My mother passed away early this morning.

We are almost done with the clown show in Washington, time to go back to boring normal ineffective governing by Democrats. My mom is back in the hospital with covid pneumonia. I have a concert on the 9th via Zoom. I have two jobs but no income other than SSA. Life is being quite lifelike. I hope yours is good.

…in the Biden-Harris Administration. Here is the text of my cover letter:

November 25, 2020

Dear President-Elect Biden and staff,

Please accept my resume in application for just about anything I can do. I have extensive experience in working with homeless people, both as a homeless person and running a nonprofit corporation benefitting the homeless of Asheville, NC. I have excellent speaking and written skills, experience in just about everything, and a wide range of knowledge.

I would prefer to remain in the Great Smoky Mountains region if possible, but will relocate as needed.

I do not have an earned college degree but do have a few honorary doctorates in religion. I have written extensively on homeless topics as well as spiritual topics, plus am a songwriter and folksinger.

While I’m certain you have an abundance of applicants with more qualifications, there are few with my range of qualifications and experience. I would point out that I have done this while only being aimed at the success of those I’m serving, and have only just managed to support myself at around 150-175% of poverty level, mostly thanks to Social Security Disability and Retirement funds. I’m not in this for the money and my tax records certainly prove that point in spades. My life is all about service, and usually manages to avoid recognition.

I hope you can find a place for me in your administration. I look forward to hearing from you.


Sincerely,



Gerald L. “Moss” Bliss, D.D.
(address, phone)

(also posted to my Dreamwidth blog)

I was awakened by phone calls – four of them between 6 and 8 am – for jobs at Washburn School (3 calls for the same job, they were persistent). I had already scheduled today to be in Asheville working for AWH, so I couldn’t accept these. In the end, however, it turns out that the person funding AWH is concerned we’re spending too much money with no results, ignoring the fact that we’ve only made first contacts and need to forge relationships, and so it was decided that I was not going anywhere.

I called Census to see where my money was from working for them. They owe me $1,014.xx. It turned out they did not correct the banking information, which correction was made over a month ago. So they still had the money, and could not even be bothered to go to step 2, which is to mail me a check. They did not tell me how soon it would be fixed.

I went to the bank to deposit the check received from AWH, and was told that the bank (credit union) is ending their remote banking program, which was an incredible boon to us as we could move money from our credit union in California to our local credit union with no time or expense to the transfer. This was the main reason for using this credit union. I’m guessing we will be closing our account.

My supervisor at AWH said he would be getting me more work to do today. I do not see any way, besides going back to Asheville, that we could make an effective day out of it, as the funder is looking for results, i.e., sales. The best that could be done today is more first contacts. The money would be better spent in the telemarketing wing… or the funder could increase funding, which would pay off soonest, but it’s not my job to present this to him.

So I’m sitting at home on a day I could have had one of two jobs at a local school and should have been on the road, with no money materializing yet from the Census job already completed (over two months ago), and it feels pretty bad. And tomorrow I have to go for my first refitting of my temporary dentures (the lower plate fits very poorly with some pain). Which means I can’t work tomorrow either.

Dumps.

So here I am sitting in a high school classroom, while nobody, and I mean nobody, is actually doing the work they have been assigned to do. Some are napping, others are playing video games on their phones (some with others in the room on the same game on THEIR phone). I liked it much better when I was subbing in a kindergarten classroom. The kids were nicer and we actually did work. But it’s the same amount of money. The only real problem I have is that I did not bring my power cord, but the laptop seems to be stretching things out rather well. Much better than expected. I only have another hour or so to go and still have 40+% of my battery.

I’m also trying to do work selling CBD salve to Asheville, Hendersonville, and Knoxville stores. They pay better, but if we don’t get to enough sales it goes away. I need a new phone for that, and Marc has promised I would get one.

My teeth hurt. I’ll get those looked at on Tuesday.

If you’re keeping up with my podcasting career, we got another episode of Distrohoppers’ Digest in the can on Wednesday. Tony Hughes is not feeling great, but I presume I should have some audio to listen to soon and then he’ll release it. Dale Miracle came on the show with us for the first time. Had a great time.

