Don't be cruel to a heart that's true.

How to forgive. Accept the lesson .

Learn that You decided what you perceived. SEE that you defined what you saw. Now, see it as a goodness, a kindness, a blessing or a teaching for you..

It's a blessing to be poor so that you can learn to depend on the Creator. His glory shows in your care.

It's a blessing to be rejected so you can understand how his heart aches for friendship with you

It's a blessing to be betrayed so you can see how he felt when Judas kissed him.

It's a blessing to hurt others and know that you could have chosen differently, that you will choose differerntly next time.

It's a blessing to learn that though you hurt others that he will give them strength to survive

It's a blessing to see that others have needs you can't understand. It teaches you that your needs may not be understood by anyone but you and the Creator.

It's a blessing to be left hurt and alone so you learn you can survive with the Creator.

You learn that others needs are important to themselves.

It's a blessing to lose a friend or a lover when it shows you they are always with you and that you will live with them forever.

It's a blessing to travel without a friend to learn to treasure the one friend that will always hold you dear. Then you learn you always have that love to give and depend on.

When you live without the love of a man or woman you learn how precious is that love between two people.

It's a blessing to learn the real love refills and refreshes you without drawing from another who may not know how to love.

It's the most great of goodnesses when you can show someone the love that is there for them and see it wrap them in the protection and joy of that love forever.

It's a blessing when a person is cruel or mean to you because you can see how much they need love. You can't fix it if you don't know it's broken. By showing you how much love they need the wound is displayed for repair and healing.

It is a blessing to not know where your next need will be filled from because you get to be surprised and amazed as it comes. It's a blessing to have a father or mother leave you because you actively search for that love in each person you meet. You find it in the creator in each of us.

It's a blessing to leave little children behind because you learn their true worth to you and would lay down your life for them to take the hurt back. Like he felt about us.

It is the most wonderful blessing when your children return to you with love in their sad hurt hearts, still for you. You understand humble, grace and mercy all at one time.

It is a blessing to live without the comfort of a friend because when you receive it you will treasure it.

It is the most wonderful day of your life when you return home. Forget my birthday, forget my anniversaries, forget my holidays but remeber the day I went home as the best day of the rest of my life.

Luke 6:40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect ( to completed thoroughly, i.e. repair (literally or figuratively) or adjust:--fit, frame, mend, (make) perfect(-ly join together), prepare, restore.) shall be as his master.

I can fly!

It's said we are born with two "natural" fears. One is the fear of sudden loud noises. This would be a warning system. Loud is dangerous, identify it and get to a safe place. If you never had ears before you would not know that a difference in volumn means danger; rocks or trees falling, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, these are loud things. If you only used telepathy volumn is out of your understanding.

The other is a fear of falling. Now, I have been thinking about that. If we have NEVER fallen from a height why would we fear it? It has to be a protective device but what does it protect us from? Here is a thought for you.

If we were created as spirits, given our souls and our bodies at birth perhaps we would remember ourselves as spirits and not be able to relate to gravity here. The fear of falling would protect us from trying to float, fly, or manuver as spirits. The body doesn't have great landing gear and a fall could hurt us.

My mind is a fascinating place to hang out lately!

Wow.

That's the way, uh huh, I like it!

Why do we have reverse psychology?
Any kid, any adult
Adult -"Open the box"
Kid -"NO"
Adult -"Open the box"
Kid -"NO"
Adult -"Open the box"
Kid -"NO"
Adult -"Open the box"
Kid -"NO"
Adult -"OK, NEVER touch this box"
Kid -runs to box and opens it.

Why does this work? We want to do it our way. Why is our way important to us and normally in opposition to authority? The important, respected person gets to do it their way. The lesser person has to defer and feels less important. To do it our way means we are important - more important that the other person.

We can’t conceive of an authority that feels we are so loved and important that if we do things the way we are asked we will feel even more loved and important. Human authority belittles and humiliates.

Judges were to solve disputes. What is there to dispute over if everthing I have is yours and my love for you only wants you to be content and happy? If there is plenty for all and we share it willingly. If we feel rich and blessed we know we are rich and blessed and have enough to share what's to fight about?

