Down and Out in America 9/15/04
I’m sitting around waiting for the phone to ring from the “day labor”, which, as noted in my last two entries, has so far been a bust; however, I stayed in town to see what today’s paper had to offer in the way of jobs.
There are plenty of jobs listed, so I intend to head out at noon if I don’t get called out on day labor. I got $20 off of the DVD player, so between that and the cans, I have enough money to get by. Our four year old still has $3 and change left, but I’m really trying hard not to touch that; the older two girls understand that we need it and were willing to help, and it’s hard to have to borrow money from any of them, but Tobie’s money is the hardest because she’s not old enough to understand it.
I mentioned in an earlier post about “good moments and bad moments”. Well, I had a few intense bad moments yesterday, which I’m trying desperately to keep from degenerating into pity trips. There’s no time for pity trips, getting a job right now is the most pressing concern. We would move elsewhere, but there’s no money to move.
It’s possible I may have to take the job in Death Valley, but before I do, I need to get Amy and the girls squared away with a place to live, as there is no housing for families down there. While we could manage being homeless if we are all together, I can’t leave them without options and leave town.
I have to wonder how many families have been broken apart through these kinds of circumstances. It is beyond amazing that a church that is commanded to care for the poor and needy so often makes assumptions and abandons families like ours that are in need (this is the problem we have in receiving assistance from the church; much like Vegas, many pastors simply assume you gambled your money away or will gamble away any assistance they give you and use that as their rationale for not helping; this is as absurd to me as pastors in other states assuming you DRANK your money away; we all know what happens when you ASSUME).
We are becoming more accepting of the inevitable homelessness; while it won’t be pleasant, we will make it work as best we can. I’m going to take the advice of getting the number on our cell phone changed when we get it reactivated, so that the only calls coming in are calls I need (can’t afford to drain the battery either).
Once again, this is being saved to log when I can get online, so the date of the article won’t necessarily match the date when it is posted.
signing off,
Gideon MacLeish