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in florida it is not illegal to carry a gun, you can also keep one in your car, i live in orlando and at a very up-scale mall[ the mellenia], these people got into a crash, so one of the guys took out his gun, and the other guy took out his gun they started shooting. its crazy. nobody should be able to carry a gun, some people even bring them to work, and their not cops. florida is one wacky, tacky place. i cant wait to move.
I'll take Florida any day compared to being in a place where no one is allowed to carry anything to protect themselves from criminal elements that don't care what the law says like in Canada!
Women can't even legally carry pepper spray up here. All one can legally do is either run or get on a cell phone and call the police and hope they show up in less than an hour before the punks you are calling about take your cell phone away and beat you up.
That tends to make for a populace that has little confidence going around anywhere where there might be punks. Not good at all.
Where have you been??! How is the window cleaning business now? You disappeared for a while. I remember that you were pretty funny. Are you still living in your car? I thought you'd've moved down by now. Have you been here all along under the other alias that DJ said?
Thanks for welcoming me back to this thread though in truth I never went very far. I hung out on the religion forum for quite a while then flew over to the California forum and have been there ever since.
Trying to figure out a way to move to San Diego. I think the Lord has worked out a way for me to go there.
To make a long story short I ended up getting a whopping $1050.00 payout on my old beater truck that had been hit a couple of months ago (not my fault). My truck broke down a few weeks ago and after trying to continue sleeping in it for a while I finally gave in, sold the truck to the insurance company, and took advantage of a friend of mine's offer to stay in his place until I take off for warmer climates. I am paying him a little more than half his monthly rent in daily portions. Fortunate for me in that a day after I went to his place the temperatures here went straight down such that I could not have continued sleeping in my truck.
For some reason, perhaps the diminished blood circulation in my vessels as a result of advancing age , the cold has really hit me this year. I can't sleep comfortably anymore in -30 C weather . Or maybe the fluff in my sleeping bag flattened out. Don't know.
It's been -25 C to -30 C at nights and not much better during the days. My eyelids actually freeze together for a split second when I blink! The nose moisture falling from my nose and through my handsome mustache freezes on the way down to my mouth and then my mouth gets stuck to the top of my coat which I have zippered up all the way. When waiting for buses I end up dancing in the bus stop to the amusement of passerby's no doubt, to keep from freezing my extremities and getting potential frostbite (notice I didn't say to keep warm - that's virtually impossible. One can only vary the degree of cold one experiences ).
Insane weather! I can't believe I have been here for almost ten years. It's time for me to go!
I am presently working out a deal with two people to crash at their place with a camping mattress in exchange for doing 10 hours of computer work for them per week. One looks like a done deal. If it is finalized, God willing, I will buy the next flight out to San Diego and leave this cold weather living forever.
I would rather live in a hole in the ground in San Diego, than in the nicest apartment around in Edmonton, Alberta during the winters. Well...if someone offers me the nicest apartment around in exchange for some computer work...I might, just might change my mind. For a while. But that's not going to happen.
Window cleaning in Edmonton is dead with -30 C weather. Window cleaning in San Diego? Apparently people there melt at the thought of rain so there doesn't seem to be much there during the winter though I will make a good faith effort to see if I can sweeten the pot somehow and convince one's to get some window cleaning done. If not...I will wash dishes or shine shoes or something until the Spring window cleaning weather gets off the ground.
No...the two ladies never responded .
I did have some foreign sounding person in San Diego make an offer to have me housesit for a few months in their beautiful home in exchange for $200 a month and some window cleaning but after wondering if they were legit...I closed the door on that opportunity when it seemed that they were trying to get all kinds of personal info from me without really answering my legitimate questions. The offer might have been genuine but I had no way of knowing.
As for my being this Lulu person....I would never stoop so low as to call myself Lulu . Tunsten_udder sounds...well...like some kind of cow part.
I have been and will always remain your sincerest acquaintance on this here forums...the one and only Carlos .
Carlos
PS. To add a note so as to at least say something in line with the topic of this thread....once I hit US soil...one of the first things I will get is a nice, efficient, and wise thing to carry. Super duper pepper spray!! I wouldn't want to get a gun such that I might end up killing some punk wanting to beat me or some innocent bystander up. Besides...I couldn't quite tell such a person that God loves him after shooting him. But I might be able to at least leave a track or something in their pocket that they can read and hopefully respond to after the effect of the pepper spray wears off .
Carlos,
You won't need a gun or pepper spray. No one is going to bother you because you didn't seem to look for trouble.
You will also do fine, no doubt! You are such an entreprenure, it was fun hearing your window cleaning stories, and some of the techniques you invented. Most of us could not believe that you actually road around in your truck, living there, and still showed up all the time to post. We also thought that when you stopped posting that you were actually enroute to South West Florida, and we were waiting for you to show up on Citi Data again and tell us of your arrival.
Now you're headed to San Diego. That is a cool place. Have you ever been there? There are a lot of similarities between SD and SWFL. I remember when I was young that if I was stuck up in WNY, where I grew up, I'd head south. Now I'm fortunately in a pretty good position, and I'm still moving south. I recall you being pretty literate with the computer. i'm glad you've checked back in.
Thanks for the encouraging words Big House. Much appreciated.
Yeah I will be buying my ticket to San Diego...probably tonight. Unless I can get a cheap flight out on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. I still have such a mountain of paperwork to scan into CD and shred.
