Starting Point

Hello there

SO my intent right off the bat is to give you SOMETHING to read. I have a few little ideas of what I would like to do with this. Here I will like to chronicle my path to a million dollars and also the story of a fictional character- Zeb Pete. Zeb, I know you are out there and will probably run into this just searching your own name: first thank you for letting me use your name and Second I apologize for not asking you in person if I can even use your name… but since there is already a fictional character in my head with your name I am just going to use it. That is I am going to use his name, not really yours… so if you will take it there is the apology and if not you can go suck your thumb and cry because it isn’t really your name anyway.

The idea for Zeb Pete started out from a small misunderstanding when I thought that one of the characters in a book I was reading was named that even though it was the first name of two of the characters and I just thought they were talking about the same one doing half of everything… until it got to a point where they had to go and spoil it by putting in the last names too. This guy was a regular super hero practically in two places at the same time and solving all the problems the lowly by comparison protagonist could get himself into. So this will be the story of that superman like character when he was still something more like that lowly other guy who was in a fine book but whose name I have already forgotten.

As for the million dollars I have no reason to think that anyone will be unhappy to hear that I have done it. I want to have a million in cash to reach this goal. You will see ad links and things and they will be part of it. I will try to leave out as much of my life as possible… that is chronicled other places (sorry mom, this blog wasn’t written for you) but there will be some things from time to time that you will need to know. For one I am not currently confined to a cubicle nor am I bound to a burger joint. I have made my living in another state for a good while but I want to make my residence in a state of leisure. If that triggers your state of apathy I don’t care either.

Starting points

For me- about 20,000. I just sold and got out of the stock market, I think things are too shaky with a government that seems to only know how to spend but not balance a budget. I have a little real estate but won’t count anything that isn’t cash. I also can’t count anything that I have to use to live… so as I make moves you can comment and tell me how stupid I was or how great I did. I more or less figure I need everything I make from work to live so that won’t make a difference. I will save what I can from my work but mostly the story will be odd jobs to get some extra or what I did with it to make it move forward.

My first something extra was five and a half hours of yard work for someone who claims to be getting to old to do it himself. I don’t know if I believe him but since he is paying me I am not going to question him either. I may not be the most likely person in the world to be called on to trim the trees but I did a good job so I came out with $70. I can hear the ooohs and awws in the back ground… yes I am rolling my eyes. I didn’t say that I am a wizard but it is something.  You can roll your eyes in a minute when I tell you what I did with it. First thing I did was give $20 to charity. I was going for about 30% but $20 was just convenient. Next I spent $37 on necessities. I should have used other money or perhaps I should take from the money I have for necessities and replace it but I didn’t it is gone. Then I spent $18.00 on fun. I bought a popcorn popper- yes part of the necessities included popcorn to put in it… That leaves $5.00 to add toward my million. Running total: 20,005. It should have been at least seven and probably closer to $23.00 but it is what it is so we will go from there. Was it really worth five bucks and a pop corn popper to subject myself to sunburn, scratched arms and a wobbly ladder?  I guess time will tell.

So that is the first key to my getting to that million- doing extra things and doing a good job with them.  Second key will be to give 30% to charity and third will be to save as much as I can of what is left.

 *

Zeb Pete is just waking up on a bus wondering where in the world he might be today. It isn’t that it is really that unnerving for him. Busses in the middle of the night are the norm as much as novelty and that less than deep jarring sleep that comes from sitting up and bouncing from town to town always left drool on his shoulder and his head feeling a little muddle. Someone at the front of the bus is talking in a language he doesn’t know, and somewhere behind him someone else is speaking English but with an accent so thick they may as well be speaking something else. There are fields out the window and the sun is coming up over what is left of stalks that the combine has already passed through.  Life is like that, sometimes planting sometimes harvesting, always changing.

Clarity drifted in to his foggy head as he sat up and stretched. A woman with curly red hair sat up as well and shook her head before gathering up her bag and jacket.  Waving hair. She reminded him of the situation he was leaving… it had been a good time for growing and gathering there but the winds had shifted and he just couldn’t stay. No one had to understand, he hadn’t tried to make them either. It was just time to go, that is all. Her face would stay in his memory. That was enough to make him long to go back. That was enough to make sure he stayed away.

The houses and streets started to come faster and faster as the bus neared the station. Zeb looked around. This wasn’t like home. There wouldn’t be someone on every corner who had heard the name Pete and had an opinion one way or another. In some ways it had been nice growing up where he was known, living with people who even if they didn’t know him personally they knew of his family or someone who knew them and knew what to expect. Here he would just be another face on the street. Maybe that was what he was looking for, for now.

Stepping off the bus reality began to set in as it so often does when hunger comes along. He had just enough money to stay somewhere one night or find something to eat. The weather seemed nice enough, this time the stomach wins. He picked up his bag and started walking.