A Brief Sanity Check In

It's been a long day and after coming home, I crashed, woke up refreshed, fixed tacos, made a cup of tea and am currently having the most loverly, peaceful moment... the longest one in about two weeks and talk about savoring it.

My heartfelt, humblest thanks and gratitude to my knight in shining armour who saved me from myself and sent me the info I need to clear out that damn annoyance of a trojan. I will set about removing it tomorrw so I can gladly and willingly make my way back to some online time.

I wish I could say that my plate isn't full on the morrow, but unfortunately, it's shaping up to be a day that will keep me on my toes yet again.

Mr. M is doing better. I think the antibiotics must be working. Now, we just have to run over to the Clinic and get Mr. M's hearing aid fixed, a run over to our travel agent to pay for the cruise and a small stop at the butcher.

Oh! And for those who have twitching noses, yes, we have smoke, but the fire turned and went in a different direction so we're fine.

And cooler weather on the way. Do I dare hope Fall is tickling our toes?

Hope to see y'all soon...

WARNING: Mode: Rant On

That DSOBMFing Trojan horse (aka Generic.GM) Mr. M has on his comp just will not go away. I have removed, reloaded, a new version of AVG on his comp, I have disabled the system restore, I have used the Ad-Aware for spyware, etc and I have even gone in and physically removed the damn thing and like a bad penny it just re-generates. The comp currently is in safe-mode going through the virus check again. I don't know how Mr. M got the malware: PSGuard on his comp in the first place.. I think he said he thought it was from MS... I quit listening at that point.. my brain just shut down.. I have talked and talked until I am blue in the face to this man and he keeps doing this crap! Arrrruuugh!!!!!!!!

My dishwasher is not functioning either. What we thought was a clogged hose, seems to be a pump discomboobalation. Now we just need to find out if it's going to be cheaper to get a new pump or just go get a new dishwasher. At least we think it's a pump because it won't pump the water out of the dishwasher.

I come over to my computer and it decides it needs to have a malfunction as well. That's it, I've had it. I quit.. for now. It's time for me to go find something else to do and calm down......

All of this after spending a pleasant afternoon with Pookie,Topper and Daughter. The March of the penguins was interesting. Save your money though. In my estimation, wait for it to come on National Geographic. I learned a few things about Emperor Penguins. Topper got restless but settled down about half way through, put his head on my shoulder and promptly went to sleep.

So if anyone is thinking about calling me, don't. I am not answering the phone. I am going to go sit in my chair, in my bedroom, light something aromatic and breathe deeply.


*tightening the strap to her helmet, holstering the ladle, tightening the laces on her boots and stomps off to go sulk*

PS.... Going on a 10 day cruise Oct 8th. Mexican Rivera. I'm not sure if the Universe is telling me to stay home or asking me why I haven't left yet.

*grumble* *stomp*

A Bit of This and That

On yesterday's trip to Sacramento. I met a 40 something year old Sgt, who in Nov. is heading bak to Iraq for his 3rd tour. He was at the dental clinic getting his teeth seen to before having to deploy again. We had an interesting conversation. He and his wife were out in their truck and his truck got egged. Why? Because he was in Iraq. Since his return, he has gotten called 'baby killer', accused of killing innocent women and children and a host of things. I get so damn furious at these ignorant, self centered, 'righteous' name callers. If any of them would take a minute to talk to this man and ask him about his experiences over there, I wonder if they would be so willing to spit upon him again and yes, he's had that happen to him too. The insurgents are using children over there for their own evil purposes. Let me share one incident he experienced.

On patrol in Saddam Square, the American patrol came across some insurgents who had in front of them two young boys with grenades. The insurgents were yelling for the boys to throw them at the American patrol. When the boys wouldn't respond as fast as the insurgents liked, the insurgents turned and shot their parents in front of those boys and then shot the boys. One might ask why the Americans didn't just shoot the insurgents, well, the answer is "Rules of Engagement". The American's can not shoot unless they are shot at. There wasn't one American servicemember in that patrol that didn't want to save the boys, but couldn't. And the kicker? After all this came down, the insurgents turned tail and ran and the Iraqi police in the square merely turned their backs on the scene and left.

