I ran out of gas on SE Woodward st. the other night and coasted to a stop across the street from this phone in someones front yard. Normally any phone booth or public phone I would assume to be out of commission. The only reason I went up to this one is because I was curious to know what it was doing in a residential area. I picked up the receiver and a voice told me ‘dial one for free calls,’ or something like that. After pressing ‘1’ I got a dial tone and was able to make free calls. After learning about this company I have spotted two more of their phones in SE Portland. I went to their web site and learned that they take donations of various materials, which I will be looking out for when I collect bottles and cans. I do see routers occasionally in the recycling, believe it or not.

I’m goiung to focus on ways of driving people to my blog today. I get an average of five visitors per day and that is starting to discourage me a bit.

Thanks for reading and have a good day.

This montage of Portland cars has nothing to do with the Gofundme campaign, which can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/art4survival

I did not have time to plan my Gofundme message carefully. I feel that I need to work harder to convince people that I will handle their donations responsibly. I wanted to get something out there, then work to improve it when I have time.

Today I’m working to fix the ignition on my friend’s car that got jammed by someone trying to start the car with something other than the key, we beleive. If you are a mechanic or know one who could advise me on how to fix this please get in touch with bret.burrill@gmail.com. She is stuck in an unsafe place.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

I cover a serious amount of ground each day and see a lot of houses and gardens. Some houses are big and breathtaking with amazing rock landscapes with stuff growing all over everything. No doubt those homes are incredible but today’s picture is of a house that wins me over with its sweetness. I just love this one.

Last night I talked to a couple of people about my ideas and it helped me decide to seek funding. The ideas I will try and make happen first are:

1. An Online store where I will sell work from houseless artists.

2. Rent a space somewhere where I can store my belongings so I will be able to use my car to haul supplies. Ideally this would also be a space for houseless artists to create art, but I would be willing to make that happen later down the road.

3. Buy tubes of hand wipes, re-label them and distribute them to houseless people. Houseless people need to clean their hands more often, especially if they are touching hundreds of recycling bins each day. I believe this could help control the spread of cold and flu viruses. I have had to eat with my dirty hands a lot and I am also sick most of the time. The labels I put on would have information about cleanliness and staying healthy.

I would like to start looking at ways to sell or make things out of the sickening amount of good materials that are thrown away every day. My goal is to involve as many houseless people as I can and hopefully help give people a sense they are connected to something. Nobody is going to ever going to quit substance abuse unless something inside them tells them to, it has to come from within. Having a connection, purpose or direction, I feel, will increase the odds that a change like this could happen, with some people. I am not an addict, but I know many and I honestly have no hope for them. Some I love dearly and have known 36 years, and it sucks that the same old person I used to know is trapped in them forever.

Thank you for reading and have a good day.

The photo has nothing to do with garbage, so don’t waste your time trying to make a connection.

If you spend a month going through people’s recycling you will see some trends. For example, just about everybody in Portland is drinking Kombucha. I don’t think people realize it is made from a big chunk of gross stuff that looks like feta cheese floating in dirty water. Another alarming trend is the amount of maple syrup consumed by this city. I see empty syrup bottles in most people’s recycling, while some households put out five a week.

One dream I have is to make a place for houseless people to come and make things. I’m sickened by the waste I see in the garbage in this city. You could run a business with just a fraction of the wood I see thrown out every day. the amount of brand new cardboard boxes is staggering. There are tarps, gazebos, gas cans, antique furniture, 3 ring binders, clip boards, baby strollers – all in perfect condition.

Have a great day today and thanks for reading.

There are no rabbits in this picture so don’t try looking for them. This picture is not related to today’s entry in any way.

This is only my third month of being houseless. The first month I was out of food and gas for my car, I had the flu and it was in the mid 20’s at night. I was already pretty angry that I had worked my ass off my whole life and ended up in this position, but literally not being able to sleep because I was shaking so bad made me even more angry. I posted a lot to craigslist and after three weeks someone did bring me some cookies, some candles and $5. I made a heater out of the candle with an inverted terracotta flower pot over the top, that got my car so hot I woke up in a puddle of sweat, but I was still angry. Then there are the people that treat me so rudely. Some employees of QFC, Fred Meyer and Safeway don’t respond to me when I say “good morning” or “how are you today.” It just isn’t necessary to make people feel that all they are in this world is a nuisance. It’s a bad feeling. The only store where ALL the employees are consistently kind is New Seasons. I think there are a lot of kind people at Trader Joes as well.

Then one day there was a shift in my attitude. It might have started with a long vicious argument I got into with a homeowner who told me to go to someone elses neighborhood, who in the end apologized graciously to me and said he was wrong for assuming things about the kind of person I was. I think that is when I realized that, having skateboarded for 35 years, being persuasive in confrontations with very aggressive people is a strength of mine. Up until the time when skateparks were built here, I had confrontations with aggressive people on a daily basis, and I know how to diffuse those situations and sometimes make people see things from my point of view. I’m starting to believe that maybe the solutions to the houseless problems will come from one or more houseless people. It’s difficult to walk 13 miles a day to collect cans to survive, and still have energy to put into some of my ideas but I’m trying my best. I need help from a corporate savvy person, but I don’t know who would help me. I am running ideas by other houseless people. Maybe the solutions will come from another houseless person, or maybe from myself. I do believe I can make a difference somehow if I try.

