This year I’ve learned how much community matters. I’ve learned how incredibly generous people can be when you share your dreams with them.

My coworker at the cafe, Tony, was listening to me ramble about all the things I plan to do when I start building my tiny house and he interrupted my wild soliloquy, “Hey, I’ve got a ton of tools in my garage that you can have if you need.”

I looked over at him. “Really?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve collected all kinds of things from the property maintenance company I used to run. I really want to get my garage cleared out. So I’d be happy to just give you a bunch of stuff.”

Um, yes please.

I was so excited to see what kinds of things I could get, but I wasn’t prepared for how much AMAZING STUFF he was willing to give me for free:

Why yes, that is a working A/C unit. And a brand new belt sander. And a couple drills. And a circular saw. And and and.

A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR TONY!!!

And he also just had a couple cameras lying around that fit in wonderfully with my vintage camera collection. (I might need to stop collecting soon since, you know, I’ll be living in a TINY house.)