July 12, 2006 edit

Wednesday

I donated my 2nd gallon of blood today. I had been watching the news at noon, and saw a story about the low levels of blood supplies available in the Northwest – O+ supplies are below the 2 day supply level. I had gotten a letter from the Red Cross late last week, but today’s story on TV inspired me to call and arrange an appointment for this afternoon.

Many had seen the story on TV apparently, and the Red Cross was fairly crowded this afternoon. The nurse who interviewed me said that they hadn’t planned on the crowd and were somewhat understaffed – in fact, her job was not usually as an intake nurse but rather as a charge nurse.

We had a pleasant conversation as she asked me the donation questions, and my blood pressure/pulse were much the same as usual- nice and low and right for my age.

Had we been keeping track, that was actually my third or more gallon of blood donated, since all the time I was in the Navy, I donated blood every time they had a drive – we got a half day off after donation. 

(Later, wearing my 2 gallon pin, I was feeling full of myself.  I was sitting in the post-donation area, drinking water and coffee and eating a Krispy Kreme donut, and some guy sat down and said he’d just donated his 40th pint- five gallons!  Took me down a few notches, lol)

Yesterday, I spent quite a few of my cell phone minutes talking to some IRS bitch. I say "bitch" because her whole attitude was that I was lying about how poor I am and she treated me like I was trying to pull one over on them. I don’t have to lie about being poor- I am, which they would know if they bothered to look at last year’s (and the last 9 years) tax returns. After talking to the IRS, I called the Oregon Dept. of Revenue, and boy oh boy. what a difference! The Oregon woman I talked to, while chiding me for not calling sooner re: my inability to pay what I owe, was polite and informative and did not treat me like I was a liar.

Watching the Evening news.

It is disheartening how much the news feeds fear here. The train bombings in Mumbai, India, are being used to raise the levels for fear for Americans. This feeds the political aims of the ruling class here. It is disgusting.

The largest, most dangerous fire in the west is burning in Yucca Valley, San Bernadino county. It is near Johua tree National Park. This is steep, rough terrain, which I know personally. Back in 1988 or 89, Jhni (my Big Bear friend) and her daughter and I drove around that area in my 74 Volvo wagon (which was really a pretty good off-road vehicle, but generally a POS car- expensive to fix). On the news, they have repeatedly told how the fire is near Pioneertown, an old movie set which we explored and found little to keep us there. That fire is only 25-30 miles from Big Bear Lake, where Jhni and her daughter live, so I am a little worried about them.

edit

The fire is getting bigger and much worse.  It is nearing Big Bear where my friends live.  Jhni says she will not evacuate this time- she did last time and regretted it, so she and her daughter are staying (for now?).  Ohhhh shit.  It is now (6:12pm, thursday) less than ten miles from Big Bear Lake.

The medical bills for breaking my foot have all come in and they total $630, not counting the $9.00 the pain pills cost me out of pocket. The boss is going to pay them all, so I am off the hook for that – as long as he really does pay them. I am the person that they think will pay the bills, so if he doesn’t, I’m the guy they’ll go after. I’m not very worried.

He will pay me the week’s wages tomorrow and I will go cash he check, make a deposit in my bank, and call Comcast and try to get my access turned back on.

I still haven’t heard from my brother, which doesn’t actually surprise me very much. I don’t really Know where he is or what he’s doing. The phone number he gave me in January turned out to not be his- in fact, the person whose message I heard from after leaving a message on the voicemail had never heard of my brother and wondered who the hell I was to be calling him. Since my internet access is off, I can’t check California’s website that would tell me whether or not they are still holding Dad’s money

Meanwhile, after a night/day off last night (and a load of laundry) it’s back to work for me tonight. I used up all my cash yesterday to buy gas, and had to break into my State quarters collection… but, what the hell – they’re really just quarters and are money to be used if necessary. Oh well. I’ll get the next check tomorrow and will pay some bills and buy some food.

Thursday 

July 13

I have returned!

I got paid for this week, and the second or third thing I bought/paid for is my cable internet connection.  ($43).  On the phone just now, I was told that the speed of it will be increasing again – from 6 Megs a second to 10 Megs.  When I first got this connection, it was 4 MPS… My pics will upload to Photobucket even faster than they do now!  My former dial-up connection at it’s fastest ran at 28.8 kbps…Fster is better!

For those who mentioned cheaper ISPs, you need a home phoneline to get those, and last year I dropped my home phone because I was paying for both the cellphone and the home phone and it was too f-ing pricey to maintain, so now all I have is the cell phone.

Portland has been considering a free wireless system city-wide, but I will have problems with that, since I live on the 8th floor of my building.  I have read that it will work fine at ground level but not up higher, which I don’t quite understand- wireless is radio, and I would think that as I’m on the top floor of the tallest building in the area, that I would have very good access.  I guess we’ll see.  That network is a ways away, though, so it’ll be awhile.  And it may not be "free".  It might be like Juno.com, where you have to look at all kinds of ads on your monitor’s screen.  There too, we’ll see what we see.

Meanwhile, I have returned.  Yahoo!!!