54 PERCENT

A while back my car battery died. I got a jump from a friend, but it wasn’t the battery. Some sort of alternator problem.

Then it was my (i)pod’s battery that died, and I let it be. I didn’t listen to it for like a week. I never plugged it in, just left it dead.

My cell phone's battery died. Well, I didn’t have time to recharge it. I had to go to work. You have to plug in phones. And wait for it.

Sometimes I think I have a battery inside me, I don’t always know what charges it. Sometimes it’s time. Sometimes it’s food. It could be caffeine. Sleep sometimes, I think, is what charges my battery. But sometimes I’m not always right.

I’ll often wake up with too little sleep. I’ll want to get up, have energy to burn. Battery power unspent. Other times I'll feel depleted.

I have to let battery die before recharge.

By (the way) the numbers

For $5.32 my former land lord, J. & K. Kolb, certified an envelope sent to my new address.
My previous address had a refundable security deposit of $700.
Plus a $250 refundable pet deposit.
Backstory: my landlord gave my rooomates and I an ultimatum to pay an extra $350 a month.
Or to move out within 30 days.
This was on July 1.
In 14 days we found a new home.
It's 10 blocks east.
And seven blocks south.
On moving day we rented a U-haul for $41.83.
We woke up a 9 that morning.
And moved until 1 p.m. -- I called out of work.
At the former place, I picked up 245 cigarette butts.
And 164 styrofoam peanuts -- don't ask.
I filled up six trash bags.
And made four loads in my Volvo station wagon.
I sold the washer and dryer for $60.
I pulled 85 weeds.
I replaced two sets of blinds.
And two screens for two windows.
By the first of the month I was ready for checkout.
Note: A landlord has 30 days to repay deposit or explain what's taken out.
J.K. Kolb replied to me on the 18th of last month. Subtractions were as follows:
$66.00 materials, $150.00 - To replace broken mirror/closet door in main bedroom.
$97.93 -missing window blinds
$44.90-missing hose and reel
$111.00-broken doggie door
$85.00 material, 50 labor -replace and recode missing garage door openers
$150.00 rebuild wood gat a dog run entry, chewed by dog
$29.98 -replacement of broken towel rod in bathroom
$140.00 -labor paid to JDK construction to install blinds, doggie door, and towel rod
$31.43 + $15.50 -unpaid garbage bill, charge to pick up full bins
TOTAL = $971.74
"Thank you again for being residents of our home at 1824 SE Taggart St., the letter declared."

"Catch you later," K.'s final words to me in person.
Never.

LIFES LESSONS

Summers over, and all I found out was what's possible.

Well, it's possible to have one's rent hiked up to-- and possibly more than--33 percent, causing one to move (I to move anyway).

I suppose it's possible to spend three months away from girlfriend.

It's possible to drink nearly everyday without exceeding (sometimes exceeding) and still function as a person. It's possible to walk the dog every morning.

It's possible to think about but do no school work everyday. It's possible to work five days a week and still not be able to save money.

It's possible to start to read five books, continue to read them, and still be reading all of them (or think you are). It's possible to wane one's responsibility and have others give up on you. It's possible--but not yet proven--to win them back.

It's possible to own a car but not drive it everyday.

It's possible to regret stuff.

It's possible to believe in hope.

It's possible to believe it's bullshit.

It's possible to believe it's both.

It's possible to have friends who are girls that won't be girlfriends.

It's possible to eat a burrito six out of seven days a week.

It's possible to drink a bottle of wine in a night by yourself.

It's possible to ruin a ping-pong table by leaving it out in the rain.

It's possible to be in debt for years and years.

It's possible to read Sometimes a Great Notion (I still believe).

It's possible to find non-pleated pants that fit at Goodwill.

It's possible to get a good haircut for less than 20 dollars. I

t's possible to get published.

It's possible to finish a master's degree (or think you can) in the fall.

It's possible to grow a (protest) beard.

It's possible to spend the whole summer working in the Blue Room of Powell's.

It's possible to spend the whole summer without putting on a swim suit.

It's possible to spend a day reading the Sunday Times--or most of it.

It's possible to ride your bike through: Saturday Market, the Bite of Oregon, Flutag, the Obama Rally, the Blues Festival, Rose Festival, Oregon Brewers Festival, concerts, movies in the park, but not attend any of them.

It's possible not to see a movie in theaters (oh wait, there was the dollar flick Forgetting Sarah Marshall I saw with my brother and father in Albuquerque).

It's possible to miss the bus twice.

It's possible to reunite with high school acquiantences after 10 years.