groove

Okay, Christmas is over, and I'm more than a bit relieved. I was pretty down this year because my dad was being a pain about visiting him (my parents are divorced) and we had to also visit my wife's parents, who are also divorced. That meant a *lot* of driving. Plus seeing my wife's jackass brother, who is a reactionary conservative twit.

But everyone turned out to be on their best behavior, so all in all, it was cool. And this year we cut *way* back on the $$$ we spend on people, and instead made a large donation to a local food pantry. Money very well spent.

Which brings up another idea I had, I'm still not sure about...

I wanted to make up "Gift boxes" for some of the homeless people I pass all the time here in Chicago. It gets *damn* cold here in the winter. I was going to get a bunch of gloves (Walgreens, .99!) and in each packet put some "one size fits all" gloves, along with some of those "instant heat" packets, some fruit, some power bar type food, etc. all in a gallon zip lock baggy... and hand them out to people when they come up to my car. Is that a stupid idea? I mean, I don't know if that stuff is really helpful or not, and I know there are other things I can do (like volunteer...) but I have very little time to spare between working to pay my bills and going back to school... but I do want to do something. I'm tired of people who seem to have lost faith in humanity.

So is that a good idea? What would be affordable (like that I could get in bulk) things that would be useful to people down on their luck that I could include? Or am I just a damn fool?