Wednesday, January 28, 2009

You know, it gets old taking complaints about police, police officers, police departments, police enforcement, police non enforcement, anything related to police that happens, either in our town, local department, or anywhere else for that matter, I have to hear what is wrong with the system. It doesn't matter what it is, I have to hear in a heated tone of voice, what they are doing wrong, what they SHOULD/shouldn't be doing, how they should be doing it/not doing it, when they should/shouldn't, and how they should/shouldn't. Tonight I said I wished I worked at a Circle C so I wouldn't have to take complaints all the time. So, I was told that nothing would be said again against 'your police department'. It just gets old. I don't complain about what mechanics, postmen, or real estate brokers do. I imagine there are scum in all jobs everywhere. I don't complain about carpenters, people who work at GM, or vending machine stockers. I don't complain about trucking companies, teachers, or computer geeks. But, you know what!?! Let anyone in a police department anywhere do anything, and I'm going to hear about it. Don't mistake me, or my intentions. This has nothing to do with right or wrong, did or didn't, or guilt or innocence of police officers/departments/policies. My complaint here is about MY having to take complaints all the time. In my own home! By someone who knows that I have police in my blood, who even helps me collect police things. I used to have to deal with this every time I went to a certain relative's house, until I was 'accosted' at one lunch about how a police chase had gone bad. The tone of the conversation was accusatory. It finally got to me, and I said that I wouldn't begin to try and explain why someone would do what was done any more than I would try to explain why someone went 'postal' and blew away everyone in their post office. That pretty much took care of that house, with some few exceptions lately. I told them that I could only offer what I would/did do in the same situation, not second guess someone elses' motives or good/bad sense. It really steams me. Let someone know that you work at a police department, or that you like police related things, and the first thing that will happen usually is, "Let me tell you what I heard about _________ (Fill in the blank with "police situation, police officer, police department, police policies"). Not good things, just the bad things. I take complaints from the public all day long. Whether or not I am the proper person to take them. I take complaints at home that I try to pass on. I can't even answer right. If I don't take the bait and answer, it just goes on. If I do react and say something it starts an argument. Oh, well. Guess that goes with the territory. I just hate the accusatory, "You oughta' tell them" idea. I think in the future, if anything police related in any way is mentioned, I'll just say, "Ok, whatever you say." Not that this will stop it being accusatory. Whatever.

January 21, 2009

Today was a tough day on a lot of fronts. Can't make everyone happy, and shouldn't try. When you try to do things that you really don't want to do, just to make someone else happy, things backfire. Then when you get fed up, you will say more than what you mean to. OOPS! Best thing to do is when you feel like, "MANNN, I don't want to do that", DON'T! Then you won't have people with hurt feelings because, against your better judgement, and taking time away from things you SHOULD be doing but don't quite have time to do, you agree to do something that is NOT in your best interests! Well, now, if I am asked to do something, or if I read an email that sounds like someone is EXPECTING me to do something for them, and I don't want to, I WON'T! And that is all I'm going to say about that. Grrrrr. This day has to be over soon.

Sunday, January 17, 2009

This morning we went to the grocery store to get some more of the foods I can have on the Weight Watchers eating plan, and like always happens, a little old lady parked her cart on one side of the aisle, then went to the other side of the aisle to look at what she was seeking. She piddled and piddled and piddled, and I did what I normally do, and said to her, as I pushed her cart a little, "I'm just going to move your buggy over just a little", and she went nuts! "No, my cart, my cart", and I said, "Well, you're blocking and my husband is trying to get by". Why do people get so insensitive as to put their cart on the other side of the aisle than the one they are on, instead of the same side of the aisle?!? If she was scared about her purse, then she wouldn't have had her back to her cart, so she was just being a road hog. I have to assume she drives like that, too. It was very irritating. People are really uncaring about how they drive, walk, etc., and it's everywhere.

