Eviction, Poverty and Houselessness in AMerikkka

p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Take out what you can carry,rdquo; said one of the officers who responded to my wife#39;s 911 call.nbsp; ldquo;We#39;re not going to stay here all span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="day.”" data-scaytid="37"day.rdquo;/span/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;I#39;m not going to leave without my span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="cat.”" data-scaytid="39"cat.rdquo;/spannbsp; My wife was adamant.nbsp; Her glasses hung crookedly on her face.nbsp; The person we thought was our friend tore them off and tossed them into the yard after Holly refused to be shaken down for five bucks./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I missed the whole thing.nbsp; I left the day before.nbsp; The person we considered our closest friend became a mad tyrant after we moved into a room in her house.nbsp; I am physically disabled and she constantly demanded that I do work I am incapable of doing.nbsp; I hurt myself repeatedly because I didn#39;t want my autistic son tossed out in the street with us.nbsp; Now my hands are so wrecked from psoriatic arthritis that I cannot hold a hammer or use a paintbrush.nbsp; My ability to contribute financially is severely curtailed.nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Worse, I had a mini-stroke when she forced me to haul gravel.nbsp; Inbsp; became so weak I could not stand or breath.nbsp; My legs trembled.nbsp; I gasped ldquo;Asher, I can#39;t breath.nbsp; Help me!rdquo;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Stop snapping at me, Bill!rdquo; she screamed.nbsp; She walked away as I fell to the tarmac.nbsp; After a few minutes I managed to crawl inside the truck.nbsp; Too weak to dial 911, I hit two on my cell and got my wife.nbsp; She called Asher who refused to do any first aid until her truck was filled with gravel.nbsp; My wife got the ambulance when we got home.nbsp; By then the worse was over.nbsp; Tests show I had a mini-stroke./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Get out of my house, you piece of shit!rdquo;nbsp; the madwoman screamed.nbsp; Her girlfriend, a hospice nurse added, ldquo;You#39;ve been free loading on her too long!rdquo;nbsp; It#39;s a good thing she was a hospice nurse because her patients aren#39;t expected to recover.nbsp; She is one of the stupidest people I ever met./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"ldquo;Shut up, or I#39;ll arrest you,rdquo;nbsp; The second cop added./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"They made the nut stay outside while Holly grabbed what she could.nbsp; We scratch out a meager living through her clowning and by selling her handcrafts on Telegraph Ave.nbsp; She left $1,500 worth of merchandise behind as well as well as $2,200 worth of materials.nbsp; We also had to leave our vending license.nbsp; Between the two of us we had $55.00.nbsp; Holly can buy more balloons and span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busk" data-scaytid="41"busk/span.nbsp; That will bring in about thirty to forty dollars.nbsp; There are going to be some disappointed kids.nbsp; The puppets are still with the nut./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"This was actually the second time I walked out of that mad house.nbsp; The first time was a few days after I came home from the hospital.nbsp; It was less than five days since I was released from the hospital.nbsp; She decided to have one of her temper tantrums over the flies./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Her back yard is entirely gravel, and she has a huge dog who is not allowed outside his run and severely underfed.nbsp;nbsp; Of course he craps in the run, and the lunatic has fits if anybody tosses out the soiled gravel with the feces.nbsp; Along with the dog, she has two cats and a neurotic span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="french" data-scaytid="45"french/span poodle that pees on everything including our bed and my shoes.nbsp; So of course there are flies.nbsp; My wife is allergic to insecticides.nbsp; The Landlady went, if you will pardon the expression, fly shit at me, because she couldn#39;t spray Raid and pretend she was doing something about the fly infestation.nbsp; Even though Holly was coming back with $40 worth of fly traps, she yelled and screamed in my face and kept at it until I yelled back.nbsp; She left crying and I collapsed on the porch with chest pains and yelling, ldquo;The flies, the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="flies.”" data-scaytid="47"flies.rdquo;/spannbsp; That was my second trip by ambulance in five days./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Holly was supposed to show up at eight to get the stuff we needed immediately.nbsp; She met Holly at the door and demanded a percentage of our General Assistance checks and five dollars out of pocket.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; When span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="tHolly" data-scaytid="49"tHolly/span told her that we were not giving her one more cent, she freaked out and attacked her.nbsp; She ripped the glasses off my wife#39;s face and threw them into the yard and struck her repeatedly on the shoulders.nbsp; The nut grabbed Holly#39;s hand when she took out her cell to call 911.nbsp; Holly#39;s Tai Chi training came to her aid.nbsp;nbsp; Holly kept the cell phone and called the cops without having to hit her back. She took several punches to her shoulder instead. A victory for pacifism./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"With nowhere else to go, we went back to Berkeley and did what we could to get our property back.nbsp; Next week, we will have a storage locker and a place where we can store our stock and clothes.nbsp; Our son is in a program for autistic people.nbsp; All