I just got started
on a project
that needed to be done
about a year ago.
Read all about it,
below the squiggly:
My first wife,
Pam,
died almost five years ago,
on the 11th of March,
2008.
I quickly moved from a large,
two bedroom duplex,
with a wood burning fireplace,
washer and dryer hookups,
big kitchen,
big living room,
I moved out of that,
because,
as a single man
with a full time job,
I do not qualify for Section 8 rent subsidy.
I moved back
to the same apartment complex
Pam and I had lived in,
seven years before.
The rent was cheap,
and my next door neighbor,
Bev,
agreed to be my once a week lover,
and I thought I was all set.
However.
I was still struggling with bouts of depression,
mostly on days off work,
when I felt at loose ends.
I needed to stay busy,
and,
to feel a sense of purpose,
I needed to help others who needed help.
Well,
I found that here in the USA,
there are so many Americans
in a bind,
couch surfing,
no place to stay,
no place to live.
If someone I know,
someone who used to take care of Pam
(Pam was born disabled,
and your tax dollars had paid various folks,
over about thirty years,
about $9 per hour
to take care of Pam,
funded by Medicaid.)
If one of Pam's former workers
told me he was forced by circumstances
to go to the shelter for the homeless,
or could I help?
I had various folks
living with me,
in a one bedroom apartment.
Some treated me badly,
trying to run my life,
or failing to pay me any money,
when they just had money,
the day before,
but it somehow vanished;
some of those
I kicked out.
I was having trouble
avoiding depression,
partly because some of the roommates
hurt me deeply,
and partly because
my Beverly
failed to comfort me
enough,
failed to make me feel at home.
She had her apartment,
she had her cat,
she had her three adult children,
she had her seven grandchildren,
and I was just an easy lover,
right next door.
I thought that's all I wanted.
But then,
Tonia came back into my life.
Tonia is another worker
who used to take care of Pam.
Tonia was living with her uncle
and two of her brothers,
in a big,
five bedroom house.
Tonia's room
is a room that had been added on
to the back of the garage,
after the garage was converted into a bedroom.
It's an unusual room;
it has a cellar under it,
and the ceiling is nine feet up.
One day,
after Tonia and I had had
a few dates,
but before she made it clear to me
that she really wanted me,
Tonia had a disaster
in her room.
Earlier,
someone had stolen money from the household,
money that was meant for shingles,
for a new roof.
All shingles had been removed,
and only those at the front of the house
had been replaced.
Tonia had no shingles on the roof
that was over her head.
In May of 2011,
there was a hard spring rain,
and the trickles of water,
slipping through the cracks in the roof deck,
made puddles in the ceiling sheet rock,
and,
all at once,
the ceiling came down
on Tonia's head.
So,
Tonia needed a place to stay.
All space was taken
in my one bedroom apartment,
except for one side of my king sized bed.
I already had Bev next door,
but I wanted to see
if Tonia might be a better girlfriend,
a better lover,
a better friend.
She showed me.
She got some money
from a previous boyfriend,
and took me on a date,
and made it clear to me,
that she wanted me.
Tonia put money in
to the household,
and treated me right,
and helped me filter out
the other roommates
who weren't working out.
Gradually,
I realized,
in order to avoid depression,
I needed to feel at home;
I needed to marry Tonia.
We got married,
the 25th of October,
2011.
Then,
we started making plans
to move back in
with Toni's family,
her uncle and brothers,
in the big house.
I contributed money,
and shingles got put on the roof
over Tonia's room;
the whole house has shingles now.
We moved in,
March of 2012.
But the sheet rock
was still missing
from the ceiling.
Ceiling cat
would not approve!
And,
with no ceiling,
no attic insulation,
our room feels
as hot in the summer
as a hot attic in the summer,
and as cold in the winter,
as a cold attic in the winter.
And the house does not have
working central heat or air.
This last summer,
we got by with a small window unit air conditioner,
and for the last week of December,
we had two space heaters going,
and still had frozen feet.
So.
I'm on paid vacation
from my job at Walmart,
and,
yesterday,
I spent $150
at Home Depot,
for six sheets of sheet rock,
cut up into smaller pieces,
so they'd fit in my small SUV,
and so I could hold them up easier when installing them,
and six rolls of
pink panther attic insulation.
I spent
just a few hours,
earlier today,
putting up two small pieces of sheet rock,
each one 4' by 32",
and I placed,
on top of the sheet rock,
four pieces of 9" thick
attic insulation,
15" wide by six feet long;
three of them six feet long,
the fourth one is seven feet,
since I used scissors
to cut those pieces
from a 25' long roll.
So,
I've done one ninth of the sheet rock,
and one sixth of the insulation,
approximately.
So.
Will someone find ceiling cat,
and send him to this diary,
and let him inspect my ceiling,
such as it is.
K?
Thanks for reading.
Oh,
by the way,
Tonia is giving me
lots and lots of affection
in between my moments on the ladder.
Reminds me of someone
who does a little work,
and drinks a lot of beer;
I do a little work,
and get lots of affection from Tonia.
Thanks for reading.