Yesterday was the Memorial talk for my friend, Carol Battle. It was at the Spanish Kingdom Hall on Winchester Road, and I met Tammy, and her daughter Aubree', and Aubree's friend, Carly Silvernail, and then we drove both vehicles to the Memorial, because she had to go drop the girls off after the service, and then take Arik to work. It was very interesting, because Brother Alton Williams gave the talk, and he said at the outset that he was going to talk in English, then translate in Spanish, because it was at the Spanish Hall, and yet there were so many English speakers there. It was the only Memorial talk I've ever seen where there were about 6 rows down the middle saved for family, then the immediate family and the other relatives came in when the speaker went to the podium, and then they left when the talk was over, and everyone else was asked to stay seated while they left the building, then sere invited to go to a reception at the Richard Showers Center about 5 minutes away where they could visit with the family. It works, but it was different. Tammy and the girls and I sat together. Tammy, Aubree'and Carly are all beautiful. I wasn't able to get pictures like I hoped. I was running late. The neighbor came over just as I was getting dressed, and told me he had a problem, and thought he needed to call the police. He said his wife told him there was a man looking through their fence into the house at her, and it scared her. Now, Angeles is a little tiny girl, and might weigh 100 lbs., soaking wet, and she has 2 year old twin girls, and a year old girl. She is home by herself with those babies all day, and has a reason to be scared. So, he came to ask for help. He said that when he walked back there with his pit bull, the man started saying, "no, no, no", and then asked if the dog bites, and Nahm told him yes. He described the man to me, and I told him to call the police and make a report in case the man came into his yard and got bit, or in case the man came into his house, either way it would be on record that he called, and that the man was unwanted. I told him that last week when I had my police radio on at work, that several officers were looking for a man of the same description, wearing the same red sweatsuit, right behind our house on the next street. So he called, and then handed me the phone, and the 911 operator said since the man was already gone, she would give me the Alternate Response (AR) number, to call and make a report. I told her this wouldn't work, because since he didn't speak very clear English that the officer would likely have trouble understanding him, and that I was going to have to leave shortly for the funeral of one of our Public Safety Aides, and wouldn't be around to translate more than about a half hour. She sent two officers, one of which speaks Spanish, and we got a miscellaneous report made. So, I was running late to the Memorial Talk. I called Tammy to tell her, and she was already at my office waiting for me. So, we had no time to take pictures, and it wasn't appropriate once we got inside. I will have to get pictures later. Tammy and I am going to go to lunch one day this week.

Maybe tomorrow will be better than the last couple of days. I have to do some heavy duty cleaning tomorrow. Did laundry today, and cooked for some of the meals next week. I actually got pretty close to Grandma Bentley's recipe for chicken fried rice. It was GOOD. I am so pleased. It doesn't taste the same, but it reminds me of hers.

