Posts filed under 'Serious'
Word: “Turkey Day”
Usage: Used in place of “Thanksgiving”.
Example: Conversation with a co-worker:
Him: “Hey, Bill, what are you guys doing for Turkey Day?”
Me: “Nothing, since there’s no such holiday. For Thanksgiving, however, we’re having dinner with my brother and his family.”
Please, everyone, don’t call it “Turkey Day”, “Spanksgiving”, or anything else cute or funny. It is supposed to be a day to gather with friends and family, to share wonderful meals, make memories that will last forever, and to think about and appreciate everything that you have. It is supposed to be both solemn and joyous at the same time.
It is NOT supposed to be diminished to a stupid, not-so-clever, unfunny phrase. It’s “Thanksgiving”, OK?
November 21st, 2006
Thank you for all the well wishes and prayers sent our way. Mom was discharged yesterday. They received some of the results of the numerous tests and found that her carotid artery on the right side of her neck is 100% blocked and the left side is not that bad. Surgery is not an option since the right side artery attaches to the brain. On top of all that, she has an abdominal hernia and emphysema. She was told not to smoke, to lose weight and to exercise.
Well, I called last night and found out that 3 hrs after discharge, she lit up. But, she said “it made her sick”. Needless to say, our family’s conversation to her were not very friendly. I think that it may have sunk in because she has not touched it since last night. I told her “we have gone through enough this week and I don’t want to have to visit everyone for your funeral”. This morning while I was on the phone with her, my Dad said, “she sealed her cigarettes in a box and wrote “THESE WILL KILL YOU “. For me, that is an accomplishment.
My Dad wanted us all to be there for the holidays. He purchased all of us airline tickets to California. Mom doesn’t know what is going on. So, it will be a surprise to her.
We still need all your prayers for a safe journey. Also, pray that if she decided to not be very responible for her own life and try to smoke again, the cigarettes will taste horrible to her.
Kathy
December 7th, 2005
We got a call a few hours ago from Kathy’s dad, to let us know that Kathy’s mom is in the hospital. She collapsed this afternoon while they were shopping, and she is currently in the ER at Torrance Memorial Hospital. As of now, the doctors think she may have had a stroke, so they are giving her all sorts of blood thinners and other medications that are supposed to reverse some of the effects of a stroke. We are supposed to get an update tonight from Kathy’s dad when more info is available. I’ll post any updates here.
She will be 59 in February, and has smoked two to three packs a day for more than 40 years. They (plus our nephew Jonathon) were planning to come up here for a week and a half on the 18th of this month, but it looks like we might be making an emergency trip down to L.A. instead.
Know this: Even if Kathy and I have to tie her up ourselves and poke her with sharp sticks, I swear on my cat’s tail she is not smoking another cigarette again in her life.
Please pray for a full and quick recovery.
December 4th, 2005
Many of you close friends know that we are moving out of our rental house and into an apartment tomorrow. This is to help us save money for the downpayment and closing costs as we are in the process of buying a house next year in Wood Village. The apartments that we are moving into has a deal with Centex Homes that if you rent through Equity Residential they will set aside 20% of your rent towards closing costs.
Well, we have lived in the house for about 2 yrs now. The owner has been very nice to us. We have never been late on a payment and we have kept the place in decent shape. Also, we gave him 6 wks notice of our move. Since he has found out that we are moving it seems upset and very rude towards us. I don’t know what is with him. He already has the place rented and he received our partial payment for the rent this month. We even let him show the place to prospective tenants on three occasions.
On tuesday afternoon, I received a call from him and he wanted to know if he could bring someone over to look at the carpets because they needed to be cleaned. The owner would be here also. I said “sure”. When they arrived the guy had a clipboard and said they will clean everything. After about an hour I told the owner “I was feeling uncomfortable because I felt he didn’t think we would clean the place up when we left”. He said “no, he only wanted a quote for the carpet cleaning”. Then, I receive a call the next day from the owner saying that “he was pretty upset about the way the place looked”. I said “we just got back from vacation, so that is why the lawn was brown and needed to be mowed”. He then said “don’t do any additional repairs on the nail holes because they weren’t up to his standards and he is going to have to fix all the walls now”. If anyone has seen my house knows that there is shabby patchwork on the walls anyway with the drywall and nails showing through. What is up with him and is it legal, what he is doing to us? I feel like he is to the point of harassment. Can he do this legally? Having people coming into the house invading our privacy.
Let me know your suggestions or opinions. He was a nice landlord up until the point that we notified him we were moving.
September 9th, 2005
And I don’t mean incredible in a good way.
As you read in my previous post, Kathy was hospitalized last Sunday the 12th with a severe asthma attack. It was also the last week of school for the kids. They go to three different schools, at three different times in the morning, and get home at three different times in the afternoon. Needless to say, I was busy feeding them and shuttling them around, plus taking care of the two cats and six dogs (oops, I mean five dogs… more on that in a moment.) Between all this, I made sure I was at Kathy’s side at the hospital as much as possible, and that the kids got to visit her at least once each day.
