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From my daughter's blog:

Dear Julian,

Late last night, I crept in to your room.

I pried the milk bottle from your tiny little fingers and placed cold water within arms’ reach. I turned you, so your face was not buried in the pillow, and covered you up with the handmade blankets that your Grandma made for you. I smoothed the sweat-sticky hair away from your forehead, and kissed your cheek.

Only then did I pause to look, really look, at the beauty of your tiny face. The lashes that are longer than mine already, the round little nose that I hated on myself, the softest skin in the world, and the gentle rise and fall of your precious little chest. I remember how close we came to not seeing that rise and fall, and the miracle that happened in that long minute between birth and life.

And I, the formerly defiant agnostic, find myself thanking God as I kneel here by your bed. I thank him for all the laughter you have brought me. I thank him for allowing you to show Ryan and I how much we love each other. I thank him for your innocent wisdom, your sweetness, and your intelligence. I thank him for 10 fingers and 10 toes. I thank him for not punishing you for my sins.

And I weep with joy, humility and gratitude.

Here are some pictures of Daddy's little girl and here are some of her little man.

Click here to see the post that used to occupy this spot on my blog.

Posted by Bill Faith on December 31, 2006 at 10:01 PM in My Life | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

How about grandson-blogging, cat-blogging, and computer-blogging all in one place?

(Click the pictures to enlarge them.)

There are a lot more where these came from. Click here for more pictures of Ian and here to see my entire web site.

I bought Ian that HP Travel Mouse (just the right size for little hands) as soon as I found out he was on the way. I gave him the computer as an early Christmas present when he was 3 months old. (He thought the "puppies and kitties and people I know" slide show screensaver was pretty cool.)

Posted by Bill Faith on December 31, 2006 at 09:00 PM in My Life | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

(Continued from this post.)

First, thank you to everyone who's hit the PayPal button to help out. It means more than most of you can probably understand to know people care enough to help.

There is a God, people, and He still has plans for someone in this house. I'm still trying to figure out how we got off with just a fire and not a major explosion, and still grateful for the fact we didn't all die in our sleep like we would have if the fire had happened during the night. As it was, we still could have if an 8 year old boy hadn't gotten up to go to the bathroom and realized something was wrong. Thank you, Lord.

Before I move on to other things, I should probably explain a little about my financial situation. I've been too sick to work since the summer of 2003. I was slow to admit it wasn't just something temporary and ended up running out of options except to move back to Illinois and live with my mother, my sister, and my sister's husband and two sons, in the house I grew up in. Even then I didn't contact the VA and the Social Security Administration for help right away, still deluding myself that my situation was temporary and knowing they wouldn't help unless I was perma-nently disabled. When I finally decided to try anyway, the VA declared me totally and permanently disabled retroactive to  the day I submitted my paperwork. The Social Security Administration, on the other hand, is still stalling. So far they've rejected my initial claim, which I filed by myself, and my Request for Reconsid-eration, which my lawyer filed. (He's working on a contingency basis for a percentage of whatever retroactive benefits I end up getting.) We've filed a request for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge but don't have a hearing date yet. My lawyer says it's almost unheard of for Social Security to deny benefits to anyone the VA considers totally disabled and that he's very confident I'll eventually end up with a very nice check for retroactive benefits. In the mean time almost half of my VA check goes to car payments and insurance so I'll have something reliable to drive to my medical appointments (It's about an hour and a half to the nearest VA Clinic and about three and a half to the nearest hospital) and I give my sister what's left to pay my share of expenses around here. Even with my help, my mother and sister are barely hanging on financially; a lot of that's due to Mom's health problems and the fact my sister's had two cancer surgeries in the last 18 months. There simply isn't anything left for rainy days.

When the dust settles (smoke clears?) the fire is going to end up having cost us money in two ways. First, there was a non-trivial deductible on Mom's Home Owner's policy. Second, between Mom's health problems, the fact the nearest livable motel is 15 miles away, and the length of time it took to get the natural gas line that caused the fire replaced so we could heat the whole house again, my sister has missed 5 days work so far; she may have to miss some more yet to meet with insurance adjusters and repairmen, etc, since Mom's just not up to it any more and I'm not much help myself. As of a couple of hours ago, we've received just enough in PayPal donations to cover the deductible on the insurance. That still leaves us short 5 days pay, and possibly more, for a Shift Manager at the local McDonalds, plus any unpleasant surprises we get when we settle up with State Farm.

When I finally get that big Social Security check the first three things I'm going to do are, in order:

1. Give Soldiers' Angels two dollars for every dollar anyone gives us to help with our fire expenses. I already knew they were wonderful before they dumped a major chunk of money into my PayPal account as soon as they heard about the fire, but I am even more aware of it now. (An aside: I mailed my daughter this afternoon and told her that when my time comes I want her to ask people to donate to SA in lieu of flowers.)

