I know I said I'd have my e-Store up a couple of weeks ago... and it's coming along.  I had to wait on some parcels to arrive to get the product ready for photographing. Then I had to edit my photos (after my good friend, Kim, snapped them!), I then had every intention of getting things uploaded last Friday, and wouldn't you know it... a literal train wreck happened!  

An AmTrack Zephyr derailed just outside my hometown just before 8:00 a.m., and my husband (the fireman) went on the emergency call... when I learned what the accident was, I just knew I had to lend a hand somehow.  So I spent around 6 hours at our local high school helping with food, comfort, cleanup, etc., for the some 175 passengers and 20 or so crew.  But I was only one of MANY volunteers who helped that day.  The real heroes of the day were the first responders - not only from our little town, but our entire county, and three counties to the east, two counties to the south, one county to the west, one county to the north.  There were, I believe they counted, around 200 first responders - EMTs, Firemen, and Patrolmen & women.  It was a crazy day for our little town - population LESS than a thousand.  

But when help is needed, we small-town folk rally.  It's just what we do.  Within an hour or so of the train passengers being transported to the school from the crash site, we had a hamburger feed in full swing, and food in their tummies.  Good old fashioned mid-western hospitality is what we showed these unfortunate travelers.  The best news of the day was that no one - NOT ONE - passenger had any life-threatening injuries.  I'd call that a small miracle.  Our little hospital had all hands on deck, even the secretaries were in scrubs... ready for triage.  The hospital lawn looked like a real episode of ER!  And fortunately, not much of that was necessary.  I think there were 22 passengers with injuries, but again, none life-threatening.

By 4:30 or so that same afternoon, all the passengers had been loaded onto charter buses to get them to their destinations.  At that time, I was loading up my car with all the leftover food and drink that had been donated that day.  Donations came in by the truckload, it seemed.  I spent the next half hour making deliveries around town - taking the donations to various places where they could be used.  By 5:00, I was finally home - with my daughter's friends on their way for the big birthday sleepover she had planned.  

So that's my next excuse!  House full of girls makes it tough to work ... then we all got up early the next morning to drive to Denver for a Birthday Girls' Day Out.  Didn't make it home til around 10:00 p.m... And the next day was the ACTUAL birthday, so that meant a barbecue with family.  Then I learned of a dear friend who had suffered a stroke.  Yesterday morning, I learned that she had actually had TWO strokes and was on life support.  Needless to say, I was pretty much in a downy-dumps funk for the better part of the day... which brings me to today.  

The friend who passed on from this world was a real "go-getter," if you will.  She absolutely would NOT have wanted anyone to sit around crying and moping on her behalf.  So this morning, I got off my duff and got to work.  Not on the e-Store, though.  The house needed some serious attention and it was good for me to dive into the abysses (is that the plural of abyss?) that are my kids' rooms.  Need to make a run to the recycling center and the Goodwill truck, pick the kiddos up from school, and THEN MAYBE I can work on the e-Store.  

If not today, though, DEFINITELY tomorrow!  :) :) :)