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Updates: September 11, 2011 - I have been able to get a part-time job which is good news, but the rest is just about the same. Thank you for your help Malum Designs
and Pete B.
Since my previous posts have yielded only four donations over the last five months I thought I would try this approach. My financial problems are quite real. If you find my fable entertaining please send a small donation.
- Fortuna vitrea est, tum cum splendet frangitur -

The Grasshopper and the Ant
A Classic retold by Joseph the Beggar King
Part One

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there were two friends, the Grasshopper and the Ant. Why these two became friends is a bit of a mystery. The Grasshopper was a dreamer and a drifter. The Ant was a believer and an achiever.

In school the Grasshopper would look out the window without thought and only learned the subjects he found interesting. Sometimes he would fall asleep in Math class, other times when a angry teacher would jump him with a pop question he would give the correct answer in way that would confound them.

The Ant was a teachers dream, he soaked up every subject the system taught him, gave the correct answers in the correct way and got straight A s. He would delight his Math teacher by doing compound interest in his head. The Ant believed that what they taught him would help him succeed and was very completive. After graduating High School the Ant got an Academic Scholarship and the Grasshopper got a Pell Grant.

Within four years the Ant got two BS degrees in Business Management and Engineering. The Grasshopper dropped out after the first year. He went to live with the Rainbow Tribe for a few years. On the way to the bus station he found an old fiddle in a trash pile along the road and when he got station he was able to panhandle his bus fare. That was the Grasshoppers first beg.

The Ant took the College like a fish to water. During open Rush some Greeks invite him to be a brother in their Fraternity. He earned his dues by being the Frat Houses Accountant and made beer money by writing term papers. One day while visiting the Tri Deltas he watches the girls play volleyball and is amazed that even though they are playing a vigorous game not one of them breaks a sweat. It is there he meets the girl of his dreams, Polly Fishbane.

While the Grasshopper was living with the Rainbow Tribe he never meets the girl of his dreams, but it does not really matter too much because they believe in Free Love. So free, in fact, that after what you might call the Honeymoon he found himself getting a little bored with it. From the Rainbow Tribe he learns to live off the fat of country and from his new friend, Buffalo with Runs, he learns to live off the land. Buffalo with Runs was an very old Indian that was adopted by the tribe. He taught the Grasshopper what wild plants were safe to eat or use for medicines. He showed him how to set traps and hunt small game. Then, during one winter Gathering four people froze to dead because they were too stoned to come in out of the cold. The Grasshopper became very sad and hopped away.

The Ant is recruited by a Aerospace firm even before he graduated college and goes to work on the Apollo Program. He and his new wife Polly loved the Florida sunshine and settle down to start the American Dream. They decide to have two and half children. Even though the third kid looked a bit odd the Ant loved him as only a father can. With easy money down and mortgage tax deductions compliments of Uncle Sam, they get a house with a two car garage. Next they get two cars and the Rat Race is on. The Ant loves it! Working on the Apollo Program is more than a job, it is being part of history. Polly loves it! Raising their kids and Keeping up of with the Jones. She starts selling Avon products on the side. The Ant buys the best bass boat in the neighborhood, but only uses it once a year because he too busy working. He sets up his retirement funds and a small stock portfolio. Life is Good!

After leaving the Rainbow Tribe the Grasshopper panhandles his way across the country. He sets up in parks and subways where he pretends to play his fiddle while selling jewelry made of deer anthers and beads. The noise he makes with his fiddle sounds like a cat being killed and people give him money just to make him stop. Before the Cops run him off, the Grasshopper usually made enough in one day of begging to cover his needs for the week. When he is hungry he goes to a Soup Kitchen and when he needs clothing there are the Sharing Centers. Every now and then he lets some good hearted woman try to save him. Life is Good and he hops away.

