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Now you know…

One of the worst things about being old and living solely on Social Security is that as soon as the deposit is in your bank account you’re instantly poor again. It seems there’s always one big hit each month and then you scrimp along eating grilled cheese sandwiches so you can try and fool yourself into thinking you’ve had a hot meal.

Last month it was having my generator die. Living on a small sailboat at anchor I NEED to have a way of keeping my computer, iPad and phone with its wifi hotspot charged. It was a nice generator, too. A quiet four-stroke that hummed along right up until it blew a piston ring and vomited so much white smoke that a nearby neighbor jumped in their boat with a fire extinguisher thinking I was ablaze.  

So, I had to go ashore, catch the once-an-hour bus over to the mainland and get to Harbor Freight and get one of their cheapo 2-strokers. It’s actually the THIRD ONE I’ve gotten from them. When I bought the first one over in Fort Lauderdale I also bought the extended warranty. The thing worked well enough for about nine months and then shit the bed. I took it to Harbor Freight and got free replacement. That worked until I’d enough money ahead that I was able to get the 4-stroker. I put the 2-stroke away as a back up. When I dug it up I couldn’t get it started, and you only get ONE free replacement. So I had to buy a new one and it came to a bit over $100 with the extended warranty.

A hundred bucks doesn’t seem like a lot of money to most people. Didn’t to me, either, for years. But NOW it’s almost 10% of my monthly income. Add on top of that $70 for phone and unlimited hotspot and another $115 for meds and instantly you’ve got more month than money.

Nearly a year ago I bought a 50 watt solar panel. I bought IT instead of a 100 watt panel because of its physical size; the same as the sliding hatch in my companionway. It’s 22 x 27 x 1.5 inches. The 100 watt panel is 47.3X21.3X1.4 inches. You have to remember, I’m limited on space with just a 22 foot boat with an 8 foot beam. I thought 50 watts would take care of my meager electrical needs. Nope! It does well. Takes care of close to 50%, I’d say. For instance, I didn’t need the generator yesterday. Was able to charge everything to the top simply off of my batteries which were, of course, charged by the panel. But I’m tired of listening to a generator going for several hours every day to keep things running,  and I’m also tired of spending around $4/gallon for ethanol-free gasoline to run them.

So, this morning, I checked to see if the SS deposit was in the bank. Confirming that I went online and ordered a Renogy 100 watt kit for $220: 20% of my monthly allotment.

Renogy has a good reputation and manufactured the 50 watter. I got the “kit” because it include things you need to have like all the wiring to run from the panel to the battery bank, a 30 amp charge controller and “feet” to mount the panel. It’s scheduled to arrive at my mail drop in Holmes Beach, a free trolley ride away, next Tuesday.

My four-stroke generator is on an extended warranty for two years so I’m not in any great hurry to replace it. I’m pretty sure that with 150 watts of solar energy I won’t need a generator very often once the new panel is installed. If it works as it should, the savings of not buying all that gasoline will have the panel paid off in about six or seven months. In any event the immediate bonus is that I’ll have an additional $35 to $40 a month every month.

Now that I’ve posted this I need to row to shore and get to the pharmacy where I’m going to be out another 10% for my meds and then to the grocery store for probably another 10%. Doesn’t leave a lot left over if there’s an emergency.

I grew up in the cradle of American Revolution. For several years we lived right next to Lexington where some of- the first shots in the American Revolution were fired.

All through high school we lived out on the elbow of Cape Cod and pure democracy reigned. We had what is called “Town Meeting” government. Once a year a “Warrant” was drawn up and all the voters and taxpayers in town assembled at the high school auditorium to vote on all the projects to be down in the town for the next year and to vote on appropriating the tax funds to follow through. I was steeped in the entire ethic of voting. With the single exception of 1992 I have voted in every presidential election since 1964. I didn’t vote in ’92 because I was off on a nine-month cruise on my sailboat from Ft. Lauderdale to Mexico, Belize and the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and back. The guy I would have voted for, Bill Clinton, won anyway so it didn’t matter whether I voted that or not.

A couple of months ago when I reregistered my boat I also changed my address and made sure I was registered to vote.

Supposedly it was all taken care of. The day before the recent primary election I went online to see where I was supposed to vote. It gave me a location in Holmes Beach. When I got there and checked in they said I wasn’t at the right location and then we spent nearly an hour trying to straighten things out. I ended up filling out a “Provisional” ballot. I knew things weren’t going to go well when they didn’t have a clue as to what to do with it after I’d sealed and signed the envelope the ballot was in.

Today I went to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office to straighten things out. Easy to get to. Hop on the #6 bus, ride it to the end of the line at DeSoto Station. The El;ections office is adjacent to the terminal.

Everything about my registration was all screwed up. The address they had for me was one that I used a single time in Bradenton to get some insurance papers. I had to fill out new paperwork and then there was still some computer problems with the application. A supervisor was called out to go over everything. It was then that I found out that muy Provisional ballot had NOT BEEN COUNTED! That’s because the address they had is a mail drop so it was rejected.

I explained that since I live anchored on my boat I don’t have a permanent residential address. Seems this is not actually a big problem. I was registered using the Elections Office as my residence. Seems that THAT is legal where a drop box isn’t. So. with the help of an elections officer I’m all signed up and was told where my poling place is located. They also said I could “Vote by Mail.” But I’m not sure I trust that, and since this coming election is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT I’m going to take the two busses necessary and vote in person

If you don’t vote you forfeit your right to bitch about what’s going on…