bbbbbb BAD, bad to the bone

I have been fighting with a dying computer, doing CPR, (computer please - RESTORE) for days. I just gave it up today.

My machine lost some files I REALLY wanted to have for a long time. I got annoyed and went out to do the banking and see the #1DIL and SOMEHOW ended up at the store carrying my latest desired machine.....

See, somehow, in this economy, my credit got extended on my credit card back awhile ago. I have been talking myself out of spending any of it incase of emergency. I never have been real good at taking my own advice.

But I really need a working computer. I build websites, do recording, movies, photo editing, build data bases and more. It's lots of heavy memory work on a machine.

I was bad....I have a new machine downloading it's 61 Vista updates as I type.

Will still be spotty online for awhile until I get my NEW machine set up and running with a new ISP but when I come back I can do everything I need do without the poor thing having a breakdown.

I'm bad, but I'm pleased. I'm calling it my xmas/bday gift to me from me.

Now I just have to pay it off!

****************

The neice and nephew are back up north now, sorting bags of stuff and organizing their temporary home. The Sis went up today to help. I may go up later, if they need me. They have so much to sort - so many kind people have offered help - they don't know where to start.

Thank you to all that have offered prayers and sent help for them. They are going to need it to get their home back up. But it WILL go back up! What a blessing!

****************

Our Christmas was wonderful but some typhoid mary gave a bunch of us the flu. Easy is down and so is GrandGirl and the DIL. Baby Bashie is fine, so far. I think I had it a month ago, it seems to be missing me.

Grand1 has been over with his girl to hang and play cards and such the last week. It was good to see him again. She's a sweetie.

The clutch is funky on the truck. I'm gonna have to get that looked at - later. After I get this machine loaded up and whipped into shape!

So I'm busy, broke, but being productive again. Yay me!

Catch ya all soon as I get back online. I'm at the hotspot for downloading updates right now. Will be back again tomorrow after I install my software! (again. )

Hugs to all of you!

Peaceful, easy feeling,

Just trying to stay positive. There is so much to be glad for here. I have power still, amazingly enough. The wind was down right scary all night.

Easy has been sick so I was on the couch. I wanted him to rest as well as he could. I think he's feeling a little better today. Not a good bug, though.

The Neice and Nephew have been so loved! Our holiday together was in a little sharper focus because of their major trauma. Losing your home hurts.

Odd little bits of good news - a friend went into the mess and found the neice's wedding rings. The photo albums from the same event were in a wooden stand my father built. It's old, dry cherry wood and was between two chairs that burned....it was unharmed. Not even water damage. The photos are safe. The grama's china is also undamaged even though the kitchen is a major burn point in the home.

There has been such an outpouring of help from the workplace, the community and the family that they have more than they can handle right now just going through all the things offered to them. One of the guys the Nephew works with gave them a home, rent free for several months, a local business donated beds for each child and a king size for the parents, there is a tree and presents there for them, too. An entire Yukon suburban full of gifts....gift cards, phone cards, tv, playstation, furniture- they will be days getting things sorted out and shook down but they have so much replaced that the PST will be lessened for all of them.

They are hanging in there pretty well but the oldest boy is having trouble sleeping. He's around five or six and just old enough to really understand what happened. Being at my Sis's place comforted them all as it's "normal" to stay at Granny's.

Normal. Pick your own definition. But to put some "normal" back in your days after such a hit is a great comfort. It means life can be like it was before the fire - someday. Before the hurricane, before the flood - whatever.

Your days are totally rearranged by a disaster. Your habits no longer apply. Lock the doors, put on the coffee for morning, set the alarm, go to bed in your own room and own bed, wake up, go to work... The pace of your days change from what you have done to what you can do. It's all so hard for the short people and the parents are dealing with learning that life is changed in just a second from "normal" to "survival mode".

So I am glad to be home, a little crazy with cabin fever, a little bummed that Easy is ill, a little tired of the same old walls.....the walls that keep the wind outside, the home that is still my refuge, with power to keep us warm and food enough to share....

And all my problems seem smaller. The things it takes to remind us to be thankful for the day...

So, for the way too many-th time...If only you can do it, do it now. Love the one you are with while they are there and don't wait for "the right time" to heal the hurts, mend the fences and keep the love right between all those you walk with here.

(that would be NOW)

Later on, we'll conspire

as we sit by the fire....to face unafraid, the plans that we made.............

Standing in our socks, up to our knees in a winter wonderland.

My neice and her mate, along with their four children (all under six years of age), lost their home to a furnace fire last night about eleven. They live in very northern Michigan. They are all okay, but the four quilts Neice made for each kid for christmas, along with almost everything else they had, is gone. Poof.

I kept telling people and will continue to do so, that it's all just stuff and stuff just burns up. That the only thing important here is how we love and care for each other. The kids just got that lesson burned into their hearts. I hate it.

I hate knowing I'm too far away to help. I hate knowing how they feel right down to the bottom of their hearts. I love knowing that their friends and family there are caring for them today. And I love knowing that when it's all forgotten in six months and they are still struggling to get their home replaced and needs filled that I will remember and I will be there for them, along with all the rest of us that have stood there.

So Christmas just got a little warmer in my heart. We have a family down!!! Circle the wagons! And I love knowing all the family here is in the circle surrounding them with signs of their love.

So hug the one you're with, and be glad you are safe today, in your own place and out of the weather. It's something to be thankful for that we forget too often.

We need a little Christmas!

Click on the card to get the printable version!

Click on the title for a tune!

Click here to get the printable version!

Haul out the holly

Put up the tree before myspirit falls again

Fill up the stocking

I may be rushing things, but

deck the halls again now

For we need a little Christmas

Right this very minute

Candles in the window

Carols at the spinet

Yes, we need a little Christmas

Right this very minute

It hasn't snowed a single flurry

But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry

So climb down the chimney

Turn on the brightest string of

light I've ever seen

Slice up the fruitcake

It's time we hung some tinsel

on that evergreen bough

For I've grown a little leaner

Grown a little colder

Grown a little sadder

Grown a little older

And I need a little angel

Sitting on my shoulder

Need a little Christmas now

For we need a little music

Need a little laughter

Need a little singing

Ringing through the rafter

And we need a little snappy

"Happy ever after"

Need a little Christmas now

a whiter shade of pale

I don't know if this will display well. It was very snowy, blowy and grey except for the blob of sun trying to break through the clouds.

That is just before noon today in my little town.

The cars are across the street in the neighbors yard. It's been like this for days now.

Easy went north to help his dad for a few days and I had to call yesterday to tell him that his mom had gone to the hospital for low blood pressure and chest pains.

He got lucky and drove over between storms. It's rough out there for all the drivers.

My son the trucker is stuck on the Wisconsin and Iowa border in a truck stop. I feel badly for all the drivers stranded today.

So, no - I'm not going anywhere right now and neither are very many others. Thngs are hard all around in Michigan right now.

The rear end is out on KMA's truck. Jennette is laid off and dealing with her kids health and legal problems with very low income. Sis and her mate went in the ditch. They got out safely but the oil pan was damaged on her car. That's in the shop. The clutch is going out on my truck. My Bitty girl and I haven't seen each other in weeks, I can't get up north it seems. I don't know how she is doing for the holiday. That hurts me. Mom is running low on funds, we keep her covered but it's hard for her - she's a GM retiree. My friend, Gloomy, found his mom dead in her apartment on his birthday. Little T is down to eight hours a week for work and walking to get there. The neice of a friend is in the hospital for low oyxygen levels - no one seems to know what's causing it. There is a 22 year old young woman who is spending the holiday in a woman's shelter. She was beaten by her boyfriend. She's pregnant and alone in a strange place for the holiday. I can't help her, either. The sad part of this list is that I could go on - but isn't that enough?

Many of us are broke, broke down, stressed, and depressed or losing loved ones....then it snowed some more. It's only four days until we celebrate the birth of a man of peace and love. I see so much around me that needs love applied to it and feel frustrated I can't help right now.

I refuse to have a pity party for me. I was bumming that I am alone again and short on resources. NOT!!

I'm so blessed. And even for those I listed, they are in warm homes and with loving family and friends to help them. They have food and heat. They have love in their lives, however scant it may feel to them, it's there.

We share it with each other. If you are out there today, mobile, and can give a hand to someone, please do. Pass on the blessing you have in your life to others today.

All I can do is post this on the web for those who still read here to see and say I love you all. I'm glad to have such wonderful family, friends, children and Vfriends.

May your holiday be filled with love, enough to share.