The 90 Minute Second.......................................

          I live 10 minutes, or less, from the small town of Claysville Pa.  That is where my family doctor's practice is located, along with a branch blood lab of Washington (Pa) hospital.  I was scheduled for blood work today.  Piece of cake.

          Prior to my leaving the house (8 a.m.) we had quite a large thunderstorm move through, thunder, lightning, power blinking on and off, wind howling, just a plain nasty day.  Then it had passed on, leaving dark clouds and still some wind, but the rain had stopped, for a while.  We're supposed to have wind and rain all day.

          I left at 8, got 4/10 of a mile and, guess what, there was a large tree across the road.  This was the paved state road, and who knows when the state will get around to it.  So its turn around, go the other way, the longer way, but still state road. 

          I got 2 miles.  Another larger tree across the road.  This certainly was not my lucky day.  But actually it was.

          Our good friend and neighbor is our neighborhood (if you can call miles of scattered homes with acres of farm land and woods a neighborhood) guardian.  He is always there for you.  I had just reached this second tree when I saw headlights coming from the other direction.  It was Tim,  with his trusty chain-saw.

          In the winter he makes the rounds, plowing snow from driveways, helping where help is needed.  After storms he makes the rounds, with his chain-saw, ready to open roads and driveways.  In addition he keeps many acres of our neighborhood cleaned up, as he sows crops and bales hay for his beef herd.  Tim is a fourth generation farmer, he and his wife own the farm that adjoins ours, and Tim and Jerry have been friends since kindergarten. Tim's wife and I are friends, have taken cruises and bus tours together.  Just part of our family.

          He got enough of this tree cleared out that I could go by, and finally I reached the lab.  I know for a fact I was in there less than 60 seconds as there was no one else ahead of me. 

          I figured, since I had mentioned the other tree down, that I could go home the regular way, and I was right.  My road was open all the way.  There is a lot of trash (all the small branches, bark, that sort of thing) covering all the roads.  I am really surprised there were no more large trees down, but glad.

          Tim is our neighborhood guardian.  He doesn't expect, or ask for, anything in return, he is just a good neighbor, doing the right thing, thinking nothing of it.

          He doesn't have stories written about him, he is not on the evening news, or even in the local newspaper, he is just a good friend to our entire neighborhood, regardless of whether they are long-time residents, or newcomers.  It really doesn't matter, if they need help he is there.

          My 60 second blood sample took 90 minutes to get it done, 89 minutes of trying to get there and back.  Then as I was in the middle of this blog, the electric went out.  I thought "why not, everything else is going wrong today".

          The power is on now, I don't know for how long, as the wind is still blowing.  So thought I had better finish this and get it posted before the next black-out.

          February is definitely going out like a lion.  I wonder how March is going to come in?

          Have a safe day and God Bless.