Remember me?  I'm the one known as Bright Eyes, on 'count my eyes are so big.  I'm homeless; I live on the streets in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.

My place for the night varies from day to day.  Sometimes I sleep in the park, underneath the old oak tree, which is my favorite place to sleep.  Sometimes I sleep underneath a bridge abutment.  Sometimes I sleep in the back of an abandoned building.  Sometimes if I'm really lucky, I sleep in a church or a shelter that people were kind enough to let me use for the night.

I am homeless because I gambled all my money away.  That left me without a home after I got evicted, 'cause I couldn't pay the rent.  My husband tried to get me to stop, but I couldn't: it was a nasty habit of mine.  He died of a broken heart while in his forties; he was awful' young.

I am glad the cold season is overwith, but now I face several new obstacles: severe weather (now is prime time for severe storms; I hate storms with a purple passion!), fire (sometimes smoke fills the air, and it makes it hard to breathe), and the upcoming summer season, which can only spell one thing: brutal heat.

Any day is a guessing game as where you'll find me because if it's hot or stormy out I have to find shelter.  As for the smoke, I have to get out of it or else I can't breathe good.  I have asthma; sometimes it's so bad I end up at the local emergency room at Huguley Medical Center or Harris Methodist Hospital.

They treat me, but there's no way I can ever pay the bills, so I usually end up becoming a charity case, which I am.  They write it off, which is right nice of them.  

I wish I could pay 'em for the great care they give me (especially at Harris), but as I just said, I'm destitute.  What can I do when I can't breathe good?  I have to end up going to the ER; I really haven't any choice in that matter.

Having asthma sucks, especially when it's hot and/or humid (or smoky) out.

I still see my friends Snaggle-Tooth Annie, Vet-Man, Q-Man, Charlie-The-Crazy, Rica, and Junior at the shelter or at the library.  That's another thing.  Books.  I absolutely love to read!  I just wish some of the people there could be a lot nicer to us bums; we didn't ask to end up like this (okay, maybe some of us did, like I did with my gambling habit, but that's old history now).

We sometimes go to the Missions Church; I try to go every Sunday morning or Wednesday evening.  I love hearing the preacher preach, and I love the worship music!  Sometimes it makes some of us shout with joy or get up and dance!  And this was where I accepted Christ about six months ago.  Yeah, I'm a born again Christian, which means that when I go to Heaven when I die, i will be with Jesus, God, and all the angels, forever and ever!

Well, I gotta go.  A church is going to come and minster to us, and tonight they're cooking up a barbeque rib dinner; I'd like to go to that.  Could stand to get some good tasting food in my stomach instead of grounging around in the Dumpsters, which is what I usually end up doing.  Until later, this is Bright Eyes Perez saying so long and God bless!