February 00
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February 00
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Tuesday February 1, 2000 … Christy went to the Regional Center for a meeting Got my insurance check today from the accident on Christmas Eve…so I went out looking for a truck… found lots of them… they either weren’t what I wanted or cost too much… I will look again tomorrow. Wednesday February 2, 2000 …Mrs. Lea, Autumn’s teacher, paid us a home visit… it was refreshing to sit and talk to a teacher and get the feeling that our goals were the same for Autumn and that underneath the teacher façade there is a likable person. Mrs.’ Lea works in Palmdale at Yucca School and I have got to say that, with the possible exception of the School Nurse, we have had no problem there at all… everyone involved with Autumn has been super… it’s the Acton Gulag that irks me…Our recent encounters with school personnel have been adversarial and that has probably hardened us toward the profession. I wish I felt that everyone involved with "B" was as preoccupied with his well-being as we are… There are so many issues that teachers and school administrators have to be concerned with that it seems as though children are barely marking on the graph, sometimes I get the impression that children are really just in the way and that the teachers and administration would just as soon the children didn’t show up, children just get in the way and keep them from doing the really important stuff… Thursday February 3, 2000 …Busy day… Autumn has therapy with Beth again in Culver City, Autumn said “Beth” today… Autumn is so cool… it came out Ba-thhh but it was so neat… Autumn may never be able to speak well but I am encouraged by the progress she is making… she is beginning to want really want to be understood…Christy will take Mike to his therapy in Santa Clarita, then Christy has a meeting at the church after she drops Mike off at, school, and then she gets Bonnie’s twins for the rest of the afternoon. I got Autumn to school and went out looking for a truck again… found a Suburban that was just what I want to replace the van but after the
dealer got through tap dancing with his calculator taxes license, trade in on the Buick blah blah blah it was going to cost me $200 dollars over what was on the sticker… what a pain… I will look on the Net tomorrow… I went to Darlene’s Party… I sent out an e-mail to every one I thought might be interested describing the whole affair and with a link to some pictures that that I uploaded to the net at
*http://www.photoloft.com/allalbums.asp?s=cpic&u=133425 Friday February 4, 2000 … After I put Autumn on the bus I went into town and started to look at more trucks… after the second lot I went home… I’m not ready to get screwed over by another used car lot slick-o. I have had lots of negative experiences am never comfortable buying anything from a used car lot… I wish I could trust those guys… my friend Sheldon Ross told me once, you will never come out on the winning side of any deal you make at a used car lot so don’t try to beat them down… the harder you try the harder they are going to try to screw ya…. You buy a car every 3 or four years and he sells cars all day every day and he is not in business to make you a deal… he’s in business to make himself a deal…Know what you want to spend and just go home if you don’t get your price… So I am going to play on the net and see if I can find a deal from a Private Party… Saturday February 5, 2000 …Went looking for a truck with all the kids that didn’t go to church…that would be all but Calie and Cindy… found one… when Christy got home I took her down to see it… we looked at a Suburban too but it wasn’t in very good shape… the truck is a 1990 Ford F350… I know… I need a monster like that like I’d need a bulldozer for gardening… well… I know… but I want it… so that’s that… I can not think of a single situation where a Pickup truck might be required that this truck couldn’t do the job… it is a real BubbaMobile Sunday February 6, 2000 …Sister-in-law Patti came over with Grandma… I did her taxes… I got her some money back this year, not much but a little… thank goodness… thank goodness she and uncle Mike are a couple of churchgoing philanthropists. Austin spent the night with Mike… Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian. -Shari R.Barr or Dennis Wholey- Monday February 7, 2000 Lincoln’s Birthday… kids are home… Spot was shot last night… Last night at about 2300 I heard some shots… not unusual up her to hear gunshots but at 11PM it’s a little strange… I asked Christian if he had heard them he said “No”, but he was watching television and the USC Marching Band wouldn’t have penetrated his concentration… I looked outside but didn’t see anything… about 20 minutes later Christian said the cops were at the door. I went outside and talked to them… they said that the neighbors had called the cops because they had seen someone on our property shooting… I took the cops out back where the boys were sleeping on the trampoline. I asked them if they had heard shots… they said yes, 5 of them…The Cops asked, “Did you see anything?” they said they saw lights and a white car or truck. I asked “What did you hear?” they said, they heard one shot and a dog yell [yelp]. Then they saw
the car down at the bottom of our driveway and four more shots… I went looking for the dogs and found all three of them… It made me mad about the shooting but it seemed like everything was ok. At about 0900 Cindy came in and said “Spot is bleeding!” Actually she said, as only Cindy can “SPOT IS BLEEEEEEEEDING!!!!” I went out and saw that she was bleeding on her right side just behind her rib cage and about 3 inches down from her spine. I put her in the van and drove her to the vet.. The vet shaved her and we saw an entrance wound that looked like a 22, which went along with the shots I heard… a 22 is distinctive, a snapping sound, like a whip cracking. We looked for an exit wound and the vet felt around and said “What’s this?” sure as blazes there was a bullet just under the skin in the same spot on her left side They kept Spot over night… she seemed ok… no bleeding from her mouth so the lungs were probably OK… he would check her stool and keep an eye on her white blood cell count… I raced home and loaded Autumn up to take her to therapy. I took Cindy and Calie too because they wanted to go and I didn’t feel like arguing with them… Christy called the Sheriff and they