Dreadful Typewriter

OK not much of a title, but I don't care. I'm trying to seriously plan my back-to-Florida move. I know it won't be any time soon unless I somehow win the lotto, the plan now is to wait until my 401K cashes out, which will be in about two and a half years. This of course assumes a number of things: that I'll still be around then, that the 401K will have any money in it at all, that there's no crash happening, etc. Also there is the whole "job" thing, I doubt I'll be able to retire at 59. The ideal is a transition out of this office job into some working from home gig that nets me at least as much as I make now, and hopefully more since Florida isn't cheap if I manage to make it all the way back to Miami, which is what I want to do. If the housing situation stays the same in my old home town, rent will not be cheap, but may be manageable. The outlying areas are of course my best bet, Homestead and around there. I do not want to live in the north part...

I read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere sometime in the 1990s I think. Spoilers to follow if it matters for a book published nearly 30 years ago... It just occurred to me now how a tell of just how mundane and bourgeois Gaiman is was how he telegraphed the villainy of the "good" angel character by how he got the main characters, a twenty-ish man and a younger woman (who was also, I think, underage -- sixteen maybe? It's been a while) drunk.  His Sandman comics were my main thing for a time. On the surface they were rather progressive (sexually ambiguous characters such as Desire, plenty of gay characters who weren't obvious stereotypes, etc.), but there was an overlying cisheterosexuality that promoted traditional domesticity as an ideal if not one that all the characters were suited for, and that was seen as a semi-tragedy or fatal flaw (Dream can't seem to have a relationship that doesn't end with something horrible happening to his lady friends, Barbie leaves K...

Well, I guess I'm going to keep on ignoring my "official blog" in the space I actually pay for and use this free one, in a space I've been on for... nearly 20 years! Hahaha. I'm so old what the hell happened to my life. Anyway, well. Early this year, around the end of December, I got sick. Then I stayed sick, for like, weeks. Everyone in the office was sick, passing around the same thing like a Christmas gift they were trying to get rid of. Finally I felt better and felt like I was out of the woods. Then at the end of February, I went to the emergency room. "You have bronchitis!" I was told. "But it's not the flu!"  I don't know if I had covid-19 or not. No one was testing up here. But the symptoms I had sound a whole lot like a lot of people who did: fever, body aches, coughing so hard I threw up, getting well for a while and then relapsing. I didn't get pneumonia at least. On the other hand, there's a possibility that I just h...

Gonna put a go plan here. Mostly things to buy and stash in the car for when I finally run away from this hell valley. Ikea seems to have the best prices *and* quality, but Target and Walmart are actually nearby. Oh well, if I choose Ikea: Dinnerware set:  https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/faergrik-18-piece-dinnerware-set-light-green-60318920/ Glass set:  https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ikea-365-glass-clear-glass-70278358/ I'm fussy about mugs and might keep a few I have but these are super-cheap:  https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/faergrik-mug-stoneware-white-60143992/ Might purchase an air-mattress, which hopefully will resist cat claws. Walmart has those for reasonable. A couple of plain sheet sets (full/queen) can be picked up at Walmart, and I'll need a plain blanket and/or duvet or comforter. The ones at Walmart are too gaudy and the ones at Target are too expensive. So, Ikea again. I can't decide on one right now. Some plain pull on pants and/or leggings, and tops -...

I got some bad news the other day. One of my old blogger friends, someone I met back when blogs were a slightly bigger fish in a slightly smaller pond, died of injuries from a car accident. Charles  was a really nice guy. I only met him in person once, on one of his "world tours" (long road trips) that he used to take before he got badly injured in a fall. He came down to where I was mildly rotting in Orlando (when I had no car and was living in the "nice" apartment in Altamonte Springs that turned out to be not quite so nice and had mosquitoes in it) and we had brunch at Denny's and chatted about I don't remember what. Other blogs, the state of the world, etc. I doubt I was a sparkling conversationalist. I never saw him in person again -- Oklahoma City is a long way away from Florida and Virginia, where I eventually moved, even after I had a car. And there was no money, no time... He knew a lot about pop music, and once helped me find a CD by an obscure go...

Unfancying up this place. I think I like it, despite all of the Blogger cruft. Autumn weather is finally here. Which means my body does its new thing of hating being cold because I'm old now and don't live in Florida where cold weather is a novelty. Oh I'm getting used to it, but I think I need a larger space heater. At least I will when my "office nook" is usable and I actually get around to using it. There isn't much color outside so far. I think all the rain washed out all the sugars and whatever it is causes leaves to change color. Also a lot of stuff just seemed to rot. It made the fungus happy anyway. Maybe I'll venture into the park that has lots of woods and look for mushrooms, if any are still around. It was dry and sunny today but it's going to get rainy again. I've been hearing it will be a "warm" winter which I hope means "no snow" because I'm done with snow now, it can cease to exist. I've been thinkin...

I finally got my clean laundry hung up and two days' outfits sorted and more or less ready to go. And the dishes done--something I try to do every night but I'd been slacking lately. I also got three bags of clothes to go to Goodwill in the trunk of my car. It felt so good to get rid of things I'd gotten tired of wearing, or seeing in my closet every day and not wearing and knowing I would never wear them. I also packed away most of the warm-weather clothes in the under-bed box. I tossed the pale-aqua comforter, in its bag, in my car trunk too, but I think I'll keep it for now. In case... I don't know, I have to leave in a hurry, or sleep in my car, or something (in the dead of winter not likely but well it's best to be prepared). I hope I can last in this hell-place until spring, and have money to move out on my own if I have to. The bathroom upstairs leaked water through my bedroom ceiling again. The upstairs neighbor was taking a bath, and we're not sur...