kcl57

I hate bugs. Seriously. Run out in traffic if one touches me hate bugs. So tonight, minding my own business, sitting in the living room, watching a little telly...feel a tickle on my arm...spider. Walking down my arm like it belongs there (the spider, not my arm) I HATE BUGS

Strange little things happen in our house. This morning, I had the paper in the living room. It's little dark. The light on the ceiling fan came on by itself, so I could read the paper. How convenient.

Deme constantly "talks" to the ceiling. To the point where she will climb up on cabinets to get closer for her conversations.

Very loud raps. Very very loud. At ramdom times during the day...heat setttling? Who knows.

Shadow cat. Seen her (?) for ages. Probably an optical illusion, but who knows. Ky has seen the cat, too. I've thought I was going to trip over a cat, but look again, and there's no cat there.

I'd been working at an alternate facility for work. I wonder about a place where in EVERY stall in the ladies are signs "flush the toilet after using" (they have autoflush toilets) "wipe the seat if necessary" "toilet paper goes in the toilet, not on the floor"

eeeew

Took my lovely car (1997 lexus ls 400) to the carwash. On the way home noticed the little icon on the dash, had a light out. Buttom right brake light. Bought the replacement. Googled instructions.

And today, after a bit of frustration (those lexus folks really like putting things away), I now have a replacment bulb in its socket, working quite well, thankyouverymuch.

And I have altered the googled instructions to resemble the truth. One or 2 slightly forgotten steps, and altered one step so it will work. Perhaps I will print this out and put in in the book that came with the car (I love the fact that the people who owned this car took car of it)

Victory with the $2 light bulb battle.

Yes!!

Deme is sure that Carolyn is still in her room....

Sorry it's so blurry, hope this works!!




She got a cuddle right after that, I promise

Brrr, it's chilly here. Feels good, but its weird that it was dark this morning when I got up...
Number one son feels trumped by his little sister. He's not, tho, she just took a very different path to her future. But he's got more degrees education wise, and is on his way to a degree from UCF. Hers will be from the college of the Air Force (its a real thing, btw)
Work is good. I can't believe I've been there a year alread. Plus, I must be doing well, I am travelling on the company dime to help train techs in Pittsburgh. Pretty neat. The hotel is very nice, and expenses are covered, we ate at some awesome places the last time I was there. I'm glad I work with folks who don't mind waiting for checked bags, this next trip I will be needing a coat, and will probably bring slippers, etc, it's much cooler in Pittsburgh than the last time I was there!
Speaking of geography, Ky is well on her way to Washington state, she is overnighting in Sheridan Wyoming, and had snow on her car in Denver yesterday morning!!



Anyway that's all for now. I could probably update more!!!!

Babysitting my furgrandbaby. Deme is (to put it mildly) playful She loves feather dusters, boxes, rocking chairs, the morning paper, computer desks and the kitchen table. And the view from the top of the fridge.
Yesterday I was doing laundry. She smooshed the folding basket. I unfolded it, and left it by the bedroom door while distracting myself. I come back to get the basket to fill it with clothing (novel concept, eh?) and there is a cat in it. Imagine that.
Brilliant idea to get her out of the basket without dumping her out (which will be a NEW game). I find "her" feather duster...shake it so she can see it...woohoo! Out of the basket. She flies over to me, grabs the duster-and runs back to the laundry basket and jumps into it with the duster. Gee, that was futile.

So, I cannot outwit a cat. Who knew? Bad enough that Whitey is my 8am alarm on my days off ( he sounds so sad when I don't get up), and I have to keep the water pistol handy to read the morning paper (but WHY can't I lie here???), but now I need the crew's permission to carry the laundry in the basket. Bummer.

Sean passed his trig course....with great grades. Now he has to kindasorta fight to get into the math class at UCF that he took the trig course for! But yay, back to UCF.
Carolyn got her orders to Fairchild. Her report date is October 9th. She is going to be on leave here in SA from 9/22 til 10/2, and has 6 travel days to get to Washington. That way she'll be able to get her car up there.

