At The New Place (Part 3)

I've got the internet at home, now...
I didn't stop writing, I just couldn't post
as frequently as I wanted to. 

Summer hasn't even hit, yet...
And I've been warned that the summer's crazy, here.
I don't doubt it. It's already crazy...

The other night, I went out...
Looking for cans to cash in... 
(I'm only a part-time collector)...

I got a bigger haul than last time...

The pickers around here, go into the garbage for them. 

If they are on the top, they are. 
But I'm not digging through it...

I'll leave that, for them. 
It's not for me.

I walked around the market.

Wasn't bad for a Tuesday night.

I went out on St.Paddy's Day.
Just up and down one street.

The market was probably pretty crazy.
Besides, there are pickers that go there.
Probably every night.

I find them at the bus stops.

Some people can't even ride the bus
without a few beers...

I met someone who confessed that, to me.

I found a big bag, the other night.

I'll go cash them in, later.
I've got until 9pm to do it.

They are even open on Sundays...

The full-time pickers come in with loads...

Why would I want to haul that around?
One bag is enough.

Just a few dollars to put into my jar.
For coffee or whatever.

The other night, when I went out, though...
Hadn't even been out for half an hour
and some dude asked me if I wanted to buy drugs.

Just because I'm outside, at night
DOESN'T MEAN I'M LOOKING FOR CRACK FFS.

People like THAT GUY are the reason
there are so many crackheads
in this end of town. 

GO TO THE RICH 'HOODS
AND ASK THEM IF THEY WANT IT FFS.

We've got enough of it, here.

On Sunday, someone crapped in the elevator. 
I wasn't here when that happened.

They crapped in the elevator
THAT GOT FIXED
AFTER I GOT STUCK IN IT.

I haven't been here even a month, yet. 

Haven't really unpacked or anything, yet.
I've got time to do that. 

On another note (not sure if I mentioned it)
I'm growing some peppers.

It's my first time growing peppers.

The lady I ran into when I was getting seeds...
She told me to "mist" them twice a day.

I mist them in the morning and at night.

I put a "dome" over them
to keep the humidity in there.

She said that's what helps them grow.
They've already sprouted and not sure
what to do with them, yet.

I've got around 30 sprouts.
Seems all of the seeds I was germinating
sprouted.

I didn't know how many to put in there.
So I put a bunch of them, in there.

When it gets warmer, I want to put them outside...
I want to make a greenhouse out there...
On the balcony. 

And maybe the pepper seeds might grow
some peppers that I can eat!

That was the goal after all. 

Fry up some peppers
with balsamic vinegar
and put salt on it...

Sour, Sweet, Salty.

And don't fry them too much.
Leave a bit of a "crunch."

But soft enough to soak up
the balsamic vinegar...

Anyway, that's as "gourmet" as I get.

But "fresh peppers"?
Yes, freaking please.

Now I don't have to go to the library
to use the internet over there...

Not that it "hurt" to do it.
Just don't have to "lug" my computer there.

And I can get back into "web" stuff. 
That's what I've been waiting for...

So I could do it at home...
And not have a "curfew" for the internet.
The library closes at 9pm. 

I'm going to get some corned beef today.

The guy from South America,
He taught me how to make a rice "dish."
With meat in it.

I tried it with corned beef
and it wasn't that bad... 

Kind of like some "comfort food."
And when you don't have much else...
It's something to put in your stomach.

Which is the main thing for me. 

Hard to sleep without eating, first.

It won't be so "bad" here, I guess.

Someone told me it's not that bad
if you keep to yourself.

Which I have been doing.
I've met a handful of neighbors...

One of them let me use his phone
to call the internet company. 

And he helped me remove
that pan that I got stuck in that "drawer."
The one under the oven...
It has two handles and got wedged in there.

He was able to get it out, though.
I wasn't.

And I didn't want to make a lot of noise doing it.

The walls are so thin here that I can hear my neighbor cough.
He can probably hear me "gooning out."
When I get "manic"
or when I practice the guitar...