In another case it was kill or be killed. The insurgents use the children to get them to harm the Americans. If the children won't do it, the childrens' families will be killed and usually right in front of them. When faced with a child who is ready to lob a grenade at you and you just know it's going to happen because his family is at stake, what choice does an American soldier have? If they can avoid it, they will, but the insurgents are not stupid, they know how to set the Americans up with little or no choice.

For an American soldier to come home and face these types of negative things when his mind and soul are already unbearably bruised is unacceptable. Those very name callers should be sent over there themselves and put in these despicable situations and see how they fare. Then come home and see if they can still call these soliders, "baby killers".

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Mr. M is resting quite comfortably, thanks to his pain meds. Not only was the tooth broken, but there was a severe infection down in there. The clinic at Mc Clellan are not happy with our clinic up here. It seems that Mr. M's dentist here knew the tooth was broken and didn't deal with it. Oh yea, verily, he sent in a referral so Mr. M could get his teeth seen to down there far more quickly than up here, but he had to know that unless that tooth was seen to immediately bacteria and infection would set in. How could he not? Hell, even I knew that. My greatest complaint in all this is that Mr. M was in severe pain. On a pain scale from 1-10, 10 being the worst, his pain level was between 9 and 10. Yeah. They told him they couldn't see him here because they were overbooked and he had to make the trip to Sacramento to be seen, just go in there, say it was an emergency, he was in a lot of pain and they HAD to see him. Apparently our clinic has been sending a lot of our veterans down there. There are 80 year old men that are completely wiped out by the time they get down there and a bit testy about it too. There's a sign on the door down there that they don't take walk-ins and people need to make a phone call. Of course, the staff up here don't even give you a phone number to call down there so you can talk with someone about it.

I don't care how overbooked you are, when a person is in such pain, bad pain, everything needs to be done to see to relieving that pain, even momentarily so that the person can seek medical help in a day or two.

Mr. M blew up and got rather loud when dealing with the administration here. He was told they quit giving out a daily emergency appointment because the doctor needed to focus on his already over filled plate. Priorities, people! That man that needs a crown or a filling? Who is not in pain at the moment? Why can't he be sent down to Sacarmento? No one wants to have to travel but if faced with thousands of dollars in dental bills vs a trip to Sacramento, uh, what are they going to take? Why should veterans who are in pain have to travel about 3-4 hours (longer if they're using the shuttle) to get immediate relief? Absurd. Someone's priority should be to get their head out of their arse. Mr. M's service in Sacramento was stellar. He opted to return to Sacramento to get the rest of the work done.

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That brings us to Daughter. I have to leave here in a bit and I really don't have time to vent in this direction. I will. I need someplace to write all this crap down and get it out of my system. My fingers just curl at the thought of FB and his lacking sense of responsibility. His favorite lament these days seems to be, " Why does it always have to be me?" Meaning, why does the responsibility of working and supporting the family have to fall on his shoulders alone? Color me old fashioned, but DUH!

I'm also dropping the hammer down on Sprout. Mama has just about had it with his lack of responsibility as well. He knows what he's facing when he gets home today. Yep, Mama and her ladle.It's a spin off of Xan and her skillet. And you all thought it was only role-playing. Ha!

Bear with me, people. I know I haven't been around much lately, but even being a fluffy domestic goddess there's only so much of me to spread around.

*blink* That didn't sound too good, did it?

At Last..*humming the tune*

I hear a song coming on....

Seriously, I'm still reeling from the events of this week so far and from last week. I don't even know where to start. There's more to the FB and Daughter Saga, the FB and Slinky saga, and just general everyday stuff.

Starting at the beginning of the week there were birthdays. I'll go into it more later when I have time to do so, but I was so angry over Pookie's birthday. Let me just say that my daughter and FB turned Pookie's evening into a battle ground and if I had been anywhere near Daughter or FB, they would have gotten far more than they heard. As it is, Daughter (in her own words to FB), "Mom chewed me up, chewed me up some more and then spit me out and ground me into the ground." She was pretty damn accurate and I would have chewed up FB too except it wasn't going to do any good since he had tuned out the world... altho, let me say this, if I had to go over there and rip down the master bedroom door, he would have heard me and then some. I am still very upset for Pookie. Like I told Daughter, apologies are not going to make up for what they did. She will always remember how bad it was. Those two need to do something to make it up to the girl and they better. That little girl turned nine years old and she deserved far better than to have to listen and to witness her mommy and daddy fighting like two brats. In all the years I was married to my ex we always swallowed the fight for the sake of the children when it came to holidays and birthdays. When we had words, it was in the privacy of our bedroom after they were alseep and never loud enough to wake them.