The first few nights, I sit with Lexi as she cries herself to sleep because she misses mommy, and she knows that mommy won’t be there to wake her up in the morning. I explain that I will be there in mommy’s place each morning this week. This does not make her stop crying, which makes me feel even worse. At least she likes the breakfast I make for her.
Some friends from church brought me and the kids dinner on Wednesday, which was a wonderful relief. I didn’t have to cook anything, and we didn’t have to go out for fast food. Again.
Then comes Thursday. I get the kids off to school, the adult dogs are brought in from the backyard, the two puppy’s kennel is cleaned, and I notice that the smaller of the two puppies (the apricot colored one) is barely able to stand on his own. I put him by himself so he can eat as much as he wants before his brother pigs out, but he barely touches any food, and doesn’t seem to want to drink any water either. His eyes are closed, and his hair is starting to fall out (poodles don’t have fur that sheds, they have hair that continues to grow, just like people.) I go to the hospital to have lunch with Kathy again, then rush to make it back home before I have to pick up Lexi at school, not knowing that her school let out an hour early on that last day. When I get home, she is already home and is having a snack; she had walked herself home. It is only 1/2 mile or so, but she is only seven, and has never walked it alone. She is mad at me for not being there waiting for her. I feel like a monster.
Billy has already arrived home, and is giving the apricot puppy a bath because he stinks. We think it is because he has been wetting himself, but we will soon find out otherwise. Billy, Lexi and I take the puppy to the vet. He is 11 weeks old, and weighs only 1 pound 1 ounce. His temperature is ten degrees below normal. He is skinny and dehydrated, and he still stinks. Since the other two dogs from the litter are fine (one was sold a few weeks ago, and the other is active, and weighs almost twice as much), the doctor thinks this one has some sort of congenital liver and kidney problem that is not uncommon in small breeds. When the organs start failing, the body in effect starts secreting through the pores the toxins that are normally filtered through the kidneys. Basically, the puppy is sweating urine, and he is dying. I pay the doctor $25 for the office visit, $35 for euthenasia, and $1.12 for the cremation, based on the weight. Lexi is hysterical, wants me and the doctor to make the puppy healthy, and is mad at me because we can’t just take the puppy back home. She cries again for hours.
Kathy slowly got better towards the end of the week, and she came home yesterday morning. She was in the same tiny room for the entire seven days, leaving only to be wheeled to the X-ray lab a few times, and to walk around the nurses station the last couple days when she started getting better. She was going crazy being cooped up. Most of the nurses were great, but one of them was straight out of school, literally (this was her first nursing job, and she had been employed at the hospital for just two weeks.) Kathy had to actually tell her how to administer one of the medications into her I.V. (”NO! WAIT! You have to flush the line first! FLUSH THE LINE! Then you can inject it!”) She is now on twelve different prescriptions, at a grand total of $185 out of pocket. I shudder to think how much all of this would have cost if I didn’t have good health insurance.
I missed work every day last week, but everyone at the office was really great about everything. I have a bunch of forms I have to turn in to HR, some of which I had the doctor fill out, and I can charge the 40 hours against my sick leave. I went back to work today. Duirng the week I was out, I guess I kinda forgot how completely swamped my department is. By the time I left today at 4:00, I actually had more things outstanding than when I first got there at 7:00.
Still, just about anything’s going to better than last week.
June 20th, 2005
Update: Click here for the latest on the Blogger picnic!
Well, it looks like we are going to have to reschedule. Most people who I wanted to attend have other things going on that day, plus the weather looks like it is not going to cooperate on Saturday, anyway.
The biggest reason I need to postpone it, however, is personal. Kathy has been in the hospital since Sunday afternoon. She has had asthma all her life, and she is in the middle of the worst asthma attack she has ever had. So far, she is not getting better, and even with oxygen tubes in her nose, she is not getting enough oxygen in her blood. We’re not sure at this point when she is coming home. Even if she got well enough to be off the oxygen and was discharged today, none of us are in a very picnic-y mood right now.
I’ll try to post some updates as soon as we know more. In the mean time, we sure could use everyone’s thoughts and prayers right about now. Feel free to leave comments here, and I’ll pass them along to Kathy.
June 15th, 2005
I was watching a news report recently about the tragic death of a 17-year old girl from Salem. Apparently, her boyfriend lost control of his car while they were on the way to the prom, and the crash injured him and killed her.
A reporter was “on the scene” at the high school Monday talking to kids as they left school, to get their reactions. One of the students said something like “Yeah, it’s tragic that she died so young. Everyone here is really sad today, and we’re all going to miss her. I didn’t know her personally. I don’t think I ever even talked to her or anything.”
