Rick S.

Rick sees the glass half full rather than half empty.

He loves working in cabinetry where he can use his construction skills, carrying one of his many tool belts and spending the day working with his hands to create something beautiful. He is equally at home doing landscaping, carrying tree rounds and digging irrigation ditches with a backhoe. When he had trouble climbing trees, he thought maybe he had a hernia, did some stretching, and carried on. He was living with his wife, working for his brother and sometimes his brother-in-law. It felt like family.

But when the army veteran learned his back might need surgery, he had to stop working, and could no longer pay rent. The marriage went south, and Rick found himself on the street. He takes advantage of the Think Dignity storage facility so he doesn’t have to carry all his belongings with him on the street as he navigates getting a shower and finding meal. He recently found his way indoors with the PATH program, which is helping his puzzle together a way of staying indoors, while he schedules his back surgery and applies for SSI. He was hesitant to use his veteran’s benefits, saving it for an absolute emergency. But counselors at PATH convinced him that this might just be that emergency, as he will need to have a safe place to recovery when he has major surgery.

That half full attitude presents itself in a gracious, positive demeanor that acknowledges people directly, listening for how he might be able to help a fellow unsheltered individual with a name or a reference to services, or offering a blanket or sleeping bag if they need it, and he has one in storage he can offer them.

Born and raised in San Diego, he joined the army right after graduating from El Capitan High School in Lakeside, in 1983. He was getting in trouble with his parents too often, he said. He explained it this way:

“So you wonder why I’m drinking when … that whole “do as I say, not as I do” thing? It didn’t work for me, so I told my mom, “You gotta lead by example.” She didn’t like that. I didn’t try to tell her that she raised me wrong, I mean they were good providers, but I just said “you got to lead by example because that kind of messed me up you know? You say ‘don’t smoke,’ but you’re smoking! And you’re wondering why I’m coming home drunk.” She said, “Are you telling me I cause this?” I said, “No, I’m just saying you got to lead by example. Or just talk to me about it. Explain it the right way or some shit, you know?” That whole ‘do as I say, not as I do’ that don’t work very well, in my opinion.

The army was a high point in his life. Stationed in Germany for three years at the Baumholder army base high in the Alps, he said he was a guided missile gunner in an infantry unit. He re-upped when he and his wife were having a child, so he spent time in Desert Storm as well. He occasionally runs into fellow veterans on the street, and incredibly met someone else at PATH who also served in Germany at “The Rock.” The base was always cold, often snowing, but it was beautiful pristine country, he said, a formative experience.

When he got out of the military he went immediately into construction. “That was when you could make money putting a set of bags on, a hammer, heading to a job site, and if they say no the first time you just come back the next morning, and the boom was going on… you’ve got north county, everything was just booming. I made good money. I could do anything. I ran the biggest crew, I could run whatever they asked me to do.” And then his back gave out. “I’m 53, but I’ve got the mileage of like an 80 year old!” he laughed.