How hot is it?

Actually it's been hotter than Satan's taint.

I don't know where I found that line, but I love it, and have been using it where ever possible. It has been oppressively hot in this part of the world as well. Certainly it has had an effect on many peoples disposition. It certainly has had an effect on mine.

Despite the urge to do nothing and indeed there was been a great deal of that going on in my life, going out has been beneficial as well. A trip to the library was a breath of cool air anyway. Seeing people and interacting with them to some degree, as always brightens my day.

I mentioned this little fact elsewhere and someone reminded me a small detail that needed to be mentioned. The library is a gathering place of sorts. People I recognize from the mission and others that are obviously homeless or other wise disadvantaged hang out at the library. It's cool during hot summer days. It's also a warming station of sorts in the winter.

When you stay at the Mission, you are kicked out onto the streets at 7:30 A.M. until around 5:30 in the evening. I am pretty certain other shelters operate the same way. So to stay off the streets, especially when the weather is extreme, many go to the library. Not necessarily to read or use the computers but to just get off the street.

Sometimes they are there to get a little sleep in a safe place. No one bothers with them. People, like the library staff, seem to know that some folks have to stay awake when it's dark. If you're shocked by this, maybe that's a good thing. Some of these people are miles and years away from the white picket fences that may have been parts of their lives.

Then again, some of these people haven't a clue as to what that white picket fence bullshit means to many of us.

Now, there is a little dirty secret that not many people are aware of until recently. The Mission along with a few other shelters has a bit of a problem with bed bugs. Well not just the Mission or the other homeless shelters. For almost a year an exterminators truck was parked outside of the Methodist Towers. It's primarily housing for the elderly and people with special needs.

For a period of time I thought one of the exterminators employees had moved into that building.

Bed bugs are traveling bugs. They have circled the globe on the backs of us. Well not really on our backs, but in the seams of our clothing, the creases in our luggage or the bottom of a duffel bag. Then they jump off of our clothes and relocate.

The places they relocate to is quite amazing to even me. It has been recently published that the Erie County Library has a bed bug problem. With that in mind, I avoid the nice cushy chairs.

I have enough going on in my life right now and don't need an insect problem to add to my distractions. But going to the library, picky about where I sit and wiping the chair down is part of the deal. Even the hard wooden chairs in the computer lab might be at risk. I do take precautions, and wipe the chairs down.

I'm not the only one...

I do laugh when some nice, proper, middle class suburban type flops down in one of the nice cushy comfie chairs. Especially the ones who sneer at the folks peacefully sleeping. I'm sure the stories they'll tell, like when their kids came home with head lice, will circulate when the exterminators van pulls up to their house.

Then again, maybe they did bring them back from Jamaica.