I’ve often mentioned there are a lot of choices that go into entering and/or remaining in an un-homed state. But there are those moments when you are at the whim of the world around you. Somehow your particular needs are not always prominent in the minds of those around you. Go figure.

For example, eating breakfast via Safeway’s morning hot bar can be hit or miss. There are days when you get truly lucky and you can smell the bacon cooking from out in the parking lot (assuming you like the smell of bacon that is). Or there was the time that they had steamed edamame. Mmmm, that was a special morning treat.

But of course on other days you may be confronted by another reality. Yesterday’s selection was horrible. The few chunks of scrambled eggs were more like hardened yellow clay, and the remaining meats were shriveled to the point of nearing jerky status. Today’s selection went the other way with the eggs; they were pretty fresh and a good amount of them. The rice, on the other hand, was gone with just a few dregs of crunchy left-over bits in the tray. You’d think they might keep up with the pace of everyone coming to eat.

If it’s not the food issues it’s the sleeping accommodations. Today I witnessed someone else on that short end of the stick. When I went down to Kaimana for the morning shower I noticed some park sprinklers on. I also noticed one of the regular park inhabitants who sleeps in a blue sleeping bag under a tree. Just as I noticed him a sprinkler came on right next to him. You can imagine how fast he jumped up, and I do mean jump as he was still fully zipped inside his bag. He hopped out of the way as fast as he could, unzipped and grabbed his things. Even across the distance I could tell he had that look of shock after being rudely awakened, and unfortunately drenched. He moved on to the next spot and plopped back down for a further snooze.

I think most un-homed have various stories like this, though what may vary is how each of us handles these indignities. I know that before I’d probably have seen the sprinkler incident and laughed at the comicalness. But now I have a slightly different take on these small moments.

Previous posts in this series:

• Putting Your Life in Storage
• One Step Forward, One Step Back
• Exciting New Career Opportunities
• End of the Day
• Solutions Wanted
• When to Hold On, Let Go?
• Location, location, location
• Range of Motion
• Food More Than Sustenance
• Figuring It All Out Someday
• Solitude
• The Good, The Bad
• From The Heart
• Does Anyone Really See Me?
• Keeping Perspective
• Showers at the Natatorium
• Achieving Homelessness