Homeless - 57

Hi ya'll,

Yessiree, I sleep as lightly as a hungry panther, senses alert for prey, danger or opportunity; ever poised on the hair trigger on the howitzer of survival on the streets; every sinew and muscle quivering in the struggle for life or death. One of my camping sites is on a small strip mall that I've written of before, the one with the 24 hour store. I don't go into the store after 12 AM these days because of the all night human working that time frame - foreign descent, accent difficult to understand and an interpersonal style that doesn't cater easily to small talk or pronounced client relations. Oh, I didn't mention his eyes that look in different directions when he is looking in your direction or his verbal terseness - definitely not an icon for customer service. He is probably in his late 50's, thinning hair, pudgy and wears glasses. Anyway, I was awakened around 4 AM by flashing lights, as in the cop kind of lights when they are pulling you over when you just flicked a half-joint of fine Colombian out of the driver's side window while doing warp 100. And I ask why? I erected myself (?) from the sleeping position in the master sleeping chamber of BT thinking ok, guys, you have my plate in your database as harmless - SUP? As it turned out, the store had its' ATM ripped off, as in throw a chain around that puppy and hook tha other end to tha truck and drag it, Billy Bob! From talking with the cops (there were many but none whose butts I wanted to check out), the perps came in the store with assault weapons, put the clerk on the floor and made off with the ATM machine and trashed a large section of the front window during the extraction process. On further conversation with the PD , the store was robbed of the contents of the cash registers in the same time frame three weeks earlier with the same clerk on duty. Obviously somebody has a problem of sleeping that early in the morning and gets a really wild hair. The night clerks at those stores deserve more than what they are paid. I went in a couple of nights later when he was on duty to get a DP around 1 AM. While he was making change, I told him I heard of what happened and was glad he was OK. As he was handing the change over, he replied what can I do - quit? in a softer than usual voice. My impression at the moment of his reply was that this is a human being that is trapped in a lifestyle that has the major attributes of hopelessness, despair and impotence - no other place to go, no one to see, no goals on the horizon, and with the next major life event being that of death. Let's face it, he ain't CEO material and this position may be the best he will ever rise to but it seems he, as well as others, deserve a better life while in service to corporations. The only time I felt those attributes, to the best of my memory, was when I was living with my mother and half-brother years ago and I haven't felt them since. That is a hell unto itself and any system of life that has a participant feeling in that manner is grossly deficit. I don't feel sorry for him but I can empathize with his position. I don't feel sorry for people because, in some way, for me to do that would imply that I would have a higher station in life; none of us do when you look at the most basic fact - maybe there are only different sets of challenges.

I've read where the Dallas Police Department has initiated a random drug testing of the officers' for steroid use. HELLO! Don't we want our cops on steroids considering what they have to deal with on a daily basis? Of course, pounding a motorist's head into the pavement for going 7 mph over the speed limit is carrying things a bit too far, at least in some circles. For me, 'enhancements' are a sign of low self-esteem unless you are in an arena where physicality equals large sums of money. If you are doing roids and the most physical thing you do is play water volleyball on the weekends, yeah, I would have to say low self-esteem is a significant factor. If you have breast augmentations, and god knows what else, and lay by the pool watching specimens of steriodous lowus esteemus play volleyball, yeah, the self-image factor looms darkly on the horizon. It'd be different if those women were in the adult entertainment industry but that would bring up other issues.

The environment at the camping spot has been altered due to a bar that has opened up for business and the demographic that it caters to is not quite the crowd that any proud parent would want their precious offspring to frequent. It's not that busy even on the weekends and my parking spot is not being compromised. I doubt that the business will survive for very long - give it until September and the buzzards will be circling over its' steaming carcass. Taking into account human curiosity, drunken or otherwise, there is a high probability that some of the patrons have questioned my presence in the lot. There is also a high probability, I feel, that at least two of the owners of other adjoining businesses have shared details of my 'good deeds'. Hopefully the status quo will continue for awhile...

The new place that I've written about, the one that is off the well-beaten path and with plenty of shade, had its trees trimmed. Let me rephrase that - the trees were fucking butchered, mauled, maimed. I've seen the result of tree trimming but this...this...this is like 'going Britney', kinda reminiscent of the ugliest dog contests that I've read about. The trees across the street are probably pointing at them and laughing. And they cut down three perfectly healthy trees. There's still enough shade and living things tend to continue growing, if they are not psychologically marred, but by Saint Teresa's holy buttocks, we don't have enough trees in these parts to begin with. They provide shade and look nice in the municipal environment and ...what is that other thing they do? Oh yeah, take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen! And plus they are living things. I have to admit that upon seeing the result of 'lawn care', I did have a few thoughts of aggressiveness.

A couple of days before that horrid mutilation, I was sitting there working on the other project around 8 AM on a weekday enjoying a quiet cool morning with a breeze smelling of grass. I heard a couple of vehicles sneak up behind me and looked in my rear view mirrors and noted, with significant orifice tightening, that it was a couple of cop cars. I did what anyone should do in that situation, following the advice of a couple of cops that I knew over the years, put my left hand out the drivers' side window and my right hand, still holding pen and paper, up in the air where they could see that I wasn't holding anything dangerous. They were investigating some property damage that happened at the front of the mall that morning and asked if I heard anything and I replied no, saying that I had been at that location for around 30 minutes. He looked at the inside of BT via the passenger side window and asked about my current situation. I told him and he mentioned that a couple of businesses noticed me and viewed me as suspicious. Anyway, after checking my ID and further conversation, I was deemed harmless and they went their way. Both guys were in their late 30's or so and were friendly and yes, their biceps could order off a menu of their own accord. And no, I had no inclination to check out their butts.

In closing, let's take a moment of remember George Carlin. That man provided me with may hours of laughter with his unique style of humor whether there was a bong involved or not. His particular viewpoint brought to light some of the absurd social conventions that we adhere to without realizing it. The world of people need more like him and I hope the force of life has another one like him waiting in the wings to pick up the baton.

"Tonight's forecast: dark - with continuing darkness until morning."

Next time,

David