2. Give the local Red Cross chapter a donation big enough to at least cover the help they've provided us. I'm not sure whether they ended up paying for motel rooms or if State Farm did, but I know they offered to, and they gave us a voucher good for several meals at Denny's.

3. Have all of the rest of the gas lines under and in the house replaced. The plumber who repaired the one that caused the fire says they're probably safe for that long but we shouldn't just forget about them. The one that failed went first because way, way back, some time before we moved here in 1957, someone who didn't know any better buried it underground, which you aren't supposed to do with iron pipe. The others are all suspended from the floor joists under the house but that still doesn't mean they'll last forever and the newest of them are 36 years old; I have no doubt most of them are older than me and probably even older than Mom. I'm pretty sure parts of the house itself have been here well over 100 years. The oldest of the gas lines have probably been there since bottled gas first became available in this area.  ...  After a break while my nephew downloaded some music files: It just soaked in that the room that gas line ran under was added on sometime after the oldest part of the house.  I wouldn't be surprised to learn that that gas line originally connected a bottle-gas tank to the original part of the house and was buried so no one would trip over it. Don't know that it really matters but when a guy almost gets killed he likes to understand why.

We're getting less impressed with State Farm as time goes on. Apparently part of the problem is that the adjuster assigned to our claim came down with some sort of bug at a bad time, but it seems to me like they ought to have some sort of backup plan for situations like that. We have a piece of plywood over the hole in the kitchen floor but it gives enough when you walk across it to make me a little nervous and Mom's old and fragile enough that a fall could be fatal. State Farm's going to pay for a new range when they get around to it but even if we had it we couldn't put it where it belongs before the floor and wall are fixed and the contractor who's going to do that can't do it till the State Farm guy finishes his paperwork. We also have a carpet, some ceiling tiles, a couch and an easy chair they've said they'll replace but that's on hold too. To me the most urgent issue is getting the kitchen back to normal. Most of my diet usually consists of cold cuts heated in the microwave anyway but not having a range in the kitchen is driving Mom up the wall.

Again, thanks to all who've helped out so far. If you haven't yet, will you at least think about it? Please? I'm blegging.

***

Don't miss Mudville's latest Open Post.

Posted by Bill Faith on February 11, 2006 at 03:36 AM in My Life | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Just a short note on why my blog hasn't been updated since Saturday night and posting may be light for a few more days.

The first few posts after this one will be things I would have posted Saturday night if TypePad hadn't been down for upgrades. I woke up yesterday morning to a room full of smoke. Apparently we haven't been changing our smoke-detector batteries as often as we should have. If my nephew hadn't gotten up to use the bathroom I guess we all could have died in our sleep. As it was, the fire damage was restricted to a small area in the kitchen. We have a hole in the wall behind where the stove would normally be and a hole in the floor, partially under where the stove was and extending across to just in front of the fridge. The electrician came by this morning to check out the wiring and replace an outlet and light switch that were damaged by the fire, and now we have lights, internet service, etc again but we still don't have any heat. The working theory right now is that the fire was caused by a leak in a gas line under the house -- we have gas heat -- and we're waiting for someone to come and check and repair the lines. I don't know how long it will be till we can move back in. I plan on moving back as soon as the heat's back on, or maybe sooner depending on the forecast, but the rest of the family may choose to stay in a motel till the floor's fixed and things are cleaned up a little. I'm going to spend some time catching up on the news and my email then post the things I had ready to go Saturday, then I may or may not post some more current things after while.

I don't know how much State Farm's going to cover yet; having the gas lines repaired may be our problem, and we're going to have to eat out for at least a little while. There's a PayPal button on my right sidebar if anyone's inclined to help out. Thank you and God bless.

*** Update:

First, a thank you to Laurie at Soldier's Angels for linking to this post. I have very mixed feelings about accepting money that could have gone to one of the Angels' projects, but if I don't I don't know how we're going to pay the deductible on the fire insurance policy and make up for the work time my sister has lost and will be losing because of the fire. I promise not to turn a profit on the fire -- any donations I receive beyond what the fire cost us will be donated to Soldiers' Angels, which was already my favorite charity anyway.

The plumbers are here trying to locate the gas line leak that caused the fire. If they can't get the heat back on they're going to drain the water lines, which will place serious restrictions on how much time can spend here until the heat and water are back on. I'm going to go ahead and post the things I had ready Saturday night and at least one more post too important to keep but beyond that my blogging may be very light for a while.

*** Update 2:

We have heat in enough of the house that I'm spending the night here; I think part of the family's going to spend another night in a motel. We have through-the-wall space heaters working in this room and one other bedroom but the stove that provides most of the heat for the house is shut off for now;  turns out the gas leak was in the line to that stove. The fire apparently burned for a while under the floor before breaking through behind the kitchen stove. I'm still trying to figure out how we got by with just a fire and not an explosion. Anyway, part of the house is still pretty chilly -- the hole the firemen had to cut in the floor isn't helping a bit -- and we can't cook except with the microwave.

