I need to be free

[Morgana]

"Research librarians" work in academic libraries; Maki might be thinking of "reference librarians," but you don't really need a technical term when visiting a local library. If it's not obvious where to go when you walk in the door, you can just ask for "someone who can help me look up local services" or the like. If there's a staffed desk /other than/ the circulation (check-out) desk, for example a "reference" desk, that's a good place to start. (<<that's probably stating the obvious, sorry! library freak here)

It seems a bit unlikely that the local library would have more information than the local 2-1-1 service, but you never know and it's always worth a look. In situations like this, redundancy is your friend (even though it can be an emotional drain making sure you leave no stone unturned) because you never know where that one good lead will show up. While you're there, check the bulletin board too.

Maki had a good idea about checking with senior centers re: live-in jobs and I wonder if you could take that one step farther by checking with home-care agencies. Not all of their gigs require CNA training. I found my mandatory post-op babysitter (after cataract surgery), who was great, through an agency called Visiting Angels which I think is a national chain but in any case there's bound to be several such outfits in any large city. Home care aide can be grueling hard work for low pay but maybe as a way to get back on your feet ... especially since you're already healing-oriented ... I think you'd have somewhat more protection working through an agency than going out on your own. (I don't know what % of their jobs are live-in, these days, but the folks that need that service get it somewhere.)

It's probably easier to get started in something like that if you still have a home address, which is another reason to ask yourself "how long would it take them to evict me, and how bad would it really be to have that on my record?"

Obviously it's super hard to figure all these things out when you're facing a tight deadline. I always think that in any challenge like this there are 100 options, time to try 3, and 97 people ready to stand on the sidelines telling you you shoulda tried the others. (OK I might be a little paranoid about the 97 but in the end these are all brainstorming suggestions and only you can decide what to do.)

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Re: the ads covering the "post" button -- they can often be avoided by turning the screen 90 degrees. If it's driving you that crazy, Marge, might be worth mentioning it in the website-issues forum. Several people (including me) have mentioned it in random threads, but I don't know that anyone has actually tried to get a trouble-shoot started.

 

[bullfrog !]

If you haven’t already, get your identification and mailing arrangements in order. Primary if possible is to get a passport while still at a permanent residence.

 

[Aja-Aya]

If you haven’t already, get your identification and mailing arrangements in order. Primary if possible is to get a passport while still at a permanent residence.

I have a passport. Like get a p.o. box?

 

[bullfrog !]

Like maybe, it depends if you will stay locally or need mail forwarded. It also may be an issue when you need to renew licenses, get insurance or vote. Lots of issues with residency have been discussed here and on other forums. If you are going to travel many issues are best dealt with while you still have a physical address. In my case I knew I would be traveling full time. I resolved those mainly by joining Escapee’s and using their mail service. They can be a great resource as they were originally formed to solve the problems of full time nomadic workers and now deal with the thousands of people that do.

 

[Aja-Aya]

Thank you. I'm glad I asked.

 

[bullfrog !]

If you haven’t updated your driver’s license to the new one that is best done while at a physical address also as they require things like utility bills or rental agreements as proof where you have a physical address.

 

[Aja-Aya]

If you haven’t updated your driver’s license to the new one that is best done while at a physical address also as they require things like utility bills or rental agreements as proof where you have a physical address.

Ok, done and done

 

[rruff]

For the severely down, we worked with acreage owners to establish a series of 'Opportunity Village' locations.
These have Conestoga houses, a solid 8x12 platform with solid walls and a solid roof.
Secure in each self-policing mini-community, residents enjoy on-site showers, worshes and dryers, and a group kitchen for organized communal meals.
A darn sight better than a tent on a sidewalk.

That's exactly the ticket, LargeMarge! Did you do this in Eugene? How did you acquire the land and fund the facilities? Who supervises the community?

 

[LargeMarge]

... redundancy is your friend...
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Re: the ads covering the "post" button -- they can often be avoided by turning the screen 90 degrees. If it's driving you that crazy, Marge...

