Sandy701's Journal, 06 May 2015

EXERCISE: 2.5 miles walked; 1.5 with grown-ups, 1.0 with Little Guy.

Yesterday was a good day. I caught myself umpteen times mentally grabbing for the whipping cream, the nuts, or a piece of chocolate. I just have to gut this out for a few days and the "habit" should go away. In theory.

One of the life circumstances that happened over the last several months began with a neighbor of ours. His own family's health and business circumstances combined to create a Perfect Storm for financial disaster.

Late last summer, we noticed a U-Haul going back and forth for a few days, but didn't think anything of it, as our neighbors had a newly-married kid they were helping out and another kid going off to school. Then, one night, the place was dark. I had gotten so used to certain lights being on over there.....there's something oddly comforting, knowing the routines that go on in a neighborhood. For a few days, we saw no one over there, which was really odd because they were always coming and going throughout the day. We would drive by one of his businesses every day. We noticed that it was closed. We found out all his businesses were closed (we're talking small business here, not branches of a big corporation).

One Saturday a few weeks later, they held a garage sale and even the big blinds and shutters from the house were out there too. We planned to go over and talk, but there was a good crowd. By the time we remembered to check on the crowd and go over, the place was shut up and everyone was gone. For weeks, we saw no one there.

Fortunately, we got to visit with our neighbor a month or so later, as he took some of the last things still left in the house. We got the full story. When everything comes crashing down around you, you have to make some hard decisions which is what he and his family had to do. He closed his businesses and he was walking away from his home. Ultimately, his family and their health had to be the first priority and he'd deal with everything else as best he could. Who could fault him for that?

The saddest part of this story is that this guy and his family are the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. They were always cheerfully lending a hand to whichever neighbor needed a little help. They became a free taxi service for our elderly neighbor when her husband was hospitalized for so many weeks. The neighbor's wife carried home-cooked holiday meals to that same elderly neighbor. And I could go on and on about the other nice, thoughtful things he did for all of us in the neighborhood.

If only we had known how much trouble he was in......
If he would have let us pay him for all those good things he did, would he have had enough to get himself out of the financial trouble he developed?

I'll never know the answer. I just know we lost a gem of a neighbor and it made me sad.

The house became a "zombie foreclosure" - I think that's the term. Neighbors, including us, took care of the front of the place, cutting the lawn, edging a few things, and picking up the advertisements and flyers that arrive from time to time, just to make the place look like someone still lived there. Eventually, the lender foreclosed. Fortunately, the lender did an excellent job sprucing up the place prior to sale. The house has sold and we should have new neighbors arriving any day now.

But I still miss the ones who used to live there.

181.8 lb Lost so far: 53.2 lb.    Still to go: 36.8 lb.    Diet followed reasonably well.