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.