Friday, August 16, 2013

It's 1:25 PM. I did the budget and came up with what looks like reliable figures. After my basic monthly expenses, including GEICO and AT&T for the Internet markup (to 76.00), and my food and drug store costs and Gasoline, I will have $160.52 for everything else. I have called those discretionary expenses, and they won't all need to be spent in a given month. The list is staggering, however – hair cuts, printer supplies, LULU costs, dentist, doctor, NPR, AMTRACK, car repair, restaurants, clothing. The only one I need to spend for this coming month is printer supplies. Car repair, if it comes up, is likely to break the budget, but so far the car is running fine. I'll have to go into savings for car repair, but maybe I can put a small amount into the savings account monthly from this discretionary spending if I don't need to spend it during that month.

I have mailed the finished MCD application off with proofs of income and the July resignation letter to show that I am no longer employed. I should hear from them in about a month, if it takes the same amount of time that it did before. I think I've done everything I need to do about my finances for the time being.


Saturday, August 17, 2013

9:24 AM I have produced a downright beautiful budget and monthly expenditures sheet on the computer. Computers are really wonderful. My handwriting, no matter how neat I try to be, could never look like this, and I can easily correct any errors without having to copy the whole danged thing over! I transposed the costs over directly from the June 2013 bank statement to produce the list of predictable expenses. The trick is to stick to this basic needs list each month. I made the budget and monthly expenditures sheets from one that I found on the Internet. I will do an exhaustive list of what I spend each month, using this sheet, and hopefully not go over the amount I have allowed myself. I have $160.52 left over for discretionary expenses, which is also enough that if I do no impulse spending, I can hopefully save some (put it directly into the Savings account) each month toward car repairs, AMTRACK and Dental costs. My Discretionary expenditures list includes all the things I could think of that come up occasionally, namely hair cuts, printer supplies, LULU costs, Dentist, Car Repair and Maintenance, Psychiatrist and other specialists, NPR, Movies, AMTRAK to NC, used clothing and Restaurants. These don't come up every month, so it gives me a small cushion each month so my checking account doesn't go into the red. This is good progress toward my personal security.

I have the meeting with Linda Mowers today at 11:30 and I plan to give her a copy of this budget and monthly expenditures sheet. I will start each monthly sheet with the date I receive the social security payment in the month PRIOR to the month of the expenditures so the money will actually be in the bank when I start to count up the expenditures. I will set up my checking account starting with the social security payment and spend that money only each month and keeping my bank register in accordance with that amount, filling out the monthly sheet as I make expenditures and omitting no spending item from the list. That way I won't go over. This is the plan. If I can't live within this budget I will soon find out and make a new budget.

3:29 PM – I'm back from lunch with Linda. We met another church member, Lee, who is almost as old as I am and is living in a senior apartment building where they also have HUD financing for some of the apartments. She and Linda talked to me about possibly moving over there to the neighborhood, Riverside, where I can get HUD housing and be near 15 or so church members. The benefit of that, other than making friends with them, is that if my car gives out and won't run anymore I can sell it and get rides from them to church. It is also a somewhat safer neighborhood than this one is, though I feel fine here out walking in the daytime. There are more shops and restaurants there within a few blocks, and I noticed my bank has a branch there, plus there is a Publix and a drugstore, all within easy walking distance. Lee said there is a waiting list of 6 to 12 months to get into those buildings, but I'm fine here until one comes open. So maybe I'll move in the not too distant future. Something to look forward to.

Reading my prehistoric story again now.



Sunday, August 18, 2013

8:20 AM It's sunny and a little cool, with the air conditioner on. I have my sweater on. I'm watching channel 4 news. Then I will start back on my book. This morning with breakfast I was watching a tape of a Discovery Channel show about the Iceman who was found in the Alps about ten years ago (or more?). That was an amazing find for the archaeologists. Not only do they have his almost perfectly preserved body, but his kit of traveling tools, bow and arrow, some dried mushrooms for fire starting and perhaps also for medicinal use and leather clothing with a grass cape made like one that was used into the 20th century by shepherds in that part of Europe. That's really wonderful. That's why I like folk stories. There are nuggets of true information passed down in old stories, and they may go back thousands of years.


