk that.

- It takes effort and I'm lazy. (This is the main reason)

-I used to have a personal music site but it got almost no hits. One blogger who did listen got so depressed by my cheerful ditties that she didn't talk to me for nearly a year...curiously, I haven't written a single new song since I quit drinking. Not one song.
Hmmm...perhaps I need to examine that.
Or not.

See America on Twenty Dollars a Week

(Like many headlines, the one above is misleading. It doesn't factor in expenses such as rent, utility bills, insurance premiums etc. ; and by "See America" I mean: "see my office, the inside of the bus , my apartment and various sidewalks")

Sunday night I withdrew twenty bucks from an ATM. This, I told myself, is all the money I can afford to spend this week. I really thought I could pull it off, but I failed. It was close.


My largest unavoidable expenditure was getting to and from work. A round-trip is $2.50, over five days that's $12.50, which only left $7.50 to live on for seven days. Transportation wiped out over half of my budget before my week even began.
It's important to note that I started with the following already in my larder:

-A half-dozen or so cans of food- tuna, beans, tomato sauce etc.

- 2 lbs dry rice

- an onion

- Fresh garlic and fresh cilantro

- Too much oatmeal

- Spices, spices and more spices

- Assorted condiments, some in jars, some in packets.

- A pound of coffee

- Cat food

I purchased a loaf of whole-grain bread- a luxury at $2- a half-gallon of grape juice ($2) and three pounds of bananas ($1) . That left $2.50.

With that, I bought a 20 lb bag of generic cat litter ($2) and a box of store-brand baking soda, ($.50). (I mix the baking soda into the litter-it greatly reduces the smell- and it's much, much cheaper than buying the 'deodorant' brands.)

That left me with zero cash for seven days. What to do?

First, I made rations, starting with my version of Fidel's Tsunami Salsa:

- 2 cans black beans, drained
- 2 cans corn, drained
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- a few cloves of garlic, chopped
- a 1/2 cup or so of cilantro, chopped
- a 1/4 jar of jalapeno slices and the last bit of a jar of pepper relish
- 1 diced onion
- some cumin

This yields approx. 4 lbs of tasty, healthy salsa that will keep for over a week in the fridge. Total cost is about three bucks, perhaps less.
I ate the last of it for dinner Thursday night, self-served with a side of curried rice, a piece of dry toast and followed with a dessert of oatmeal flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, honey and bananas.

This meal was nearly identical to my lunch and dinner of the previous three days, with the exception of a tuna sandwich for lunch on Tuesday and some grapes I mooched from a pal last night.

I'm not complaining- even in the abundance of cash, this is pretty much what I eat- it's not because I can't cook , it's just that I'm lazy and unless I'm sharing a meal with others I consider eating to be considerably less exciting than cooking. This apathetic approach to diet has caused me to go from 195 lbs to 145 lbs in under two years, as well as lowering my cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure from the 'critical' (Tri-G was 650!) range to the 'exceptional'
( TG now 110) range ; my doctor uses me as a model to hold up to his other patients who have high cholesterol etc...he recommends diet and exercise as alternatives to prescription drugs...in other words, he says a healthy lifestyle is better for you than magical pills.
What a quack, eh?

In any case, my cupboard is Hubbardesque and the catboxes need changing, but I made it for five days, which is pretty good, I think. Four dollars a day, $2.50 of which was busfare= $1.50 a day for food. Healthy food that tastes good @ fifty cents a meal. Easy.

This is how I plan on replenishing my savings, because today is the day I get my car out of the body shop, which means that my money will all be gone at 5 pm this evening.

I'll be too busy to spend money this weekend: tonight I'm guest- hosting our Friday funk show, Zendo Soundsystem; tomorrow I'm hosting our weekly 1980's show and engineering some band that I've never heard of; Sunday I have my morning show and after that I'm going to attempt to visit my grandmother again. I will be watching the woods for deer on this trip. Carefully.

I know my grannie is gonna ask me if I need any money.
I do.
I need twenty-five dollars. I bet that I can live for a week on twenty-five bucks...oh, and hey, could you throw in an extra hundred for gasoline?