Wednesday, January 15, 2009

Ok, now, today was the day scheduled through work to start the weight management class. I was looking forward to it, and got there, signed in, and went back to be weighed (yuck)and have my blood pressure taken. While I was in there with the nurse, a very thin woman came into the room, and reached down, at what I thought was a drawer. She started taking her shoes off! I looked at her and she said, "Oh, I guess it's ok for me to be in here, I won't look at your weight or anything." And I said, "Oh, the way you went past all the people who were waiting in the lobby to come back here, I just assumed you were a nurse!" She said, "Oh, are they here for the same thing?" And I said, "Yes, why? Didn't you sign in?" And she said she didn't think she had to, and that she hoped it would be ok, because she was supposed to be in the 12:00 class, but she was in a hurry. That got all over me. We did what we were supposed to, got there before our 11:00 class, and waited, and little butt came waltzing in there, like she owned the place and like no one would mind that she felt she was more important. She turned to the nurse and said, she was hoping she could go ahead since she was there, and the nurse said, "I don't know, I have only been here 3 days." So, naturally, Ms. I-Am-More-Important, went ahead, and don't you know, she left by a side door, not the lobby. When I went back and sat down, someone said something about her, and I told them what I had said. 2 different women in the group said that she needed to take her little toothpick butt and get gone. I couldn't believe the b*&^s on her! I didn't even say what all I wanted to. When I have been in line with people standing behind me somewhere, and some Busier-and-more-important-than-you has sidled up and said, "You don't mind if I go ahead of you, do you, I'm in a hurry", I have been known to say, "No, I don't mind, but some of the people waiting their turn might, so you need to get a signed note from all of them, and then I will let you in front." I have also stopped someone who just cut in and loudly told them, "Excuse me, I know you didn't cut in front of all of us busy people on purpose, but the end of the line is back there!" I get really ill at bad mannered, ill brought up people. Oh, well. Enough of that. The class was great, and taught by one of our City Nurses. His name is Dennis, and we had to choose a name for our group, and someone suggested The Achievers, and I thought, oh, yeah! It sounds like a singing group, Dennis and The Achievers. We all had to tell everyone what we had for breakfast, tell what and why our goals, and set an action plan. I went home from work and joined Weight Watchers again. I joined in June, and in 2 months had lost 20 pounds, but then went to help my daughter when the baby was due, and then we had the hurricane, and had to stay at a relative's house with 17 people, so we pooled foods that were likely to spoil, then back to the hospital, and lots of eating whatever whenever, and I got off of it. I still am under what my beginning weight was when I started in June, but it is edging up there. I'm tired of being tired, I'm tired of not getting admiring looks, I'm tired of feeling like I'm ten years older than I am. I want to wear clothes that DON'T look my age, I want to be healthy and with some energy again. So, for my action plan, to be sensible, I said that the first week, I want to completely cut out added sugar and processed sugar. That is doable, done it before, and can do it again. I am pumped for this! I want to feel like going to see my older granddaughter dance in June, I want to play with the younger, and most of all, I don't want to have a massive heart attack and die, like a friend of mine did this past week. I went to work on Friday, and one of my co-workers, who is a Sgt. was crying. I knew something horrible had happened, because this Sgt. is Susy Sunshine normally. She pulled my arm and told me to follow her, and we went to her office. I asked what was wrong, and she still had my arm, and told me my friend had died. A cold chill went all over me, and I had to grab the desk and lean over. I got upset, and honestly felt like I had to hold on to the desk for support. This friend was 4 years younger than me. She was 50. This friend had been heavy and lost a great deal of weight through stress of taking care of an aging father, adding a room on her house for him, taking care of a husband and a 12 year old daughter, and working. Recently they had to put Dad in a nursing home because of his health. She had lost the weight without surgery, and appeared to be in very good health now. But, I think, and from things that I have been told since, and her family thinks, that her body was just worn out. The heart attack that killed her woke up her husband at about 5am, and now, Saturday I have to go to her funeral, along with my cousin and her daughter. I will be very glad to have their company. We will be surrounded by friends, and she is in Jehovah's memory, and just resting now, but it is still very sad, and very sobering. Makes it just a little easier for me to leave off the junk food, and get just a little more sleep. People who say, "Hard work never killed anyone" don't know 'that of which they speak'. I guess it be said that it depends on what kind of hard work, and what else you have going on.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Today I went to an Excel class, part 1, to learn how to use the Microsoft program to do spreadsheets, etc., and I was actually excited because the teacher taught exactly what I was hoping. Right now I'm wolfing down my lunch of split pea soup, crackers, club soda, orange, and Poptart, so I can get started playing with the Excel program on a report that I have due shortly.
I know that sounds geeky, to be excited about a computer program, but I have been adding all the figures on an adding machine, and multiplying the officer's normal pay rate to get their overtime rate, then multiplying by the number of overtime hours they worked, and doing this for the whole division every month. 57 Officers in the Division, getting overtime every week (some, not all of them every week), keeping track for each week, and getting a report ready by the middle of the following month for the Commander's meeting. Now, I can use formulas to do what I have been doing by manually. Now, I know this is old hat, and I should have already taken this class, however circumstances didn't allow. So, I am excited.

