Good news today

Ok I was a little hasty in crying foul on the universe. The water has been turned back on. I'm not sure why I turned the faucet on but I'm glad I did. When water started to sputter out and then flow it seemed like a miracle. I quickly turned on the shower and rinsed my hair out before filling the water gallon I bought Sunday night(I wasn't taking any chances). I took a shower that even if the water was cold felt like the best shower I had ever taken.

I talked to my sister who said she got a txt from the landlord asking about the water. She didn't respond but she said that she had heard from those that live next door that he sometimes forgets to pay the bill and the city turns it off. Its a bit disconcerting to think that your water could get turned off on a Sunday but I guess they work seven days a week.

Also Monday, I got my storage unit. It's a 10x10 non-climate controlled. The units are fenced in and access is by a keypad controlled gate. I could totally live there. There's no on-site security and the units are off the main road so there's little passby traffic. When I say live there I really mean sleep there. I wouldn't be spending a lot of time there; just like an hour or two before and after sleeping. There's easily enough room to put my stuff, I really don't have much, on one side and my bed on the other; if I had to I could upgrade to the 10x20. Downsides of living in a storage unit: no electricity, no water and no toilet. Until I got home and found the water back on I was in that situation so it wouldn't be too bad and as I said I wouldn't be spending a lot of time there.

I actually went online to get ideas about how to deal without running water. I found a few guides to living homeless and one blog written by a guy who was homeless for several years but is doing much better now and wanted to share what he had learned. My biggest concern was how I was going to stay clean and good smelling without taking showers. The other night I resorted to using a wet hand towel to wipe off my body. Some ideas that he had were joining a gym to access their showers, sneaking into the showers in the sports center of a college or using the showers at a pool. The gym idea is probably what I would have done. There's a 24 hour one not far from the apartment and it's on the bus routes so it would be easy to get to if I did become homeless. Using the showers at the college while cheaper would require me to investigate how easy it would be to get in what hours they're open and what hours they're least busy.

One other downside is that the gate doesn't have a way for a person to get out. There's a sensor that detects cars when they roll over it on the way out but not people. I would have jump the fence to get out or crawl under the gate. The gate has a pipe running across it's midpoint so it wouldn't be to hard to get out. As long as I left in the morning before it got too late in the no one would see me and if they did I'm not breaking in; I'm leaving after checking my storage. Coming back after dark would present fewer problems as I wouldn't have to hop the fence and as the units are not on a main road there would be little chance of being seen.

I doubt I will need to use any of these options but knowing that I have options makes me feel less stressed about the future.

Gilly