Ok, tommorrow morning I mosey down to the backdoor entrance of the County Tax Payers office. I've got it down now, get there at 0800, stand in line for a half hour, and beat the crowd.
Hopefully I'll get Rona, show her my new Florida insurance, and finish this project.
My body may be going to hell, but I can still drive. I felt alive today as I followed my GPS to Danny's place.
Tomorrow, me and my truck will be driving around as a licensed Florida driver. The truck will be a Washington, Idaho, Tennessee and now a Florida licensed vehicle.
She's got a quarter million miles on her and she's purring like a kitten. I thank my mechanic Thomas back in Lawrenceburg, TN for the fine work.
So what now?
I am now an official Florida resident. I visited the License place this morning for the second time. I was armed with everything I thought they needed, or might need, to get my drivers license and my truck registered, with new Florida plates.
I brought my SS card, my Medicare card, my Birth Certificate and a couple of mails with my new address on them. I was lucky to get the same lady I had the first time, a nice person named Rona, at station seven.
She had me sign a bunch of stuff, even some electronic Q/A on a tablet with a pen. She made electronic copies of everything I had. She walked me back to a room and took my picture for my Drivers License. Then we went outside to my truck parked in front and she acted as notary for the VIN verification.
Finally, back at station seven, she handed over my new drivers license, which cost me $56. Then, as I anxiously awaited my new License Plate, with a new tag, and a Florida vehicle registration to stick up in my visor, she said: but there is one problem!
Then she handed me back my Farmers Insurance card, based in Tennessee, good untill December, and said I need Florida Auto Insurance. I told her I needed a gun to shoot myself.
So I called my Farmers agent Chad up in Lawrenceburg, TN, while standing right there in front of Rona. I said I've had a perfect record with Farmers for over twenty five years and I wanted that record, and account, passed on to a Farmers agent here, now.
The problem is, there are no Farmers Insurance agents in Florida. The whole thing is going electronic and straight to hell. Chad told me it takes an hour for him to reach corporate.
He said the best he could do is cancel my insurance now, today, and the balance of $67 will go back on my card. I told him I shut that Lawrenceburg bank account down and there is no card anymore, just mail it to me. He said he couldn't, but when it bounces from the card, the computer should issue a check. Maybe, OMG...
Fuck Farmers Insurance. I had a business card on my table here from an insurance guy named Danny I met at the Z the other night. It took me an hour but I drove there and got six months insurance on my truck for $296.
Tomorrow I go see Rona and get my vehicle plate, sticker and registration. I will officially be a Florida Resident with a Voter ID card coming in the mail.
Not some scumbag that crosses our border illegally, rapes our women and children and votes Democratic multiple times without any ID.
We're having a poker game Thursday at 1800 with the new Poker Table Shelby gave me for my birthday, either in the Cave with no legs sitting on the big round table, or the living room, with legs and A/C.
So, if you know us, drop by and play a few rounds on this new table. You know the rules, $10k buyin, but if we need to raise that, just let me know.
Actually, that was a joke, there's no money involved, just fun.
So here's the lineup, Shelby, Todd and me. If Jennifer and Chelsea can come, cool. Dan and Crystal, welcome! John, if we could meet your wife over a poker game, great!
My long time friend Skoge just sent me some words.
When you live a life of love for others and peace with your neighbors, you are amassing your spiritual fortune.
Live fully and be happy while you're here because, From here you won't take what you have. You'll only take what you gave.
I'm making a new friend named John. He and his family moved in a while back and they are a great addition to this backyard neighborhood.
His wife is from Mexico, she's lovely and adds to the group of beautiful women that make up our backyard, and that Old Man Jim gets to enjoy visually from his mancave.
John's a former Network IT guy that eventually got into Real Estate and has done very well, several properties, a couple of businesses. They have two kids, a boy 10 and a girl 7. This is a great family folks!
John wondered over to the Cave today as he got home to an empty house. The kids are back in school and his wife is at work. He sat in my guest chair and we got to know each other.
We are of similar political positions, and I shared with him this wild idea I just had about being a Vote Certification volunteer this coming election.
Then he talked about how Mexico inks a persons finger to prevent voter fraud. The fan was going hard here in the Cave and I thought he said eats a persons finger.
We had a good laugh.