sent out the local Pillsbury Dough Sheriff, that’s my name for him… he is a big guy, lives here in town, drives a Blazer, He has been our local police presence since about 3 months after Fred Fate retired in 95 (Fred Fate, great name for a cop isn’t it)… anyway… The PDS showed up and honked his horn, Christy had to go out to see him, he seemed pretty unconcerned about the whole affair but Christy was pretty tweeked so he took a report. They came up onto the property which is what pissed me off. Shooting the dog makes me really mad but coming onto my property to do it makes me want to get even a little bit. When I got Autumn back home I went Truck hunting again Tuesday February 8, 2000 Tried out three trucks…one was an obvious dud but I took two of them to T&J they had a ball ripping the first one apart … it was pretty bad. It was the F350 Crew Cab I liked… transmission chattered and the fluid was a chocolate brown, the radiator coolant was a frothy brown, the RABS Valve (Whatever that is) was shot… it was a mess. I know squat about trucks and cars, if you want to buy a PC see me… when I buy a vehicle I see a pro Second one I took to them seemed ok, All they could find wrong with it was the wiper blades…so I bought it… 1996 Ford XLT Extended Cab… I like it a lot, it drives smoothly and handles well, Overdrive light on the gear shift lever is flashing, I took it back to T&J but they didn’t know what it meant. I will call ValCo in the morning… I picked up Spot at the vet… she is doing fine Finished my taxes tonight and sent them off electronically… too cool…utterly painless Wednesday February 9, 2000 …I didn’t call ValCo, I forgot about having to take Devereaux.. Drove my new truck to Santa Barbara with Christy and "B"… sure is pretty over there. We re-evaluated "B", his situation hasn’t changed so he is back on the waiting list… we’ll see. "B" seems to be looking forward to going there… I anticipate that we will have a hard time getting him away from there… it really is pretty plush and there is so much to do there that coming home will seem pretty boring. I called ValCo and told her my story and she said I had a problem… The flashing OFF light is a warning light. She said “Take the battery cables off for five minutes and reconnect them, then take the truck for a drive… if the light comes back on you have a “Hard Code” and that’s bad… bring it in as soon as you can if it comes back on” I did what she said and I drove it for a while and the light stayed out but on the way back up the hill I punched it and the light came back on” Thursday February 10, 2000 …I took the truck in to ValCo after dropping the kids off. The head mechanic took it for a spin with the analyzer… Transmission is shot… they want $1800 to fix it, Called Fuente’s Truck Sales, He said “We let you have the truck to get it checked out… Sorry Mr. Daggett… it’s your problem” In other words, AS IS means “We see you coming sucker, watch your ass” I found a guy in San Fernando who will rebuild it for $1250.00, and give me a 1 year warrantee (ValCo won’t). I feel like a jerk and I am really angry at myself for getting taken… I intend to tell every one who will listen what a deal I got at Fuente’s… When you file electronically you have to come back after twenty four hours and check to see if your taxes were accepted… I did… they were accepted by state but not the Federal…I had put Mike down by his new name and it didn’t match the SSN so, I changed Michael Timothy Daggett to Timothy M. Rose and that seemed to fix the problem. Kids get a new SSN when they are adopted but Mike didn’t yet… they can’t find his old birth certificate or something… What do you think of the Buchanan / Dukes ticket… that ought to shake up the establishment…as for me, any party that Jesse Ventura finds to be to weird to be a part of is definitely off the list for me. Friday February 11, 2000 I drove down to San Fernando to get some papers out of my truck… makes me sick to see it disemboweled like that… I am trying not to get angry about this business but it’s tough. After I dropped Mokie and "B" off at home I took Mike to his “Break Dancing” class and then took Calie and Cindy to see the new Psychotherapist … Kathleen… she seems like a nice kid… she seems very tuned in to our situation, I don’t think she has ever encountered a family like ours… She is very earnest and though that is refreshing it is a little intimidating too, I found my self wanting to be very concise and equally earnest, oh well, that’s my problem… she is as mystified by Cindy as we all are… I took Calie with Cindy because Kathleen wanted to see her too… sort of an ambush analysis. Calie didn’t act out at all… she was her “Weird Self” on the way over and on the way back but while she was there she was fine. That tells me she has more control over her behavior than she pretends to have…. Interesting. Got a letter from our lawyer today, actually a cc of a letter responding to another letter written by a School Board Lawyer named Watt. It seems that she had received a letter from Steve Lorenze, the Principal at Agua Dulce School complaining about our behavior at the last IEP. The Watt letter admonished our lawyer to advise “Mr. & Mrs Daggett to maintain proper decorum during all business conducted at the school…” the inference being that we were rude and abusive to the Acton School representatives. Not true of course, I did get up and walk out twice but that was because I was about to become rude and abusive. The objective of this “as I see it” is to plant in the mind of the judge that we are a couple of flakes out to abuse the system… damn them damn them to the sanctimonious hell they are trying to create. Christy is sick, Autumn is sick, Christian came home from school early… sick… I hate flu season… I will try flu shots next year. I checked on my taxes again The Federal was accepted… I sent off the required follow up forms to the IRS and did the follow up for State too… the print-out said I should receive my refund check by the 22nd, next week… what a wonderful world. Saturday February 12, 2000 Not a big day…Christian had a party to go to at FunLand. We left early to get a present for his buddy Sean, When Christian got out of the car I noticed what he was wearing… he looked like a bum, His pants were clean but they belonged to Mike, his coat was filthy, no socks… I couldn’t believe it. So, along with a present I bought Christian some trousers and a shirt, since Mike and "B" were there I bought them trousers