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Friday
October 6, 2017 |
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| our next door neighbor here in the building is very shy. seldom seen but we have an understanding. i slip unplayable 45s under his door for duct tape decoupage-- george has a vision all his own. he also winds figures out of wire or whatever's at hand, sometimes spelling our names in friendly greeting, other times more abstract, with an almost daily evolution, often following trajectory of tight refined order devolving into deconstruction (as here). "[stuff] takes time," the tombrowskis write in their book urban camping. proved true again tonight when we carried some excess to truck for good will donation. one of the charms of our block is it stays so dark --lots of shade shade trees and no streetlights (except at the corners). i thought i saw miso curled up in the grass but it was just a bag. then sarah saw the body inert on sidewalk in fetal position. "are you ok?" no answer at first. |
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i knock over what i
think is a 12-ounce beer but it doesn't spill--turns out to be a bottle of cooking sherry he managed to get cap on before collapsing. sarah eased him back to consciousness, offered water and a cheese sandwich. he's grateful and tells us his address. first thought is to put him in a cab but that's too chancey so i offer him a ride. he's totally wrecked but impeccably polite. "just call 911--i don't want to put you out." my feeling is it's better not to touch the system, so, newly endowed with motor vehicle super power, i drove him home to where he was welcome, apparently some kind of transitional housing. he held on to my arm to cross the street, so frail and weak, light and fragile as a bird. when he dropped his sandwich and stepped on it it didn't even make a dent and he said, "i want it," so i hand it back, better than eating nothing in his condition. thumbs-up from the folks at the desk and i was on my way. strange to think all this started unbeknownst right below our window. i'm glad we're the ones who found him instead of some angry NIMBY with a hairtrigger dog. a relatively happy resolution to a sad situation. |
