Having a really crappy day. Tell me the nicest thing you've ever done for a stranger.

don't worry be happy wrote:

Gifted a family member (addict/unemployed) 20K

Gifted another person a car

Advanced someone money to pay for their initial medical care (non-insured, cancer treatment)

Recently opened my house to a mother w 2 children being evicted from apartment in large part due to deadbeat husband/father

How is giving a heroin addict 20K doing good? You might as well shoot them in the head.

Que? wrote:

don't worry be happy wrote:

Gifted a family member (addict/unemployed) 20K

Gifted another person a car

Advanced someone money to pay for their initial medical care (non-insured, cancer treatment)

Recently opened my house to a mother w 2 children being evicted from apartment in large part due to deadbeat husband/father

How is giving a heroin addict 20K doing good? You might as well shoot them in the head.

There are tight restrictions around what the money can be used for and the funds are being overseen by a trustee. Nevertheless, one could argue that the money gift allows him to use his own cash (on the rare occasion when he does work) to buy drugs. I can't do anything about that, but at least he has money for food for the time being. He is estranged from the family- his own doing- so I don't hear much from him.

Two days ago, chatting to an assistant in my local health store, she told me about how she wished she could buy a computer for her 12 year old son, (all his friends had one) but with her husband out of work and them living on her wage and benefits, it was out of the question.

She had always been most pleasant to chat to and had always come across to me as one of nature’s ‘good’ people.

So I popped into a local Argos store only a short distance away and bought an Acer Chromebook.

Okay, it wasn’t an Apple MacBook I know, but it’s better than nothing.

Later I gave it to her, saying it was an unwanted Christmas present.

I don’t think she believed me, but her face was a joy and I bet the son was over the moon.

Re the guy picking up random strangers. You are a better man than I am, even the old lady I would have been afraid about getting robbed or something worse (not from her obviously). I would have called the police, think they would be the ones to handle stuff like this.

My last tempo run was a gift to the city of Chicago. After I finished, I looked around at no one in particular and said, "You're welcome."

We paid the remaining balance of a Christmas lay-a-way for a family the week of Christmas.

Last week, I was walking up the subway steps and the guy in front of me was walking very very slowly, to where the line behind him almost came to a halt. He was old and visibly handicapped. A guy behind me started screaming at him, accusing him of stopping on the steps. I turned around and said, "No one stopped on the steps. Some people just go slower than others." The guy behind me kept ranting. When I got out on the sidewalk, I stood w/ the old man, who appeared to be mute and couldn't stick up for himself. We waited for the loud mouth to come up and when he did, I pointed to the old man and said, "This is who you were yelling at. What do you have to say for yourself now?" The loudmouth looked at me, then looked at the old man, and walked away real fast. Then the old man gave me a hug. It was a good day.

Back when I was a womanizing d-bag I gave many a stranger (all women) a good boning. I'm not trolling, some of them were almost trolls, so I was doing some charity work, fueled by alcohol. I'm a slow guy, so I don't look like a goofy running geek, and I had decent luck with the ladies. I finally settled down and got married to a very beautiful woman from a good family. Best move ever!

On a more serious note, I spent the better part of 2 hours fixing this young woman's bicycle in a Wal-mart parking lot while on vacation. My wife and kids sat in the car while I worked. She was a fresh off the plane immigrant from Poland and she had some sort of accident with her bike that bent the pedals and it was difficult to ride. I overheard her story while she was trying to return the bike for a new one, but the store (rightfully) refused. I bought some tools and straightened it out the best I could. If I had a "do-over" I'd have bought her a new bike and just taken that one home to fix later. She was very thankful and cried so much. I hope she made it.