The Apollo Program ends and the new Shuttle program does not start for a couple of years. The Aerospace company were the Ant works at does not win any of the new bids. They offer him a job in California at 20% less of his salary. Polly and the kids are in a rage. Nobody wants to move and leave their friends. The Ant sells his house at a loss because the real estate market in flooded by the laid offs. The one car and the boat are reprocessed. He sells off his stock portfolio for the down payment on the new house in California and even though money is tight the Ant decides to take the family on a short vacation to Key West to uplift their spirits. He finds the Grasshopper selling deer antler jewelry at the Front Street Market. While Polly and the kids go shopping, he and Grasshopper catch up and have a couple of beers. The Ant tells his friend about the laid offs and the move. The Grasshopper asks him - Are you Happy - ? The Ant says - Yes -. His friend says, - Good - . They watch the sunset and see a green flash on the horizon.
To be continue.

I wouldn't be here if it wasn't my last resort. Life has thrown me a curve ball I couldn't catch. My daughter and I have been living with my Grandmother since early 2010 when my wife abandoned us after being diagnosed with post par-tum depression and turning to a life of drugs a few months after giving birth to our beautiful Daughter. I wasn't able to pay the rent, utilities and daycare expenses on my own so my Grandmother being the loving woman that she was agreed to put a roof over our heads while I started attending a technical school to further my education and career so that one day soon I could get a better job and be able to afford things on my own. A few months into my schooling my Grandmother fell ill. She started having problems doing daily tasks and eventually was forced to retire early. Which left her with a small 401k and a feeble social security fixed monthly income. She no longer had the money to take care of us and the tables turned on us it was I that now had to care of her. In late 2010 she was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer and needed an oxygen concentrator to breathe properly. No longer able to do regular daily tasks we all take for granted. I had to put school on hold to stay home to care for her and my Daughter. My Grandmother wasn't to keen on going to a nursing home nor was I willing to put her in one when I was in a position to help her as she had done for me, we also could no longer afford daycare for my Daughter. A few months went by and we seemed to be getting along fine but, the doctors bills were piling up and we were forced to choose between the mortgage and continuing doctor care for my Grandmother. As the months passed my Grandmother continued to get weaker no matter how hard she tried to stay active by playing with or reading to her great granddaughter. In the beginning of March she could no longer get out of bed on her own. I had to carry her to and from the bathroom, cook and feed her all of her meals and generally keep her as comfortable and happy as she could be. At that time we were 4 months behind on the mortgage and struggling to keep the electricity that her life depended on, on. On June 8 2011 my grandmother passed away. She didn't have a large life insurance policy which only covered her burial and some of the doctors bills. She tried to leave me her house in her will but, probate court is trying to take it away from us because the house is going to be in foreclosure soon, we are now about to be 10 months behind, and her other reaming debt (doctors, credit cards...). So I am here today to ask for various kinds of help ranging from advice to money. I am not asking you to pay the entire debt and the house off but, for maybe enough to put my daughter back into daycare so I can find a job and hopefully save my house. In the almost 3 months since my grandmothers passing I have tried numerous ways of getting my daughter into daycare so I could find a job and be able to support my daughter and myself and possibly save the home my grandmother so graciously left to us but, to no avail.I am begging you for support. I need advise as to the best course of action to appeal to the probate court and save our home. I need the money to pay for daycare for my daughter which averages $100 a week. To pay off my grandmothers remaining debt which is close to $5,000. Pay for representation in probate court to appeal our case and to get caught up or pay off the house, we are now behind 6,751.16 on a total left of 33,514.81, and to get current on the utility bills which I have miraculously managed to keep on for the last 3 months by selling all of my worldly possessions. I am in a desperate situation and I'm begging for help. Like I said I don't expect to receive enough money to pay all of the debt but asking for enough to get my daughter back into daycare so I can try to save us. I hope you can find it in your hearts to help in whatever way possible. It would be greatly appreciated by my daughter and myself in this great time of need. I beg you for your prayers and generosity and Thank you for the time you took to read my story, Just writing it helped alleviate a little bit of stress. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts All of you will be in my thoughts and prayers. Any advise is greatly appreciated and can be sent to zenkiawdsm@gmail.com. Thank you
-Jeremy and Abigail