Solomon didn’t judge which of the two women was fighting over the baby was a good or better woman and mother. He found a way to determine the truth. Who was the mother? If the other woman was shamed and embarassed in front of her peers it was because she put herself in that position with her lie, not because the judge told her she was a horrible woman. What is horrible about wanting a baby so badly that you would steal one? That is sad, to be pitied, not shamed.

When I went in front of the judge for our bankruptcy he was really upset that my mate didn’t go with me. He had gone to work. We needed the income. He actually said that he was giving us over however much it was in money and it should have been important enough for the mate to be there.

I faced him alone and was hurt, shamed and wanted to cry. He was forgiving us money we couldn’t pay due to a fire and an industrial injury in close succession. One took our home and the other my ability to work. We were only going bankrupt on two debts, all the rest we were still pledged to pay and did. He ignored all those facts to do what he made him feel important.

How hard is it to read a paper and say, "OK, I believe you don’t have any money. Your debts are voided." Not very. To feel important he had to make me feel the weight of his authority, my inability to respond human to human was also voided and I had to respond debtor to judge which meant I could offer no defense. His opinion of me was low and the truth is mine of him was low. Negative all around.

The Divine Love I met does not judge. He only Loves. We judge. We teach it to every child. Stove bad. Stove is not bad - stove is HOT. Hot is not bad. Too hot burns skin. It is dangerous or not safe - not bad. The road is not bad and the car is not bad but the car is big and fast and you are little and soft. It will squish you like a pancake. It is dangerous to play in the road. Plaing in the yard is safer. Not good, Safer. I want you safe.

Fire is not bad, fire is hot and hungry. It eats everything or tries. It also warms us and cooks our food. It keeps animal away. It gives light to see by. It will burn you if you are not careful around it. I want you safe and too close to the fire is not safe for you.

So much that we just cop out and call bad is really just not safe until you understand it. If I say "Mele Kalikemaka" to you and you don’t know what it means it can’t affect you. If someone tells you I just called you the child of a pig you might get angry. When I tell you it means "Merry Christmas" in Hawaian you may feel embarrassed at getting tricked. It was only ignorance of what it meant that left you depending on others to tell you what it meant so you would know how to react.

The power in the words is in our understanding of them. Flim, Flam, Floo has the same power as the worst curse if that is what is in my mind when I say it. Or, it might mean I love you forever. Our minds are the power, not the words. Words only work when they are understood by everyone.

What is understood by everyone is intent. I am trying to communicate. I am trying to inquire. I am in need. Can you help me? This can all be stated with out words. Any traveler to a different country knows it. Anyone who has met a tourist that does not speak their language knows it can be communicated.

Communing. Communicate. It’s not the words we use but the need behind the words. When you hurt you send out hurt, cries for help. When you are happy you send out happy. When you feel loved you send out love.

Into the net of creation today I am sending out love. I have love for my sisters and friends and all my family and I want them to feel it in the way I think of them today.

These precious days I spend with you

What if there really were a big bang and controlled creation at the same time? If there was just one self aware being so full of love and happiness that being alone was no longer an option. It just needed to share the joy and love with someone else. It was so full of love and happiness and power it just blew itself apart into tiny bits and then put them together in the most beautiful and satisfying way it could?

After creating the perfect place for us it put us in place and said "Look, isn't this beautiful? Everything I have is yours. Look! Isn’t this bird beautiful? Don’t you just love what I did with the skies and the trees and the wind and the plains? Oo! Mountains! Don’t you just think they are the most uplifting and mysterious creation?Aren’t they the greatest thing against a horizon? What about sunsets? I just love sunsets! I can do a different one everyday! They are so much fun to create I put in sunrises, too. It’s all so wonderful and I love it so much I wanted to share it with you. Look over here! See this itty bitty flower I made? I just think that color of blue is so pretty, don’t you?"

"You are my special friends I made just so I would have someone to love and appreciate what I have done here and see it was good. Someone to talk with and enjoy it with so I don’t have to be alone. I wanted someone like me that would love these creations of mine and care for them. "

"I gave you bodies to enjoy loving each other with and set it up so two of you will create a third and not have to be alone, just us. There will be lots of us to share the beauty and the love and the goodness of our selves with soon. I gave you hearts to love with and souls of your own so you were each unique. Then I filled you with life with a piece of my own spirit."

