Update on the ex

As you may know, my ex was staying here (for a couple of weeks that stretched out to three fucking MONTHS) after some major surgery last summer. A month ago, I told him it was time to leave, gave him $60 and drove him to the beach. He’s got real problems with taking care of himself and he’s worn out his welcome with everyone, including his own mother, so he’s still on the streets.

Now we’re having a cold snap and he calls every few days to tell me how sick he is with the flu, knowing that I have a soft heart. Even in San Diego it gets cold at night, sometimes near freezing like last night. You don’t want to be sleeping outdoors. I always say I’m sorry and he always says, “That’s all right. You’ve got nothing to be sorry about,” which of course, makes me feel even more guilty. And then he sometimes asks for $20, which of course, I bring to him. Not that I can afford it.

So last night I had a talk with Robby and his girlfriend, who lives with us, about taking Rusty back in for a week or two while we help him get into some kind of shelter. Well, he was so disruptive of our lives when he was here that they didn’t want to even consider it. And I agreed that we can’t do that again but I pointed out that if he dies out there, we’re going to feel awful. So Emily came up with the perfect solution. The three of us are going to make it our project to find shelter for Rusty.

Emily and her family were homeless last year for several months during the winter. She says that they never had to sleep outside, thanks to a rotating shelter system among a group of local churches. Also, there were some shelters that she and her family couldn’t get into because they are specifically for people with addiction problems. Uh, that would be Rusty, who quit drinking a couple of months before his pancreas was removed last summer. He knows that taking even one drink could kill him now, so I believe him when he says he’s still sober. But it doesn’t matter. Nobody deserves to die in the streets, drunk or sober, asshole or not.

Anyway, from what Emily knows about shelters, we’re going to get on the phone and I think this problem will soon be solved.

God, I hope so.