Welcome to the USA, Don't Dare Need Medical Care: Blogging Til Homeless, Day 8

Wow, am I tired.

The rest of the furniture has been sold, except for the beds. Jackie never got the frame she was supposed to, so I couldn't sell hers (hers as in she sleeps in it, not owns it), so I've lost money there, and I have to leave my bedframe as well. There goes some cash, as they're both antiques!

On the bright side, the utilities have been changed, and a have a shiny new Post Office Box, which will start forwarding this coming week.

More bad news, however. I've completely lost my medical coverage through MCV/VCC. They needed bank statements, which I provided, along with copies of the blog, etc, to show where the money we collected for Mark went. I got a phone call yesterday from the person handling my account, berating me for having money when I have no job, and I explained the situation and asked her if she even READ the paperwork that I sent along. Apparently, that wasn't enough, and they needed a notarized letter from Mark, which isn't a problem...

BUT...

Now, from selling all of my furniture, I have MORE money in the account, so even though I'm jobless and selling everything because I'll be homeless, I DON'T QUALIFY for medical care because I have money in my bank account. When I told the operator that there was nothing I could do, since I would be homeless at the end of the month, she said “OK, “ and hung up on me.

There goes my neurology appointment in April, then.

I can't close the bank account, as I was told when I was getting Food Stamps that I had to have one to qualify, plus my meds cost nearly $180 per month, and I don't want to have that kind of cash on me, especially while homeless! All the furniture and possessions I'm selling will be paying for my medications, and even that will only last for a few months. I have no idea what I'm going to do when my medication money runs out. All I can hope for is a court date for disability before then.

I wish there was some solution for this. WHY can I not get medical care when I have paid into the system all of my life? Why, when I have LOST EVERYTHING - my home, my possessions, my retirement acccount, my FUTURE - and am going to be on the street after being a productive member of society, do I get treated like a crumpled tissue, to be thrown in the trash?

Why, in supposedly the greatest nation on earth, do people get discarded in this way?

Fun Through the Jungle: Minecraft Snapshot 12w03a Seeds

With all of the awesome-y goodness of Jeb's weekly Minecraft Snapshots, I finally decided to go back to Singleplayer for a while and make a new world, because I WANTED A JUNGLE. After doing several random generations to no avail, I thought I'd try doing something a leeetle more specific. I've tried different word combinations to generate seeds before, with generally lousy results, but I had some time to fool around for a bit, and was pleasantly surprised.

So, I decided to share what I've found. Seeds should be entered into Minecraft exactly as typed here, spaces and capitalizations as given.

SEED: Jungle Boogie

This was the first one I tried, and is one of my favourite songs from Pulp Fiction. This seed will give you a nice jungle biome with several pools of water nearby.

Jungle Boogie

SEED: Jungle Fever

This one is from the Spike Lee movie of the same name, and gives you a nice intersection of jungle, swamp, and taiga biomes.

Jungle Fever

SEED: TarzanBoy

From the 1985 song by Baltimora, this seed gives you a river and epic mountains of epicness! (I'm building on this one – you know I love mountains!)

TarzanBoy

SEED: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

By The Tokens, and the first song I actually sang karoke to. I know, No “jungle” in the title, But the first line has the word “jungle” in it twice (it counts, people! *grin*) This seed has a hilly area as well, and spawn backs up to a wide ocean view.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

All this was inspired by @kalen_nighteyes Tweeting of the jungle seed “Welcome To The Jungle”. I haven't checked the seed out myself, so go give it a look...and check kalen's You Tube channel here.

Happy Safari!

Exhaustion: Blogging Til Homeless, Day 18

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit, but the moving/packing nuttiness is in full swing!

At almost the two week 'til out point, I find myself continually amazed by how HARD this is to do, and how much being disabled at this level impedes my actually getting anything done...impedes it to a ridiculous extent.

I've been driving around doing very necessary errands involving car repairs, obtaining a PO Box, visiting the DMV and the like – every trip necessitates a 2-to-3 day recovery period, where I basically lie in bed, practically unable to move. I've also been selling the remainder of my possessions on Craigslist, and dealing with the many people coming to look at items or pick them up is exhausting and painful...and another 2-3 day recovery period. I've been posting all of my stuff in stages, and scheduling people to come all at once to minimize all the standing/walking, but it still hits me pretty hard. Then there's packing.

Or....NOT packing.

More like having piles of stuff all over the living room, dining room and bedroom where the furniture used to be. Refolding, moving things from pile to pile, deciding that yes, THIS can be sold (take a pic, post to Craigslist, repeat); check emails and respond to interested people...go back to the piles of stuff and start shifting again. Think, “I LOVE this, I've had it for so long, I don't want to lose it...will it fit in the van? I'll just move it to “keep” pile.”

And that “keep” pile gets larger and larger.

So I have to start all over again, posting more things to Craigslist.

Now I've gotten to a point where most of the things I am keeping are clothing, bedding, towels and the like, and my rooms are looking like a giant white sale. I have some Space Bags coming from Amazon this week, and I'll be able to shrink some of this stuff down to a manageable level and start loading it into the van (that last part is guaranteed to land me in bed for another few days!)

What's getting me through all of this right now are my friends.

So many of you, I only know as a voice or in text, having never met in person – and you know what?

You are the best damned people I know.

I've gotten encouragement, love, laughter, snark, hugs, kicks in the butt, genuine CARING...

I have no idea what I would have done without ALL OF YOU.