.
a)
A story about The Best Possible Outcome:
Just before Y2K -- it was in all the papers -- we worked as live-in caretakers for an elderly shut-in.
Knitting behind us in church, introductions, she seemed nice, we said 'sure!'.
Turns out, although certainly ambulatory, she lived in her bed 24/7 with televisionprogramming blasting 24/7.
.
Quickly abandoning the bedroom next to hers...
...at the other end of the house as far away as we could, we immediately did a minimal garage conversion for her two-car, a comfortable yuge space with a lovely vaulted ceiling.
We were there three years.
.
We bailed after she stroked, requiring several days in hospital...
... but had zero memory of that, insisting the documentation was forged, the hospital staff were evil Nigerian prince-lawyer conspirators because she saw it on televisionprogramming.
.
And, then, there was:
* a plate of food chucked against the wall.
* the computer and printer mysteriously vandalized
* demands for thousands of dollars in 'lease fees' for parking on the driveway.
OK, sure... increasingly outside our job description.
.
Coincidentally, that same week in 2003, we received a devastating diagnosis for my Very Significant Other.
We immediately wrote our RequirementsStatement on a brown paper grocery bag.
.
2003, as we formulated our next steps, we instantly realized living with a lunatic...
.
But that is a story for another time.
.
Point is, one door closes, a hundred more open.
2003, we built our ExpeditionVehicle, hit the road.
Three years of doing the wrong thing -- treading water -- led us to our passion:
* full-time live-aboard in a quite strange home on wheels.
.
I hope this helps.
.
.
b)
We also work as property-sitters and house-sitters.
"But but but LM!, you can't possibly park your deranged rig in a neighborhood of straights!"
Well...
.
First thing at a new gig, we walk the neighborhood, chatting with folks, and handing out flyers.
Our flyers have our contact information, a description of our service, plus our dates for staying and leaving.
.
We like to eat -- we owned a restaurant business for ten years -- so we offer to organize a community get-together, BBQ or movie night with snacks, that sort of thing.
.
As our second line of defense for the property, we recruit elderly shut-ins looking out their windows.
We ask them to help us watch for evil conspirators claiming to be Nigerian prince-lawyers, unusual amounts of smoke, unannounced explosions, that sort of thing.
.
Point is, everybody is an asset, everybody just wants to belong.

 

[LargeMarge]

That's exactly the ticket, LargeMarge! Did you do this in Eugene? How did you acquire the land and fund the facilities? Who supervises the community?

.
Land ownership remains with the original owners.
The city authorizes a 'temporary' zoning variance for 'temporary' cluster dwellings.
Funding comes partly from Saint Vincent de Paul donations, partly from area tax-payers.
Property owners receive deferred property taxes and business taxes, with the potential for tax elimination.
.
Each community is self-policing.
Residents recognize the security inside the fence and gate.
Residents access worshers and dryers, showers, and community kitchens.
.
.
An aside:
Oregon in general and our cities specifically, this's a real-estate collapse.
Businesses are failing, home prices are free-falling, bare ground has zero value to developers.
.
Bankers require enormous equity prior to considering a loan.
In the olden days, bankers would gladly take participation in the finished building, happily working with contractors as a partner.
These days, bankers are foreclosing on abandoned commercial and residential projects hourly.
.
Federal regulators are forcing bankers to divest from their ownership of businesses and real-estate... at any price.
.
After completing new construction -- apartments, strip-maul -- nobody has any money to move in.
Only the most intrepid entrepreneur would consider opening a new business in this market.
.
Customers are reluctant to purchase anything outside of food and fuel.
The uncertainty is a physical black cloud.
.
Hence:
* owners of bare land plus
* former problem-children plus
* bureaucrats worried for their safety...
... equals a 'temporary' solution.

