“Happy Valentine’s Day. That will be the extent of today’s Valentine’s theme…unless you count heartbreak.” ~The Q

10 showed up on time at the Bullpen. We picked up 2 more while our task was in progress, including a homeless guy named Marcus — story and a plan below.

Warm-Up
—

• 10 burpees OYO.
• Mosey to Motorco.
• Pick up Nails en route.

Main Event
—

• 10 burpees OYO
• 12 Australian pull-ups
• 12 super derkins, feet high on the Motorco bar
• 12 Australian pull-ups
• 12 wide-grip merkins
• Shoulder burn cycle, elbows stay straight and above shoulders for the cycle
• 12 shoulder press IC
• 12 overhead claps IC
• 12 seal claps IC
• 12 arm circles IC
• run around the block
• Repeat
• And repeat again

Mary
—

• 25 merkins while waiting on the 6
• 25 more merkins
• 30 flutters IC

Notes
—

During the 1st cycle of the main event, a guy named Marcus joined our crew. Not sure if he was homeless or just wandering around at 6am — guessing both. He introduced himself by showing us a weird yoga pose that he called the Buddhist Pindrop. He asked for money and YHC told him sure thing, but he’s going to have to work for it because no one has any cash on them.

So he did the rest of the workout with us. (Well, most of it.)

Cool J recognized him from his church’s outreach. Soybean chatted him up during the run. Marcus was friendly and funny.

He shared some of his life story during COT — it was rough. He mentioned waiting on a pending class action settlement as a result of a drug that he took that caused disturbing physical and mental side effects. I Googled the name of a drug — it is an antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and irritability caused by autism.

I’m not sure if he’s homeless because of mental illness or if he developed a mental illness because he’s homeless — but obviously there is a strong correlation between the two. UPDATE — Soybean learned that Marcus got run over by a truck, which crushed his skull, which was the initial injury that led to his mental health issues, which also caused physical issues like seizures as well.

Seems to me that the homelessness problem in Durham is one that we can help address in small ways. Many contributed to the belts and backpacks initiative that Soybean recently organized. And I’ve been thinking about ways that we can do more because we frequently see our homeless brothers and sisters at The Big Dance, The Bullpen, and The Honeybadger. We should the time we spent with Marcus to spur us into action.

In short, I’d like to organize a simple care package effort in which PAX bring small things that will make life a little easier for these men and women. We’ll box up the supplies, include a friendly note, and drop the boxes at the places where we frequently see homeless men and women — Forest Hills Park shelter, Orchard Park shelter, Farmer’s Market pavillion, and the 147 overpass by the DBAP.

Ping me on Slack if you have other ideas or any experience with this sort of thing.

I’ll take the lead making something happen and will share more at my next Downtown Durham Q — Honeybadger, Feb22 — with the first official action to happen the following Tuesday Feb26 at The Big Dance.

Though Marcus lobbied to be named Einstein or GPS, we nicknamed him Mapquest because he noted the exact location of the upcoming 2nd F events that we discussed during COT.

I gave Mapquest a ride to McDonalds and learned a little more about him — he said he stays in Raleigh and has family nearby. He needed to get some prescriptions filled but was going to hang around at McDonalds until he could catch the bus to Raleigh and get to Wal-Mart. He was friendly and happy to have worked up a sweat during the workout.

I hope he comes back.