Curious about Tusky's ability to handle quote posts, and Gemini shit the bed with this one lol Umm.. wat?

@Altbot

tldr; we need help getting a couch and a mattress with a box spring. WARNING: Incredibly long-winded diatribe ahead. Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while reading this. -------------------------------------------- I try to be respectful and use CWs when fundraising to avoid unnecessary cluttering of the timeline unless incredibly urgent. I never, *ever* want to make people feel pressured or scammed, and if I have inadvertently done so, I sincerely apologize. Having said that, I realize it's very arrogant of me to request this after all the help we've been given on our journey already. There are countless other people in far more dire circumstances. There are even people on the Fediverse who are flat-out homeless, so how can I justify such a frivolous plea for help? My counter-argument to that is: regrettably, I don't have one. I have no idea how we've been so lucky when there are so many others also in need. Ever since an encounter I had recently, I've tried to think of how I would feel about other people raising the kinds of funds that have been donated to us. Would I feel jealous, or that it was just "getting old", despite them going to great lengths to not seem pushy or yelling and to just be as unobtrusive as possible? Obviously I'm biased, but my answer to that question has always been "Absolutely not". I would feel excited and happy that they were being helped. I have helped a couple of people fundraise and I was just as thrilled seeing us hit goal for a total stranger halfway across the country, as I am when *we* hit goal. Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, perhaps I'm still a little rattled from the aforementioned encounter. I try to look at our situation as if through the lens of others but somehow I can't always muster as much sympathy or excitement for *us* as I would for literally anybody else. I don't honestly have a valid justification for making this request and I'm struggling like hell to get past that because personally, I wouldn't fault anyone else for a humble CW'd request as this yet it feels vain to write this. Alright, none of that had any point. Yay cannabis! So my exceptionally long-winded immediate digression aside, I'm hoping people might consider the following scenario as a "housewarming" gift: We're coming up on Black Friday. (Yes, I know this is supporting bloodthirsty capitalism. I am a hypocrite, okay? They've got some good deals and I don't know what else to do.) We haven't owned a bed since we had to abandon it due to poor planning and a very urgent need to get the hell out of a toxic situation. Since we'd been living in motels for just a couple days past a full calendar year, I was making due with what we had in the motel rooms but now that we're in an apartment finally, we've been sleeping on 4" foam padding on the floor. Let me tell you how great that is for my allergies with a prolifically shedding border collie, and how relaxing it is after a full shift of pushing carts. (That's a negative on both counts.) One of our local furniture stores has a bed I would love on a Black Friday deal, and they do delivery. It's the cheapest I've been able to find with the features I need. Why not a used mattress, you may ask? What's my justification? Why do I seem to be asking so many rhetorical questions so as to rival Rumsfeld? The answer to the first two questions in the previous paragraph is multi-pronged: my incessant, never-ending allergies, and a brand-new mattress allows me to put a mattress protector over it and then an hypoallergenic, waterproof liner over that. My allergies are fucking ridiculous. Secondly, for some inexplicable reason, I seem to do better with back problems if I sleep on a *firm* mattress rather than a fluffy pillowtop. Weirdly, it seems rather difficult to locate a used, firm mattress in good condition in our area. Thirdly, it gets our bed installed in our apartment. We let the professionals lug those suckers up a narrow flight of stairs to our bedroom. Alright, if anyone has managed to make it this far, there's another part to this: We haven't had a full-size couch in six years. God I miss having a couch. I've always used second-hand sofas because pets. Plus brand-new couches cost a fortune. The problem is transportation; usually when a couch we like comes up on the free classifieds section, we have no way to get it home. I found a local couch - god I hope it hasn't been sold and the seller was just too lazy to take the ad down - that, as far as I can tell from studying a handful of pics of it seems to be in great condition. And the seller is willing to deliver it, although I doubt they would be interested in scaling the above-mentioned stairs. These two items would make our apartment truly feel like home. And I'm pretty sure I can have them both transported here if not set up inside as well, for $600. Sadly, despite the large price tag I'm afraid this is probably one of our cheapest opportunities. I promise you we are trying so damned hard to become self-sufficient, despite this request and a gnawing fear that I won't quite be able to make December's rent, which I really *really* don't want to happen during our first month here in the complex. In closing, let me just say once again that we are insanely grateful for all the help everyone has given us these past few years, and I mean that from the bottom of my cold, cynical heart. We would've lost all our possessions and risked entering a vicious cycle of bad situations. I will never understand why we were chosen to be so fortunate, but thank Cthulu you've kept us alive nonetheless. If you're willing AND able, please boost and if possible donate. If you can't donate, *do NOT feel guilty* for being in the same boat as us. Your feelings about it are valid but rest assured you needn't feel bad. Venmo:

