I am sorry to cheese out and repost something I posted on Facebook, yes a
very rare instances and I hope never to do this again, but with the loss of
my glasses I am stuck to using voice to text on my Android Nexus 6 and
while it is a fantastically great way to input text I really want my
glasses back)-
tl/dr Tom is alive, rebuilding, rethinking, and humbled by humanity's
outpouring to him.
....
Just a quick Facebook post from your humble unFacebooker to let you all
know that I am alive and well and things are looking up despite a crazy
night.
For those who haven't heard my new apartment that I got back in December
here in beautiful Aberdeen South Dakota burnt to the ground last night at
about 12. The boys have been staying over at their mom's in a nearby town
and going to school at a very well proportioned teacher-to-student ratio
school ... so they are safe as houses.
I had gone to sleep some hours earlier listening to the Revolutions podcast
and drifting to slumber awaiting to be woken up at 6 a.m. to go to a fairly
recent job I have landed here in beautiful Aberdeen.
What woke me instead was the fire alarm. Before being fully awake I had
grabbed some clothes on, my coat, wallet, keys, and my ever-present go
back. I jumped in my car and drove half a block away and safely parked it
away from any danger. Here in South Dakota, beautiful Aberdeen South
Dakota, your car is your life.
I tried to lunge back into the apartment but a friendly firefighter stopped
me suggesting perhaps a lung full of smoke or a searing of my orwellian
bulkatude would not be as valuable as whatever I was going to grab for.
So for the next few hours I reported on the happenings of an apartment fire
to the slack channel that I hang out on. Red Cross eventually came and got
us situated in hotels for the evening.
I made it into work the this morning and as soon as my manager had found
out what happened he spread the word to my fellow employees. The news of
what happened also began to spread online via that slack channel and across
a mailing list I frequent. The net does what it does best.
What unfurled during the day has humbled me beyond words. Coworkers,
friends both online and offline have been offering me money, utensils,
cookware, clothing, bedding, and pretty much everything you can think to
offer somebody who has just been through a fire.
To say that it will take me many years if not the rest of my days on this
planet to fully process and repay this day's worth of humanity shown to me
would be an understatement. I am gobsmacked in all the positive meanings
that word came into being to convey.
Because of all the help and all the positive thoughts you guys have sent to
me today I'm happy to report I have secured the lease on a new apartment
from the same rental agency that my old apartment came from. I will be
moving in with the help of my two boys ,my ex and her husband tomorrow.
Word from the rental agency is the place was totaled. The all clear wont
come for days and what the fire did not wreck water and cold will most
likely do in. But these are bits and bobs, things. The living live.
And so once again the process of rebuilding, restructuring, and rethinking
my purpose on this ball of dirt will commence.
For now I am laying down in this hotel room for one last night, putting on
the same podcast episode I was listening to last night, and hoping it will
be less exciting than it was 24 hours previous.
With humility, metric tons of humbleness, and all the George Bailey It's a
Wonderful Lifeism I can muster while doing this voice to text on my
Android, I wish you all a good night and more thanks than I can possibly
convey in ASCII
-tomh