Baby.... it's cold outside! Dang. There may be nothing that makes me feel older than cold weather. And it's been downright frigid the last few days. This morning it was zero degrees fahrenheit, and the windchills have been below zero that last couple nights.
Last night we had our twice-monthly group that serves food to the under-served outside the downtown library. I wondered what they would do since it was supposed to be so cold. No one acted like it was anything out of the ordinary, so we put on our longjohns and headed to church. There weren't a lot of folks there, but the few who were seemed pretty happy to see us. We gave them some hot food, some food to take with them, and passed out a number of sleeping bags, blankets, coats, hats, gloves and whatnot. Jane and I ended up giving one guy a ride to the rescue mission afterward. He seemed almost numb, as did many of them.
I wish there was a way I could wax poetic on something like this, but the truth is, it's just sad stuff. I guess. I mean, I don't really do much in the way of serving food. I usually help bag sandwiches or something at the church, but once we arrive at the library I guess I've kind of taken on an overseer-type role. I stand back and observe and see if there is anything that needs taken care of, but I have also taken the stance of simply trying to look at people's faces and learn names. These are real, live people who have substance to them. They're not mere statistics. They have sense of humor, and responsibilities, and needs and wants and concerns. Sure, some of them have behavioral or mental issues, and some struggle with addictions, but they're humans. Sometimes I feel a bit selfish in that I often wonder if *I* don't need this more than some of them! It's so tempting to get caught up in politics, or theology, or thinking I know right from wrong.... and totally lose touch with the reality that "there but for the grace of God go I." I don't know, there was a point last night where I kind of started to get weepy just thinking about it.
So, after last night, today I got up and was feeling fairly good. I also had my storage auction at work today. The "high" temperature for the day is to be 6 degrees. Ugh. I'd done quite a bit of work preparing for this auction, and I really hated even having it - 10 days before Christmas - but it had been too long since I've had one. It did not go well, though, and I would guess this might possibly be my last on-site auction. There were 10 people who registered, and I only took in $25 after paying the auctioneer. And that was for 5 units! This was far and away the worst auction I've ever had, and possibly the worst for the company. It was only made more miserable by the frigid stinking weather.
So how's that for a paradox? Last night I freeze my butt off with a group of people who have next to nothing, and today I froze my butt off auctioning people's stuff who now have next to nothing. Life is weird like that, and I'm feeling older than ever. This weather also makes me extra tired. Just a few more days until the days start getting longer though. Of course that means winter is just now getting started. Ugh. I have about zero ambition right now.
