Gridlocked

 I was up pretty late, and put out some filter things in a big -and heavy - box for the bums. Sure enough, pretty soon a bum came by and put the box, and the power cords he'd pulled out from under all the filters, onto the top of the trunk of his bum-car and drove off, only having them fall off a couple of times as he limped over the speed bumps (which bums cars can typically barely get over) and out of the complex, turning left of course to go to Crack Alley where the good rocks are. 

OK so he was gone, and I was all set to practice when another zombie came by, on a bike. This zombie rode up to the dumpster at the HVAC place and pretty much "lived" there for a couple of hours, doing zombie things. The damned thing danced around and arranged and re-arranged stuff, helped line up the two dumpsters there for the trash truck when it came, danced around more, etc. Meth is a wonderful drug. Eventually this zombie got on its bike and rode, with lots of looping around, over in the direction of Crack Alley. 

By this time I'd given up (any noise might attract the zombie) and gone to bed. 

I woke up around noon, and am reading on Reddit about the aftermath of the (latest) hurricane in Florida. They think there have been hundreds of deaths. Some people are saying the standard "why don't they leave?" thing, while others, even one guy who says he was very poor growing up but is a doctor now, are saying people don't leave because they don't have the money to. Another guy piped up and said when he was utterly destitute he could have gone anywhere in the country but he went where he had some family. 

This made me reflect that if I hadn't left Hawaii in my early-ish 20s I don't think I'd have left. I realize now I never should have left but at the time I was cursed with ambition and wanted to see the bigger world. I also didn't know that if I was going to get out of a place, I should have found some way to leave for Europe and settled there. But I wanted to go to the mainland and like anyone, where I had family which I did in Southern California. 

Said relatives were all spaced 100s of mile apart from each other, hated each other, and wanted just about nothing to do with me. Typical Americans. 

But it's weird to realize that even for myself and for members of my family, the only reasons any of us have left Hawaii have been the military or in my own case, getting that one-in-a-million chance to have a company move me, complete with a free apartment for the first month or two. 

Determining oneself to go to a place, and becoming a hobo to do so, because the only, way you can get there is to walk, hop trains, or hitchhike, wasn't a thing in the mid-80s. These days you have to be willing to give up just about everything, and start off in the new place from the very bottom. For instance, say you decide Ashville, SC is a place you'd like to settle down in and live. You have to be willing to take a Greyhound bus at best, start off being homeless in Asheville, and work your way up. 

This is about the process I'll go through in going home to Hawaii. I hope to not end up on the street but I am mentally prepared for it.