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Everything that irritates us
about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
Carl Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961)
Monday June 10 , 2002
Today was relatively unproductive, relative to most other days where I am
totally unproductive.
Christy is teaching in the mornings.
Calie and I went to WalMart and bought some necessities...
I
told the girls I would take them to see 'Spirit... ' today, Mike and Christian
wanted to come too and I told them I took them yesterday but they said they would
ay their own way so I let them come. Spirit was a pretty good movie for kids, it
had about as much dramatic tension as a Saturday Morning cowboy movie of fifty
years ago, nothing wrong with that, the kids liked it a lot. That's fine...
Got
a letter in the mail that Cindy was 'declined' as a client of the Regional
Center. Christy will do battle with that unsuspecting dragon tomorrow, I will
contact Amy Kress tomorrow and Jeff Tome
Tuesday June 11 ,
2002
Nothing fixes a thing so
intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
Michel de Montaigne, essayist
(1533-1592)
(Unfortunately the opposite is also
true; Pete)
 Calie
and I went to see the play Mokie's class was putting on. I took a picture of her
before the play started and waited for her to get on stage, she made a point of
sitting way in the back with all the rest of the 'Villagers' so I couldn't take
any more pictures. After the play started I went around back to the stage door
and was right behind her. She thought that was pretty funny. I have no real idea
what the play was about, some sort of African Fable about a spider that tells
stories. The kids were really into the production but one aspect of having 8
year olds memorize stuff is that they recite it back in a monotone just as fast
as they possibly can... most of the dialogue sounds like buzzing in the
background, especially without microphones
Christy and I met at Acton School for "B"'s 'Transitional' IEP he will be in
Junior High next year, he has trepidations about this
move. He says "I am afraid of looking foolish." I left the IEP early to pick up
Cindy and got back to the school just as the meeting was letting out, I left
Cindy with Christy and went to get the other three kids. When I got home Calie
came running down the hill yelling
"Mommy had an accident!". Apparently
as she was passing under the freeway a lady on her way to pick up her kids
pulled off the freeway. She came to a stop and pulled out right in front of
Christy... K-E-E-E-E-E-RUNCH. The car is wrecked... We took it in to the body
shop that our insurance recommended, it will cost $2800 to get it fixed and
after looking up it's value in 'KBB.com' (Kelly Blue-Book) that's about $400
more than the car is worth. Looks like the 'Ole Bucking Fuick' has seen it's
last days... I will know for sure tomorrow.
...Mike 'needed' to burn a CD of his cRAP music so since my R/W CD-ROM is faster Christy's he used my PC.
In the process he knocked over my trashcan and left it, shut down all the
programs I had running and in the process, because he is too stupid/lazy to read
he answered "No" to all the "Do you want to save your work" questions and blew
away what I had written today... it was 'taking too much time to shut down.' he
says'. Damn!@!!!! I am a slow typist, I am trying to remember what I had
written. It's hard to concentrate when I am irked
I
went down to the Community Center and signed up Mike, Christian, Calie and Mokie
up for Soccer... There goes the Fall Weekends...
Wednesday June 12 ,
2002
...
We have an IEP for Autumn at 1300.
The folks that come to check on our
water system called and 'told' me that they would be here between 12 and 1600...
I told her that that's fine, I will be here between 11:00 and 12:15 and from
1530 till 18:00... Oh well.
Ha
came at about 1400, we were at the IEP, Sandy was here to supervise, everything
is A-OK.. the IEP went well, Autumn will be held back in the 1st Grade. She will
continue with a full time aide, we will be working to get her a 'communication
device'. Mrs. Gondar (The Principal) will be retiring, this is her last
semester. I like her, I have had run-in's with her over the years and been
pretty mad at times but she has been fair and has always been willing to discuss
our problems and iron things out. Everyone is very interested in who will take
her place.
