The Hospice conference I attended yesterday was held on Southern Illinois University's Edwardsville campus in the main conference hall. Driving around campus made me feel old; there were kids wandering around who didn't look too much older than my 14 year old - and in reality, they AREN'T that much older at a mere 18 - 20 years. All of the facilities in and around the conference hall were geared towards the younger generation: fast food places, Starbucks, TV's tuned to MTV instead...
Sometimes during the course of my ordinary, everyday life I come across people who I think are, for want of a better word, angels. It's not their actions that make me think them such, nor is it their appearance or their voices. It's nothing that they've done (or not done) or said (or not said); it's not how they dress or style their hair or even the clothes that they wear. None of those things has any bearing on my thinking them to be celestial, spiritual beings. It's their pre...
The Air Force base that I live on started a Veteran's Day Vigilance walk/run yesterday afternoon. Basically, we've had someone running or walking and carrying the flag ever since 1600 yesterday. Yesterday when it started the weather looked like it was going to be on our side; it was pleasant and unseasonably warm at 65+ degrees. However, that didn't last. At 1800 it started to rain, then we got thunder and lightning followed by a 30 - 40 degree drop in temperature ...
It's official. I'm an Ambassador. I even have a nametag with my new status on it. Training went well and was very informative. I came out of it with a crate full of materials to disperse; pens and wound measures and pill boxes and booklets and brochures and shirts and hats and bumper stickers and all kinds of other stuff. We also found out that each of us was hand-picked. Out of the 100+ volunteers that the hospice has working for them, only four of us we...
I have a site bookmarked on my laptop. It's a record of each convict executed by various states since 1976. It has their name, photos of them, details of their crime and their last meal and final statements. Sometimes it also has photos of their victims. Link I stop by there every so often to see who's been send to their grave and what they did to get there. Most of the crimes make me sad, but the ones who REALLY bother me are the crimes against children. There a...
There's a Burger King about 1/4 mile up the street from my house. I don't eat there much, mainly because I don't care for BK food much, but also because it has a history and a reputation for gawd-awful customer service. The time before last that we went there, we waited 30 minutes for our food before asking for a refund and going elsewhere. This evening we're watching our neighbor's kids, so we decided to treat them to BK. I'd seen commercials for the Italian chicken sandwic...
I'm restless today. I got up at 0600 even though the kids don't have school (parent teacher conferences - Jakes was yesterday and he's a straight B student, which is awesome for Jake). Dave went to the gym at 0500 (like always) and I thought I heard the screen door slam announcing his arrival home from running the perimiter of the flightline (7 miles), so I hauled my ass outta bed - only to find that it wasn't Dave but the cat who had got shut out all night and was throwing herself a...
I LOVE getting a bargain. It makes me feel so good to know that I got something for a lot less than retail price. I like to tell people how much I paid for things; I relish getting a good deal. But you know what I love more than getting a bargain for myself? Getting a bargain for someone else. This morning I went to the thrift store on base looking for outfits for Angela Marie's baby. I was hoping to get a couple of what I call baby-gro's...I think they're called sle...
The flowers are ones I picked off my rose bushes. They're the last roses of the season; it's turning colder and the leaves are coming off the trees. Those leaves made it harder for me to find his marker this morning, it was covered with leaves that had blown off the sweet gum tree that's close to his grave. I cleared them away as best I could, as you can see. I've been wondering who James Mayberry is. Why aren't his parents at rest in the same cemetery? Wha...
Three years ago today, this happened to me: *Yeah, I know it's small, but I haven't managed to come up with a good quality enlargement yet. When I do, I'll post it* I'm lucky to be here. I could have died...I SHOULD have died. According to many physicians and police officers and paramedics, I shouldn't have survived that wreck. But, I did. There have been days when I wished that I didn't; there were days when the pain was unrelenting and everything in my life se...
I'm embarking on a exciting expedition this morning. I've been anticipating this all weekend. I couldn't go on Saturday or Sunday because the kids were home and my husband wouldn't have been pleased about my taking him along with me. I even woke up in the night thinking about how today was the day. I've found a yarn store in a little town about 8 miles away from here. This is the kind of yarn store that doesn't sell Red Heart Super Saver scratchy acrylic - the kind ...
Okay, bad drivers of America, you are attending this lesson this morning because you have, in the past few days, demonstrated your utter stupidity when behind the wheel of a car and total lack of knowledge about the rules of the road. I am here to remind you what to do when you are faced with some pretty common driving scenarios. I think that we'll start with one of the most common situations: A Four Way Stop Sign. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a question of "I've stoppe...
I'm having a lazy day today. I COULD be mopping the floor, but I don't feel like it. I swept it and did the bare minimum amount of housework that I could - vacuumed, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, swept the kitchen and hallways, made the beds and picked the laundry up off the floor of the kids bathroom - and I've decided that I want to devote today to knitting. I'm finishing one of the baby sweaters and am trying to chart an anarchy symbol and heartagram so I can make beaded w...
My boss at the hospice called today. I expected to be asked to go sit vigilance with someone, but instead of giving me a patient's details she said she had a proposal for me. She asked me how I'd feel about an ambassadorship. I'd be an ambassador for the hospice with one of the local nursing homes. I'd go and meet with the directors and managers a couple of times and month and be the liason between that nursing home and the hospice. I'd be dropping in and schmooz...
When our kids were small, we started having what we call 'international night'. Basically, we'd make food that was traditional to another country for supper, try to learn a few words in the language of that country and we also talked about that country; what it's traditions were, where it was located at geographically, it's culture and what role it played in the global scheme of things. For instance, when international night was French, we ate coq au vin and had proifteroles for dess...