Monday, April 04, 2011

Homeless Shelters

Listening to Chris and Doug's coughing all hours of day and evening, has me remembering being in homeless shelters. I called it "the shelter hack". With a cough, cough here, a cough, cough there, here a cough, there a cough....

It did not take me long to get sick, and join the chorus of cougher's. I would go back to sleeping on the streets and heal. As soon as I went back to sleep in a shelter ~ rain, rain, rain, that year ~ I quickly caught the hack again. I do not much think of those days. Except at times like this. I have zero recall of being a young mother or mother with sick young children or even my own chronic bronchitis ~ the coughing. Did it annoy me? Not that I remember. I do remember how hard it was to sleep or how annoying it was at 3AM being unable to sleep, listening to the hacking, and not being allowed to get up and go outside for air, or a few moments silence.

Maybe that is why Chris' coughing is slowly driving me insane. Not that I was sane prior to. Lets say "worse insane than I already am". A sudden  COUGH at 11PM or some other time of the day, startles me. Some of those LOUD COUGHS were from Doug, not Chris. Chris is just a chronic cough, cough, COUGH, cough...

...pause for a few minutes, cough, cough, cough. Add his BIG MOUTH, ringing telephones, other neighbor noise to the mix ~ especially when I am tired, but too early to go to bed times ~ eight, nine PM or later, it is just too much. Did I write this already? The trio of sounds, seemingly one: Doug's stereo or TV, John's TV, Chris' TV ~ the other night, oh not LOUD, just loud enough for me to hear them all being unable to concentrate, nor fall to sleep. Whatever am I going to do. Hope I do not flip.

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