Friday was intense. I'm writing this
midday Saturday and it just took me thirty minutes to get my notes on
the past thirty-six hours together.
I found some really good resources, my
moods have been (predictably) up and down, I've asked for help from
folks back home, I started a job, I hate that job and want to get a
better one, I finally started standing watches in the lobby and I
love that, and I have been through the wringer.
Friday started off easily enough. A
city resource called LoCap gives out monthly bus passes from eight to
elven on three mornings a month. They only have ten. First come,
first serve. Lines start outside of the main doors.
Eric clued me into them, so he and I
went. The first buses don't get downtown until 0715, but he wanted to
get there earlier so he arranged to ride with Wayne into town on his
way to work. Sharon got clued into the whole deal and the three of us
piled into Wayne's little sedan and made our way over.
It was a bit cold when we arrived, but
I didn't think much of it. We were the first ones there by a country
mile and over the next hour, only one other person came by to join
us. Even he didn't stay very long.
But we did have a wait and while we
did, we talked a bit. It turns out that each of us had been in the
service. Sharon had actually served as a Navy corpsman in Vietnam,
attached to the Marines. Eric had been in the Army. I'd been in The
Navy, naturally. We talked a bit about that.
We all had different stories to tell,
about our upbringing, living here, and our service histories. I had
always gotten on fairly well with those two, but it was good to learn
that we had so much in common.
I had also thought that the problem of
homeless veterans was a bit like shark attacks; not statistically
significant, but noteworthy because it catches headlines. Talk about
some out-of-work civilian and folks generally imagine he's a
life-long fuck up. Bring up a homeless veteran and people start
getting tears in their eyes and talking about how pointless Vietnam
was.
Maybe I should look into that.
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