Saturday, December 5, 2009

Day 182: December 3rd 2009. The Lost Soul

Toben was supposed to get a bike this morning. He was excited all week for it.

"Yup, I can't wait to get me a bike t'murrah!" in his light Louisiana accent.

He met another homeless man who worked up enough money to get to Seattle. He offered his bike up to Toben. So instead of taking a walk over to G street pier, where we usually go first thing in the morning to catch the first rays of the sun, we headed over to where they would meet. They were scheduled to meet at 9:30am by the first wooden benches north of the Maritime Museum. The weather was real miserable, cloudy skies, chilly air. Regardless of the weather though, there was a homeless man who walked the harbor up and down all day long. It was like he was a programed robot. At 630 he would be walking past the Coast Guard base. At 710 he was walking by the Star of India. He would walk the length of the harbor from about the airport to the Midway never speaking to anybody or even making eye contact with anybody, carrying an army napsack over his shoulder. He was one of the first people I started recognizing here when I arrived. So I asked Toben that morning


"Man, I wonder what that guy is thinking all the time. I keep seeing him doing the same thing everyday" and without a pause or any hesitation Toben responded like he had the one and only answer.
" He's a lost soul, destined to walk until he finds his purpose and does good on this earth before he can depart. He's stuck here, kind of like a ghost"

A lost soul. Man I hope Im not a lost soul.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Day 175-179 November 26th- 30th, 2009. Satan, and Satan's Demons and Spawns on Thanksgiving Weekend

"Do you know what its like to be injected with all kinds of drugs you don't know about? Do you have any idea?" Ted seriously asked me and Toben as he puffed from the apple. We were leaning on the black waist high metal fence of Ace parking, propped up against our bags. It was about 6, already dark and we were just sitting, smoking, getting ready to start spreading our tarps, mats and sleeping bags.

"Its worse than prison. You sit there like this" as he laid a lifeless head on his left shoulder while his tongue was hanging out like a dead dog. "You are druelling all over yourself and you cant help it and you're constantly thinking-'aaaaaaaaahh. am I dead? Am I a zombie?' haha, you know?"

The fact that he laughed sent shivers to my spine. He was aware of everything that happened and in a normal state of mind, enough to recognize that it was really shitty. To me that was fucked up. Ted started explaining earlier, as he took his first puff from the apple, how he was committed to mental institution in Phoenix due to his religous beliefs.

"You see when I first realized I was god, I used this machine to pound out emails, like a thousand emails per minuted to everybody in the 7th Day Adventist Church, which my dad was affiliated with, to let them know I was the second coming of god"
"Like spam email?"
"Yeah, the same machine they use to send out spam, I used to send emails to let the masses know. They actually convened a meeting about me and decided I was crazy. They told my dad that if I didn't stop proclaiming I was God he would lose his monthly stipend from the church. So my mom took me aside later and told me that I had to stop, or they would lose the money they were getting from the church. That really made me angry and I thought- 'What?! So this is all about money?!' So they disowned me and never talked to me again."
"Damn man, thats fucked up"
"Yeah, they called the police, I got arrested and got sent to mental institution. They diagnosed me with paranoid schizophrenia, and I was committed for a year. I think it was worse than prison. They use this thing called a burrito wrap, like a cloth and they wrap you in so that you can't move anything. They strap you too."
"I can only imagine man. That sounds horrible" I tried hard to imagine and what I was capable of was probably heaven compared to the reality. I tried to imagine a place where I was convinced I was sane, but everybody else was convinced I was crazy and not only that but they also treated me like I was crazy. That in itself I thought, them treating me like I was crazy, would probably make me crazy; it would just slowly manifest itself in me. Besides all the shit they injected me with to 'treat' me, that I had no clue about. It was like eating acid and not knowing it then tripping and not having a clue what the intense effects were. The hallucinations and the intensity would probably turn me crazy.

Then I remembered a tale, I forgot where I read, about a king that was just and loved by his people. Then the water source of the village became infected and made all the people insane except the king who drank from his own private well. Suddenly all the people hated the king, and were convinced he was unjust although he hadn't changed the way he treated them. The king couldn't understand what happened and in trying to please his people by living with them, drank from the infected water source. The king was again loved by his people.

"Oh, so there goes talkative Ted when he's high. Saying too much and threatning my security. I better shut up."

Two Mexican ladies came a little later, set up a table with freshly cooked turkey and ham. We slept well and full on Thanksgiving day.

* * *

Ted's hanging head with his tongue out kept fucking with me the next day. The image kept replaying in my head and "Am I zombie?" kept ringing in my ears. There were somethings Ted would say that would go in one ear, right out the other. Things about the angels that spoke to him, that he must destroy 'satan and satan's demons and spawns" and the only way to do that would be to nuke earth and start over again. According to Ted, the world would be a perfect place with humans living with a "700 year growing old curse" or a lifespan of 700 years where they would be in the physical form of a 17-23 year old. For Ted, his religion was all about "winning" and "conquering". I asked him later that day.