And as can be expected, FB is once more high on my list and radar. I'm not sure Daughter is going to live through his painful growing up years because he's going to be fertilizing my dying roses. And at the moment, Daughter is right behind him.

Dinner out last night with the family was great. We went to Cattleman's. We all had drinks, good conversation and good food. Afterwards, Troll (the birthday boy), Sprout and my adopted daughter all went out to drink and hang out. They ended up back at the house with Troll mixing drinks and watching movies. I went to bed and got some much needed sleep. I almost got Troll to snort his hurricane out of his nose. We were talking about something and I threw in something about Troll being a Polynesian God. It was priceless. I have such good timing sometimes. Dinner was a nice escape after having to take Daughter to her doctor's appointment because FB couldn't get over himself enough to do so.

Today was grocery shopping, picking up Sprout's car from the shop (that's another small story by itself) and trying to catch up on housework.

Tomorrow is a run down to McClellan AFB in Sacramento to the dental clinic so Mr. M can be seen on an emergency basis for a broken tooth. I'm not sure how long that is going to take.

Friday is Mr. M's golfing lesson, my trip with Daughter to the butcher for some meat for her family (that's another FB story right there)

Saturday is a movie date with Pookie and Topper to see "March of the Penguins". Ha! Daughter is going too. She still has me hot under the collar and she gets to ride herd on Topper, especially after I feed the boy popcorn, soda, hotdogs..Muhahahaha.

Sunday is nails with Daughter and a long talk over lunch before I take her grocery shopping (see above reference to FB story still needing airing)

Mr M is going to decide which cruise he wants to take. I want to get it paid for NOW. The one on the 31st isn't going to happen because I don't care for the staterooms left open, too low on the ship for me.

In the meantime, I've been feeling 'wonky'. The right side of my head behind my eye has been hurting. I have been having phantom lights in front of my eye, sometimes they're zipping little lights across my eye. The last two days I have episodes where my sight is not what it usually is. Bad headaches too. Stress. Gotta be. Needless to say, my doctor's appointment is coming up in about two weeks. I'll make sure to let him know. My over all well being factor has been... wonky. I don't know how else to put it. I can tell something isn't right, but I just can't tell what it is exactly. I'm just a little off center and not quite right.

So, I'm still here, just quite busy at the moment and when I'm not taking care of business, I'm trying to relax and get myself well again. I hope next week is much better. At least, Mercury will be walking forward again. Thank the Lady for Her small Graces.

Be Well.

I cancelled yesterday and damn near cancelled today too.

A Sunday's Lament

I am finally feeling like a human being again. Whatever it was that got it's talons in me, has finally let go. In the meantime I am trying not to overdo it just because I feel good again.

Sleep is still running elusive until around anywhere from 3-5 am. This sucks! Then I am usually up and off running again. Maybe that's why I got sick... ya think?

Tomorrow Pookie goes back to school. She didn't seem too enthused today. Tomorrow is also her 9th birthday. Maybe that might explain her lack of joy at school starting. Troll and I took over her birthday presents today since tomorrow is going to be a family event. She's going to have some nice goodies from Mom and Dad tomorrow and I sprung for her favorite birthday dinner, pizza!

Speaking of Troll, his birthday is the day after, Tuesday. We're taking him out to dinner. I am buying him a small dorm refrigerator for his room. He's wanted one since we got one for Sprout a couple of Christmases ago. Troll bought himself a new cell phone today, Cingular's Razor. LOL. He's gone around singing, " Happy Birthday to me." He's a nut case. I sure do like the looks of that cell but I am resisting temptation because I want that ten day cruise in October.

And bloody hell, I am chasing all kinds of viruses on Mr. M's computer AGAIN. Geez. First I need to go and turn off his system restore and then begin the grueling work of removing the damn trojan irc backdoor bugger. I swear, that man has gotten more viruses than I have and I've been on the net longer. I hate AOL and I know that's where it came from.. either there or his news groups. Either way, I am the only one around here who can clean up the mess and I AM NOT a happy camper.

