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Friday, July 16, 2004

 

Osceola

As I was leaving the Southwest Community College library, a man stopped to ask about my trip, and thought that the local paper might be interested. I said OK, so he called in a lead. They said maybe, but if they were interested someone would be there soon. So, I looked at a couple more books, one of which interested me a great deal. I don't have the author's names, but the title was "The working poor". I don't have time to summarize it, but the conclusions fitted well with my own observations on the subject. No one showed, so I left to do some laundry, get some groceries, and didn't actually leave town until after dark. I went a mile and slept in a hayfield.
  I got up the next morning and walked a few miles, and was then offered a ride to Osceola. The man who picked me up had some 20 years of experience working in concrete, but since construction work in south central Iowa is rather scattered, was looking for carpentry work in Creston, and another job in Osceola. He left me at the library here, but I didn't get this journal updated. I spent the late afternoon looking for a where a city map said a park should be and I didn't find it: I'm not sure it exists.  I was stopped by the city police, who let me go when they found no arrest warrants. A few minutes later, a resident offered a ride to where I was going in town, and took me to the county park. I had been near there while I was looking, and passed up the chance to go there. But it did have the rest areas I was looking for, and since there was thunder and lightning, I took a chance and spent the night under one of the ramadas. I wasn't bothered.
I left in the morning, looking for a bank so I could get some cash, and yes, it's a tricky business. I don't remember the PIN on my debit card, so the ATM ate it. I called my bank in Nebraska, and got it released, but in order to be able to use it, I need to either remember the PIN or apply for a new card (usually requiring going in to the bank in person, but I could have someone fax me the form and I could fax it back, then they would send the new card to my mailing address...in Nebraska). Or I could have them wire me money, at a charge of $15. Or I could find someone to accept and cash one of my out-of-state checks. Probably not a bank or a merchant; a lot of them don't accept those.  However I slice it, it isn't going to be easy.
This, by the way, is one of the significant points of the book on the working poor: Small errors or omissions tend to have costly consequences, either in time or money; at least in comparison to the time or money that the poor have available to them.
In the meantime, I've about finished what I can do in Osceola and plan to head for Indianola, Iowa after I leave the library here, and one way or another plan to attend church there.
 
 
 
 

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