:)

The call had begun about Rocky... She was telling me bits of info she had gathered, how his death wasn’t my fault. His symptoms matched a neighbor’s dog who had died of hepatitis B. That she had also heard of cancer of the liver that had moved that fast and his lumps had been near his liver.

Then she began to cry.

It began with a text message to her. Apparently I have been insuring her car. I sent a message asking she send me info on how long she has been insuring her car herself.

A text back... sympathy, regret, offer to provide info to help me get refunded.

Then a phone message at home.

Then the call just as Isaac and I were finishing BBQ ribs and Elsie’s Famous Egg Salad.

She told me she was sorry... that she didn’t want to hurt me. She was sorry.

She also said she had heard I was seeing someone and she hoped I would be happy.

I’m a bit of a sap; I do not want to see anyone hurting... but... there is a hint of vindication, an element of hearing that she knows I was not, am not, what she said I was, that she had run off for excitement, lust, that is perversely validating.

I imagine it is starting to run out. His words to me that he did not lover her, that he had tried to get rid of her, must ring more in her ears now that the dance music isn't playing so loudly.

Yes, I’m seeing someone.

She is kind. She is intelligent. She has great kids and a great heart.

I don’t know she is the one for me... After the trauma of watching a three decade marriage decay into a caustic sludge that ate and rotted every aspect of my life it touched, I am cautious.

But... I think of her all the time, and when I do I smile.

Perhaps it’s a part of being a sap, but I’m sorry to hear Brenda cry, to hear her sinking in regret.

The year is as begun great.

I love teaching English again. And I still get to teach technology... most of my day is spent being creative, thinking of new ways to help children learn how to better communicate, become self learners, discover who they are by providing opportunities to explore.

Isaac has been hired for his first job. He was told he will be trained to work in the projection room of the new theater in our formerly rural community.

Jeremiah is enjoying Special Olympics bowling. I’m enjoying coaching it.

Isaac is enjoying the early stages of adulthood.

Curious Servant is enjoying falling in love.