I have to rant and rave a little bit. This morning on the way to work I was met by several cars with their lights off in the rain. Now, in the State of Alabama it is mandatory for cars to have headlights on in the rain. Let's digress a little and back up. When I was policing, I stopped a young person who didn't have their lights on and it was getting dark. When I pointed out their lights weren't on, I was told, 'well, the law says a half hour after sunset lights go on, and a half hour before dawn they go off'. I asked the young person if they realized that the idea wasn't for them to be able to see, but for the driver who needed to see them. They hadn't thought about THAT. I didn't call this person a moron, but wanted to. People don't realize that they set themselves up for a lawsuit at the worst, and inconvenience at the best, when they insist on their 'rights' under law to interpret the laws, and especially traffic laws under their own understanding. Ironically enough, and I haven't figured this out yet, the worst offenders are the ones in a gray/taupe/champagne/silver car, on a rainsoaked silver road, in cloudy silver weather, and they don't realize that if they can't be seen, they are likely at fault, and especially if they are breaking the law. If I choose not to put my lights on, and my taupe car is involved in a wreck which would at any other time be the fault of the person who hit me, by my breaking the one law of not having lights on, I may have just changed the fault to mine due to road and weather conditions. People like to quote the normal, like for instance, 'you hit me in the rear; it's your fault', but that is not a guarantee. If you are driving at dusk, in the rain, in a neutral color car, with your lights off, and I don't see you, this is considered your fault. We had a situation here recently with a motorcyclist who hit the driver's side door of a woman who pulled out in front of him and he was killed instantly. It was his fault. Reason: It was dark, he was doing a wheelie right at the time she chose to pull out of a side street, because she didn't see him. It wasn't her fault she didn't see an unlit object after dark. He had his headlight on, but being pointed straight up in the air didn't count. The thing that saved her, and possibly the thing that cause him to show off like that was that there were a number of people exiting a ball stadium right when it happened and this collision was witnessed by several people who witnessed it and gave their statement to the police officers. Ok, now I will stop my ranting about people who don't really care to do the spirit of the law.

Izzy, the Rat Terrier

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Well, today is Saturday, and I have a lot to do, but decided that first and foremost, I would color my hair. I've been trying not to, because I got so many comments from the ladies at work about how good the gray looks through the blonde. Sometimes I think it looks good, and sometimes I think it makes me look tired. This morning, it made me look tired. I am going with the lightest color I could find, because I want to let it look as natural as possible. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but then when it is done, I will streak it with lowlights. This is something my daughter used to do to my hair, and I really liked the way it looked. It grew back in much more natural looking. Ok, well, now that the color is washed out, I have to wait until it drip dries a little bit more so that I can blow dry and see if I screwed it up. Now I'm listening to Izzy the rat terrier being jealous and whining. She is the most jealous dog I've ever seen. She is Butch's dog, no doubt about that, and she is fine according to him when I am gone, but when I am here, she is vying for each of us to pay attention to her. If we are both doing our own thing, and not paying attention to her, she can't stand it. She has decided just now to go to sleep to ignore us. Her half-hour of whining didn't get her anywhere, and now she is just napping. Yesterday when the same thing happened, and she napped, she started having doggie nightmares, and was twitching and semi-whining, semi-yipping at the same time. We have thought about getting either a kitten or a puppy for her to 'mother' to see if that would help the jealousy, however it might backfire, and she wouldn't let us near it. So, lots to think about. She is a funny dog, and can jump straight in the air 3-4 feet, which is great for frisbee whenever one of us can humor her. But, one of my resolutions is to take her for a walk 3 times a week, and that means a run her until she is ready to drop. I guess today will be the first day. I'm getting anxious about my hair now, and will go blow dry it. We'll see what we'll see.

