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Your advice is much appreciated. Trust me...if it wasn't for the fact that I will shortly find myself homeless in -30C weather I would not make the jump to California. I am being sorta forced by my circumstances to leave. God has His purposes in closing all doors to me here. I just don't see a way for me stay where I am at present.
You're welcome. I don't know what to say, Mark Twain once said, "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." La Jolla is a nice area you can walk around in San Diego, but I don't know how strict the laws are there, they may arrest you if you sleep overnight on the street or in a park, I'm not sure. America can give one of the best lives or one of the worst (out of the developed modern nations). Because we are a capitalistic country, there arn't that many handouts (ignore all the bailouts lol), health care isn't free etc, so besides the cold in Canada, you could end up having a worse life with your circumstances. Didn't you say your friend would let you stay with him? Why not just do that, work and save that money and maybe pay for his utilities in return. I don't think any friend would mind helping out, as long as they SEE you working a job and not simply looking for a job. Otherwise, I can't in good conscious recommend moving to the United States if you are already on the brink of becoming homeless.
Thanks for your candid advice Jonatastic. I understand what you are saying and will definitely take that into account.
Regarding moving in with my friend. It's no problem at all for me to stay there from his end. None whatsoever. I have helped him in different ways in the past and he has offered to have me stay with him on numerous occassions just in case. And I wouldn't even consider staying there for free. He could certainly use any money I would pay him (probably around $10 per day just to sleep there and nothing else). And yes...I would be working. It's not difficult to get a job here. Not at all. The difficulty is
surviving until the first paycheck comes in.
As it is I was caught by my circumstances when my finances were down and now I am stuck. Having too little to rent a place and too little to last till a regular paycheck. That won't last long and I will shortly have enough, God willing, to at least last a couple of weeks for a paycheck. But where will I stay in the meantime? I won't have enough for both rent and to wait for a paycheck. I will however have enough to buy a ticket South and a couple of hundred besides.
It's either hightail it South come what may or become truly homeless in Canada where the temperature continues to get lower and lower and lower. It took me 2 or 3 hours to fall asleep last night. Freezing cold air kept flowing over my forehead and nose with every breath I drew in to be followed by warm air as I breathed out. No matter what I did I couldn't get warm enough. The day before I believe I got a slight case of carbon dioxide (or is it carbon monoxide ) poisoning as I crawled all the way into my sleeping bag and kept breathing in a lot of the air I breathed out all night (not entirely mind you or I would have died). It took me till 3:00 pm that afternoon to start feeling better.
There are some problems at my one friend's place though that I won't get into here but sleeping at his place is not the best. The situation there is not good. Not good at all.
And there are other friends that might let me stay for a while. All well and good.
The problem is that all such measures would be temporary and would leave me still living here. I do not like living here one tiny bit. Not ONE tiny bit.
If it wasn't for the circumstances in which I find myself I probably wouldn't leave still. I tend to stay put in a place. Longer than I should. And I have stayed here way longer than I wanted to and should have stayed.
You may or may not believe in what the Bible says is true but my circumstances are working out for my good. I truly believe that. This may be God's way of prompting me to do what I should have done long ago. Leave Canada. In the long run I believe it will all work out for good though I may have to suffer some uncomfortableness for a while.
I'll tell you one thing. This is teaching me a thing or two about homeless people. I never give them any money when they ask me for some. And I still won't. I don't believe in panhandling and begging and don't believe any able bodied person should do that. But I do offer to help them in any other way I can besides giving them money.
One thing this is teaching me is that it is much tougher to pull out of hole one has fallen into than meets the eye. I usually ask homeless persons why they don't get a job. Sometimes I feel smug about it to my shame when they respond with this or that excuse. And yes...they are mostly excuses.
But it is tougher than I have previously believed. How does one stay clean? Or warm? Or well fed? How does one find enough time to do all that and then have enough time left over to get and keep work? There have been days when believe it or not it has taken me almost all day to go take a shower and eat lunch. Literally. 3 hours to go to the gym by various bus connections to take a shower (including time for the shower) and another 2 hours to go to the buffet restaurant where I can get good value for my money and decent nutrition (without eating at fast food). That's five hours of the day gone! That doesn't include the hour or two it takes for me to get out of bed and get moving.
