More disappointments and blessings...

Debbie Shrum, a co-worker from the Foundation, has been such a blessing to me. As you will recall, my car has been stuck in the ice since Wednesday. Debbie took me home from work on Thursday and Friday and took me to work on Friday. Not only did I not have to drive the interstate, but she has a parking space next door to the Foundation. She also agreed to take me to the airport today. Leslie Meyer, another co-worker, was gracious enough to offer to take time off work to pick me up and transport me to Bob's apartment in Reynoldsburg on Wednesday of next week.

Oh, and my boss Kevin said he will pay for the cab fare I spent getting to work on Thursday. Isn't that great!

My best friend Emily Bien may have gotten salmonella poisoning from her Peter Pan peanut butter. She has had abdominal cramps for the last several days, and she definitely was eating pb from the serial numbers mentioned on the radio of those jars that needed to be tossed. Pray for Emily to recover quickly.

Yesterday afternoon about 3:30 I received a call from my realtor's office. The buyer of my house had finally completed the inspection in anticipation of closing on Tuesday. To my dismay, she is wanting several items repaired along with a letter stating that the roof still has years of use.

If the inspection had been completed in a timely manner, this would not be an issue. Now I have three days, counting today and tomorrow, to provide the documents and repairs she has requested.

My realtor says it SHOULD be no problem. I suppose we'll see...

When I got home yesterday, I called Emily to check on her. As I was chatting, Bob walked into the house and gave me my first paycheck from Children's. To my dismay, the advance I had been offered for payment to my movers this coming Tuesday was missing from the amount!

Bob offered to help me try to "unstick" my car from the ice. So after I hung up talking with Em, he and I headed outside to give the car extraction one more try.

Bob's neighbor came out and offered some rock-like kitty litter she had purchased to get her car out of the ice. With the litter and the neighbor and Bob pushing the car forward and backward, I was finally able to drive the car out of its frozen grave! YEA! (I've already let my co-workers Debbie and Leslie know that I won't be needing their assistance with transportation. )

Since I had hung up with Em abruptly to get outside before dark, I called again to chat a while longer. She offered to let me use her savings for city taxes (which are due at the end of February) to pay the movers. Then I could return her money by month's end after Children's cuts me a check. It just might work!

Meanwhile, I've emailed my boss and someone in HR at the hospital to see how quickly the advance check can be cut and when I can pick it up.

I head out in a few hours for Memphis. Let's hope that the plane is able to leave on schedule.

Em and I are going to see "Spamalot" at the Orpheum tonight. We're meeting Jimmy Stephens at Spaghetti Warehouse around 5:30. Ione's will be my home while I'm on this trip to finish the move.

So keep on praying that everything works out and that at this time next week I'll be in my new digs in the Brewery District with my home in Cordova in someone else's name.

By the way, happy birthday, Peterson Toscano! I love you, man!!!