I am planning my birthday trip, off to the beach. Hopefully it will cool down enough to enjoy some daytime beach hours, it has been so hot here that beachtime was either early morning, or evening!

Damn hot this summer, way too many days over 100.

Brett Favre couldn't even bother changing clothes or shaving for his big NFL comeback. Dude, go back to Mississippi.

gee, I sure wish I had more to say! But it's good to not have an interesting life, I know it is!

Sean is back in Florida, finishing up trig (finally). He worked on it every spare moment when he was here, but still missed alot. I appreciate how much he went through to come out for his sister's graduation. Now he can continue on his education-quest.

Carolyn, now in Wichita Falls, soon to be stationed in Washington state. That was weird, never occured to either of us that she would get conus for her first tour! She is going to freeze her butt off this winter, her first real winter in ages. We had winter for a couple of weeks every year in Granbury, and it gets pretty chilly here, but not for months on end. Frozen kid.

Other than that, days go by, work is work (still like my new job).

G'nite!

A number of years ago (14 or 15, I suck at remembering dates) my then brother-in-law died of a brain tumor. It was slow, but fast, he'd been "not himself" for a while, but died within 6 months of diagnosis. He left his wife, and infant son.

Fast forward 14 or 15 years. Today her new husband (seriously, they haven't been married long) died. Suddenly, healthy man. Last word I had, possibly heat stroke. He made her happy. She'd waited, and I know wondered if she would ever find someone again. And she did. His name was Frank. Her name is Lori.

So right now, I weep for the living. Oh, Lori, I am so so sorry.

guess what I discovered at work today? I CANNOT breath an ice cub.

My animals should be completely bald, or they are the hairiest critters in the world. Every day I sweep up enough hair to build 3 or 4 kittens. They get brushed and have a good diet, so wtf???

quote from the NY Times

"Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy"

Yes, I have to agree on that one.

I love my DVR. And I can program it from work, or from my phone. Modern technology is awesome.

I am literally counting the days until I see my kids. Sean will be here in 2 and a wakeup/workday ( he's coming in Saturday afternoon). I will be picking him up in his "new" car, we are playing hand me down with cars, I have Ky's green machine, and he's getting the 'stang. All he asked for was a Decepticon emblem to put on the front, so he has one. I'm going to save it for him to put on the hood. We will be seeing Ky in 7 and a wake up, the BMT graduation stuff starts on Thursday, she will be in the "Airman's Run", and a coin ceremony, and honor recruit stuff. She will have base liberty and will be spending it with her dad and aunt. Friday is the actual pass & review, then a tour of the dorm (barracks, y'all, 50 roommates in one room is not a dorm, it's a barracks), the town liberty, which will also be with her dad & aunt.

Saturday I will have both of them, she has town liberty! I've planned a full body massage for her, I think she's earned it!! Then we will probably just come to the house so she can be like a normal person. Back on base by 7:30, and base liberty on Sunday, which is mine, too.

Monday she heads to Tech school, and Sean heads back to Fla, he's taking a math course during summer classes, and his instructor is really working with him so he can keep up. I'm glad that his instructor wasn't a douche. He will even be able to get the in-class notes, and he has 2 friends taking the course. Thank god. I wasn't even thinking about his math class when I bullied him into coming out here. But I had good reasons, his sister only graduates from BMT once, and Florida is raising the rates for registering a car in August, it would cost him triple if he waited until right before he heads back to UCF for the fall semester. So there. There is a method to my madness.

TTFN

I got a letter!! Woohoo! Funny child. She misses me "tonnes" and misses my spaghetti. But she wants to go for sushi when she graduates! She likes the buddhist service, says that they are really relaxing. I am glad I convinced her to sign up for chapel.

I am going to post some things on her LJ.

I am happy. Sean is coming out for her graduation, he's already got his "ride" paid for. Hip hip hooray!

People are stupid. Seriously! Our town is changing to twice weekly "solid waste" pickup, with 2 very large trash containers, blue for recycling, brown for trash. Blue on Tuesday, Brown on Friday. This was our first week. When they passed out the containers they came with instructions, and a small blue bin, to use in the house for your recyclables. Place container at curb, with arrow facing the street, at least 5 feet away from cars, mailboxes, etc.