I'm linking to Greyhawk's latest Open Post.

*** Update 3 -- 2006.02.07 15:00CST

It looks like I'm going to be the only one staying in the house for at least another day or two. We have two bedrooms and a bathroom we can keep warm if we shut the doors to the rest of the house. The stove that normally heats most of the house can't be used until the gas line that feeds it is replaced. We can't even make temporary repairs to the hole in the kitchen floor (which opens into an unheated crawl-space) until we get the gas lines replaced. Aside from not being able to get anyone to repair the lines on short notice we just learned State Farm isn't paying for the repairs (That doesn't surprise me but it apparently did my sister) and coming up with the money is going to be a challenge. I don't know how much that's going to take but I'll repeat my earlier promise: Any donations we receive beyond what it takes to pay for that, the deductible on the insurance, and my sister's lost wages will be passed on to Soldiers' Angels. Please help if you can.

*** Update 4 -- 2006.02.08 22:30 CST

Thank you Mrs. Greyhawk for the link!

I realized after reading one of the comments on Mrs G's post that it's time for an update and clarification on this one.

We're quite satisfied with how State Farm has handled this so far. They're paying for replacing the gas line that caused the fire, for repairing the part of the house that was damaged, for motel rooms while the house wasn't habitable, for cleaning smoky walls and carpets, etc, etc.  I was confused about what they were covering when I did my last update. We need to have some very old gas lines under the rest of the house replaced sometime soon at our expense, but it's reasonable for the policy not to cover normal aging and my best guess is this place is around 100 years old -- We moved here 49 years ago and it wasn't new then; Dad did some major remodeling but I don't remember him ever replacing any gas lines. 

We've received enough donations so far to just about cover my sister's lost wages due to the fire but we're still a long way from having enough to cover the deductible on the insurance policy. I'm still hoping.

The largest donation we've received so far was from Soldiers' Angels. I feel guilty about taking money from them with all of the worthy projects they support but the best I can do is to promise to treat it as a loan, which I swear I'll do.  If we get enough donations from other sources I'll pay it back within the next few days and if we don't I'll find a way eventually.

I'm upgrading my earlier promise about Soldiers Angels.  If we receive more donations than just what it takes to cover what the fire ends up costing us I'll pass the extra on to SA as soon as I finish doing the math; I'd already said that. My lawyer still says that eventually the Social Security Administration is going to have to admit I'm disabled and pay me back-benefits for all the months they've been stalling. When that happens, I'll send Soldiers' Angels two dollars for every dollar in donations that we receive and don't pass on to them within the next few days. That's in addition to the cut of my settlement check I'd already planned on sending them before the fire. Angels rock and I will not break that promise. Besides, do you realize how many angry vets they could send looking for me if I did them wrong?  ;-)

***

Continued here.

Posted by Bill Faith on February 6, 2006 at 12:43 PM in My Life | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

I'm not sure what's going on with my blogging recently, or where it's headed. I'm going to try hard not to go into a major slump like I did about this time last year. I know just enough about just enough of my regular readers to feel like I'm doing something that matters for some people that matter to me, and I'll try to keep it up. It seems like my energy level, physically and mentally, just goes through some peaks and valleys I don't know what to do about. I'm scheduled to see my shrink and my primary care physician both Monday; maybe one of them will have some ideas. Maybe I need to spend a little less time trying to solve the world's problems and a little more smelling the roses now and then. Last night I spent 2 hours watching a Disney movie (the old kind like Walt would approve of), then another 45 minutes Googling up what limited information I could find about the female lead, whom I'd propose to in a heartbeat if she were a year older and I were 30 years younger. If she has sense enough to keep her clothes on and let her face and voice do the work I predict a long happy career for her. This afternoon I spent well over an hour watching 8 week old puppies discover grass and leaves for the first time, then more time later today taking individual pictures of them and processing the pictures for my blog. I seems like the last few days I barely manage to read enough of my favorite sites to keep abreast of what's happening in the world, let alone add anything intelligent to the discussion. I may not get back in the groove until some jackass reporter or congresscritter does something to piss me off enough to get back to work, but I'll try not to put it off too long. Thanks for bearing with me.

Posted by Bill Faith on January 21, 2006 at 11:21 PM in My Life | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

My grandson Ian

Ryan, Heather, and Ian

Click the pictures to see them larger. Click here for more pictures of my grandson.

Posted by Bill Faith on December 21, 2005 at 12:07 AM in My Life | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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Posted by Bill Faith on December 24, 2004 at 10:48 PM in Christmas, My Life | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack