{"id":27562,"date":"2024-02-09T08:47:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T14:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=27562"},"modified":"2024-02-09T08:48:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T14:48:04","slug":"friday-update-272","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/09\/friday-update-272\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday morning I chatted with a Downtown businessman, someone I respect a lot, about my current situation. \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re far down the hole of homelessness,\u201d he told me. \u201cI think you have the potential to dig yourself out fairly quickly.\u201d But,, he advised, I need to be aware of the following , any of which could cause people to label me and judge me without ever taking the time to get to know me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Appearance: Do I look homeless? Am I ignoring my grooming?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Odor: He wasn\u2019t saying I stank at the moment, but rather he was advising me to watch out as the weather starts to get warm. Obviously a major turn-off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Vibe, facial expressions, and body language: Do I look like I\u2019ve given up on the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning – Thursday morning, yesterday morning- – I left the Union Mission on Poplar where I\u2019ve been staying at night <\/em> and headed to the Downtown core. As I got to Main Street my phone buzzed in my pocket, indicating it had joined a known wireless network. I pulled out the phone to see what I had missed in the 17 or so hours since I\u2019d gone into the shelter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone had generously wired – or, should I say, \u201cwirelessed\u201d – $40 to my Apple Pay account. That\u2019s cool because I have access to the money immediately. I don\u2019t have to wait for a debit card to arrive in the mail as is the case with my new Venmo account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought about what my businessman friend had said about appearance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I thought, \u201cIsn\u2019t a haircut about $40?\u201d I hadn\u2019t had a haircut since February 16, 2022. My hair in the back was starting to knot up all over the place. And it was down to the middle of my back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Bardog opened at 8, I went over for breakfast. Then I walked down Main to Gould\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo questions,\u201d I asked the receptionist. \u201cDo you take Apple Pay? And can you handle a walk-in right now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes to both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was told the wait could be up to an hour, but 5 minutes later my name was called. 15 minutes after that we had a result::<\/p>\n\n\n\n