Thank you, all of you, for being there for me.

Miracles Happen: Blogging Til Homeless, Day 26

Today, I have a camper.

I found the ad late last night on Craigslist, and called before 9 o'clock this morning. Within 20 minutes, I was being shown the camper by a man named Evan, whose family had grown too large for it.

It was a year older than I, a hardshell, and was only $600. I paid Evan and drove it home.

Yes, it's dirty, but most of the inside has been completely redone, and should be perfectly comfortable for one person. I may try to paint the interior another color, most likely after I get settled. Just hooking and unhooking the camper from the van put me in so much pain that I've spent the last 4 hours in bed, so I don't think I should be TOO ambitious. After all, I'm still packing the house up and selling things, which also knocks me flat.

Today is a day filled with awesome.

Thanks to all of you, I have a camper.

Thanks to all of you, I will be warm and safe.

I cannot properly express my gratitude to everyone who donated, Tweeted, blogged, passed the word along, sent virtual hugs and words of encouragement...and those who simply CARED.

Thank you.

I'll Get By With A Little Help From My Friends: Blogging Til Homeless, Day 31

I got a Twitter DM this morning from Thefre, whom many of you know as @ThiefKnight on Twitter. He's the person who does the fabulous Minecraft Chibi avatar drawings, lovely sketches, and a multitude of sekrity sekrit stuffs.

He said, “Check this out.”

So I checked, and there was Chibi Thefre, Teddanator and I, straight off of Thefre's private server, set up to be 3-D printed at Shapeways, sooooo CUTE!

Then was the awesome part.

Thefre was doing this to help me fundraise for the camper! Here's the incentive:

Donate $100 or more, and you will receive your Minecraft avatar, rendered in Chibi style by Thefre and produced as a 2 x 2.4 x 0.7 inch 3-D sculpture!

1. Donate $100 or more by clicking the “Donate” button below.
   
   
2. In the “Message” section on PayPal, include your full name, Minecraft IGN (In-Game-Name), and the address that you'd like your avatar sculpture shipped.

Thanks to Thefre, now donators can have a little something in return for helping me keep warm and safe while homeless.

Thank you all!

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Donations are now at $357, and I've tried contacting the owners of the less expensive campers on Craigslist. Haven't received any responses as of yet, and some of the ads are gone when you search on the site. Please pass this blog along, and donate if you can. I appreciate everything the community is doing-THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

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"What Can We Do?" Blogging Til Homeless: Day 32

"What Can We Do?"

Many people have been asking what they can do to help, and I have to confess, until now, I've been at a total loss as to what to say. All I could think about was that I didn't really have a definition of what I needed, except the extremely difficult “free place to live for an indeterminate time period until I get disability”. That definition was as unhelpful as anything.

Seems that I was forgetting my personal history. You see, there is something definite that would help. First, let me give you a small update.

I have places where I can park the van, which is awesome. This will prevent me from having to park in a box store parking lot at night, or alternatively parking somewhere on a back road, neither of which is very safe. I've got three places so far where I can park the van on private property (and one place to actually stay indoors, but is very far away). Thank you everyone – you know who you are!

Then somebody sent me an email that jogged my memory, and I can't believe I hadn't thought of this sooner:

Why not live in a camper?

For approximately four years, I had traveled up and down the east coast, vending at outdoor festivals and shows, staying IN MY CAMPING TRAILER. It was cheap, and it was safe. Most important of all, being disabled, I can even set one up.

People have been asking how much it would cost to set me up in an apartment for a few months, and between deposit, rent and utilities, it would cost thousands; and is an unrealistic, temporary solution. I have NO idea when my court date is. My disability attorney says it is on the docket but has not been scheduled yet. This is the Federal Government, remember, so I could easily be looking at another year *shudder*. An apartment would be no solution, since I have no income. The money would run out, and I'd be in the same position as I'm in today.

A camper can change this.

Living in a camper would also allow me to rotate where I'm staying, so that I wouldn't be a burden on any one person for too long. It would allow me to leave what possessions I have left in a safe place when I need to use the van (rather than hauling everything around wherever I go). It would allow me to actually sleep in a bed, rather than on a bunch of blankets on the floor of the van. It would allow me to keep some of my personal possessions, so I wouldn't have to start over completely when the time comes. It would essentially give me a free place to live, as long as I needed, until court.

My van is already set up to tow a camper. I still have all of my camping equipment: propane lanterns, stove, etc.

I'm terrible at asking for things for myself. Absolutely terrible. Fundraising for Mark was so different, and easy. I always find it easier to do things for other people, rather than asking for myself.

But I have to change that. I need help. A used camper costs anywhere from $6-or-$700 to about $3500, depending on what's available, and will need inspection, registration and insurance.

Can you help? I hate asking, but this is something definite, something that will actually HELP. If you can, there is a Donate button at the bottom of this post.

Here's some of the things I've seen on Craigslist. I don't know what is still available, since it's pointless to ask unless I can actually purchase one:

http://richmond.craigslist.org/rvs/2776779085.html

http://richmond.craigslist.org/rvs/2774543513.html

http://richmond.craigslist.org/rvs/2773139070.html

http://richmond.craigslist.org/rvs/2760007874.html

http://richmond.craigslist.org/rvs/2758197424.html

http://richmond.craigslist.org/rvs/2757089352.html

Thanks for listening, and thanks for your support.

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Thanks to donators, the van repairs are now covered! Many, many thanks!

Have a wonderful New Year!

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