Today. Tuesday. Blue. Some people had out the brown. Some had out both. Some put out the little blue container. Some put the container behind the mailbox, or up the driveway.

People are stupid.

Just in case you didn't know.

Heard on the news about a shooting outside an Army recruiter yesterday. I read the article in the paper (yes, I read the real paper, every day). Turns out the 2 soldiers shot had just graduated from boot camp, and were volunteering at the recruiter.

Carolyn has volunteered ( and been accepted ) for that same program.

fuck

I know that the chances of some radical with an issue driving over to her recruiter's office are low. But still. It happened.

Some things are more difficult to read in the news than other things.

Wow, what an interesting life. ( not really, but ya know...)

Carolyn is off to basic training. Bobby seems to be feeling better. Sean is back in Eustis with my folks for the summer, but is doing well at UCF, he'd has some stress, but has discovered that talking to the faculty can be very beneficial!!Rin is in Japan...damn. Mary is moving to Kansas...??? okay! All my kids is growing up. Imagine that!!

Mom and Pop are mom and pop. Love them and miss them so much. They will be coming out for a visit in September. Randi is Randi. Love her too. I wish I could win a bazillion dollars...or catch a genie with wishes. I'd love to make everything all better for everyone. Is that just being mom to the world, or am I nuts? I don't think I'm nuts, but who knows, I'm a biased judge.

I have discovered Corpus Christi ( yes, I know it's been there a long time, but if the past explorers can discover stuff, so can I). Neat place, and we're heading down there next month. Bobby looked at some of the photos we'd taken and mentioned that he'd never been there, so a birthday trip is being planned (I love email) as I write this. He took me to an Astros game this weekend, I think he knew I was kind of bumping around here, MY GIRL'S GONE!!

Real empty nest thing going on here. I'm going to start straightening up Carolyn's room, and rearrange some things. That way if anyone comes to visit (including my future airman) the room and bathroom will be nice for them. Not that Carolyn didn't have it the way she wanted it, but trust me, once she's got to her first duty station, home will be a place to visit. And now we have 2 guest rooms. Weird.

I hope she gets stationed at one of her choices. I think she'd want Korea, I KNOW she'd want Japan. But stateside in California would also be good. I don't know, it's not up to me, it's up to her and the USAF. Deme is fine, but she tends to wander around a bit, looking for Carolyn, I think. Simon misses Carolyn. Whenever I open the bedroom door, there he is, looking for her.

Finally, an update. A boring one, but ...

I LOVE my new job. Seriously

I've been "training" for the last 3 weeks at my new job, all new programs for entering prescriptions, etc.

Yesterday was the exam. And I passed. Yay! Got a 90 on the written and 94 on the practical. So, on to more training ( but at my desk, online for real) starting on Monday. I'll be working 8 to 430 til probably Christmas. The people who work there are all...cheerful. Its weird working at a place where everyone seems to enjoy what they're doing. Seriously, EVERYONE smiles and says something when you walk by, and make eye contact. Even the cleaning people.

We have a huge cafeteria, with good, reasonably priced food. With some healthy options, and some real junk ( yay, hot dogs and pizza ). We've had FREE lunch twice since I've been there, and the company has Thanksgving & Christmas. There are bowling teams, and charity walks, and it's sooo weird.

I like it.

I have a desk. I will now sit down to type at work. How odd. I'd been standing up & typing for the last 9 years.

I got a running computer. Hooray. Now I have to reinstall my printer ( it moved rooms when the puter died ) and my wireless mouse and keyboard. But hooray. I'm online again.

In a different note, today I received an email from the mom of the young woman who fell over the ravine, and subsequently died. She said it gave her comfort to know that her daughter wasn't alone after she fell. That's the message I wanted to pass on to her when I left the condolence message. As a mom. To a mom.

The girl who fell down the cliff was taken off life support on Tuesday. Massive head injuries. FUCK FUCK FUCK

On a better note, Bobby's memory is improving slowly. His CAT scan didn't show any damage. The Dr thinks this may be cardiac instead of neuro, so we're heading into the heart instead of the head. hmmm

Training has been going well at my new job.