Guess I’ll quit rambling. Class just got over, and I guess I have another one coming in shortly.

Hugs,
Me

I spent about 2 weeks working for the Census. Really not a good job for me. I’ll need to reapply for unemployment next week if I don’t get hired as a sub teacher. Haven’t done much of anything lately, but I’m back at my podcasts. We’ve already had a lot of good response to Distrohoppers’ Digest Episode 16! Suzanne has now been here for 4 years. Mom is in the rehab home again after breaking her hip in another fall. That’s about it from here.

I’ve had it good financially since my accident in April. Not so good as to own shares in Lockheed or anything of the sort, but I’m almost out of debt and on track for the rest. But I haven’t been able to find work, and am even more limited in what I can do as a result of (a) the accident (diminishing my prospects as a driver) and (b) the injuries resultant from the accident (diminshing my physical abilities). There is also the age factor.

I’ve been trying to find work in PC repair and installation, especially software installation. No nibbles. I’m sure I could make a go of it on my own if I had any money to weather the startup, but I don’t. And the Covid money is gone in a month, reducing my income by over $500/week, so things get really desparate then.

The shoulder is bad enough that it hurts some to play guitar. I was blessed with Lee Billings’s Alvarez, which is only a half-depth body, and that helps, although of course the sound is not the same. But I’m not playing much. I have had two people suggest I put out another CD; my response is, I sold maybe 4 dozen copies of the first one, including to those who funded the production of it.

If anyone knows of any way for me to make real money, please let me know. I can’t scam or steal, and I can’t do heavy work or, for that matter, do anything which requires much standing or lifting. Computers is where my heart is, and there is more money there if I can find a job. But I’ll listen to anything. I do get a few gifts from my podcast audience, but hardly enough to call income.

Hugs,

Me

I really did pretty well opening up the Festival of the Living Rooms 2. Sadly, the recording quality of Zoom leaves much to be desired. I was supposed to supply KJ with a copy of “A Flower and A Hufflepuff”, but it just doesn’t sound that good. I’m trying to remember to do it during the day, just recording it on Audacity.

The weekend was hectic enough, with team meeting and podcast and further potential filking time, that I forgot to turn in my unemployment update. I then had to wait until Wednesday to do it, which I did first thing, but still haven’t gotten my check.

My shoulder is about 80% now. It felt a lot better this morning than it does tonight, but the amount of movement has definitely improved.

Guess that’s about it for now.

Hugs,

Me

This Friday I will be the opening act for an all-weekend music festival called Festival of the Living Rooms 2. I will be performing at 5 pm Eastern time. You can probably find links to it by searching Facebook for Festival of the Living Rooms. They offered me an hour, but my shoulder still hurts too much from my auto accident on April 15. It hurts to put my right arm over the guitar, although the pain gets less each day and the flexibility increases a slight amount.

On April 15th, while driving for O’Reilly Auto Parts, I got in an auto accident. It was bad. It was really bad. It was NASCAR bad. But, like most NASCAR wrecks, I climbed out of the vehicle almost unaided. I did go to the ER and had lots of pictures taken. Nothing broken, but everything hurt. I had some follow up care. Right now, I don’t have full use of my right shoulder, and by extension my right arm isn’t working all that well. Hard to even wash my hair. Hard to type without hurting a little. And I can’t play guitar, as that strains the shoulder.

But I’m all right. Looking at the video of the accident, I should be a lot worse, maybe not alive at all, but I’m all right. I missed an opportunity to perform, shoulder hurts. Whoopee. I lost my job, but they separated based on the current COVID-19 crisis, did not reference the accident at all. I’ve learned that my unemployment check will be $141 per week, which is not much at all. But we did get our stimulus checks, or rather they should clear the bank today. I got a good tax refund. I should be able to stretch things out to 2 months without work.

Now maybe I can find a GOOD job. Hoping to get something in computer repair or software installation.

I’m OK. Really.

Hugs,
Me