FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART

There are no words to express my heartfelt gratitude at the outpouring of support you’ve shown me here. It means more than you can possibly know. I do have a paypal account and have bought and sold on e-bay since 1999. The cheap Chinese rechargable batteries for my ancient digital camera won’t hold a charge so I have to get new ones today. I have some things in our storage locker to sell and my wife wants me to sell her Chatty Cathy doll in the box and her Betty Boop collection.

The owner’s announcement was so sudden nobody had time to prepare. I stopped at WalMart yesterday and put in an app  asking for the food department,sporting goods or as a greeter. There’s also a government office in town that specializes in placing people over 55. There’s an ad on Craigslist from HomePages.com for an outside sales manager to sell ads. It’s a yellow page-type publication. The e-mail addy to respond to is my youngest daughter,who I don’t see much of. I wasn’t around much when she was young. I wasn’t much of a dad because of the hostility between her mom and me.

DW had a friend tell her about some apartment complexes at the old Camp Grant barracks by the Chicago-Rockford airport. The rent is cheaper,but the parking is offstreet,it has pay laundry facilities and there are 16 units per building. We’ve lived in a four-family in a nice neighborhood for over three years and I hate the thought of having to move again. We have an attached 2-car garage(my car has never seen snow) a gas log fireplace and laundry hookups behind doors in the kitchen. We’ll do whatever is necessary,but I don’t look forward to packing up again.

I have a whole life policy with a cashout value of about 8K to borrow against,which I will probably need to. That would give me time to find something. DW will get her first SS check in December,which will help since she still works part-time. The boss says he’ll start the service back up if the state sends him some money,but I can’t imagine him doing that only to start the process over again. I have a feeling he’ll take the money and cut his losses. Time will tell.

Yesterday was gut-wrenching,as I’m sure today will be. Suddenly people with medical appointments arranged and counted on us have no way to get there. A mid-30’s woman named Freddie (really) was beside herself. She had 3 appointments scheduled next week and can’t afford a taxi. She wanted to know if another service would replace us and I told her no. When she asked why I told her to thank the corrupt democrats who shoved billions into public union pensions while slashing medicaid payments.

The hardest was a woman named Colleen,who I’ve been taking to her radiation and chemo treatments for about 4 months. Her cancer is terminal and the doctors have given her a year to live. I’d tell her the stupidest jokes I know and say crazy things to get her to laugh. She said it’s the only time she ever smiles. When I dropped her off,we hugged and both cried a lot. I hope I see her again.

I probably won’t feel the full impact until Monday when I get up and have nowhere to go. There is a long,hard road ahead of me but with Divine Providence and the support of family and wonderful friends like you,I’ll get through this.

I know there’s a lot going on in the world,but my focus right now has to be on getting things taken care of. I’ll post a link when I get some things up on e-bay. As you go through your day,know that you are in my thoughts. I love each and every one of you.

Pistol Pete