Sunday morning

 I slept OK (for me) last night.  I don't think I'm ever going to sleep through the night again.   I just wake up a couple times.  

I was sitting in my computer chair which is in the front room and Biscuit used his litter box, which is nearby.  I have 2 litter boxes in the front room, near my chair and under the window.  One has crystal litter, he likes to pee in there.  I like that he does that because I can actually look at the urine.  It's not pretty litter this is just plain old crystal litter.  Second box has traditional clumping litter and he likes to poop in there.  

He dug a hole in the crystal litter box, peed, covered it up, dug a hole in the clumping litter box, pooped, covered it up.  Saying the people act like animals at the bus stop is an insult to the animal.  Biscuit has very good manners and I thanked him for it.  The other cats are good as well.  

I decided not to attend church this morning, I will listen to a podcast or something later. The bus ride and all the walking really adds up...

I am doing laundry.  I wear a white hoodie or jacket to the bus stop when it's chilly and I feel a white jacket needs to be washed at least once a week as they get dirty very easily.  So I'm doing that, I have a regular "hoodie" type in a very light beige I have been using and a cream polar fleece type jacket I bought at work last year.  I will need to wear the polar fleece tomorrow it will be in the 50's.  So I am washing the 2 jackets together and will (unusual for me) dry them with a dryer sheet to make them a little softer.  

I can have skin irritation issues with laundry additives so I am careful.  But these are jackets; only my arms will touch and it's generally my back that gets irritated.  

Now I am really done with Next Door.  Let me give some back story.  When we were looking for a house we had unusual criteria: had to be on a bus line, in the Metrolift service area.  Close to work.  Ron added one: I want to be near a Starbucks.  So we found a house that met all that.  

Originally we had wanted 2 bathrooms but settled for one and now it's just me so that's fine.  

(more backstory: Houston has an abundance of low-cost stay a night or week motels.  They provide housing for the homeless but don't have any amenities.).  One of these motels was near the Starbucks and, over years, the homeless overran the store hanging out, begging for money, using (and messing up) the bathroom to the extent they locked the bathrooms and required you to ask the barista for a key.  I had an unpleasant encounter one day with a guy who knew I was an evangelist.  He was a one legged white guy in a wheelchair, an alcoholic if the smell was anything to go by.  He rolled up to me as I was sitting at a table, his leg was bleeding.  I was wearing shorts and he made like he was going to rub the bloody leg all over mine.  I told him to stop and he held out his hand.  

I just so happened (ha ha) to have a New Testament in my bag so I put that in his hand.  He jumped like it bit him, threw it back at me, and took off.  He never bothered me again but that's the kind of experience the Starbucks customer had over there.  I never felt sorry for him because there's Ron, stroke, TBI, half paralyzed, wheelchair user most of the time, blind, hard of hearing, etc. And he got up and went to work today; even with a drinking problem he was functional for work so what's YOUR excuse?  I am pretty harsh.  

So I stopped going.  So did everyone else and they closed it.  They are reopening now down about half a mile away.  Someone was asking what it would be and I said a Starbucks, but it's going to get overrun by the homeless like it did last time.  I posted the comment and Next Door freaked out scolding me about being harsh to "unhoused neighbors" and how they didn't tolerate..blah blah.  

Go to hell.  Let's see you deal with people walking around in their own feces getting in your face, feces all over the bus bench after you have had a long day at work on your feet and all you want to do is sit down, an endless parade of drunks hassling you for money, the stench from people who have shower access but refuse to use it, endless parade of dirty bags full of useless crap rubbing against you and your stuff on the bus, hitting you in the head as they stagger down the aisle, etc.  

I am ALLOWED to use the word "homeless" to describe them.  One family member (boomer generation) used the word "Bums".  I am not using that.  I am not calling them "winos" either even though they are all unilaterally alcoholics.  I think "Homeless" is fair, even though, in Houston, most of them ARE housed at taxpayer expense.  They just go out and beg everyday so they can keep up their bad habits.  "Beggars?" maybe?  Because most of them talk about having an apartment we have agencies make sure of that... 

Anyway I hate that woke crap.  It is bad enough I have to tiptoe at work being "inclusive" (which is rather strangling for an evangelist), my personal life I would like to have some liberty to be me.  

Everyone is made in God's image.  Yet all of us have a sin nature that will send us to hell.  My job is to warn and encourage.  Let me do that.  I will hand you a tract in a bag of candy.  It may also have a New Testament or a Bible Promise book.  You can give it back, or refuse it.  It's my job to offer it.  You can take it and throw away the material and just eat the candy.  You can take the bag and give it to someone else.  You can eat it and enjoy the material.  It's all up to YOU.  But I'm going to offer it because I feel that's my job.  

And I do get people who say no, I accept that graciously, smile, put it back in my bag (I have an ongoing search for good shoulder bags that can hold a quantity of candy and a water bottle).  

God did teach me a lesson on that and I have shared this before: I was at a bus stop at a very busy intersection.  There were 2 JW's there with a stack of "literature".  They came over to me sitting at the bus stop (I look approachable which I think at times is a curse), offered something.  I said no thank you and kept looking down the road.  One woman kept coming back pestering me and getting a progressive attitude.  I finally shouted "I SAID NO" and they left me alone, about that time the bus came. 

God used that to show me how I needed to act: on the first refusal, accept graciously, smile, move on.  And I have found on Bible Handouts sometimes that actually changed their minds and they would wave me back for a Bible, after all.  

Another side note: nearly everyone who laughs at me on a Bible Handout has changed their mind and wanted a Bible when I just laughed with them. I actually reach in my bag when they laugh because I know it's coming.  

Another time I was on a median used by beggars for panhandling.  It was full of trash and really disgusting.  I went down the line of cars and no one wanted anything.  I have a pretty high tolerance for clutter but it was bad so I got a plastic bag out of my stuff and started picking up trash.  And one guy yelled "Hey!" I looked up and he waved me over for a Bible, because I was the kind of person committed to making things better.  

My life ought to be a good witness.  I pray it is, I'm going to fail now and then but I'll repent and move on.  

I need to figure out my breakfast... that's it for now.