The Weak Samaritan?

Despite not believing myself to have slept particularly well last night by the time my cellphone alarm sounded at 4 a.m. to get me up, I had evidently not heard my wife come home following work at the Thai restaurant where she is employed part-time.

I honestly did not expect that she was going to come home, especially after our cross exchange before she left here yesterday towards mid-afternoon.

Yesterday I also wrote that I hoped to get on my way this morning by 5:45 a.m. so that I could have some exercise at the elementary school playground three or four blocks from here, but I was not to leave until just a few ─ two or three ─ minutes before 6 a.m.

No matter ─ I found it too inhospitably cold for exercising. I knew the playground equipment would be encased in ice, and I only had my thin gloves with me. The ski-type gloves were deliberately left at home because they would be too cumbersome to try and tuck away once I was at my destination ─ the Real Canadian Superstore that opens at 7 a.m.

And if I tried exercising with the thin gloves, the warmth from my hands would start thawing the ice even during a first pull-up, and the gloves would become wet. With the misty frozen night as cold as it was, I had no desire to be wearing even slightly wet thin gloves.

I had an experience that revealed to me how lacking I am as a human being ─ or maybe I am being too self-critical, for I do not know the full circumstances.

The incident occurred very soon after I had crossed the mouth of Green Timbers Way as I walked 140th Street (Google Map) towards 100th Avenue where I would be turning right.

Maybe a fourth of the way ahead of me to 100th Avenue, I could see something dark on the sidewalk right by the high chain link fence that is a feature all the way along that stretch of 140th Street.

At first I though that it might be an animal ─ maybe a large raccoon. But 140th Street was fairly busy with traffic, and the forest on that side of 140th Street is inaccessible to any animal as large as that, unless it climbed the high fence.

And it was not disturbed by the passing traffic.

I soon believed that it might just be a black plastic garbage bag and its contents.

Only when I drew close did I realize that it was someone lying almost on his side with his hooded head ─ and shoulders and upper back ─ basically against the fence; and almost in a fetal-like bend, he had one of his booted legs extended down the sidewalk towards me.

And so he was only taking up maybe a third of the width of the sidewalk ─ the third farthest from the street.

I walked past him, not noticing if he was aware of me.

Was he somehow sleeping in the wretched cold? It was not yet daylight, and the sidewalks were often coated with frost enough that it sparkled and made soft scrunching sounds as one walked.

It seemed odd that a homeless person would choose to lie down there ─ for almost just around the corner from Green Timbers Way behind me is a large building called the Foxglove Supportive Housing and Shelter (Google Map).

And just about across Green Timbers Way from Foxglove is the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre ─ it was likely closed to the public at that point, but I suspect that the noisy heating / ventilation system that can be heard for some distance likely is a means of warm air.

This image shows the potential means ─ the grey lengthy low rectangular structure taking up the space between the reddish almost chimney-like edifice to the right and the green-coloured waste containment facility to the left.

"The grey lengthy low rectangular structure" is grated all across its surface, and I assume that it is likely blowing forth warm air, and not cold.

Any local street person would know of these two buildings ─ and there is a 7-Eleven a little further down 140th Street just by the intersection with Fraser Highway. It is virtually across 140th Street from the Jim Pattison building. Street people often can be found hanging about outside the 7-Eleven at all hours.

So there was no need for some homeless person to choose to lie down where he was. I could only imagine that he may have been somebody who was abominably drunk and had succumbed to his overindulgence whilst walking to somewhere else; or maybe he was an overdose.

If he was in any condition to have been roused by me out of my curiosity, then he would eventually rouse from discomfort entirely on his own and be on his way once again.

If he was deceased, then there was nothing I could possibly do.

In an hour at most, it would no longer be dark. Besides, if you again refer to the map, a little further along Green Timbers Way from Foxglove and Jim Pattison are the BC RCMP Divisional Headquarters.

Whoever the fellow was, he would not be unnoticed indefinitely, even if he did not rouse and move along on his own.

I had all of these thoughts running through my mind as I kept on with my hike. It was not as if I found the guy on some remote and seldom unused back road, or hidden in a dark parking lot in back of a building that might not even open on a Sunday.

I often see people seeking to sleep out in the cold when I am on my earlier walks, roughly between 2 - 4 a.m. Sometimes the people are just sunk into a bit of a heap where they are sat. I could be visiting one or more such individuals every darned night! There are just far too many of them for a 74-year-old who does not drive and has limited funds to be trying to play Good Samaritan.

But yes, this guy does bother me somewhat when I think of the passing encounter. 

