Grateful Dead

& Happy New Age to all the aging hippies and blithering rhinos out there on Jerry Garcia Island. May you castaways soon find your way back to the mainland in 2010! Just Kidding! ~ Of all the reindeers, you know you're the mastermind ~ ~ Whizzing like a sabre jet ~ ~ Run, Rudolph, Run ~

As is our custom, my wife and I ignored the family on this day and drove around to the usual places rounding up the usual suspects (under bridges, the woods. the downtown places where the homeless are known to hang) and picked up the flotsam and jetsam of our society. We took them home and offered a shower. When everybody was clean as they wanted to be and medicated as they wanted to be we set the table and offered them a feast. We listened to a variety of tunes and played games and had the football game on (w/o sound) and generally had a great time, making a lot of new friends. We let people sleep over and sleep in and took them back to wherever they wanted to be a few at a time, giving each a bottle of wine if it wasn't against their meds, if this is what they truly wanted, to save them from panhandling for a few hours. We only do it a couple of times a year and know it is not the answer to their problems. But it is a break from the brutal cold and hard streets for 24 hours. and, truth be told, I much prefer it to the company of my family. To anybody thinking of doing this, be careful. The homeless are homeless for a reason and you never really know who could be violent, etc., etc.. Use good judgement. It always works out for us, we've never had a problem...

To GGG, hope you get everything you want! Lama G, amongst the frozen snow banks!