make entries about what happens in my life so people who read my ramblings don't get bored when I have nothing to say about my goals.

Thinning and replanting the irises made me remember a few muscles I haven’t used in awhile. It also made me relise I’m not getting any younger and I still have arthritis in my knees.

Actually, it began Thursday evening with the fireworks display at the State Habilitation Center. They generally put on at least as good a show as the city’s. We found a great place to view it.
Friday, I spent catching up on laundry, and other household chores. It was great just to relax. It felt like Saturday all day long.
We started out with a quiet July 4. Rachel took off we her friend to her friend’s family get together in the city for a pool party and fireworks. She left Paige with us. I took Paige to the newly finished refurbished kiddie park. I guess the hint of bad weather kept people away. We had the park to ourselves. My little 19 month granddaughter enjoyed the swings and slides and exhibited no fear in climbing and sliding down the bigger slides. That evening George and I grilled steaks outside just for the 2 of us (and Paige, too). We got lucky and our steaks were finished just as it rained again for the second time that day. As soon as it started getting dark we drove to our usual viewing area for the city’ fireworks. They were able to put on the performance in spite of the heavy cloud cover and distant thunder and lightning. It was interesting seeing the reflection of the colors on the clouds in the sky. I think the performance may have been quicker this year because of the impending weather.
Sunday turned out to be a day of outdoor chores for us. We went down to Slater to get the yards mowed. I went to work thinning out the irises even though that could have waited until closer to Fall. The cooler weather that followed all the previous day’s rain made me want to get that chore done. When we unloaded the mower from the trunk of the car, we discover we had a little traveler that hitched a ride. A large, female garter snake wriggled and slithered from under the mower and around the driveway until it found it’s way to the grass and disappeared. I thought of capturing it and returning it to our yard in Marshall but then thought better of that when I realised this could be a chance to introduce new blood in the local snake population.

This Spring was really mild and wetter than usual. So there has been an increase in pollens, molds and my allergy sysptoms. The last several weeks I have been taking benedryl for my sneezing and runny nose. This past week I felt worse and finally took some generic musinex. I think it not only dried my sinuses, it dehydrated me. I woke up Friday with a urinary tract infection. I called the doctor’s office at break and left a message for the nurse. She called back letting me know that I could leave a urine sample at the lab anytime that day and they would call me a prescription if it turned out I had a bacreria infection or I could suffer the weekend and come in Monday. I chose the former. The labs were possitive and I taking antibiotics now and already feeling relief.

Now, back to the weather. In Missouri, they say if you don’t like the weather, stick around, it will change. Just a couple weeks ago, I could brag about how great the weather was. Now, it is oppressively hot, humid, storming nearly everyday and nearly unbearable. Good thing we have AC.

I drove my niece to her job in Carrollton. I had not spoken with her in quite awhile. This was the day she should have been graduating from high school. Instead, this 17 year old is working at a motel cleaning rooms. I told her I was disappointed that she wasn’t graduating and should have done anything to stay in school while she could even if it meant being held back and attending an extra year. At the time she dropped out, she was informed she missed too much school the previous year to continue with her class and would have to repeat the 11th grade. So now she will be attending classes to get her GED in order to get into the millitary. I told her it would have been easier to go to school and get her high school diploma then get a GED.

I went to an auction. I also spent some money. I haven’t done this in awhile. As I bid on some of the stuff I bought, I could feel the endorfins going thru my system. I think it is a kind of high much like a gambler feels. I get disappointed if something goes for more than I’m willing to spend. I sometimes feel if I had bid one more time I would have gotten it. I also feel buyers’ remorse sometimes once I get my hoard home and wonder if I paid too much.

Friday evening my 21 year old daughter became so disruptive we had to call the police. If that wasn’t enough, she broke her father’s cell phone, had all her money stolen out of her purse, lost her car keys which, thankfully, were later found in a friend’s car. The catalyst to all this was her misplacing her driver’s license in which I admonished her for not being able to hang on to it for even a week. She had just gotten it replaced 2 days before and for the third time in six months.

It is Easter and we haven’t heard from my stepdaughter in 3 weeks. She owes me money she borrowed before Christmas and promised to pay when she got her tax refund. I’m sure the two are not connected. Ha! ha! ha! I bought our grandson a new soccer ball for Easter as his old one got left out under the apple tree in the backyard all winter and is now flattened.

Our furnace which was installed in 2002 decided to crap out Thursday night. The repairman came Friday morning and it needs a relay that they don’t have in stock and had to order. Luckily, it hasn’t been that cool and we cook with gas and did some baking this weekend which has kept the house reasonably warm. We have managed to overdraw at the bank after paying some large bills and I went racing to the bank to deposit my paycheck Thursday afternoon. I’m considering direct deposit.

If things haven’t gotten any worse, I’ve gone from working a nearly 60 hour week to a 36 hour one. I’ve had most of my overtime cut and the last 2 weeks our plant has only worked 4 days each. The recession has finally hit home. We are fortunate no production lines will be shut down so there will not be any lay offs. Several other places in our area are not so lucky. The Caterpillar plant in Booneville has layed off workers and other places are rumored to be closing within the next 6 months if the economy doesn’t improve. The only plant in town not to be presently affected is the Con Agra plant which is currently expanding and may still be hiring.