So for the next few days, I am going to be out of touch between computer bug fixing and birthdays...

Be well..

ohhhh, ewwwwww

coming down with a cold... lookin' fer stapler or super glue as head is about to fall off... a case of dynamite to blow out nasal passges would be nice too... everything comes wif a price..even cooler weather *thid*

ET, Call Home

The past few days have been a blur to look back upon, but when it was happening, damn.... last night brought a confrontation between Mr. M and myself. Neither of us got much sleep last night and today I spent the whole day chasing that new %^%$#@ virus. I took care of it. Tonight I am washed out. A flat tire. Nothing left to give anyone else. I still have another week to go with Mercury moonwalking.. dammit.

Mr M and I are talking a ten day cruise in October. I think that would be so fun and he knows how much Halloween means to me. We've settled upon the Mexican Rivera and now we have to decide what cruise line. An elderly couple we're friends with (she thinks I'm the cat's meow *grin*), a couple I use to square dance with in the beginning are going on a ten day Mexican Rivera with the Princess lines. We're leaning toward Holland America. The only thing is, we took this ship our last cruise and I'd like to try a different one. Well, talks are still up in the air about how we're going to do this. We had been talking about doing a New Year's cruise embarking from the East Coast, but I would really be disappointed if the weather kept us from getting there. Since it's late in December there's a good chance the weather is going to suck. So we nixed that idea. There is the opportunity to leave out of Galveston so, I'm not sure of anything yet... just that I-we- really need this break.

So if anyone out there has been wondering.. I'm still alive.. just a really squished feeling shroom at the moment.. give me another day to myself and I'll be back up and running again.

Nice Day In The Grove

Got up this morning and did girlie things with my daughter. We do that about every two weeks.We go and have our nails done, walk around the mall (that collective gasp is loud:) then do lunch before I take her home. Today's choice was Home Town Buffet. Usually I save buffets for when we go to Vegas and by the time we leave, I have had enough buffet time to last me a year. It's what she wanted, it's what we did. Of course Mom picks up the tab.

Cooler here on the west coast. There was a north/southern wind that is helping to keep the heat down. The nights are so much cooler too, thank the Divine for Her Grace. I noticed on the way home as I crossed the Sacramento River that it was still pretty high. That astounds me because usually by this time of the year it's down as we supply Southern Calif. with water. I guess I never realized just how much rain we got last year.

Something else hit me between the eyes on the way to pick up Daughter, I have lived in this town for almost 40 years now, off and on while I was married to the active duty firefighter. For all the places we traveled I finally realized that I wanted to come home to settle and eventually pass on.

I have cronic fatigue syndrome or otherwise known as CF. Now and then I am incapable of doing the smallest thing. Some times it takes a gigantic effort to merely do something that I take for granted on my good days. Luckily for me, I don't have too many episodes in the year that it compromises my quality of life. Unfortunately for me, it kicked in on Thursday and went through yesterday. Today, I'm feeling right as rain so maybe Mr. M and I will go out and do something. After I clean up the livingroom. Apparently Scrappy-Doo... Troll's pup (the half sheltie-half pug cross)and I believe it was Bubba, decided to tear up a small cardboard tray. I have bits and pieces scattered all over the house.

And while I'm on a roll here, I am not really fond of the menopausal crap. I'm getting really tired of these late nights where sleep eludes me. I'm getting kinda tired of Nick-At-Night too. I want to know when I can kiss this crap good-bye. Enough is enough.

Well I better get it in gear. I'm making chicken enchiladas for dinner tonight. Last night was tacos. Hey, I adore Mexican food and I'm lucky Mr. M does too.

Oh...My....Goddess

Where am I? Who am I? Where have I been?

