Scary stuff - House Fire - Arson

I am feeling really blessed and very grateful right now. Thank goodness for Mark, garden hoses and the local CFA.

Some goofball set our neighbours unit on fire. It's the unit that attaches to our one. That particular neighbour hasn't been home for a while. My hands were shaking badly as I rang 000. That fire could have spread very quickly had I not heard the smoke detector going off next door.

I have been talking with the firies and the police because I saw a guy and another bloke with him leaving the area after he had been making noises outside, which I thought was neat the boys window.

I am super glad my boys are out at the moment enjoying themselves at the cinema and have no idea what is going on.

New Neighbours

We have some new neighbours moving in. Good thing I knew they were coming this week as I was able to 'warn' Brodie of the changes. I also told him that they have at least one small child & that he had to watch his potty mouth language.

I know Aspies aren't always good with change but at least Brodie seems to be coping than he was. Maybe its a maturity thing or maybe he's just learnt strategies that help him cope better. I'd like to think that its a bit of both. We've put in a lot of wok with him over the years to get him where he is now.

Our New Family Member

Meet the newest member of our clan ... CK, which is short for Christmas Kitty. He belonged to Mick. CK adores Mark & asked Mick's family if we could have him. It saves them finding him a new home. CK would often come inside our home to check things out so adding him to our family didn't seem to be a problem to us. I know Mark & Brodie, even Angus too, are glad that we've adopted him.

There's a brilliant story about how Mick got CK. He was visiting a mate somewhere near Dandenong or Hallam. In that general area. It was Christmas time. Mick was admiring his friends cat & stated how he wouldn't mind having a cat himself. The mates cat disappeared and a short time later he came back with a kitten, CK.

I never tired hearing of that story. To me it just proves that cats are intelligent.

Topsy Turvy

My world is a little bit on the frazzled side at the moment. Kind of surreal but not. I've been umming and ahhing over what exactly to put in this post without sounding callous, self-centred or disrespectful so I thought I would just try writing from the heart. Its the only way I can think right now. So here goes ...

We lost our neighbour, Mick, yesterday. Marks best mate & for want of a better term partner in crime. We hadn't seen Mick since Sunday night some time after tea. He'd come over to talk with Mark while he was his shed. Sheds were where they loved to be, tinkering on one project or another & usually they were working on them together. Then he went home. I'm not sure if Mark went over there later or not but that really doesn't matter now.

As I mentioned we hadn't seen him since Sunday night which wasn't all that unusual in itself. You know a single man living alone sleeping odd hours. We thought he was awake while we slept and he slept while we were awake. He'd done that hundreds of times before. So it was unusual in itself. The only thing we did find strange was that his cat, CK, kept coming over to our house. Not that it was strange as he often came to socialise. Its what our cats do - the visit one another's homes every now & then. Sometimes even sharing a feed while they were there. It seemed that CK hadn't been inside his 'home' for a while. That's when Mark used the spare key that Mick had given him so that he could check on him if we hadn't seen him for a few days.

I guess I should explain why we had the key in the first place. Firstly it was so we could feed CK if Mick ever went away for the weekend or on holiday. The other reason was a few years ago Mick had had a stroke. A really, really bad one & he had to relearn just about everything. That happened about 12 months before we met him. Mark told me today that the doctors were really surprised that Mick made such a good recovery as they didn't expect him to walk or talk again. He certainly proved them wrong. Mick had asked Mark to check on him if we hadn't seen him for a while just in case he might have had another stroke. There had been a few times where Mark had check him and he'd been dead to the world fast asleep because he had been awake at odd hours. Only this time when Mark checked he wasn't asleep. Mark knew before he had even put the key in the door that Mick was gone.

Of course Mark was in shock & came back home to tell me to phone the ambulance. Which of course I did. There was nothing Mark could've done to help him. No one is exactly sure what happened at this stage but he died in his sleep. The way he wanted it. He used to joke with me about it saying that was how he wanted to go. I'm glad he got his wish.

So you can imagine how our house has been since yesterday afternoon. telling the boys was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I was so glad that I was there & that Mark told them straight up. I mean there really is no easy way to tell your kids that the neighbour they adored was gone.

Brodie has taken it the hardest. I knew he would. He loved Mick so much. He would run over there to share stuff with him all the time. I'm not too sure how Angus is taking it. He's a hard to to read. Its almost like he deliberately hides his emotions.
I can't even imagine how Mark is feeling. To find your best mate dead must be horrid.

All I can do is be there for each of them & for Marks twin, he knew Mick really well too. I'm okay for now. The grief rolls in like waves. You can be fine for hours & then something triggers you and it starts all over again. Its going to be tough for a while but I know it will improve. It always does eventually.

Regardless of how I feel though I need to be strong for everyone else. They depend on me so I can't let them down.

RIP Mick
You were well thought of, a good friend & you'll be missed a great deal.
Until we meet again!