Just a word or two about the quotes I put here, I have been informed that there
is at least one of you who finds them superfluous at best. Out of context,
undocumented, I will use his words;
"To present a quote without comment
... does nothing for me because I do not know where and how it was said."
I should probably reply directly to
him but I feel compelled to see if anyone else feels the same way... I like the
quotes, I think that the quotes I choose stand on their own, as a matter of fact I think that adding my comments will
detract from their meaning and diminish their impact. I occasionally do try
match quotes with the general theme of the day but for the most part I just plug
them in because they struck a chord in me somewhere...
I
had intended to write a letter to
my cousin,
Martha Bancroft, she is Jack's sister, the daughter of my Aunt Dorothy and
Douglas Johnston. I decided to look her up in AnyWho and sure enough he phone
number popped up on the third try... so I called her instead, I don't think I
have ever spoken to her before... Martha is retiring after 30+ years of
teaching, going to go visit her daughter outside Paris, France (Not Paris
California unfortunately for me) Martha has boxes of her mother's genealogy
research stowed away at her church. If I lived near by her I would be over there
tomorrow but unfortunately she lives in Newton, Massachusetts. She promised to
dig through all that stuff and send me what she can...I wish I knew what she had
so I would know what to ask for.
Thursday June 13 ,
2002
...As
I was writing into my Journal last night we got word that Christy’s Uncle Bob
died while being transported from one room to another in a hospital in Georgia…
he was near his eightieth birthday…anyway, with all the phone calls and e-mail I
got distracted and
published this page before I had finished writing the entry for yesterday.
Cindy's award ceremony was at 0815,
Mikes Graduation 1030 in Quartz Hill, that is a crazy place... I made it to
Cindy's award ceremony just as she was leaving from the front of the stage... I
took her picture and made sure that she saw that I was there...
 Mike's graduation was pretty austere by comparison. They tried to make a
production of it but it was pretty lame, the principal introduced the wrong
people, she seemed very stressed. there were only seven people graduating and
she had misplaced three of the graduation certificates... There are some sick
puppies in mikes class, one kid is a time bomb, died his blonde hair black,
wears black cloths. leather wristbands with spikes covering a tattoo of a
swastika, stood apart from the rest of the class, wouldn't take his diploma,
damn, if this kid isn't setting off alarms some where society has a real
problem. I left there as soon as I could. I don't want Mike there but there is
no place else that can handle him.
Mikes school is being taken over by the school district, all the teachers have
been let go except one, the therapist are being retained but that's it.
Got word that the Bucking Fuick is a write off, it's still a functioning vehicle
but the front end bodywork is trashed... the rule of thumb for insurance
companies is that if the cost of repairing the vehicle is over 80% of the
trade-in/resale value then it's a write-off. Looks like we need to get a new
vehicle... bummer, I was hoping we could wait a year... oh well.
Christy was feeling pretty sore so she went to Kaiser, there are no broken bones
but she has some deep bruises and muscle strain... Cindy seems none the worse
for wear.
 The Water Guy came out today, the reason we haven't been using a lot of salt is
that there was a 'salt bridge' in the tank holding the salt off the bottom so no
salt was being used... bummer...
I went to the ROF tonight, I didn't expect anyone to show up and I wasn't
disappointed
Friday June 14 , 2002
...Christy and I went looking for
cars, we found a couple in our price-range but didn't get anything, I think
we'll wait till we hear from Allstate, Mercury is going through the motions to
get a check out to us... they are pretty good, I went through this when I
totaled the Pontiac in '99...
I went out to see 'Bourne Identity'
It will do well with word of mouth advertising, it's that good, I really enjoyed
it a lot. Unconventional casting, gripping scenario, fine acting, Matt Damon is
great and so is the female lead,
Franka Potente,
not your typical leading lady. I like to read the reviews after I
watch a movie, I read four, three agreed with me and one, by Roger Ebert, was
really weird, like he didn't watch the same movie I did... he gave it a 'B' and
then trashed it... I wonder why?