Oh well. 

I saw him, once.
We were both on our balconies.
His is next to mine.

I happened to look over, there he was.
We didn't talk, though.

I had to go back inside to "drop one" LOL.

"Excuse me while I use the can" LOL.

I can hear him flush.
Which means that the neighbor
on the other side can hear ME flush.

The other night, a neighbor and I were talking.
He told me he saw a guy overdosing
in the loading bay for the store around the corner...

People walking by
and the dude had a rig in his arm,
foaming at the mouth, convulsing...

RIGHT. AROUND. THE. CORNER.

I heard that it got so bad that the paramedics
can't keep up with THAT and their regular stuff.

So the fire department goes out...
And he said that it costs 10K each time
the fire fighters have to go out. 

That's how much it costs just the fire truck
leaving the station. 

And he was saying how tax payers 
are paying for that.

I guess we have a bit of a drug epidemic
that the paramedics can't keep up with it...

P*sses me off the guy asking me
IF I WANT TO BUY CRACK.

F*cking guy is part of the problem. 

Probably could overdose on crack...
Coke makes your heart want to explode...

That's what I heard.

When I went out, a couple of nights ago...
I saw something shining. 

I thought it was a can, it was a pipe
MADE OUT OF A CARROT.

I guess if there's a "will" there's a "way."
So they say, but never saw one of THOSE before LOL.
Made me laugh.

And there was a car full of dudes.
The driver yelled something at me...

I tried not to laugh that they were
trying to pick me up LOL.

I'm probably twice their age LOL.

Anyway, not been a lot going on
besides that stuff...

Someone crapping in the elevator
was "eventful" enough for this week LOL.

A guy was saying that only around 7%
of the people living here
don't have any addiction issues.

He also said that this place
was deemed the worst in the city.

The building a block or so away
is the second worst.

I keep trying to tell myself
that this place is only temporary.

We'll see, I guess.

I'll probably have much more to write about, 
living here...

It hasn't even been A MONTH!!!!

It's one thing if a dog couldn't hold it, 
but there are cameras in the elevators...

I heard that when people get evicted
they get mad and do stuff like that.

Someone once told me
that he and his brother were getting evicted
(from another place)
and his brother took a crap
in the dishwasher...

Sometimes I forget that dishwashers exist.
I've never had one. 

I had to load one, at work...
All their coffee cups and whatnot...

I told the tech guy who came to install my internet, today,
about someone crapping in the elevator...

He said it doesn't surprise him. 

It's still the afternoon
and I keep hearing sirens...

Minding my own business isn't a bad thing.

Now that I have the internet, 
I can keep myself "busy"
and entertained...

It wasn't that bad not having it.
I once went for 6 months without it.

It was hard for the first month or so, 
after that, I listened to more music, 
I knit more, I read more...

All he stuff I used to do
before I had the internet.

I remember it was a "big deal."
We'd get "disks" in the mail
that were from AOL.

Like a trial for dial-up internet.

AOL used to have chatrooms.
Pretty sure AOL tossed in the towel. 

I forget why, but pretty sure they did.

My grandmother used to hate it
when I unplugged her phone...

I can still "hear" the dial-up sounds.
The sounds it made while connecting...

Sounds from my teen years LOL.
AND IT WAS FKN SLOW AF.

TOOK FOREVER TO LOAD ANYTHING.

Anyway, it's only 2:30pm, lots of time to do stuff.
I'm usually getting back around 2:30am LOL.

I walked back here, from my folks' place...
Just to see how long it'd take.
It took 4 hours, 

but I kept stopping to gather whatever cans I found
along the way. I wasn't out looking for them. 
They were just there.

Just wanted to see how long it'd take.

I walked from my old place
to the mall in the east side of town, once.

I forget how long it took to get there...
Either 6 hours or 8 hours.

Past my old school. 
Where I went for grades 7 and 8.

I don't know why I went there.
I didn't live anywhere near there.

