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David Smithdavid_s_14850@yahoo.com
Dedicated to the people who most need to read this book.
King in a cardboard castle
On coming home from being homeless
Copyright © 2010 by David SmithEven to the best of people, in the best of times, tragedy can happen. It happenedto me. It was the most change filled day of my life, and I hope nothing like it ever comesback. So I worked through it. Just a bit tight in spots.When it was suggested I should write a book on the solution to my problem, Iagreed but decided to skip ahead, bypassing the details of the now passed ‘crash andburn’ part of things – that part would not prove as instructive as the details of rebuilding.So here’s what I did coming out of the problems. This book is directly based on real world experience - mine, if you want to bereassured, or feel it has to be ‘real’ to work. It’s real, and it worked, well, at least itworked for me. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I have hit most of the commonproblems and questions in rebuilding my life, the steps I took and then wrote down.From this account you’ll have to decide how well I coped with the problems. You may be able to use some of those answers for yourself - you may even comeup with some special items I missed, if so, send them to me if you want to.I suppose I should give some ‘pre-change’ details before I really launch into anaccounting of the rebuilding. In sleep apnea breathing is either impaired or stops. It’s adisorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep, and it may behappening to you without your knowing it – that is just what happened to me, and Ididn’t know. Snoring is a possible indication. Being sleepy all the time is another. Asmany as 18 million Americans have sleep apnea. Four percent of middle-aged men and2 percent of middle-aged women have sleep apnea along with excessive daytimesleepiness. I had it, and didn’t know about it.So, how about some ways out of the situation? Well, first access your position. Myheart condition will be an ongoing problem for the rest of my years. It makes everythingcloudy. Before it arrived I felt healthy, now any twinge in my chest will demandattention. The sleep condition will remain, well, sort of fixed with the Capp machine, nowthat I know what I have, and can recognize when there might be a problem.
On the move . . .
 
 The move was not as complete as I would have liked. I had asked everyone I knewto show up and help me load the truck, but this time the help ‘overbooking’ didn’thappen. The people I had asked or arranged to help me load the truck never showed. Iwas on a tight schedule and as a result I had to load the truck myself. I just ran out of time, truck, and energy. A lot of my tools and other stuff had to be left behind because I just couldn’t load them. That hurt. As a rule, plan on loosing something in every move.I heard a man who should know say a person should be prepared to move at leasttwice in his life. That could be true, and if so, really runs a chance to chop up your life.What few items I had left were stored at a friend’s house, but they would need thespace soon, so I knew those item would have to be shipped to me, or be totally lost. That hurt.
The journey and the destination
I was living in New York State and well, things happened. For brevity that part willbe mostly skipped. If you really need details, see www.lulu.com and look for DavidSmith and the book “Falling below the line”.No real need for those events to be stressed, it’s in the past, any changes are notpossible, beyond acknowling the events happened.So I traveled, arriving at a small town in Tennessee on New Year’s day, 2005, atime zone and two days driving away from my prior location. No job, no transportationfor getting another job, and it was the middle of winter. I had no money at that point, nocar, no local friends, and didn’t know what places to go to. It snowed in a place thatseldom sees snow in winter. Unloading was, well, fun if you don’t count all the lifting,carrying, unpacking, finding of misplaced items, and the like. Plus a shortage of surfacesto put things on, and… The prior tenant had
not
treated the building well. As a matter of fact, he hadremoved the kitchen stove, clothes washer, dryer, and refrigerator. Also gone were anyfurniture items such as tables and chairs, and most of the small items normally found ina kitchen.On top of all this, the house had some problems –for example, there was no centralheating in the building, and no non-central heating, either - and middle of the winter,can we say cold? Fortunately I had received word of the shortages and had made somepreparations, but I had no money to buy a washing machine or dryer.And the weather? It was cold and snowing. What else do you expect, this may befurther south, but after all, it was the middle of winter. I had brought with me arefrigerator, and shortly after that a local appliance store provided a stove.No central heat in the house? Well, there was a heating source not directly usable,not right away, that’s for sure. There was a good quality wood-burning heater (a Fisher,a good company making a good stove) in fair shape on the premises, but that wouldn’tprovide much useful heat, as it wasn’t really in the house, or hooked up to a chimney.For some reason it had been moved out to the garage years ago, and there was nowaiting pile of wood to burn. It could have been moved back into the house and woodcould be gotten, but the inside brick chimney it had been connected to had not been
 
swept, (yea, you have to do that at the end of the heating season) and the existing metalstovepipes in the garage were rusted out. It helps to have money to buy these items. Ididn’t.
 
Something had happened to the heat protection for the floor – it was nowhere tobe found. Bottom line, with all these problems for now the wood heater was effectivelyoffline. Far offline. Not the best of news, but I did have extra blankets for my bed. Therewas a kerosene heater and some three days of fuel on hand. But winter was half over,and in Tennessee it’s milder anyway. I cut off the kitchen with drapes and the heat fromthe stove helped a bitI’ll work on getting it back inside (what a job! It’s not light), when I have swept thechimney it had been connected to, and I’ve gotten new metal stove pipes to replace thepipes that rusted out. Of course, I have a smoke detector and a carbon monoxidedetector already in place before it gets fired up. Carbon monoxide is
very
uncool,unkind stuff, trust me. Any heating system with a flame can produce carbon monoxide,so that’s why you need a detector.
Improving the living area
 The house was not in the best of condition when I got there. Nothing I couldn’t livewith, but nothing I really wanted around for the long run, that’s for sure. The prior tenanthad let things slip a bit, and I had no money to aid in the cleanup. Or to buy materialsfor repairs, so things went slowly. You might say I’m on a budget. You would be right. I know a cleanup effort ismuch easier when you’re not on a budget. But even on a budget, cleaning up ispossible. And the cleanup job is good for your head.Fortunately there was a lot of usable items left around. Unfortunately they werescattered around and mixed in with a lot of junk. Unfortunately there was no communitytrash pickup service, and I had no car to go to the dump.
After the move
My brother gave what help he could, but right in the middle of my would be ‘startup’, business would take him out of the country for about two months. Effectively, Iwould be on my own.Doing cleanup is a good use of your time. I’m not sure exactly what’s the reasonbehind it, but clean windows, well, just look better. Ammonia also does walls and othersurfaces, and is cheap. Also, that was what was on hand. There is an unsealed wood kitchen table on hand. Unsealed wood has no finish onit, and it stains.A container of ammonia is 64 ounces. It’s smaller than the familiar gallon jug, butthere’s a lot of cleaning, and value(!), in that container.Hint: A bad smell in a room is zapped by uncorking some ammonia. The smell isattacked by the ammonia fumes, which soon also fade.I also found a container of bleach – great for cleanup and sanitizing things.
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