SUNDAY—MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

     Doug is back. He's coughing a lot, even with two antibiotics, but he appears to feel fairly well. Still, it makes a mom worry.
     We're down to two dozen little brown sacks. Yesterday, Doug texted Lieutenant God to ask if he was in town. The answer was "yes." Then Doug asked him to buy more sacks, but he got no answer.
     Today, there were no new sacks. Tomorrow the kitchen will need 25 PBJ sacks, 12 breakfast sacks, and 35 lunch sacks, and provisions are not Cook's responsibility. Well… I'm interested to see how this shakes out.
     Buddy was at his gatekeeper post today, but he never came to the kitchen. He was called in on the carpet last week about leaving his post, so he's staying put. Maybe this is a good thing for Buddy.
     For lunch we served barbecue sandwiches, coleslaw and French fries. We made enough for 36 people. About six folks came. I surprised Fancy Lady with her readied plate—slaw and fries only. She gave Doug a complete report on the residents' whereabouts, and many are enjoying celebrations elsewhere. Good for them!
     The kids from the hotel didn't come, so Doug texted one of them to say, "Come and get it!" Seems they're having a holiday do-dah of their own. Still, one of the guys was kind enough to come relieve us of a plate of sandwiches and a box of slaw. The leftovers will be put out for afternoon snack, but I saw a lot of food hit the trash today…
     For dinner, Doug deep fried chicken drumsticks which we plated with mashed potatoes (and gravy) and spicy pintos. I didn't even want to sample it.
     Kevin… Kevin's "fully furnished back-steps apartment" is gone—clean as a whistle. And Doug is worried because when he last saw him, Kevin was suffering great fear of some very large man who had threatened to kill him. Of course, we've no idea how real the very large man is, but the fear was real. Too, Doug says folks in Kevin's situation are known to avail themselves of the county jail when the weather is intolerable. We watched for him, but Kevin is not around today.
     Some folks denigrate poor Kevin, giving sound reasons for their opinions, complete with examples of times they saw him appearing to be "truly sane." Then they compare those moments with his strange limp and goofy behaviors. Those same folks care deeply about him. Happily, I don't see Kevin often enough to have any negative thoughts. We must remember that no matter how strange are another person's ways, that person was obviously not born with the sort of mindset that keeps us on our paths. We can preach "they should get a job" or "they should take some responsibility," but our preaching will not give another person those inclinations or abilities. Blessèd are the motivated.

     Amen.