"Ted, why do you have to kill all these innocent people to destroy satan? And mess up earth?"
"That's the only way. I have to become human to destroy satan and satans demons and spawns and nuke em"
"But doesn't god have better, more sophisticated weapons to destroy satan, rather than using a man made weapon that destroys everything?"
"I do have weapons called spiritual scanners that I could attack satan and satan's demons and spawns with, but the technology is so advanced and sacred it must be protected because of satan or satans demons and spawns get a hold of it, it could mean the end of the world. I was the one who gave humans the knowledge of nuclear power. That technology existed long before huamsn came up with it, with my permission"
"I just think you are too focused on destroying everything and the exclusion of everybody. You don't like too many people"
"Oh, Omar, you're so naive. You think this world is full of love, love this, love that. You're so young. You dont know this world is full of hate. You don't know about the hate I've been through. I know you think I'm crazy"
"I don't think you are crazy, Ted, I think you are angry"

"Wouldn't you? I had everything and it was all taken away from me because people were jealous. They hated me. One day when you have an attractive wife some younger guy is gonna come and take her from you and she's gonna cheat on you and you won't know it until someone else comes up and tell you about it. You won't believe it, then you'll realize it was the truth. Then she'll want a divorce and she will want to take everything you have. And she will, because of the system that prefers women. Or maybe you'll have a successful company and the employees you trusted most are going to steal your source code and sell it to another company even though you are paying them well. You'll try to bring yourself back up then your family will say you are crazy because they are afraid of losing their money. You'll try and buy a new house and have an equity with a private lender, but he'll fuck you and take your house and you'll lose more than $200,000"

I didn't agree with Ted about destroying all of earth, but I guess I understood why he was so pissed at the world. Crazy? I've seen crazy out on these streets, not Ted. If there was some craziness, I thought, it was as a result of the mental institution. No matter what aspect I asked him about, relating to his story, he had it covered. And when Ted didn't speak to me about his religion, he was a real cool guy. He constantly told stories of his life when he wasn't homeless; his 700 bottle wine cellar that "was full all the time" with an automatic temprature guage and alarm system, his 67 Mustang he restored himself, his wine-red-interior Corvette, and his travels all around Europe and Mexico with girlfriends, escorts and such. We were talking of cocaine once, I don't know why but I asked him if he had ever tried it.
"What do you think Omar? I had money. I like to party and I got only the best"
No doubt, he was a very well spoken guy and told him that once when he asked me if I thought he was crazy.

"I think you are a very well spoken guy, actually. I don't even think you deserve to be on the streets"
"Ha! Well spoken." He looked at me with disbelief that I said that. "You know the judge told me that when I was defending myself, after they filed terrorism charges against me. He said I was a well spoken man"

* * *

"Omar, Omar. Wake up. I got it!"
"What Ted? Its 5 in the morning man. Its dark and cold. We still have another hour of sleep before we have to get up. What is it?"
"I got it. I'm gonna declare war on humanity. On everybody. The angels and I agree"
"Oh man, you woke me up to tell me that Ted. Just relax man, you can declare war at any time, there's no rush. We can talk about this later"

But he couldn't wait, he was talking to himself, contemplating and I couldn't go back to sleep. He smoked a cigarette, then quickly rolled up his sleeping bags and left. I didn't see him again that day. It was Monday the 30th of November.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Current Standings

Skated Memphis, TN to Tyler, TX: 468 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=16+Autumn+Grove+Cove,+Cordova,+TN+38018&daddr=Imagination+Dr+to:Fairley+Rd+to:Tunica,+MS+to:Lula+Rich+Rd+to:helena,+ar+to:clarendon,+ar+to:AR-33+N+to:34.783356,-91.914368+to:Little+Rock,+AR+to:Texarkana,+AR+to:Tyler,+TX&hl=en&geocode=Feb6FwId0Vem-inrV2avTJl_iDFHLDp61v2vQA%3BFXAsFgIdJiKk-g%3BFVAuFgIdhO6h-g%3BFYI-EQId492c-imXepT7BjrVhzFlXF_cbJupLQ%3BFWx1DQIdqqab-g%3BFQvhDgId5K2Z-imlth3BW9XUhzEMG4NKrwY81g%3BFSBgEQIdt6mO-imNqqBcE1rThzEguZT4Mn6HFQ%3BFRCaEgId8G-M-g%3B%3BFXEwEgIdxcV_-imbVh-hNKHShzEXW_MNEPUFNA%3BFQBI_gEdSBll-imLqVntcGw0hjEOnUgIWiDaVQ%3BFRyk7QEdOtJR-inj-aseBcxJhjEccHdxfVwoPg&mra=dpe&mrcr=3&mrsp=8&sz=10&via=1,2,4,7,8&dirflg=w&sll=34.627558,-91.71936&sspn=0.5345,0.88028&ie=UTF8&ll=33.508194,-93.714752&spn=0.541608,0.88028&z=10)

