h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This weekend, I was trying to make some extra money working an extra job. I don't do it often, but the money was good, and the work was easy. I was to guard an empty tent that didn't have any walls. Don't ask me why, I just take the money.

I had a grand time. I took my minivan down there. I could watch everything in and around the tent from the van. I took a new AC/DC television, that I could plug right into the cigarette lighter (which was labeled power outlet), The Clash of Kings (the novel I'm reading), and an old laptop. One of the middle seats has been removed from my minivan so there's plenty of room to stretch out. I set a cooler between the front seats, propped the TV up there, and watched movies. The caravan was a moving living room.

I wrote a little bit of a new article for the Guide. I read some. I had a good time. I even made sure nothing happened to the empty tent.

Right before I left, another deputy said that she was hemmed in by water. It stormed something fierce during the night. After I was relieved. I went over to where she was. I wanted to make sure she got home, even if we had to leave her car there until later.

The streets in the area were flooded, but the water was only two to four inches deep. In front of her car it got worse, but I thought I could make it through. I was wrong.

The air intake on the minivan is very low, and I splashed a lot of water in there. The van died.

The engine is shot, and it's going to cost $2,950 to replace it. Our savings, including the money that I earned this morning comes out to about $1700, so we're going to have to go deeper in debt to cover this (something that we haven't had to do for a long time. It's horrible. We've been trying to pay down some of our debts. We've been saving money to for emergencies and big car expenses, but it wasn't enough.

I'm pretty bummed.

Ouch!

Oh damn! I feel with you. What do the insurance people say, balked i suppose. Hope you get another easy job, although it seems a waste, don't it!
I visited before because i like your staunchly unapologetic attitude on a few things, saw you had had to put down a pet which made me cry but i felt too selfconscious, intrusive, so i didn't, but you do have a hard time of it, what!

I only have liability insurance on the car. I had the car towed to another place, and they haven't figured anything out yet for sure. I talked to the guy yesterday, and he said that he was still putting the parts back together that the first place took apart.

I don't have that hard of a time of it. I use this place to whine or talk about where we go on trips. My wife and I work different schedules, so it's been mostly whining with very few trips.

My wife had a week off from school last month, so I took some time off. We drove up to Cloudland Canyon State Park, which is absolutely beautiful.

A couple of days later, we were going for a drive, and decided to go out to Crawfordville, Georgia. They filmed the town scenes from Sweet Home Alabama there. It was a cute little town. It's just off of I-20 and the railroad between Augusta and Atlanta. A.P. Stephens Historical Site and Park is right off of the square. It has A.P. Stevens (a former governor and vice president of the CSA who opposed secession) Crawfordville was probably bustling little town before the interstate came through. Now almost everything is closed. That's not all that uncommon along that stretch of the railroad. Some of the towns are dying. Others are refurbishing, and make for a nice afternoon trip and walking tour.

Ah, and there i was worrying already. A good whine can be very therapeutic.

I've never been to the US, maybe because i never knew where to start, it's such a huge country. I don't think i'd dare brave something like NY, being used to the country and towns with less than 100.000 inhabitants. That entry about Flagstaff was very inducing.

on Sat one of those chaps who sell the Homeless or somesuch paper (usually boring but what the heck) accosted me, and as i had about the Euro 1,20 he wanted for it as sparechange, i gave him all in a heap like ... forgot to take out my money crystal (quartz with rutile needles which i brought from Chile three years ago) wonder if it will alleviate his money problems now, i can't say it did mine, but i was fond of the thing, demmit.

It will help him if it's worth anything in a pawn shop. Or is that too cynical. Although in theory I like the idea of street papers. It's doing something about your situation rather than waiting for someone else to do something for you. I don't think we have anything like that in the US.

That's why i buy the things, keeps the guys from trying to sing... or just sit there trying to make you feel guilty ... or drag a dog along, knowing perfectly well that most people care more for the dumb creature than for them, and i don't find it in me to blame anyone for that ... reckon i'm cynical too... he might get a few cents for it from somebody, it was a rather original crystal... or still is i suppose, even though i haven't got it anymore.

I don't feel guilty at all for those idiots. If you solicit money from me, you're invading my space. I think they're unbelieveably rude, and I'm unspeakibly rude right back at them.

One nice thing about the car. I had it towed to another shop where he can fix it for $1800 rather than $2950.

That's good to hear, and i hope your insurance kicks in for the sum. I find myself very much influenced by money considerations, not in so much because i want to possess many material things, but because i do feel money to be synonymus with independence and autosufficiency.

As for the beggar's question, i haven't been able to decide that for me yet. While having the impression that many of them are just cadging lazy bums, there is a real possibility that with a bit of bad luck one can find oneself in a truly awful situation and lose everything. And i feel very sorry for anyone to whom that happens, because of the aforementioned cadging lazy bums there is an atmosphere that makes it very difficult for somebody truly needy to obtain assistence.

Insurance won't cover the damage to the Caravan. That's why we set aside money. My main intial whining was because we didn't have enough money in our car fund to cover it. With the lower estimate, we're going to do okay. Our savings is pretty much tapped though.

I believe that our current place in life is determened primarily by the choices we make. You might get a head start by having loving parents and come from a well to do home. You might get dragged a bit by a debilitating disease or be disabled by an accident. Aside from that, it's your choices that determine your station.

My parents think exactly like you. Having been hardworking all their lives, they have no time for layabouts, and i tend to agree with them. But as i do have it far easier, thanks to them, i sometimes think i got no right to be this rigorous.
I saw you've been a policeman, i think you are better qualified to judge than i am. Still, in Germany nobody needs to be homeless, there are so many shelters and social workers. I don't know what the situation in America is, though, wander if it's harder?

I don't see why it should be that much harder in the United States. We have free education. There are plenty of ways for young people to get ahead if they have a lousy family.

I came from a good home, yet, I've depended on my parents for very little since I left home at 17. I joined the Army. Went to college while I was in. I went to school after the Army on the GI Bill. And I have a job. I continuted going to college once I was working, and I finished my degree. Oppertunities abound in the United States.

Interesting, then you are of the opinion that everybody can make it in the US of A, if only they work hard enough. It's not quite the common idea at the mo, but that doesn't need to mean you're not right.

I think making good decsions is more important. The path that I took is still available to everyone who doesn't screw themselves up. Once you start making poor choices, like using drugs, committing crimes, etc, then things become harder, but there are still plenty of paths to success out there.

Like writing a book in quod, what? Become one of those prison authors that are all the fashion in fashionable society.
Talking about that, as a former cop, would you be able to tell me how one gets solitary in prison? And if one is in solitary, do they allow one to read and write or even a pc? Just wondering. I haven't committed a crime yet, but before i do, i would like to know what to expect.

Usually, isolation is used for inmates that can't get a long in general population. This might be because they won't obey the rules of the institution, because they're vulnerable and need protective custody, or for medical reasons.

And would some people stay in solitary for the duration of their sentence?

It's possible. Large facilities might have a whole section set aside for protective custody or an infirmary to isolate people for medical reasons. There are some people who fundamentally can not get along with other people, even other inmates. Those might spend all of their time in isolation.

That sounds like me, every bit. Thanks for the information.
How's your car business going, your way, i hope?