Last night was cold. I've been kicking myself for not having brought my nice wool scarf. I was walking past a subway entrance though, and felt a warm rush of air, so spent a good part of the rest of the night walking in and out of the subways. No seats in there, and didn't want any cops telling me not to loiter, so had to keep moving.
Finally about 5 AM or so, sat on a bench along Market, pulled my serape up around my neck as much as I could, and slept. Awoke an hour or two later with some kind of roll in my lap; turned out to be banana bread. Not bad. No idea if this was some individual's gift, or that of the taxpayers, but in any case throwing it away would not help anyone so I ate it.
By 9 or so I was in line with the bottles and cans I'd picked up the previous evening. I was at the end of the line, but I guess because I had so little stuff compared to the others, it was placed first in the queue, so by 5 minutes after it opened I had my 93 cents cash. Not bad in a way, for about 20 items. But not good for 2 hours work. Seen another way, though, I would have been walking anyway, so only really maybe 10 minutes was the "work" of picking up the refuse. Anyway, I still don't have my RAC money so every little bit helps.
I've been at the library since then, but left to go spend my money on a McD's double cheeseburger. Just before getting there, in front of the Chevy's I spotted a penny on the sidewalk. When I got up, a lady who was standing there, apparently waiting for a ride, asked "Are you hungry?" I could answer that most honestly with a resounding "yes!" and so I did. She gave me the half of a pork barbecue sandwich she was holding and I wolfed it down. She left me with a "God bless you". I wanted to say "thou art God" but kept it to myself.
Anyway I've still got my money. Looking around everywhere for a cheap cup of coffee. You can buy a pint of Guinness for $2 and can't find coffee for less than $1.35?
last updated 2013-01-10 20:29:44. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com