I needed to call elections BC to answer the questions they had concerning the paperwork I filed after running for Abbotsford Council in the November 2014 municipal election.

Owing Rogers $89.04 my phone makes a good mobile camera.

So I found myself sitting in the lobby of the Salvation Army waiting to see Outreach and use their phone, My mind occupied itself contemplating the different aspects my existence and their ability to perturb my Life..

Ironically it was during the campaign that the causal event of my impending financial armageddon occurred.

With 25 years of accounting, management and executive experience I could see how my finances would unfold and deteriorate over the months ahead, forcing the jettisoning of expenses [dessert, clothing, food, phone] until the point was reached where housing could not be sustained.

All I needed to do to avoid this fate was win the 6/46. Not only could I could afford housing but afford housing with a library and an unlimited book budget to fill the shelves.

Of course as a ‘solution’ winning the 6/49 is not a high probability.

The practical solution was to find employment, thereby increasing my cash flow.

‘All I [they] have to do’ seems such a simple statement, but the reality is that it can, often does, include so many assumptions only an economist would consider it to be a useful or realistic statement.

I admit the municipal election and then the flooding were distracting and delayed of my job search.

But then election to Abbotsford City Council would have resolved my cash flow issue. And until the flooding issue was resolved I needed to focus on preventing the flooding from destroying my belongings and rendering what has been ‘home’ for 7 years uninhabitable. There was also the matter that if I did not contain and restrict the flooding, and my abode become uninhabitable my priority would have had to be finding another place to live or become homeless..

Still I had months and a lot of experience, knowledge and skills. Unfortunately it turned out my younger sister was correct in omitting her Phd in Chemistry from her resume when seeking employment outside that field; that experience, knowledge and skills are can prove to be more of a barrier than a help.

That experience, knowledge and skill required years to acquire ……. and those years, my age, proved another barrier. Those years also resulted in wear and tear that impose limits and require self knowledge and job flexibility to work around. Wear and tear that if not respected is disabling.

Then there is the challenge of being diabetic; a condition where being healthy [being alive] requires you to modify your diet and monitor your blood sugar carefully. At least in theory.

The reality is that with a food budget of $0 I eat what is put in front of me and live with the consequences.

I not only got to watch the clock tick down closer and closer to homelessness; not only suffered the frustration of being unable to do ‘all I had to do’ and find employment; I have also known [occasionally experienced] the effect the combination of diabetes and poverty have on my health and life expectancy. Oh Joy.

My phone was my canary in the mine, losing it the warning that I stand on the brink of falling down and down, hitting a world at every plunge and finished knowing then [to borrow from Emily Dickinson]..

As I sit at the computer at Clearbrook Library typing this, I face the need to immediately increase my cash flow,have not found employment and don’t have $3 for a 6/49 ticket on the $30 million draw [ a remote chance is better than no chance].

Sigh.

I have received some sage advice from those experienced in panhandling.

*laugh* how many people make all kinds of assumptions about someone they see panhandling?

Panhandling – because you do what you need to do to survive,