I went down to the foodbank as usual at
around 11:00 on Wednesday. Any of the staff members that were smoking were
standing out on the sidewalk, far from the foodbank door. I wonder if my
complaints have had some kind of effect. The gut at the door was smoking an
e-cigarette, which is something new for him.
I
had arrived after they had already started giving out numbers and so it didn’t
take long for me to leave with number 24.
I
went to the bank to take out my rent money. Since my rent is $586.39, I just
took out $600. When asked how I’d like the bills I told the teller to either give
me $500 in hundred dollar bills or just tear a thousand dollar bill in half.
When
I came back to the foodbank at around 13:30, I picked various spots to stand
and wait depending on which people around me were smoking and kept moving back
and forth accordingly like the queen on a chessboard.
The red-faced
woman was sitting at the broken hexagonal picnic table behind a man who was
facing away from her. She kept asking him questions and responding to the
answers. “What level of school did you finish?” “Grade eight.” “Oh yeah. I got
three months of grade eleven.” “You got any kinda trade?” “Yeah. Carpentry.”
“Oh yeah? Well that’s pretty good! What kind of work do you get with that?”
“Construction.” “Do you like comin here?” “It’s okay.” “I like it pretty good.”
There was a pretty young Latina woman standing with another woman nearby, and
the red-faced woman said of her, “I like that cute little Italian girl over
there!” She also said, “They say the world’s gonna end in two days” and “Some
people don’t believe in god, but they’re still good people.” The man she was
talking to had a bag of empty beer bottles tied to the handle of his two
wheeled shopping cart. At one point it flipped over and there was a breaking
noise. Someone nearby advised him not to open it up there but to sort it out
when he gets to the Beer Store. He reassured him that it was probably only one
bottle that broke.
The foodbank,
after unpacking food deliveries, usually leave the empty boxes piled up just
inside the door. One of the customers looked in and complained that there
weren’t any boxes and so he might have to come back on Saturday because there
was nothing for him in which to carry food away. I suggested that he check some
of the stores nearby to see if they have any boxes. Just then a skinny woman
about my age, in glasses and old clothes, rode up the driveway on her bicycle.
She immediately went to the garbage cans outside the door and picked out two
full loaves of bread, giving them a sniff before putting them in her bag. The
guy who’d been complaining about the boxes called out, “That’s for the birds!”
though he didn’t form it as a question; I think he was asking for confirmation.
She explained that she cuts them in half and leaves them out for the birds.
Then she said, “Always be nice to animals!” and as she walked her bike back
through the group, she said a little louder, as if it was the most important
thing everyone would hear that day, “Always do something nice for animals,
every day!” She walked her bike over to the other garbage cans lined up at the
other side of the driveway and noticed something of interest. She bent down and
rummaged a bit, then walked over to the guy who’d been complaining about the
boxes and gave him a big canvas shopping bag, explaining that a whole bunch of
them had been thrown out. She took some for herself but let people know there
were more there and then she rode away.
I’m not so sure
though if her policy of feeding animals and birds is a good one. Certainly if
one sees an animal in real need it makes sense to help it out. But feeding
birds increases their numbers and makes it so there are more to go hungry
unless more and more people feed them. Also, if everyone did what she does the
city would be full of bird feces and disease. So doing something nice for
animals every day, might in the long run, be not to feed them at all. People
unintentionally drop plenty of stuff they can eat all the time in a big city.
Let the ones that eat be the quick and clever ones so we have something to
admire.
Once
my number was called, I went in and sat down. A young guy was about to sit down
to the right of a big, middle-aged man, who asked him what number he had. He
told him he had 25. The big guy said, “I got 22!” and indicated that he should
sit further to the left of him. The young guy just said, “No problem!” and
moved. I sure wouldn’t have, since it makes no difference where one sits. One
isn’t going to get food any sooner or easier just because someone isn’t sitting
to their right.
Theresa
called my number. There were a few things they don’t normally have on the first
shelves, such as Knorr soup mixes, a little jar of Old El Paso green chillies
and some single serving coffee pods. They had canned fruit, but I made sure I
got the kind that wasn’t sweetened with Sucralose. In the cold section there
wasn’t much. Sue said that I was one number too late to get something more,
though I don’t know on what it was that I missed out. I got a package of
Compliments sliced ham, a Lean Cuisine chicken fettuccini frozen dinner and a
two-litre bottle of V8. In the bread section I got a big bag of cranberry
chocolate buns and another of pretzels. For vegetables, I got a bag of new
potatoes, a squishy tomato and a seedless cucumber that was squishy at either
end.
I
didn’t go out for a bike ride that evening because I’d already been out and
because I needed to get my course evaluations filled out.
There
were some guys doing some work that evening at the back door by the deck. When
Sundar came for the rent I found out that they were unsealing the door to and
fixing up a broom closet under the stairs that leads to the third floor. All
these eighteen years that I’ve lived here and I didn’t even know there was
anything there.
I
watched the final episode of Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. Gloria
Pall, though uncredited this time, gets her biggest role as she walks in,
speaks a bit, sits down and takes dictation from the dictator. The story is a
direct continuation of the previous episode, in which Cody captures three of the
Ruler’s men on Mercury. Cody forced one of them to lure the Ruler to Mercury so
they could capture him. Before he can do that though, he and his crew are
captured by Mercurians, because they mistakenly think they are with the Ruler.
The Queen of Mercury releases them and puts her men at their disposal. Ever
notice that there are no countries on other planets and that the entire world
is usually ruled by a king or queen? Meanwhile, the Ruler has captured Cody’s
ship. But Cody has removed a vital part so it can’t take off. The Ruler sends
for a spare from his ship. Cody welds the exhaust hole shut on his ship so the
Ruler can’t take off. The Ruler has one of his ships bomb them from above. Cody
flies up and captures the bomber in his rocket suit. Then he and Dick disguise
themselves as some of the Ruler’s men and capture him. There is peace in the
universe!
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