We had a storm alert at the beginning of the week. The published hours were 11PM Monday to 11AM Tuesday - but Mother Nature doesn't pay attention to the warning system, apparently. Looking out the window on Monday morning, the hills across the freeway were shrouded - sort of looked like smoke (which was my first thought) but was really low. In the time it took to walk from my bedroom to the kitchen, start a mug of coffee brewing and open the shutters in the kitchen, the shroud had reached our neighborhood. Snow falling completely (REALLY) sideways. Video proof below. It was crazy. The snow didn't last long on the ground - too warm - but it continued for quite a while.
We had some snow on the ground by Monday night but it was all gone Tuesday morning. So much for the well-publicized storm warnings. J. did shut down the drip system for the Winter which means now we'll have to hand water a bit if we don't get rain and/or snow. We also had some sleet on Monday afternoon as well - wild.
It was so cold that I had to get the down comforter out of the storage bag and add that to my bed - after an hour of trying to fall asleep and realizing I was so cold, sleep would not happen. (And then of course, I thought about H. - sleeping without heat or a roof or likely much of anything). Grateful for sleep finally happening so I didn't ponder that situation too long.
On Tuesday, J. decided (with me finally agreeing - I had been unsure about doing this) to start calling phone numbers from H.'s cell phone in August. After a lot of calls - mostly straight to voicemail or a quick hang-up - he reached someone named Simon. Simon confirmed to J. that H. is homeless. Said he had seen H. a few days ago and said he would do his best to make contact with H. and loan him his phone so he could call us. As excited as we were about that, we were also somewhat quixotically pensive about this new development. If we were to talk to H., would he think we would immediately make arrangements to help - like getting him on a plane to us? Would us not doing that 'break him' further? I really worried about that. We planned to let him know mostly how much we love him; how he is the only person who can choose to live differently; no matter how hard things seem, making a change is possible; how hard it is for us to not know if he is OK for weeks at a time.
Simon (bless his heart) tried multiple times to find H. . He said the other homeless people would say 'you just missed him'. That 'just missing him' happened a few times - leading us to think it's possible H. doesn't actually want contact. That sort of makes sense - we're not even sure H. knows that we know everything. Unless the person who loaned him a phone on September 4th showed H. my texts to that phone days later, he may not be aware that we know his situation. Or...he does know we know and doesn't want to talk.
I watched a podcast and a former addict said 'being addicted is completely demoralizing. You can't fathom how you let a substance define your life in the way it has and you can't be sure you can ever 'fix' it'.
Simon says he is in the area where H. hangs out on a regular basis so he will be able to find him at some point. So we'll wait and see.
At the very least, it feels 'better' to have confirmation H. is OK. (OK = alive. Never thought I'd have to say that about one of my kids but there it is). My mind had been leading me down some really dark paths about H. - had so-called 'friends' hurt him? But we know he is OK. He's been seen. That's a relief.
B. is back in Tennessee post training in Louisiana for a month. This week, he's been taking his first in-airplane flying lessons and is super stoked.
I had a great casino day yesterday - lost a horrible amount on tortuous Dragonlinks and then hit MightyCash Ultra for a HUGE win. Made up for everything I'd lost and won that same amount again - so came home way up for the day. I love days like that. I hit a huge bonus round just as J. headed to the deli to order our food to go - and then hit an astronomical bonus round shortly after. It was a $5.28 bet (huge for me) and it re-triggered more free games over and over. SIXTY spins. It was epic.
While we were playing (earlier), a guy came by and stopped and marveled at the win J. had on his machine. That same guy meandered back when I hit my first big bonus after J. had gone to get food. The guy said 'I'm only a few tier points away from a meal - that's what they said'. I said nothing. He said 'with a win like that, you could help a guy out'. I said nothing. I wanted to say 'I have a homeless son who's a heroin addict and everything anyone does to help him turns into a way for him to get drugs. Sorry but no'.
If J. hadn't gone to get food (using my weekly $15 food voucher - J. hit the buffet with his voucher), I would have gladly taken the guy to one of the food places in Atlantis and used the $15 to get him food. And I sort of felt bad that I didn't cash out and offer to get him food using comps - but then I hit the HUGE win after he left and we left as soon as J. returned with my spaghetti and meatballs.
I will watch for the guy tomorrow (going by myself for a free play event - Jim is playing golf with his golf group) and offer to get him food.
It's a crystal clear blue sky Friday and we will be puttering around the homestead most of the day. And because I won a bit, I plan to play slots here in Carson a bit later today. Just a smidge. I love the older (original) Dragonlinks and many of the local casinos here have them - Atlantis only has 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation machines and the payout is very different as the machines have evolved.
I know my machines. LOL.
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