Venmo | Andrew Checketts

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Cashapp:

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PP:

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Pay William Simmons using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/Gizmo1982 and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it

GFM: https://gofund.me/12171be3 #MutualAid #MentalIllness #BPD #CPTSD #MutualAidSavesLives @npub19lsu...t9fz

I wish I could have an RSS feed of my mentions that I could respond to in an orderly fashion

We really need to get the ball rolling on us landing an apartment before we're rounded up for the homeless camps. However, our rental history the past two years have not been ideal. I don't suppose there's anyone local to Utah that would be willing to be a.. shall we say, "creative" rental reference for us to explain the past two years since we had to give up our apartment and start down this long, winding road of poverty?

Periodic reminder that you can follow hashtags on #Mastodon (and presumably most other #Fediverse-related software). You can even add them to lists if you follow @tag-[desired hashtag]@relay.fedi.buzz . I finally had to remove @#catsofmastodon from my "Funny" list out of fear of everyone unfollowing me for boosting so many damned cat pics. And because it was crowding out everything else. Lol

I wouldn't do well working in a medical laboratory. I'd be the person playing practical jokes, like setting up urine sample cups with apple juice and taking a big swig to the horror of everyone else watching. Except with my extraordinarily poor short-term memory, I would almost instantly forget which ones were the joke samples #shitpost

*sigh* My partner just reminded me that because I didn't get a paycheck today (I now in fact owe *them* $20) we don't have funds for the motel room in the morning. I somehow didn't connect the two in my head so now we're up against a time crunch. I truly have no idea how much my pay advance will be until the morning now that things have been so weird lately with my pay thanks to this damned "wage-compression" bonus. I *think* the $20 I now owe them will come out of the next paycheck, but I don't know for certain. So, worst case scenario: if they do short my pay advance tomorrow (or now today rather since I wasn't off work until almost midnight) to cover the supposed overpayment, I'm looking at roughly $50 available. The room is roughly $90 (which is far more reasonable than $140 for today). We have to use a prepaid visa debit card to pay and, irritatingly they place an additional ten percent or so above the charge itself so we'll need at least $10 in order to actually make the payment. I'm disappointed with myself for not planning better. However, this has been a useful learning experience because it never occurred to us that we could make several individual single-day reservations ahead which should hopefully allow us to somewhat avoid skyrocketing "peak demand" prices. Anyway.. long story short, we have roughly 8 hours to make the motel room payment. We simply don't have enough room in my car to transport two humans and a dog and all of our stuff which is even more complicated now that we have a bit of a commute; in other words, I would only have a couple of hours before work to drive at least 40 miles round-trip to our storage unit and hurl everything on top of our already overflowing pile of crap. Plus I would really prefer not to have to drag the mini-fridge and microwave downstairs after just bringing them up yesterday. My back is still sore from the climb. With all that said, I must once again humbly ask for help somewhat urgently to keep us housed. Please forgive the overly-frequent begposts. You know the drill.. If you're willing AND able, please boost and if possible donate. If you can't donate, *do NOT feel guilty* for being in the same boat as us. Your feelings about it are valid but rest assured you needn't feel bad. Venmo:

Venmo | Andrew Checketts

Venmo is a digital wallet that lets you make and share payments with friends. You can easily split the bill, cab fare, or much more. Download the i...

