Awesome!

/ Re-Farmer

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.

I have the best brother in the world! And the best sister-in-law!

We were looking over our options on how to get some of the supplies we needed. I even put feelers out to see if there was someone local who could give me a ride or something. No responses.

The grocery store in town had begun offering delivery service when the shut downs started. Was that still happening? And would they deliver here? I looked it up and discovered they do deliveries 3 days a week, including Fridays – today. Unfortunately, orders have to be called in before 11am, and it was past that when I found that the service was still available, so I didn’t bother to call to see if they’d deliver as far away as us.

After failing there, I headed outside and started up my mother’s car, hoping to be able to use it to make at least a short trip to the general store/post office. Even before I started it, when the key was turned part way and the console fan turned on, it immediately started making horrible noises! The car did start, with all sorts of nasty, frozen belt and fan noises, and the engine revved itself way too high.

I shut it off.

In my head, I know I probably should have just let it run for a while and warm up, but every time I thought of doing that, I’d remember an engine block cracked from the cold, and dying on the side of a highway, all those years ago. At these temperatures, it’s just too dangerous to risk a breakdown and not even know if I’d have cell phone reception to call for help.

After trying a few other options that didn’t pan out (made more challenging with our continued internet connectivity problems), I finally sent an email to my older brother and his wife. Long story short, I emailed them a shopping list and, after my brother got home from the office, they went back into the city to pick the stuff up, then drove to our place to drop it off, tonight!

They are so awesome!

Then, because my brother wasn’t done being awesome, he checked on my mothers car.

Of course, when he started it, it wasn’t making the noises or revving like mad for him, like it did for me! We popped the hood and he checked things out. It still ran rough, but he assured me everything was okay. He told me to leave it running for about half an hour, and it should be fine. Then they left, unable to stay for longer. By the time I went out again to shut the car off, it seemed to be running smoothly again.

So I guess I should make it a habit of starting both vehicles and just letting them run for a while, as I do my morning rounds. At least for the next few days.

*sigh*

While my brother and I were fussing with the car, the girls put away the groceries, so I didn’t see what they got until later. They did get everything on the list I sent them, but more of it! So we – and the cats – are going to be just fine for the next while. Plus, because they were able to go into the city to get it all, their getting more than I asked for, still cost less than if I’d made the trip into town. When I sent an e-transfer to pay them back, I made sure to add extra to cover the cost of gas, and we still have an ample budget left to buy locally, when we are finally able to emerge from our frozen cave and do things like refill our water jugs.

I am just to grateful that they were able to do this for us, and willing to do it so late in the day (waiting until tomorrow would have been just fine!), making the long drive and even taking the time to check on my mom’s car.

My brother and his wife are the best!!!

The Re-Farmer

ps: as an aside, as I write this, we’ve dropped to -37C (-35F), with a wind chill of -45C (-49F). All the forecasts telling us when things are supposed to start warming up seem to keep getting pushed further ahead, as this polar vortex stubbornly hangs around!

14 thoughts on “Awesome!”

    • Unfortunately, everyone around here has barn and yard cats they are taking care of. Fortunate for the cats, but it sort of negates any possibility of such fundraising. Everyone is in the same boat! Lol

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      • I mean on your blog. I posted for help, hoping for $300 to spay 2 females. I rec’d over $1,000, mostly from bloggers. An old blogging friend from Norway even donated! It covered getting 7 cats fixed, plus some food. I was shockingly good about not spending a penny on myself or my bills.

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      • Oh, wow!!!

        I’ve been looking at ways to do that, but I have to be very careful. Any “income” gets deducted from my husband’s disability payments or can risk his getting payments at all. I don’t know how they deal with donations, though. And by “they”, I mean both the insurance company, and the tax department. :-/

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      • Insurance would never know. IRS might find it but it seems doubtful. I’d just be careful not to transfer more than $600 (or $1,000? whichever’s the threshold for reportable income) to my bank account in one lump.

        I both posted a request for help with my email info (for paypal and venmo), and a facebook fundraiser. You could create a GoFundMe, which might even attract strangers.

        There are also groups specifically donating $$ for medical bills and debt. You can Google. Another option is to see if PandemicOfLove is still operating – that’s a private US group that was set up to allow people to give/get financial help during the pandemic.

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      • Definitely things to think about. I don’t think any of it would affect my husbands Disabled Canada Pension Plan payments (his private insurance payments went down because of it, but we still came out ahead, but we are maxed out on how much money we are “allowed” to bring in without penalties). I think, as long as it’s only on the basis of “gifts” (I don’t think we can even take donations, because those fall under charity regulations, and we aren’t a charity) and for specific things, like cat food or vet bills, we might be able to work it out. It’s something we are working on, as we are able.

        As for local groups that offer assistance, either we aren’t in the areas they serve (they are almost exclusively in the cities), or we make “too much money” to qualify for assistance, because my husband’s private insurance is more than their income caps. Which is *really* frustrating, as you can imagine!!

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      • PandemicOfLove has no qualifications at all and is worldwide.

        If you allow people to do direct payments, I think it’s venmo that has a “friends and family” category, which prevents any fees.

        I also created an Amazon wish list but don’t know how reasonable that is with your delivery issues!

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