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The kindness of strangers. A warm feeling on a cold day.[/caption]
When I finally finished my breakfast and got off my butt to make some binning rounds, I couldn't help but notice that some thoughtful person(s) had given me the gift of food.
First I saw the package of salami tucked in the the back of my bike trailer. It was in a clear-plastic store bag. In the front of the trailer was another store bag containing more luncheon meat and a block of cheddar cheese. And beside the bag, bold as brass, a plastic jar of peanut butter. Thank you kind person(s). These are all excellent choices for a homeless person on the go.
All of this provender is brand new, near as I can tell -- I've yet to eat any of it -- I just put it in the fridge for later.
Meaning I just left it neatly on my bike trailer. I'm living in the fridge right now.
That's not a complaint; it's a handy fact. The food on my trailer is not in any danger of spoiling -- if peanut butter and salami can spoil. That means I can eat it when I'm hungry, and I don't have to eat it all at once. More importantly, I can hold off on the luncheon meat until I find some mustard.
Once I crack the seal on the peanut butter, I give it half-a-day -- one day tops
By the way, we binners find bread -- people never tire of putting out bread -- in various states of freshness. Sandwich fixings not so much.
Perfectly edible peanut butter can occasionally be found in dumpsters because people in Fairview and Kitsilano often enough throw out quarter-full jars. Apparently it's easier to buy a new jar of peanut butter than a longer knife.
In my experience, pre-cooked meat takes a back seat to raw. If I find raw, and it passes date-wise as edible (bonus points if it's frozen), and I have room on my trailer, I take it to give to binners I know who are living in social housing or one of the hotels in the Downtown Eastside.
Few old-school binners need any help from me in finding food. When I repeatedly write in successive posts that it's impossible to go hungry in Vancouver, I'm not thinking of food banks, free meals or soup kitchens. I have in mind the hacker-like curiosity binners bring to figuring out where surpluses of wonderful, edible food might exist is a city such as ours. Smart binners have been feeding that curiosity for decades.
I believe it can be okay to lie to someone when the truth might be too hurtful. So I think it's fine if society wants to keep telling itself homelessness is just a temporary problem. However a homeless person could die if they go around thinking that way.
People with housing can afford to dress and act as if rain and cold is temporary, because in their case it is.
If you become homeless, you're better off accepting the reality, and adjusting your attitude accordingly; particularly when it come to dealing with the permanent reality of weather. Pretending it'll all go away is a recipe for misery or worse.
I've read of hunters and outdoors-types learning to accept suffering gracefully when it comes to weather. I wouldn't use words like suffering. Rather I'd just say that while you have to dress yourself properly against being cold and wet. Feeling cold and wet is different -- you can, and should, change how you feel.
I'm a temperature-tolerant fellow -- shorts in December tolerant -- but I feel the same chill as anyone else. I know when it's not harmful and then I just shrug it off.
This is nothing more than a professional attitude by the way. An experienced utility company worker whose job involves repairing damaged power transmission equipment, will have learnt how to endure and perform in the worst weather.
Professional homeless people, if you will, who dress for homeless success and have learned how to think positive about positively awful weather, are in a position to actually benefit from rain or snow or whatever nature can throw at them.
Miserable weather thins the herd; separates the wannabes from the hardcore, winnows the wheat from the chaff. blah, blah, blah.
The more homeless binner types who are staying out of the rain and cold and dark, the more returnable containers and stuff for me! Basically.
And, as I started out saying, in the cold, any fresh perishable food people put outside -- in a dumpster or on someone's bike trailer -- stays as fresh as if it was in the fridge.
Done properly, living in the fridge can be a good thing. But kids -- don't try this at home. Click the image to enlarge.
The kindness of strangers. A warm feeling on a cold day.[/caption]When I finally finished my breakfast and got off my butt to make some binning rounds, I couldn't help but notice that some thoughtful person(s) had given me the gift of food.
First I saw the package of salami tucked in the the back of my bike trailer. It was in a clear-plastic store bag. In the front of the trailer was another store bag containing more luncheon meat and a block of cheddar cheese. And beside the bag, bold as brass, a plastic jar of peanut butter. Thank you kind person(s). These are all excellent choices for a homeless person on the go.
All of this provender is brand new, near as I can tell -- I've yet to eat any of it -- I just put it in the fridge for later.
Meaning I just left it neatly on my bike trailer. I'm living in the fridge right now.
That's not a complaint; it's a handy fact. The food on my trailer is not in any danger of spoiling -- if peanut butter and salami can spoil. That means I can eat it when I'm hungry, and I don't have to eat it all at once. More importantly, I can hold off on the luncheon meat until I find some mustard.
Once I crack the seal on the peanut butter, I give it half-a-day -- one day tops
Waste-not, want-not
By the way, we binners find bread -- people never tire of putting out bread -- in various states of freshness. Sandwich fixings not so much.
Perfectly edible peanut butter can occasionally be found in dumpsters because people in Fairview and Kitsilano often enough throw out quarter-full jars. Apparently it's easier to buy a new jar of peanut butter than a longer knife.
In my experience, pre-cooked meat takes a back seat to raw. If I find raw, and it passes date-wise as edible (bonus points if it's frozen), and I have room on my trailer, I take it to give to binners I know who are living in social housing or one of the hotels in the Downtown Eastside.
Few old-school binners need any help from me in finding food. When I repeatedly write in successive posts that it's impossible to go hungry in Vancouver, I'm not thinking of food banks, free meals or soup kitchens. I have in mind the hacker-like curiosity binners bring to figuring out where surpluses of wonderful, edible food might exist is a city such as ours. Smart binners have been feeding that curiosity for decades.
The cold can be your ally or your enemy
I believe it can be okay to lie to someone when the truth might be too hurtful. So I think it's fine if society wants to keep telling itself homelessness is just a temporary problem. However a homeless person could die if they go around thinking that way.
People with housing can afford to dress and act as if rain and cold is temporary, because in their case it is.
If you become homeless, you're better off accepting the reality, and adjusting your attitude accordingly; particularly when it come to dealing with the permanent reality of weather. Pretending it'll all go away is a recipe for misery or worse.
I've read of hunters and outdoors-types learning to accept suffering gracefully when it comes to weather. I wouldn't use words like suffering. Rather I'd just say that while you have to dress yourself properly against being cold and wet. Feeling cold and wet is different -- you can, and should, change how you feel.
I'm a temperature-tolerant fellow -- shorts in December tolerant -- but I feel the same chill as anyone else. I know when it's not harmful and then I just shrug it off.
This is nothing more than a professional attitude by the way. An experienced utility company worker whose job involves repairing damaged power transmission equipment, will have learnt how to endure and perform in the worst weather.
Professional homeless people, if you will, who dress for homeless success and have learned how to think positive about positively awful weather, are in a position to actually benefit from rain or snow or whatever nature can throw at them.
Miserable weather thins the herd; separates the wannabes from the hardcore, winnows the wheat from the chaff. blah, blah, blah.
The more homeless binner types who are staying out of the rain and cold and dark, the more returnable containers and stuff for me! Basically.
And, as I started out saying, in the cold, any fresh perishable food people put outside -- in a dumpster or on someone's bike trailer -- stays as fresh as if it was in the fridge.
Done properly, living in the fridge can be a good thing. But kids -- don't try this at home. Click the image to enlarge.
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