I'm at Bookends and Beans, today. I'm having troubles getting the Gateway laptop to hook up to the internet. I gave up on the Great Quality. I had to reboot 3 times for the Gateway to work. Maybe I should have kept rebooting for the other computer.
I'm still waiting for the 3 Gateway laptops to arrive in the mail. They should have been here by now. Maybe it takes longer for large packages to ship in the mail.
I got the Thinkpad to work with the Lucent wifi card. I won't be able to use it at Bookends, with their password. At least it's working good enough to give the computer to somebody.
I talked with Dan Micals about the rent-assisted apartments. It turns out that the electricity isn't free. Since the heating and stoves are electric that means I won't save much on that. That will cost me an additional $100/month. I would cancel my name from those lists, except that once I sell the house I'll have $20 to 30 thousand to invest. Of course, my investment leave a lot to be desired.
The GM bonds are doing good. I made about $700 in the last week on them. I haven't sold yet. I want enough money to pay off the credit cards. I've got another $4000 to go.
I was thinking about disability and savings. As hard as it is, I believe that a person on disability should still save. Paying off the credit cards is a worthy goal, but a person should still set aside some money for emergencies. One never knows when the car will give out or you have dental problems. It never hurts to be prepared for that kind of emergency.
I'm now saving more than I was when I had a job. It's simply a matter of living cheaply. Eat at home and hold your expenses down. You can do it.

I'm at Java Johns, today. This is the only place that the internet is working well. I had pass word problems at Bookends and Beans. The co-op didn't work very well. I couldn't even get hooked up to Linksys, there. I didn't try Magpies. So I don't know if its working there.
Anyway, I took out my good computer and tried it at Java John's. Its working just fine.
Now I have to wonder if I have problems with my computers, or is it the wifi at the various places that I try to go online. I don't know. I do know that Alice was having troubles at Bookends. I think she was having problems with the password, just like I had. She runs a Windows machine so I'm not sure that it was failing in the same way as my Linux machine.
I decided to get cable internet for my home. I added up the costs that I am incurring by going to town every time I try something new with the internet. I could also save many trips by downloading my Emails at home. I also check the news and my Etrade account. I could reduce my trips to town by at least 50%. I could also buy my bananas at Quick Trip and save about 50% on those. I'll miss the socializing, however. I'll probably just cut out the trips that have to do with the internet. That will save me over the $50/month that the internet will cost.
I bought another 14 Delphi bonds. They are going down in value. I got these for only $7.20 per bond. Maybe somebody knows something that I don't. But I feel that, when they come out of bankruptcy, they will be worth a lot.
I missed Jim at Bookends and Beans, this morning. He probably called me to cancel today's meeting. I wasn't at home to take his call. I've been in town, trying to get my computers to work with the internet.
It's almost 7 now and I'm at the co-op, linked to linksys. I don't know why some of my computers don't work at some times of the day. I don't have any idea about why that is. This morning most of my machines didn't work. Now they do.
About disability. Some people will disparage you for applying for disability. Much of the time it is on religious grounds. After all, can't you just turn your problems over to Jesus? Weren't you created in the image of god? How could you possibly be disabled? Others will look at you and think that you are just as able as they are so why could you get disability?
All I can say is that your disability is between you and your doctor. You have to decide whether you are disabled enough for disability. Then you have to fight for it.
My disability mentor, a guy named Benike, always said that you have to fight for your disability. The Social Security people make it as hard as they can for you to get on disability. Most of the lawyers will turn you away. All that I can say is that if something is worth having, it's worth fighting for.
Don't get discouraged when Social Security rejects your appeals. They always do.
Lawyers will tell you that your aren't disabled enough for Social Security. Keep looking until you find one who'll fight for you.
Keep your chin up and hang in there. It's worth it.

I uploaded a picture of some flowers,next to the Upper Iowa River.
It's another lazy Sunday. I need to mow the damned lawn. You can tell that home ownership and I don't mix well. I'm looking forward to moving to an apartment.
I have to talk to Dan Micals about how high I am on the list.
I'm having troubles with my wifi cards. I got one working, this morning, at Java John's. Now the same combination doesn't work at the co-op. I'm using my good computer with the newest Belkin. A pattern hasn't emerged yet. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I need to get ndiskwrapper to work on my SUSE Linux machines. I've downloaded it but I haven't been able to get it to work, yet. Maybe I have to run it from the command line. I think I"ve already tried that.
I was calculating how much I'm spending on coffee and banana trips. It adds up. I'm spending more on gasoline than I am on coffee, but the combination comes to over $300/month. It's my biggest expense. I could ride the bicycle to town for most of the trips. I could combine things that I do, so as to reduce the number of trips. I was even thinking about getting cable internet at home so I don't have to bring my laptop to town. That would make it easier on my laptops. I don't like to bounce them around on the bicycle. That would give me more money for investing on bonds.
Tomorrow, I should be getting more old laptops to work on. I hope that I can get both of the old laptops to work at Bookends. If I can I'll download ndiskwrapper and try to get it working.
Later.

