I love having three or four day weekends, but it sure makes for more work when I go back to the office! I was scrambling all day.

A friend, one I've mentioned many times who lost his house to foreclosure last year at this time, has had a financial blow. His roommate was up north for a family wedding, and at some point in that trip he was out riding his motorcycle and was in an accident. An 80-year-old driver pulled out and cut him off, causing a collision that resulted in broken vertebrae, femur, clavicle, and he was in a drug-induced coma for a few days. He was able to call my friend today to describe the accident and say that his family was taking him back to their home to recover. He has probably 18 months of healing before he'll be able to walk again.

It's a shock to hear that a friend has been in such an accident, but it was also a blow because they were sharing the rent. My friend can just afford the apartment on his own, and as we spoke, I reminded him of the storage locker he rented to store all of the stuff he was going to sell on eBay. Tony's mother is coming down in a week or two to pick up his possessions, and then my friend will have a spare room. I suggested that he needs to dedicate that room to eBay selling and make up the difference. We know he can do it, and now that he doesn't have a house falling down around his ears, irresponsible roommates (who were at the house) or his rather tyrannical young roommate Tony (who won't eat vegetables or casseroles or gravy, and who is so hard-headed in his opinions that I never visited my friend at their apartment), he'll be in a peaceful place and can finally do this work on his own behalf without interruption. I told him I'd help him if he needs it, and I can get him good boxes at the library where we recycle hundreds of them a month.

If this accident had happened a year ago, he'd have been destitute as far as finding a place to live that would take his lack of credit (his roommate hadn't had a house foreclosed so was important on the rental application - they found the apartment at this time last year and moved in by Oct. 1). One or more of his friends would have made room, but having an apartment, even in a seedy neighborhood, is a good move as far as repairing his credit.

As unfortunate as the accident is, I can see that my friend has been able to come a long way back, and if he needs it, his friends can remind him that he can make it on his own.

SRS