I slipped into my new schedule pretty easily, The next morning I took my walk without any real planning. I just did it, as if it were a long standing habit. I was till pretty weak so the two miles kicked my ass.

After the walk I had a bowl of cereal with dried fruit. It tasted less like cardboard, when laced with cinnamon and sugar free maple syrup. It was sweet enough with just a few calories so it was a good breakfast.

After my 10AM breakfast, I did research on the Internet. I was till looking for something to occupy my time. I also mulled over the tiny little duplex in the isolated neighborhood. It continued to appeal to me, so shortly afternoon, I made a call to Harvey Simpson. Harvey was a real estate agent and also a city fireman. He really wasn't much of a real estate agent, since he never went looking for clients or listings, If a cop, fireman or other city employee needed his help with the paperwork he would handle it. He did that for a much smaller fee than a Realtor would have. Instead of the 7% most charged, Harvey would handle the paperwork for a flat 500 bucks plus the listing agents fee. He had no control over the listing agents fee. That's what he said anyway.

"Harvey, John Abba here."

"John, I thought you were dead."

"Naw somebody spoke to my ex and she said she wished I was dead," I said it then laughed.

"So what can I do for you?"

"I want to take a look at a bank foreclosure, can you help me arrange it?"

"Which bank?"

"Southern Home Loan I think." I had picked that name up by calling the listing agent.

"Sure, give me the address, I'll give them a call and then you can pick up the key at the firehouse tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan. It's 811 Hayes Street."

"Ah is that one of the duplexes?"

"Yes it is."

"John those things are old and tiny. You can buy it cheap, but it's going to need some real work I expect."

"Well I might just have plenty of time to work on it."

"They going to push you out of the plane or are you going to jump ship?"

"Probably push me out but I'm not going to ride a desk so if push comes to shove I might jump."

"You don't have thirty yet?" he asked.

"No twenty three, so I would like them to push me out."

"Yeah there are a few more bucks if they do the disability thing. What is the deal now?"

"Base pension I get either way and if they push me out the city will pay 1/2 the difference between that and my pay now. It's about four hundred bucks a month. They do that until Social Security kicks in."

"Yeah I can see why you would prefer the help making that decision." he waited a while then said, "Tell you what, I'll have that key this afternoon, do you want me to run it by your place."

"Don't bother Harvey but I'll probably be by the firehouse before lunch."

"Not a problem, if the truck is gone, just wait for me, or come find me."

We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone.

I went back to my computer search. I was looking at all kinds of things on line. One of my searches was of job openings listed with the city personnel office. Just to get an idea of what the city might offer me. They didn't have anything, other than file clerk, in the police department.

It was after midnight when I shut down the computer, but only after watching a three year old movie on line. The computer was quickly becoming my friend. I planned to drop my cable, if push came to shove. The computer had half a dozen sites where I could watch TV shows three days after they aired on the networks.