I am a firm believer in angels. Just look at that cutie above in the photo, sitting on the bench in my front garden. She sits there all year 'round, and never falls off. She's just perched vicariously there, too, nothing really holding her down, except her will to stay put.

Today my belief in angels was confirmed, again. It really started yesterday when Paul came home from work. On the weekends he lobsters about half of the day and then comes in and sets up shop down at the harbor and sells his "bugs" (see previous entry for a picture of him doing that). Yesterday, Sunday, he was on his way back into the harbor from being outside lobstering when, just as he was rounding the bend near the lighthouse, there were what appeared to be some men in the water, and what he thought was a kayak - but it turned out that it was two scuba divers who were in some difficulty, trying to get back to the land. He pulled up to them in his boat and asked what the matter was. They said they got so far out from land that when they came up for air after crawling along the bottom of the ocean looking for scallops, they were very far away and that it took all their energy just to swim back. They were almost at the little beach where they could get ashore, but they asked Paul if he would turn around and go look for their other buddy who was still "out there" in the ocean, struggling to keep going.

Off he went, and he searched the waters until he spotted the man in the scuba gear. After some finageling with the man, trying to get him into the boat after taking off his tanks, etc., he did get him into the boat.. then the guy asked Paul if he would turn around and go see if he could spot the (floating) bag of scallops he's spent all day gathering. Paul was happy to oblige, and finally they found it, and off they went back to the little beach where he joined up with his two buddies.

Paul got back and did his ususal clean-up work on the boat and then when he got into the landing area where he was setting up to sell, the guy came along and thanked him again, for saving his life basically, and gave him $100.

Whoo-hoo!

Nice way to make a few bucks...save a life, make some cash. He didn't even get his name, and no officials were involved so we don't think he'll make the newspapers, but he should have. That guy would never have made it back had Paul not happened along at that minute. He was very exhausted and almost ready to give up.

So, I figure that guy's personal angel was "on duty" yesterday afternoon - big time.

And Paul's personal angel was working for him too (we can sure use that $100!).

Normally, I would just chalk that up to the usual angelic interventions that happen every day, but then today something else happened to us.

Paul came back from getting my new work and he brought in our mail. He handed me what looked like a refund check from the Federal Government. What? We'd filed our return and we had to PAY THEM quite a good sized chunk (since Paul is self-employed)... how could we be getting a check?

Well, we did. For $800! And a letter came also explaining the check. We'd neglected to put in for something called the "Making Work Pay" credit on our income tax return.

Who knew?

Not us.

I told Paul that now that I will be semi-retired and collecting social security soon, our taxes next year will be more and more complicated, and he's 3 years older than I am so he'll be having changes happen to him, as well, and I really think it might be a good idea for us to actually take our taxes somewhere and have someone who knows what they're doing file them for us. Because I don't, and he just barely does.

Our angels were all working overtime this weekend it seems. I thank them all. Mine is "Olive," I don't know Paul's angel's name or the "drowning" guy's angel's name, but I'll thank them for both of them, seeing as how I'll just bet neither of them will think to do it themselves. (I think it's a "guy thing.")

Cheers,

Bex

P.S. Below is a picture some guy took of Paul on his boat in the dead of winter in the harbor, on his mooring. Apparently, this picture appeared on a web site for a company that sells cold-weather marine clothing.