A Living Magazine - Day 15 - The City That Grew On Me

Somehow I made it through the night without being discovered by any wanderers. I was quite close to the bridge and fell asleep thinking I'd be woken up.

My stuff paid a bit of a price though. The sand was essentially a gray kind of dust. It worked its way into everything. The tarp (as one might expect) was hit the hardest. I'd try to brush it off, but it was so fine that it would just settle back on. And once it was on my hands it couldn't really be wiped off. Thankfully, I still had water left and was able to rinse my hands, but my socks (even now) are still gray and sooty looking. It just fit me more appropriately into the role...

I went to Starbuck's - a place I usually try to avoid - for coffee. But it was only $1.89 (Pikes), with $50 refills. That wasn't bad. And the coffee was very good. I was able to get a seat with an outlet and do a lot of writing about the days before.

I liked that part of town. If I had been staying there for a longer time, I would probably spend each day there. As I took a break and sat in what was becoming my favorite spot (the benches by the ticket shack). I watched this guy who I'd passed a dozen times already, and thought: There I am in 10 years...

IWALLK 2025?

After I've tried to do these kinds of things over and over again, attempting to raise awareness on every level, from the personal, to the socio-cultural, to the spiritual, and in the process, have lost all my readers, lost all my friends, become used to the life of the street, and -basically - failed to accomplish anything I set out to do... maybe I will become him? 

The future and past are all part of the present. There is nothing but the continuous NOW. And, in the NOW, all potentials are being actualized as the Universe evolves experientially. However, the more one learns about the NOW, the more deeply he/she can see into the future and past aspects of it. Only human WILL alone determines what the NOW is good for. For me, for NOW, there is still sunshine...

I needed to find a place where I could print off an Amtrak eTicket (they are emailed as PDFs) to Redding. I'd already seen that there was a single coach seat available on the lower level of the train for 11:59 pmn that night. But I didn't want to buy it until I knew for certain I could print it. On Seventh Street there was a FedEx store. I went in and asked if they could print from a thumb drive, which of course they could.

So, I went back out on the street to a place where I wouldn't be told to "move on," and struggled for a Wi-Fi spot, finally settling on an Xfinity signal. It went in and out, and I had to re-enter my info 2-3 times, but eventually it worked. I received the eTicket and went back to FedEx got two printed copies and headed back out on to the street for a long day of wandering. I could have taken pictures of the art all day...

Jimi and Janice

Bob

Someone told me that about 15 years ago the city gave up on painting over the graffiti and actually encouraged people to hit any blank walls with it. Turns out that the swears and pornographic images were replaced with the most psychedelic and beautiful kinds of art. I love graffiti. sometimes it is the most appealing part of a city walk.

A few posts back (please see: A Living Magazine - Supplemental - Ideas for a New Public Culture) I mentioned the idea of having solar powered AC outlets available around city centers. This parking pass kiosk shows perhaps another version...

Solar Powered Services (a Parking Pass Machine) as Seen on J Street

The unit has battery pack in the bottom portion. It trickle-charges from any ambient light source (in this case, the blue sky and the reflected sunlight off of surrounding buildings--since it points west instead of the optimum southern angle). 

There are a hundred different kinds of services that would benefit from stand-alone, or point of service, solar power generation. Why is this not being done on a wide scale? Well, it isn't a matter of lacking scientific evidence for its successful operation. It isn't a matter of money--at this level solar is always a more cost-efficient method. It is probably due to politics. But that subject is beyond the scope of this blog.

Back of I Street I saw the results of some over-enthusiast 4th of July celebrating...

Need to express your frustrations? Push over planter...

After some time, I bought the daily meal at Subway and then returned to my favorite spot over by the Old Sacramento area, along the riverfront.

I wanted to take a nap, but it was just not the right place to do it and I was too lazy and it was to hot to cross the bridge and visit my sleep spot. I videoed the old Pacific Southern train coming back from its 1/2 mile trip down the riverside...

Many hours later the sun was going down. I wanted a keepsake shot of it and some other sites I'd grown accustomed to, when I look back and remember this last evening...

My Last Sacramento Sunset

Sacramento Sky - Venus and Mars, past their conjunction.

Reflecting over the last few days, I really felt that I had been too hasty about my first impressions of Sacramento. It ended up being a benign and easy city to stay in. My initial mood was what colored the arrival here. NOW, I believe I will always have a good impression from now.

Yes, there was a homeless population. Yes, there was the typical apathy toward them, but I'd learned to think for myself and was now far away from the risk of bias. My only issue was being irritated by the constant requests for money and cigarettes--neither of which I had. I am not at all exaggerating when I say that around every corner and lurking in every shadow. I too wanted to avoid them.

It was time to head to the train station which was located only a block away for Old Sacramento. I took the following pictures along the way...

Old Sacramento at Night

And here is a combination of videos (1) the Tower Bridge (2) Joe's Crab Shack (3) LED lighting in the tunnel leading out and (3) One of the four Bail Bond offices in just two blocks...

Reaching the station and seeing the Amtrak arrivals, I saw that the train had been delayed 20 minutes. The time went quickly and before I knew it I was waiting on the siding to board...

And have you ever wondered what an Amtrak train restroom looks like? It aint pretty, and I skipped a shot of the toilet. But this gives you some idea...

There are usually 4 regular restrooms and 1 handicap accessible. I had never been seated on the lower level before. Apparently this is supposed to be the best place to sit. I found it a bit confining, myself. The top level allows you to walk more easily between cars. I could have ventured up there, but it was just too late an the doors between cars are loud when they open and shut.

But I was seated next to a very nice older gentleman, who let me plug in my laptop to charge it. It was well past midnight and everyone was trying to sleep, including me. One woman had the strangest snore. It was like a mini cat fight in her nose. My seating mate and I looked at each other and just laughed quietly. Not that I'm one to talk. all you can do in those seats (unless you have two to yourself) is recline to about 35 degrees. And, that'a a snore-for-sure way for me. Over and over again I'd wake myself up with a loud snort!

I did sleep for about an hour of the 3 hour trip. I was tired and a bit confused when the attendant woke up our car. But I rallied and got my laptop back packed away safely in the backpack, stepping off the train right at the last call.

What first hit me in Redding was the hot air. It was blast that I never expected at 3:30 in the morning. There I was, in a place I didn't even have a chance to look at on Google Maps, and now I had to find a dark spot to see if I could get another hour of sleep. I just walked, eventually going up Eureka Way's hill, until I saw a scrappy little area of trees. following intuition only, I climbed up another small hill and looked around for a spot. Some other guy was sleeping on a tarp right near the entrance. I didn't want to go looking around town any more, so I just found my own spot, pulled out the tarp (with no sleeping bag) and laid down, immediately falling asleep.