EarlyExit

Surprise! Susan met up with us at Grace Park. With an excited and smiley Chris, Susan talked about the joy and relief of seeing us again. We made sure she had a pleasant evening.

Perch's beard has grown into its own entity with its own satillites orbiting around his head.

Noticed a quiet shadow in the crowd under the Blue Bridge. I handed Carl a cup of soup and he told me about his short stint in the woods. After working for years in a tool shop in Wooster, Carl was laid off a year ago and has been unable to find a permanent position. He spends many of his days trying to get temporary jobs, but there seem to be fewer and fewer opportunities. He's been spending his nights at the Haven; however, there is a 5-day monthly limit, and those add up fast. Now he's in the woods.

Backflips and Barefeet

Forgot the Visors for Mr. Lucas tonight so had to double back to deliver them. We were lucky the weather held off like it has done so many times this "winter" season. Saw many of the regular faces with the likes of Al, Gertrude, Reggie, Mark, Dean, Charles, Jimmy, Mr. Lucas and Bill to name a few. Came across a new group of young guys who were holding an impromptu circus outside of Trinity Lutheran. Once we got a chance to meet some of the guys in between their trapeze acts found out one of them named John was originally from Miami, FL and moved to Akron to be with his two children. An unfortunate stint with the law for 36 months he is trying to get back on his feet and off the streets.

Last week Milo was out of touch with P. HOPE. Instead, he walked the streets of D.C., where reminders of America's homeless sit on every corner.

Our schedule 2-8-12

Mr. Lucas 6:39 to 6:59
John Reedy 7:09 to 7:22
Mikey D 7:34 to 7:41
Blue Bridge 7:48 to 8:20 & 8:21 to 8:35
High St. Alley 8:42 to 8:58
Grace Park 9:02 to 9:17
Momma 9:18 to 9:30

We spend only a few hours a week hanging out with some of our friends, and we're beginning to realize how few of our friends we see on a weekly basis. Though, the above schedule seems full, it manages to hit only a tiny minority of the many locations and people we could be seeing. For instance, no where in the above is our South Street route, along the tracks or Furnace Street.

Perch Knows Better

We all agreed it was nice to see Mama sitting in her living room after 3 months of living at the hospital. She seemed in good spirits and was quick to ask for her hugs.

Brother Spooner overwhelmed us with 6 quarts of corn chowder (which Davonta has never heard of). Everyone chowed down on the chowder.

Also loved nearly running Perch over. We then had a conversation about food stamp cards and engaged in cookie sandwich face-stuffing.

Check out ONE's story on food waste.

Tiger the Raccoon

Saw Billy for the first time in quite a while. It was nice to see him, and he looked good, now living in an apartment. I knew Billy was a vet, but when he mentioned Vietnam, I had to pry--I thought he looked young for this. At age 17, he enlisted in 1973. Luckily Dirk broke the sobering mood by reminding me about my rather nerdy dress the week before.

We took a detour and found Bear and Gina along the tracks. Bear seemed in good spirits, I could tell because he didn't mind my presence.

Mark 2 told us about his pet raccoon, Tiger. Seriously, Tiger comes in at night and sleeps all comfy-like under the covers with Mark. I'm still struggling with this one.