DISCLAIMER: Please forgive my jumping around topics in this post. I'm just starting and I have so much to share. I hope you enjoy reading it anyway. God Bless You For Reading.
**Below is a youtube video with my daughter singing. For some reason I can't type in that general area. When I say she's good, it's not just a mom's pride talking, she's really good. I'll post her songs on here occasionally to share her different styles of singing. This one is Celticky. I'm very enamored of her singing and I hope you enjoy the song**. Now back to my blog entry:
My Plan:
Initially, my plan was to move to California where it's warmer and I'm familiar with the terrain. I figured I'd get a job, buy a car and sleep in it. I also considered that I'd use the money I made at work to maintain my car until I can fix it up enough to get the money to buy a van and eventually an RV.
I don't understand why there're so many homeless people without some kind of roof over their heads (a car, van or even a tent). By the way, I have 2 tents just in case I get desperate for shelter. Another thing I don't get is how so many homeless people have pets?! Don't get me wrong, I like animals just as much as the next guy but if you're homeless, how can you afford to feed a dog? But that's another blog.
I managed to secure a station wagon for $800.00 and now that's where I live. I also bought a gym membership and I have a storage for food and some merchandise that I sell online. That's another thing, last December I got a retail job through an old friend of mine who's now a manager at a major department store. She didn't know then (and doesn't know now) that I'm homeless as I used another friends address to secure the job. It was with this money that I bought my car and gym membership, storage facility and mailbox. After the holidays I was let go along with everyone else. I keep cash on me by selling merchandise online. I have to inject here that my first online sales were some cheap or free books that I got from yard sales or the library booksales. Most of the books cost less than one dollar and many of them were free.
You see, after the library has a sale they put the books that they haven't been able to sell on a shelf and they are free to anyone who wants them. So, once a week I'd peruse the free book section and take books that have a long shelf life and sell them. I had rules though, I had to be able to sell them new (or nearly new), and I had to get 50-100% profit. So, I'd buy a book for say 1.00 and sell it online for 10.00 or more. One time I found a music texbook for free and sold it for $69.00. If you know what you're looking for, you can make a decent amount.
My kids decided they wanted to join me. My daughter because she wants to travel and sing on the road and the best way to do that is with me in an RV, and my son, well.....I think he does it because he doesn't want us to be alone. We always agreed that, if this ever got too dangerous, we'd get an apartment, but so far it's been 5 months and we're ok.
I have to admit that in all our planning, we've had many setbacks. Our plan took 2 extra months to start. I couldn't find a job. We bought an older car that broke down the day we bought it and had to stay with friends until it was driveable. Needless to say, that friendship is on life support now because....well, just because. What I learned from that experience is, you can't really plan for something like this, you just have to do it and trust that your street smarts will be there when you need them.
The first lesson I've learned from the 3 months I've actually been homeless (since we spent the month of November with that friend and 3 weeks in December with that same friend waiting for or car to be fixed), is not to make friends with everyone. Most homeless people will use you and bring you down to a level that you would never want to be at. Alot of them are on drugs or other substances (alcohol, etc), and they will pretend that they are not doing those things but the police already know what they're doing and if they see you with them, they'll think you're doing "it" too. So, we stay to ourselves, for the most part. I've met some other homeless families and I actually met an old friend whose also homeless with her husband (also an old friend). Sometimes we'll meet at the beach and chat for awhile. All of the families I've seen are living out of vehicles. I coined a phrase for us, I call us "vehicle dwellers" rather than homeless (perhaps houseless, but not homeless). But as for the scenario above, with the people who "pretend they're not doing the things that they're doing" below I'll explain a little more.
For example, they'll see that I have a car, so they'll tell me they're saving their social security so they can buy a van when actually their money's going to drugs, boose, or they spend it on each other for sex. The level of human being I've seen hasn't been pretty. In addition, there are alot of "crazy" (for lack of a better word) people out there. There are many schizophrenic cases that are homeless in the streets wandering around at night. My kids and I are always off the street and in our car by 10:00pm and I always make sure I have plenty of gasoline in case I have to make a quick exit.
I'm gonna share more as this blog develops but I wanted to end on a good note. Naturally, my family has gotten closer in this situation. I mean really close. I had to surpass loving them as my children (adult children) and start really understanding what they want in their lives. I understand that they want something from life that the state could never give them. They want to take a risk and follow their dreams. My son wants a business of his own and after 5 years, he is just beginning to agressively pursue it. My daughter loves to sing and she is a great singer. Her state workers never supported her dream to be a singer. I've always taught her that the world needs singers, just as much as it needs doctors. What would the doctors listen to when they need to unwind from a long hard day at the hospital.