 

[Aja-Aya]

UPDATE: I have bought a minivan. Her name is Trillionisha and it's a 2002 Dodge Caravan. The guy I purchased from used it as a fishing van. So it stank stank funky until I took out all the seats and vacuumed. I will be blowing it up with bleach and fabulouso tomorrow. I drove it two hours from Milton, Fl back to Mobile, AL. I can breathe a little bit.

 

[WanderingRose]

Ahh, congratulations!

Keep us posted, and best of luck to you.

 

[Overland One]

Excellent. I wish you the very best with it.

 

[rpmhart333]

To everyone in the thread: EVERYTHING needs energy healing. But saying that (okay, Writing that, be picky) I am reminded of the Gary Larson cartoon many years ago about the Appliance Healer, where a line of people with their appliances approach a Faith Healer who is saying "I command these demons to come OUT of this toaster!" as he lays hands upon it.
A tear just came to my eye...for the first time in years I remembered I was bequeathed my grandma's 1930s waffle iron (a Dominion?) and it died while in my care, a few years after her passing. Where was that healer when I needed him?
The guilt of getting rid of it befouls my waters even now, these many years later.
Please forgive me, Grammy. I still have your icepick and the spitoon, tho'.

 

[rpmhart333]

Oh...neglected to say this: I also welcome you...and have faith that someone as positive as you present yourself to be will find your way thru the Plinko machine of life with a minim of hesitation on any particular nail.

 

[Aja-Aya]

Thank you! I feel welcomed. I wouldn't say I'm always positive but I practice being loving. My dream is to get stuck that way one day.

 

[rpmhart333]

As a practicing NOM (Negative Old Man), I think it's my duty to remind a young person like you that balance is an important thing in life. Positive and loving are wonderful things, but don't forget that glum, fetid, and grumblingful have their place, too. Personally, I try to do at least one thing each day that I can say "Holy crap, that was stupid and self-destructive", then brood about it for hours. Makes me sleep more poorly every night so that I can face the new day with suspicion, dread and the feeling that the sky is about to fall. It's a good thing I have a couple of stuffed animals (an octopus and orangutan) that I can talk to, even tho' they cheat at poker and I owe them thousands of dollars.
Postscript: Just scrolled back thru the string and saw your newer post about Trillionisha. Best vibes upon your partnership. Hope you'll explain the name when you have a chance. Assuming it's not a personal secret.

 

[Aja-Aya]

As a practicing NOM (Negative Old Man), I think it's my duty to remind a young person like you that balance is an important thing in life. Positive and loving are wonderful things, but don't forget that glum, fetid, and grumblingful have their place, too. Personally, I try to do at least one thing each day that I can say "Holy crap, that was stupid and self-destructive", then brood about it for hours. Makes me sleep more poorly every night so that I can face the new day with suspicion, dread and the feeling that the sky is about to fall. It's a good thing I have a couple of stuffed animals (an octopus and orangutan) that I can talk to, even tho' they cheat at poker and I owe them thousands of dollars.
Postscript: Just scrolled back thru the string and saw your newer post about Trillionisha. Best vibes upon your partnership. Hope you'll explain the name when you have a chance. Assuming it's not a personal secret.

I love your post it makes me laugh. Thank you for that. I named her Trillionisha because it makes me laugh. It reminds me of one of those hood names that I've heard. Me and my cousin would laugh at this girl's name we saw that was billionisha, millionisha. It's not serious. That's what I wanted. I was going to name her a serious goddess name but I decided to go the comical route.

 

[rpmhart333]

Well, as it says in the Book of Elucidation, Ch. 7 Verse 12-22: Comicalness is next to Godlicalness.
(or that may have been in a fortune cookie I got once)

 

[Seajatt]

I've actually wanted to do energy healing in women's shelter. Thank you for your encouragement and advice. I love it!

A lot of trucking companies will pay you to train for your CDL. Then you'd have a job and a living situation all in one go. Plus, they make good money and drivers are increasingly diverse so you won't have to worry about those types as much.