"I have it all set up so all you have to do is enjoy it. You have only to reach out your hand to find good things to eat and I made lots of different flavors for you then built your tongue just to taste them. I thought that was a pretty neat idea! "

"I love you! If you think of anything you need, just ask. If you would walk in the garden and talk to me of the love and beauty and goodness here that would be so much fun for me. I have been alone too long. "

"Oh! And I put the prettiest river in the midst of the garden; Wait until you see it!"

Love, beauty, goodness, bounty, food, shelter, everything good and others to share it with were all provided for each and everyone of us. Our Creator does not change. We changed.

Why? What made us change from the perfect partners and companions for the Divine Being’s joy in sharing to the sad, miserable race of humanity we have become?

I believe we have forgotten why we are here. To share the love and the beauty and the bounty of this planet with each other and to walk in the garden and talk with Creator about all the beauty and joy we have found living here. To love him, ourselves and each other. That is all he asked us to do.

If we are animated and protected by a piece of his perfect spirit of love and goodness how have we fallen so far that we forget to share our joy and happiness with our Creator?

Who are his preferred companions? Children. They take joy and happiness and beauty and love and see it in each new thing they discover. They come running with the first dandilion and the first violet and the first catipillar to show us but we have let the knowledge of our joy in sharing fade from us as we grow up in the "real" world.

The first words we teach our children are the names of their creators; Mama, Daddy, Papa, Mom, Father, Mother. The second series of words we teach our children are please, thank you and you are welcome.

Next we teach them NO. No, you can’t color on the walls, slide down the bannister, ride pillows down the stairs, throw balls in the house, dance and sing while the parents are trying to watch TV, make music with your toys too loud. No, not right now. No I don't have time. No, you can't go to the park now, maybe later. Negative. This is teaching them they are not important to us, that we only care about ourselves and our needs and they teach this to their children when they grow up because it is their turn to be important.

Our Creator does not say no. He has said yes to everything we think up that we think we need to be happy. He is endlessly giving us whatever we ask for to be happy. He does not audit or edit out things we think up. He gives us the freedom to create our own happiness. Because everything he makes is good, we can not receive a bad thing from him. We can look at it and call it "bad" and it becomes so. He can only see and give goodness.

I was created the way I am. Was I satisfied with that beautiful me? No. Were you happy with the beautiful you? We are not. Why? Because we continue to teach ourselves and our children to KNOW bad. To judge good or bad instead just acceping everything as the good and perfect creation that it is.

Our parents and their parents and the book said we are bad and have to atone. That is not true. We just have to turn to them, The Divine Love and say, "Father, Mother, Thank you, this is beautiful. I love all that you have done for me. I am so glad to have so much to choose from for my joy. It all takes care of itself if we don’t harm it. I only have to enjoy it and being alive. Will you walk in the garden with me and can we talk? I love you and I want to spend time with you."

They answer, "Most wonderful child of mine, you are very welcome! Please, just enjoy it! We would love to spend time with you. Let’s go for a walk." The gifts are here, the needs here are met, the joy and love are here, the life is here. All that is asked of us is to be companions and only see the good with the Divine Perception our spirits have the power to use.

I will no longer choose to see wrong, bad, negative. I will choose to see the good in each action and each being I share the planet with. I see the joy and peace and love that is my true self. My complete and beloved self. I will not let another soul tell mine what is. I choose what is for me and what is not.

I - I my most joyfilled and glorious self, see no evil - I only see live. I see no devil - I only see lived. I see no death, only a metamorphesus into a free soul of spirit matter. I see no way to be apart from my creators or my beloved friends and family. I am not apart, I just see them as gone ahead of me into a new life or waiting to join me there.

It’s not my goal to rewrite your religions. It’s not my thought to change what you believe. It is not in me to hurt you at all. Believe what you will, you are on your own path back to your creator. I just have to tell you what I saw and what I am learning from it. I can only tell you truth I have seen.

I will look at the drying head of an old rose and see the seed it is making for the entire bush to grow from. The rose is not dead, it is creating new life. That is beauty.

Feb 23 - Joy

The love that he gives me flows through me to those I meet.

Golden, always moving,
round and sweet,
warm with peace
and joy in my self
and his self as we meet.

