Jumping forward in time to April 10th, 1992

April 10th, 1992

11:00 a.m.
Yesterday we received an eviction notice. We have three days to pay our back rent and late charges in full or leave the apartment. We have no money, so we will leave.
Right now I am sitting in a laundromat waiting for our clothes to dry. Jasper is taking the kids for a walk to the post office to get a post office box, so we can keep getting our mail, even if we don't have a home.
I called the phone company this morning and our phone service will be turned off on Monday (today is Friday). Monday will probably also be our last day in our apartment Locust St., Dubuque, Iowa).
Jasper will be driving to Madison, Wisconsin, later today to put things in our storage locker (we have had a storage locker there with many of our books and off-season clothes since we moved out of Sherman Terrace Apartments in Madison a year ago). He will probably have to make a second trip tomorrow afternoon, after he gets off work.
The plan for our immediate future is to live in a tent at one of the local free campgrounds while continuing to work in Dubuque. Jasper may even be taking on a second job part-time.
So far, I haven't really become upset with this situation because we knew it was coming and it's a little like planning and packing for a vacation.
The things that do bother me are that the car is too small to pack much into (it's a Nissan Sentra Standard), the tent is really too small for two adults and two children (it's an orange pup-tent that Jasper has had since his boy scout days), and the tape player in the car has started chewing up tapes.

8:31 pm same day
The children are asleep and it is raining outside.
We went to the library right after Jasper left for Madison and while we were there a tornado watch was announced. It will be in effect until 10:00p.m. It's a good thing we aren't sleeping in a tent tonight.
The stereo has only been gone about five hours and I already miss it. I have gotten very used to sitting down in the living room in the evening and listening to "books on tape".
Most of our clothes have been taken to storage. All that are left will fit into three small suitcases and a shoulder bag.
All of the glassware and half of the spices have been taken, also, and so have the toy box, the stereo, the kitchen table, the chairs, and a bag of hangers. Ula helped load the car by carrying out the hangers and the table legs.
It is raining harder now and there is thunder and lightening. The rain should start dripping from the bedroom and sun-porch ceilings any minute now. We have lived here since July and the building manager has done nothing about the leaks that whole time. Then yesterday, our neighbor, Kim, told me that they would be fixing the roof this coming week, because bats are flying into her apartment from holes in the roof. Kim is on housing assistance, which means the rental company is guaranteed the rent money each month, but only if the apartment is in good repair.