Maybe the only schools around where I used to live
were Catholic schools, or something. 

That's the only reason I can think of.

There was a rival school, a Catholic school
when I went to high school, out there.

Sometimes I went to "the pit" on my "lunch break."
And I was trying to catch a snake, that day.

Some guys scoffed at me
saying I wouldn't catch it.

I did catch it. 
I released it into the "portable" at the school.

"Portables" are kind of like "trailers"
that they make into classrooms
if they don't have enough classrooms
in the school, itself. 

I had the snake by its head.
So that it couldn't bite me.

Things seemed "easier" back then. 
I could walk down the street
WITHOUT ANYONE TRYING TO SELL ME CRACK FFS.

When I was in the group homes, 
they had to fill out a form
and fax it to the "head person"
to get permission to let me go outside FFS.

And if they wouldn't grant me "permission"
I couldn't f*cking take a walk FFS.

Once, my roommate and I were planning
to go AWOL together.
She got away, but I didn't. 

A big guy, a staff member, 
he literally sat on me
so I couldn't even move FFS.

I was so p*ssed that he did that.

I guess it was "part of his job"

BUT "HAVING TO BE" RESTRAINED SUCKS.

They probably violated my rights all those times.

Once, at another group home, 
they were trying to get into my room. 

I had enough space to push the door shut with my feet, 
with my back against the wall...

One of the staff really went at the door, 
trying to bust in, 
that my back went into the wall lol. 

There was a back-shaped hole in the wall LOL.

Wasn't my fault, though. 
They were the ones trying to bust into my room. 

I used to hide cigarettes in the battery compartment
of my "ghetto blaster" LOL.

Also, I'd unscrew the "switch plate" 
the plate that goes over the switch
that turns the light on...

I used to hide my pot in there LOL.

I once took a jar of pot from my mom's
filing cabinet, where she kept it.

I stashed the jar on my way back to my grandmother's place
(where I was staying)
And when I got there, my mom
had already called my grandmother
saying that I had something of hers. 

I had already stashed it
so I didn't have it on me
so I said that I didn't have it.

Couldn't prove that I took it.
Because I didn't have it "on me."

And what could my mother say to my grandmother?
"She took my marijuana"?

Once, my mother gave me seeds to grow some.
I told my grandmother I was growing "hollyhocks"
Because those grow "tall"

She watered them when I went to the farm
for 2 weeks. Crazy how much they grew
in just 2 weeks...

I'll have to ask around what to do with these sprouts...

There's a place that sells returns from Amazon. 

I guess they get skids and don't know what's in them.

They have bins of all kinds of stuff...
And they sell it pretty cheap
to offload it and make money off it...

My stepfather told me about it.
He got some "grow lights" from there.

I'm just going to grow some vegetables.

There're pot shops all over the place, 
but mostly "vape" shops. 

I don't "vape."
A few times someone offered me some
marijuana vape thing, but other than that, 
I just don't really like them. 

My lungs feel weird after "vaping."

Kind of like they did when I smoked cigarettes.
Only worse than that.

Smoking pot's not like that, for me.

At least pot's easier to come by...

I guess CRACK is, too. 
Since I couldn't just walk down the street
WITHOUT ANYONE ASKING ME
IF I WANTED TO BUY SOME FFS.

Just an observation that there are more
Vape shops than pot shops around here.

There's also a place that sells mushrooms...

Speaking of mushrooms, there's a guy
who came across a bunch of mushrooms
(not the magic kind).

He says he wants to "harvest" them. 
And I know of a couple of chefs in O-town. 

Not "personally" but I know of them. 

One of them has a cafe type of place.
But I don't want to talk to that guy.
He's kind of a JERK.

I was literally washing my hands
AND ABOUT TO PUT A PAIR 
OF NEW, CLEAN GLOVES ON...

AND HE WAS TRYING TO GIVE ME SH*T
FOR NOT WEARING GLOVES

WHEN I WAS LITERALLY WASHING MY HANDS
TO PUT A NEW PAIR ON FFS.

