We had a house fire early Monday morning. Still assessing the damage but my home is uninhabitable. We were able to rescue the cats, some of our clothes and thats about it.

We have secured an apartment and will be moving in sometime Monday. No internet until next Friday at the earliest so my phone will have to do. This will be the easiest move since I was in the Navy where all my belongings fit in a single duffle.

My employer has been very understanding and since I am owed over 260 hours of paid vacation I'm not hurting for time or income.

The clean up continues and once in awhile small treasures surface. On Thursday I moved some junk and found the Bronze Star that my wife's father earned in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Both the medal and the original citation survived intact.

I also found one box of my 5x7 large format negatives intact. I had thought I had lost all of my prints and negatives along with my printing supplies and equipment. All my stockpile of film is gone and my digital gear is water damaged.

Very tired, and much more needs to be done, but we are making progress.