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February 06, 2005

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This is a picture of my good friend Joe Gillum, from Dallas, Texas. Now what is so special about this picture is that Joe, along with numerous others, was here helping me with the clean up of my swimming pool.

There are certain times in our lives when we are reminded who our real friends are. And this was definitely one of them.

In mid 1997 I had separated from my wife and was working towards the divorce. I had left her with the house and almost all of the furnishings within. Then, shortly after that, I moved out to Virginia. While trying to get the divorce final, my ex-wife had gone through some major problems with a boyfriend and had lost her job. She evidently had gone through an emotional breakdown, and disappeared, abandoning the house and all the expenses. Because of this I had to fly back to Dallas on numerous occasions and try to take care of all the loose ends that this created. Since I was also still financially responsible for the house and a considerably large loan, I resumed payments and got caught up on all the bills and contacted a very good real estate agent that immediately got to work on trying to get the house on the market. Without the signature of my missing ex-wife, this turned out to be a very long and difficult and expensive process.

The house was a disaster. All of the utilities had been turned off for quite some time so various things were in quite a poor state. The lawn, plants, trees, and landscaping was overgrown and in bad need of attention. The house smelled awful and was filthy throughout. And there was a lot of damage inside the house as well.

The pool was filled with a disgusting dark green sludge that could not be completely drained out with the pool equipment as it kept clogging up the strainers and pump. We had even found a few dead animals in the pool. (I was a little concerned about alligators. hee hee) After draining the pool down to a certain point with the pump, the rest of the sludge had to be removed by hand. Bucket after bucket we scooped the sludge up and out to the storm drains on the street until we had finally removed it all. Then we all got down to scrubbing and cleaning the surface of the pool.

The inside of the house was quite a mess as well. Naturally the refrigerator was in bad shape as there was still some food items left inside. There were numerous holes in the walls and broken windows throughout the house where there appeared to have been some considerable violent outbreaks. 

But, all in all, it was okay. We just took care of everything and cleaned it all up. And without asking, friends and family all pitched in to help with the mess.

As well as Joe, included in all the undesirable chores were; 
My mother, Cora Gali, who scrubbed and scrubbed in the kitchen and refrigerator and bathrooms and various other parts of the house. My Aunt, Barbara Beavers, who helped vacuum and shampoo the carpets. My cousin, James Lamb, who helped scrub and scoop scum out of the pool and help haul plants and brush from around the house. My friend Mark Hood, another scooper and scrubber, as well as assisting in some of the maintenance of the pool equipment. My dear friend Carole Marshall who, God bless her, got on her hands and knees and cleaned the fireplace as well as many other chores. 

And for all the others who came by and called and offered to lend a hand here and there, and throughout the divorce and selling of the house, I give my thanks to you all. Because sometimes it takes a moment where you stand up and you actually notice all of these people in your life doing all of these things, for no other reason but to help you. By volunteering to scoop up and scrub rotten green sludge, with dead animals, out of your pool. To stoop and scrub and shampoo a carpet. To dig their hands in the ash to clean a fireplace. Or manage to endure the stench of a rotten refrigerator. I sincerely thank you all.

Its times like this when you actually find out who your friends truly are.

And on a positive note; After the pool was all cleaned up and refilled, I climbed up on the roof of the garage and was finally able to get the chance to jump off and into the pool. Something that I'd always wanted to do. So I did it twice.

You know, with it being only 5' deep, it really didn't take very long to hit the bottom of the pool.

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