January 5 2013 - Blessing and Curse

Well we made it through the Christmas - New Year’s Holidays, it was a little bit of a blessing and a curse. Things started out well enough I suppose, but we were hit with some bitterly cold weather for several days and Mary came down with a cold, which she dutifully passed on to me. That was just before Christmas, but we got through the "bitter" cold end of it, and discovered being in a tent, in sleeping bags, cuddling together does have its therapeutic advantages. Just before Christmas, while standing in line at Caritas for lunch, a black man was giving all the "newbies" the rundown, on what to expect over Christmas. First, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we can expect people to be coming from everywhere, doling out food and clothes, blankets and whatever they can imagine the homeless might need. And, "and I quote" "If you see a bunch of niggers gathered around some guy shaking hands, be sure to get in the crowd and shake the preachers hand" … You can expect he will be handing out money. Well, we did not experience anything quite like that, but all day long, Christmas Eve, people were showing up with food and whatever. The plain fact is, we couldn't keep up with it.


On Christmas Day we sat across the street from the ARCH, all we wanted to do was to rest and get a few hours’ sleep. Yes, car loads of food and just about anything else were being trucked in, but we didn't care. We were already full from the day before. But while we were sitting, just minding our own business, a black man, who we had seen around the Arch for a while, came up to us and said he wanted to give us a gift. He held out his hand and put $10 in mine. He said it was because he had watched us and respected the way we conducted ourselves, never fighting (I corrected him with "in public") and being a "civil" example. He told me to get something special to eat with the "lady". Well, what do you say? Thank You. About an hour later we were sitting, minding our own business and a young man comes up to us and taps us on the shoulder, "Would you like to go out to eat … at Luby's". Luby's is one of the nicer restaurant/cafeterias, and the food is the best. Mary and I looked at each other and said "Sure", we then followed the young man to his car, where his mother was waiting and we all introduced ourselves. While driving to Luby's, about 6 miles away, the young man called his fiancé and arranged for her to meet us there. There Mary and I feasted. I mean we took advantage of it. As we finished and left, Mary and I shared how we came to be "homeless" and returning to the center of town, they gave us each a small financial gift and bag of assorted necessities. We departed their company and returned to where we had originally been seated.

Over the New Year’s holiday a local lawyer, who works with the homeless, had a party for the homeless at one of the larger churches and distributed thermal underwear, scarves, gloves, hats and other cold weather necessities, and also had a top notch band entertain the lot during the festivities.

The only real inconvenience was having to run back and forth to the pharmacy, which didn't have the required prescription for Mary, but we managed.

So, the weather appears to be beginning to warm up, a bit. If it doesn't get any worse than it was recently, we will do fine, neither one of us wants to go to the shelters, unless it is absolutely called for.