January 2, 2009

Well, Thursday was one of the days when my fibromyalgia kicked up, and I didn't feel good all day long. I was soooo looking forward to my long weekend. My long weekend got started out wrong when I walked in after work on Wednesday, and Butch was on the phone and stayed on the phone with what I could tell from his side of the conversation was chatter. It made me mad, because I could tell that it was a family member, and I felt like that was extremely rude on both parts. When I have been on the phone with my mother, my sister, my daughter, or any other family member that called just to talk, and not for some sort of necessary family notification and he got home from work, and a lot of times when he just went out and came back, I, without fail, will say that Butch is home and I need to get off the phone. I just think that staying on the phone when it is not a necessary phone call like that is rude on both parties part. I have not changed the time I get home from work in ten years, ever since I went to first shift. With the exception of last year when I took classes at UAH, which meant I got home anywhere from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., I have had the same arrival time for ten years. Now, last year he couldn't remember what day I had classes, much less what time I was supposed to be home, so I didn't feel the same way about him being on the phone when I came in. The time I get home is one that is standard to the work week, and is my habit. Butch, not working, is home all day long and unless he is at the doctor's office, he can be reached by phone. Wednesday was a VERY stressful day at work, and the last thing I needed to hear when I got home was more chatter. It is bad enough that Butch doesn't usually feel like talking to me, and expects me to understand that he feels bad, but he normally will talk to whoever calls, even though he usually fusses when the call is over about how he didn't feel like talking anyway. Because of his hearing loss, he has to have the tv on LOUD, so that means that I get home and the dog, the tv, and the chatter just got all over me. When he got off the phone I told him how rude I thought it was for family to call at the very time I was getting home from work, when there is no question about what time that is, just to chatter when they could do it when I'm not here. As a matter of fact there were some things that I felt like I needed to tell him, and two different matters that he had asked me to check on while I was at work, but you know what, I haven't even felt like mentioning them so far. Add the stressful day to my stressful homecoming, and whatever someone chooses to think about the fibromyalgia, every joint in my body hurts, and YES, I DID take all of my medicines. As per the rheumatologist, one of the problems with fibromyalgia SYNDROME is the fact that what works one day will not work another day doing and taking exactly the same thing. So, I was in a bad mood when I got home because I felt bad, it was a holiday eve, and I had two separate callers get ill with the PD because we couldn't provide them off duty officers on short notice for security; had a funeral escort mess-up on someone's part which scheduled two escorted funerals at ten minute intervals, when there has to be a 45 minute break between funerals, being involved in a disciplinary matter with a police officer whose actions have caused me extra work, and the rest of things that are normal to having to move to another person's desk and handle their work, and miss doing yours. This happens whenever my co-secretary is out of work for any reason. But, in order to make things work more smoothly, I went in to work an hour earlier than I had to be at her desk, and had to go back to my office to distribute mail and handle some things when I got done for the day at her desk. A ten hour day. So, my evening was going to be my start to unwinding, but wasn't, thanks to that phone call, and I when I saw what the tv was offering for the evening, I just grabbed a book and went to bed to read. Hoping I would get up in a better mood yesterday morning, and finding that my body wouldn't cooperate. I did manage to mend one of my best jackets that got torn in the dryer. I did do some other mending, and started making two pillows, and we went to get me a new phone. Butch had to get a new one last week because he washed his the day before Christmas. He got a new updated RAZR phone free with the 2 year extension of the contract, and he suggested that I do the same because my RAZR keeps dropping calls. So we went and looked and I checked the Palm, the Blackberry, and went back to the RAZR. I don't text, I don't have my phone connected to the internet for messages or IMs, so I don't have to have all the bells and whistles. I like and am used to the RAZR. The only problem I found was that I'm having trouble using Motorola Phone Tools with the new phone to download ring tones, and my phone cover doesn't fit. Minor setbacks, I'll work them out. Now, it is Friday, and I have to do some major reorganization and start my resolutions. I start a weight loss group next week, I have Excel computer classes and a rheumatology appointment, I have vowed to read the Bible every day, meditate more, write in my blog more, go for a walk with the dog at least 3 times a week, cut out sugar, white flour, and cut back on processed foods and red meat. Enough rantings and ravings, and we've discussed my 'issues' now, and Butch said I was out of line and shouldn't have taken out my bad day on him. Oh well, so he thinks I was wrong in this, and I think he was. I guess it is good that I wrote it down. Maybe now, I can let go of some stuff that just gets under my skin, go make a Weight Watchers-type breakfast, and get to organizing.