7:00 a.m. wake up. I had forgotten to bring my caffeine and vitamin C to the camp. I left it in my other bag. It’s really cold out about 24°. Takes me a while to roll off the inflatable mattress and start getting ready for the day.
8:45 a.m. after I’ve gotten everything together and I’m ready to go. I decided to trek around the woods looking for other access points to my campsite. Having alternate routes will help me in case I can’t go a certain way for some reason.
10:00 a.m. I walk back to where my bike is locked up. I ride the bike over to where my little car is stashed. The nights have been cold and I’m still a little tired. I rummage through my other bag for my daily medication, and I take my caffeine pill and my vitamin C to get the day started. I had saved a buffalo chicken wrap and a bit of orange juice in the car so I ate that. I plan out my day. I set an appointment at for 12:00 p.m. to meet a woman named Deb who was homeless for many years. She now has housing. She had a very interesting story and she wanted to do an interview. I am supposed to meet her at my brother’s table in Lynn. That is the place where they serve meals. It seems to be the only place that serves meals. There’s a Salvation Army that does a food pantry during the week.
11:15 a.m. I get my backpack, my smaller backpack, what I call a day pack and I take my bike into the city of Lynn the city of Love.
11:45 I put the salvation army in my GPS, because I want to buy some blankets for my tent. I’ve been asking people if they want to donate me some blankets, and I caught some flack from people saying I’m taking from homeless people for myself. Going forward I don’t want to take any simple donations that would help me even though I’m unemployed. I’ll just spend what money I have on the necessities of survival. The GPS takes me to the salvation army in Lynn that is a food pantry and I see a long line of people waiting to get their food. This is good and it seems that the salvation army does good work everywhere I go. I put in the salvation army thrift store which is only about a 4 minute bike ride away. When I get to the salvation army they have a good selection of blankets for cheap each one is about $14. I pick out the blankets that will keep me the warmest and I buy them. The blankets are kind of heavy and it would be difficult to ride my bike back to my campsite with them cuz it’s a long ride.
12:20 p.m. I walk my bike over to my brother’s table to get lunch. It’s only about a 9 minute walk. I put the bike outside and lock it up and go get a bagged lunch. While I’m sitting outside eating my lunch, I see my friend Denny who works at healthy Streets harm reduction in the same building as My brother’s table. I asked him if he could hold my blankets until I can go get my little car and come pick the blankets up. He says, yeah no problem as soon as I get back from getting lunch. While I’m talking to some people outside of my brother’s table Denny shows back up. He takes the blankets from me and brings them upstairs. I hang around and I get an audio interview with a man that just got out of prison just trying to get back on their feet.
1:00 p.m. I buzz to get into healthy streets which is on the second floor of the building that my brother’s table is in. When I get up to the harm reduction office I talked to Denny and let him know that I would go pick up my car and come back and pick up the blankets. I ride my bike to the location of my car, I secure the bike to the car on the bike rack, and I drive back to healthy streets. I put the blankets in the car and I drive over to the library to hang out for a while.
2:30 p.m. When I walk into the library one of the women that I had met who works with Gail at the police station had a resource table set up. We ended up talking about homelessness and the addiction problem in America for a good period of time. It’s always good to talk to people that are so ambitious in helping.
3:45 p.m. I told the woman at the resource table that I’m heading out to eat dinner. She says that she stays till about 5:00, and I say if I get back early enough I’ll stop in and say hi again. I decided to walk to my brother’s table. It’s about a 9 minute walk from the library. There’s a line out the door, so I grab my spot. The dinner is a hot meal. I grab a coffee and a bag with a styrofoam tray in it. I go outside and set up my travel chair and I put the food on a concrete slab that supports a railing, and eat my dinner. It is pork chops with cabbage and macaroni and cheese. After I eat, I hang out and roll a cigarette. I observe the area and the people that are coming and going. There’s not a lot of people here getting this food. I’ve been to places that serve upwards of a hundred. What I’ve seen is maybe 30 people coming into my brother’s table. But I also know that they have a van and they go out and bring meals to people as well.
4:50 p.m. I walked back to the library and decided to go into the library and do some work on the blogs. I found a table with charging ports on the second floor. There’s a woman a couple tables down from me. I started voice-to-texting my work, then I felt guilty. I don’t want to disturb anybody. I put down the work, and just start scrolling around on social medias. I take some time to let my devices charge, my phones and my portable battery.
6:30 p.m. I go out to my car and I stuff two blankets into my big hiking pack along with my chair and some of the other necessities I have put in my travel pack. I drive back to where I’ve been parking my car, and I take the bike over to the entrance that leads to my secret campsite. When I get to the tent I unpack the blankets and I set up my bed. Blankets provide warmth and comfort. I’ve been wanting to work on stuff but I’m tired and I end up going to bed early around 8:30 p.m.