We've been a family known to think "outside of the box" and this proves to be the most "out there" thing we've done. Until next time, keep us in your prayers. *Please Post*
CLICK HERE TO SHOP AT MY AMAZON STORE
**Below is a youtube video with my daughter singing. For some reason I can't type in that general area. When I say she's good, it's not just a mom's pride talking, she's really good. I'll post her songs on here occasionally to share her different styles of singing. This one is Celticky. I'm very enamored of her singing and I hope you enjoy the song**. Now back to my blog entry:
My Plan:
Initially, my plan was to move to California where it's warmer and I'm familiar with the terrain. I figured I'd get a job, buy a car and sleep in it. I also considered that I'd use the money I made at work to maintain my car until I can fix it up enough to get the money to buy a van and eventually an RV.
I don't understand why there're so many homeless people without some kind of roof over their heads (a car, van or even a tent). By the way, I have 2 tents just in case I get desperate for shelter. Another thing I don't get is how so many homeless people have pets?! Don't get me wrong, I like animals just as much as the next guy but if you're homeless, how can you afford to feed a dog? But that's another blog.
I managed to secure a station wagon for $800.00 and now that's where I live. I also bought a gym membership and I have a storage for food and some merchandise that I sell online. That's another thing, last December I got a retail job through an old friend of mine who's now a manager at a major department store. She didn't know then (and doesn't know now) that I'm homeless as I used another friends address to secure the job. It was with this money that I bought my car and gym membership, storage facility and mailbox. After the holidays I was let go along with everyone else. I keep cash on me by selling merchandise online. I have to inject here that my first online sales were some cheap or free books that I got from yard sales or the library booksales. Most of the books cost less than one dollar and many of them were free.
You see, after the library has a sale they put the books that they haven't been able to sell on a shelf and they are free to anyone who wants them. So, once a week I'd peruse the free book section and take books that have a long shelf life and sell them. I had rules though, I had to be able to sell them new (or nearly new), and I had to get 50-100% profit. So, I'd buy a book for say 1.00 and sell it online for 10.00 or more. One time I found a music texbook for free and sold it for $69.00. If you know what you're looking for, you can make a decent amount.
My kids decided they wanted to join me. My daughter because she wants to travel and sing on the road and the best way to do that is with me in an RV, and my son, well.....I think he does it because he doesn't want us to be alone. We always agreed that, if this ever got too dangerous, we'd get an apartment, but so far it's been 5 months and we're ok.
I have to admit that in all our planning, we've had many setbacks. Our plan took 2 extra months to start. I couldn't find a job. We bought an older car that broke down the day we bought it and had to stay with friends until it was driveable. Needless to say, that friendship is on life support now because....well, just because. What I learned from that experience is, you can't really plan for something like this, you just have to do it and trust that your street smarts will be there when you need them.
The first lesson I've learned from the 3 months I've actually been homeless (since we spent the month of November with that friend and 3 weeks in December with that same friend waiting for or car to be fixed), is not to make friends with everyone. Most homeless people will use you and bring you down to a level that you would never want to be at. Alot of them are on drugs or other substances (alcohol, etc), and they will pretend that they are not doing those things but the police already know what they're doing and if they see you with them, they'll think you're doing "it" too. So, we stay to ourselves, for the most part. I've met some other homeless families and I actually met an old friend whose also homeless with her husband (also an old friend). Sometimes we'll meet at the beach and chat for awhile. All of the families I've seen are living out of vehicles. I coined a phrase for us, I call us "vehicle dwellers" rather than homeless (perhaps houseless, but not homeless). But as for the scenario above, with the people who "pretend they're not doing the things that they're doing" below I'll explain a little more.
For example, they'll see that I have a car, so they'll tell me they're saving their social security so they can buy a van when actually their money's going to drugs, boose, or they spend it on each other for sex. The level of human being I've seen hasn't been pretty. In addition, there are alot of "crazy" (for lack of a better word) people out there. There are many schizophrenic cases that are homeless in the streets wandering around at night. My kids and I are always off the street and in our car by 10:00pm and I always make sure I have plenty of gasoline in case I have to make a quick exit.
I'm gonna share more as this blog develops but I wanted to end on a good note. Naturally, my family has gotten closer in this situation. I mean really close. I had to surpass loving them as my children (adult children) and start really understanding what they want in their lives. I understand that they want something from life that the state could never give them. They want to take a risk and follow their dreams. My son wants a business of his own and after 5 years, he is just beginning to agressively pursue it. My daughter loves to sing and she is a great singer. Her state workers never supported her dream to be a singer. I've always taught her that the world needs singers, just as much as it needs doctors. What would the doctors listen to when they need to unwind from a long hard day at the hospital.
We've been a family known to think "outside of the box" and this proves to be the most "out there" thing we've done. Until next time, keep us in your prayers. *Please Post*
CLICK HERE TO SHOP AT MY AMAZON STORE
No comments:
Post a Comment