This popped up in my Facebook memories from 12 years ago. I had shared the link to this, since deleted (well, the author deleted, but the post lives on.) reddit post of someone's kindness:
I was day tripping to Vancouver from Seattle and stopped in for lunch at a little cafe. From my window I saw a young teenage girl out in the cold, squatted down in a closed up businesses doorway, holding a small bundle in her arms. She was panhandling, people were mostly walking by ignoring her. She looked just broken.
I finished up my meal and went outside, went through my wallet and thought I'd give her $5 for some food. I got up to her and she was sobbing, she looked like she was 14-15. And that bundle in her arms was a baby wrapped up. I felt like I just got punched in the chest. She looked up putting on a game face and asked for any change, I asked her if she's like some lunch. Right next door was a small quick-Trip type grocery store, I got a can of formula for the baby (very young, maybe 2-3 months old.), and took her back to the cafe though I'd just eaten. She was very thankful, got a burger and just inhaled it. Got her some pie and ice cream. She opened up and we talked. She was 15, got pregnant, parents were angry and she was fighting with them. She ran away. She's been gone almost 1 full year.
I asked her if she's like to go home and she got silent. I coaxed her, she said her parents wouldn't want her back. I coaxed further, she admitted she stole 5k in cash from her Dad. Turns out 5k doesn't last long at all and the streets are tough on a 15 year old. Very tough. She did want to go back, but she was afraid no one wanted her back after what she did.
We talked more, I wanted her to use my phone to call home but she wouldn't. I told her I'd call and see if her folks wanted to talk to her, she hesitated and gave bad excuses but eventually agreed. She dialed the number and I took the phone, her Mom picked up and I said hello. Awkwardly introduced myself and said her daughter would like to speak to her, silence, and I heard crying. Gave the phone to the girl and she was just quiet listening to her Mom cry, and then said hello. And she cried. They talked, she gave the phone back to me, I talked to her Mom some more.
I drove her down to the bus station and bought her a bus ticket home. Gave her $100 cash for incidentals, and some formula, diapers, wipes, snacks for the road.
Got to the bus, and she just cried saying thank you over and over. I gave her a kiss on the forehead and a hug, kissed her baby, and she got on the bus.
I get a chistmas card every year from her. She's 21 now and in college.
Her name is Makayla and her baby was Joe.
I've never really told anyone about this. I just feel good knowing I did something good in this world. Maybe it'll make up for the things I've f-ed up.
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My Morning Brain Exercises
NYT Mini Crossword - One of the first things I do every morning online. It's quick and easy. It takes me usually less than 2 minutes to complete.
Chess.com Puzzles - For a free account on Chess.com, I get access to seven chess puzzles a day. And I do them religiously. I like their system and find their puzzles to be of very high quality.
Wordle - The reality is I rarely do this in the morning, but that is only because I tend to do it during the brief periods I awake during the night. Taking the dogs out or seeing to other personal needs.
Wiki History Game - A very new addition, this puzzle drops people, things and events and you have to put them in chronological order. It's less of a puzzle and more of a thinking exercise, which I am enjoying.
Chimp Test - I don't do this one daily, and I usually wait until my brain is a bit more warmed up before I attempt it. But this works my working memory and takes some active effort to try and get the highest score I can possibly do. My all time high is 14, with my average usually being 11 or 12.
US Aircraft Carrier on Its Way to Be Scrapped After Sale for a Cent
It's dumb, but it makes sense. If they didn't, the cost of the US government getting rid of the ship would be far more.
On a slightly more silly note, the name of the ship made me instantly remember my cat growing up. I named her Kitty Hawk. Even more fun, we adopted her from friends while at an air show. I was 4 or 5 years old when we got her.
Revamping my Code Project Tracking
A few years ago, I set up simple project boards in my Notion. This allowed me to track issues with my various coding projects, and make reminders for improvements or new feature ideas.
This morning, after waking up abnormally early, I sat down and revamped how it works. Previously, they were a number of individual tables. It worked fine, but the biggest issue was when I created a new project I had to go and literally manually recreate the structure for each new project to track its own tickets. Again, not a huge issue since I add scant few projects. But, it annoyed me.
So, today, I redid the system to contain it all into a single larger table that I can then filter, or group, by project. I am also hoping this will allow me to do some smarter filtering and prioritization for coding.