Be just what you are,
that is your truth -
your witness -
your freedom.

I am that I am, he cried.
I am that I am, we echo back.

Are we many
or only one talking to ourself?

Does it matter?

No.

I am. I was. I will be.

I can not die,
I can only leave behind my body
as I go on to live as my true self.
My spirit.
My perfect, loving spirit of joy,
contentment divine
and wonderment.

We miss the message.
It's all good.
We live forever.

and nothing is going right

but it is for me. My friends have their hands full, still. I have been busy getting used to having a "roomie" that works third shift and needs to talk. It's great as I am not lonely and we are becoming very good friends. I have watched their needs being met everyday and things coming together for them but the world still throws bumps in their way.

I have left you hanging here and I am sorry. I saw the white dog again today in the distance running with a black dog and looking well. He still does not come to me but I continue to put food out for him. I don't know if he gets any or if the blue jays are eating all of it but it gets used up.

My Valentines Day dinner with the nice man my sister introduced me too was a very good time and after we went where he could look at hardwood floors for his home. He is very rural, very good with animals and with his hands and had a lovely home. There was no click but no warning bell either so I invited him over to meet my friend and have dinner on Saturday. We enjoyed it and he taught us a new card game. Still no clicks. Still no warning bell either so I figure I made a new friend. I call him in the evenings sometimes.

One of the families will be closing on their new home the 28th. That gets them in out of the cold and should cut expenses all around. The bad news is that Jeanette is co-owner and it's a new mortgage so getting financed for rebuilding her home is going to be tricky. I am waiting to see how it gets worked out as I feel it will be.

I have been going through some major spiritual stuff. As always it's "to post or not to post". I am opting to try and post it. We have all been going through major blog changes and I know some of you wonder where I have been. Thinking and helping others is the answer.

The music & laughter's gonna raise the rafters

There ain't no strangers when you're swinging a hammer side by side... I can't swing the hammer the way I used to. I love watching the guys do it while I hand them nails and tools though. They have done an amazing amount of work.

The Stangs are getting mail at the house again. If any of you still can contribute toward the cost of getting a roof raised please send checks or money orders to:

Jeanette Stang
1917 Youngs Road
Orleans, Michigan
48865

To contribute on line the donation button is here: http://forwardho.blogspot.com/2007/01/you-are-my-sunshine.html

I will leave the address up until the 17th of February for them.

Paperwork, it's overrated. I have been watching and trying where I can to help these friends get their "offical" ID back together. Fees, delays, confusion, more charges, and I wonder sometimes why we feel it is so important to "prove" who we are. A photo and a thumb print with a signature should do it. Three to four pieces of paper to prove you are you per person. After a fire that is just not easy to do. It has been a month waiting for one birth certificate to get enough paper together to get a drivers liscense reissued for one girl, ten more days for an out of state liscense to be sent for one of the boys.

It's frustrating at the very least and on top of the confusion and depression from being without a home it's infuriating for some of them. All I can do is keep pointing them to the next step to get to the next office to get the next piece of paper.

Jeanette and I are both looking forward to having the new guy down for dinner Saturday. We have the menu planned and are ready to get on it. She has to do her taxes today. I am checking to see if I have all mine ready to go yet. More paperwork. Humbug.

I am slowly getting the catalogs out for work. It's going better all the time now. I had forgotten how much fun it is to make contact with a new, potential customer and quote our great prices to them. It's getting better every time I do it. The boss will be pleased!

The funds are coming to keep me going, too, where I have invested in the futures of these people. It is a surprise to see how the money gets to me. I like being surprised with more than enough to help them keep going until they get the house back up.

The other day I was feeling a little like, "I don't know if it's going to stretch.." and the young man I was getting funds together for got a phone call from a friend who owed him money! Too cool! I ran him over to pick it up.

I have really been glad for the companionship of Jeanette and the visits of her kids. They are really pulling together to get through this. Even the little guys are doing so much better now that it is easy to see that the parents are feeling better every day.

I have to finish today's projects and get the mail, too. See ya all later!

Well, everybody's going out and having fun

Well! Today was a first, in a much less painful way than most of the firsts I have dealt with in the past year. It was the first time a man called to talk with the intention of meeting me for dinner and getting to know each other.

