Live! from the Homeless Standdown...

Typing on a government issue laptop today, so every key stroke is recorded. Such is life.

Today is the "Homeless Standdown," a one-day event to provide services to the homeless and other in-need persons. We're under the Main Street Bridge in Riverfront Park, on the north side of the Arkansas River. I'm here representing the Social Security Administration, and am sharing a canopy with a couple of representatives from the Veterans Administration and several employees from the State Department Of Human Services. (A possibly snarky comment about DHS may be provided later.)

To my left is a canopy where several hairdressers are giving haircuts and other barbering services. To the front and a little to the right are booths for voter registration, vocational rehab and spiritual needs. The National Coalition for the Homeless has a table right next to them. To the right is a display about breast self-examination. The volunteer is using the models on the display to teach women how to perform the exam.

Elsewhere are booths for medical treatment, dental, eye exams, food, clothing, and heaven know what else. I haven't had an opportunity to wander around yet. We volunteers (ha! I'm actually getting paid overtime today) have been given several bottle of water, which is sorely needed. It's a little dusty out here.

When I got here at 7:00 AM, we had no chairs. I called my husband and asked him to bring a couple of chairs from the house, and the box fan. We may be under a canopy and it's overcast today, but it's still muggy.

Only a couple of people have stopped by to see me so far today, which doesn't surprise me, to tell the truth. I need to see ID to replace someone's Social Security card. Most homeless people have no ID. So I have books to read and a portable radio to keep myself entertained. But my VA buddies are doing a booming business.

I brought a bunch of books with me to give away. They're spread out on the table next to me, and several people have taken advantage of the opportunity. I hope to give away everything I brought.

I'll be here all day.

Oh joy

Our 30% chance of rain just turned into 100%. You should have witnessed the mad scramble to get electrical cords out of harm's way.

Homeless standdown report II

I've done several replacement card applications for transients, and made a few appointments for people to come to the office and file for disability. I had originally planned on taking the disability applications here, but network access is spotty and prone to unexpected shutdown (I keep getting an application error 128, whatever that may be). Since a disability interview can take upwards of an hour, I decided not to risk losing work and simply set up in-office appointments for those who wanted to file.

About half of the books are gone.

We've got a fellow about 10 feet in front of our canopy who decided to unpack his trash bag and go through his stuff. He's been fiddling with some ancient car stereo speakers and a couple of dashboard radios. I don't know if he expects them to work. Among the various pieces of raggedy clothing and decrepit electronic gear is a teddy bear. And a hard hat.

This fellow breaks my heart.

Home, not homeless

Talk about a way to develop gratitude!

I'm finally home. Exhausted, grimy, headachy, but extraordinarily grateful for the blessings God's given me.

After my last post, I got a run of business. More of the same stuff. Some people just needed information. The one of the event coordinators came by as the VA guys and I were packing up, and wanted to know how many people we had served. I had only partially kept track and guesstimated I had talked to about 30 people. He said around 600 had signed in and gotten their wristbands. (They weren't supposed to receive services if they didn't have a wristband. I served them anyway, and so did a lot of other people.)

It rained off and on throughout the day. Every now and then our canopy would reach critical mass and dump a load of water off the edges.

I spotted at least one of the local working girls in the crowd. She wasn't working, she was there getting services. I hope a few of her sisters took advantage of this event as well.

47 books were taken out of the 66 I brought.

Spouse just brought me a root beer float. I'm going to take a couple of aspirin and have a hot bath. Early bedtime for me this evening. I sing at church tomorrow morning and have that audition tomorrow afternoon.

I knew this already.... ;-)

	Crime doesn't pay ...unless it's called 'politics'

Billy's Weird...cat...thing tells your fortune!