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How to kill time when you're homeless. Wake up and eat breakfast in the shelter. Leave because it is closed during the daylight hours. Find a chunk of concrete. Sit on it until the shelter opens again. In 42 degree weather. With scattered showers. This man makes no bones about it. I approached him and he had a startled deer look in his eyes. I'm sure he thought I was going to tell him he had to leave. He finally opened up a bit. He admits he is an alcoholic, he admits he has destroyed his own life. Alcohol cost him his wife, his children, his job and at some point it will cost him his life. He gets a disability check from the Government every month; once he gets it he goes to the bar and drinks until it is gone. Usually by the 20th of each month. Then he panhandles to try and raise enough money for a bottle of wine before he goes back to the shelter at night. If he doesn't raise enough and can't find any of his 'friends' to share their bottle with him he goes into the DT's. He told me with a sad smile that if the Government gave him another $200 a month he probably could have drank himself to death 5 years ago. He reminded me, in spirit, of Nicholas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas". He has been in and out of treatment more times than he can count, he has lost everything, and still he cannot stop. He knows it is going to kill him and still he can't stop. He has been beaten and robbed because he is an easy target in a bad neighborhood but he still can't stop. I know it's tough to find a lot a sympathy for someone who brings this upon themselves...but it yet another cold reality of life in the central city...