Today I got to spend some quality time with a good friend of mine, Ricky, who owns an estate sale company.  He got a call while we were at lunch to go dig through a house in Irving and I got to tag along.  You never know what you're going to find and this time it was a very nice 1970's home that was clean a a pin and very organized.  All the trash and unnecessary items had already been discarded and the daughter of the deceased owner gave us a tour then all the time we needed to explore and collect the things we wanted to buy.  One of the first things I saw was an old man head made out of pottery and the glaze/color looked so familiar and after I did a quick Google search I knew I was correct.  It's Camark pottery, made in my home town of Camden, Arkansas.  He's a quite rare piece because he was designed to hang on the wall and there is a slit in the top to put used razor blades.  Can you imagine how many of these got knocked off and broken?  I love the color, too.  After I'd made my small pile of treasures I got to visit with the daughter, Tammie.  She was delightful - one of those people that you immediately like from the first minute.  We talked about loosing our mothers and the emotional roller coaster you ride after you loose a parent and have to deal with all the final arrangements, estate liquidation, and the grief.  She asked me what I did for a living and I told her I was an actor and she immediately asked me if I knew Kevin Howard.  I said I did and she sent him a text which he responded "he's a fantastic baker".  I asked what she did for a living and she said she edits video content for advertising firms and laughed when I said "just fix it in post".  The world really is TINY if you just let it be.  Tammie Kleinman, post production guru...amongst other things.  😃

There were still a few things that needed to be moved around and brought out of the attic and Tammie told me her brother, Robert, would be over to do that shortly.  Then she told me that Robert wasn't really her brother but a guy she met in the 5th grade and brought home and her family practically adopted him and they have been like brother and sister ever since.  When I met Robert he whizzed in the driveway in his little 2 door blue Ford Escort and popped out and said "Hey Kingpin" (referring to Tammie) and she told him to come inside so they could get to work.  Robert is about 6 feet tall, handsome, and a great story teller.  He and I talked for about thirty minutes and he told  me all about his life knowing Tammie and her family and his short time in Seattle and how glad he was to be a Texan.  One thing those folks in Washington didn't know about, TEA CAKES, was enough for him to realize he'd made a mistake moving up there.  After spending our time together, I understood that Robert is a little simple-minded but what was most obvious was that he has a beautiful and giving heart.  His pleasure comes from helping those he loves.  While Ricky and I were packing up to leave Robert helped load things in the van and we told him how proud we were to meet him and looked forward to seeing him again very soon.  Ricky will be going back on Sunday to help them set up for a dealer buyout of the remaining contents of the house and I'm going to try to clear my schedule but even if I can't, Robert will have a batch of homemade tea cakes all his own.