we have to worry about is ourselves and the dog.nbsp; My brother put me up for two days, and that is all he dares do.nbsp; He has a rent controlled apartment in San Francisco, and his landlords would love to get rid of him so they can jack up the rent.nbsp; Holly and the pets stayed with a friend who cannot stand having too many people around her.nbsp; After two days, we were screwed./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I came back two days after the fly incident, and renegotiated our deal.nbsp; Originally it was work for room, helping her out with her bills, and letting her join us for dinner.nbsp; I had been working 35-45 hours a week, mostly doing stupid things like hauling flower pots from one side of the yard to another.nbsp; My favorite was when she had me use a scoop to empty her compost bin into another container and then scrub out the bin.nbsp; Two days later, she decided she liked it better in the original bin and I had to put it all back./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Little real work got done because the madwoman compulsively collected stuff from the Craig#39;s List free section.nbsp; She came back with the damnedest garbage from giant balloons to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="hydroponic" data-scaytid="51"hydroponic/span gear.nbsp; It didn#39;t matter to her.nbsp; If it was free, she would grab it.nbsp; I spent weeks clearing the bedroom and porch so my family could use them.nbsp; In a matter of weeks they were a worse mess than before.nbsp; Plus she had the front entrance blocked with the most incredible garbage.nbsp; More of my time was spent trying to stack the shit so people could move than in any actual work.nbsp; Then I got hissy-fits when the actual work wasn#39;t done as well./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Since I couldn#39;t haul anymore, my new job was selling hernbsp; garbage on Craig#39;s list, which I did.nbsp; In three days I sold about $175 which was brilliant.nbsp; (Better than I ever saw her do in the 7 years we knew her.)nbsp; All it got me was more bullying.nbsp; I also let her know that I wasn#39;t working more than 25 hours a week.nbsp; I clocked 70 hours in the next two weeks.nbsp; Holly and Colin also contributed quite a few hours of work.nbsp; Not only did she ignore our new agreement, but she continued to verbally abuse me./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"There wasn#39;t much we could do once we were in Berkeley.nbsp; It was July 4supth/sup and the police and legal aid were all doing Independence Day stuff.nbsp; So we hung out and I went to my brother#39;s.nbsp; I don#39;t know what I would do without my brother.nbsp; He provided the money so I could keep my phone on.nbsp; The phone was a bone of contention between the madwoman and me.nbsp; My brother-in-law helped me get a smart phone so I could take credit card payments while vending.nbsp; She felt the money should have been given to her.nbsp; In her mind, everything is hers, including our general assistance and food stamps.nbsp;nbsp; She was constantly haranguing us for money.nbsp; She claimed she had no income.nbsp; She freaked out about the unpaid electric bill.nbsp; Her house in the East Bay was mortgaged for more than it was worth and she claimed they would foreclose.nbsp; We were there for two months, and I saw no sign of foreclosure, but being a former mortgage salesman, I recognized the refinancing paperwork that came in the mail./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"It was the electric bill that first warned me what anbsp; dangerous nut bag she was.nbsp; After bullying us about it for two weeks, she realized that if we had it, we would have paid it just to make her span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="STFU" data-scaytid="53"STFU/span!nbsp; In the middle of Junenbsp; she claimednbsp; that she paid the bill out of the mortgage money and now she would be foreclosed on.nbsp; Two weeks later, I had the money and paid the new electric bill with my ATM card.nbsp; I ended up paying the electric bill for April, May, and June, and we had only been there since the beginning of May.nbsp; The mortgage was another matter.nbsp; I found a program that could renegotiate the loan.nbsp; She said she was too overwhelmed to call the number.nbsp; By the paperwork I saw in the mail, that was a lie.nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Just before I left the first time, we scraped up $1,000 to put towards the mortgage.nbsp; The next day she came back from one of her Craig#39;s List expeditions with two chickens, a coop, fencing wire, and two day laborers from Home Depot to assemble the coop.nbsp; She told us the stuff was free.nbsp; I guess since she thought we fell for everything else, we would be stupid enough to believe her./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"Yesterday, things got really tough.nbsp; Our son was finished with one residential program and there was going to be a few days gap until the next one.nbsp; Our friend, the surrealist poet Lee span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Gerstmann" data-scaytid="55"Gerstmann/span, was kind enough to take him for a few days.nbsp; Thank you, Lee.nbsp; You repaid every favor we did for you and left us in your debt.nbsp; Holly and I love you. Our welcome home dinner for Colin was in the park.nbsp; I got some charcoal and some span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="vegibergers" data-scaytid="57"vegibergers/span, chicken sausage, and salads.nbsp; It was the happiest family meal we had since losing the apartment in Mountain View./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"My son is of the opinion that the madwoman was deliberately trying to kill me.nbsp; That#39;s why she extorted me into do things that hurt me, and why she walked away from me while I was having my stroke.nbsp; That#39;s why she screamed in