My sis set us up with the statement that at least we might like each other enough to have someone to do things with. It should be interesting. I'm hanging in bars for the music and he is AA right now. I like country, he likes old rock and roll. I don't know what will come of it but it was nice to have a man to talk to again. We will be doing dinner sometime this weekend. He works two jobs and I am laid off...LOL! More difference.

On the plus side, we both smoke and have pets and like trucks and speak our minds. That was a refreshing treat. I'd rather be taken aback or out right offended than wonder if I took something wrong or said something wrong. I can fix it if I know it's broke.

There is another first today, my first post with the new, no longer optional, Blogger. I hope this thing works better than the old one. I might even start posting photos again.

Yesterday we got one of the guy's paper work straightened out so he can be a legal driver in Michigan. That's hard to do after a fire eats all your ID. The trailer the other couple is trying to buy got two more pieces of paper signed to move that transaction along today. It's coming together for them just as it's beginning to fall apart for others.

When I was running one of the guys to town on a errand we had to stop where there had been another fire two weeks ago because we saw some people working around the place. This was a family with four kids that rescues dogs. They were caring for the animals in the surviving pole barn, feed, water and pets all around when we arrived. My young man, who still doesn't have his own place to go home to, offered to help them get the best price for their scrap metals and to haul and burn the wood remains when they were ready. Overflow from here will go there.

The nice man I talked with today had his neighbor, who had almost nothing already, burn out Sunday night. He says there are two teen age girls and the parents. The girls are my size so more of my excess is being cut and I will try to see if I can help with anything else.

That is three families standing in shoes that hurt my feet for months afterwards and pinched for years. My heart is so full of wanting to help but I have to find a way to have more to help with!

I learned so much after our fire the hard way that I actually had a flyer I printed myself and gave to the firemen to hand out that told what was available in our area for emergency aid, where the best help could be found and all the contact information for the Red Cross and such. I am thinking I am going to be researching and doing it again. It also had info on getting your ID and important papers, like marriage certificates and such back.

I may have found a niche for me. I want to work helping other people and this is something I learned from the inside out. It bears thinking about.

I am amazed, as we go through the list of needs, at how many are "falling from the sky". I want to thank all of you that sent Jeanette checks. They have had to pay for heat where one family stays and heat for the pipes at the burned home and heat and electric where the other family is going to be buying plus gas for work, to do chores twice a day at the old house and food for all of them in three locations. Just when it looks like it won't quite stretch - here comes another check or cash in an envelope. Bless you all for caring!

So - I think I have a date Saturday! It may be a threesome. No point leaving Jeanette home alone! Right now we are all just looking for friends, anyway. This should be a good story in days to come.

I have been, of course, going through the classic, "What would the mate think?" quandry all widowed people have to deal with. I am working from the premise that I shorted the mate on nothing, our love is real, I have all eternity to spend with him when I catch up and in the mean time I want to be happy and productive here. I still have grief attacks and get maudlin when I find yet another note from him. He's the man I learned true love with. It won't change.

I don't love everyone the same, however and I can still love another man differently but as well and deeply in the future. It doesn't have to be the same, it just has to be love on both sides.

Gotta go, Bible Study tonight.

Come together, right now

Random Acts of Kindness Week begins February 12. During this week, people are encouraged to extend goodness to others without thought of return. It's doing for others just because we can.

Ann Lander's column was one of the first places I read about something that I have done for many years. Just be nice to someone you don't even know. She wrote of this kind and new tradition. Buy the groceries for the person in front of you at a store, shovel a neighbor's walk, drop off cookies at the home of a single person, mail a care package to a soldier, there are many easy, thoughtful ways to show someone a kindness.

Here is mine for you. May each person who reads this blog on the day they read this post receive a kindness from someone and notice it so they can blog it.

Let's see what happens.

When you're down and troubled and you need a helping hand

I made birthday brownies for one of the girls I am getting to know after their fire. I will get them over there in the morning. The kids will enjoy the treat.
I have been doing some thinking on my 'tude about my job and what it says about me. I am wanting to work in something I feel makes a difference in people's lives. It's hard to get excited and enthusiastic about product sales. It is still important to my customers. If I can save them money I will be helping them out. I need to remember that just because it's not important to me doesn't mean it's not important to someone else. I gave my word to do this for the boss, too. It's more important to me now to keep it. I have talked to the boss and I have some things to do for work next week. Monday I will be turning a new leaf over. Again!

