8:00 a.m. I’m awake. I feel a little bit better, I slept pretty good through the night. I still have the RSV though. This RSV is annoying. It’s like a shitty little cold, that makes me super tired. I hung out in the tent for most of the morning. I talked to my Metro PCS rep about getting a new phone and line. The phone I ordered was a Galaxy S23 FE. Once the phone comes in I’ll get the new phone and sim and do the transfer. While I’m sitting in the tent I drink up all the orange juice.
10:00 a.m. I pack up my supplies for the day and I hike out to get lunch at Lifebridge. When I get to Lifebridge I see my friend Sean, we talk a while he still hasn’t seen Michael around. I let him know that I’m going to be moving on to a new spot where I’ll be working so I can have some money to save. It’s always sad saying goodbye to friends. For lunch there was a rice jambalaya with chicken peppers and onions and kielbasa. It was pretty good. He also got to have a salad for a starter. I also ate a blood orange to help me get over this RSV. I sat at the table in the shelter with my friends I’ve been sitting with lately. To make sure the elderly and younger people, who are really nice.
12:45 p.m. I text my friend Frank, who I know from the Prison of Prosperity meetings. Prison Prosperity, as I’ve said before, is a support group for ex-incarcerated men. Frank works at a gas station near my new job. I decided to take a ride up there and visit Frank and also scout out the spot that I picked for my new camp site.
1:45 p.m. When I arrive at the gas station, it’s like your usual gas station / mechanics garage with all kinds of cars outside. Frank and I spend some time talking as a few cars roll up and he gasses them up. I get some water inside. I’m not feeling that good. The RSV makes me super thirsty. When Frank wraps up his shift at 2:00 p.m. He shows me around the gas station. Frank shows me a Hummer with a bullet hole in it. The story Frank told me was. The owner’s brother was fighting with his girlfriend, he had been drinking, so he went and sat in a customers’ Hummer’s passenger seat. When the police officer approached the vehicle the owner of the gas station’s brother got out of the vehicle, the police officer alleges that the brother lunged at him. The police officer shot him dead. The brother had no weapon on him.
2:15 p.m. After Frank shows me around and shows me his boat, he tells me that he’s heading home. I drive down the road a ways and check out the spot that I had scouted a few nights previous. It’s light out and I just want to make sure that I’m making a good choice. This camp site is in an open area, and someone could approach me or give me a hard time about living out in the woods. I hike back out in the woods again and I feel comfortable with the spot. It would be fairly close to my work. There’s also a homeless meal place that I will visit and get my meals everyday, I can also eat at work. The amount of money that they’re paying me for this job is barely enough to live off of in Massachusetts. But anything is better than than making $0.
4:00 p.m. I had been planning on sleeping in my tent tonight. I’m still pretty sick with this RSV, but it’s warm out and I figured it would be okay. I talked to my girlfriend and she mentioned to me that she would be bringing her son back to his father’s. One thing I have to do is I have to clear out all of my gear from my tent in the woods. I decided to do it in the veil of darkness, and spend the night at my girlfriend’s. I drove to Danvers and swapped out my truck for my little car at the parking lot where I keep my vehicles when I’m not using them. What was funny is some other person had figured out that they don’t care if you park there. So they parked a camping trailer there and they backed the air conditioner on the top of the trailer right into a branch crushing it. Then they just left it there. I guess maybe since it was already broken.
5:00 p.m. I stop at LifeBridge shelter and I get my last meal there for a while. It’s good to see the familiar faces and I sit at the table with my usual crew. We had a nice dinner, and I ate a grapefruit as well to help me get better from this RSV. After I eat dinner I head out to clean out my camp.
6:00 p.m. I park near the location of the woods where my camp is located. I take my empty hiking pack and two trash bags out to the camp to clear out all my gear. When I arrive at the camp I do a video, then I proceed to pack everything up. I have to get all the air out of the blow up mattress. I fill up the hiking pack with blankets, I grabbed the rope that was on the trail to keep me from falling down the hill. I also took the parachute cord I had as a guide for another hill. I end up packing everything up that’ll need. I feel the trash bags with blankets and sleeping bags. Another trash bag gets filled with little chairs and my tent heater. The last thing I pack up is my LED lantern which was a gift from my beloved girlfriend. Once again it’s dark out, just my luck it begins to sprinkle as I’m leaving. I strap the hiking pack onto my back, and I have to carry the two trash bags. As I walk out of the forest the trash bags get caught on every branch. Not only am I sick but I get exhausted carrying these heavy trash bags. I have to take little breaks as I walk out of the woods. Finally I crisscross the pull strings on the trash bags across my neck and shoulder to keep it stationary and I hold the pull strings to my chest. The trash bags dangle by my side, the pull strings cut into my neck. It’s worth the pain to allow my back to do all the work carrying this heavy load up the last hill and out of the forest.
7:10 p.m. I leave the trash bags by the entrance to the forest. I walk up the hill with my hiking pack and I drive the car over and grab the trash bags.
8:00 p.m. I drove to my girlfriend’s house. Her and I relax for the rest of the night and settle in to hopefully overcome this terrible RSV sickness.