Monday, August 19, 2013

10:10 AM I have finally finished The Land Of The Painted Caves, and I was right. There was no big climax. The whole long story is a series of scrapes and emotional events between Ayla and Jondalar, but no long-term broadly developed plot. It ended happily after Jondalar began to go out behind Ayla's back with the bad girl of the story, Marona, because Ayla was spending too much time becoming a Zelondoni. Ayla saw them together and went to the Mother Festival, during which everybody in the Cave had the right to “share pleasures” with anyone they wanted. Jondalar, though he had not had the courage to make it up to Ayla for being caught with Marona, saw Ayla with another man named Laramer who was most disliked by Jondalar of all the people in the cave, and pulled him off her, beating him nearly to death. This display of jealousy was against the beliefs of the community, because of the damage jealousy does to the peaceful continuance of the society, and Jondalar was required to take care of Laramer's family. Laramer luckily moved to another cave to live, so Ayla and Jondalar shouldn't have any more trouble from him.

Ayla meanwhile, in grief after finding out about Jondalar's affair, was not speaking to Jondalar and he was avoiding her. Both were blaming themselves, but were not doing anything to pursue a reconciliation, so they both were severely depressed and somewhat disturbed mentally. Ayla continued her work with Zelondoni, and foolishly agreed to test some roots that she had brought with her from the Clan, which contained a very powerful psychotropic chemical, so Zelondoni could consider using them for medicinal purposes. Zelondoni also took a dose of the medication, but didn't take as much as Ayla did. Both were strongly affected by the drug, but Zelondoni recovered fairly soon. Ayla was unconscious and her body was unnaturally cold. Zelondoni had her carried to the Zelondonia dwelling and put to bed, with several sleeping furs and hot compresses to wake her up. Still she didn't wake up, so Zelondoni called for Jondalar to be brought to her, since he had returned her to consciousness once before in the caves of the Mamutoi when Ayla and Jondalar were travelling on the trail to the land of the Zelondonii. He stayed by her bed and talked to her and held her hand, with the help of Wolf who also shared the vigil, until finally she opened her eyes. Miraculously, she was no longer angry at Jondalar for having a fling with Marona, and was grateful for the reconciliation. Ayla had recently convinced Zelondoni that it was the “sharing of pleasures” that caused babies to develop in women's bodies, rather than just the will of the Great Mother, and Zelondoni had told the whole community about it. Jondalar, therefore, had a new understanding of the harm that was done by having sex outside of the pair bond, and promised never to do it again, and Ayla promised as well. The rest of the story is about living happily ever after, and they are last seen out at the swimming spot on the river with their horses and Wolf nearby. The end.

Today I need to go to the drugstore to pick up three prescriptions and go to the Perimeter Security office to get the keys which are on my desk there. Joy wants them slipped under her door in the building. I have emailed her asking exactly where her office is, and if she has deactivated my electronic door key yet. If she has, she will have to meet me there and open the doors for me. I'll call her in a few minutes if she hasn't emailed me an answer. I also need to call the bank and find out if my social security has come in yet. I can't start keeping track of my spending until I get it. I want the money to be in my account before I start using it up, to record everything and be sure I'm staying within my budget. The budget will run between months because my social security money comes in on the middle of the month and otherwise it won't be there for the rent due date, in other words it will cover August and September, etc. I'm going to use the table of monthly expenses that I set up on the computer the other day. My bank register will show the correct amount that is in the bank account, but the monthly table will show the budget, and hopefully any amount that I may be able to save toward car repair or dental work.

I just talked to Joy, and she said she has already deactivated my door key, so she will meet me some day next week. She is travelling now. She did pull the extra keys off my desk, she said, but she didn't see the mailbox key. She also said somebody from Duval County called her asking for John, and she gave him John's email address. Probably about the business license.

I called the bank, and the money isn't in yet. Richard said Social Security, going by my birthday, pays on the third Wednesday of each month, so I have a few days to wait. I looked on the calendar, and that's the 21st. I'm so excited about this new budget I made that I can't wait to get started on it. I was dreading setting it up, because I expected it to be confusing and hard to manage, but all I did was go through every entry in my bank statement and look at each expenditure. Then I chose the vitally important ones, totaling them up. I was delighted to find that I had over a hundred dollars left over, with only the occasional items to take care of, which don't come up every month. I have budgeted the Internet and the car insurance in, so I don't have to give them up.

It's 12:08, so I'll eat and watch the news and Do You Want To Be A Millionaire now. 1:03 PM, it's Soap Opera time, so I'm turning the TV off and starting on Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol. It seems that I may have read this one already, but it has been 8 or 10 years, so maybe I'll enjoy it. 2:41 PM I'm trying to read The Lost Symbol and having some success. It's full of mysterious references and has introduced a man who is totally tattooed from head to foot, who keeps saying “It's buried out there somewhere.” Fascinating.

One of my less desirable neighbors is playing rap music as loudly as he can outside my open window. I just gave up and closed it, so I won't get the beauty of the fresh air. It's hard to read a book with that rap going on. Reading now.