Oh my goodness. I had the grandbabies Wednesday overnight and most of Thursday. It has been like having two little whirlwinds around here. At 5:45 am Thursday morning, I hear Topper's wee voice calling for Bubba (aka Cherokee-our male sheltie). Bubba has become Topper's bestest friend in the whole wide world but at 6 am, I made that boy go back to sleep. They got up on Thursday at about 6:45 am. Mercy. Things didn't slow down until we took them home. After we dropped them off at home we had a few errands to run, but after coming home, the rest is a blur. I do know I am still dragging my tush on the ground (oh yeah, like THAT'S a pretty picture) because I couldn't go to sleep last night and found Heartbreak Ridge playing and was up until the wee hours of the morning. Not a whole lot to do today and Mr. M is out doing a couple of funerals this afternoon. So, I think I will take the better part of valor, cave in and go cop a few z's ad see if that helps.

One Of My Favorite People In The World

Meet Troll aka my baby brother. I think I'm just about the only one that can get away with calling him 'baby'. He's 15 years younger than I am. We have this wonderful relationship and are very close. There's not much of anything he wouldn't do for me or I, for him. He's a pretty big guy, loyal as they come and he's the type of person you want at your back in a dark alley somewhere. He is one of the sweetest biggest hearted men I know. I just wish women would see that. This guy is a gentleman of the old school and he treats women so well when they give him the chance. He also washes dishes, cooks and cleans(even the bathroom *gasp*). He's about 5'9" and 200something pounds. Yeah, big guy. I've been working on him to lose weight because the men in my family do not fair well in the heart attack area and I want him around for a long time to come.He's got a work ethic a CEO would kill for, not a lot of schooling, but he's worked his way up the company ladder to his current position. The man is so smart and logical that sometimes I could smack him and have. Yes, he gets on my nerves and I can still literally bring him to his knees..Muahahaha. He cracks me up with his sense of humor which can be so childlike sometimes. He adores children and they love him to death. But get on his bad side or hurt someone he loves and all bets are off.

He's a character and a sweetheart and I love him very much.

Just One Of Those Days

Oh mercy. Ever have one of those days where if your brain were a lethal weapon, you'd probably end up shooting yourself? That's me today. Just when I think I am doing something that actually makes sense, I figure out it doesn't. It's my own fault really. I stayed up until around 5 am this morning to watch the shuttle land. It was just one of those things I wanted to watch. Consequently, my brain feels like a squished pea trying to roll down a highway.
Yeah.

Aloha

I'm an Island Girl born and bred, so now and then my roots show *grin*. I find little Stitch here to be simply wonderful and he makes me smile, always. He's Hawaiian by adoption.

Howzit?

Things around the Grove are nicely *knock wood with Mercury doing its backwards thing* quiet for now. Mr. M's new daily nitro patch seems to be working okay. I was suppose to go to the doctor's for my check-up today, but got a call from the receptionist. The doc called in sick and that means my new appointment isn't until the 7th.

It's nice to reach out and 'touch' someone you care about. I really should do that more often. Well, not too often but maybe a bit more. I came away feeling pretty darn good and a little clearer in my mind about certain things.

Roleplay:

I think for the moment, my character Raven will sit, well, not on a back burner, but I'll give her a bit of a rest while helping to get Camelot-Starchat back up and functional. I do have some stuff drifitng aorund in my head for Raven, which I will write up and put up. It's nothing startling however. My first agenda is to help get Camelot redefined and rolling. Then we'll see how the platter spins. With all the overload from last month gone... I am much happier and even creative again...*chuckle* that doesn't mean I am quick to actually be productive however.

That's all I have for the moment. But I am sure there will be more before the week is out. I can almost bet on it.

Nine, Ten, Start Over Again

Oooookay. Let's try this again, thank you, Mercury.

Friday. Yep. Date Night with Mr. M. Because my tummy has a rumbly, we're choosing to stay in and curl up with a few good movies to watch. I have an extensive dvd collection (troll has contributed his share) and I haven't watched many of the movies yet. Also, I'm still not sure what will trigger Mr. M's angina but at the moment, I don't have the strength to challenge it by taking him out in this heat to go minature golfing. The temps are still in the three digits although it doesn't get that way until around 4 or 5 pm. Speaking of Mr. M, I finally got his computer up and running more smoothly. I still haven't found all those background running programs yet.

Huzzah. Huzzah. We officially got the 5th wheel paid in full this month. He brought it with him. It was what he was living in when I met him. We never really use the thing and with the cost of gasoline.. geez. It's huge and we had a big hail storm one year that put holes in the roof of the thing so, we're going to find a way to incorporate it into being part of the house. We're just not sure where to stick it yet and it is my wish that we gut the thing and make it into an office/spare room for guests. That way visitors don't have to put up with the pets in this zoo.