IT'S NOT LIKE I WAS GOING TO HANDLE
ANY OF THE FOOD WITHOUT GLOVES FFS.

JUST SEEMS LIKE THE TYPE
TO JUST TRY TO GIVE YOU SH*T
ABOUT FKN ANYTHING.

I DON'T LIKE THE GUY.

He was trying to give me sh*t
about taking some leftovers
THAT WERE GOING TO GO INTO THE GARBAGE. 

Like he'd rather throw it away
THAN TO LET ME TAKE IT.

And that was my first "interaction" with him. 

He was being a sh*t and trying to give me sh*t
right before I was supposed to have an interview
with someone for a job.

He was mad that I wanted to leave.

Why tf would I want to stay?
FOR MORE OF THAT SH*T?
NO THANKS.

DON'T GIVE A F*CK
IF HE'S THE HEAD CHEF OR NOT.

I DON'T HAVE TO BE
IN ANYONE'S KITCHEN, 
PERIOD. 

I WASN'T GETTING PAID TO BE THERE.

Needless to say:
I don't want to talk to that guy
ABOUT ANYTHING.

LET ALONE HARVESTING 
WILD MUSHROOMS.

The guy who wants to harvest them
says 1kg of them is like $65.

He said he can take me to a place
where a ton of cans washed up.

He said that I'd need a BIG bag for them. 
Even so, smaller trips are okay with me.

Why would I want to lug around
a huge bag of cans?

Sure, one trip would be "easier"
but not necessarily. 

Smaller trips... Take longer, 
But I'd rather do it that way
than haul a huge bag of them.

Like I see some people do. 

Well, I guess I should go outside
and "face the world."

A bit of fresh air and I can get another can
of corned beef...

Nothing "exciting" unless someone
does something stupid... 

I wanted to smash that crack dealer's face in.
Why fkn keep making it a fkn problem, here?

Isn't there "enough" of that sh*t going around?
Then to SELL that sh*t....

Exasperating the issue
THAT'S ALREADY AN ISSUE.

WHY MAKE IT FKN WORSE
THAN IT ALREADY IS?

At the very least, he knows I'm not a crackhead.

I can't say I feel "sorry" for crackheads.
IT WAS THEIR CHOICE TO DO IT.

All the money they're buying crack with
COULD GO TOWARDS SOMETHING ELSE.

ANYTHING ELSE. Y'know?

I say: If you can't be happy with a JOINT
WHAT'S THE POINT?

A guy came to the building asking people
if they'd go to the pot store for him. 

I don't know why he couldn't just go, himself. 

He gave me $10 and change for going.

I also made $20 selling a pump and a bike lock. 

I spent that on poutine and lemonade
and now I'm broke again LOL.

It's not why I collect cans, though.
I've been broke plenty of times
and found ways to "survive."

It'd be nice not to live in "survival mode."
Been so long that I can't really remember
what that's like...

Doesn't really matter.

If someone who came from money
ever went broke
they wouldn't know what to do.

I heard of a case where an affluent guy
k*lled his wife and daughter
because he didn't want to break it to them
that they were about to "lose everything."

WHY SHOULD MONEY EVER BE
SO FKN IMPORTANT
AS TO SELL CRACK
OR "OFF" YOUR FAMILY OVER?

WHO TF CARES IF YOU "HAVE IT MADE"?
BUT THOSE WHO DO, 
CARE ABOUT NOT HAVING IT.

BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW
HOW TO SURVIVE WITHOUT
THEIR MANSION AND 12 SPORTS CARS ETC.

I'll tell you what, though...
Money'll never be so important to me
THAT I'D EVER SELL CRACK FFS.

OR SELL MY VAGINA.

To each their own, whatever...
JUST WON'T EVER BE SO IMPORTANT
THAT I'D DO EITHER OF THOSE THINGS.

Anyway, I'd better head out of here.
Can't wait for it to get warmer, though.