Cashapp:

Pay me on Cash App

Instantly exchange money for free on Cash App

PP:

PayPal.Me

Pay William Simmons using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/Gizmo1982 and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it

GFM: https://gofund.me/12171be3 #MutualAid #Housing #Poverty @npub19lsu...t9fz

Struggling to get the podcast up and going. This poor little $30 used laptop doesn't seem to be powerful enough. But we're going to try and make the best of it. Here is a little sample of our Codependent Border Collie attempting to help troubleshoot our audio issues.

For a few days this week, I felt alive. My daily pay advances were suddenly much larger than they usually are. I'm such a fucking idiot, I allowed myself to believe that they must've promoted me to Team Lead on the payroll side before they had officially declared me the new TL, maybe as a suprise or a fluke or something. Nope. Of course not. A 44 year old man should know better. For two or three days, I felt like a human being again for the first time in.. I really don't know how long. I was able to actually place the grocery order that my partner had prepared, without culling it down to pop-tarts and sandwiches. I was able to pay for our storage unit. I was able to fill up the gas tank in our car, all without having to beg for donations to survive. I was able to pay for the motel room without needing to pray we had enough to cover the additional hold fees for the visa charge. For those couple of days, I felt like I was actually getting paid what I was worth. It's also amazing how much more pleasant work can be when you seem to be getting paid enough to stay independently fed and housed. I hadn't realized the crushing stress of trying to survive on $16/hr. It isn't enough for one person to live on, let alone two. I'd become inured to the fear of not knowing if I could raise enough money to keep us housed. Turns out they bumped the minimum pay rate at my location by fifty cents, and since I've been here for more than two years I got a one-time "fuck you, the teenagers are now making as much as you" wage compression bonus. It's the one time in almost three years I've seen them make income other than hourly wages available through the pay advance. I also got a thirty-two cent raise, which taking inflation into account means another penny or so of actual income increase. Fortunately I somehow managed to resist going on a spending spree, and for good reason; since I had received advances that totaled more than my actual wages, they clawed back the pay for my entire shift on Wednesday. I spent my day off yesterday fuming because it felt like I had just worked an awful, miserable shift for *free*. I'll be lucky if I get anything for today's shift either. I calculated what my pay would've been if those pay advances had been wage income, and it equated to roughly $22 per hour - approximately six dollars more per hour than my current pay rate. Our Team Leads don't even make quite that much. That's all it would take for me to not spend the vast majority of my waking hours being irritated that I continue to wake up alive and breathing every morning. Six fucking dollars per hour. Amidst all of this, Wednesday night I was struck by an epiphany as I dove head-first into an emotional meltdown over being given contradictory instructions; I was overwhelmed with the realization that they will never *ever* let me be TL, because a) I can't handle criticism b) I can't handle conflicting or contradictory instructions, and c) I wilt in a crisis. Team Leads here might potentially be responsible for the safety of an entire store full of employees and customers, all for less than $22/hr. That's what it feels like I *should* be getting paid in my current position *now*. I shouldn't have to make potentially life or death decisions regarding dozens of people for a piddly $5/hr raise. Regardless of all of this, I realized I've reached my limit for surviving on starvation wages. I've had a taste of life without being on the edge of homelessness. I'm not doing it anymore. One way or another, I am not going back to that. I'm tired of going hungry on my lunch breaks. I'm tired of relying on charity to survive. I'm tired of seeing our dog age prematurely because we can't afford to get him vaccinated so that we can take him to places to exercise him. I'm tired of this goddamned fucking sore the size of a pencil eraser on my tongue because of another cracked tooth constantly rubbing it. All of these things seem like such luxuries, and compared to billions of people they truly *are* luxuries. I know I should just be grateful for living in suburbia instead of war-torn wastelands. But for fucking fuck's sakes, I just want to have enough money to eat and live. One way or another I am done with all of this. Except there *is* no other way. I am quite possibly in the best possible employment situation I will ever be able to obtain. I'm a middle-aged man with no skills. It's only downhill from here. This isn't an acceptable quality of life for me. It isn't worth it. Anyone know if Kevorkian is still alive? No? *sigh* I wonder if there's any sort of advance sign-up for Kilmeade's homeless reduction program. Six dollars an hour more is all the additional wages I would need to feel like a functional human being. Fml.