Stay in Seattle

Stay in Seattle

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Here is what my car looks like with the towel and exercise mat blocking the windows. Now that I am working pretty regular with a normal start time of 7AM , I try to get to bed before 10PM (just after dark) and get up at 6AM (well after dawn). However, I with these additions it stays pretty dark in my car and I am out of sight as well.
Just across the street from the Labor Ready is a quiet little park, Gold Park. I noticed that there was a car there overnight and it does not have the usual sign saying open dawn to dusk (i.e. no parking when it is dark). So I have made this my regular home for now. At Bekins, I worked the 22nd and 23rd. Three hours moving with 6.5 hours paid (at $10 per hour) and four hours moving with 10.5 hours paid. I have the 24th, 25th, and 26th off which is just great as I am a little sore from the exercise.
During the week ending with May 31, I was able to work some reasonable hours (15 hours on Friday) and got in almost 40 hours. I also got the physical address I needed to shift my driver's license over to Washington (required by Bekins to drive for them). It hadn't worked out to use the address of my friends from Syda Yoga, but my brother had friends through KTC (one of the types of Tibetan Buddhism) in Seattle and I was able to use theirs. Whew! I had no work for Saturday and so went by the main post office for Lynnwood, WA to get a Post Office Box (shown here). At first they asked for some evidence that I was at that address (like a bank statement), but I said that I had just arrived and why would I have my bank send my statements there if I was going to get a P.O. Box. They sure make it hard for transients, vagabonds, and neer do wells. Finally the clerk gave me a P.O. Box.
Then I went by the Department of Licensing. There I was also asked for some evidence that I was living there. I explained that I was living in my car but that my friends had said I could use their address and that they knew how to reach me. The clerk went back and spoke with his supervisor and she apparently conceded to allow me to get my license switched to Washington (too bad the Constitution requires them to treat even transients as if they were citizens or something). I took the written tests (actually computer displayed tests) for Washington drivers, motorcycle (an old endorsement from ages ago) and hazardous materials. Then I got my temporary license with my picture on it (in black and white and on paper) and should get my real license it 45 days. Whew!
In the same shopping center with D.O.L. is a landramat that I used when I got here and they were one of the two laudramats that opened at 7AM. However, next time I went there, they opened at 7:30AM so I mostly go to another that opens at 7AM.
Almost half the gas stations I have seen are Arco stations. Further, they all have exactly the same price ($1.359 lately) and it is the best price in the area. That makes getting gas really easy, just pull into the next Arco station you see. However, unlike most stations, they do not seem to accept credit cards. At one station there was even a 35 cent fee to use a debit card. The other common station in the area is 76 which is shown below. They are about one out four stations. Their price is always higher than Arco and varies somewhat. This one is only 4 cents per gallon more. The other common brands elsewhere just as Exxon and Texaco can be found, but are much rarer than in most places. I wonder how Arco insures all their stations have the same price.
June 5th was a particularly challenging day for me. It started at 2:30AM when a police officer knocked on my window. He was on a call looking for someone walking around the park, but checked my ID (and was very polite). However, he did say that I couldn't sleep in my vehicle in Lynnwood city limits. He did agree that the Labor Ready parking lot was OK as long as they didn't complain, so that is where I spent the rest of the night. So I was a little tired at work. Work ran a little late until almost 6PM and then the problem I had with my transmission lately of it not getting into gear (engine revs, but car doesn't move) got really bad and I could hardly get out of the parking lot.
There was also the confusion that Wayne had told me he had work for me for sure the next day, but I wasn't on the work list (no time to report) and he wasn't around. Sigh. I knew from past experience that the transmission on my Toyota Camry was an electronic automatic transmission (really a manual controlled by a computer) and that if it had real problem it would have to be replaced for about $2000. Well, that evening I went by the library and found transmission places close to Bally's and work that I could walk to and from while my car was being repaired. Well from there, things could only get better. When I woke the next morning I remembered that the last time my transmission had had a problem, it wasn't serious but was just that I had let the transmission fluid get too low. So, first thing I checked it and that was the problem again. For about four or five years I had checked it every month, but when it always read the same, I mostly stopped (for the last six months or so). Well, Albertson's opened at 6AM and had transmission fluid and I was able to fix that problem directly. Whew! Then it turned out that I didn't have work that day (they had cut back on the job I had been assigned to) so I was able to go by the police department and find out about any ordinances against sleeping in one's vehicle. Here is a picture of their Poilce Department.
It turns out that Lynnwood has been surprisingly clever with an ordinance against 'camping' but that is really aimed at transients, vagabonds, and general neer-do-wells such as myself. I have made a link with all the details, but it doesn't really present any problem to me. So all those problems of the 5th turned out to be nothing at all to worry about ( making the 6th a very good day, I guess). Here is the library in Shoreline, WA. Both libraries have very good collections (and they are members of different systems as they are in different counties). The one in Shoreline is right on the way to Syda Yoga. A couple of years ago I started reading every book written my the science fiction writer jack Chalker. They each had one of the books I was missing so that I am only missing one now.
My first three weeks at Bekins were pretty slow with me averaging about 25 hours per week. However, I was making $10 an hour (wages are definitely higher in Seattle than New Orleans, for example), that was enough to meet my target of $250 a week. So, I spent a lot of time at Edmonds COmmunity College. They had a little exposition one week and invited a couple to make a sand castle.
They make them in competitions. Here is the result using quarry sand (which lasts pretty well even when dry, not being rounded like beach sand). I also decided to work out of Labor Works a few days as I had so much time off with Bekins.
Most of the temps at Bekins came out of Labor Works and I suspected that they were better at placing people than Labor Ready in Lynnwood which was closer. Here is the Labor Works office in Ballard. It has much the same layout as Labor Ready offices, but I suspect that their mark up is closer to 50% rather than the 90% common with Labor Ready. Also, Ballard is very much a blue collar neighborhood while Lynnwood is much more white collar. That may also be why Bekins goes to Ballard to get its temps.

This page was last updated on January 1, 2004