I am writing this because there are people here on Deviant Art who deeply care about me and Joanne and want to know what is going on. It is far easier for me to post this as a journal and make sure it comes the attention those who need and want to know than it is to try to tell each of you individually.

I have recently had a very hard time of it.

Someone stole one of my Banana trees. I know it is silly of me but I only have two trees and they mean a lot to me. I go and sit in the shade of my banana trees and read and draw and pretend I am in Tahiti. I winter them over indoors.

One of the trees was a gift from someone here on DA to me. And that means a lot to me.

The other one was a true dwarf banana tree that I started from seed. that made it very special too.

They took the dwarf. It had what look like a bloom spike on it and that maybe why they took that one.

When they took the tree they also went through the rest of my potted plants. They moved almost everything. It looks like that if they picked up and decided that they did not want the plant they just threw it down. Most of my pots are broken and it seems all of my water dishes are broken or gone.

The second thing that happened was Joanne got sick again at dialysis on Friday. Without going into gross details, I had to walk in bring her fresh cloths and was late work because of it. I also ran out of my antidepressants on Friday.

She was still sick on Saturday so she did not make the birthday cake we had planed to take to church with us. And I had to go into work.

Sunday we went to church and Joanne came home sick. I went to go take care of some things at work and came home 4 hours later to find Joanne trapped in the bathroom sick again, the very large, made from scratch, chocolate chip cake with, made from scratch, butterscotch  filling that she was making for my birthday was in the oven on fire. This is Wednesday and the house still smells of the fire.

We tried to go to the movie for my birthday and found we could not afford to go. I have been doing a lot of freelance work and should have had money for a movie.

This got me taking a close look at out bank account. One of the commissions I had taken, stop payment on the check he had sent me. Not only had my checks for my bills bounced but the fees have eaten up all the money I had planed to live on for the rest of the pay period.  

We have lost Internet service because of this, so it is very hard to keep up with people and to get the new commissions that I need to keep us going financially.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of what has really been going on.

Monday sucked at work and I got no new commissions, nor was I unable to do any work on the 2 small ones I have now that I have now. And I lost my tea tin so I had nothing to drink all night long.

Tuesday, yesterday, I had just too much fun. The alarm did not go off for some reason. Joanne was sick and never made any of the phone calls that need to be made to get me back in school. We got up at 11:00 instead of 9:00 and my clean cloths had not been hung up to dry. So literally did not have anything to wear. Another lacing ring broke on my boots, so my 2 year old steal toed boots that I need for work became more uncomfortable and unwearable.  I caught one of my best Hawaiian shirts on the end of the desk and not only riped most of the buttons off of it but rip the shirt itself beyond repair.

I ended up in a crying howling puddle in the middle of the living room floor hugging poor Ricky our cocker spaniel to me and rocking for over an hour.

I am writing this just as news.

All I am asking for is prayers and good thoughts and maybe a little understanding as to why I am not around like I usually am.

I am doing better now and am putting one foot in front on another again.

An old surfer friend of mine use to tell people leaving on trips to bring him a shirt. He would always say this as if it were a grand joke. I asked him about this one day and he told that sometimes he got a great shirt but most of the time he got something even better. People would tell him about their trips and he would get the "feeling" of being there. Keep posting your art because it is how I get the "feeling of having been there".  To a great extent it is how I am making it these days.

Life still sucks. My shoes are coming apart on my feet and my feet hurt. My banana is still gone and yet I still know that God is good and will look after me. I know am not alone in fighting this broken world. And I know I have friends.

Be well my friends and may God place many blessings on your house.