Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 + 2:11 p.m.
I was hit by a train in Northern Kentucky The person holding it was visibly intact, however quite probably mentally misaligned. I waved a $5 out the window and he graciously accepted it with a quick, �God bless you, honey�. Aaaaaaaand the window went up as quickly as possible. Poor guy looked like he could have been crawling with rodents. Not that I�m not compassionate, I am. I just don�t want to share that kind of closeness with ANYONE. I�d like to think that if I ever lose my job, my house, my family,��my MIND, that someone would float me a fiver to pay for a quick burger or a bottle of MD 20/20. I�m sure I�d NEEEEED it. Well, at least I�m blessed today. It�s not often I get blessed by a crusty survivor of a train wreck. He gets some points for penmanship, too. Most of those signs are completely illegible with the exception of, �HOMELESS�, which is usually misspelled, but large enough to see, at least. This spot is one that must have a very specific rotation schedule for these guys. I guess it�s a popular piece of asphalt because there�s a different man out there every day for about a week and then Mr. Monday comes back followed by Mr. Tuesday, etc. No ladies, mind you. They must be home tending to the cardboard box. Yesterday, there was a guy who looked a lot like one of my husband�s relatives; actually, he looked BETTER than some of my husband�s relatives. No kidding. No money for him. If you don�t look homeless/dirty/hungry/toothless, then you better be putting on a serious CRAZY show before you get any money from me. If you�re coming to the SPOT with clean undies and a brief case, chances are you had breakfast, unless, of course, that�s ALL you�re wearing. *** I think my favorite homeless person is moving. Somehow that doesn�t sound quite right, but I believe it�s true. Perhaps he got a better piece of highway real estate???? He had a shopping cart by his spot last night (not his usual M.O.) and today a bunch of his things are missing. Either he�s moving or he was burglarized. That sounds even stranger, but something�s definitely up. His SPOT (another word for a homeless person�s hang) is in such a tight and hard to reach place, that I�m not sure how the Hell he got that shopping cart over there. And then, going home last night I saw a handful of other homeless folks walking around very cautiously underneath another highway overpass that�s close by. It�s so steep that I don�t know how they got up there. They�re like Concrete Cliff Dwellers or something. Perhaps there�s something to that �hard to get to� thing. Maybe these people have some special gene that allows for vertical travel in difficult areas. Maybe they aren�t homeless at all, maybe they�re aliens. All joking aside, I�m really interested in these people. They seem to have made a system for themselves and it works. They have someplace to be, they manage to get food from various sources and find places to keep the small number of things they hold dear. I�ve been thinking for a while about trying to find a job with a non-profit that helps the homeless and it�s becoming more and more appealing to me. It�s just narrowing it down that�s the bummer. There are shelters and clinics, free �stores�, soup kitchens and mental health agencies. It would seem to me that the shelters would provide the most benefit, but I just don�t know. I need to see what�s out there.
|
I am the Grim Reaper! Master of all that is |