On top of that I must personally find time to clean out my storage unit, dispose of my things by giving them away or selling them, and do a hundred other things that I must do before I leave.
I could go into all kinds of other details but suffice it to say that it's not easy, once one falls into a hole, to crawl out again. Although I won't change how I deal with panhandlers in the future with respect to what I offer to them, I WILL understand some of the problems that help to keep them down much better than I have in the past. And that is a good thing. Instead of looking at homeless people as bums and vagabonds I will hopefully have more empathetic understanding of their predicament. I am not excusing their drug addictions or otherwise. They must let go of that. I am just saying that I am walking in their shoes some through this experience and am thus in a much better position to understand the kinds of things that can cause discouragement or otherwise in homeless persons. Perhaps this will enable me to better be able to help them. I don't know.
I think the biggest plus for me is learning how to trust God to help me. I am talking about the living God not some being made up by the Christians to give them comfort in their neediness or some such thing. He is certainly proving Himself to me as the living God every day as I see circumstances lining up for me to be able to make it through each day. It's quite amazing sometimes.
From being down to just a few dollars one day to having $125 the next. From having a customer give me double what I charged them for window cleaning as a tip to my being granted favor in the eyes of others such that my life is made that much easier by that favor. I do not ask for anything as a handout. I simply look to God to help me and provide for me and He has.
I think that has been the greatest blessing to my present circumstances. Yes...it's tough. It's hard. But in truth I have had enough to eat every day. I have had shelter over my head every single night (though I did get a bit cold last night...still I did get to sleep eventually and woke up okay). My truck even broke down directly accross the street from my storage unit! I could go on and on but in one respect I am glad I am in the circumstances I am in. How else can I experiece God coming to my aid if not while in dire circumstances?
If I have my 401K plans and my health insurance and my fat bank accounts, cars and houses for my comfort, social security for my old age, and a great job what need do I have for God? We all need God but on the surface under such "richness" I would be inclined to trust in these things rather than God.
Most of my life I have believed that the most important thing in life is to know God and learn to trust Him in a real relationship. That truly is the most important thing. If there is no God then we might as well drink and be merry for tomorrow we die and cease to exist. But if God is there, then nothing could be more important than learning to trust Him for our salvation and for our every day needs.
I am living that out in a way that few ever do. In that sense I consider myself blessed. Truly. Don't get me wrong. If I could, I would rather not go through what I am going through. I never believed that my truck would utterly break down on me. But I also see how the Lord can use the hole I have sunk into. For my good and the good of others. And that is a wonderful thing.
I love your optimistic attitude, and wish you luck, where ever the road may lead you. There is a website, which you may find of interest. I think it's called couchsurfer.com. Try googling Couch surfer.. it's an online community where you can borrow someone's couch for a few days, a week, etc. it's built for people with your lifestyle, gypsy souls. This may be of use to you. If you've decided on San Francisco, then I think you can search by that.
I agree with Jonotastic and say to be careful.. San Francisco is a great city, but it's an EXPENSIVE city.. You might have better luck in a city like Austin, Texas. It's very laid back and it definately doesnt have the parking laws like San Fran. Just a thought.
Just wanted to update anyone still following this thread who might be interested in my continuing "adventure".
Today was a most incredible day with regard to seeing the living God provide for me once again. Some of you may not be into this God thing as some put it and if so I would ask you to bear with me as I describe what happened today. Some others of you might believe in God and have trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation and perhaps what I say might encourage you.
Regardless of your views on God or not I want to share what happened today. What I believe to be the hand of my God moving to help me...as He has done so very many times before.
This morning I woke up wondering how in the world I was going to find the time to go through all my paper work at my storage unit before Dec 15th when I must be out of my truck. I need to trash it or take photos of it and shred it and going through it all is going to take a lot of time.
I did not know how I was going to do it and possibly leave by Dec 15th.
