Trouble OnThe Street

About a week ago a man I met at the library, (call him Jay), went missing.  Three of his 4 vehicles were also missing and the 4th one was sitting and collecting dust.  I thought his vehicles were towed and I saw him last week with a bottle of liquor (or I should say, an empty bottle of liquor) in his hand.  He looked sad.

I seemed to be the only person concerned about his whereabouts and it made me realize how people on the street don't look out for each other.  They all hang together until the money is gone or "you can no longer help them" then they're gone (this is what I was told by a homeless woman, Fancy, who lives on her social security).  According to Fancy, when her money comes, the friends come around, then, when the monry's gone, so are the friends.  You think she'd learn after so many months of going through this but she's lonely so she accepts it.

Right now I'm listening to a homeless woman talking to a man in the library.  She's flirting with him and this is the 3rd man she's picked up this week. Fancy befriended her a while back and told me she uses these men to have a place to sleep at night.  We saw her with a man, Glen, who she went home with one night. Then Fancy told us she picked up another man who drove her to Riverside.  She stayed with him for 3 days and he kicked her out. then she picked up a man 2 days ago at the library here and I saw her out early yesterday morning walking with all her belongings yet again.  I'm guessing she got the early boot, no breakfast because now, she's hitting on someone else.  Even as I write this, she's approached by two other men in the library. One of the men, she tried to pick up two days ago, but it didn't work.  So, now he's back "from outer space, with that sad look upon his face" and she's not telling them to go, go out the door either.  He apparently returned with friend.

Fancy told me that this woman picks up so many men, she's gonna get hurt one of these days. Apparently, they really fall for her (some of them anyway) and they're mostly homeless, gangsters, and ex-cons out of prison.  I can't really feel sorry for her because one morning I was waiting for the library to open and she was sleeping outside with her "brother".  Some groundskeepers came by to water the plants outside and she looked at them and said boldly, "wa CHU lookin' at"!  To which they replied, "we need that water faucet behind you".  So apparently, she's not as timid as she acts when she's flirting with these men.

Just now one of the men came and chased the other guy away.  This is a suburban town and we're not really used to this activity at the library.  I'm sure that when the library staff gets wind of what's going on, she'll get spoken to about it ( as kicking her out would be politically incorrect or stepping on her civil rights or something, I'm sure because that'd mean you're insinuating her a prostitute) .  Oh, wait, just now the other guy she was hitting on just came back over as the "alpha male" just stepped away.  But the alpha man saw and he's coming back and then he left again. Now she's using alpha male's cellphone so I guess they're dating (at least for the next few days, anyway). 

I'm agreeing with Fancy now, I also think she'll get hurt if she doesn't stop this activity, but, she's been told this already and doesn't seem to care. 

This is just one part of this lifestyle. One I never want to be apart of.  Just watching from a distance is enough.  Next post I'll tell you about my running into another old friend and her daughter.  We had a great time catching up and she's invited us to her house which isn't far from where I park.  I'll fill you in on that later.

By the way, my son (who remember, is with me), his computer broke and now he has to use mine.  I'm not too happy about it but I'll see how it goes.  This computer is my livelihood and I can't afford to lose it because I can't afford to replace it right now.  But, for now, I've made an account for him on it and set it up for him to use for his business. We'll see.......

Oh and about Jay, I saw him today. He's doing fine. He got a new van and sold one of his cars. He said he only sleeps in his van now because he has too many DUIs.  I'm just glad he's ok.

My Plan from Day one

DISCLAIMER: Please forgive my jumping around topics in this post.  I'm just starting and I have so much to share.  I hope you enjoy reading it anyway.  God Bless You For Reading.

**Below is a youtube video with my daughter singing. For some reason I can't type in that general area. When I say she's good, it's not just a mom's pride talking, she's really good.  I'll post her songs on here occasionally to share her different styles of singing. This one is Celticky.  I'm very enamored of her singing and I hope you enjoy the song**.  Now back to my blog entry:

My Plan:

Initially, my plan was to move to California where it's warmer and I'm familiar with the terrain.  I figured I'd get a job, buy a car and sleep in it.  I also considered that I'd use the money I made at work to maintain my car until I can fix it up enough to get the money to buy a van and eventually an RV.