Okay, so my last day at work was Friday ( Walgreens, that is ). I worked til 7pm, came home, hubby in the bedroom watching tv, listening to Sirius radio, Ky in the front room, watching TV, listening to tunes.

So we order a pizza, and watch TV, etc till late. I read a book. took a bath, etc. All this time the Sirius radio is playing rather loudly in the bedroom, but hey...sometimes hubby does that.

Around 1am I finally decide to head off to bed. And that's when my weekend went to shit.

Hubby was on the floor, flat on his face. TV blaring, his glasses were on the desk, it was weird. I head over to him, check his pulse & breathing, all is good there, and roll him onto his side ( the recovery position ).

He doesn't respond. Like he's sleeping. He's a little sweaty, but hey, I have NO IDEA how long he'd been on the floor, I peaked into the room right after I got home from work at 7pm. We keep the door closed what with 3 cats and 1 waterbed

After about 45 seconds to a minute of my shaking him...he finally responds. "whaa... what times is it? " "1am". "When's dinner? " ( shit ). "It's 1am, did you fall? Do you feel okay?" "My head really hurts, and I'm dizzy". (double shit)

Now I'm feeling guilty. Why didn't I check on him when he wasn't in bed right after the news? Damn, the music was really loud too. What the fuck.

Any way, I manage to get him sitting up. "When's dinner?" (shit shit shit). Then standing up and head over to the bed. He loses his balance, starts to fall again, and I get him onto the cedar chest at the foot of the bed, from whence he slides over with his head on the foot of the bed. Damn. I go get my blood pressure cuff from the hall bath. Okay, b/p okay, pulse okay ( a little fast but he said he was dizzy). Breathing fine, but again, like he's fallen right to sleep.

After several attempts, get him alertish ( out of it, but listening to me ), and get him up to the side of the bed, where I get him to lie down. He seems a little warm, but trying to get a thermometer into the mouth of a confused, half out of it person doesn't really work, I took an axillary temp ( I know, not the most accurate, but...). Nope, no fever. So I head out to the front room, to get his cell phone, he has phone numbers in there for work, etc. Can't find the damn thing ( still didn't find it by Sunday, BTW )

Back into the bedroom. FUCK. He's on the floor again, this time, by the side of the bed. Again, half out of it. Got him into bed again. And stayed awake til about 6am, keeping an eye on him

Saturday, at 9am I called his work, there was a swim meet at the pool, and he should've been there. The young guy I talked to sounded relieved that I'd called.

He slept most of the day. He got up for a while around noon. I made him 2 egg sandwiches, which he ate. Then he went into the bedroom for about 10 minutes. He comes out, looks down at his paper plate and napkin and says "Hey, I want something to eat, too, I'm hungry". I remind him he'd JUST eaten 2 sandwiches, and he says ( holding his drink coozie from the bedroom) "Oh, and 2 cokes too?". no, that's the drink from last night that you were drinking when you passed out. Never mind. So, I made him another sandwich. He complained of being dizzy, and I gave him a meclizine ( medicine for nausea and dizziness ), and he went back to bed until dinner.

He watched TV, complained of headache and dizziness, a couple of weird questions about "when's dinner" again, but headed off to bed right after the news.

Sunday, I was up at 9am, started laundry, etc. Right before noon, hubby gets up, and sits down
He starts reading the Sunday paper. Right before 1pm, I made him 2 sandwiches, and he asks me "I haven't had anything to eat yet??". Great. Later he asks "Can you please tell me why my arms are tingling?". Great. No I can't but hopefully our doctor can.

Anyway, after dinner, Carolyn & I are heading out for a walk. That gets weird. We went on a nature trail near the house. We'd walked for quite a while, and were down in the river bed, hiking and bike trails galore. Carolyn looked up at this ravine face, about 50 feet up, saying she'd love to climb that. I vetoed that like any sensible mom would. A little later we heard voices up the top of the cliff and commented on who the heck would be up there, and what could they be doing up there. Not much further down the trail we saw & heard a family taking walk, then it got really weird.