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Well, here it is, 3:55 p.m., and this day is one I got started wrong. I left my phone, papers I had set out to bring, and some medical receipts I needed to turn in, and when my office phone rang, and I saw it was Butch's Cell phone number, I realized what I had done. We are really lost without that cell phone that connects us to the rest of the world. I wanted to call my daughter and ask how the babies are, since the little one was sick, but can't make that call on the work phone. I ended up working very hard today, because I won't be at my desk tomorrow. I will be working at a co-secretary's desk because her desk is in the main building, and there are certain parts of her job that have to be done in a timely manner. I call us 'Secretaries-in-law', and she is responsible for filling off duty jobs with police officers, and scheduling funeral escorts, and it gets hectic. Especially now when people, who have had all year by the way, want a police officer or two or three to work to control the crowd at a restaurant or a hotel for the New Year's Eve celebration. You know, if I had a restaurant, I don't believe I would wait until the 30th of December, and then call both secretaries in a frenzy because you want someone, and then get ill because it may not be possible. I believe I would figure that New Year's Day is always a year apart, and for a restaurant who has been in business here for the past two years to wait and expect miracles is ludicrous. At this time of year, police officers are A) already working a shift, B) already scheduled for off duty jobs or C) off with their families because the put in for it months ago. 9 times out of 10, the officer WANTS to work all the off duty he can due to Christmas bills. So, asking for one last minute is ignorant. Treating the secretary like she personally engineered it so the officers wouldn't want to work is ignorant. I have told people in the past, "ok, wait, let me get this straight! You are asking me to help you and you are talking to me HOW?" Really, the secretary or the administrative assistant is the one who really knows what is going on in the office. And if we have trouble filling an off duty job, it's because there is no one who WANTS to work it. Or at least wants to bad enough to cancel plans. In the case of the current, very upscale restaurant, it is because the management has had officers scheduled, and then called them the afternoon of the work day, and cancelled, and done this repeatedly, and some of the officers have quit because they can't count on that job, in favor of one that doesn't get cancelled. So, then, they call last minute because none of the ones who have worked for them care to do it. Like Bugs Bunny said, "What a maroon!" These morons don't have a clue, or don't care. There, got it off my chest! And it is because I have to work in her place tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to dealing with idiots. Maybe I should put my sign up, "I will suffer no fool gladly this day!" It used to work. Maybe because most people weren't real sure about what it meant! Then this 'getting to be old fogey' will maybe pick up take out, or not, and go home and start getting the stuff out of the building and seeing what is destroyed. I don't even want to look at Sarah, Andrew, and Carlie's things that have been stored out there, or the Junior Edition books that I saved for when Sarah had kids, and our camping,and all the other things that have probably been ruined. The one good thing is that the insurance company is renting us a POD for a month to get our stuff in and determine what is ruined and what is salvagible(is that even a word?). So, hard work and long hours this weekend. Yuck. Maybe some good with all the bad. We might get things organized that we have needed to do for years. We'll see.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Well, today I had to be here very early (I got here before 7:00 a.m., because it is the last pay period of the year, so Payroll had to close out their books)to do timecards. I woke up at 6:05 a.m., and thought thru my sleepy eyes that it said 5:05 a.m., and started to go back to sleep, then looked again, and jumped straight up. I had to rush and get ready without coffee or newspaper, and wake up Butch to tell him I was leaving, move his truck, scrape ice off the windows, and drive to work and make it before 7:00 a.m. I did it, and had a Slim-Fast at my desk along with coffee I brewed at work, so I did ok. Got all my timecards done and across the street with no problem, even though I did have to call one of the officers at home and ask where his was. The answer was 'in my hand' and he was on the way to give it to me. So, now, I am doing busy work, and trying to get end of year paperwork done, and just taking a break to do this. Insurance adjuster couldn't come out today to check the damage to our roof, so I hope it doesn't rain again before he can come out. At least we have a tarp over the roof, and it is tied down pretty good. The poor neighbor didn't know it had happened until Butch went over to talk to him. He has just (within about the last few