Sorry, not much time to blog… I have “collected” yet another senior pal who is camping out with us. This is my other senior pal’s neighbor. First senior pal came to our home at my insistence on Thursday when I discovered that her power had not yet been restored and she was becoming ill due to the effects of high heat and humidity. She did not want to go to a public shelter, and could not afford to pay for a hotel room.

Now, her next-door neighbor has joined us. I learned by speaking with my friend that her neighbor was in the same situation as she is: no power back on yet after last week’s storm, living alone, and on a fixed income. I went to the neighbor’s house on Friday evening, and discovered at my horror that she had hardly enough energy to answer the door. She was refusing to leave her home since she did not want to leave her cats alone. But it was well over 90F (33C) inside her house.

Damn… I couldn’t just leave her there…

So I took the neighbor by the hand, put her two cats in a crate, loaded all three into my truck, and brought them home. Before I unloaded the cats, I gave my partner a mild sedative. (Seriously… he has sedatives prescribed to help him deal with the symptoms of his ongoing illness.)

Matters have settled fairly well. My partner spent most of the day on Saturday entertaining (watching TV with) two old ladies while I tended to the cats (in another part of the basement.) I also checked on about a dozen other senior pals to make sure they were okay (and thankfully, they were.)

I will blog more when I have time. Meanwhile, M and I are cooking in my kitchen while J (new sr. pal) and my partner are discussing the fine points of some movie they are watching.

Life is short: show those you care about how you care — take action!