Day: -6 The Pee-ing Bridge

So now I am late for my first day of work, and non-plussed by having been mistaken for a homeless person. Walking East on King Street I pass under a bridge that carries a strong smell of urine.

In the gathering dark I fail to notice the older man standing at the side of the street in mid-stream. Not sure who was more startled, but needless to say surprising a man in the midst of a pee is, well, messy.

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After uttering several curses and struggling his way back to full dress we faced off on the sidewalk. Me in my naive state is unsure what to say, if anything. He in his irate and inebriated state is unsure where to go, if anywhere.

Thinking I have nothing left to lose I ask him of he knows the way to the shelter. Well, say no more brother. Right away he see's I am another person down on his luck in need of some tips and pointers about surviving the mean streets. He takes me under his wing, his slightly damp wing, and says if I help him get home, he'll tell me where the shelter is.

Now I'm thinking "Great, on top of everything else I have found a dirty old man looking for...". With lots of effort, we make it back to his building, the old Dominion Hotel at Queen and Sumach

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Grateful for the help, and without the slightest hint of latent dirty old man-ness, he points the way to the shelter.

Three hours late, and having traveled exactly 575 feet from my starting point, I arrive at the shelter just in time for the end of my shift. But I have learned lots, and as the old proverb says, "The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step".