Open Streets

 Being goofy with my coworkers—not sure if I get it across here, where I express distress about the workplace, that work can be very jolly. 

For Open Streets yesterday, with the main thoroughfare closed to motor traffic, we grilled burgers and hotdogs to give away with chips and fizzy water. 

Half our lunch guests were the street folks who hang out doing business (sex, drugs, whatever) on the corner—it was nice to have a friendly interaction with them. They are not always peaceful and well… One young woman said she hadn’t eaten in days. 

It’s like we’re in a foxhole or the trenches and no help is coming. But we often have a lot of fun among ourselves.

Some lunchers were regular customers, and a few were newcomers come from the festival. We had bags of squashed vegetables in the parking lot, leftovers dropped off from a giveaway somewhere else. If you’d been willing to cook them all up the same day, they’d have made a nice stew, but few people wanted them. (Some have no stove.) A woman who has a small farm with chickens, ducks, and two pigs came by and was excited to take them for her animals. We took her name in case we get more—we have no organic compost recycling outlet.

A good day.