I was going to muse about my aquisitions at the library sale yesterday, but I think I'll save that for later. We went to visit Biker and Tyker today, so that's at the forefront of my mind. All things considered, they are doing well. There have been problems--problems collecting some insurance money and a brief cancer scare--but there has been good as well. Biker started a temp job last Wednesday, ironically enough with Hiker's employer, the city of Seattle. What with all the insurance paperwork that she had to handle with Hiker's illness, she managed to make a good impression with one of the human resource people, who in turn told her about the job. The job only lasts through the December, but she has a flexible schedule and fairly good pay. Anyway, we had good time talking and eating, discussing both the good and bad of the past 8 weeks. I suppose you could say that we were ministering to her by visiting and listening, but the truth is we just had a durn good time. It was a celebration of a genuine friendship where we could not only laugh together but also bitch and moan and cry. Okay, nobody wept today, but I'm sure it would have been allowed. One interesting thing Biker mentioned was that how she found comfort not in those who politely tried to paint a rosy picture of things but rather in those who could lament with her. Just like the psalms that cry out, "Hey God, this sucks!" (Okay, that's a paraphrase.) Of course, I let Noodles handle the mourning talk. She is great at drawing people out in conversation and saying the right things. If I were ever widowed, she'd be the first person I'd want to talk to. Me, I'm not really a mourning person. I just sat there and tried to refrain from blurting out every joke that passed through my mind. (We were talking about scattering people's ashes in beatiful wilderness areas and of course I started thinking as to what locations would be appropriate to scatter my ashes.) ("Hey! What are you guys dumping in our drive-thru?")

Oh, I also got an unexpected inheritance from Hiker. Apparently he had stockpiled various foodstuffs which he and he alone of his household desired to consume. So we took home the majority of a case of cola. It's not Pepsi, but we'll enjoy it in his memory.