I uploaded a picture of the Upper Iowa River, near Kelly Real Estate.
Nothing is happening today. The mail is late so I'm still waiting for the laptops in the mail. I do like to keep busy with fixing up old laptops. They take a ton of time, but it helps me to keep busy. I don't like to have idle time because I tend to eat when I'm just sitting around. I'm trying to lose weight. I've already lost 20 lb. but I have another 40 to go to reach what is considered normal. I'm still 7 lbs. over being obese.
I think people really have to take responsibility for their own health. Your weight is something that you can do something about. I've found that if I simply starve myself, I can lose something like 5 lbs. a week. I take vitamin pills to replace any missing nutrients that happen because I curtailed my eating. I figure that I have another 2 or 3 months to go before I'm down to 200 lbs.
Then I'll get back to eating normally again. I may have to curtail my eating, even then.
I sent $100 to Etrade, this morning. It won't be credited to my account until Wednesday. I'm hoping to buy some more Delphi bonds. They are still in the toilet. I should be able to get them for $82.50 per $1000 bond. I'm hoping that Delphi comes out of bankruptcy soon and they start paying their coupon.
My GM bonds went up yesterday. I made about $200. I'm hoping that they go up enough for me to pay off some credit card debt. Maybe they'll start paying on their coupon. We'll see.
Well, I ate my banana. I think I'll go home and see if the Gateway laptops arrived in the mail. I'm looking forward to working on them. When they are up with SUSE Linux everything on them works just great. I'm giving up on old Thinkpads for now because I never could get the sound to work right with Linux.
Later

I uploaded a picture of some berries on the trail next to the Upper Iowa River, next to the Kelly real estate office. I took a few pictures while I was hiking to town, last Wednesday. I walked to Bookends and Beans and then got a ride back to Freeport with Jim and Sherry.
I took my car to a dealer to see about the (Cash for Clunkers) program. He said that my car has too good of gas mileage to qualify for that program. I left him my name and phone number in case they change the rules.
Not much is happening here. It turned out that 2 of my Belkin wifi cards won't work at Bookends and Beans. I can't get past the password. The problem went with the cards. That's surprising because one of the bad cards is newer than the good card. I'll just give those cards away with the laptops that I give to poor people.
I don't have much to say tonight. I'm waiting for parts to come in to fix up old laptops. I'm waiting for my pension check to invest some more in Delphi bonds. I'm keeping my expenses down. Nothing has changed. I'm just sitting at the window of the co-op, blogging away.
That's all for now.

I'm at the co-op. I uploaded a picture of the front of the co-op. That has the picture windows, which are such a problem for the glare on laptops.
I gave Dave his laptop, today. Just before I turned it over to him I started downloading updates. It was going fast but there were just too many of them. It took an hour and they were only half done. Then it locked up when I tried to run Banshee, (the music player on Linux). Anyway, its working pretty well.
The Democrats are already meeting but the first hour is spent talking about school funding. That doesn't concern me, much. I'll go after I've blogged.
I got a new wifi card, today. It seems to be working well, after I loaded the driver with ndiskwrapper. I only have that on my good machine so I hope I won't need to put it on another one. I need to try this card from Alice's place. Maybe it has the range between there and Bookends. That could save her from spending money on coffee to download her email.
I wanted to talk about goals and disability, tonight.
Even people who are on disability need goals. If your pay is low enough, you might need the goal of saving money by picking up beer cans for redemption. When I was waiting for my VA pension that was how I paid for my coffee. I would bring in extra income by selling beer cans. That also supplemented my income when I was on the VA pension. I had the goal of accumulating silver coins for a safety net.
Now that I'm on a better pension I accumulate money to invest in bonds. So far, I've been concentrating on Delphi bonds. When I have 200 of them I'll branch out into others. The main thing is to set a reachable goal to work towards. I find that saving money helps me to curtail my eating as well. I'm saving money on food that I use to invest in bonds.
Having goals helps you to set priorities. My priority is to have a nice nest egg rather than spend money on eating out.

I uploaded a picture of Java John's serving area. They have reliable internet service but it's usually rather slow. I tried, this morning, to buy something on Ebay, and it took me an hour to just fail to make the purchase. When I went to Bookends and Beans, I was done in fifteen minutes.
I've been going around town, this morning, trying to get good internet connection. Usually Bookends is good but not today. Then I went to the co-op and I couldn't get on there. I even tried hooking up to a router named linksys, but it was down. Then I went to Java John's. I got hooked up but even my fast machine moved at a snail's pace. I finally brought my good machine to Bookends and it's working quite well.
That got me thinking about actually paying for home internet. The cable company wants $40 to $50 a month. I might be able to find a satellite company for less. The trouble with satellite is that they will want a year commitment. I might be moving out of the house in a few months, so the cable is the only option. I can't see getting a phone for internet and that is too slow to be worth anything, anyhow.
That brings me to the discussion of poverty and disability. How can you save money on recurring expenses?
I've found that I can do without a normal, (land line) phone. I've gotten a Trac phone. You renew your minutes when you run out. I just don't use it very often so 90 minutes can last me a couple of months or more. That normally costs $30 for every time I renew. I can also take it with me when I'm expecting a call.
I eliminated the cable tv and had satellite tv installed. I get more channels for $30/month. I also eliminated the phone on cable and the internet. I'm having doubts about eliminating the internet. Even though I use the WiFi at coffee shops, that may be more expensive than having the internet at home. I find that I go to several coffee shops to do simple things that I could have done at home. I think I'll look into getting the cable internet restarted. It might be cheaper and I know that it will be handier.