"Save The Furnace" Bleg Officially Over

     ...Due to literally overwhelming generosity, I'm ending the request to tip Tam.  I'm bowled over; I have no words and yet you all deserve whatever of 'em can be mustered.

     Many of us -- me and Tamara and a lot of you -- have put $10 or $20 in someone else's tip jar if we had it to spare when they were hurting.  You do it and you move on.

     Tam's tip jar runneth over this morning.  The board is bought.  The furnace tech's labor is paid.  ...And a very nice reader decided we'd better shop for mattresses, too.

     You are an amazing, wonderful bunch of folks -- of friends.

     My thanks and Tam's thanks to each and every one of you.  I'll be a long time paying this forward, but I'm darned well gonna; and I'll think of all of you each time I do.

     At times blogging feels strange and lonely; you wake up in the morning and you write some stuff you hope will interest others, and sometimes they comment...but you rarely know.  You go read what other people have to say about their life, their observations, and that's interesting, too.  And there's a thread of a connection.  But today, right now?  I can see the web of mutual exchange of value and of empathy, and it's huge.

     Y'all are awesome.  Thank you.  Thank you.