They couldn’t actually talk to someone who actually knew her? Instead, just throw the first person you see who looks kinda sad in front of the camera? Better yet, why not report the death, then just leave all the friends and relatives alone and let them grieve?
‘Cause that doesn’t bring in the ratings, that’s why.
May 4th, 2005
… and I hope you’ll agree that this is really more about stupidity than politics. In any case, this isn’t a very humorous post (unless you can laugh at bureaucracy in action).
Lighters have been banned in checked luggage for years, and now (as of today) the TSA has also banned them in the cabin of airplanes. We’re told that the idea behind the lighter ban is that “terrorist groups could use lighters as a weapon to control or take down an aircraft.” While this was indeed attempted by Richard Reid on a trans-Atlantic flight in 1991, he used matches in his failed attempt to set his “shoe bomb” alight.
Keep in mind that you are still allowed to carry matches (up to four books) with you on the plane. But, only the standard “strike the matchhead on the attached rough strip” kind, not the “strike anywhere” kind.
Of course, just like every other normal-thinking person, I’m all for better security on board airplanes and in the passenger area of airports. We should be restricting items that do pose a real threat, like the obvious guns, knives, weapons, etc. If the lighters are likely to be used by terrorists for harm, then they should also be banned from the cabin. However, matches should also be banned, for the same reason. And not just the strike anywhere kind, but ALL matches (I mean, what is that all about, distinguishing between the two kinds? They can both light a fuse, right?)
And don’t try to tell me that the only reason Richard Reid wasn’t able to light his shoes was that he fumbled with getting the matches to burn, and had he been in possession of an easy-to-use lighter, he may have succeeded. That argument is a bunch of crap. If that is the justification, then what we’re saying is that we’re gambling passengers lives on terrorists’ unsteady shaky hands.
It makes it seem as if the ban on lighters (fully three and a half years after Richard Reid’s infamous terrorist-wannabe episode) is nothing but an attempt to keep up the appearance of keeping the nations skies and airports safe.
We shouldn’t do things just because they make us feel all warm and comfy and good about ourselves, we should do things that are actually going to be effective, and that don’t have stupid loopholes in them.
Your thoughts?
April 14th, 2005
Check out this story. This happened quite literally two and a half blocks from our house.
Billy, Matt and I went to Grocery Outlet Thursday night (we were out of expired Pop-Tarts again, plus I picked up lunch for myself for the next day), and saw a police car parked at this house with his lights flashing. When we drove back by an or so later, the police car was still there on the side of the road, lights still flashing.
April 2nd, 2005
At first, it was fun, having what I thought was a fun and original site. I didn’t want to change the world or become rich and famous. I just wanted to have a funny, unique, interesting blog.
But now, everyone has one. My wife has one, my brother has one, his wife has one, even my 14 year old son has one. Well I’m done. I don’t want to try to compete anymore.
Thank you Rebecca Marie, Tabitha, Breanna, and everyone else for reading and leaving comments in the past, but it’s time for me to shut the site down. Maybe I’ll be back with a new blog, but if so, I won’t make myself known, I’ll be incognito.
Arrivederci
-Bill
April 1st, 2005
Sorry, guys, I have no time to post anything worth reading today. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll have a new word of the day.
March 31st, 2005
Is the phrase “Fur is murder” insulting?
First, I’ll make it known that I’m taking no stand on the whole animal rights issue. People who know me know that I love animals. In our house, we have one fish, two cats and four dogs (yup, four dogs - I’ll explain the newest addition to our canine brood another time). We’ve even gone out of our way to rescue two pets recently. But, I’m a proud carnivore. One of my favorite bumper stickers says “If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat?” I also own three jackets that were formerly the exteriors of live cows. But I don’t own any purely decorative animal-product clothing. Sure, the leather jackets look good, but they just happen to be (in my opinion) much better at keeping me warm and dry than vinyl, fleece, or whatever else warm outerwear is made of.
So I’m not going to say anything about fur mills, or the cruelty of killing minks, foxes, and other cute animals.
So aaanywaaaay… I’ve never known anyone who met his or her end at the hands of another. However, if I had a friend or family member who had been murdered, I think I’d be pretty upset if their needless loss of life was being compared to, and diminished by the comparison to, the killing of animals for clothing.
Does anyone else agree?
March 26th, 2005
L.A. Daily News - News
Two teen-age girls were sued by their 49-year old neighbor after they left a plate of cookies and note reading “Have a Great Night” on her doorstep. The judge sided with the neighbor and awarded her damages of $900.
February 9th, 2005
Steven’s funeral was last Wednesday. Things are finally starting to get back to normal. I have a bunch of stupid things that tick me off swimming around in my head, and I’ll post those here soon.
May 31st, 2003
Billy and Matt’s good friend Steven died this morning. I don’t really feel like writing anything more now.
May 23rd, 2003