months) finished a new wooden fence, which was crushed along with our chain-link fence in addition to the roof. All done by a dead tree which should have been removed before the fence was put up. Oh well, just things. It could've easily been another tree and into our bedroom instead of the shed. Right now I'm listening to Edith Piaf, France's 'little sparrow', on the Playa Cofi music site that plays in the background on the computer. I choose only instrumentals while I am doing time cards, then when I'm done, switch to something else, 1965-69, 1970-75, etc., or different genres of music, and have the police radio going in the background, a candle burning, and there is no one here today except a Lt. who is working on stuff in his office. He and I are the only people in the whole building. Nice. Get to get stuff done. Lunch break almost over now, so I will get back to paper pushing.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Well, at the suggestion of two friends and my daughter, I will write in this journal, and pour my words and my feelings into the posting. I sit here watching the last CBS Sunday Morning of 2008, telling who has died this year, and the list is very long of the people that we remember for whatever reason. Some for good reasons, some for bad, all interesting. Right now, Charleton Heston, and Earl Hagan who wrote the theme for 'The Andy Griffith Show' that everyone learned to whistle, Harvey Korman and Dick Martin. I sit here in my chair, with my robe and slippers on against the chill, wheezing with asthma that has come back after not having had it for several years, wishing I could breathe, and wondering if any of the medicines that I have for sinus and breathing problems will work any better than they did yesterday. Yesterday, when taking the dog out, my husband, Butch, discovered that the Christmas Eve storm we had took off part of the roof of our storage building in the back yard. The same storage building that had tools, stored books for my granddaughters, Violet and Cara, Holly Hobbie collectibles including an old kitchen set, and sewing material. The same storage building that was built 15 years ago, so it has 15 years of accumulated bargains bought at yard sales, estate sales, flea markets, antique stores and auctions. The same storage building that housed things that I have said for years we need to sell due to their value to someone else, and lack of value to us sitting in a storage building. Therefore, the fact that the roof was torn off of the storage building, and undoubtedly all of the contents ruined to some extent, seems to be vindication to my idea that we sell rather than sit on the contents. Contents that include the bed that we were going to put together with drawers to make an IKEA-type platform bed, and the shelves that were supposed to go down the hallway. Papers, sewing materials, and clothing, tents and camping supplies, boxes of toys and things from past years and for future play. The dead tree from the neighbor who just finished his wood fence came crashing down sometime while we were in Birmingham seeing Butch's grandmother, MawMaw, who is in Princeton Hospital with a gangrenous infection in her leg which will not heal. She is in her mid-80's and has been there since December 6, 22 days, and on the third different antibiotic, and the doctor not sure why it won't heal. She did recognize Butch when we got there, but has a memory span of 45 seconds to a minute, and must have asked 10 times in the time we were there who 'Sue' was feeding across the hall. Sue is her younger sister, and the lady feeding her husband across the hall was not Sue. MawMaw had just been given her lunch of turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings, with jello and fruit for dessert. She ate about 2 bites of jello, and nothing else, and Butch tried to get her to eat. She said she wasn't hungry, and he suggested that she drink the Ensure that was given to her, and she said she didn't want it. She had a whole stack of Ensure that had accumulated and was placed on the sink ledge. Butch was concerned and talked to the nurse when she came, and she was very concerned. A nurse came in and told MawMaw it was time for her breathing treatment, and put her on a nebulizer, and at least 3 times she took off the mask and asked about it, and Butch had to help her put it back on. It is bad that she will be undoubtedly going to a nursing home for good. That it something that I said I would never let happen. 'Time and unforseen occurrance' have taken the option of keeping her at our house away from me. With Butch's back injury, and the fact that he can't do very much at all, and couldn't possibly pick up MawMaw in any circumstance, along with my fibromyalgia have made that impossible Anyway, I digress. We had stayed overnight at Butch's mother and dad's place in Vance so that we could visit with MawMaw, and be with his parents, too. So, we were away when the tree came crashing down. We spent the time we were going to use to organize on Saturday morning to get Juan and his uncle from next door to put a 100' tarp on the roof after making the calls to the insurance company, and taking photos. Blah, puey! So, today, if I feel like it, I have a lot of work to do, and the work is just beginning for the cleanup of the building. And, I can't take off work until after the 1st of the year, and the first week, I have classes, meetings, and doctor's approintments. So, busy, busy, busy. More later.