Today is the day I release the digital version of Dickinson Killdeer’s Guide to Bears of the Apocalypse: Ursine Abominations of the End Times and How to Defeat Them to all of my $5+ Patreon supporters. Want in on this? Join here. My plan is to offer this as a perk with the Kickstarter I hope to run next month for the book. I will not be signing or drawing in print versions of this book for anyone but Patreon members either. More details on that when I release the print edition to Patreon members next week. The book, print and digital, will eventually be available to the public. Most likely after the Kickstarter campaign has run its course.

Drawing that Chick-O-Stick takes me back to working graveyard shifts at Chevron. What a somber job that was at times. I remember going through a particularly rough time financially when I was working there. I was on my 8 hour shift and I was incredibly hungry. But I knew I was out of money. But I was desperate. So I called my bank to find out my current balance on my checking account (yes, this was back when you couldn’t use an app to check your balance). My balance was $1.70.

So I used my card and I bought a 50 cent piece of candy. Later I got so hungry I bought another *swipe*. Later, another. Then, with 20 cents left, I bought two ten cent candies *swipe again*. That’s our swipes on a $1.70 budget. I am pretty sure among those tiny treats was a miniature sized Chick-O-Stick (I was on a diet).

The next day I checked my balance and my account was nearly $200 overdrawn. See… I had one transaction that had not cleared yet, and so somewhere in all my 50 cent card swiping my account had already been overdrawn. It just hadn’t shown up yet. So for that transaction and the four 20 to 50 cent swipes I made, I got smacked with a $35 overdraft fee on each one. That’s $175 in fees at a time when I was taking home about $230 a week. I had no car, I walked everywhere. I spent my spare time sitting behind that counter drawing what would be my first and biggest failure of a book: the Weevil. I was renting a small room from a friend for $100/month and he was feeding me. It wasn’t a good time and I was mostly a victim of my own bad spending practices and trying to get caught up on debts I never should have accrued in the first place.

Anyway, that is what I think of when I think of Chick-O-Sticks. Not that I don’t also think of how delicious they are. But that’s not a story.

While I’m on the subject of working at Chevron, I remember one night during work I got hemorrhoids somehow, then I ended up walking home two miles in the pouring Oregon coast rain. I remember I was in such pain and misery I actually started laughing like a maniac. Good times. These are the moments that build character and keep us from being fools with our finances.

Remind me to tell you guys the Armor All story some time. Actually, I’ll make that a Patreon bonus. Patreon members $2+ get to hear the Armor All story.

Ethan

 

P.S. if you didn’t catch it, Tracy Butler of Lackadaisy and I interviewed each other. Part one is here.

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