The double funeral was yesterday. Everything seemed more like I was watching a movie instead of actually being there. I was able to leave work early to attend. When I got home, Rachel took off suddenly and didn’t come back before we had to leave for the funeral. Sheila, of course, called up and said she couldm’t watch Paige even for one hour as she was having a bad day and had a doctor’s appt. later that afternoon and was afraid we wouldn’t be back before then. So, George and I took Paige with us. Rachel had bought this cute little pink and black dress for her just in case. I called Rachel several times on the cell and finally got a hold of her when we left got the funeral. She said she was on her way. She got there a few minutes after it started. Paige decided to roam around and as not to disrupt the service, I took her into another room. I guess all funeral homes have privacy rooms for those who want or need to be alone. I could hear the service just as well in the next room with the speakers. When the service was over, I thought we would all go together to the cemetary. Rachel wanted to take her car so we had to take Paige with us since we had the carseat. Then she didn’t show up at the cemetary. George said different people handle grief differently. I know this is true. When my mother died, I didn’t go the the cemetary, either.
Well, like I said, it was like a movie drama. John’s girlfriend was there. So was his ex who was actually probably still his girlfriend or at least they remained good friends. I know the gf was livid about it. I don’t know if she was more upset about the ex attending or the fact that his mother outlived him or that he left no will or that she wasn’t allowed to ride in the limo with the family. Anyway, she was invited to sit under the canopy at the graveside after arriving in her own car.

More tragedy. I really don’t know how to put this. I left Pearl’s house a little after 8 PM Thursday evening feeling relieved that she was in the good hands of her younger sister with other family members on their way. She had a dr. appt. Friday morning then was planning to meet with the funeral director Friday afternoon. My stepdaughter was unable to reach Pearl by phone all day and called me about the time I left work around 4 PM. I called her home myself and left a message that I might come by later. George and I went out to dinner (alone)the first time in months and go home shortly after 7 PM. My neighbor called at that time and delivered some really bad news. Pearl and her sister were in an accident going home from the funeral home. Pearl was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly thereafter and her sister was lifeflighted to Columbia, Missouri with grim prognosis. John’s funeral which was scheduled today has been cancelled until the closest family member can plan for a double funeral. At this time, I still do not know if Pearl’s sister is alive or not.

Quite a bit has happened this month. I won’t go into the drama about my daughter and her renter or friends right now, though. A friend of both my husband and mine died of a heart attack at his home Wednesday evening. John was 56 years old. He and George had been best friend for several years until they had a falling out about 5 year ago. Nothing really big. They just quit speaking to one another unless they had to. George hasn’t said much but I think it hurts that they didn’t mend things. Yesterday evening Rachel and I with Paige went to see his mother Pearl who is 90. She is doing okay, though is quite shaky. She has congestive heart failure and has an appointment with her doctor this morning.
Rachel is been like her adoptive/foster grandchild as John never married or had children. Even though she is very disaproving of premarital sex, children out of wedlock, etc., Pearl has made an effort to welcome Rachel and Paige into her life since Paige was born. She even treats her son’s business partner with a tremendous amount of respect and has invited him to their home for meals numerous times in spite of the fact he is gay. Pearl has really mellowed out these past few years.
^{However, I did tell Rachel to keep her hoodie on at Pearl’s house so that Pearl didn’t see her newly tattooed arm. I don’t think Pearl knows about any of Rachel’s tattoos, yet. I didn’t think this was the time to give Pearl any new surprises.}
I would have loved to been a fly on the wall at the house earlier that day while John’s ex-girlfriend was there with Pearl. Although, they haven’t been together in about 10 years, she has remained on good terms with his mother. His current girlfriend Claire came over to help and because the ex-gf Brenda was still there cleaning house and helping out and refused to leave Pearl alone with Claire, She didn’t stay long and I’m sure was seething when she left. Pearl has never liked her and I don’t think John’s death is going to change her feelings.

I got the October rent from Cody, the last renter standing. ^{That was suppose to be a joke for myself.} We agreed it would be $150. Of course, I thought there was going to be other warm bodies paying rent.
My daughter got quite a bit of money from the insurance for her ‘06 Ford Escape. I was hoping she would buy another Escape but she instead bought a 2004 Ford Explorer amd still has a lot of money left over from the insurance pay out. At least she will have a lot of metal around her and Paige in case of a collission. It doesn’t get the gas mileage the Escape got and I told her she was going to have to change her driving habits including not letting anyone drive her car. Anyway, if she doesn’t have gas money, the Explorer is roomy enough to camp out in.
The only argument we have goten into lately is over Paige. I love my granddaughter, but have let Rachel know I’m not baby-sitting every night. She had planned to visit friends last night out of town but change her mind and said she was going to do that next week. I had watched Paige Friday night and Rachel came over in the wee hours of the morning Saturday and stayed at the house until I got home from work. She then decided to leave Paige with me while she went home to take a shower. She ddin’t come back and after a couple hours I called her because I didn’t have Paige’s carseat. She was in Sedalia with some friends and had forgotten she had the carseat. I told her she better drop by with it whenever she got back. At 9 PM I put Paige to bed and waited awhile longer to call my daughter. She was home. I told her she needed to come get her daughter now. When she got here, we got into an argument about her responsibilities as a parent. I told her she was going to have to start planning her evenings around her daughter and not her friends every night.