Archive for the 'homelessness' Category
July 28, 2010
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TONY
“Phil, what’s this law they’re calling, I think it’s the ‘Law of Attraction’. Have you ever heard about that?”
PHILIP
“That’s totally weird that you would ask me that. Why are you asking me that?”
TONY
“Somebody was talking to me about it just the other day. They said that it about if you really believe you’ll get what you need, then you’ll get it.”
PHILIP
“Sounds right to me.”
TONY
“Well were talking about me getting better from this cancer and and all the other stuff. So he told me about it.”
PHILIP
“Did you know I just added that very same law of attraction to my Facebook profile? Yesterday, Like, just yesterday, believe it or not. That’s too weird a coincidence if you ask me. Anyway, I was on Facebook yesterday and I posted that I was an atheist but that I also believed in the law of attraction.”
TONY
“Sounds reasonable to me.”
Posted in homelessness | 2 Comments »
Tags: atheism, belief, cancer, Facebook, inevitability, law, law of attraction, life, lifetime, magic, right, royalty, time, treat like a queen
July 22, 2010
Hello all,
Tony was at St. Joe’s on Saturday because of increasing dizziness and pain. His lung cancer is causing the problems. That evening, Tony was sent to Princess Margaret Hospital for some specialized x-rays. I saw him the next day, Monday. I haven’t seen him in three days.
I apologize for taking so long to update everyone on the comment last Sunday.
More when I know anything.
Philip
Posted in homelessness | 2 Comments »
Tags: cancer
July 18, 2010
PHILIP
“You know, you look like Mary Poppins with that umbrella.”
TONY
“D’you know how hot it is sitting out here today? They said the Humidex is gonna hit 40 degrees. When it get this hot, I’ll be Mary Poppins any day.”
Posted in homelessness | 3 Comments »
Tags: hot, Mary Poppins, shade, sun Humidex, temperature, The Beatles, umbrella, Under My Umbrella
July 15, 2010
PHILIP
“Where’d you sleep last night?”
TONY
“In the park, and I only slept about an hour with this heat. It’s killing me. I tell you, days like this even makes a basement seem a big-time luxury.”
Posted in homelessness | 2 Comments »
Tags: cold, comfort, heat, luxury, park bench, sleep
July 12, 2010
PHILIP
“Hey Tony. Can I ask you to come up to Alternative Grounds ? There’s this guy in there, he bothering the customers, ranting at them sticking his face in their faces, that sort of thing. I figure you’ll probably know him; he’s about 5′ 6, he’s got a grayish beard, his fly is undone, his clothes are dirty, and he claims to be French Canadian. I just don’t know about him.”
TONY
“Oh yeah, I know him alright. If he’s the guy I think he is, he’ll be looking to swipe their tip jar too. I’ll come up and watch him so he doesn’t get any ideas, if you know what I mean.”
PHILIP
“Thanks Tony. I think everyone will feel safer with you in there.”
TONY
“Damn right. They should.”
Posted in homelessness | 3 Comments »
Tags: Alternative Grounds, angels, guardian angels, tips
July 6, 2010
PHILIP
Where’s the farthest away you’ve been in your life, like Vancouver or Florida or something? You know, I can’t believe I never asked you about this part of your life.”
TONY
“Well, that would be the gates of Banff National Park. I’ve got no idea how I actually got there if you can believe that.”
PHILIP
“What do you mean that you don’t know how you got there? How could that be?”
TONY
“You wouldn’t believe it but I don’t remember a thing on the whole trip from when we started here in Toronto. It’s a 100% big blank, just totally.”
PHILIP
“Don’t tell me you were drunk or something.”
TONY
“Never. I was a limo driver, you know. You don’t do things like that if you’re a limo driver.”
PHILIP
“OK, let’s hear this.”
TONY
“It was pretty simple. I had a fight with my wife. She threw something at me pretty hard and pretty much the next thing you know, I’m asking the guy at the little corner store they have at Banff National Park if he could sell me a copy of the Toronto Sun. Well, he looked at me like I was crazy or something like that. So I asked him again and he looked at me strange again and said he didn’t carry the Sun but he would sell me a copy of the Banff Gazette. You can bet I was pretty surprised and so was he.”
Posted in homelessness | 1 Comment »
Tags: Banff, imagination, limits, surprise, Toronto Sun, travel
June 30, 2010
TONY
“With school being out, I’m losing some of my best customers for the summer.”
PHILIP
“How’s that?”
TONY
“Summer holidays. Kids need some time to get away, so you can’t really blame ’em.”
Posted in homelessness | 2 Comments »
Tags: blame, customer needs, customers, hierarchy, hierarchy of needs, kids, loss, Maslow, needs, summer, vacation
June 28, 2010
PHILIP
“I forgot to ask you about what you thought about the G20.”
TONY
“Well, if you ask me, that G20 is one big waste of money. You know, they spent a billion dollars for that meeting. It’s crazy. Crazy. Just think what you could do with a billion dollars. It’s really crazy.”
Posted in homelessness | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Coca-Cola, Coke, crap, G20, gods, heaven, Jamie Uys, manna, oops, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Toronto, waste
June 18, 2010
TONY
“So how are we doing on the visits to the blog?”
PHILIP
“Well, we’ve had almost 228,000 visitors since we started up the blog. Not bad, eh?”
TONY
“You’re not kidding. I figure I could probably take the rest of the year off if I got one-cent for every time someone visited the blog.”
Posted in homelessness | 5 Comments »
Tags: annuity model, blog, business model
June 14, 2010
PHILIP
“So what’s the last thing that you did hear about Bruce?”
TONY
“Someone told me that he’s in Montreal in detox. The only other choice they gave him was Penetang so he he decided to go to Montreal.”
PHILIP
“Why Montreal?”
TONY
“Well, for one thing, their food is better, no offence intended.”
Posted in homelessness | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bruce, detox, Montreal, Penetang, taste
June 13, 2010
PHILIP
“Someone asked me about Bruce, you know, the homeless guy who sometimes would make trouble in Alternative Grounds. Do you know what’s going on with him now?”
TONY
“Nothing in a while now. I’ll do my checking with my jungle telegraph and get back to you on that, if you know what I mean.”
Posted in homelessness | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bruce Alternative Grounds, jungle, jungle telegraph, meaning, Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, Zanzibar
June 3, 2010
TONY
“Did I tell you ’bout the time when I worked on a farm? I used to ride this special cow as if she was a horse, and I’d round them all up.”
PHILIP
“Come on, you can’t ride a cow like that. I used to work on a farm too, you know.”
TONY
You can if she was rode by the kids when they were growing up. So she was OK to ride. Anyway, it was funny as hell when you saw a big guy like me herding up cows while I was sitting on a cow myself.”
Posted in homelessness | 2 Comments »
Tags: cows, farm, funny farm, la vache qui rit
May 29, 2010
TONY
“Did I tell you about this morning when this guy sat down on the other side of the tree from me? Next thing you know, three cherry tops show up and the cops pop out and I say to myself: ‘What did I do this time?’ Turns out they’re looking for the other guy. Well, I’m glad I got out of that one.”
Posted in homelessness | 1 Comment »
Tags: cherry tops, cops, Gilbert and Sullivan, heart, HMS Pinafore, police, police cars, stillness, trouble
Homeless Man Speaks 