Nearly all of the cool T-shirts I have that people compliment me on came from a Walmart on the south side. I don't see what all the fuss is about. I saw several people wearing the same shirts as me around the time I bought them.
"You can't walk back there," shouted the security guard at a man approaching the courtyard. How petty these fuckers are.
It's fairly quiet at this time of morning. No mangy mutts barking in the kennel, on account of the shelter being closed. No loony tunes off their meds bickering with unseen adversaries - yet. No tweaky birds getting into brawls - yet. No leeches pestering the living shit out of me for a cigarette - yet.
That'll all change in the next few minutes.
Based on the things I say about people and the snarky nicknames I make up for them, you might get the impression that I'm a crass individual. And you'd be absolutely right. I categorically do not give a broom closet fuck for people in general, nor for people who don't have a grasp of civilization in particular.
Sure, I have a basic level of empathy for people in distress. But I don't involve myself in other people's problems unless they directly ask me for help. And then I assess whether or not my intervention would actually do any good.
I'll give them food or water if they need it. I usually won't give them a cigarette. That's a luxury, not a necessity.
I'm going to send Scott a link to this thread. Maybe he'll chime in.
Scott hasn't quite mastered using a smaht fone yet. His daughter gave him one, but he still uses his flip phone. I told him it would be a pain in the ass reading a forum thread on a flip phone. I sent the link to his smaht fone and showed him how to access his text messages. He gave the thread a perfunctory glance, but apparently wasn't interested.
They really do work together as a group. The stepmother and auntie double-teamed the fuck out of me.
I suspect the flying monkey is also a narcissist, but I didn't try to interact with her enough to know for sure. I knew she was a conniver, gossip, and shit stirrer, so I instinctively avoided her.
Here's how the double-teaming went.
Auntie would be displeased with something I'd done - or didn't do. She'd bitch at me. She'd text the stepmother and bitch to her at the same time. The stepmother would then start bitching at me via text messages. I'd have the two of them bitching at me at the same time on separate channels. All while I was trying to cook dinner without fucking it up.
Sometimes the stepmother would play good cop when Auntie was bitching. For example, Auntie would make a derogatory comment about my hair or whatever. The stepmother would say, "It's his hair. He can wear it however he wants."
Of course the stepmother would also comment about my hair when she wasn't fake defending me from Auntie.
Scott is smoking a joint without me again. I rolled the windows up on that side of the car. I don't want to smell it if I'm not going to get any of it.
I completely understand why he quit sharing. He has chronic pain from whatever condition he suffers from. He pays for his weed. He needs to make it last, what with money being tight and all. I don't buy weed. I only smoke it if someone passes a joint to me. Nevertheless, it's poor stoner etiquette to smoke in front of another stoner without passing it.
Speaking of stoner etiquette, it's an example of rules one might follow in the real world that must necessarily go out the window in homeless life.
You have to be stingy out here. If you don't, you'll end up with nothing, and become a leech yourself. And nobody's gonna give anything to a known leech.
The leeches will try to take everything you have. If the only food you have is a can of Vienna sausages, they'll pester you for it if they see you eating it.
One day, I bought a bag of chicken nuggets to heat up in the microwave at the night shelter. A lippy broad asked me if I was gonna share them.
"Yes, I am," I replied. I meant I was gonna share them with Scott. She assumed I meant her, or the whole congregation.
Sometimes you get accused of being selfish by people who don't see how generous you actually are with people who've shown themselves deserving.
They come up with some incredible sob stories about afflictions that can be magically cured by a free pop. Lol
A couple came by with burritos and coffee a few minutes ago. The breakfast burritos are typically eggs and potatoes. I'm not a fan. This one was flavorless. I took a couple of bites and couldn't get interested.
Someone who went off their meds is bitching at an imaginary opponent near my car. Why can't they find someplace else to do that shit?
When I'm in the dorm at night and go outside to smoke, the leeches follow me out there and make a show of picking butts up off the ground and smoking them, hoping I'll feel sorry for them and give them a cigarette.
Some have completely given up on leeching. I sometimes give them something, simply because they haven't pestered me.
The shade has gone away in the parking lot, and it's getting hot. Time to go to the park.