I spent this morning talking with Jen and letting her get some phone calls made to take care of business. I have been seeing the divine love in action again. That is exciting!

One of the people she called was a loan consultant working to get her financing on rebuilding her home. She would have had to give her just bad news but she wasn't that kind of person. Instead of the usual "We're sorry but we can't help you through the bank." she had a personal friend that she asked Jen to call and talk to about financing. More strange ways the power works. I am loving it. Jen didn't get more depressed, she was touched someone who only knows her throught credit reports and finacial statements would take the time to go to the extra effort to find her financing help. There may be one more way to go if this falls through, too. It's amazing.

The weather broke today, it was in the thirties and down right balmy out! I put the cats out and let the dog out and Jen and I sat here and watched the birds as we worked out feelings and planned the days to come. When she decided she was hungry for steak I asked if she would like to cook. I thought it might help her get feeling more at home. I sat here and enjoyed the feeling of someone else making a meal for us again.

While Best Girl has brought food and so have the #1son and DIL as well as my Tuesday people it has been a good long while since I was here and someone cooked for just us and I was pledged to clean up, like a team. Even though it's not a mate, it's a friend and it felt good.

She realized that it was the first time she has cooked since the 17th of January when she burned out. It is still hard for her in that it is not her kitchen and her pots and pans and such, she misses them and that is rough for her. Still, it was normal, everyday activity that she could relax and enjoy doing. The steaks were good, the fried potatoes were golden and the corn was crisp. We ate together and listened to the washer going, another normal sound, and were grateful for the food and the companionship.

After she went to bed I started dishes then took a nap. I'm up but she is not yet. I thought about going out but am waiting to see what happens next. Thinking.

I don't know if she will sleep all night or not. She works third shift and it's messing us up a little as we get accustomed to each others schedules. We tend to "Chip and Dale" ourselves into overly considerate silliness. It will be ok, it's just roommate stuff. She didn't want to come home and wake me up too early so felt she had to kill time after work. I fussed around and made coffee to have ready to greet her but it is the end of her day, she wants a relaxing beverage. We are working it out.

The animals like her and she is doing ok with them. The sis was over and they hit it off fine. The kids two way her to say hello every day and the needs at the house are taken care of. It's coming along fine. I think she finally realized that her being here is a blessing to me, not a chore. She is a companion and a friend. I really am enjoying getting to know her better. I am not alone right now and even though there are snags while we learn how we do things, it is good for both of us.

I have talked to all the kids this week and they are good. I went with mom to visit a friend that just had a mastectomy and take her some comfrey. We talked awhile and made her laugh.
I stopped at the jam session for an hour Thursday night and that was fun. I just listened and checked to see if I can still knit while I sat there and they sang and played. I have a friend that wants to learn knitting. I started a dish rag. I can still knit but I know now why I like crocheting better, it's easier on my hands.

I have been thinking of many of you this week. I miss my time here but really have to live a "real" life, not a totally virtual one. It's going to be spotty here but I want it kept up.

I have errands to run tomorrow and a few things to get at the store. Life is good.

North to Alaska

It might be warmer there. I was praying for a dog tonight. At least I thought that was what I was doing. He is a semi long haired, mostly white stray. He yips like a coyote though. I suppose he could be a coyote. It is under ten below zero here tonight. Wind chill makes it worse. I don't care what he is, it's too cold to be out without shelter and food.

I noticed him Tuesday as I walked my sis to the car. As he barked I made a comment and she answered, "It sounds like a dog freezing to death." I put dry food out front for him that night. I could see he ate some the next day, but not much. I have no hope of keeping water out there for him. It freezes in fifteen minutes. Solid.

Tonight, when I heard him again, I put out fresh food. Then, being the idiot I am, I went out to check it without looking first and scared him off it.

He stopped and sat under the street light's glow in the center of the intersection. I called and whistled. Whitey, Snowball, Snowflake, Smoke, Baby, Puppy - none of the words I spoke moved him to come to me. He got up and walked off into the dark.

