Blog, I

If you wanna get away from it all, check out a place in the mountains where you can get some fractional ownership going on.

Pretty sweet, huh? Especially with the upcoming Blog Conference coming up in November out in Vegas. Inside information puts a few ‘must sees’ already pledging their wares and pitchs in indoor tents for fellow bloggers to rub elbows with.

But how long does it take for a blogger to really go ‘pro’, giving up the day job for the life of paid links and entries? How do you adjust so much of a lifestyle spent on surrounding the clock with your time, to spinning the clock around yours?

If you’ve made the transition, please give some comments on some easy steps other bloggers can start integrating into their regimen for their own personal path to enlightenment…of the load.

She was in her 50’s or 60’s, sitting with three bags around her feet and one on her left on the wooden bench. Noting her conversing alone, I smiled as I passed her and moved to a leaning position against a lightpole to her right.

It was later in the day than usual for me being downtown to transfer busses. With many city residents opting to vacate their work early to avoid traffic, the amount of congestion put the majority of transit lines behind schedule at least thirty minutes.

I noticed the woman beginning to eat a small snackcake from a wrapper she’d taken from one bag…a white frosted cake, it’s outer layer smeared and melted the majority of the wrapper.

I let her enjoy the moment. Moments of enjoyment can sometimes seperate the other many moments not so enjoyable to the point of a person forgetting their environment even.

Tilting my head, I called to her while leaning forward without stepping to approach her…wanting to maintain eye contact, to understand through facial recognition I was welcome within her space to be nearer when speaking.

She acknowledged me politely, composed and personality shifted, putting her other self away while facing someone calling her “ma’am” in who knows how long. I asked her if she liked cheese ‘Krystals’; a small burger known in the Southeast from the restaraunt of the same name. She lowered her chin to her chest and make a feigning face of disbelief of my question to her.

“I LOVE cheese Krystals!”, and she began smiling after a moment, breaking the mask she wore.

I told her it was cheaper to buy a set, and offered half of what I had gotten ealier at my prior stop’s location. She thanked me and opened her new parcel to begin making sure she hadn’t been had.

Much of what I learned over the next half hour is too long to go into detail here. The most depressing and sorrowful thing to me wasn’t of this woman being homeless…it was her lack of knoweldge of what was available to her to honestly survive.

While she used floor space at different locations, she related eating only during breakfast periods when it was time to leave the places she sought refuge in the night. She didn’t understand why she could only at times have one pancake, but understood the need for children to go ahead of her.

I told her where she could go and eat at night. She was honestly surprised it seemed. From her speech and ability to converse, she was able to stay on task if directed but could have been very well unable to read.

In this instance, who is responsible for someone not receiving what’s available to them? The person who is thankful for what they are able to receive…or parts of the system to fail in delivery of service to their client base?

Yes ladies and gentleman…this is business…or rather, business the way it should be run…not ‘business as usual’.

In closing, many people are aware that the head of the Jacksonville Emergency Services Homeless Coalition (ESHC) resigned last year. This year Jacksonille’s largest shelter will also see it’s CEO retire in October. I don’t envy either of their positions these people are going to be walking in to.

Their being watched by me.

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