Monday morning I have my first medical check-up in about 12 years. I figured turning 48 it was about time. My grandkids would like to have their grandma around for awhile. Sometimes, you just gotta check in to make sure there is no hidden agenda floating around, you know? I am not looking forward to it, at all, but I'll do it. I think Mr. M thinks I'm going to bolt, so he's going with me. Trapped like a sardine. *grin*

Got some writing to do this weekend. I'm not sure how much I'll actually get done since I'm feeling like blech. I'm going to give it the old college try however.

Daughter wants to hang the babies up by their toes from the ceiling. I know she'll be glad to have school start again. Topper is on the waiting list for Head Start. That boy-o needs it. He'll start school next year and he's ready, by golly. He's a big boy now. Kids, they sure can make you smile. I'm suppose to have the kiddos Saturday but I had to pass because of this tummy thing. I may have Daughter and the kids on Sunday for the day. Daughter owes me some money so she works it off in the office. I have filing that needs done pretty desperately and old files to be pulled and stored.

Mr. M had to pry me off the ceiling the other night with a crowbar. One of the cats brought us a present and left it on my side of the bed. I damn near laid down on the thing! Not funny! Ick. I found one recently lying in front of the refrigerator that I had to pick up and throw out. I love my cats and apparently they love me. Could they please love me a little less? I'd be so appreciative. Oh.. and being awakened by a sheltie that thinks your face needs washing at 6 am is not enjoyable either. Humph.

Seven, Eight, Lay Them Straight...

Over one THOUSAND pieces of spyware, ONE THOUSAND. I have been up half the night fixing Mr. M's computer. I am by no means a techie but I have learned a few things and usually, when it comes to Mr.M, I can troubleshoot his computer. At this moment, I rather shoot him. Bless him. It's a good thing I love him. He just has no idea. The man downloads and uses a thousand pieces of crap and doesn't realize what else is being loaded into his computer. He's lucky his hard drive didn't crash. Lady Bless, that was a mess to even get into. At this moment, I am running for the 4th time the AVG scanner. Yes, I also found a virus or rather the Ad-Aware by Lavasoft did. I spent most of the morning updating his AVG. He also managed to set up the Ad-Aware for the getting rid of the spyware but he didn't think he had. I am not sure what he did, but the shortcut didn't work on his desktop so I had to go into the files and find the bleeding program and set a new shortcut up AND run the program at least three times last night and after the the virus scan is done, I'm going to run it again. Needless to say his comp is running faster now. DUH. yes, I am aggravated. I am constantly after this man to run and update the AVG and to run the Ad-Aware. Okay so he somehow (and I still can't figure out how) screwed up the set up, but I have it going now. So no more excuses. I'll also throw in here that he has at least 36 running programs in the background. As soon as I find out what they are, he's going to stop that. He doesn't need all these programs running in the background and he wonders WHY his comp is running slower than a turtle drenched in molasses? Yanno, *I* should be his favorite play toy. *eye roll*

Okay so that was my night and my morning. The rest of my day is still out there to be defined.

Damn Mercury... sometimes I just want to grab ahold of it and drop kick it forward. *grin* ... maybe that's pushing my luck a bit. But why it has to move (essentially) backwards is beyond me. What is it? Another one of those Divine inside jokes?

I'm off to go have me a little sulk, grumble and ramble and then I can get on with my day.

Five, Six, Pick Up Sticks...

Welcome August! Boy, am I glad to see you. I sincerely hope that August turns out to be better than this past month. Where do I begin...

Let's start with Mr.M. He had an early morning appointment with his cardio doc. I really didn't pay much attention to the time but then some sort of consciousness creeps in, you know? I dialed his cell phone. I don't think he took it with him. I then called the truck cell. Nada. It's been about two hours and I'm getting a wee bit concerned. Finally I got him on the truck cell. Just as he was starting up the truck to come home, wham, he's hit by another one of those discomfort chest things. He shut off the truck and went back inside. They strapped him up, took blood, all that happy horse crap. Fortunately his cardio doc was right there and came in. Again, nothing to show that there was any heart tissue damage.

