Sunsaver, Livining Off-Grid In Suburbia- Happy Taconight America!

[sunsaver]

Out of the fying pan and onto hot coals! My first customer was an elderly woman, and even though i obviously had no idea what i was doing, she was very patient with me. It's funny how people seem to get more patient as they age. I'd have thought it would be the other way around. The lottery machine was reasonably easy to figure out, but Western Union was a complete mystery. I must have called Mother six times. "Mother" was a multually agreed on nickname for my supervisor. The gals at work would always say, "your mother wants you in the office." I eventually learned how to run everything in the store, and i made plenty of new friends. I also learned how to spot shoplifters, crack heads and meth addicts. I used to really despise the methheads, always re-arranging the objects on the counter, and asking three or four questions faster than i could even answer one. Very frustrating. Even so, there were a lot of good people there, rich and poor alike. I stayed for two years.
Late in 2005, my football buddy, a customer who was always hanging with me on slow nights, talking about our favorite team, decided that we were going to make a road trip. We paid nearly $400 each for luxury box seats on the first tier, right over the fourty yard line, with food and alcohol service, for the New Orleans Saints football, home-opener game in New Orleans. We made hotel reservations, and started to plan our party.
A couple of weeks before the trip was to take place, Hurricane Katrina began stirring up in the Gulf of Mexico. I forgot all about the game, and was thinking about a science program i had watched on tv, that had speculated about the possibility of a catagory five hitting new orleans. The conclusion was: New Orleans would be the new Atlantis, and would be completely submerged. I started praying that it would move west, to a relatively un-populated area of Louisiana. Right before i headed to work, the center of circulation moved west. Things were looking better.
At work things were going pretty normal. The lottery ladies came early, and patiently waited for me to ring up the other customers. There was an ex-con, followed by the chief of police, a preacher with a massive Hummer, Armani suit, and gold rings on every finger. There was a giant woman with a massive beehive for a hair-do, and all of these were valued customers and friends who i knew by name. One of these friend in particular, came into the store all excited and grinning. "Just been watching the Weather Channel," she said. "The hurricane has turned east and is headed straight for New Orleans!" I was shocked that anyone could make such a statement with a smile on their face. I guess her life was so boring that anything news worthy was a cause for celebration.

 

[sunsaver]

I'll have to wrap this up tomorrow. My time is up. Back to the garden. Chat with ya'll later!

 

[Denim Deb]

LOL- just like that you are in charge of the station!

Reminds me of my first day working in a paint store! The manager was out making deliveries, the asst manager went to the bank, so I was in there alone. I didn't have a clue as to how to run the register, mix paint, or order wall paper! It had been dead in the store-until I was left alone!

 

[Marianne]

 

[sunsaver]

LOL, DD! And don't dare try to eat anything. As soon as you get it out of the micro, a thousand customers will come in all at once. I call hungry store clerk syndrome.
Well the daytime highs have been around 100F here in northern Louisiana, with heat index around 110F. Too hot to any real work or anything other than sit in the shade sippin on iced green tea, and watching the turnips grow. Monkeygirl and the Fatman are hanging out the beginnings of a root cellar. Can't say that i blame them.
Well, back to the story.

 

[sunsaver]

