Day #19 almost halfway there
I set Feb 1 as my goal post because I knew I could easily fast 40 days as I observe Lent every year for the past twenty.
On a practical note, I also set my end date as Feb 1 because that will give me my full SSI check to buy tires, plus pay a driver to get me out of Bay area, and pay all fees. Goal is to get mechanical work done during the Hunger Strike itself, because its point is to keep neighbors at bay and authorities understanding there IS a gameplan. Those were the words were used by the last cop I talked to. Wrote about him under “Nice Cop” blog entry.
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Nonetheless, the neighbors have continued to come outside and yell to said authorities on their cell phones. Yesterday it was the angry white man across the street, the one who doesn’t believe in curtains. He stood outside on his porch and told someone on the other end, among other things, he didn’t know how much more he could take of this. Damn. Sensitive little tulip, isn’t he? One white woman in one white RV.
I have already started a complaint about these signs that were first put up on this stretch of beach parking in 2012. It was done without the permission of the California Coastal Commission. I was here at the time. I watched the whole process unfold. Besides an affront to the authority of those who actually control beach access parking, it is also unconstitutional to use zoning to keep classes of people segregated from the rest of society.
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I have managed, in 18 days, to get my vehicle-home back into order, inside, maybe 75% done. The cleaning has been brutal, with the pain in my left arm increasing (I have a 1 inch undiagnosed mass there). Besides the cleaning, I presented a new paper in the civil rights case I started day before Thanksgiving (#CGC-20-588010 Ramona Mayon v. CCSF) and had a hearing. I also started a Fundraiser http://gofund.me/f0a099ee thats collected $530 (half went to mechanic immediately and the other half put aside for the smog fee). I was also asked to write a piece for the upcoming issue of the Street Sheet, plus a podcast is being planned. I previously had a poem published there in the nineties, so I am thrilled to come full-circle with my voice. These things mean a lot to a writer.
Outside, the drivetrain is back in and truck started up fine (AAA driver was so alarmed by what he drove into on Dec 23rd with neighbors out their houses yelling and me crying hysterically plastering the RV with hunger strike signs, he split immediately, left the drivetrain out. Also left me poked out in road.) RV started is all that counts at this stage of the repair (it got a new fuel pump and ignition module in Sept $800). The mechanic moved it up half a block and parked properly. You see, this is what happens when prejudiced people are empowered by “laws” banning an unpopular group from public streets and services. This is no different from the deep South of my childhood. Even after the signs came down, the hate still fermented.
Speaking of signs, I finally had to make new ones. The dampness had faded the first ones.
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I made one for each window. I remembered to check the site stats for this website and there were 19 readers who had come straight to the site without going through a social media “referral “.
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Below is a photo of my new living room sofa. I found a lovely faux suede purple sofa someone abandoned across the street. Cheered me up a lot. Still a long way to go, but I think I’m more than halfway back to stabilizing. It says a lot about San Francisco’s Dept. of Homelessness and Supportive Housing that I am having to do this alone, in spite of twice signing up for services. The fact they know I am here and making the neighbors furious to the point I feel endangered and don’t sleep at night so I can listen for prowling vigilantes, that’s all going into the next paper I file: a petition for a writ of mandate asking the City to do their job and help people when they ask for it as opposed to shuffling an already-sick person into a congregant shelter at the height of a pandemic (I have video of being told this by City employees on Nov 18 2020).
I am supposed to give THIS up to go to a shelter with 400 strangers and their dogs at the Moscone Center downtown? I think making up laws that can take this away from me (on the basis of unpaid tickets for “oversize vehicles” or in the case of SFPD 97, outright criminalization of my propertry at 10 pm) is a violation of MY rights.
Seriously.
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