Grateful Blog

Today I’m grateful that:

• Chad went down to the basement as soon as he got up this morning … and caught the flooding in the basement before we went off to work. Yes, it’s a major mess, and will be a major headache all week, but it could have been so much worse if it wasn’t caught when it was.
• We have such helpful and generous neighbors! Our next-door neighbor Artie offered to get us (and another neighbor) a sump pump from his sister’s in New Hampshire (since there were literally no sump pumps left in any hardware stores in Eastern Mass. by that point!). Having that sump pump made all the difference in the world. It still left about an inch and a half of standing water, but it kept the water at that level, and gave us a break from having to constantly vac the water to keep it from rising. Huge help!
• As always, my parents are generous and helpful as well. Letting us borrow their wet vac so we could have two going at the same time was key, and just hearing their continual offers of help is comforting. Their advice on handling the flood from their own experience has been a huge help too.

Today I’m grateful that:

• The medication worked quickly, and I had my first real meal tonight for the first time in more than a week. Haddock with linguine and asparagus may not sound that exciting, but trust me, it was heavenly!
• We have such great neighbors. We ran into our next-door neighbor, Artie, while we were out to dinner, and he not only offered to drive Chad to/from his new job whenever needed, but told us his garage is usually open and that we can help ourselves to his snow-blower if he’s not around, AND said we can have his current snow-blower as soon as he talks his wife into buying a new one. Woo hoo!

Today I’m grateful for:

• Help shoveling out from my brother and my neighbors. Very much appreciated since Chad is in snow-free D.C., and my back probably wouldn’t be very happy about having to do all that shoveling myself. Also, the snow is really beautiful!
• That I was able to find all of my photo albums and start another trip down memory lane. Yeah, they were in literally the last box I searched in the entire house, but it’s better than them not being in any box at all!
• That I saved the old home movies of my Uncle Denny, who passed away two years ago. Feels kind of surreal, and hard, but in a good way.