Home at last

Many of you have noticed I have been absent from blogging.  In fact, this is the first month in nearly three years I haven't posted every day.  I had not planned to be gone, nor once I left, was I planning to be gone so long.

The  truth is, I left suddenly last Wednesday after getting a frantic call from a dear friend I met when I was interning in Omaha, Nebraska, the state just north of Kansas.  However, my friend had moved to South Dakota, which is the state just north of Nebraska.  She asked for my help in getting her out of South Dakota because of her fear of her husband, who she had just served with divorce papers.

Knowing time was of the essence and fearing she might be in more danger if she was left alone, I asked her to get a restraining order against her husband while I rushed to help her.  Since I am probably one of only three people over the age of seven who still doesn't own a cell phone (or a tablet), I downloaded instructions to her address before I left town.  Have you tried to find a pay phone lately? They simply no longer exist!  I'm sure they do, just not where I would need one.

The first thing I did when I arrived was change all the locks to her house.  Even YOU can change locks, especially since all you have to do is get a new assembly and fit it into the existing holes.  The hard part of assembling a lock is when there has never been one and you have to drill the large hole and the perpendicular hole for the locking mechanism.  As much as I am afraid of heights, I drug a step ladder to the center of the garage and unplugged the garage door opener.  With that completed, I talked my friend into getting rid of her cell and home phone, as well as her internet.  She has already had her internet removed as well as her cell phone disconnected, both of which were in her name, but had kept her home phone in case I needed to call her.  Once there, we decided she would have to make a few calls, so that should not be disconnected.  She may not have been totally safe, but at least she was a bit safer and he couldn't track her through her internet or cell phone use.

It was decision time for my friend.  As much as she wanted to keep everything, she knew she couldn't.  However, she still had to use a moving van if she wanted to take more than a car load of "stuff."  We decided to pack everything and hire a moving company who promised to have everything on the van within two hours time.  They also agreed to have a truck ready to go once she knew when it was safe to leave.

My friend is also friends with some of her husband's co-workers, so she chose one who agreed to let us know if/when her husband was at work as soon as she was packed and ready to leave.

Over the next few days we packed and labeled boxes, stacked them in a neat fashion so the movers would have an easier job getting everything in the moving van.  My friend has family in a small town a few hours from Omaha, so she decided to move there.  Until she can get a place of her own and get a job, she will stay with her family, who will keep her safe.

We knew the weekend was not the time to leave, so we took our time packing everything.  On Monday morning, my friend called one of her husband's co-workers and asked to be informed if he was at work.  Luckily the call came just after 9 am and she called the movers.  I then called the police and requested an escort out of town, since the movers were still at the house at noon, when he might use his lunch break time to drive by the house.

The police were very kind (small towns are like that) and escorted us to the city limits.  The police officer told us he would also swing by the house to be sure there was no trouble with the movers and her husband who might find a way to break the restraining order.  Just before she left, she called the phone company and other utilities, asking them to disconnect the various utilities.  All of the utilities were in her husband's name, so they couldn't disconnect anything without his permission.  For once, she was glad she didn't have to worry about asking him for something.

To make a long story even longer, we waited a bit late to leave on Monday and by the time we were on the road, the snow was blowing and it took us nearly 12 hours to reach Omaha.  Since it was nearly midnight and neither of us had a cell phone, we had no idea that the movers had stopped for the night.  Luckily, we didn't run out of gas and stayed warm in the car until about 11ish Tuesday (yesterday) morning.  By the time the movers had unloaded my friend's contents in the storage locker, it was nearly 3 p.m. and I still had to drop her off at her parents house nearly three hours later.   They suggested I wait until the roads were better, so it was nearly 4 a.m my time before I got home.  Although I really wanted to head straight to the internet to let all my wonderful friends, followers, and readers know I was back, my body simply refused to stay awake.  Now I'm playing catch up and trying to play hostess to T Tuesday, too.

On the bright side, I guess all turned out well in the end.  I have no idea how her husband will get into the house without the help of a locksmith, but that is his worry, not hers.  I'm sure he'll be surprised when he learns she is no longer living there and has gotten away clean.  She chose not to forward her mail, or her address, saying she would let anyone she truly cared about learn her new address once she had settled.  For now, her "stuff" is in a storage locker in Omaha and she is in a different town.  The only thing she regretted leaving was her car, but it was in both their names and has GPS.

And finally, I am home at last!

Now that I have briefly visited the T Tuesday group, I want to share some art I made before I left.  

Many of you are probably aware that Alison/Craftytrog has been our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  Her theme is Geometric Shapes, a theme I love, and she has asked us to make art that includes something geometric. 

I call this There's no place.

There's a triangular roof with circular attic ventilation (found in older homes).

The words tell it all!

The house is rectangular, as is the door. 

The window is made of vellum and the knob is a circle cut from a hole punch, then outlined.

The tree is a left over paint chip from my Christmas tip-ins I still haven't finished.

The substrate is 110 lb card stock to which I glued a sheet of examples taken from a plane geometry study guide.  The house has squiggly lines I thought would go well with the geometric theme.

Thanks for visiting. I'm so grateful for your support and great comments while I was away.  I hope to see you at Art Journal Journey.  Bleubeard and I would love to have you join us, too.  BTW, I'll be by to visit as time permits today.