A good night’s sleep after a good swim

I bought swim goggles last week and used them to do the front crawl at the pool, instead of gently swimming while trying to keep my face out of the water. I had forgotten how good a workout it was. I slept well. I only woke up when the airplane was climbing overhead. I didn’t realize how close to an airport the campground is. Planes! Trains! Automobiles! Oh, my.

I’ve gotten into a routine of McDonald’s, pool, and library before heading for camp, spending only the overnight hours there. I’m thinking about advertising for just a place to crash during the week. Heck, I don’t even need a shower, I do that at the pool. Which has very nice showers, by the way. I just need a warm (or cool, if it’s too hot to sleep), dry spot to get horizontal where I’m not going to get woken up by cops in the middle of the night and forced to move or get arrested for vagrancy.

A little more sleep

It’s fascinating how much a little more sleep under your belt in the night can make. I have a whole different outlook today. Far happier and more optimistic. Even the noisy families at 11:00 didn’t make much of a difference. If there was a train horn or two, I slept though it. I woke up to a noisy Interstate, but that wasn’t until it was light out.

I woke up at 5:08 and had camp broken and in the car (very quietly of course) by 5:26. Here I am at McD’s relaxing for a whole hour before work.

And it’s Friday! Heading home after work!

 

Feeling lonely

I leave work and I belong to nobody and have nowhere to go, except a little zippered piece of fabric on a piece of rented land. I feel like a visible ghost. I don’t even have other homeless people to talk to.

It’s getting a little old. The sun sets earlier and rises later. I have to drive through the dark now. I want out.

Storm

There was one last night. The tent held, though, and only soaked a shirt that I put on the floor where the two door zippers meet, and a blanket where it was jammed up against the wall. The thunder was loud, but it didn’t last very long. The silver lining of the storm cloud (see what I did there?) was that it drove the loud other campers inside their RVs and there was human silence. They look like they’re going to be there all week. I believe it was a gathering en masse, with several families getting together and having fun, and more power to them until they are up until late making noise.

I wonder how it’s going to look at work. The power infrastructure is ancient and fragile at best. Might have another dark(ish) day.

 

Monday night

It was a cool(ish) night. It was nice not having to strip down to my skivvies immediately upon setting foot in the tent. I really gotta find an alternative, though. The noise: the train horn, the interstate. Or maybe some super-soft earplugs that won’t hurt my ears the longer they stay in.

I have an interview. It’s at a site that will knock my commute almost in half, and doesn’t involve a big-city rush hour.

Monday

Sigh. But at least I got to sleep at home last night. Monday morning is when I crash through rush-hour traffic to get to work. In order to avoid the slow-down on a particular part, I leave early. Thus here I am at McD’s again. Not much time, but enough.

I let a truck in front of me because he wasn’t aware that the right lane was an exit-only. He said thank you by flicking his right signal. I felt good.

I only have four work days this week. Going for an interview at a job much closer to home. Going home and sleeping in my own bed every single night. Beautiful.

Friday again

Almost got squished by a truck going into town–he missed his turn so instead of biting the bullet and going straight, he turned in front of me in the roundabout. But I was watching his erratic behavior and slowed down in time. Be safe out there.

I have two interiews at another job site, basically the same job with two different departments. One one day, and one another day. Apparently they can’t do two on one day. I will have to take two vacation days.

So it looks like maybe my days as a worktenter are drawing to a close. We’ll see.

Haven’t got my coffee yet and I don’t think I will. Lady-behind-counter just told coworker she wasn’t feeling well because she’d been up all night throwing up and diarrhea. So ask yourself, is it a good idea to take something from the hand of someone who might be infectious? Well, the loud old guy just walked in and is demanding his coffee, so maybe he will get his comeuppance. I just want to smack him upside the head, but there might be repercussions for that.

Sleeping at home tonight

and looking forward to it. I have a dentist appointment in the morning (pricy, but doable with the job insurance–impossible to do with Obamacare. So I’ll leisurely rise at 6:30 and leisurely drive to work after the appointment. Maybe I can even get something done at home. It’s going to be a hard day today, so maaaaybe.

Someone’s playing some lovely Latino (I think that’s what it’s called–excuse me if I’m wrong with my description) music behind the counter.

Last night I was at the pool again but my new friend didn’t show up. I was slightly disappointed. Every new face that showed up I scanned, hoping it would be her, but no. Well, it’s not like we had a date or anything. I have a date on Saturday with my friend from home. We’re going to go to a farmer’s market and then go to lunch. It will be such a relief to be able to talk to her.

She’s one of a couple of friends who will listen. I have other friends, too, but I’m more of a sounding board . They’ll tell me all their problems. and then when I want to say something, they say, I really enjoyed this conversation! and that will be that. I wish I had a license, then the same thing would happen but I’d get big bucks for it.

Sleeping was OK last night, temperature-wise. I was concerned because it was so hot, plus there was no breeze. But limiting my food intake and staying in the water as long as I could did the trick.

Heat wave

It’s going to be the hottest day of the year so far, and the hottest night, a bit of a challenge when you’re camping out in it with no fans. The plan is to go to the very cool (literally) library and hang out there until the pool is open for open swim, and then hang out there.

I met a really nice lady last night. We have a lot in common. I hope to maybe go out for coffee with her when this heat wave breaks.

The park’s inner circle of camping spaces has smaller spaces where you can back a monster RV into, and they’re farther apart. So, I picked the smallest one furthest from nearest campsite. It’s nice. Haven’t really seen it in the day, having gotten there just before dark to throw up the tent and throw all needful things into it.

Needful things being: air mattress, blankets (wished I had a sheet last night), laptop, phones, drink, something to nosh on if I get really hungry (unsalted cashews in this case), canned water, and the next day’s clothes.

Life is so much easier if you can make a routine out of your everyday mindless activities. That’s why it must be so much harder if you’re actually homeless. Nothing’s really permanent enough to count on to be there for you to use or stay there.

The regulars in McDonald’s and I are getting familiar enough with each other to greet with a nod every morning. That means something, I’m not sure just what.

At home.

I’m still in sort of a goldfish bowl, being so close to a main road, but there are actual walls. It’s really nice, and when you don’t have it for awhile, you really learn to appreciate it.