So, the way I'm perceived in this life, is just an old drunk, and I accept that. I really wish people that care about me saw more, but it is what I have created, and deserve.
I have no idea what to do anymore. I wake up in the morning with my body vibrating like crazy. I'm really dizzy when I step out of bed and it takes everything I have to keep from passing out and hitting the floor.
I make it through the morning and have a drink at noon to calm it down. Then the alcohol becomes the culprit. I smoke a little bud, and suddenly I'm a drunken stoned loser.
What I really am is an old man trying to survive each moment, anyway I can.
btw: Shelby still likes me, and that's all that matters right now.
Our life in the end is defined by our successes and failures, by our wins and loses, and ultimately by our wealth and possessions.
I really believe it should be defined by our soul, that magical place in our heart that holds who we honestly are.
I've been a crazy and smart mixed up man since I was a kid. As such, I've had an amazing life.
But every time the shit hit the fan, I found a core of honesty and decency down in my soul, that always saved my life.
I believe it's a gift from my ancestors in this country, that goes back centuries. I am a good man, it's in my blood.
I hold no ill will towards anyone, and I love a few.
I finally had a girl in bed with me last night. It was pretty romantic, I carried her up the stairs, laid her out on the bed, and kissed her good night. I tried to talk her girlfriend into joining us, but she was crashed out in the downstairs living room.
So here it is Sunday morning, they're still here and we had breakfast together. Shelby's heading back from New Orleans shortly so I better straighten the house up.
I woke up this morning to an empty house, with two small dogs sleeping downstairs. The dogs didn't budge as I walked by towards the mancave, which meant they weren't hungry and didn't need to relieve themselves.
I was up at 0500, usually up at 0600. I have two things to accomplish today, take care of the dogs, and make sure our nurse friend Jennifer gets a good day sleep after a long night shift.
Jen showed up around 0745, took a leak, and then headed straight to Shelby's bed upstairs. It's almost 1400 and I assume she's still sleeping, or maybe she's gone?
As to the dogs, I couldn't get their little asses up this morning. They hadn't done their business since yesterday evening, and I didn't want any inside accidents.
I finally got Zinny up, gave her breakfast and meds, and let her hangout in front of the cave, where she soaked up some sun.
Then the three of us had a great walk under the 110 freeway on ramp.
Along the way, stops were made. Zinny even dropped a big load on the sidewalk as we entered our back parking lot. I have bags, and I cleaned it up.
Then I secured the dogs in their little air-conditioned paradise, and walked over to the Z. Wearing just bathing trunks with a Crockett Shoals Tubing staff tee shirt stuck in them, I needed a Pensacola cocktail.
My favorite bartender Brooke had whipped up some Sloppy Joe mix over in the corner, but I passed and stuck to one drink.
And now here I am, in the mancave alone with the fan blowing cool air over my very tan, skinny, sticky body.
I hope Jennifer drops into the cave for a minute, before she leaves (and if she's still here).
I would ask her how her shift was last night, she looked pretty beat up when she walked in this morning. Hey, she skipped a fun time in New Orleans to pull a tough shift and then slept in a friends bed.
I've been hanging with medical professionals lately. Chelsea is a Pediatric and Intensive Care Nurse, Jennifer is a Labor and Delivery Nurse and Amy is a Surgical P/A.
Chelsea is tiny and fits right in with the Pediatrics Ward, Jennifer delivers babies that aren't hers, and Amy injects clitoris pleasure enhancement drugs into older women.
They're beautiful, intelligent and successful. I'm very glad I've gotten the opportunity to know them.
I think about the time I spent down in Tampa recently, when my brain was still badly damaged. Shelby introduced a bunch of great, good looking successful people to me down there, but my memory was running in the Off mode.
Hey Shelbs, make me a list of the great people I met there and what they do!
Some folks I've met lately say they were born and raised here in Pensacola and lived all their life here.
I lived for forty years in California, almost half my life. All across the State, from the mountains to the beaches, from the big cities, to the sticks.
On my fortieth birthday I was sitting in a downtown Oakland bar. Colleen had just moved up to Kent, WA, just south of Seattle. She took my son Riley with her.
My software business was crumbling around me, and one of my Jewish partners wanted to buy me out. I said buy me a plane ticket to Seattle and give me some cash.
The next day I was gone from California and never looked back. Over the years Riley and I would travel down the coast and see people and things, but I never lived there again.
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