Within 2 minutes of seeing this family I hear "....help us....fallen....isn't moving...." Carolyn & I run toward the sound, and see a young man about 20 feet up from us, in the brush up the side of the river bank, and lying beside him, wedged in between 2 trees is a young woman, and crouched beside them a woman who turned out to be the mom from the family we'd just heard.

The young girl ( Heather ) had apparently been one of the people we'd heard at the top of the cliff edge. And she'd fallen. 30 feet. Tumbled down the rock face, and landed in a tree. The young man with her (Henry??) climbed down, and got her out of the tree, but then she slid down the ledge, and wedged in the trees ( which actually helped her from falling further).

So, she's on her back. Unconscious. She's breathing ( loudly ). She's got a pulse. But it's getting dark. And all we have are 2 moms and 1 dad with 2 little kids, and me and my kiddo. THANK GOD FOR CELL PHONES. So, I'm checking her vitals. The other woman up the ravine with me says "I know cpr, I'm an emt", and I tell her that I'm a nurse. The poor kid with this girl is holding onto her hand, and we just kept him talking to her.

I hear the woman who stayed down with the kids send her husband out to the edge of the path, and we're all calling 911. Then I hear her saying "STOP, Please STOP and help". And I see some guys riding mountain bikes heading AWAY from us. So I started yelling LOUDLY..WE NEED SOME HELP HERE PLEASE STOP STOP STOP.

And they did. And turns out one of the bikers is an ex army medic. Figure the odds of falling down a 30 foot ravine, and having an EMT, a nurse and an army medic all in the woods at the same time. When we talked, we all found that none of us had planned to be there that evening, weird, huh?

One of the bikers gave up his shirt so we could cover her up. We all cleared as many rocks away from the bank above her, and the medic crouched above her to stabilize her neck and airway. One of the bikers was great, he ripped his light off his helmet so we could check her pupils. All the time, we're talking to her, and THANK GOD FOR CELL PHONES EMS is on the way. Problem is, we're down a bike/hiking path, and it took a while for them to get to us, but the Paramedics got there and were all "YOU ALL NEED TO MOVE". Duh. However, we emphasized to them that the gentlemen above her head was stabilizing her neck, and I was keeping her from moving her arms and shoulders ( she was NOT responding to us at all, just moaning loudly). I figured that as long as she was moaning, she was BREATHING. We kept her from moving around, and I think we helped. Once the paramedics got in place, I headed down the hill, with Carolyn's help, it was rocky and sandy, and unstable as hell. I didn't want to go in an ambulance too.

Then all I wanted to do was leave. But no way could I walk down the path until a little of the adrenaline cleared, I was shaking like crazy. I shared my water with the lady emt, and we all shared hugs when the paramedics showed up with the litter to carry her out. The poor guys were sliding in the sandy rocky side of the river bank, it was NOT good. The one biker had a great flashlight, and kept things well lit for them. By the time training equipped help arrived, it was 8:30pm.

So, Carolyn and I start to head back to the trailhead, but it was closer to walk to the house, then drive my car to pick up Carolyn's. The 3 bikers who helped met up with us just as we reached the road, and said that the paramedics had got Heather out. The 1 biker still didn't have his shirt, I guess it stayed with her. They asked if we knew her. Nope, and neither did they. We all thanked each other for being there, and for doing the right thing.

So, when we get to the house, Hubby asks "Didn't I hear you say something about me having a dr's appt?" No, but trust me, YOU WILL see our MD this week. Then he asks "Did I have dinner?" This is fucked up. Hopefully when I head to bed, he will be in it, and not on the floor. And all this just as I'm starting training for a new job. I'm so selfish, worried about this on top of his obvious health issues. Damme.

Good news for Heather, the young lady who tested gravity and failed...according to the "breaking news" she was alert and responding to the paramedics by the time they transported her. But they did not have a report on her injuries. I just know there was blood on the rocks, and on the back of her head. And the paramedics were heard to say she had a large hematoma on the back of her head. Hopefully she's going to be okay.

AND PLEASE GOD LET THIS BE SOMETHING THE DOCTOR CAN FIGURE OUT ABOUT MY BOBBY