my face over the flies, and why she sent me to the emergency room the third time./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The madwoman tried to horn in on Holly#39;s clown span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busking" data-scaytid="59"busking/span.nbsp; She called herself span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Meshugah" data-scaytid="63"Meshugah/span the Clown, but it should have been Downer.nbsp; She was always bitching about everything.nbsp; Either there span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="weren'tenough" data-scaytid="65"weren#39;tenough/span kids in the crowd or her legs hurt.nbsp; It was always too far to drive, and we owed hernbsp; gas money.nbsp; Once she almost got them kicked out of a farmer#39;s market by demanding a set price for Holly#39;s balloon sculptures.nbsp; She never learned that span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busking" data-scaytid="61"busking/span isn#39;t about the tips, it#39;s about giving.nbsp; The more you give the more the crowd puts money in the tip box.nbsp; The more you love to give to others, the more others love to give to you.nbsp; Human beings are generally good and kind.nbsp; She is an exception that tests that rule.nbsp; Now that Holly ditched her, we have permission to span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="busk" data-scaytid="43"busk/span at even more farmer#39;s market.nbsp; The manager is a really nice person./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I think that our sudden eviction and lockout was planned.nbsp; We insisted that Aug. 31supst/sup was our last day at her house.nbsp; She knewnbsp; she was not going to get all the cash she hoped she could extort out of us.nbsp; In the past two months we gave her $1,284 in cash or consumer goods.nbsp; ($50 in flytraps alone.)nbsp; She also extorted $384 in food stamps.nbsp; Mostly in expensive coffee and whipping cream to add to it.nbsp; Between the three of us we did 317 hours of unpaid labor.nbsp; I sold an extra $175 for garbage she got off Craig#39;s List and she took $30 from the clown disaster at the farmer#39;s market.nbsp; Rather than pay bills with the clown and Craig#39;s List money, she decided to take a five day trip with her girlfriend.nbsp; We were all over that.nbsp; We planned to be out of that hellhole before she came back./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The day before, she threw tantrums and threats until I bought her two bags of coffee, (making it three bags in under three days.) cream, two jars of tomato sauce and a yam. I told her that was it for the month./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The next morning she started her usual morning temper tantrum with a twist.nbsp; First she did it in front of Holly.nbsp; She never pulled that crap in front of my wife before. This time it was over a list of the stuff I was selling for her on the web.nbsp; I told her I would do it as soon as I did span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="poo" data-scaytid="67"poo/span patrol, fed her big dog, and had my breakfast so I could take my pills.nbsp; She wanted it now.nbsp; I told her to fuck off.nbsp; I was leaving and nuking her Craig#39;s List ads.nbsp; She went nuts and screamed in my face and physically blocked me from getting my computer.nbsp; She kept at it until I found myself screaming back.nbsp; Then she ran into the bathroom and broke her own mirror.nbsp; She ran out and yelled, ldquo;see, asshole, now I have you on domestic violence!rdquo;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"The joke#39;s on her.nbsp; My rheumatoid arthritis is out of control, I am debilitated from a mini-stroke and the doctor#39;s report will prove that I am not physically capable of doing what she claimed.nbsp; I abandoned trying to get my computer and tried to leave, and she wouldn#39;t let me out the door.nbsp; She kept screaming in my face and blocking me.nbsp; I had to threaten to break her china cabinet in order to get her to lay off.nbsp; Not cool, I know, but I was a little crazy myself by then. nbsp;She got out of the way and I was out the door.nbsp; I got about three feet away from the house when the chest pains hit and I fell to the ground.nbsp; That made it three times I was taken out by ambulance./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I have a lot to do today.nbsp; First I have to wait until my phone charges.nbsp; Next I have to call legal aid to get our stuff out.nbsp; Then I have to call the humane society about that poor dog.nbsp; I love that big goofy mutt.nbsp; He#39;s been a prisoner since the chickens came in.nbsp; He doesn#39;tnbsp; get the hour of run around time I used to give him, and he#39;s too dog aggressive to take to the park.nbsp; Now that we are no longer there, he#39;ll go back to starvation rations.nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"I have learned that there are worse things than not having a roof over your head.nbsp; I just escaped from it.nbsp; After I took Colin to Lee#39;s, I went back to the park. Holly and I found a secluded spot.nbsp; We talked and held hands until she fell asleep.nbsp; It was a little too cold for me, so I lay down and looked at the sky.nbsp; Zack the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Wonderdog" data-scaytid="69"Wonderdog/span was with us.nbsp; We figured we would have her between us to keep her warm.nbsp; She#39;s 13 years old and used to a warm house and a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="snuggy-bed" data-scaytid="71"snuggy-bed/span, but Zack is a by-the-book type of doggie.nbsp; She understood her ancestral duty.nbsp; She took point and kept watch for us all night.nbsp; That#39;s how we rested until the sprinklers went on./span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoBodyText" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: arial"nbsp;/span/p