Mike went to his friend Thomas's house... he is going to a heavy metal band
concert in Lancaster...this will be interesting.
Saturday June 15 ,
2002
 ...Mike never got to the concert...
awwwww poor baby... (Wheeeww! I was concerned) I picked him up at 1130 and took
him to Kaiser, he had an appointment with the urologist, nothing icky, he just
needed something checked out... He's fine. Landis Kent had called at 0730 to ask
if Mike could come up to the jobsite he's working on to do a little pick and
shovel work... I said sure... I told Mike he had a job working for Landis and he
seemed to be genuinely pleased... I took him up there and he worked his butt
off... that's very cool, I deem that to be a positive sign. It's impossible to
see but that's Mike about 10 yards down the hill, there was a section about 5'
long that Landis couldn't reach with his backhoe. Almost as hard as granite
shovel wouldn't dent it, I went to town to buy him a pick.
NPR is running a Pledge Drive so I
missed about 30% of Prairie Home Companion. The thing about donating to Public
Radio is that once you have paid the blood money they still keep on with their
inane, insulting, lame, diatribes against all the deadbeats who listen without
paying...
Sunday June 16 , 2002
Father's Day
 ..
I got a really neat shirt from Autumn, I got some neat pictures from Monica and
some books Christy bought from the others. I got up at 0600 and got Mike going,
he has another job with Landis, I dropped him off at the 76 with Landis. I think
I have him booked for next weekend too, taking down a tree...
Christy found Mikes medicine sitting on the table at about 10:00 I took the bike
over to the job-site and gave his medicine to him.
Christy went out shopping... with
Calie.
I am reading the motocross race
'live' at CycleNews's site, called
Virtual Grandstand...
I like it. It takes all the suspense out of watching the taped replay next
Saturday but, on the other hand, now I will know what to watch for...
I
took Mike down to buy his guitar, his money.
Watched Tiger Woods off and on all day, he is a pretty cool customer on and off
the golf course.
We went out to dinner, all nine of us, what a humiliating joke that was. Christy
tried to make it a Happy Father's Day, she offered to cook a roast, or steaks or
anything but I insisted we go out to eat, what a delusional idiot I am. I
thought they could hold it together for forty minutes, no way, not even two. We
went to 'The Pizza Place' They have a separate room for parties, I prayed it
wasn't being used, and I got lucky. There is no way this bunch can dine with
civilized people... "B" and Mike are incurable trouble makers, they can't seem
to help themselves. They tipped over a pitcher of ice, dropped a pizza, took off
for the bathroom together, bugged us for quarters to by crap out of the
machines, poked and prodded one another, they crowned the dining experience by
going outside and throwing a ball against a car and setting off the alarm... I
swore I wouldn't take them out again but I had to try one more time. Now, Calie
was sweet, she tried to keep everybody in the 'Party' mode but she never stood a
chance. Cindy went through the other part of the restaurant on the way back from
the bathroom singing... Cindy has all the social graces of a two year old. Autie
wasn't a problem for me, I expect her to be a little disruptive... but the rest
of them... damn.
0830; I looked up and saw fire trucks racing around out front, I went out and
looked around for a fire and saw about eight trucks. I figured there was a heart
attack until I saw all the trucks... I jumped in the car and finally got a
fireman to talk to me, he was pissed, wanted to know if I called them... I said;
"No"... apparently someone called in to report a house on fire... they looked
sort of comical racing up and down the roads but it was comforting to note that
they could muster that much equipment up here...
I came up to the house and Mike was out back with the girls Karaoke machines
blasting his guitar as loud as he could... I got pretty mad and he said "What's
the big deal Dad!" We have neighbors... we argued a bit and he said "Well, at
least I'm not smoking weed!" Apparently it's OK to blast his guitar because if I
didn't let him do that there are worse things he could do... how do you get
through to a kid that reasons like that.
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