Wednesday, March 29, 2006

My Evening on the Mean Streets of Salem

Earlier tonight was kind of a downer. Headed for Subway and parked a block away, and an older homeless guy hit me up for a dollar for food. I had no cash on me, so I had the genius idea of offering him a meal at Subway. Not only did he not really want food, he was kind of indignant, and said, "I can get my own food." Obviously wanted booze, not food.

So I was a little discouraged, figuring all homeless were basically the same as those freeway onramp career panhandlers or lying drunks.

Well, coming back from my midnight stroll through Bush Park, I ran into a guy in my back alley carrying a couple of blankets to wherever he planned to sleep. When I got to my driveway, his bike was parked there, my Diet Coke 2-liter bottles in a plastic bag, and it hit me that his blankets were the two I'd thrown in the trash earlier that night during Spring cleaning.

Obviously it was kind of a downer, but at the same time, the guy was making his way, whatever way that was, on his own. I talked to him when he came back for the bike, and he had a little route he runs every day. So we worked out what I can do with stuff he might use, he doesn't have to root through my trash, and I have my own personal Goodwill drop-off.

I'll probably get ripped off now somehow, but I'm Mother Teresa tonight. At the very least I got the bad taste of that old drunk guy out of my mouth.

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