Not to mention that as of today I did not have enough to purchase even a bus ticket to San Diego.
But...I trusted God to open the way for me and to provide for me to either go or stay here, and started my day that way.
Back on Oct 6 someone smashed into my truck while it was parked (legally and all). I was not there. Nothing new for my truck. It's been hit lots for some reason. Most insurance companies will not give me over $500 for it and then only if I give up my truck which I could not do before.
Well the insurance company of the guy who hit me told me today that I will likely end up receiving a payout of $1000!! That is based on a worthless truck. More if the truck is worth anything - which it really isn't at this point. It's completely broken down with a blown radiator and a damaged water pump (which I could fix but it's not worth it since my own insurance company wanted a mechanical at the same time which my truck would not pass).
An adjuster will come look at the truck next week and will make an onsite evaluation of it's worth.
That's not all!
I can then buy the truck back for a measly $100 and then call a junkyard I know to come tow it for free where they will give me a little over a $100 for it. They did this before with an absolute junker of a Suburban that had been rusting in a backyard and that me and my wife had owned years ago.
What is truly amazing about that is that by buying the truck back I can continue to sleep in it until Dec 15th (when I will say goodbye to my beloved truck). Otherwise I would have to find a place to sleep from the time the truck becomes the property of the insurance company.
And that's not all!
I was at the usual buffet restaurant where I go to eat every other day these days (both for good value and nutrition) and overheard someone say "Praise the Lord" for something. Eventually I asked the person if he was a Christian. Which he said he was. I then told him I was thinking of a move to San Diego and that I was selling most of what I own in case he might be interested. I have been thinking that Christians might be more inclined to give me a fair price for all my good stuff (though these days I guess that's debatable since many who call themselves Christians are not in truth real Christians at all and just as likely as anyone else to rip you off or otherwise).
I also told him how the Lord had been providing for me daily. It then came time for him to leave and he extended his hand to me to say goodbye. As I shook his hand I realized that he was at the same time leaving some bills in my hand. I proceeded to tell him that I had not said what I said to get money from him or anything (for free) and almost tried to give it back to him. He said that he was giving me what he was because God had prompted him to give it to me and that if he did not give it to me that he would be disobedient to God. So I accepted. And he left the restaurant.
I opened my hand thinking I would find a $20 or something and lo and behold, he had left me with $110.00!!! From a total stranger!
Unreal!
But that is precisely the kind of ways in which God has provided for me over and over again. In near miraculous if not outright miraculous ways. Almost always at the last minute just when I have need of something.
I just thought I would share that.
I now have time to go through all my paperwork without having to take time to solicit and keep working. Not only that but if the $1000 actually materializes I now have enough to buy a ticket South, buy a tent, a bicycle and do whatever. I even have enough now to stay put and add to my money by working a regular job for the winter. Right where I am.
The $1000 will enable me to easily last two weeks for a regular paycheck and last night I found out from a friend that I can stay at the Salvation Army here in my own rented room for $30 a night. Which includes 3 meals a day. Given that I currently spend $450-500 on food per month ($15-17 per day) that's quite a deal though I have to call them and verify that this is actually the case.
I will have more than enough for two weeks of rooming in the Salvation Army plus living expenses until I receive a regular paycheck! All I can say at the risk of sounding overly religious is....PRAISE GOD!
I am inclined to still move to San Diego mind you but will be looking to see if there is someplace there where I can rent a room for cheap instead of initially sleeping in a tent as I had thought of doing. If I can do the same thing in San Diego that I can now do here (i.e. rent a cheap room, get a job, and save up for a nice big UPS style truck I can convert into a luxury 1 bedroom apartment) why not? I will have the great weather there as an added plus.
In one sense my dilemna has become tougher through the added options and choices that I now have before me. But...I don't mind that at all given that just yesterday I was looking at having to sneak around to sleep in a small tent in San Diego
What to do...what to do
Carlos
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) poisoning as I crawled all the way into my sleeping bag and kept breathing in a lot of the air I breathed out all night (not entirely mind you or I would have died). It took me till 3:00 pm that afternoon to start feeling better. 