I don't understand why there're so many homeless people without some kind of roof over their heads (a car, van or even a tent).  By the way, I have 2 tents just in case I get desperate for shelter.  Another thing I don't get is how so many homeless people have pets?!  Don't get me wrong, I like animals just as much as the next guy but if you're homeless, how can you afford to feed a dog? But that's another blog.

I managed to secure a station wagon for $800.00 and now that's where I live.  I also bought a gym membership and I have a storage for food and some merchandise that I sell online.  That's another thing, last December I got a retail job through an old friend of mine who's now a manager at a major department store.  She didn't know then (and doesn't know now) that I'm homeless as I used another friends address to secure the job.  It was with this money that I bought my car and gym membership, storage facility and mailbox.  After the holidays I was let go along with everyone else.  I keep cash on me by selling merchandise online.  I have to inject here that my first online sales were some cheap or free books that I got from yard sales or the library booksales.  Most of the books cost less than one dollar and many of them were free.

You see, after the library has a sale they put the books that they haven't been able to sell on a shelf and they are free to anyone who wants them.  So, once a week I'd peruse the free book section and take books that have a long shelf life and sell them.  I had rules though, I had to be able to sell them new (or nearly new),  and I had to get 50-100% profit.  So, I'd buy a book for say 1.00 and sell it online for 10.00 or more.  One time I found a music texbook for free and sold it for $69.00.  If you know what you're looking for, you can make a decent amount.

My kids decided they wanted to join me. My daughter because she wants to travel and sing on the road and the best way to do that is with me in an RV, and my son, well.....I think he does it because he doesn't want us to be alone.   We always agreed that, if this ever got too dangerous, we'd get an apartment, but so far it's been 5 months and we're ok.

I have to admit that in all our planning, we've had many setbacks.  Our plan took 2 extra months to start. I couldn't find a job. We bought an older car that broke down the day we bought it and had to stay with friends until it was driveable.  Needless to say, that friendship is on life support now because....well, just because.  What I learned from that experience is, you can't really plan for something like this, you just have to do it and trust that your street smarts will be there when you need them.

The first lesson I've learned from the 3 months I've actually been homeless (since we spent the month of November with that friend and 3 weeks in December with that same friend waiting for or car to be fixed), is not to make friends with everyone.  Most homeless people will use you and bring you down to a level that you would never want to be at.  Alot of them are on drugs or other substances (alcohol, etc), and they will pretend that they are not doing those things but the police already know what they're doing and if they see you with them, they'll think you're doing "it" too.  So, we stay to ourselves, for the most part.  I've met some other homeless families and I actually met an old friend whose also homeless with her husband (also an old friend).  Sometimes we'll meet at the beach and chat for awhile. All of the families I've seen are living out of vehicles. I coined a phrase for us, I call us "vehicle dwellers" rather than homeless (perhaps houseless, but not homeless).  But as for the scenario above, with the people who "pretend they're not doing the things that they're doing" below I'll explain a little more.

For example, they'll see that I have a car, so they'll tell me they're saving their social security so they can buy a van when actually their money's going to drugs, boose, or they spend it on each other for sex.  The level of human being I've seen hasn't been pretty.  In addition, there are alot of "crazy" (for lack of a better word) people out there. There are many schizophrenic cases that are homeless in the streets wandering around at night.  My kids and I are always off the street and in our car by 10:00pm and I always make sure I have plenty of gasoline in case I have to make a quick exit.

I'm gonna share more as this blog develops but I wanted to end on a good note.  Naturally, my family has gotten closer in this situation.  I mean really close. I had to surpass loving them as my children (adult children) and start really understanding what they want in their lives.  I understand that they want something from life that the state could never give them.  They want to take a risk and follow their dreams. My son wants a business of his own and after 5 years, he is just beginning to agressively pursue it.  My daughter loves to sing and she is a great singer.  Her state workers never supported her dream to be a singer.  I've always taught her that the world needs singers, just as much as it needs doctors.  What would the doctors listen to when they need to unwind from a long hard day at the hospital.

We've been a family known to think "outside of the box" and this proves to be the most "out there" thing we've done.  Until next time, keep us in your prayers. *Please Post*







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