the Journey to the second winter continues

We had been on and off our buddies driveway for about 9 months when the frustration level got really high. We had interviewed for at least a dozen appartments and applied for another 20 more without any form of reply ... (You don't have to be professional or even polite to be a landlord..) It seemed that the Housing gods weren't about to let us off the streets. But the campgrounds were closing for the year and winter is a season I like to be stationary for. So we were off looking for a winter parking place. The only campground handy to my wifes work that would entertain fulltime tennants required a years worth of rent up front and wanted a "removal fee"for any unit over 10 years old... another fee we didn't need.... We stopped in a my wifes moms place to tell them we were having trouble finding a new spot and came up with the idea putting the unit out back at her place for a while and cleaning up a spot inside the house for the long term.. Made more sense at the time than using a friends undeveloped land which we had been offered. THAT would have been really nice cept for the 1/2 mile undeveloped road to the nearest street, As it turns out maybe buying a plow might could have been the better choice...

The Saga Continues

The quickest way to find out who your friends are is to get into a situation where you really need help. Once people who knew us found out what are answer to homelessness was, it was like we had contracted some incredibly vile contaigiuos disease. My families answer was something that sounded a lot like "If you stop resisting employment," and get rid of the only real friend you guys have, (Louie) you could get into subsidised housing. Great We talked to a couple of people we knew would get into trouble if they helped us , to see if they could think of something we hadn't and they said "we'd be honored to help you". We had a place to park while we looked for a more realistic solution. We would go to a camping ground for a while, then go to our driveway spot then Wal-mart. then another Parking lot where I was working. It actually got nice working this out A buddy let us put our phone at his address. The phone company put a interface on the house and we ran the comwire to it. We had a phone mount in the trailer and a modem for one of my junkyard computers. We started looking in earnest, figuring that everymonth we didn't pay some landlords mortgage or send some guys kids to college. we could grow our bank to the point where we could put a down payment on a real piece of property. Enter disaster. I had been looking for a job with decent pay and having no luck at all, when a friend of mine who runs a company that does millwright work,asked me to come out for breakfast. He asked me my opinion of a couple jobs he was quoting. They were nice jobs involving rebuilding conveyors in a flourmill. Since my buddy has MS and understands the racist policies of employers regarding hiring people with slight medical problems, my back and neck problems weren't going to be a problem. We finally had a good job for me and my wife had good insurance. My buddies company had a couple good sized jobs then the one big one we were looking to get, a complete overhaul of some grain conveyors. 270 feet of 24 inch wide paddle conveyers 150 feet in the air. Not a horrible job actually, we had a rigging company come in with a 250 foot crane and were able to break the housings into 16-32 foot sections, and lower them to the ground where we moved them into a shop where we could work. After a long day of rigging around, the crew would head home to showers and bed and come back in the morning. A couple days into the job the crew decided that we needed specialised tools to make the job go better. Since it was Friday and we wouldn't be working all weakened, I went to the storage where I have some tools. Coming round the back of my truck, my left leg collapsed. (Damn Spinal stenosis!!) Broke my little toe clean off. Hurt like hell too. I went to the emergency room and spent the kinda fun filled night you can only have there. Made an appointment with the bone guy, had to wait a couple days, (frickin insurance companies), and got an aircast. Now I wasn't allowed onto the property where I was working. Luckilly for the guy who owns the company , he had a relative who had just lost a bid on a job he really wanted. So he was able to pick up where I had to leaf off. This left me however without an income again, but we had caught up on a bunch of bills that needed catching up with.

The Beginning of the Saga

Almost two years ago my family and I were living in a 3 bedroom appartment in a town in central Mass. We had been in this same place for 17 years . Towards the end of November the landlord came and said he had finally got his equity loan and was beginning "extensive renovations". We had till the begining of December to be out of there. The letter said something like "I hope giving you an extra week gives you plenty of time to find a new place." We had been behind and caught up and behind again, but he did have a contractor ready to start working. (Turns out the contractor took the guy for a ride as well) We offered to get caught up before we left but he said to use the money to help get a new place. My wife is the pro with dealing with landlords so she increased her searching through the papers and ads in the funny papers the realtors leave in stores to make people think that there are appartments and houses availiable to blue collar folks. We had been looking for an upgrade or at least another place for over a year because this landlord was the third we had had in the time we had been there and I could see that we were getting near the end of being able to live there without and incredible rent increase. Now the family consisted of my wife and I, two sons, a daughter and her daughter. Quite a collection. A recipe for any landlord worth his salt in Central Mass to keep out of his/her property. Not to mention Louie, the diminutive Canine companion. Milly would find a place she thought she could afford and I'd call to try to get an appointment. I made the mistake a few times not asking if they would accept dogs, but I soon found that even if they didn't say in their ads no dogs most people hide behind their insurance companies and wouldn't have them. I started sending this little story I had first seen in the Readers Digest and later on the internet along with our applications... I haven't seen it properly credited. nor have seen any one claim it for their own. I'd like to know who wrote it first , I have seen several versions , I like this one the best.

I found it on the web
Dog Heaven
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like Mother of Pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?""This is Heaven, sir," the man answered."Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked."Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."The man gestured, and the gate began to open."Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked."I'm sorry sir, but we don't accept pets."The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book."Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?""Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there." The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in.""How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog."There should be a bowl by the pump."They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, and then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them."What do you call this place?" the traveler asked."This is Heaven," was the answer."Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.""Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell.""Doesn't it make you mad for them to use heaven's name like that?""No. I can see how you might think so, but we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."

Amen .....

After it became obvious we weren't going to find a place in any appropriate time, we went to the biggest RV place in the area because I had heard that they had a sale in the fall of units that were being given up because the owners didn't want to continue with rent for winter or cause they were trade-ins and the units were being wholesaled out. I looked at a couple just out of my price range and then a couple which I didn't like at all. The last unit in the lineup was a 1975. really nice, good layout for a fulltiming situation. Turns out that because it had no refrigerator I could have it for 495.00!!!!! We had a fridge, so we grabbed it and started our tour of central Massachusetts. We had to do a little bit of work, the furnace needed to be cleaned and the ducts underneath were amazingly clear of mouse nests. The water heater worked fine and the stove just needed to be cleaned up a bit. I do some work sometimes for a guy who makes the testing and reconditioning equipment for the Blue Rhino folks. He was able to recondition our aluminum propane tanks and we got a new switching regulator at the Camping World place near where we had a millwright job going. I bartered my way to a brandy new set of 7.00X15 trailer tires. We have been moving around for almost two years and now that we are in an attic cleaning up a house for some relatives.. I really miss the trailer. I still consider myself... "The Homeless guy and his dog"