too, I went home and took a nap…I don’t feel real chipper… Sean’s parents dropped him off at the 76 Station (this is a small town, it’s OK honest) and I picked him up there. I took him with me to Costco, PetOasis for snake food, and WalMart for cat food. Sunday February 13, 2000 Autumn walked across the room tonight… the kids were playing with her in the living room and I heard them yell and scream for us to come, I walked over and she just stood up and walked about 8 feet… I didn’t know whether to cry or do back-flips. Autumn is my hero, she is just so incredible, I can’t wait to take her to Therapy West tomorrow… Beth will be flabbergasted. She spent about an hour walking and crashing and laughing herself silly. I left my damn video camera at Therapy West last week… figures… they called when they found it after they looked at the tape… it was full of Autumn… It’s been a long week… Hope next week gives us a break… My sister Leigh and a representative contingent of Bowman's will be here next Friday, we are planning to go to Magic Mountain together… so no matter what, the week should end well… 
Pictures: Left = Ski Acton Above Autumn
Valentines Day
…I took Autumn to Therapy West… Autumn said “Be-thhh” (It is best not to stand directly in front of her when she says “Beth”) and she walked about 6 feet with a big grin…so cool… Autumn is Queen of the world. Christy was feeling pretty rocky from the flu… it was not a memorable day… we just sort of got through it… I did remember Candy and flowers… about the only positive thing that happened all day Tuesday February 15, 2000 … Cindy is sick again… Christy took her to Kaiser. Took the truck in for a lube Attention Locals: The Carwash at the Auto Mall in Palmdale has a Oil Change and Lube outfit… they do a good job and you get a free carwash… So for $25.00 (I paid extra for Pennzoil) So for a dollar less than Jiffy-Lube you get the same service and a carwash… Elias, the lube guy, noticed a transmission leak Grrrr … not a big deal I hope… I will take it in to TransTech tomorrow…it appears it was overfilled… Christian had an appointment with Kathleen… I took him… If there is a medical condition called Contrary-itus he has it… what ever I say he does the opposite. I stopped at Home Depot to get a spare key made. I said “C’mon Lumpy” He said “No”, I said, “I can’t leave you in the truck” he said “I want to stay in the truck” I went in and there were 5 people in line to get keys so I left…on the way from the meeting with Kathleen I stopped back Home Depot again… just for the hell of it I said “Stay in the truck Lumpy” he said “No” and got out of the truck… what a weird kid. Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy. -F. Scott Fitzgerald I found out tonight that a friend’s husband died last week… My friend’s name is Linda and I met her a hundred years ago when I was working for Tom Hillman… I didn’t know her well or for very long, a few months, but I felt that we had a kind of kindred spirit… she was there and she was gone… her husband got promoted to a job out of Sacramento and she left… The weekend before they left I went to her house and scavenged some stuff that they didn’t want to take with them… I met her husband that day for the first time and the last time… seemed like a nice guy… he came home from work and helped me load the loot onto my truck… 1986? I don’t remember for sure. Any way I never saw them again but another friend gave her my WebPage or something about a year ago and we started swapping e-mails infrequently… I found out from her that her husband was sick and that he had
an illness he wasn’t going to walk away from. He and Linda just kept on plugging along.. he withstood all the treatments and kept on working, They bought a motorhome, she planned and executed trips to visit friends and relatives… Why I am putting all this down? I want to remember… I believe they are a heroic couple. They confronted a problem head on and made the absolute best of a overwhelming situation. I have seen people just roll over and get crushed by circumstances far less devastating than what they went through… heroism is about persevering… surviving… about getting up off the canvass one more time no matter what. I am not worried about Linda… she is a strong woman and possesses a will of steel. She will finish raising their son and then go out and kick the world in the ass. What I am wondering is whether I would have been as strong were I put in the same boat…I hope so… but I wonder. Wednesday February 16, 2000 …Took the truck to TransTech to get the transmission checked out… Carlos (The owner) said it was fine… the “fluid” that they saw at the lube shop was a red grease like substance that they call “assembly compound”… and, they over fill the transmissions on Fords on purpose… He said that where they were designed, in Michigan, putting in the recommended amount of fluid is fine because it’s flat. Here in California with the mountains the extra long pan on the Ford transmission allows the fluid to collect at one end or another and the fluid isn’t pumped into the works properly… sounds reasonable… he says that he gets Ford Transmissions in at about 100k miles but once he rebuilds them he doesn’t get them back… Thursday February 17, 2000 … Cindy didn’t go to school today, she was sick…. Christian has been off all medication for a month… he has been virtually uncontrollable and explosive… Dr. D. asked if we needed to put him back on some medication… I said “PLEASE!… either medicate him or take him home with you.” Mike seems to be pretty well under control, chemically, Mike needs regular therapy though… we will try to get him hooked up with Kathleen… Marina (The Russian) informed Christy that she is going to kick him loose… Interesting… so much for County Mental Health… I’m not sure he was getting much out of it… Marina has provided us with some refined insight into his psyche but that’s about it… Friday February 18, 2000
… “A ‘Scam’ is when you kiss with your tongue” Quote from Michael
“Fount of all
knowledge”
T. Daggett…. He
