Good Afternoon;
So ....last night was a baaaaaaad night as Ron White would express it.
My feet got painfully cold for some reason and I could not get them warm enough no matter what I did. They were not all the way in the danger zone at their worst, but yet not far from it. Luckily the rest of me, (except for my typing fingers...lol), were plenty warm enough, and I was fully aware of the problem, so frostbite may have been a possibility, but hypothermia was not. Putting on the ice cold boots this morning, (yeah I was forced to wear them, the sneakers were worse than I thought, holes in the soles all the way through, and damn if I'm going to have cold AND wet feet at below 30 degree temps.! So I could not return them today........BUT WAIT!!! as the Ginsu knife commercials used to say...THERE'S MORE!!.......keep reading), brought back the pain from the cold, and of course the bus was an hour late going to Jenn's. By the time my feet warmed up to the point of feeling like they were being attacked by Lilliputians with spears, as the blood returned, it was time to get off the bus and walk to Jenn's apt., where I stripped the boots off and could scream without being arrested.....lol!
I showered and dropped off dirty laundry to be done when I was planning to return tomorrow, had some coffee and more of the fried chicken I picked up at Whole Foods last night, 8 huge pieces, (2 of each, L,T,B,W), on sale for $5.99, with a $2.00 discount....not too shabby a deal! I jokingly told Jenn she should have her husband take her out to a movie and dinner tonight, & I'd watch the kids, (since the forecast is for lows near 12 degrees with wind chills below 0, ( That is a Zero......and I don't mean Mostel........or the WWII Japanese Fighter Plane of air combat legend!.......lol!). She told me she was going out to celebrate a friend's 8th year anniversary (YAY Lauren....Way To Go!), and Tom was home with the kids. as I showered I reviewed my possible options for tonight, (and Hypothermia is not one of them, I may be stupid, stubborn, and struggling with sanity, but I'm not f*ckin' crazy!), from snagging blankets, quilts and cargo mats, to calling Monkee and seeing if she was having 'company' or not and asking to crash there, (and I have to get past there by Sunday anyway), which I have done before in extreme temps. on both sides of the scale, by her invitation and by my request. That is one of the emergency fallbacks I do not abuse, and she respects and appreciates that so when I DO ask, she knows it is a big deal and not a whim. I was also thinking about putting out an APB on the blog begging for anyplace inside and out of the weather...bed-couch-floor-hammock-recliner-etc., and going through the names in my phone, (in my head, not with the cell-phone in the shower....lol, like my stepdaughter once did, answering the phone under the water and wondering why it wouldn't work later....LOL!), to see if there was anyone available to ask a night of........and being Friday night, Shabbat, that eliminated the best possibilities. I was still pondering my choices when I got out of the shower, (and realizing that most people really do not literally mean it when they say, "If there is ANYTHING I can do to help, [their stress on the anything], just call me"), when Jenn called out and told me Tom said I could come over and spend the night, since I had to be there in the morning anyway to watch the kids as both he and Jenn would be going out and there was an overlap of their times,......but to come over after the Starbucks closed, and hopefully the grandmonsters would be asleep by the time I took the bus there, eliminating the all night 'play date' that would occur if I was any earlier...lol.
So I left there after dressing and caught the 3:10 pm. #58 bus here to Mt. Washington, (only 20 minutes late, plus I had gotten to the stop 10 minutes early,....it was cold as my ex mother-in-laws heart out there, and the wind was almost as bitter....(lol.....NOT!), but one thing about these cheap boots, as long as they are not cold or my feet are not cold, with 2 pair of socks my feet were warm enough.....of course they have piss-poor ventilation so eventually condensation is an issue....lol), and walked over to the coffee shop, (and the driver was new on this route and really, really did not know where the hell he was going, so as I came out from under the JFX overpass I saw the bus coming around the corner of the parking lot of the Mt. Washington Mill, where it not even supposed to be. He saw me, looked at me, smiled and shrugged, and I told him as he opened the door that if I knew he was that confused I would have rode over with him....lol....and he laughed as he pulled off after I gave him the correct route directions, (I only travel the #58 every night and at least twice during the daylight hours each week....lol.).
As I was in the middle of playing my usual game of musical chairs, table-hopping from place to place working my way to one of 'MY' tables, (in a corner, with an outlet nearby if I'm using the laptop, and/or one of the 2 by the back door if not....., always where I can have a wall at my back.....old habits die hard..lol!), Stewart, (of the lost stamps I found of his, and the lost magazines he lost of mine), walks over and tells me his troubles, trials, and tribulations of trying to first find the offices of, and then contact and get to, The Baltimore Jewish Times to attempt to replace the copy I had lent him with the article and story about me in it, [Feb 19th, 2010.. I'm on the cover.. ;-) ..you used to be able to get it online, I just tried, but I think it is too old now......damn], and his negative returns for his efforts. I told him...again!!...that it is not THAT big a deal, and I have a copy stashed...(at least I think I do......uh-oh......CRS strikes again!), and not to kill himself trying to find one. He walks over to his bag, and comes back with an envelope and says it is a belated Xmas card. I opened it and there was a card inside........and, taped to the inside of that card is a nice, crisp, fresh, new $100.00 bill!!!!!!!!!!!
I tried to refuse saying, that is way too much, and started to hand it back to him but he would not take it back, insisting that I deserved it.
Well!, what can I say about this? His interest and generosity is gratefully appreciated and at this time especially, sorely needed! Now I can go out on Sunday and find a pair of REAL boots somewhere, and then go return these pieces of crap to Target, fighting for the cash I paid for them back, but if all else fails, I can take a store credit and save it for Rachel's birthday....or the next time I see her, which ever comes first.......lol! Yeah, right, it won't last until her birthday in May....lol.
Anyway it's been a pretty up and down week boot wise, and the past couple weeks have been over the top with the surprising gifts I have received and the people I have gotten to know, from Abe to Erik, and Stewart to Mikel, and Lauren and the other folks at the coffee shop. Cash, clothes, a TV, a Laptop, food, and Inette and 'Iokepa's book signed and dedicated........and friendship and family and love and compassion. Yes there are huge gaps in the surface construct that is my 'so called life' as some people see it, but at the level of the soul, the basic infrastructure, I am pretty damn blessed.......and lucky as well. That's why I try to pass on what I get when I can, or pre-emptively and proactively, pay it forward.
Thanks for reading, and for looking at the links and suggestions to visit other sites that I post.
The ones that seem to be the most relevant are, www.Change.org (the Poverty In America tab), www.Invisiblepeople.tv (for the blog and videos, if you 'friend' them on Facebook you can get easy access to links to content/other sites), and The National Coalition For Homeless Veterans, (which I am NOT, just to be clear, but it's a crime what the men and women who put their lives and bodies on the line for their country, sometime losing parts of body, mind, and soul in the process, have to suffer and go through before they can get help from the government who used them up!), www.NCHV.org
Well, I'm done for now......of course with 24/7 online access in most cases now.....
As Archie McNally says....."One Never Knows, Do One?".........LOL!
(You'll have to figure out the [hint--literary] reference for yourself......I can't do ALL your work for you!......lol!)
Later.............Dave
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