Rode Tyler, TX to Austin, TX: 230 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=tyler,+tx&daddr=corsicana,+tx+to:Austin,+TX&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=34.90741,-90.072615&sspn=0.532691,0.88028&ie=UTF8&z=8)

Skated Austin, TX to Llano, TX: 74.6 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Austin,+TX&daddr=Spicewood,+Texas+to:Llano,+TX&hl=en&geocode=FRHXzQEdK48s-ikvA8ygmbVEhjF61WnUS0abXQ%3BFdAE0QEdiUAm-imnauanzD1bhjEO7MQSo80xew%3BFbFZ1QEdolYe-imTOn1mH0xahjGFs-KNbhTRKQ&mra=mr&dirflg=w&sll=30.465543,-98.158722&sspn=0.139971,0.22007&ie=UTF8&ll=31.784217,-99.596558&spn=2.208485,3.521118&t=p&z=8)

Rode Llano, TX to Sweetwater, TX: 185 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Llano,+TX&daddr=ballinger,+tx+to:sweetwater,+tx&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=31.611288,-99.61853&sspn=2.212604,3.521118&ie=UTF8&ll=31.615966,-99.541626&spn=2.212493,3.521118&t=p&z=8)

Skated Sweetwater, TX to Gail, TX: 69.5 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Sweetwater,+TX&daddr=snyder,+tx+to:gail,+tx&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&dirflg=w&sll=32.711044,-101.217041&sspn=1.093075,1.760559&ie=UTF8&ll=32.609303,-100.925903&spn=1.09432,1.760559&t=p&z=9)

Rode Gail, TX to Lamesa, TX: 31.7 miles

Skated Lamesa, TX to Seminole, TX: 40.9 miles

Rode Lamesa, TX to Hobbs, NM: 30 miles

Skated Hobbs, NM to Lordsburg, NM: 394 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=hobbs,+nm&daddr=lovington,+nm+to:alamogordo,+NM+to:las+cruces,+nm+to:deming,+nm+to:Co+Rd+B001%2FMuir+Rd%2FNM-113+N+to:lordsburg,+nm&hl=en&geocode=FZQA8wEd2ETa-Sndq3y_A5X8hjGAaI_yoFEitA%3BFYiv9gEdtgbX-SkVKdOxfdr8hjGLMbFfuzyP-w%3BFcwB9gEdtyyv-SlR1HMiY1DghjG9YAuYjwUHeQ%3BFfwL7QEdH7Gi-SlpmAZFxxrehjG9Mj_xHdBtYw%3BFZph7AEd0LuT-Sl3Pj8b4cPehjEuC7EHIrHNhA%3BFSSA6wEdCNuH-Q%3BFZig7QEdxzyF-Sl55WnFIQLZhjHpCduwNTw58A&mra=ls&via=5&sll=32.352123,-107.817078&sspn=1.097452,1.760559&ie=UTF8&t=p&z=7)

Walked Lordsburg, NM to Duncan, AZ: 35.7 miles

Skated Duncan, AZ to Gila Bend, AZ: 267 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Duncan,+AZ&daddr=1000+w+baseline+rd,+mesa,+AZ+to:Gila+Bend,+AZ&hl=en&geocode=FTRK8wEdQy9_-SljnspX22vYhjHjmeWWlpbrXw%3B%3BFXC-9gEd4hNI-SnjfTCNQCjVgDErggvuexfqbQ&mra=ls&dirflg=w&sll=33.307577,-111.939697&sspn=1.085707,1.760559&ie=UTF8&t=p&z=7)

Rode Gila Bend, AZ to Calexico, CA: 178 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Gila+Bend,+AZ&daddr=calexico,+ca&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=33.070665,-110.47903&sspn=2.177263,3.521118&ie=UTF8&ll=32.907262,-115.241089&spn=2.181244,3.521118&t=p&z=8)

Walked Calexico, CA to Ocotillo, CA: 31.6 miles

Rode Ocotillo, CA to San Diego, CA: 88.7 miles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=ocotillo,+ca&daddr=San+Diego,+CA&hl=en&geocode=FW-N8wEdvBEW-Sm5uxAo88LZgDGB3Xz8L9hRJg%3B&mra=ls&sll=32.702945,-115.74733&sspn=0.546594,0.88028&ie=UTF8&t=p&z=9)


Total skated: 1,314 miles
Total rode in car: 743.4 miles
Total walked: 67.3 miles
Total of journey so far: 2,124.7 miles