There was an abandoned house across the street from me and anytime a homeless person would start circling it and peering in windows and jiggling the door, I would call the local police.

Our local police are really nice. They would come out, ask the person some leading questions, then tell them the places that they could go for assistance, emphasizing the four places to within a ten minute walk that would house them for the night, and where to apply for more permanent housing.

But yeah, once they move in and receive mail, you're in for a rough one.

It could. Each of my family members is $550 a month on the marketplace, and we are all fairly young and in good shape. My roommate is $1200 monthly but qualifies for Medicaid instead because she is retired.

I was 28 working retail on a morning shift when a customer asked why I wasn't in school. I told him I graduated. Then he asked why I didn't go to college. I told him I graduated that as well.

He just said "oh", and walked away.

I hate to tell you, but last year I had a run-in with the religious conservative hopeful representative from my area.

He legit told me that climate change does not matter because the second coming of Christ will save us. The Chinese or Russian governments don't matter because God is coming.

He told me to repent and asked if I was a dutiful Christian wife. I told him I'm atheist and I have a responsibility to vote for the most intelligent candidate, but I wish him luck.

I had to do this at 19. I was home from college for the summer, and my boyfriend was calling a lot. He was actually my fiance, but I hadn't told them that yet, because as soon as we got serious, they didn't like him.

So I was taking a phone call and trying to meet up (not allowed without parental permission) and my dad waits and decides to take my phone after the call, because I'm using it too much.

The important thing to note here is that the phone was mine. The phone plan was mine, and I was an adult.

Of course I threw a fit. It was the kind of fit that only a belligerent 19 year old who is raised by narcissistic parents can throw. There were some words said that I mildly regret, and I might have also lost control of my temper.

It ended with me telling my dad to give me back my phone, and him saying that I couldn't live there if I couldn't follow the rules.

So I called the bluff. Then I called my fiance. He came and picked me up. A week later I picked up my stuff. My parents tried to make this difficult by throwing in all my totes of childhood things.

I was VLC for another seven or eight years until they were invited to our wedding.

In my store people stand willy nilly and make up their own waiting spaces including not anywhere close to a cash register and get offended when you point out the giant fucking hanging sign that says "Line Starts Here".

We've joked that we need to get blinking lights around it.

Preparing your own food can be much cheaper than buying premade or frozen foods. Last night's meal was $10 for three people plus leftovers. I could have made it less expensive, but meat is outrageous right now.

I made broccoli beef over white rice. It took 1.5 small onions, some leek, beef that came from the store pre marinaded ($5) and broccoli. I added soy sauce and some random alcohol to caramelize the onions, and salt.

CAT6 cable is so small anyways that you can also temporarily run the cable behind the baseboards. It's super easy to make the cables too.

Mines 1917.

We're pretty handy.

Some small plumbing leaks that we fixed, replaced some of the cast iron sewer pipe that was rusted at the toilet, and replaced the old leaky cedar gutter that rotted the rafter tails. We cut those off and put up fascia and had aluminum gutters installed instead.

That's pretty much all that we have been "forced" to do. Everything else was because we decided to.