September 2003
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September 2003
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Monday September 1 , 2003 For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, "It might have been." John Greenleaf Whittier, poet (1807-1892) Bill and Yolanda [Yoli] made it here at exactly 1300, I drove down to escort them up. I had told them on the phone that I would "Drive down and bring them up." In my mind I meant "escort"... I normally would have given them a ride but McDonalds gets nasty about unattended cars and Mike had been smoking in my car. Yeah, sad, I have tried to convince him to stop smoking but I can't... any more than my dad could stop me... If he is going to smoke though I am going to demand that he do it outside. Not in the house and not in the cars or van. They are just back from intensive training in New Brunswick for some missionary work in Guinea... They are staying with her parents in Hollywood and will be visiting cousins in Castaic later in the day They are going to be in West Africa teaching whoever they can to read. Yolanda has been there before, it is Bills first trip. Yolanda is a language specialist of some sort, educated Guineans apparently speak French but the local language is verbal only and has no written alphabet. She has created one using the universal/international alphabet and is teaching it there. Bills mother was my Aunt Rachel, she was a very neat lady.
I have resigned myself to the fact that sometimes you have to accept overwhelming circumstantial evidence and move on, or take up stamp collecting. Tuesday September 2 , 2003 You are never too old to be what you might have been. George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)
Mike starts school today, Christian, Calie and Monica started two weeks ago... I took "B" out to buy some shoes and run some other errands, we got back just in time for Cindy's IEP. It went well I think, they will do their best to look out for her. Christy went to the Dr and they gave her an EEG, she has "Abnormal T Waves". They will call her soon and she will have to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours, this is the third time she has had to do that... a real pain. When she got back I took Christian out for shoes, and more errands... tomorrow will be the first day with all the kids in school... !!!!!! PAR-TaY!!!!!! Wednesday September 3 , 2003 My feeling is that there is nothing in life but refraining from hurting others, and comforting those who are sad. Olive Schreiner, author (1855-1920) I got Cindy to school a little early, I noticed she sort of froze as she approached the gauntlet of students lining the entrance to the school, I went into the parking lot and told "B" to watch Autumn. As I suspected she was afraid to go to her class room, she saw all the other kids and got panicky about what she should be doing. I walked her to her class and Handed her over to Mrs. Baker. I got "B" to school and walked him into school too, he told me he would be OK and said I could go, fine. I had about 35 minutes to kill before I could take Autumn to school I picked up Christy and we went to McDonald's and got Autie a Sausage McMuffin... she loves em. I got her to school and we walked her in. Sue Reid is her aid in the morning and Amy Meyer is the aide in the afternoon. We met the new Principal, Linda Wilson, she looks like she might have graduated from High School in 2000... damn... it's eerie being older than practically everyone in town. Today we went to Otto's not exactly a party... damn, tomorrow Christy and I will go out to lunch at Olive Garden (a big deal for us on several levels). I was still trying to get hold of someone at the IRS to help me figure out why they got a 1099-INT form saying I was paid $1685.00. I waited on the line for about 30 minutes and got dumped back to Dialtone, after cussing for about 10 minutes I called again and waited another hour and 15 minutes, almost 2 hours on hold. I was talking to the guy explaining the situation and asked him if he had my file up on his screen, he typed for a while and asked me a bunch of questions and sad "Yeah". We talked for a bit and he asked some questions. Then he asked when I moved, I said I have lived here for 20 years. He asked for my address again. I told him and He said do you own property elsewhere I said No, he said "Well according to the 1099-INT data you live in Blue Lake, California... as soon as he said Blue Lake I knew what happened. Yeas ago I was looking for Daggett's on the Internet and I found a Peter J. Daggett, in Blue Lake... somehow the Computers at Washington Mutual put my SSN on the 1099 meant for Peter J. Daggett.,... now all I need id for Washington Mutual to give me a letter explaining it to the IRS No data at DMV on Cadillac... it was Autumn had a good day, her teacher Mrs. [Laurie] Hickman said she tired a bit Beloit put out their list. THE BELOIT COLLEGE MINDSET LIST FOR THE CLASS OF 2007®
Thursday September 4 , 2003 "Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." We made it to the Olive Garden for our belated anniversary lunch... it was OK... we need to get out more, we have a hard time sustaining a conversation... sad. Kids are OK, they are monsters when they come home, but I can shine them on for the most part... there must be a lot of stress at school . Friday September 5 , 2003 I made it to the Dentist on time... I had my doubts... I only got honked at once when I cut inside on an overly timid right hand turner in his SUV at San Fernando Road ... He had a right turn lane but waited for cars in the center lane to pass... I made it with about a minute to spare. I got a good report from the Hygenist... I rarely get good news from there. Any visit to the dentist where you walk out with as many teeth as you went in with is a good visit. I high-tailed it back to Vasquez High School... I had to give Cindy a check for her Gym Clothes... they called her to come to the office so I went ut to meet her, she said "Oh, Hi Dad, I have to go to the office." and started to walk past me. Realizing that she was not adding things up I told her; Cindy, the office called you because I wanted to see you and give you a check for your clothing, you don't have to go there." she smiled and said "Oh, thanks Daddy." I left Vasquez and went to Kaiser to get blood drawn for the Cardiologist and for the surgeon doing my umbilical hernia surgery... fun... When I got home I got on the phone to talk to the IRS, I was on hold for 55 minutes. I need to wait for Ruby at Washington Mutual to gt the paperwork to me absolving me of that part of the obligation... Tha guy I talked to earlier said I could ask for another two weeks but theis guy said I couldn't... Oh well.
Saturday September 6 , 2003 So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: "Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbor's religion is." Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many religions; but no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code. Kids Christian to Shon's, Mike to Donnie, Mokie and "B" with me to get lunch and go shopping. They had cleaned the house so I took them to their favorite place, Hometown Buffet. I really don't like it there but they do. The food isn't bad and it's well prepared but the ambiance leaves a lot to be desired. We left there to go to Wal-Mart and they reverted to little animals... they were awful. I bought two padlocks one for "B" and one for Cindy, they were (Note the past tense) ones you could set yourself. I set one to "B"'s birthdates and one to Cindy's, Monica wanted to play with it and she changed the combination... she has no idea what numbers she changed it to... about the time I got through yelling at Monica "B" did the same thing... $14.24 worth of worthless junk, now I have to go buy more locks so the price will go up to $24.oo at least... "B" worked for about three hours and figured out what he had done to his lock and opened it, then he did the same to Cindy's... "B" amazes me sometimes Some one sent me a petition regarding Gay Marriage. I just deleted it, I prefer not to pass judgment on how people choose to live their lives... It is curious to me however why people who deem themselves to be "Moral" feel obligated to inflict their prejudice and intolerance on others. Of course the marriage of a man to a man or a woman to a woman is outside my realm of understanding... it is totally alien to me and because it is I have no need for passing judgment on it. To paraphrase the quote above, Ye shall be indifferent to your neighbors sexuality. Why use the power of your majority to inflict pain on the happiness of others... it's just cruel and unnecessary Sunday September 7 , 2003 "Home made cooking just like your mother used to make, and just like home, you can't always get what you want." Grove Cafe in Ames, Iowa Motto The Motocross race was canceled, rain and flooding in Troy, PA has destroyed the track... Oh well, too bad for James Stewart, he needed one more race to have a chance at beating Langston. (Just a bit of info no one cares about but me... sigh.... Laid back day... got and responded to some nice e-mails... My cousins will be leaving for Africa on the 22nd and I wish there was something I could do for them... what an adventure.
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