God continues to show me favor with others. Amazingly I have two offers to stay somewhere as soon as I hit the ground in San Diego. The one will be $80 a week in a house that is under foreclosure (but they have sixty days from the time the house sells to move out and it is nowhere near sold yet). And the person owning the home has graciously offered to pick me up from the airport. They are even willing to discuss a reduction in the weekly rent given that I won't neccessarily be moving into a spick and span mansion per se and that it is in foreclosure but even at $80 per week it's still a great deal I think. Regardless I will have a place to sleep peacefully, use of the laundry, bathroom (and shower), and internet (though dial up). And it's on a bus line. And most importantly I will have some time to get situated in San Diego while having a place to sleep.
The other is to stay at someone's home in exchange for 10 hours of computer work per week.
And I have one other potential offer to stay at someone else's house in exchange for computer work.
I think I will go for the $80 deal for my first week allowing me to meet the first computer exchange offer person in person to make sure I can actually offer them valuable computer work in exchange for crashing at their place.
If nothing else there's always the hostels.
Who would ever believe that I could have gotten such offers and that I could end up going into the most expensive area in the country to live in with my modest means. Just a month ago I was living in my truck.
Hopefully, despite the bad economy in the States overall, there will be enough rich folks left to allow me to make a decent amount of money from window cleaning still.
Some of my Canadian friends think I may be making a mistake in that they believe the US is moving in the direction of becoming a fascist state. I can kinda see what they are saying to some extent but hopefully I will have a good 3-5 years to make enough to eventually head to South America (where I want to end up) before the States potentially goes to pot (in a manner of speaking).
This forum has really been an encouragement to me and I want to thank everyone again, such as yourself Big House, who offered any words of encouragement to me.
God willing...I will be in great, warm weather by Wednesday. I am sad to be leaving my life in Canada (and those I know here) for the past ten years behind me...but I think this move is for the best.
Thanks for the encouraging words Big House. Much appreciated.
Yeah I will be buying my ticket to San Diego...probably tonight. Unless I can get a cheap flight out on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. I still have such a mountain of paperwork to scan into CD and shred.
God continues to show me favor with others. Amazingly I have two offers to stay somewhere as soon as I hit the ground in San Diego. The one will be $80 a week in a house that is under foreclosure (but they have sixty days from the time the house sells to move out and it is nowhere near sold yet). And the person owning the home has graciously offered to pick me up from the airport. They are even willing to discuss a reduction in the weekly rent given that I won't neccessarily be moving into a spick and span mansion per se and that it is in foreclosure but even at $80 per week it's still a great deal I think. Regardless I will have a place to sleep peacefully, use of the laundry, bathroom (and shower), and internet (though dial up). And it's on a bus line. And most importantly I will have some time to get situated in San Diego while having a place to sleep.
The other is to stay at someone's home in exchange for 10 hours of computer work per week.
And I have one other potential offer to stay at someone else's house in exchange for computer work.
I think I will go for the $80 deal for my first week allowing me to meet the first computer exchange offer person in person to make sure I can actually offer them valuable computer work in exchange for crashing at their place.
If nothing else there's always the hostels.
Who would ever believe that I could have gotten such offers and that I could end up going into the most expensive area in the country to live in with my modest means. Just a month ago I was living in my truck.
Hopefully, despite the bad economy in the States overall, there will be enough rich folks left to allow me to make a decent amount of money from window cleaning still.
Some of my Canadian friends think I may be making a mistake in that they believe the US is moving in the direction of becoming a fascist state. I can kinda see what they are saying to some extent but hopefully I will have a good 3-5 years to make enough to eventually head to South America (where I want to end up) before the States potentially goes to pot (in a manner of speaking).
This forum has really been an encouragement to me and I want to thank everyone again, such as yourself Big House, who offered any words of encouragement to me.
God willing...I will be in great, warm weather by Wednesday. I am sad to be leaving my life in Canada (and those I know here) for the past ten years behind me...but I think this move is for the best.
The adventure of my life...continues .
Carlos
If you've never been to San Diego, when you get there you'll feel like you're in paradise! You'll love it! The only better place, for me is SWFL. They have beautiful weather 400 days of the year. LOL, they have palm trees and beautiful landscaping everywhere, but none of it is natural or native. It was all imported, so were the many other trees you will see. Many were imported close to a hundred years ago, and although thriving now, are not native.
Keep in touch when you get there. I know that a lot of coffee shops have free interent access, and so do many hotels. I've grabbed a connection once while sitting in the parking lot of a hotel. It was a life saver, and I stay at that hotel whenever I need one, and recommend it to my friends as a payback for the favor it gave me.
Despite it being a bad economy, and there are tons of foreclosed properties all over California right now as well, you will be in one of the best places in the world. The US in its worst state, is better than many countries in their best. You will adapt quickly, and thrive there. I think you will also find a lot of work opportunities too because . . . YOU are not afraid to put yourself out there and try. Those that are unwilling to do that will never achieve. What is the worst that can happen. . . you live in your truck in one of the nicest places in the world. heck you've done that, and we all were surprised how much you enjoyed it. I'm glad you're putting that behind you though!
Don't take so long updating us as to your "fabulous Carlos adventure." I'd really, really, like to travel to San Diego again soon! One thing though, the water there is cold. The water travels from Alaska south along the west coast, where as in SWFL you're getting warm gulf water, and that gulf stream travels north along the Atlantic and keeps the Ocean water warmer than you'd expect. But you will find the Pacific Ocean water is cooler. You'll love it none the less.
You will immediately appreciate the warmth, and you'll soon figure out that the sun stays up longer. The longer days will make you feel really blessed too!
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