July 2002, Week 5

Monday  July 29 , 2002

$7.00 for a pack of cigarettes! How can anyone justify that!

I was a hard core smoker, I started when cigarettes were (if you bought them by the carton) about $0.20 a pack .. I smoked from when I was fourteen till nineteen days before my fiftieth birthday. (It took a heart attack to get me to quit) I wonder whether or not I would have been able to knock some sense into my head without that motivation, probably not. I had tried to quit many times, tried hard. I even succeeded for about 2 years in my early 30's but went back to them with a passion after bumming just one cigarette... Cigarettes are insidious things, most addictive things are it seems. Pleasure, then craving, then need to eliminate the pain be it real or psychological it makes no difference.

I wonder how many aspects of our lives are addictions, destructive relationships and attitudes, where we live, how we live, how we treat the people we meet, all seem to be conditioned responses. Now that I think about it, it seems that everything is. We are like Pavlov's puppy in every aspect of our lives. Our likes and dislikes, our political affiliations, the foods we eat the movies we see... what would we be like if we could rid ourselves of our addictions (preconditioning) and start over, have our memories erased and have to learn all over again about the things that have given us pain and pleasure.

I have been up since 0530, Mike was up and in the shower already. That has only happened twice in the past. Christy is teaching today, Mike has school and won't be home till 1330, I have Autumn and "B", they are both asleep and it's 0900.

I will need to wake Autumn and "B" soon...

Took "B" and Autumn to Brunch at Denny's... they behaved pretty good, Autumn gets real antsy when she's bored... well... I don't think she's ever bored she sometimes finds disruptive ways to entertain herself.

I got an e-mail from my sister that contained some information on relatives from my Grandfather's 'Birthday Book'. I booted up my Genealogy Program and started to check and see if I had everything entered that she had sent me. As I was checking I thought I would try to look up my grandfather's sister, Mildred Sharp's, family one more time. I started with her daughter Loraine, She was married to Robert E. Osteen. I searched in Anywho for him and got nothing, I lopped off the 'E.', nothing, then just Osteen and there was one Osteen in Oakland, Osteen, L, I called the number and it was her... Sort of floored me, her too. We talked for about 20 minutes, I was wracking my brain to dredge up the 1001 questions that are stuffed behind the tangled synapse's and must have sounded really lame. Loraine is 80 years old, we talked about her family and I told her about mine and she wanted to know about Rachel and her kids so I told her what I know. Loraine said that her sister Phyllis had a daughter named Christine DeMott, she'd be my Second Cousin, who is doing some genealogy. Unfortunately Christine is on a vacation in Canada I will talk to her next week. I am hoping she has more information on the Allens and she said that her mother was adopted by the Hall's I would like to find out about them too.

I got a package on the Preble branch off the family from Col. Charles Preble today was productive from a genealogical perspective. I checked him out in his chart, he will be 80 in November.

Tuesday  July 30 , 2002

The bus was late picking up Mike so I called 'Transportation', they said that they were called yesterday and told that Mike was suspended till Friday, the last day of school. We had a message to call the school on VoiceMail but were not informed that he was suspended.

I called the school to find out what the hell was going on, they told me... I made an appointment at the Desert Pathways to meet with the principle and the Psychotherapist. I have also put in a call in to Dr. D. , his Kaiser Psychiatrist. Christy and I have started the process to get him into Residential Care. This has just gone too far... I want to spell out exactly what he was suspended for but I can't. Suffice to say he stepped way over the line.

Going to Kaiser to see about my sore throat. It's really sore, Doc looked at it for less than a second and wrote me a prescription, I was out of there in about two minutes. However... I was sitting in the waiting room for two hours and forty-five minutes. Waiting rooms are awful places,

Took Mike to Kaiser to see Doane... Mike was a jerk. We will try to get a follow-up appointment for Friday.

My sister Sue and her husband Ross are taking their tandem bike from Boulder to Milwaukee... I just got the itinerary from Ross, 

Route of (Those Krazy Kids) Sue & Ross Dean Bike Ride
Boulder to Milwaukee
 8/26-9/10/02+

The following towns do not represent nights on the road as we can easily bike up to 100 miles a day.  The average will be about 65 miles per day.  We hope to follow route 30 and other low travel roads and these spots are along those roads.  The goal is to enjoy and appreciate the ride, scenery, cafes, people and each other.
 

Wednesday July 31 , 2002

Christy went to teach, she forgot a book she needed so I packed up the kids and took it to her. After I took her the book I took the kids to McDonalds for breakfast, we missed the lunch cut-off but about 4 minutes.

I got a call from Dr. D. 's office, he wants to se Mike at 1600 today...

We went to Doane's office, Mike was his usual "I'm bored, and it's all their fault" self, Dr. D. is very concerned, he think we have another appointment on Friday at 1400. I wonder if we'll ever be able to get through to him. Mike was in rare form, he just I am just so,... I don't know... tired... I don't want to worry about him any more, I don't want to deal with his arrogant, rude, insensitive, threats, intimidation... none of it. Something needs to change quick...