Mr. M's previously taken tests came back with not a whole lot to show that we didn't already know. The blockage he has showed up, but it is not something that would require surgery at this point to clear it. The doctor has already stated that they really try to avoid cutting open the chest again and going in unless there is no other choice. Mr. M has a long chest scar to show for his open heart sugery of several years ago. Now, imagine, if you can that where that scar left off (which is about just past his ribcage) the other one starts. This one was when they opened him up 3 years ago to remove the colon cancer. So he now sports a long scar from the top of his chest to below his belly button. They really don't want to have to go opening him up again. The conclusion to all this is that Mr. M suffers from angina. What they call normal angina. Now please explain to me how angina is normal vs. abnormal. Well apparently, abonormal would be if he suffers from angina all the time, which he doesn't. It just comes on once in a while. As a result of this last attack before he left the V.A. his cardio doc has decided not to fool around with it and put him on a nitro patch. He wears this 12 hours a day. What is causing the angina is the blockage he has. So, now we learn to adjust to this new developement.

FB Update: Well, yesterday FB met his ex and their daughter for his first father/daughter meeting. According to the paperwork by the mediator, it was suppose to be mother, daughter and FB. Uh-huh. Who else was there but Slinky's daddy and slinky's current boyfriend. Apparently the boyfriend got up and left but daddy dearest stayed around. Little one kept looking back at Mom. FB got to spend an hour with his daughter. I advised FB to call the court mediator and ask about who should be there because having daddy dearest around is not a good thing at all. I hope he follows through on it.

Different subject concerning FB. He's getting better. I didn't go looking for my shovel and I sure as hell would love to smack FB's father with it. The man is an ass. There has been talk about FB, Daughter and grandbabies going to Arizona for X-mas this year. FB's oldest brother is stationed there. Since FB's brother, the one that just got out of the service (the same one who did his time in Iraq) has a car, the whole gang was thinking of going, FB and family, brother and father. Well, that's still very much up in the air. This past weekend Daughter and family were over at FB's house. The kids, FB and brother were outside playing baseball. That left Daughter and her father-in-law in the house. Daughter turned to her f-i-l and asked if the plans were still on for X-mas. He told her he wasn't sure because number 4 son might not make it. His wife just recently lost a baby and didn't have any vacation time left and if she couldn't go, then number 4 son wasn't going. F-i-l then tells Daughter, well.. I don't know about number 3 son(ex-GI), FB and myself, but you'll have to find something to do with yourself for a week. This floored and hurt Daughter. This was X-mas time and families spend it together. The simple fact that f-i-l thought that FB would leave his family at X-mas, not to mention f-i-l shutting her out like that, put her in tears. It was like getting a slap in the face. She has little respect for the man, but she reminas civil because it is FB's dad and she will not disrespect the man in his own house. That's my fault. That's just something I taught them. She held her tongue and then had FB take her and the kids home and by then she was able to explain to FB, calmly, what had happened. Now Daughter, since her f-i-l lost is wife this past December, goes over there and cooks a meal for them all. She has fed him when he invites himself over for dinner. I don't know what the man is thinking, but if he keeps hurting my daughter this way, I am getting out my shovel. Where is FB in all this? Well, at least he didn't immediately jump to his father's defense, which he would have done a year ago. He's not real happy with his father at the moment. That young man shows promise.

Weather has been nice yesterday and today, two digits. We had a fire that the CDF caught quickly, thank the Lady because it wasn't all that far from us, just off the main highway. It could have easily jumped the highway and headed to us.

My creativity is a bit stalled, maybe I'm just a bit reluctant to kick in the afterburner because I'm not sure of its future just yet. I'm not sure its going to bear fruit or not. I do know I need to go back into my website and fix some links. I'm debating on whether I want to revamp the whole Camelot stories section or not. I'm thinking on working on Talisman's Journal. I'm going to miss entering the August contest for one of the writing groups I'm in. I want to fiddle around with web site designs too... this usually takes me the longest because I do my own animations for the most part and those things take some effort. There's also the Vault and the modern day genre writing I want to work on as well. Just not enough time in the day, I swear....And there's the weekly grocery shopping.. the natives are getting restless... I need a vacation *grin*

Create a good day~