The day was taken up by logistics, but those eventually found me 25 miles from here at the Sawgrass Mills Mall. Having heard it is alligator-shaped, I kept looking. Maybe from an airplane and maybe originally. But the place has been added onto so much there is no such shape to the naked eye. It is a popular hangout joint. The evidence of people spending money was missing. Quite in focus was the large amount of advertising aimed at the fiscally challenged (such as zero interest and nothing down). I’m talking microwave ovens, not furniture, with 12 payments of $4.95.A whirlwind tour of the mall showed there was not one thing I cared to purchase. A few of the electronics outlets got my attention, but I could tell I was not the only browser who didn’t feel like dodging some pushy salesman to look at the latest gadget. People would walk in, hear the beeper and just leave again. The only places doing much business were clothing stores. I looked at the mannequins in Hilfiger, and honestly, I could not tell if they hadn’t picked up that fashion at a yard sale last week.
This was after nearly four hours on the phone with government offices. Yes, folks, they do have a “means test”, for those who know what that is. While few government departments outright demand it, instead they ask for a variety of clearances by other departments, such as Medicaid, that amount to the same thing. I reported this to Wallace and have begun to arrange my defenses accordingly. I don’t know the system yet, but I affirm that you must tell the truth in exactly the correct order. Your mission becomes to determine that order.
By late evening I dropped past Jimbo’s. I just could not play tonight and don’t know when I could return. I practiced for fifteen minutes this morning and that drained me. Eventually I knew I’d have to perform sitting down. Will came by and we walked up to Boston Johnny’s. Only half as many people inside as you’d expect from all the parked vehicles [meaning everybody drove up alone] and the men outnumbered the women over six to one, the pretty women thirty to one.
There was a four piece band consisting of drums, bass and one too many guitar players. Excellent timing and blues-heavy but no spark of originality. Other than the freaky-looking bass player. That signals a garage band that’s been together since the ‘80s. Maybe some of the blues was original, who can tell? Will had come from chemotherapy and was still radioactive. His liver set off the Geiger counter. His doctor said to stay away from pregnant women. Like me, he does not need to be told twice.
Brother company gets another bad report card. I sit down to do my taxes and a message pops up that the yellow ink cartridge is empty. So what, I’m printing only in black. Sure enough, the whole printer won’t work when one cartridge is empty. Actually, I knew the yellow was low and I purposely didn’t print anything in color so the black would work. Sure enough, Brother shafted me there, too. The “self-cleaning” feature wasted that plan. I don’t know where those people at Brother get their heads so screwed on backwards. I can’t wait for the day I read some new invention puts those bastards out of business. I have never had a Brother printer that just did what it was supposed to.
