Thank You To My Friends

Two years ago today I woke up homeless. April 28, 2014 was the day my house burned to the ground. There was pretty much nothing left and what was left was mostly damaged by smoke, water or the fire. It’s an eerie feeling to wake up and know you don’t get a choice in what to wear because you only have the clothes on your back. But I’ve learned that it’s okay.

Two years ago today, I woke up on a cot in my sister’s den. At least I was still alive. At least Keith was still with me. I still had my dog, and my horses, and the chickens. We owned the land, so in the truest sense we weren’t truly homeless. We just didn’t have the building to live in. I may not have had a lot of possessions, but I did have something better: friends and family.

While Keith and I were still dealing with the fire inspector and the sheriff’s report, my sister Chanda rushed out to Wal-Mart and bought us some replacement items. I could at least put on a clean set of clothes because of her. And we invaded her life for a month while we crashed in her den until we could find another place to live.

The fire took out our electric pole and the power company shut off the electric until we could get it fixed. My friends Robert and Tia let me bring the horses to their house and fed and took care of them until we could get the pole replaced and the power to operate our well back. 

My friend Linda offered us her little cabin by the lake as a place to stay so that Keith would have a shorter drive to work. We stayed there for another month until my mom and her partner Bill, were finally able to bring up a smaller camper trailer for us to live in. 

We now have a new home and new possessions, but I’ve learned something along the way. You can live without stuff/possessions, but don’t throw away your friends. If you have good friends, you have one of the most valuable possessions in the world. 

Today I want to thank all my friends and family again for all their help over the years. Everyone, including the anonymous donations to our fund and anyone who offered a place to stay (even if we didn’t take you up on it). One kind gesture is sometimes all it takes to make someone’s day. Thanks for being there. 

I've got nothin'

It has been almost a year and the other day a writing prompt came up that motivated me to write this poem. 

“I’ve got nothin’,” I said

as I looked out over the pile that

was my clothes, my house, my bed.

It broke my heart

to think of great-grandma’s

antique teacart.

“I’ve got nothin’,” I cried

when I found the body

of my cat who had died.

I see nothing but ash

as we throw the remains of

all my stuff in the trash.

The place still smelled of smoke

but as we cleaned

I realized I was not broke.

I had nothing that day

but over the course of a year

life has found a way.

I was at the end of my rope

until the new house

filled me with hope. 

I really hate

Keith and I bought some furniture to add to the new house, but now all we are doing is fighting with the seller to replace it because it was delivered damaged.

I found this wonderful horse themed furniture with green accents.  Oh boy how can I turn down both green AND horses. LOL. I couldn't, however now all I have is damaged furniture.  They did come in boxes and the boxes appeared undamaged, but as soon as we opened it, we saw this:

The hinges on the door of this cabinet are completely damaged. One hinge is broken in two and the other is ripped out of the wood. but that's not the only damage. the top was almost ripped off and one of the legs is broken.

To get an idea of what it would look like all put together, it should look more like this only with the door in place.

The second cabinet was less damaged. Only a portion of the corner of top was broken.

So it looks a little better and is more easily repaired than the first, but still we received to damaged pieces of furniture and can't get the company to respond to our complaints.

Hopefully the Better Business Bureau will be able to get them to correct the issue and we get a resolution soon.

Painted Ponies

Before the fire, I had several Painted Ponies that were destroyed.  I wanted to purchase back some of the models that I'd lost and I've been given a few for Christmas. My problem now is in the display because they come in "lefties" and "righties". I have all of these Cornices ( I think that's the right word) over the top of all of my windows, and they make a great displace place for my Painted Ponies. But I think I'm going to need to buy several more ponies. I will probably need to put the "lefties" over one window and the "righties" over the other window. 
Right now they are all together:

But as you can see I only have the two that face left and a whole bunch that face right. I've put them like that for now to balance out the numbers, but do you think I can justify buying another 4 "lefties" and move those remaining to "righties" to the other side?

What do you think?  I think I need to get shopping. LOL