Rough Rendition of a Daily Routine

For those of you who don't know, I am currently homeless, staying at a shelter in Key West, Florida. It's called K.O.T.S. here's their website www.fkoc.org/emergency_shelter.html I figured I would give a run down on my current daily routine as a homeless person. So those of whom, who wish to want to know, can get a slight glimpse of a unemployed homeless person's journey living in a so called "Paradise". Close enough I guess, and I know it's better than living on the streets of New York City in the winter time. Don't get me wrong, I love New York City but it's much better with a roof over your head.

Well, first, starting from KOTS, you get a wake up call at 6:30 am. You walk out to the "common" area, drop off your pink hand towel and sheet that you were issued the night before, announcing to the monitor the "bunk" you were in ie. B-11 (I seem to be getting that particular "bunk" lately). I put bunks in quotations because they're not really bunk beds, it's a flat row of 14 green mats each side of the tents, which really aren't tents, they are more like half domed army barracks...ANYWAY... Find a white plastic chair to sit down in, get some water, go to the bathroom and smoke a cigarette if I have one. Wait until 7:30am, when they kick everybody out. Get on my bike and ride to the Senior Center where I can get Internet access with my net book. My buddy/running partner, Bobby is 60 and he can get into the senior center, I am not quite old enough. I guess age does have it's benefits. I sit outside while he goes in and gets free coffee, goes on the computer, watches Let's Make A Deal and the Price Is Right and gets lunch at 12 noon.

Now, there's going to be different variations on a typical day, for instance.
Monday thru Wednesday. Bobby and I walk over to the MCC church at precisely 9:40am. It's the only time I ever see Bobby ready and on time, like clockwork. He loves his bag lunch!! We get a bag lunch which you get to pick between a PB&J sandwich or something else like chicken or tuna salad sandwich. They usually also have cookies or crackers and always a can of corn. We both get a can of corn in which I open with a P-38 (can opener) and feed about 20 chickens that roam the area of the senior center. And yes, I am "friends" with the Key West Chickens on Facebook. After the chicken feed, I proceed to continue with my Internet stuff outside while Bobby goes in to watch his game shows. I am trying to find different ways to make money online through affiliate marketing. I currently have over 40 Twitter accounts that have a combined following of over 50,000 followers. It has not been very lucrative yet and I can't quit the job I don't have yet, but I am researching the possibilities. I am banking on the affiliate website Clickbank. I have made a total of 62.14 on clickbank..so far since 2010.

At about 3:30pm, Bobby comes out of his hibernation and then we're off to the soup kitchen for dinner, which is served everyday at 4pm by St. Mary's church on Flagler Avenue. About a 15 minute bike ride. St. Mary's soup kitchen serves an average of 75 people per day. After we eat, we can "hang" out until 5:30pm then we have to move on. We start making our way back to KOTS slowly (another 15 minute bike ride) as they don't open until 6:30pm and nobody can line up before then. The time spent in between depends on how much money we have or can possibly get for beer and cigarettes. We usually somehow get a 4 pack of Natty Ice (Natural Ice), the official beer of the homeless at least in Key West. Then we usually sit on the seawall in the shade along US 1 and drink our 2 beers a piece, which of course, is never enough, in hopes that the cops don't roll up on us. We are somewhat responsible drinkers in that we pour our beers in non see through cups or bottles. My empty bottle of choice is the brown 42 oz Arizona Green Tea bottle and Bobby uses his plastic Circle K cup and he ALWAYS has to have ice in his cup because he is high maintenance. So we have to stop at a local bar or a hotel to get ice. Taking away from my beer-thirty time.

We got lucky one evening sitting on the seawall when this car stops in front of us in the middle of US 1. (Luckily it's a 4 lane road and nobody was behind them) Two people get out and hand us 2 grocery bags of stuff. It was a 12 pack of Coors Lite bottles, 2 half drunk bottles of wine, a half bottle of Skyy vodka and 3 round aluminum to go containers containing pasta with chicken. We were thrilled and thankful! We had a great time! Disregarding the 10pm curfew KOTS has. If you don't get to KOTS by 10pm, you can't get in. So we slept in the mangroves on the other side of the seawall. The cops didn't show up until the alcohol was all gone and it was about 9 o'clock in the morning. I prompted the meeting by trying not to litter and throw away my EMPTY beer can in the trash can. As I looked over to my left, there was a cop watching me throw away the beer can. Caught red handed, I tried to explain it was empty. She pulled her car off of US 1, up along the sidewalk/bike path seawall and walked back to where Bobby was still sleeping next to the seawall. I told him to get up, the cops were coming. She checked our ID's and I had explained that a couple of tourists had dropped off some food for us that they couldn't take on the plane and the police officer said that we couldn't have a picnic on the side of the road and that we had to take it someplace else. All in all, she was a cool cop, I must admit. I understand they have a job to do. Bobby and I know to be polite and not to be an asshole. We both concur that's how most of these idiots wind up in jail, by being an asshole and I just sing the song, I Fought The Law and The Law Won, you can't win. Another close call but I can honestly still say, I have never been to jail. I hope I just didn't jinx it.
Before I leave, I want to thank St.Mary's Soup Kitchen,for feeding me everyday, K.O.T.S, for putting me up and putting up with me, the Senior Center for providing me with internet access (faster speeds there than the library), shade from the sun (the average temp lately has been in the 90's) and not calling the cops on me for loitering and/or trespassing.AND last but most certainly not the least,a thank you to the fine men and women who, work in paradise at the Key West police department, for not throwing me in jail.....

P.S. If you want to know what a Key West rooster sounds like,(It's actually a Big Pine Key rooster..don't tell anybody) check out my YouTube channel, FloridaKeysNature. My latest video called, "The Rooster Goes...." http://youtu.be/E7FZy73OmcM

Until the next adventure kids....Drink a beer, Be polite and Stay out of jail.

This has been a Public Service Message brought to you by the homeless Poetic Drummer.

No Arrest....Yet in Key West

In Key West, if you're homeless, every place you go is trespassing. I bought food from the local Albertson's grocery store from my own food stamp card, sat down at the store on the curb, to consume what I had just bought and a Key West Police officer came up about 10 minutes into the consumption. With my receipt in hand, the officer ordered my co homeless buddy and I to move on without question or she would put us in jail for trespassing. I have since gotten a trespass @ McDonald's AND Citco (gas station)) in one sitting because my buddy, Bobby, is good at panhandling. I can not panhandle to save my life. He is good and ALMOST a professional, getting us money for cigarettes and beer. So it's beneficial for me to stick around and see what he can get. For the record, I have NEVER been to jail. I would hate to go after all these years for trespassing and/or drinking in public, both of which are the most popular offenses of homeless people in Key West. For shits and giggles, here is the most popular website in Monroe County. http://www.keysso.net After you get there, click on Arrest/Mug Shots..Very entertaining, I guess because I probably know, know of, or have seen about a third of the people on there... FYI..Municipal Ordinance Violation means...Drinking in Public.

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