Random thoughts at 2 a.m.

Sleep has managed to elude me again this night. It's too noisy to sleep -- not in my house. The house is quiet. Even the dog and cat tired after a full day of chasing one another are asleep.

My thoughts are making the noise that's keeping me awake.

It's been a week since I last blogged. In the interim I've dealt with catching up on the job and meetings. Meetings with police, meetings with the YMCA officials and bank fraud investigators and finally a police detective assigned to the case. The thiefs managed to take more than $46,000 from the five of us they robbed that evening. The police released video taken from a store that was much better than the one I posted earlier to the media today. Only one station ran the photo. They blurred out the wrong face in the photo. So much for anyone recognizing the woman.

This week though, I've found that it's been such stress and I keep telling myself how lucky I am really and this is just a financial setback. We both are professinals and have good jobs, our money will be back in the accounts soon. It's not something serious that I can't handle. At first I was angry. Now, I find myself going out of my way to be nice to people, because well...maybe they are going through a rough week too. I NEVER give beggers money. Yesterday, I gave one who asked for 80-cents a whole $4 -- all the cash I had on me at the time. He took the money, and looked at it for a minute and then looked back at me. "Thanks, sister," he put it in his pocket and put his hand over the pocket. "It's all I had," I said, and walked away.
I was thinking about that man tonight. He was older, probably closer to 70 than 60. His clothes were old and torn. He walked with a slight limp and his scuffed shoes looked as if they were held together only by the shoelaces tied in a tight knot. One eye was clouded over with what was probably cataracts. He had an old car -- brown -- and as scuffed as his shoes parked at a meter. He would take change people gave him and feed the meter periodically. Maybe I should have given him change?
I don't know how or why that man came to be where he is, but I hope that he finds some comfort in his life. I hope that he has a warm bed somewhere.