Who is that guy?

Over the years, I have seen a homeless (I’m assuming) guy on a fairly predictable route, carrying a garbage bag full of whatever. Maybe its clothes? Maybe its cans and bottles? Maybe its the remains of his shattered dreams…

It started when I used to deliver pizza, and this guy would always be walking on Herndon Avenue. I’ve seen him, in the course of one evening, go through the dumpsters at the pizza place on Marks Avenue, then proceed to walk all the way to 99.

For those of you that don’t live in the San Joaquin Valley, thats about 4 miles. Now, 4 miles is not really that great a distance to cover, especially if its your job to wander around all day and collect cans.

Anyway, today I was on Central Avenue down by Sanger, dropping a student off at her country home (Which, by the way, makes my house look like a cardboard shack).

Any idea who I saw walking west on Central Avenue? If you guessed David Carradine, you guessed wrong. It was the homeless guy.

Again, for those of you that don’t live around here, its about 30 miles (following the highways) between the pizza place on Marks Avenue and the spot on Central Avenue where I saw him.

Why do I keep seeing this guy? Is he real? I know that Corinne has seen him, because I’ve pointed the dude out to her many times. My former co-workers at the pizza place have seen him, and we even joked about setting up a boxing match between him and this other homeless guy we knew (more on that some other time).

But why am I still continuing to see him? Why was 30 miles south of his usual route? Its not like there were any dumpsters to dive in where he was, its out in the country.

It really got me thinking about stuff. Mostly about December 21, 2012. After that day, I hope that we are not all reduced to homeless people walking around the valley. But I digress.

UPDATE: You can now view the locations of the Homeless Guy on the map in the sidebar.