It’s funny – so little has happened over so long a time, and then over the past 48 hours or so, there’s been so much to remember.
I last reported from the Lisle Library. My friend Cheryl showed up there after she had put in her part time hours at work. She was trying to get her son to phone in her next storage payment to catch up on the past-due costs, using the paycheck that had been direct-deposited.
She didn’t understand why I was aghast that she sent her CC info to her son via Facebook & via email. Oh, my God. She still doesn’t understand. After all, she told me, she was using the PRIVATE message option on Facebook.
I didn’t slam my head into the table, or run out of the library pulling my hair and screaming. I did ask her whether she actually read the forms that you accept while signing into the wifi.
No, she doesn’t.
Anyway, once her son does phone in her payment and the payment he told her he’d make, something like 2/3 of the past due payment will be covered. She hopes to have it all paid plus a payment made for January, before the end of the year.
There’s a side story to this storage thing. Apparently the U-Haul storage location had a “re-use” section where people can place items they no longer want, but others may want to keep. While storing her items, Cheryl noticed that someone had placed 2 bar stools and a guitar in that space, so she added them to her storage items. Before she left that area, she removed the bar stools back to the re-use area.
Apparently the brilliant people who stored the stools and guitar decided they wanted them back – and they have been harassing the U-Haul people about their items. Instead of being intelligent and telling the old owners that the items were gone, they have started harassing Cheryl about the items… well, now, just about the guitar.
Anyway, enough about that, for now… but at this point in time, the harassment that Cheryl is receiving for an item retrieved from the area that U-Haul marked for re-use items would certainly make me think twice about dealing with that company.
I was posting my last diary and talking to Cheryl on Friday afternoon… I mentioned that I’d had no luck reaching DHS to learn the status of my SNAP benefits. I’d tried to phone DHS for 2 or 3 days before posting that diary. I left the library about quarter to 5, and went out to my car to try to call DHS – and got right through!
The woman who got my call confirmed that my status had been approved on Monday (12/7), that I will get $183 a month, my account has all ready been provided money prorated for November and for December, and that my card should be received 7 to 10 days after the approval date.
Yay!
I just wish it could be used for non-food essentials (toothpaste, deodorant, cough medicines!), but it will be nice to be able to use it at Mariano’s.
On Friday night I stayed at Wood Dale Community Church. I wish they would get the thicker pads for that location – I wonder if they keep the thinner pads because they are easier to store. But on that tile floor, the thicker pads are so much more nice. I woke up almost exactly at 6, got ready to leave, and as I got a sack lunch, I was given a $5 gift card for Dunkin Donuts.
They were handing out those cards to everyone who spent the night. I love Dunkin Donuts coffee. Speaking of $5 gift cards, I was sitting in my car at Hidden Lake on Friday, knitting. A woman stopped by and gave me 2 gift cards for a restaurant called meatheads. She said they were $5 cards, and said, “Merry Christmas.”
That was very nice. I wondered whether they were the free bonus cards given to customers when they buy a $25 card – just in case that’s a yes, I’ll hold onto them until those bonus cards can be used (January 4 – March).
Last night I stayed at the site in Medinah. It was amazing how few people were there… most of us had 2 or 3 empty pads between us and the next person. There was a family there. Volunteering. The little girl read me a book about Iris and the Substitute Teacher. The Substitute Teacher was Iris’ grandpa! And they went for ice cream after school.
That never happened to me.
The little girl’s little brothers were wearing one piece sleeping suits that said “Santa’s Helper” on them. They were funny. Another volunteer came over and said that she and her husband had tried to sign up to help at the site many times, but the lists are nearly always full.
At Medinah, I totally believe that. I wonder whether they’d consider helping at Wood Dale 1 weekend every couple of months.
Two people were at Medinah cutting hair (I got my hair trimmed and my bangs shortened) and one lady giving manicures. I got a manicure, just with clear polish.
I guess they had hamburgers and hot dogs, but I mostly just sat and listened to my mp3 player until after dinner, when I went out to get a cup of lemonade. When I finally did lie down, I started coughing and coughing until I relaxed enough to fall asleep – and I slept great.
That pretty much catches up until now – back at Hidden Lake, sitting in my car (out of the drizzle), typing up this next diary. I’ll probably post it on DKos this afternoon either from the library, or from the laundromat if I get inspired enough to go do laundry.
Tonight is the site at the synagogue – hopefully there won’t be anyone lottoed out – fingers crossed for continued low numbers, like we’ve seen the last couple of nights. And that’s the news from the homeless at Hidden Lake.
Homeless is a series of diaries I have been writing since August 20, 2015, several weeks after I became homeless. PADS is the organization that is in charge of the homeless shelters where I stay nearly every night, and provides assistance signing up for available services, job searches, etc.
Homeless 50 is a compilation of information that might make understanding various acronyms and recognize some of the people a little better. You are welcome to start with Homeless Now and work through the other diaries, but starting with Homeless 50 may give you a jump start.
© 2015 sheddhead – not to be used without written consent of the author, unless quoting portions of this diary on DailyKos, with links back to the original quotation