He is so cold he can't stop moving long and he can't trust a human. When he thinks he might want to go to a human, even one with food in it's hand, he can't trust his own judgement. He remembers being wrong before and moves away. He is moving away from warmth, shelter, food and into the cold. It's all he knows to do that is safe from kicks and blows and loud words and anger. It's cold but it's safer alone in the dark.

All the dogs tied out alone tonight would lie together in a pile, if they were free, to keep warm. Straw, sheds, barns, none of them is enough shelter in this weather. The only way to survive is in a group of warm bodies.

I put my pads out from my summer chairs, one flat and one upright, blocking the wind, next to the pipe the furnace vents from. It's warm there, sort of. I put hot food in a bowl for him. I went back in, calling as I went.

I check from the windows, more careful now to be quiet. I see no tracks. I will have to go out and bring the food in to heat again soon. I did, I put out chicken for him and dry food that won't freeze. Crap, it's in a steel bowl, I have to change it over to plastic.

Poor scared thing. Alone, cold, hungry, no trust, no hope except for a good trash can somewhere.

Bless me! I was only worried about the white dog. I feel so stupid sometimes.

God bless all the homeless tonight. Humans and animals.

Dashing through the snow

NOT! It is way too cold out, even for the hard core snowmobilers.

I have been holed up for two days now. It's very peaceful here. I have been writing, bought some more books I want to check out, done an ebay search for the mom, heard from the Eldest, Best Girl, the #1son and Scooter Girl in the last week. They are all hanging in there. I checked in with the sister and all is well with them and theirs. My animals are in, I am feeding a stray dog and maybe a stray cat as well as the birds. It looks like it will be Wednesday before we get from -10 to -30! back to the positive side of the thermometer.

I hurt for all those who are not warm today and have been blessing the new furnace and the fact that we seem to have made it through this storm without the power going out. I have entertainment, thought provoking reading available, really, all is well here.

Jeanette may be moving into the upstairs soon. I hope so. I think it will be good for her and I know it will be nice for me to have companionship again. I have half the closet cleaned out for her and she and I will work out the rest as we go. It's a great joy to me to have this abundance to share with a friend.

So to all of you out there in nice weather, remember us! It might be a nice time to invite your family from Michigan to visit south some where!

I think I am going to lose my nice new bar/pub. The new owner put everything he had into it but he hasn't enough to go past the end of the month. I really like what he is trying to do with the place, food, music and dancing for the older crowd. Advertising is his bane, not enough in the budget for it. I am praying for him and the business. It's his dream and has become my place to be not alone when I need to be with people. Seems strange to pray for the sucess of a bar, but I have done stranger things.

I have venison cooking with corn on the cob and potatoes to add to it later. There is the distinct likely hood that I will have banana cake for desert, too. That means I have to go cook, LOL, has I have not yet moved in a chef!

I will be getting caught up with all of you over the next couple days. I missed my reading time because of study time.

Thanks for loving me! I love you, too!

Could'a been the whiskey

Might'a been the gin, sometimes you just need to relax and that is what it takes.

Today is my Uncle Arr's bday. I always thought it was neat he was born on ground hog's day. Happy Bday, Uncle!

Things have been happening way too fast here to find time to blog it all. I am very sorry for the spotty postings. Right now we have a blizzard blowing by and it looks like I will have time to catch up everything.

Jeanette and I went out on the first. I got over to take her a check (donation) and at seven in the evening she was still not in bed. She was supposed to go to work at 11, getting up at nine to be there on time. I talked to her a few minutes and learned she had not slept yet all day. She had seen a doctor and had new medication, too.

I asked her to think about working on shears and presses with only two hours of sleep and she decided to call in. I was glad. She has been doing everything possible to get funding for rebuilding her home. Insurance will pay off the mortgage but she has to have money for a roof and a total redo of the first floor from the boards up.

I could tell she was doing the mind going in endless circles thing and would not sleep so I asked her to go have dinner with me. We talked and cried and ate and she drank while I was designated. She really needed to relax all the way and I confess to encouraging her to imbibe more than three drafts. We went back to my place and she slept peacefully with no interruptions until almost nine thirty the next day.

I ran her home, got my mail and started sorting the bills out to pay. Now the storm has hit I can catch you up some.

Stay tuned.