Would you have tried to rouse him? And then do what ─ offer him some cash? And what if he was only a drunk who was perfectly able to buy the booze that put him where he was? Or a junkie under similar circumstances?

Anyway, the way my life is going, I keep imagining that my near future is likely going to be seeing me dying alone somewhere.

Enough of the musing.

I was to have to kill a bit of time because I arrived at the store before it had yet opened, but I did what I came to do and then walked my load home ─ but I didn't walk 140th Street, so I have no idea if Sleeping Beauty moved on or was roused or even tended to.

I had a fair weight to tote home ─ a three-kg (6.61387 pounds) tub of honey in one hand; and a 1-kg (2.20462 pounds) box of baking soda and two one-litre cartons of heavy (whipping) cream ─ this latter load seemed to weigh more than the honey.

My left foot began to grow lame during my final one-mile stretch from home. I am hoping that it was due to the extra weight, for I want to have a five-mile+ walk this evening in order to free myself up from an early a.m. walk tonight. 

In other words, I want to drink some beers later this evening while watching some T.V. with my brother instead of getting to bed relatively early so that I can get up at 1:30 a.m. to begin readying for any such outing.

When I got home from my shopping shortly before 8:30 a.m., no one was up, so I returned to bed for an hour or so. Eventually I thought that maybe my brother was up and watching T.V., so I rose and checked. But no ─ it was my wife who was up.

She seemed to be freshening up and readying to go somewhere ─ did she have to work a full day today? The restaurant opens at 11 a.m.

So I sat here at my computer which I keep in my bedroom, my back to the open bedroom door.

She passed by the open doorway a few times, but said nothing. And then wordlessly left.

That hurt a little, but I guess it's where we are in our marriage. If that's the way she likes it, then so be it.

My brother was unusually late in getting up ─ he must have been hitting the hard stuff last night.

We didn't start watching T.V. until well past 10:30 a.m. He invited me to put our Android TV Box to work, so initially I tuned in a 1½-hour YouTube documentary from 2016: Rejected: Ukraine’s Unwanted Children (Child Documentary) | Real Stories.

Unfortunately, it was clear that it was going to largely be subtitled, and my brother's vision is worse than mine for this sort of thing, so I had to tune it out.

We even tried an hour-long Rumble video streamed on November 24: LIVE @9PM ET: WRONGTHINK: Border Report EXCLUSIVE: We’re Funding the Worst People Imaginable. But the hostess kept blabbing on and saying nothing of interest as she prefaced what was to come; and when after 11½ minutes she was wasting time seeing who individual live viewers were and then identifying those familiar to her, we had enough and tuned out.

I then resorted to a flash or thumb drive for a YouTube video that I had downloaded some months ago, narrated by Sigourney Weaver. I cannot now say that this is the precise video source, but it does seem to be the proper video at a little under an hour (54:17): Rome In The 1st Century - Episode 1: Order From Chaos (ANCIENT HISTORY DOCUMENTARY).

Millions of people played important parts in the remarkable history of Rome in the first century AD. Head and shoulders above everyone else stands Augustus.

Born to an unremarkable family, Augustus got a lucky break when his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, adopted him. When Caesar was murdered shortly afterwards, Augustus threw himself into the murderous mix of Roman politics.

Allying himself with Mark Antony, they killed their enemies and divided the empire between them. Augustus took Rome and Antony took Egypt, where he met Cleopatra. This made him a threat. Augustus was not prepared to take any chances and attacked first. His army destroyed most of the Egyptian fleet and Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves shortly afterwards.

Returning home, Augustus was a hero and soon became Rome’s first emperor. Abroad, he expanded the empire enormously, while domestically he played the politics carefully, using popular acclaim to reinforce his power.

Augustus was a complex man: brutal but compassionate, and austere but popular. In public, he was a religious and moral conservative, projecting himself as a pious man. In private, his daughter, Julia, was having a string of affairs.

Above all, though, Augustus was determined. When Julia’s behavior became a scandal, he banished her from Rome for life. Shortly afterwards, the famous poet Ovid published some indecent poetry: he, too, was banished for life.

Against all odds, Augustus ruled as Emperor for over 40 years, surviving plots, rebellions and mutinies. When he died, he was declared to be a god. His rule created the image of Imperial Rome that lasts to this day. He was the Emperor by which his heirs would be judged.

After that, we just watched an episode of The Conners ─ the final episode ("A Judge and a Priest Walk into a Living Room...") of season four.

Lord, it's after 6:30 p.m. ─ I have to ready and get out of here on my walk. That's enough blogging for today ─ I will have no time later.