is so funny… I picked up all the medicine Dr. D. prescribed at Kaiser… eight more bottles… we have quite a pharmacy here… I stopped at Albertsons on the way home… pretty much a “do nothing” day… Autumn had no school today so Christy and I played with her for a while… she is walking up a storm… she is almost as proud of herself as we are… she is a tough little bugger… when I think about what she has been through in her short life it kind of takes my breath away… Saturday February 19, 2000 Christy took Cindy, Calie and Autumn to church and I took the rest to Wal-Mart to shop for birthday presents… Cindy and Mike are invited to a birthday at one of their classmates… Calie was a little dervish when she came home from communing with God… she was a terror. Mike had selected a ball to give to give as a birthday present… Calie wanted it… wouldn’t take “No” for an answer… Well, all great plans are subject to the whims of nature… My sister didn’t get out of Boston till this afternoon because of the blizzard… she was supposed to have left yesterday… My brother-in-law was trapped in Minneapolis and won’t get to town till midnight and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow… so much for Magic Mountain. Christy took Autumn and Calie to Riverside for a visit, I took Cindy and Mike to a birthday party. Which meant, I had to take the other three out to dinner… and since Christy has inflicted us with vegetarianism I haven’t had a steak in months… so I decided to go to Sizzler’s… I can only plead temporary insanity… I can’t take these particular kids to a regular restaurant so I said to myself “Sizzler is geared to kids… it’ll be OK” Well. In that respect I was right… I forgot about the food… it’s awful … I don’t know where they get those little steaks they serve… probably Roadkill imported from Montana … the place was packed… the kids were bouncing off the walls… Mokie and Christian are ADHD and they hadn’t had their medicine (My fault)… I had an image of myself playing that game at Chuck E. Cheese where the object is to take a big
mallet and bop the prairie-dogs on the head when they pop them up, the more you hit the more tickets you get… well, Christian and Mokie were crawling under the table…they took the flowers out of the vase and threw them at each other, kicking each other, giggling at the incredibly obese couple at the next table…"B" wanted to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes (I have no idea what the attraction was…) I was afraid to leave the other two alone long enough to check…Even with all that, they were actually not too bad by my standards (baring in mind my standards are considerably lower than most) but by the time we left the people in the our vicinity were noticeably glad to see us go… It’s now 2100, I have picked up Mike and Cindy from the birthday party and called Christy in Riverside… she is watching a movie… “Deep Impact” I asked if it was a Porno Movie… she said “No” but I got a laugh…it’s a 90 minute drive so I won’t be seeing her before 2300. Sunday February 20, 2000 …Yesterday is a vague memory… I got to talk to Leigh on the cell phone while I was on the way to Lancaster to pick up some Phenobarbital for Autumn and she was on the 101 en route to Ojai… their whole itinerary was screwed up by the blizzard back East…they have to get back on their schedule so Magic Mountain is out the window… it was cold and raining so it would have been a no-go anyway. I checked the mileage on the truck… not good Monday February 21, 2000 … Calie woke up and saw snow on the ground and decided everyone in the house needed to know… I heard voices and realized they were coming from out doors… it was Calie, Mike, Christian and Mokie… did I mention it was 0530… Damn… it’s a good thing we don’t have neighbors close by… Well we did get snow… it melted by 0800… there is still snow on the hills behind us and a possibility it will snow again tonight. I took the truck in to T&J and they found a clogged fuel filter… it seems to run a little better… probably my imagination… hope the mileage improves. Tuesday February 22, 2000 …I started working in Calie’s room again…between her and Autumn there are enough cloths to outfit a small country. We decided that Cindy needed to be by herself… so we moved Mokie into Calie and Autumn’s room. "B" came home sick, he complained of an upset stomach and dizziness but "B" being "B" I didn’t believe him he was fine last night, he has PE today (He hates PE) I figured he was just crying wolf again… I checked his temperature and he was fine… the nurse called about 0930 and said he had been asleep for an hour complaining of an upset stomach and dizziness… we said fine we would be down to pick him up … the nurse called back and said he was vomiting so I guess he really had the flu, he has a slight fever… it is now 2000… he is fine… he is playing with the kids and watching TV… He still may be scamming us; he has induced vomiting before to get out of PE. He is fighting with Cindy at the moment… Wednesday February 23, 2000 …It started raining about 10:00 it is now 14:30 and the weather is still miserable… there is actually snow on the ground… barely an inch of slush actually… it was snowing so hard I couldn’t see the water-tank… We went to get the kids early… no… not because of the snow…because of the water run-off… the roads are about gone now and they aren’t getting better… the rut in the road in front of the OldFart’s house is about 2 feet deep, you can get by but you have to straddle it… the ruts from the Edison-cut and where the High road meats the low road are bad but they only cut off half the road… you can still get by on the high side… The weather is supposed to clear up by tomorrow… I will try to get the tractor started when I get back from seeing the bone Doctor. I was planning to take Jan, Autumns Aide down to see Beth at Therapy West I was really looking forward to it, I think getting Jan down to see Autumn’s therapy session is a real positive move… it was my idea, I think Autumn will really respond…and I wanted to be there to see if it works… but my Dr’s appointment blows that… Christy will follow through for me but Mike will miss his session with Marina… too bad… I wanted to cover some stuff there too. Christy and I had our meeting with Kathleen, the Psychotherapist. She is very concerned about our coping skills… and concerned about the safety of the kids… we are too… The last thing we need is another DCFS investigation. If we could only teach the kids to be aware of how tenuous our situation is. The school is after our butt, I am beginning to think Christy’s paranoia in that area is justified… we are getting minimal support from the agencies that are supposed to be on our side… we are at our emotional wit’s end trying to hold this whole crazy hodgepodge together. Some days it takes just about every ounce of strength we have, emotionally and physically, just to make it from dawn til