About the rabbits… I found a house with a rabbit hutch facing the sidewalk. Once in a while I buy a carrot or two and go there to feed them. They are already fat, but it seems like they really enjoy them, so I feed them anyway. Two blocks away there are four goats that climb around on a large wooden structure. This is what I call one of my vacation neighborhoods. I always collect bottles and cans there, but my primary reason for going is to see the rabbits.

Thanks for reading and have a good day.

Don’t look for a cat in the picture there isn’t one. This picture has nothing to do with title of today’s entry, it’s just one of the many pictures of unusual homes I have taken lately.

I just started looking at the pedometer app on my phone. I had guessed I was walking about ten miles a day and I was correct. Yesterday I walked 13.2 miles, some days I walk 7 or 8.

Now about that cat in a tree… I was walking in beautiful Ladds Addition yesterday morning as all the kids were walking to school. A woman came out of her house with her two small children and I heard them laughing at something. I looked over and saw them gathered around a very small, maybe three foot high tree, very thin and spindly with branches that formed a kind of canopy on top. There was a huge fat, fluffy orange cat on the very top sort of surfing. There tree was moving around and the cat’s feet were moving with the branches in different directions. The cat must have just jumped up there because I’m sure it would not have been possible for it to climb up there.

I am going to spend some time today finding out if there is a way I can participate in First Friday. I have been told conflicting locations for it, maybe there is more than one?

Have a great day today and thank you for reading.

After an unsuccessful day trying to sell my plant stand on the street, I ate a piece of bread with some bbq sauce on it and went to sleep. It’s a risk to stand around trying to sell something when I could be collecting cans. Only four people acknowledged the piece, the others wouldn’t look in my direction, or crossed the street thinking I was going to bother them or something. The first lady who stopped and looked at it said she really liked it, which was nice. The second person was a guy who walked his dog up to it so it could take a piss on it, which he realized was a mistake when he glanced my way. the third guy was sort of interested. The last was a group of “ladies” who looked at it and said “oh it’s for sale,” then said out loud in front of me as if I wasn’t there, “I bet I know what he’s going to do with the money.”

I woke up today and went looking for cans. There was a great big house with a steel vent coming out of the roof with a steel bell shaped cover over it. On top of the vent there was a woodpecker hammering on the top of it at like 5:00 am. I can only imagine how loud it must have sounded inside the house. Why would a woodpecker peck on a metal thing?

Serendipity can be frightening. Some people believe that it is an indication that you are on the right path in life, some believe it is just coincidence. What happened to me yesterday was serendipity of the frightening type.

I have been getting money for food and gas by collecting bottles and cans. Wake up at 5 am and try to find a neighborhood close by where the recycling is due to be picked up for that day. Before the truck comes I can typically make between $3 and $10. There are good and bad aspects to being houseless. Being treated with disdain from nearly everyone you talk to and trying to find a bathroom are the two big negatives for me. The most positive thing I’ve found about it is that I’m getting back in touch with Portland on a level that makes my life rich. I walk all day and look at old homes and their gardens. I get to know the feel of each neighborhood on an intimate level. Some neighborhoods have strong communities and they will tell you to “get the hell out” and “I’m tired of looking at you people.”

This serendipitous story is about a lost neighborhood I discovered. The streets are painted. The kids have amazing forts built right on the sidewalks. There is free tea available all the time and most importantly there is a house beautifully sculpted out of clay. It is also a place where nobody goes. I took a friend there and she said, “my feet hurt.”

On 3/28/19 I went to the lost neighborhood to look for cans. I didn’t find a single one, but I found an interesting piece of furniture on the corner for free. It is a tough decision to take on a piece of furniture when you don’t have a house or workshop, but this one was just too sweet to pass up. It was what I see as a plant stand. The paint was peeling off and the legs were broken. I slept with my head on it that night, and the next day took it to Mt. Tabor Park to repair and paint it. I started with the idea that I would make it simple and understated, but then threw that out the window and started painting leaves and pinecones and pressing them on there to make prints. I did a lot of freehand painting as well. I have painted my whole life but had never done it in a park. I loved it and I do love how the piece turned out.

The first person to walk by I shouted to please come and look at it. It was a woman who seemed to appreciate it and we got to talking. I told her about the lost neighborhood where I got the piece and about the painted streets and forts and the tea and the clay house. She was, possibly, astonished because she had lived in the clay house and knows the owner. I remember I said “how can this be possible?” Really, how can it? She thought it was great that I took on this project and shot a video interview on her phone. She made some signs and tried to help me sell it, but people are just always on edge with houseless people and it would take a lot of convincing to get someone to pull out their wallet in front of me.

That night I slept with my head on the plant stand. As I was falling asleep I thought about the serendipitous day and I was startled and even afraid. What are the odds? If I can get to WiFi tomorrow I will write another story like this. Thank you for reading and have a good day.