Janitor's Closet

to forever keep the light on

Why Harrisburg Shopping?

A few years ago, my neighbor Edna needed a lightbulb. At 94 years young, she was living in a studio apartment with no windows (literally a room with a bathroom). But for her and her husband, they had lived there for over 20 years, and it was "home". After her husband died, I hardly ever saw her anymore. Her ceiling light was her main source of light and when it burned out, my neighbor was literally left in the dark, alone, by herself, in the dark, with no one and nothing.

Edna was a groovy chick, the kind of lady that shows up at your apartment with a little plate covered in aluminum foil (because "I want to make sure you ate today"). That type of neighbor. So, when she knocked on my door asking if I had a lightbulb, I was pretty upset.

Society doesn't really care about our elderly and disabled and homebound neighbors. We just pack them away in nursing homes and count them out. And that's not how it should be. So, I grabbed my cane and hobbled over to Sam's (If you know the neighborhood, you know) and bought lightbulbs.

Then I started thinking, "Why can't we order from local stores, and have it delivered? Why can't we order from Louie's over at Market and Evergreen? Why can't I buy that custom-made leather cowboy hat from the guy on Regina and have it delivered?"

And so, sitting in my bedroom on my laptop, watching the world go by from my apartment window, I started building a small website called Harrisburg Shopping.

Over 5 years later

It's been over 5 years since I started making that tiny website. What I planned as a small few pages website to help my neighbors has grown into a massive online shopping mall as large and complex as Amazon. Over the years I've had many people help me, programmers from Google, programmers from all over the world, programmers from GitHub, and security programmers from Stripe. Countless people from all over Harrisburg gave me feedback on the website as it grew.

We specifically designed Harrisburg Shopping for people like Edna, people like me, people like you.

Who are you?

I'm a homebound neighbor in Harrisburg. I'm also the founder of Harrisburg Shopping. You won't see me outside of my apartment except for the marathon half block walk to Superior Stores a few times a year. I was born with a rare genetic disorder called Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia.

Basically, my body gets rid of no cholesterol even with medicine.

So far to date, I've survived 18 heart attacks, have 23 coronary stents, 1 lung and end of life heart failure. Most recently (December 2025) I underwent double bypass surgery. But don't worry about all of that, I've left you in good hands for after I leave.

I did a lot of things in my life. Was in the Army, got married to a Ukrainian super model (smoking hot chick), had kids, traveled the world, met some amazing people and saw some really bad and good things.

I've had millions of dollars and been homeless eating out of dumpsters. I'm proud to say I've eaten out of some of the best dumpsters in the world, because those experiences make us who we are.

Well?

I am nameless, and anyone claiming to be me is a fake—a usurper. I don't want or need people to know who I am; I'm just your neighbor. So, the person sitting next to you in the restaurant, the laundromat, or the Walmart—the person posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit claiming to be me—is not me. I don't have any personal social media accounts and never have; hints to my identity are void ab initio. Even if you met me, you would never know.

I'm not the one who deserves your attention, our homebound neighbors are.

Stop looking.

You "meet" me every time you deliver to one of our homebound neighbors.

Life is life and it happens, all you can do is live it.

My little apartment is sometimes full of homeless people, taking showers, eating food, doing laundry, watching tv, and most importantly, surviving. I've been there, I know what it is and so I try and help as much as I can with what I have. It's not a lot, but when they leave, they are clean, fed and have had a safe place to sleep. And that's a really groovy thing.

I just live life a little differently.

For me, my life is inside my apartment, and the outside world is a once in a few months experience. And I'm okay with that.

Edna! We did it!

Here's some of the things I'm currently working on for the website:

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Janitor's Closet

to forever keep the light on

Why Harrisburg Shopping?

Over 5 years later

Who are you?

Well?

Stop looking.

Edna! We did it!

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