Breaking Ground

 Oops, I published this link on the wrong blog. 

Breaking Ground

http://newyorkersforendinghomelessness.org/

Hypnagogic Hallucinations

 Hypnagogic hallucinations are brief hallucinations that take place as you're falling asleep. They're common and usually nothing to worry about. They're usually visual in nature, such as images of patterns, shapes or flashing lights.

Hypnopompic hallucinations occur while a person is waking up, and hypnagogic hallucinations occur while falling asleep. Together, hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are referred to as hypnagogia.

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Reading a novel, I had to search NSFW (not safe to work) and hypnagogic hallucinations. Oh, my I did not know that. I used to see things ~ eyes closed, trying to fall to sleep. I would see things, like people at a curb entering a car, as if I was actually watching them from a window.

I thought that I was somehow seeing live action through the eyes of someone else. Like I was psychically connected to them. I started doing that after I was off the streets. Today I will wake up still dreaming ~ I guess that would also be an hallucination ~ because I am awake, yet seeing the images, as if I am still in the dream.

Alternately, I will continue "writing" the dream in my mind. Sometimes those two things occur at the same time. Such as: "she went to hide under the covers," says my thoughts, and I see her go hide under the covers. Even though I am aware that I am no longer sleeping.

If that makes any sense.

How To Be Good

 
How To Be Good by Nick Hornby has quite a bit of dialogue about homeless people in England. 

Part of a sentence says, "...giving lasagne away to starving drunks." I benefited from many people's generosity with meals on the streets.  Mother Teresa felt even a drunk deserves a good meal. So do starving children in third world countries. (why are they called "third world countries" btw?)

Unrelated to homeless issues a woman thinks "I do suddenly have the sense of being worth that much, and this is an entirely new and not altogether unwelcome feeling." 

Funeral

 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSwTwVPbjcLX5Thi7KOrHMtf_HfPLO36n&si=ykGOrsiMs_xak-Uk

Funeral playlist at YouTube.

Watching Sally Field movie, "Two Weeks," yesterday; her adult sons and daughter were arguing over what songs to include on her funeral playlist.

Or perhaps that should be "memorial." I spent the rest of the evening creating my own playlist. My son and two daughters already picked Terry Jack's "Seasons in the Sun," for theirs; they probably remember that it is mine also.

I often said, "I want an Irish wake." I should look into that ~ perception that it is a dance party. My songs were mostly dance songs. Some were just titles that apply to my life, even if the lyrics did not have much to do with my life.

"I was born by a river..." not in a little tent, but in nearby hospital, "and just like that river, I have been running ever since."

"Moving on, moving on..." I found my place in "the warm California sun," specifically, Long Beach

"I took a wrong turn and I just kept going." Did not have a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. 

Peace on Earth songs. 

Depression songs, followed by Hope songs. Something like that. A mix. It is rather long. I will have to give it a listen and see if I can edit out some of the songs.

I probably saw the movie "Two Weeks," previously. Likely on Lifetime or Hallmark. Could see where the commercial breaks would be if shown on regular channels, not at Amazon Prime. 

Decided to post the link here, so I can later e-mail it to my heirs. To do with as they will. 

Eddie C

 

Bear

 

I have moved photos from my Homeless in Long Beach Blog to a USB thingy. 

When I went to my apartment complex's Computer Lab, the old computers were gone ~ no more CD drawers. I did not think to look for a USB port. I am going down later tonight to try to print them.

But if that does not work, I will try printing from this blog. 

Don't Cry For Me

 Don't Cry For Me,  is a novel by Daniel Black. It is basically a father, who is dying of cancer, writing a long letter to his son. He explains why he was hard on the son, seeking forgiveness. 

There was a homeless guy in the novel. The father, Jacob, is mired in depression. He is walking by a church, stopped to listen to the singing. This caused tears to come to his eyes. Mind you, he was from a generation when men did not show emotions or cry.

A dirty, smelly homeless guy stands next to him, saying the church gave him hope. The guy refused to tell Jacob his name; said no one ever asked him his name. Thinking back, I would say that is basically true of us street people. There were exceptions, of course. A quote:

"We were told what to think ~ not how to think."