Tim was the Friday night Bingo King, he won four games. Tim is a pure creative. He paints, sketches, reads books, takes pictures, loves music. He is recovering from an amputation of one of his legs, it has been challenging for him. He is always cheerful, engaged.

He is voracious reader, both in fiction and non-fiction. Every month I buy him a $25 gift certificate at Battenkill Books and every month he goes down to the bookstore on his motorized wheel chair and picks out one or two books.

He loves to talk to Connie and the bookstore staff about the books he gets, they look forward to seeing him.

Tim asked me today to get him some tracing paper, he wants to draw on wood, he got hold of a book about tracing on wood and has some ideas.  We sat together and looked online, and we found 30 sheets of carbon tracing paper for wood.

I’ll get it on Monday and bring it over.

These creative tools have kept Tim sane, he tells me. Creativity lifts him up in much the same way it lifts me up. He lights up so when he has a gift certificate or something draw. We have been working together since I first came to the Mansion, I have never heard Tim complain or express any form of self-pity.

At Bingo, I gave Burt two large print Word Search books, and Sylvie four small canvas tote bags. A member of the staff asked me last week if I could get three new chairs for the office, the ones there are old and creaky and hard.

I found some great discounts online and ordered three office chairs for $150, they have excellent reviews and guarantees. The people in there work long and hard, and this will be a surprise for them.

Ellen wants a stuffed cat, and I found a good one, it’s coming on Tuesday. Bingo is fine, we get a good crowd every week. I  sing sometimes, and they all roll their eyes and laugh at me.

Red couldn’t make it tonight, he is having trouble walking. Everyone asked for him.

If you wish to support my Mansion work, you can donate via Paypal, [email protected], or by check Jon Katz, The Mansion, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

Thanks for supporting this important work.