That's terrible!" I said. She seemed to check her self then, her smile diminishing into a look of consern, seemingly more for me and my look of distress, than for any real understanding of the possible effects of a direct hit on New Orleans. See doesn't watch science programs, and maybe she was thinking it was just going to be a show about a guy standing in the wind, with garbage blowing around while the rain whips at his hat.
"Don't you realise that the entire city will flood! That thousands of people will likely be killed!"
She frowned at my scolding, and left with out giving any reply. I felt bad for being so harsh with her; but while disaster movies can fun, Katrina wasn't a movie. It was a nightmare and a horrible tragedy. Local fishermen were taking there boats loaded with food and water down there, long before there was any official response. Even the local govenments were quicker to respond than the state or federal govenments, both of whom seemed to be waiting for permission from some mysterious entity, perhaps an act of congress that grants the US military the right to go save people on US soil. Pathetic.
I had no money (spent it all on Saints tickets) and no boat to go pull anyone off of her roof, so all i felt i could do was sit and cry. Every time the news showed images of Katrina victims, or featured stories about the people who were saving them and their pets too, i cried. I sank into a depression. It was the worst tradgedy, and the closest to home that i have ever experienced. If i could simply erase it from my brain like wiping a hard-drive, i would.
The next couple of weeks at work were insane. People pulling in with trailers loaded with 55 gallon drums, filling them with gas. Long lines at every pump in town, as if all the gasoline in America comes from New Orleans, so obviously we're about to run out, right? Idiots! It was 911 all over again, and my silly, apocolyptic nieghbors were once agin in panic mode. "The gas is running out!"
"The reason we keep running out of gas, is because people like you keep coming here and filling every container that you own." We have a shipment of gas coming tomorrow. For now we have a limit of twenty gallons per day for all non-rescue and non-law enforcement or EMTs."
"But I gotta fill up my truck!"
"Are you on your way to New Orleans to rescue people?"
"No, but i gotta get to work!"
"You can get twenty gallons."
There was a little old lady, tiny and frail with a sweet smile,who would come every day and get about a dollars worth of gasoline. Some one had convinced her that it was important to "top-of" her tank every day. "You know, gas can go bad if you don't run most of it out within a few weeks." I told her.
"Is that right? Oh my!"
"You need to put some fuel stabilizer in there, or better yet, wait until you are down close to empty before you fill up" I didn't see her again for two months.
Life gradually returned to normal, and work was not as rewarding, both spiritually and financially, as it had once been. In a lot of ways i was like a bartender, listening to the people's problems and daily dramas. The best part of the job was when i could help: "How's it going?"
"Oh, my darned painter took off to go to New Orleans. Said there's big FEMA bucks being paid down there. Now i can't find a painter anywhere in town.
"Im a good a painter. I'll finish it for you."
"Hey, how are?"
"My plumber went to New Orleans, and i cant' get anybody to fix my sink."
"I know all about plumbing. I'd like to help."
"Good morning! What's going on?"
"I need somebody to add a bathroom onto my house, but all the contractors are gone to New Orleans. I can't even get anyone to come give me an estimate!"
"I'm a pretty good carpenter, or so they tell me. I'd like to help."
Soon i was getting repeat business and referrals. I got a call once at eight o'clock in the evening: "Help! I need you to come hook up my new DVR!" I finally realised i was too busy to do both jobs, so i put in my two weeks notice at work, and started handing out business cards to every customer who came in the store (except the meth-heads). That last two weeks at the gas station were the busiest and some of the most stressful days of my life, but soon i was setting my own hours, doing something i liked to do and was really good at, best of all: i got paid well for my knowledge.

 

[sunsaver]

That's how i got fired and started my own business. Off to the garden and shade-chat with ya'll later!

 

[Denim Deb]

 

[valmom]

Very cool! How to lose a job and do what you want to do in 3 easy steps.

 

[sunsaver]

Yeah, strange how both jobs sort of found me, with out me actually looking for it. I had heard that you should just keep doing what you enjoy and eventually you will get paid for doing it. I never thought it could happen to me. Well i don't do much painting or carpentry anymore, my business went bust along with the housing market. My favorite thing to do now is the propagation of fruit and nut trees and planting seed flats with flowers and vegetables. A friend of my owns two very large green houses with an overhead misting system. We're thinking about working to gether on growing tomatos and peppers during the winter, black walnut trees, blueberry and blackberry, and some other local native trees and shrubs to sell to garden centers and feed and seed stores, etc.
This morning i had a handful of blackberries and several cherry tomatos, plus one puny but good tasting raspberry for breakfast. For lunch i had squash and onions grilled in butter, and tonight i will have green beans with new potatos and a tomato sanwhich on home cooked bread. Yummy! Except for the butter, yeast and flour, eveything i've eaten in the last week or so was grown in my own garden, which surrounds the entire house. I do have canned vegetables and some dried fruit and oatmeat. But those are more like "survival" foods. Nothing beats eating fresh, local, organic produce while it is still warm from the sun.
Speaking of warm, it is very hot right now. 100*F with high humidity is expected for the next week or more. You would think that living in it without A/C would be impossible. Actually the warm up was so gradual that i guess i just got used to it. If i get really hot i can take a cold shower or put on a damp t-shirt and sit in front of my little solar powered fan. I sit in the shade, guzzeling huge glasses of iced tea (unsweet), all the while thinking: 'this sure beats the heck out of the time we hung that drywall ceiling for the CrazyLady.