One of Them

With all this bike riding and walking I have been seeing the same street people over and over again.  Seems they may not have homes but they do have territories.  Since I am always wearing my safety orange nap sack , which I must post a picture of soon, I am fairly certain they think I am one of them.  I think I have said it before that I just don't have the heart to let them know I am not homeless, just car-less.  The bus stop is another big homeless hangout out but it is shady and so the other day I was sitting there and eating my tuna sandwich.  This guy, who is carrying in bags all of his life's possessions, comes and sits down and so naturally strikes up a conversation with me.  He first tells his tale of woe he recently had with his "bitch" (his word, not mine) and that he is on his way to TJ because he has a buddy there that has a job lined up for him.  I am thinking, hmmm so we get their illegals and they get our homeless - interesting.  Well he prattles on and on and I admit I am very intrigued by him and definitely by all his stories and how freely he tells them.  Next he asks me for a cigarette.  I know how bad smoking is for my health but they are expensive so I don't give too many away.  I would have given him a cigarette for free though as I did find his chatter interesting.  Before I could even say yes he tells me that if I did give him a cigarette that he would give me a pair of sunglasses and then from his huge back he pulls out a grocery store size bag with about 30 pairs of brand new sunglasses in it.  I ended up buy two pairs of sunglasses for the price of 2 cigarettes plus I gave him 1 extra one as a tip.  They are not really my style but I figured I could give them to my nephew or maybe the next time I get to go down and see Oscar, whenever that might be.  Unfortunately it dawned on me later that I should have asked if he had my missing bike seat in one of his bags lol.

Unrelated at all to this story - doesn't my head look awfully odd in this photo?  Oh how my mind wanders.