dusk. Thursday February 24, 2000 …I am getting old… I had several neat ideas and thought I would write them down, as I opened Word and jumped to this file and scrolled down to this thought I swear at least three ideas abandoned ship… it is sad… I went to see the bone doctor today… he opened up my chart and said “You need an operation I see” “I think that has been obvious since Thanksgiving.” I replied… he said “But now we know where to cut” It turns out, I do not have a torn rotator cuff I have two problems, arthritis in the joint where the Clavicle and Scapula come together and the arthritis on the underside of my clavicle has diminished the area the top of the humorous bone has to move in the joint (irritating the rotator cuff) The other problem is a tendon (or Ligament) that has become unattached from the top of the humorous bone… so he is going to give me a “2-fer” operation… He will remove some of the bone from the underside of my clavicle so the top of the humorous bone has room to move in the socket same to the Clavicle/Scapula joint… and he will put a fishhook shaped pin in the humorous bone to re attach the tendon. I have another meeting with him a week prior to the operation to explain in graphic detail what he is going to do… it is the PC thing to do now-a-days… yuch... I really don't
want to know, I will send Christy... she likes to know that sort of stuff... for me the less I know the better... the shaving off the bone business seems like real pain... literally and figuratively. The bad news items are:
The good news is, after three months I should be able shake hands, type, dress myself, and pick up Autumn again without grimacing in pain. I had lunch with Laslo Eisele at Denny’s (Where else, I think he spends about 8 hours a day there). Laslo will be 62 next month… he still goes dirt bike riding… he’s quite a character… He escaped from Hungary during the revolution… well he got drunk with a bunch of Hungarian buddies and ended up in Germany… found his way to Boston then Los Angeles, had both legs amputated below the knee in about 1968… long story I could do four or five pages on shared exploits… it was good to talk to him again. Mokie’s other front tooth finally came out. It’s amazing how, with only the symmetry of two missing teeth, she can go from looking like a cute gargoyle to just plain looking cute. "B" kicked his speech teacher today. He called her a “Liar” and a “F***er”. He told us she grabbed him by the neck and pulled him away from the computer (Further interrogation by Christy revealed that this was a lie) But the school has everything under control so we have nothing to worry about. Another unrelated incident: They are going to start a Cheerleading/Pep Squad club at Acton school, they brought the cheerleaders from the High School down to put on a show, they built a pyramid and the top girl fell, the teacher in charge was not concerned but another lady observing the accident noticed the girl was holding her arm and seemed to be quite pale… She took her into a building and asked the girl to let her see the arm, she wouldn’t, but she was also quite obviously going into shock so the lady insisted… when the girl let go of her arm, the muscles contracted and it snapped awkwardly up and behind her head, it was quite obviously broken. She called 911, when the paramedics got there they called an ambulance one of the school administrators insisted that the paramedic get verbal conformation that the parents would pay for the ambulance before she would
permit the ambulance to leave…I would have gone absolutely bananas… if that girls father doesn’t go down to the school and kick some ass I will be surprised. Friday February 25, 2000 …IEP for Monica today, she is a little behind the other kids… she isn’t ‘Tail-end Charley” but close… She has made a lot of progress since the beginning of the year… the Doctor started her on Ritalin at the end of September and she has really responded well to it… the teacher, Mrs. Scott, is really impressed with the transformation… She can color, she can listen to a story, she can focus on projects… she is behind in reading and in math but she has made significant progress since September… Christy and I are going to try to tutor her… She is so self conscious that the prospect of holding her back a grade is virtually not an option. We’d have to send her to another school or tranquilize her. Saturday February 26, 2000 …I cleaned the living room and dining room yesterday and the kitchen this morning. I took Mike and Calie and went out and bought a shed, at least I think I did. It would cost me as much or more to build one myself. The lady minding the shed store for her husband is kind of odd, “a little bit country” This place doesn’t like checks, they don’t have a bank, my bank is Credit Union based in Pasadena, the way she looked at me it might as well been on Pluto. I am really getting tired of people assuming I’m a criminal. She wanted to know where the shed would be placed and I gave her a description of the spot but she seemed dubious… I saw a PC in the living room and asked if it were on the Internet, I told her I could print her out a map to the place in about 3 minutes, She said “I won’t touch that thing, it belongs to my husband” The way she said it made it sound like the
gateway to Hell… I didn’t want to touch it either. She suggested that her husband and her come up to assure themselves it would fit and that we meet at the 76 Station, I said “Sure, give me a call when you get there and I will go down and escort you up”. She said Ohhh I have bad luck with phones It probably won’t work, we’ll just be there at 10:30… we’ll wait… No bank, afraid of phones, a real Ludite… I am thinking of driving back over there and asking for my check back…just thinking… probably won’t… Went shopping at Costco for people food, went to Arby’s for lunch… I got addicted to Arby’s when I worked across the street from one in El Monte for 12 years… and PetSmart for snake and fish food, went home picked up "B" and went out looking at skateboards for Mike. Watches Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell Concert”… Impressive performer… He is really Big Time in England… good Went to a site created by a young woman named Wren
"http://www.thejunkbox.com"/ I started reading in Notebooks/ Party Favors/ What I think should be learned from the College Experience I got to the end and she summed up her observations with:
In the end, I can only offer one feeble analogy. Going to college is like cooking a stew: nothing SHOULD be learned from the experience, anything CAN be learned from the experience, and in reality what IS learned is that you get out of it as much stuff as you put in. If you manage to learn any of the things I've described above, you didn't pay for them with your tuition money. And I was hooked for about an hour I lost myself in what she had to say about life and the world … I am often struck by how perceptive other people are. I was reminded by her insight and eloquence of my sister Leigh and her big sister Susan… both of them knew the World better than I before they were out of College…by that I think I mean that they could deal with the world better than I, they know who they are, they set and met goals, had realistic expectations I am 56 and still have a hard time pointing at my place in the world. Each time I think I have a glimmer what the world is all about the Fates play “Blind Man’s Bluff” with me again and I am floundering in insecurities again.
I wrote about this before so you know it is a mystery to me how other people can be so smart about what is right and wrong… other people “KNOW” stuff… Like who the best man for President is… what should be done with Illegal Aliens, what we should do about welfare, who should get a kidney and who should die, how to buy a Pickup Truck with a good transmission…
Sunday February 27, 2000Well, Mr & Mrs. Ludite made it up in their 1968 Chevy PU Truck to look at where I wanted the shed… He stood at the edge of the driveway and held up his hands and measured by moving his body from side to side and squinting… He squinted at my RR Ties and said I had to move them, He squinted at the motorhome and said I had to move it, He squinted at the eave on the house jutted out too much… when he was done telling me what I had to do… I asked him to give me my check back… he did… I will build my own shed… Karen and Blaine came over so I could do their taxes… we had a nice visit I had taped “Lake Placid” the night before last and Christy, Karen and the kids watched that (Betty White makes it worth watching) while Blaine and I did taxes…and Christy made dinner…
Blaine will be 62 in August…I wish he would take better care of himself… He’s a retired telephone guy like me… I don’t care for his hardnosed politics but otherwise he is about the easiest member of Christy’s extended family for me to get along with…
In The End We Will Conserve Only What We Love,
We Will Love Only What We Understand,
We Will Understand Only What We Are Taught
- Baba Divum-
Monday February 28, 2000… I listened to Prarie Home Companion today, I heard a song by about a young woman and a girl who both had cerebral palsy. There was an part about the older woman gliding down the sidewalk in her wheelchair, holding the girl who was “dancing in her lap” and shouting out with joy at being alive. I watch Autumn walk with a huge smile and laughing with absolute unbridled joy, she knows that the real truth is that there is nothing in the world more glorious in life than being able to walk across the room. When is the last time I felt like that… I have no idea… Like in the song, it made me realize how small my world has become. We see miracles every day and don’t know it… some times the smallest can be the greatest of all. “Been watching the days of my life rolling by, taking for granted each precious one.” “We spend our lives seeing only what we want to see and never think of ourselves as blind.” “We spend our lives being what others want us to be but never see ourselves as crippled or contrived.” Why can’t I think of lines like that… my curse is that I am a born plagiarist, an embellisher of other peoples thoughts… I have an occasional flash of wit but I can’t seem to sustain it… We took Autumn into Lancaster so VIP could adjust her braces… again… Christy went to get something from Bonnie and I took Autumn home and then we went down to Therapy West… I showed Beth the braces and she just shook her head… they are still screwed up… I called Christy and asked her to call Dr. Apel The Orthopedic Dr. at Kaiser and see if we can find someone who can do the job right… Beth mentioned that a Orthopedist from “Cascade”, a company in Washington that makes braces, would be flying down to evaluate some of Therapy West’s patients… I said I would like to talk to him and she said I could bring Autumn in tomorrow… she made an appointment with him for 1330. Tuesday February 29, 2000 …I took Autumn to Therapy West for her appointment with the Orthopedist… He was late so I sat with Tam, one of the owners of the place. We got to talking and she showed me a brace that the Cascade company made… compared to what Autumn is wearing these are Space Age… it was like comparing a rock to a hand-grenade… I am really pissed now… I thought Kaiser was giving us what she needed… we have been to VIP four times and they are still not right… Her foot was not cast properly her foot should have been held in the optimum position but instead it as cast in the pronated position (collapsed inward) so when the braces were made she was in effect wearing braces that held her foot in the very position they were supposed to correct… Christy wants to shake the place up a little… the kids are disrespectful and unappreciative, they think they can do just about anything they want to do… she wants to lock up the TV’s and video games, take the radio’s out of their rooms and make them earn them back with good behavior… worth a try I guess…
Feeling a little uninspired this week… so here are some jokes I found amusing
If you get an envelope from a company called the Internal Revenue Service," DO NOT OPEN IT! The money the IRS collects is used to fund various inefficient and pointless social engineering projects and favorite pork-barrel projects like studying sneezing and the swimming habits of insects.. This organization has ties to another shady outfit called the Social Security Administration, who claim to take money from your regular paychecks and save it for your retirement. In truth, the SSA uses the money to pay for the same misguided make-work projects the IRS helps mastermind. These scam artists have bilked honest, hard working Americans out of billions of dollars. Don't be among them! Simply send that letter back marked, "Return to Sender". If they inquire by phone, please don't use my name; I'm shy and modest about receiving the credit. Worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere. -Dorothy Galyean
