This turned out to be a long day. I am glad I stayed sharp. It started with taking Allen back to Family Services. He talked to his caseworker for the first time. She was very efficient and not at all the uptight bureaucrat Allen was expecting. I have run into a few of those in this journey but lately not as much. She worked through the forms quickly and advised Allen not to bring up a certain subject as it would just bog things down. That’s the kind of advice I like. She said it would take a few months before Allen could get approved for medical help though he needed doctors to fill out some forms. Almost a catch 22 but he can get it done through the Carenet program.
She was able to get Allen food stamps today and that was good news. Cherie and I have been taking him food for a couple of years now. Having food doesn’t mean Allen will eat it. I have been telling him he needs to eat whether he feels like it or not. With his depression he doesn’t care about eating and often his stomach is too upset for food. He told me he was throwing up all day yesterday. He thinks it was some kind of bug but I don’t. This is nothing new and I suspect it is connected with his pain killer abuse. Who the hell knows but that is why I am working to get him medical attention.
Fred called me while we were at Family Services. “Where you at Bob” he asked. “I’m at Family Services with Allen, Fred” I answered. “How long are you going to be there? I told Barb we would pick her up at a quarter to twelve” Fred said with his I’m worried voice. I told him I would be there as soon as I could, “Fred, you know how much rigmarole you have to go through down here so hang on. I’ll get there”. He was satisfied with that. Fred has gotten a lot more relaxed about things over the last year or so.
It wasn’t but a few minutes later and we were done. I took Allen home and listened to his thank you’s as I dropped him off. I headed right out, hurrying to get home and pick up Fred. I made pretty good time though Fred would have panicked if he had been riding in the car with me. I called him from the cell phone to let him know I was outside and he came right out.
We got to Barb’s and I honked the horn. She wasn’t too fast so Fred took the bag of stuff he had brought for her to the door. When she got into the car she couldn’t wait to tell me the good news “Basil’s gone, he’s in jail”. She proceeded to fill me in on the details. He has always been a leach and is one of the reasons her money disappears. He refused to give her money for rent despite having his check and she was fed up with it. She knew he had warrants for violating his probation so she called the police. She has tried to get him out of the house before but the police refused because his clothes were there and under state law it made him a legal resident. Now they took him to jail. She got rid of almost all of his clothes, throwing most of them out, but his boss said he would pick up the rest Monday.
We were late for the Huntington Community Center and thought it would mean she would have a long line and most of the stuff would be gone. Not quite. There was no line at all and they still had lots of stuff so guess what? They had to get rid of as much as they could. Instead of a few bags we filled a grocery cart and could have gotten more if we were greedy. Fact is Barb will hand out food to many of the residents of her complex and I got stuff for Wayne as well. I also got a peach pie and some baked potatoes from Red Lobster that were frozen that I brought home for us.
We took Barb home and I carried her groceries in as well as bringing in her garbage cans from the road. We set up a time for me to take her to the laundry and Pilgrims Church next week. Barb is very happy about Basil being gone and said it was like being free again. I told her I was proud of her for getting rid of his alcoholic ass and said “If he comes around again don’t let him in and if he gives you trouble give me a call”. I have been trying to get her to get him out for a long time because I know he was taking advantage of her operating at a ten or eleven year old level from the brain damage. It was a good thing to hear.
With that done Fred and I went to Wayne’s to drop off the food and two cent stamps I got him. Wayne was grateful as always and tried to give me fifty cents for the stamps. “Wayne keep that shit, you know better” I said as I plopped the bags of food down.
On the way home Fred talked about how Barb had told him she didn’t know what she would do if he was gone. This brought up the fact that Cherie and I will be going to Texas. “Fred, I feel bad about leaving you here because I know you depend on me” I told him. Fred reassured me that he would be taken care of. He had already discussed this with friends and relatives. It was good to hear. I am working to make sure everyone that depends on me in one way or another will be covered or at least is on a path that will help them. Then I am also working to deal with other things I see that need to be addressed to prevent future harm.
It is 4:30 now. I need to get started on dinner. Want to make it a nice one for Cherie. We will have T-bone steaks and I’m making twice baked potatoes from the Red Lobster potatoes. That and peach pie and ice cream. Time to move.
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