The Simple Luxuries

This is a social media post by UBFM member, Frank Rouse. Frank submitted this the morning after a Wednesday night ride. 

Good Morning! I wanted to share something that I was a part of last night at the Carpenters House. 

As most of you know, we will give our friends whatever we can to make their time on the streets a little more comfortable. Not only do we hand out food, water, clothes, socks and hygiene products; but there have been team members pull their shoes off and hand them over during a ride. We even take requests for things with the promise of finding it during the week and showing up the next week with it. Our friends will hold you to your word too! I've been cornered a couple of times over the promise of a backpack that had slipped my mind. Needless to say, I handed mine over. 

Last night I was asked by a gentleman in the lot there as we were getting things situated if I had a pair of reading glasses. I carry a pair with me pretty much 24/7 and I have about 400 pairs of back ups, located at various places in my house, office and car. When the man asked for them I said yes, I have a pair let me see if they will be your strength. I grabbed the "readers" out of the console of my jeep and he put them on. PERFECT! he exclaimed; followed by a prompt thank you. I said no problem and went on about getting things ready for the nights ride. 

Fast forward to about 10 minutes later and I walked by him again. There he lay on the concrete landing with a western paperback out and his readers on. It seems that he had lost his pair about a month ago and hadn't been able to read his westerns since. It didn't hit me until I got home that night and saw a pair of glasses on every table in every room in my house just how precious those glasses must have been to him. It's just one more reminder of how many things we take for granted in our day to day lives that others look upon as a luxury.