A man went to visit his 90-year old grandfather, and while eating the breakfast of eggs and bacon prepared for him, he noticed a film-like substance on his plate. So he says, "Grandfather, are these plates clean?" His grandfather replies, "Those plates are as clean as coldwater can get them." That afternoon, while eating the hamburgers his grandfather made for lunch, he noticed many little black specks around the edge of his plate, so again he asked, "Grandfather are you sure these plates are clean"? Without looking up from his burger, the grandfather says, "I told you, those dishes are as clean as coldwater can get them, now don't ask me about it anymore." Later that day as he was leaving the house, the grandfather's dog, which was lying in the doorway, started to growl and would not let him pass. "Grandfather, your dog won't let me out." Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching, his grandfather shouted, "Coldwater, get out of the way!" Harry Potter "My god! What happened to you?" the bartender asked Kelly as he hobbled in on a crutch, one arm in a cast. "I got in a tiff with Riley." "Riley? He's just a wee fellow," the barkeep said, surprised. "He must have had something in his hand." "Aye ... that he did," Kelly said. "A shovel it was." "Dear Lord! didn't you have anything in YOUR hand?" "Aye, that I did -- Mrs. Riley's breast." Kelly said. "And a beautiful thing it was but not much use in a fight!"
The scene was a tiny mountain village in a remote section of West Virginia. An old mountaineer and his young wife were getting a divorce in the local court. But custody of the children was a problem. The old mountaineer also wanted custody of the children. The judge asked for his side of the story and, after a long moment of silence, the mountaineer slowly rose from his chair and said, "Judge, when I put a quarter in a candy machine and a candy bar comes out, does it belong to me or the machine?"
Forwards Lost in Cyberspace... (This may be a re-run) Whoever decided to create this note and forward it on should receive some type of humanitarian award. 1. Big companies don't do business via chain letters. Bill Gates is not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation. There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. Procter and Gamble is not part of a satanic cult or scheme, and its logo is not satanic. MTV will not give you backstage passes if you forward something to the most people. You can relax; there is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true". Furthermore, just because someone said in a message, four generations back, that "we checked it out and it's legit", does not actually make it true. 2. There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it happened to their cousin. If you are hell-bent on believing the kidney-theft ring stories, see http://urbanlegends.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa062997.htm And I quote: "The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward and tell their stories. None have." That's "none" as in "zero". Not even your friend's cousin. 3. Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if they do, we all have it. And even if you don't, you can get a copy at: http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html Then, if you make the recipe, decide the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on. 4. If the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY think this information would reach the public via an AOL chain letter? 5. There is no "Good Times" virus. In fact, you should never, ever, ever forward any e-mail containing any virus warning unless you first confirm that an actual site of an actual company that actually deals with viruses. Try: http://www.norton.com. And even then, don't forward it. We don't care. And you cannot get a virus from a flashing IM or email, you have to download....ya know, like, a FILE! 6. There is no gang initiation plot to murder any motorist who flashes headlights at another car driving at night without lights. 7. If you're not using Outlook, IE, or Netscape to write and read E-Mail… Why not?." Those of you on Unix shells, Juno, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, and all the other “Free E-Mail” that can't read HTML please don’t complain, we use it because it’s expressive… and we like it… please remember… you get what you pay for…. 8. If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation message from a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight miles of headers showing everyone else who's received it over the last 6 months. It sure wouldn't hurt to get rid of all the ">" that begin each line either. Besides, if it has gone around that many times we've probably already seen it. 9. Craig Shergold (or Sherwood, or Sherman, etc.) in England is not dying of cancer or anything else at this time and would like everyone to stop sending him their business cards. He apparently is no longer a "little boy" either. 10. The "Make a Wish" foundation is a real organization doing fine work, but they have had to establish a special toll free hot line in response to the large number of Internet hoaxes using their good name and reputation. It is distracting them from the important work they do. 11. If you are one of those insufferable idiots who forwards anything that "promises" something bad will happen if you "don't," then something bad will happen to you if I ever meet you in a dark alley. 12. Women really are suffering in Afghanistan, and PBS and NEA funding are still vulnerable to attack (although not at the present time) but forwarding an e-mail won't help either cause in the least. If you want to help, contact your local legislative representative, or get In touch with Amnesty International or the Red Cross. As a general rule, e-mail "signatures" are easily faked and mean nothing to anyone with any power to do anything about whatever the competition is complaining about. (P.S.: There is no bill pending before Congress that will allow long distance companies to charge you for using the Internet.) Bottom Line... composing e-mail or posting something on the Net is as easy as writing on the walls of a public restroom. Don't automatically believe it until it's proven false... ASSUME it's false, unless there is proof that it's true. Now forward this to everyone you know or the program I just put on your Hard drive while you read this E-mail will open up your CD-ROM and reach out and slap you upside the head!
