¤ 2020 ¤

Again, I've been focused on video and have not been marketing my books. So, I sponsored a Chili4homeless on a smaller scale and on my own dime. Also, we're currently under Coronavirus quarantine. I made a pot of chili and filled an empty preserves jar, a pickle jar, and pasta sauce jar with the chili. Chili (the motorcycle) has been resting covered comfortably during this wet winter. It might have been 2 months since I rode her. Plus, she really needs a few new internal parts that are hard to find, she's running good, but I don't want to stress those parts. Anyway, I pull off the cover, clean the seat only to realize she's got a flat tire. Uhg! I cannot tell you how many times I've changed that tube! It often happens when Chili's been sitting a while. Anyway, look at the photo, see the hole in the rim (looks like a valve stem hole.) Air is escaping from there when I attempt to pump it up. Sigh. The rim lock goes there. Where's my rim lock? Anyway, I roll Chili from the drive way to kickstart her and let her run a bit - not good to have an engine sit too long without running. She sounds absolutely great for a 1982 machine. A good engine! I roll her back in place and load my van with the 3 jars of Chili. Not even 1 mile from my home I find a man sitting with two shopping carts filled to the brim. He's low to the ground on a very small chair. I approach but stop 6 feet away: "Want some Chili?" I shout through my mask to him. "You mean like a hot chili pepper?" He looks concerned. "I can't have those." I reassure him, "No, no, homemade chili with ground beef, and carrots, and celery, and elbow mac ... you'll like it." "Sure." he says. I put two jars on the ground where I stand and say, "Sorry, got to be safe, I'll just leave these right here." I get back in the van and head around the block where I see a man riding a bike rather aimlessly, wearing a very dirty bright orange safety vest and carrying so many plastic bags of stuff that the whole bike teeters side to side as he peddles. I stop the van, put my face mask on, get out and offer him a jar of chili. He says, "sure!" As he's on the bike in the street, putting the jar on the ground seems like a bad idea. So holding just the bottom the jar, I hand it to him. He smiles and peddles off.

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© 2015 photos, text, art, music copyright Ross Anthony. Thank you to all those who have participated in chil4homeless! (My Readers! My Friends! My Family! Misc. Strangers! Kocanda, Galati, Rand, Keszek, and many many more!