New Years Day downtown

If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? --James 2:15   

I couldn't stop thinking about Gary all night.  Knowing first hand how painful kidney stones are, all I could think about was how difficult it must have been getting through the night with that kind of pain and with the temperature dropping down into the 30's.  At 8 a.m. I got up and went downtown looking for him and arrived shortly after 9 a.m.   Well, despite my best intentions to give him some of my left-over medications I couldn't find him.  However, I did see John Mellon as I was getting off the freeway.  On Christmas Eve I had seen him at the off-ramp and promised to come back and see him, but by the time I got back there he was gone.  Anyway, I hooked up with him this time and got him some warm clothes to wear.  I even got him some hot coffee and a couple of breakfast burgers.  After not finding Gary, I did see a couple of other guys (I was looking for Oscar and Jose, but they weren't around either) near his spot.  One guy's name was Tong Wong.  He was sitting in a nearby parking lot.  It looked like he had some king of skin ailment.  He had taken his shoes off, and was scratching his legs.  They were chalky white.  He had on some pants and had a blanket/rags wrapped around his torso.  I asked if he needed some socks (I didn't see that he had any).  He told me yes and as he came to the back of the car and saw a jacket he asked if he could have that.  I quickly gave it to him along with a couple pairs of socks and a couple of t-shirts.  I asked him if he was from Taiwan.  He said yes, but he said yes to just about everything I said.  Anyway, I left him a lot better off than when I found him.  I'm guessing he was only about 35 years old.  There was another man about thirty yards away from him sleeping in an alley.  After calling out to him and asking if he was hungry, he quickly got up and came over to the car.  I say quickly, because he came as quickly as a man with a hangover can move at that time of the morning after just waking up.  I think I've been in that condition a time or two myself on New Years day when I was much younger.  I was just glad to help.  I'm only sorry I couldn't find Gary and give him some medication help.  Hopefully, I'll see him next week. --Until then.  John