Dinner for Steve

As many of you know I have purposefully crafted the lifestyle I have now. It took many years to come to the realization that the fiat hamster wheel I seemed to perpetually be on was a road to a shallow, material life mired with sacrifices I was no longer willing to make. One of the great benefits of my current lifestyle is living in a town where I can walk almost anywhere I need to either along the lake or via nature trail. Earlier this week I posted a picture in photography (https://stacker.news/items/682506) showcasing the route I take to walk to Walmart and admittedly boasting a bit about how I can walk there without seeing a car until I get to the Walmart parking lot.

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I was sitting at our kitchen table, tapping away at the keys of my laptop and noticed my wife puttering around the kitchen. She noted that we had some bacon that needed to be cooked in the next couple of days and suggested that the kids would love to have bacon quesadillas with avocado for dinner. "Sounds good to me" I replied. At which point she informed me she had the bacon and avocado but we were going to need a few other things. I needed a break from SN anyways and volunteered to venture off to Walmart to pick up our missing ingredients.

I grabbed a reusable cloth bag (stores aren't allowed to give plastic bags in Canada anymore- a rant for another day) my wallet, keys, slipped on my headphones and ventured off. I listened to the first episode of Peter McCormack's new podcast Mr. Obnoxious as I wandered down the nature trail path I always traverse to get to Walmart.

The past few times I have been to Walmart I have seen the same gentleman sitting on the curb, where cars turn in and out of the parking lot, asking for change. I usually pass him on my way out of the store, as depending on what I have to carry, I often take a shorter, but slightly less scenic route home. I never have change though as I admittedly have become a slave to Apple pay, where I can use my shakepay virtual visa card and get sats rewards back (forgive me Darth for I have sinned). I have stopped to talk with him briefly a few times, apologizing that I don't have change and noting that I will try to remember to bring some cash or change with me the next I go to Walmart in case he is there. He is always friendly, polite and understanding. I don't really know his circumstances but I know he and his girlfriend along with a young child live in a small trailer hitched to an old pick up truck parked on an unassumed road behind the big box stores in the area. Anyways, their family and another family were the talk of the town last year when they were living/squatting in the back corner of Walmart's giant parking lot, which Walmart store management seemed ok with, but I am guessing corporate got involved and they were forced to leave.

Walmart was busy. Busier that usual. I mentally noted that it must be because it is Friday in the late afternoon and with a beautiful weather weekend coming up we are getting a second wave of city cottagers trying to enjoy the last gasps of summer after a couple weeks of settling into their paradigms of a "new school year". Not many folks visit the first couple weeks of September after school has started but we will definitely get an influx of fall cottage goers when the leaves begin to change before things die down again until ski season. I don't like shopping when it is busy but the store is quite good at stocking, keeping the premises clean and have many self checkouts operational, so despite the presence of the "city folks" stocking up for their weekend getaway it was pleasant and smooth trip to acquire those final ingredients for our tasty dinner. I had munched on an apple earlier but skipped lunch so I was looking forward to the bacon and avocado quesadillas.

As I was leaving, I saw the same gentleman as usual sitting on the curb asking for change. As I approached I said "I am sorry I have no change, I feel this become a routine and is the 4th or 5th time I have told you that. I really need to keep a 5 dollar bill in my wallet for next time". He smiled and said "don't worry about it. I appreciate you thinking of me". I replied "I hope with the extra traffic today you are at least getting enough to buy some dinner". He said "I am lucky, people are very generous here". I thought to myself, the guy who lives in a small trailer and begs for change at Walmart considers himself lucky to be somewhere with kind and generous people? I wished him well and wandered off. Taking the quicker street route home. As I was walking, listening to Peter's podcast episode again, I was struck with an idea.

I abruptly turned around and walked back towards where the gentleman was sitting at the parking lot entrance of Walmart. He must have thought it a bit odd as I hurriedly walked towards him and excitedly said "do you have a phone?". He said "yes, it is not a very good one but I have a phone". "can you receive photos via text". He looked at me puzzled and said "yes it's an old phone but I can get photos". Brimming with excitement I said "great. I am going to use my phone to buy you a walmart gift card using bitcoin and send the card to your phone". He said "really? Bitcoin, isn't that very expensive now?" As I tapped and swiped away at my phone buying a $10 gift card from the Bitcoin company I chatted with him about Bitcoin and how not just the rising price is a great feature but the fact you can use it as a medium of exchange like I was currently doing, and that it is open and available for everyone to use without permission. He replied "yes, I heard the government doesn't control it. I like that about it". I completed my lightning transaction with the Bitcoin company and did a quick screenshot of the gift card and sent it to his phone.

Here is a pic of the transaction.
https://m.stacker.news/51878

He was incredibly grateful and told me his name was Steve. I said "it's nice to meet you Steve. I hope you can get some dinner tonight thanks to Bitcoin. See you next time". I slipped my headphones back on and continued on my way. The quesadillas were excellent by the way and I am grateful for the lifestyle I have and grateful I got to use a little bit of my Bitcoin to help Steve out.

Thanks for reading.

Sats for all,

GR