OK, so it wasn't THIS much of a lock down... But let's face it, we all feel a little bit like Jake right now. It's time to get the band back together. Hell, it's time to see a band play live again. A LOT of live bands...
The pandemic lock down in California is now officially over. The pandemic is not over, but we can start opening back up fully again. In theory, everything will open back up, we'll get back to "normal," but it will definitely be a new normal. Over 34 million Americans got sick, over 615,000 Americans, and over 62,000 Californians, died in the pandemic. The smart people are pretty much vaccinated now, but there's still hope more stupid people will die from it.
In addition, over 400,000 small businesses went out of business in the last 15 months. Millions of Americans are losing the unemployment that helped keep them alive soon. Millions more will be affected by the ending of eviction moratoriums, and we could see a huge new wave of homelessness nationwide over the next few months. It's been a rough 15 months for everybody. But on the bright side, the super rich are now much more superricher than they were a year and a half ago. Doesn't that make you feel better? Yeah, me neither.
I was homeless when the pandemic hit U.S. shores. Pure and simple, we were left outside to die. And there were definitely a lot of people hoping this pandemic would wipe out most of the homeless population. Not all of you, I know, but there were definitely people in that mindset. Cue Nelson.
As it turned out, that virus doesn't travel well outdoors, and living outside, as fucked up as it is, helped keep us homeless people at less risk, much of the time. The Universe has a weird sense of humor. Still, last August I got sick, and wound up in a negative pressure hospital room for a couple of days. I didn't have the virus, I had bacterial pneumonia (from a bacteria they could not identify- WTF?), and cellutitis, which I've been prone to since my taxi driving days. I got shipped to a warehouse turned homeless shelter for sick people (decent food and Netflix for 5 days), and bailed back out to the street as soon as my medicine ran out. The streets are better than the shelters, but that's a whole different issue.
Before that funky looking little virus attacked us, I had a general plan. I would squeak through the chilly California rainy season, and start promoting my artwork to local galleries in the Spring of 2020. So... that didn't quite work out. Instead, the shutdown closed most of the bathrooms I used, it closed down the library where I could plug in and get wifi at the same time, and actuallyt work to get my life back on track. It shtudown most of the power outlets I used to charge my laptop and phone. I'm an artist and blogger. I'm actually pretty damn good at those two things. But it's hard to blog with a dead battery. The same goes with promoting my art on social media. Luckily, a bunch of people came through and ordered drawings, or just plain helped me out last spring, and to a lesser level since.
I seriously was worried that I wouldn't be able to survive one month of businesses being shutdown, last March. That's because my whole existence depended on fast food restaurants, the library, and other places that got shutdown. For 15 months, I've actually been working more hours than at most of the jobs I've ever worked. My life became a continuous search for useable bathrooms, power outlets to charge up (nearly all of them outside), and wifi spots, so I could communicate, blog, and keep selling some artwork online.
For over a year, I've been taking a bus one place to use a bathroom in the morning, then another bus to another place to plug in, sit there for an hour and a half, and charge my laptop, and sometimes my phone (when I could afford to pay for service), and then take another bus (luckily the buses have been free) to another spot, where I would sit outside, on the ground, and check my social media, and blog when I had enough battery life. There were many hours of sitting outside blogging in 50-60 degree weather, shivering. The only times I've had 24/7 power and wifi were when I rented a motel room.
I did manage to qualify for pandemic unemployment, which got me a room for about 10 weeks over the winter. That helped a lot. But my unemployment got frozen 5 weeks after it got approved, which was 4 1/2 months after I applied for it. I got about half of the total I qualified for, and lost $1,500 when it got frozen.
So here I am 15 months after this all got going. I have more drawing orders than I can handle at the moment, but I make about $2 an hour doing my drawings. I'm now pivoting to earning money from writing, rather than art, because that's my only chance of ever making a decent living again. To make that happen, I have to turn my little creative work into a legit business.
What about a job? It would take a $20 an hour job, 40 hours a week, to be able to rent a weekly motel room, the only room I could get these days. And afford food. There's no job anywhere near that pay scale I could get these days. An apartment is completely out of the question. Renting a room in someone's else's house or apartment is technically possible, but that conversation would start with, "So I'm homeless now, and I make money from Sharpie art and blogging..." That's not likely to go very well. If I go get a restaurant job,then I'm a fat, homeless guy with no place to wash my uniform, making less than I make from artwork, and spending more hours doing it. You NEVER... EVER get off the streets with a low wage job, period. The cost of living is just too high, unless someone lets you stay somewhere for free for several months.
So that's where I'm at. Sounds depressing. But I'm stoked on my new ideas. The new blog idea, Crazy California 43, is taking off, and will offer multiple ways to make money in the coming months. Yesterday I went to three banks, looking to get a "real" bank account, the next big step to getting my life back on track. None of them would let me open an account, without "proof of residence." So I need an apartment to get a bank account, so I can make enough money, to afford an apartment. Catch-22. I need to figure that one out... My life has been one obstacle after another for so long, that's just my normal now. Anyhow, another day of working doing the shit I'm meant to do. Onward!
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