Bargains in Profusion

There are little white bits of seaweed rice cake all over the wood floor of my living room. The larger pieces embedded in the area rug Etta gave me are easy enough to pick out and eat. The AT&T man saw them. Indeed he got a real clear picture of the furniture-less stolen-internet life I lead. Together we went down to the basement and I showed him the telephone box where the wire man had repaired the street cords. The AT&T man insisted the only way to wire up to my apartment was to drill a hole in the frame of the basement door. Its blonde wood, relatively new. I resisted his suggestion. We walked the perimeter of the building and spotted an eroded electrical outlet. The man stayed outside and I went down to the basement, climbed atop a ladder with my head tucked up into scalding pipes, and jammed a two and a half foot long straightened metal clothes hanger in the hole until it came out to daylight. That’s how I finally thwarted the cable company and got DSL.

I found myself in Milwaukee with no set agenda, and so I did what any reasonable person would do in said situation: I googled the nytimes 36 Hours in Milwaukee. There were two, one from 2003 and one from 2008. There was evidently not much to do in Milwaukee. The writer spent an hour at Value Village. “An unusually large and well-organized thrift store where customers congratulate each other on their finds. A set of six 1970’s gas-station giveaway goblets and a preppy white Izod golf skirt were recently bought for a slim $7.50.” I found a bag of plastic horses, and this zebra. My friend bought some clothes. The basement had a well used bathroom.