Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I fell off the grid

Sorry I haven't posted. There's a simple reason: I have no electricity. I never received a notice from Kentucky Utilities and so I was somewhat surprised on Friday morning when my power went off. I thought I had until the 20th or so to pay. Not so.

I'm not sure which has been worse, the not being able to blog regularly or the cold showers. Oh, well, I guess really it is the cold showers. I dread getting under that freezing water. It finally occurred to me last night that if I could get up early enough, I could go work out at the gym and get a hot shower. Unfortunately, due to a series of things, I didn't get home until 3 am, so that was not to be. I did get up early enough to go to the library at 9 am so I could be at work by 10. Turns out the Eagle Creek Branch opens at 9:30, so I was thwarted. I'm blogging now out of the kindness of a friend--'Yes, but no porn!'

Tomorrow I have to make my rent or they'll start eviction proceedings. I've been behind ever since I had to buy that tyre, and of course the gas is killing me. (It's $3.85 today, a record in Lexington. I know, a lot of you are paying more, but I just don't know how I'm going to keep the car running.) So that's why I don't have the money for my electricity--much more important to have someplace to live than to have the electricity to run it. I'm supposed to get paid tomorrow, but it isn't 100% likely (our actual payday at the store is next Monday; we normally get paid the preceding Wednesday, and with my direct deposit I'm more likely to get it on time, but it isn't a sure thing.)

Tomorrow I also have an appointment with an aid agency to see if I can get some help with that energy bill. I'm afraid they'll basically tell me I make too much to get aid, but not enough to pay my bills. I make a little over two times the poverty rate. We'll see, though. If they won't help, then I can get the power back on May 22nd.

I'm eating mainly peanut butter and some soup, tuna, crackers, and chips from a care package a co-worker brought me. Thanks, M.

Please don't think I'm enummerating my problems to go, 'poor me'. I know this will pass relatively quickly. But I have some very real fears of how things will pan out and I guess I'm trying to put those into words. I don't want to be evicted. I want my C-Pap back so I can sleep well again at night. I want to not be living hand to mouth all the time.

To that end, I checked the Kentucky job line for librarians on Monday (new postings normally show up then) and found one for the Lexington Public Library at--and this is great--the Eagle Creek Branch, within a block or two of my apartment. That would be so wonderful. It pays $36,000-$53,000 a year. I went ahead and applied for it right then. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Well, thanks for reading. I'll post an update as soon as I can. Good night.

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