Program Pause

It's April 18, and there has been a pause in the 100 Meals program.
Results so far: 30 of 100 meals have been distributed, and enough street intelligence has been gathered to persuade me that developing a Web site for Seattle's homeless, discussed in the March 17 post, is worthy of serious examination.

I have enrolled in Web 120, a Web-authoring class, at Seattle Central Community College to see whether it's possible to brush up on my skill set to create such a site, while discussions with others on the feasibility and desirability of following that route continue.

Domain created

I have created a domain, homelessinseattle2017.com. The "2017" was added when I discovered that my original idea for a name had already been locked up. Here is the initial placeholder image while I proceed:

Washington state allows senior citizens to enroll in college classes for $5 plus lab fees and books, but the hitch is that you need the instructor's permission, there has to be a vacancy, and you can't be officially enrolled until a week after the class starts. That delay has put me in catch-up mode, so this plan has significant obstacles. However I took the same class a few years ago, so if the technology has not changed dramatically, there's a great possibility that I will have the skill set to create a suitable Web site that can be useful to the homeless.

We'll find out.
Ubuntu,

Postscript:

Got stir crazy and decided to walk to Ivar's for exercise. Took along a brown bag just in case. Good thing, because I saw a young man asleep on his feet in a dry spot next to a window. Asked him several times if he was OK. He finally sleepily opened his eyes and looked at me. I asked him if he was exhausted, or on drugs. He said he did drugs, which wasn't quite what I asked him. He did respond to my offer of a meal. I gave him one of the meals I had prepared for the young couple in my alley a few days back. I had kept it in the fridge, and it was still OK.

I walked from there toward the waterfront, stopping to talk with a spare changer at where the freeway bridge meets 7th Avenue. I asked him whether he was going to be there for a while, and promised to bring him some fish and chips. He asked me what that was. That was strange... When I got to Ivar's I reached for my wallet and realized I hadn't brought it, so I hustled back up hill to apologize. He wasn't there when I returned.
Meals distributed so far: 31.

Soup and sandwich skips

There's a driveway that leads to the alley behind my condo, and the couple was sitting there in the shelter of a garage, with their dog. I walked by, greeted them, paused, and asked if they had lodging for the night. They didn't. They looked like they were pretty together, so maybe they weren't homeless in the conventional sense. Perhaps I acted too rashly. But I asked if they had a meal for the night, and they said no. So I asked if they would like a soup and sandwich, and they perked up and said yes. I told them to wait and that I would return.

At the condo I whipped together two ham and cheese sandwiches, garnished with mayo, mustard and a sweet red chili pepper spread. Placing each sandwich in two nested paper bags, I added to each package a fruit cup, two fig bars, a couple cheese balls and a Pink Lady apple. In a plastic Glad refrigerator container with snap lid I added a combination of Pacific organic roasted red pepper and tomato soup,  kalamata olives, chopped onions, carrots microwaved to tenderness, and Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce, over which I had melted Tilamook chedder cheese slices. I found a large sack for the Glad container and threw in a couple of spoons, napkins and paper towells.  It took less than 10 minutes and I headed for the alley.

When I got there, they were gone without a trace.

No problemo. I returned to the condo, refrigerated the sack lunches for another day and ate the soup. It was delicious.
Ubuntu,

Bananaman

Today I became Bananaman. Yesterday I picked up a big flat of bananas at a food bank I support. They weren't going to last until food bank day -- Tuesday -- so I relieved the bank of the fruit that was doomed. Part of it got peeled and frozen for my fruit smoothies. I gave a few to a couple neighbors in the condo. Some are still in a kettle in my fridge, for safe keeping. And most of the rest ended up in a small shopping bag which I carried downtown today enroute to meet up with a friend.

At Madison and 12th, I offered some to three transients standing out of the weather in a doorway. All three declined.

I walked along Broadway, then headed downtown, passing a church with a low wall along the sideway, and I planted a few bananas there for someone to discover. When I reached the freeway I left some bananas besides some tents that appeared to be unoccupied, and turned left, walking along the boundary by the freeway where I spotted several tents. I deposited a few bananas at one and there was a disturbance in the tent, so I said I was leaving the bananas. The resident thanked me. I asked him if he would like some more, and he said yes. So I left about 10 ripe but not-too-ripe bananas, emptying my bag.

No meals, but good fruit for the folks on the street.
Ubuntu