Of the many things that a homeless person must worry about, nothing requires more focused attention than staying healthy. The lifestyle of an indigent is fraught with many challenges. Becoming sick while living on the streets is an outright nightmare. There are no places to go for peaceful rest except other public places. Depending on the time of the day, its usually noisy, bright and not particularly suited for sleeping. Understanding the consequences, I take extra precaution every time I use public facilities. For instance, after using a bathroom, I always wash my hands. Then, I would use the spent paper towel to open the door so my hands never touches the door-knob. With the many people who go through there, you'll never know what you might get in contact with. Also, I rarely shake hands with people anymore. I do the Obama bump - touching knuckles with another individual as a way to greet people. You can't be too paranoid.
My adventures as an indigent litigator started in December of 2007 and in that span of time I have slept indoors less than 5 months. The rest were spent sleeping in a car or in the streets. In that time I have gotten sick only 3 times. Once I had a flu and recuperated in my car for an entire week while parked at a parking lot under a shade. This was right after another homeless person, Stephanie, stayed in my car for a few days in the evenings until she was finally able to secure the assistance of an organization that helped homeless women. The human body is a fickle thing and requires enough time to adapt to it's environment. Every place has a unique microbial ecology. You put people in a constricted place like a car and the germ structure changes real fast. The body needs to get used to it and if it doesn't it lets you know.
The second time was the first week of October of 2010 during my stay with Desiree. She's probably one of the neatest people that I have ever encountered in my life. Her apartment was always clean. However, she has two wonderful cats for pets and probably just the right amount of dander and cat-stuff in the air to unleash an allergic assault on my respiratory system. I was out sick for an entire week.
The third time was a bout with a bad cold this week all because of an indulgent moment. I was given a stick of filtered cigar right before the holidays and was waiting for the right time to light it up. So, last week, while at the Neighborhood Cup I saw, Joe, an acquaintance and his friend, smoking cigarettes outside. The filtered cigar had been sitting in my stash collecting dust and was nowhere close to being consumed. I've even thought of giving it away. I've smoked cigars over the years and found it to be a tool - a good way to socialize with other people. I took the opportunity to do so and lit the slender brown filtered-cigar. Cigars, off course, are never inhaled. The smoke is merely swirled inside the mouth and savored and then expelled. Depending on the quality of the cigar, you usually get a light-headed feeling that lasts about a half hour.
It wasn't until the next day that I started feeling things with my throat and chest. It started as a mere irritation – an itch around the tonsil area. Then, it progressed into a sneeze and finally a full blown chest and head cold complete with phlegm. It was compounded by the cold weather during the evenings. It's gotten cold in the last few weeks that sometimes I would wake up feeling like my hair is frozen stiff. I discussed what happened with another acquaintance and we came to the conclusion that I actually smoked a cigarette and not a cigar.
The difference in the quality of tobacco used between a cigar and a cigarette is stark in comparison. Cigars generally use whole tobacco leaves, usually dried in sheds and wrapped in more tobacco leaves. Cigarettes use processed tobacco, mixing different varieties to create a particular flavor and uses paper to wrap the tobacco. Supposedly, cigarettes have more chemicals added to it than cigars. It was intriguing enough that I did a little checking:
So, what does this all mean? As of this writing, I don't know. I haven't the background in Chemistry. But I have found it fascinating enough to prepare a follow-up report to see if we can make sense of this information.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
