I don’t know what it is about bums that frequently make them come up to me asking for money or food or something else.   A few days ago I walked into a gas station to buy a lottery ticket (no I didn’t win) and as I queued for service a bum stood behind me and asked me if I had any work for him.    I told him I didn’t have any work and he stated that he hadn’t been able to find the usual handyman type work this person does for several weeks.

He said he got so desperate that he created a sign which read, “Will work for food, haven’t eaten!”

I told him that I had been recently laid off and that I just recently got a new job so I understood his situation.     He then showed me how much money he had earned the whole day with his little sign: $1.74.     He asked me if I had any money I could give him but then I looked at what he was holding in his hand.  Can any of you guess what this gentleman had in his hand?

Well he was holding a tall boy beer and he now had enough cash to buy one;  I got the sense that he spends a great deal of time with alcohol perhaps to drown his unemployment problems or perhaps his unemployment problems are caused by his alcohol.    I told him to enjoy his beer and left after getting my lottery ticket.    I think that tall boy has about 800 calories so he should be fine for the day.