Banking and Investing While the US stock market is at an all time high, the ups and downs frighten a lot of small investors like me. I went to my financial advisor at the bank and ask if he were worried. He replied that he slept like a baby. I was amazed and asked,"Really ??? Even with all the fluctuations ?" He said, "Yes. I sleep for a couple of hours, then wake up and cry for a couple of hours."
The food that you get in art museums is institutional revenge for the art that you get in restaurants.
The soldier serving overseas and far from home was annoyed and upset when his girl wrote breaking off their engagement and asking for her photograph back. He went out and collected from his friends all the unwanted photographs of women that he could find, bundled them all together and sent them to her with a note stating the following: "Regret can not remember which one is you ... please keep your photo and return the others."
….Hoaxes…. Bananas with flesh-eating bacteria: http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanfulltexttopics.cfm?ID=26917&storytype=DeanTopics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ KFC not using real chickens: http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanfulltexttopics.cfm?ID=25414&storytype=DeanTopics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Antiperspirant causing cancer: http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanfulltexttopics.cfm?ID=23239&storytype=DeanQuestions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Government going to tax internet usage: http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/weekly/aa012099.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tax on Email: http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/blemtax2.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Duck hunting, a jeep, and a dog, and dynamite: http://www.snopes.com/critters/cruelty/dynamite.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A D U L T S ~ ~ ~ ~ ONLY ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Adults] Thieves break into sperm bank and eat semen believing it's pudding: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/stooopid/sperm.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Adults] Woman has sex using lobster tail. Gives birth to shrimp: http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/bllobster.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR
When I was younger, I remember receiving the inevitable homework assignment to write an essay on "something I am thankful for". Then I'd spend a lot of time sitting in my room trying to figure out just what in the world that could possibly be; and I'd end up writing down everything I could think of from God to environmental consciousness. But after having children, my priorities have clearly changed: BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful to have been born the USA, the most powerful free democracy in the world. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful for Velcro tennis shoes. As well as saving valuable time, now I can hear the sound of my son taking off his shoes -- which gives me three extra seconds to activate the safety locks on the back seat windows right before he hurls them out of the car and onto the freeway. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for the recycling program which will preserve our natural resources and prevent the overloading of landfills. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful for swim diapers because every time my son wanders into water in plain disposables, he ends up wearing a blimp the size of, say, New Jersey, on his bottom. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for fresh, organic vegetables. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful for microwaveable macaroni and cheese -- without which my children would be surviving on about three bites of cereal and their own spit. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for the opportunity to obtain a college education and have a higher quality of life than my ancestors. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful to finish a complete thought without being interrupted. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for holistic medicine and natural herbs. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful for pediatric cough syrup guaranteed to "cause drowsiness" in young children BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for all of the teachers who had taught, encouraged and nurtured me throughout my formative years. AFTER CHILDREN: I am thankful for all of the people at Weight Watchers who let me strip down to pantyhose and a strategically placed scarf before getting on the scale each week. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for the opportunity to vacation in exotic foreign countries so I could experience a different way of life in a new culture. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful to have time to make it all the way down the driveway to get the mail. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for the Moosewood Vegetarian cookbook. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful for the Butterball turkey hotline. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for a warm, cozy home to share with my loved ones. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful for the lock on the bathroom door. BEFORE CHILDREN: I was thankful for material objects like custom furniture, a nice car, and trendy clothes. AFTER CHILDREN : I am thankful when the baby spits up and misses my good shoes.
SOMEDAY
SOMEDAY, The memo pad on my refrigerator door will read, "Afternoon at hairdresser," or, "Browse through art gallery,"or, "Start golf lessons," instead of, "Pediatrician at 2:00," or, "Cub Pack Meeting. SOMEDAY, when the kids are grown, the house will be free of graffiti. There will be no crayoned smiley faces on the walls, no names scrawled in furniture dust, no pictures fingered on steamy windows, and no initials etched in bars of soap.
and calm....
And then I'll spend my time, not looking forward to SOMEDAY, but looking back at YESTERDAY. |
