I guess once they see me rootin' in Dumpsters or garbage cans for food they can kinda understand why I have this rather revoltin' nickname.  Sorry 'bout that; can't help it.  A guy's gotta have some subsidence, you know ...

I guess if I can't afford to go anywhere, I'd get food my own durn self.  Don't want to starve to death ...

I was once living in a nice house here in Fort Worth, with my wife and kids.  Had a real good job, too.  Then the housing market went to shits, and my house ended up getting foreclosed.  Right after that, I ended up getting hurt on my job, and now I cannot work again.  Been trying to get on governmental assistance, but getting nowhere fast.  My wife got tired of me feelin' sorry for myself, so she up and left me.  Took the car, the kids, the keys ... everything.  Basically she told me if I couldn't help myself, then she didn't need to be around me any longer.

Nice woman, huh?  Sounds like she took advantage of a man who was down on his luck.  I didn't ask to get hurt.  Have real bad back problems; always in pain.  Had back surgery twice, but it didn't even touch the pain.  On several drugs, to try to quell it, but all it did was make me goofy-headed, so I don't even take the pills and suffer in silence, especially since I'm now on the streets.

I sleep anywhere I can find somewhere to lay my head:  under abutments, bridges, on park benches, behind businesses, in the alleyways.  When the weather is nasty, I cover myself with garbage bags or used blankets or wear several layers of clothing.  I hate sleeping outside, especially when the weather is bad or if it's lightning and thundering!

I pray to God to keep me from getting sick, but it don't always work.  When I get sick, I go to the county hospital for treatment and get on the indigent care program.  There's no damn way I can afford the bills, so this is the only route.  They send 'em to my wife, she sends 'em right back, basically tellin' the hospital to stuff the medical bills up their ass, 'cause her husband is no longer living there and is now homeless.

It's a never ending battle.

I wonder if my wife or my children even think of their old, broken down daddy ... somehow I doubt it: they got their own lives to lead.  Yet I think about them all the time: wonder how the kids are doing in school, how the wife is doing now that I am no longer crampin' her style, wonder if she found another man ...  guess I wasn't good enough, so she up and dumped me.

Maybe "The Garbage Man" is a good nickname for me.  Got every problem you can possibly think of dumped on me, so now I spend my time doing Dumpster diving and looking for some (reasonably good) tasty morsels to nibble on before I starve to death ...

I have made some friends at the shelter: Vet-Man (another Veteran like me), Snaggle-Tooth Annie, Tears (Tears is but a mere kid; the rest of us homeless bums sort of look after her and take care of her), Rica and her kid, Spam, and Possum, to name a few.  All are just as bad off as I am; some of the stories they tell will be guaranteed to break your heart.  Sad, sad cases; it's like there's more of us now more than ever, especially since the fat cats don't give a flying fig about our situations ...

The fat cats play, and the poor and destitute: crap on us.  They don't care about what WE need or want ...

I'm sorry: this is the U.S. of A., right??  The richest country in the world, right?  What about helping our OWN people first (people like ME) instead of takin' care of everybody else??  It's just not right, not right at all ...

I'm sorry ... Veterans, especially, should NOT be livin' on the streets or getting substandard care or benefits!  The government ought to be bendin' over, kissin' our asses, and givin' us top primo services ... hell, DOGS and CATS get better care than WE do!!  It's disgusting!!

Well, I've probably pissed off a few people, so I'd best get outta here while the gettin's good.  I will write in here again; this isn't the last time you will have heard from me, Dan, otherwise known as "The Garbage Man"!

to be continued.