Saturday 20 December 2014

The Phone Call I Have Been Expecting

As I have said before, the one thing that I am acutely aware of is that I am a guest wherever I go and have no rights to be anywhere. One could argue that I have a right to park on any street as that is public property. Even there I can’t park and leave the truck and trailer for weeks and months without moving it, that would attract attention and a ticket or a tow. 

Work went well, it was my short day but I was busy and working and got a lot done. I was feeling better yesterday and much better today. After work I walked to Wanda, put my stuff away before I drove down the street, on my way to my Laundromat. 

That was when I got the call, about ten to fifteen minutes after leaving work. What call was it? It was a call from my boss, the one I had just left fifteen minutes later. It seems that his landlord (the guy who actually owns the bay that our company works out of, called up and decreed that I can’t park behind there anymore. (Yes, I honestly believe him.)

While the boss tried to argue to let me stay, it was no good. I will respect this edict as I do and shall always respect private property. If someone asks me to move along, I will do so, immediately and without protest. The only thing I ask is to talk to me like a human, be nice, and not rude. 

As well, the absolutely last thing I want to do is cause problems for my boss or the company (I like to be employed).

So, with me no longer having access to that power outlet, that means I can’t easily charge my batteries as I sleep (for free). 

So what will I do? 

Survive, always survive. 

There are a few things that I have learned on this journey this past year, here is what I have learned.

1) Your Life is Not Set in Stone.

You can alter the course of it.  You are a slave to nothing (but debt). If you don’t like the direction of your life, you have the power to change it. All you have to do is step outside of your life and look back at it from an objective perspective and think outside the box for solutions that you had previously not allowed yourself to see. (Just keep those solutions: legal, ethical and moral). 

2) Self-Reliance

While a helping hand is nice and always appreciated, never rely on it. You are the only person you can ever truly control, so you are the only person you can truly rely on. Rely on yourself to fix your own problems. 

3) Determination

You are stronger and more determined than you think. You need to find within you the ability to keep going despite adversity. Life will toss you obstacles but you have to have the wherewithal to keep pressing forward. 

4) Keep Calm

Getting mad never solved anything. The “Rawr-Smashy-Smashy” problem solving method, while fun, is not effective, it just creates more problems.

When bad things happen, force yourself to keep calm and ask yourself three questions right away. 1) What actually happened? 2) What can I do about it now? 3) What can I do in the future to avoid this? 

By doing this, you will keep focused on solving the problem and not the problem itself. This is a much more effective use of your energy and resources. If you need, yell and scream for a minute, two tops, and then focus on fixing the problem.

5) Adaptability

Life will toss you obstacles but it is what you do in reaction to those obstacles which is important. You can tackle that obstacle head on. You can also go in another direction to avoid that obstacle (not every obstacle has to be beaten). The last option is that you can change yourself to adapt to and slip around that obstacle. Be willing to change what it is that you are doing in order to achieve your goals.

6) Resourcefulness

There are resources and creative solutions all around you. Just look at the core need that you have and try to think of the simplest/cheapest solution to it. You need to be able to use everything you have in the most effective ways possible. I am always looking at things and asking, “what can I use this for, in a way that it is not intended?” 

7) If at First You Don’t Succeed  . . . Try, Try Again.

Not every idea you will ever have and try will work out. Some will, some won’t . . . some spectacularly so. That’s okay, don’t worry about it. The important thing is that you tried something. Just learn from your mistakes and carry on. Try something else and see what happens. Repeat until successful.

Conclusion 

So what does this mean for me and my lack of a power outlet? It means that I will just park down the street, run Jenny once every two days and do my best to conserve power in the in between times. I will change what I am doing to slip around this obstacle. 

I will not freak out, yell, get angry or defy my boss and park behind work anyways. I will survive, I will keep calm and carry on (stiff upper-lip and all).

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