Florida (Again, really) - Day one

This trip was nearly cancelled several times...We finally decided to go to Ormond Beach, FL, a familiar destination for 4 days then travel up to the mountains for 2.  Once we made our reservations, I remembered to check with NOAA to make certain there were no hurricanes developing.  Ooops...Sandy was brewing in the Atlantic :(  After checking and rechecking and worrying, we decided we would take our chances and head down.

Well, Thursday evening, I received a phone call from my mom's doctor.  She wanted my mom to go to the ER, as her breathing was very compromised (she has COPD).  Being the excellent daughter that I am, I immediately went to her apartment and took her to the ER.  6 hours later, she had been admitted and I headed home.  Up at 6:30 on Friday, work all day, came home and packed until Midnight, since she seemed to be in good hands and Sandy was heading North, rather than West...

Saturday Morning dawned gray, rainy and cold.  Miserable weather to be driving.  Luckily, by the time we got the car loaded and were ready to leave, the rain had stopped.  The drive was uneventful and horridly boring.  We had rerouted our trip from the mountain route to I-75 due to the possibility of high winds and rain.  So, it was back to slogging down I75.  Georgia is a HUGE state, but we made good time and checked into the Days Inn, Lake City, FL.  Total time 12 hours (give or take) and 750-something miles (that accurate account was given to me by Greg.).  Hotel room is older but clean.  Unfortunately, the in-room coffee pot is missing its filter basket, so I have to trek to the lobby to get coffee.  The breakfast choices are a little sparse, but that's OK.  They have a late (noon) check-out, which works perfectly with our ability to check in to next hotel...

I wish the weather was going to be better, but it looks like it will be sunny, but chilly the entire time we are on the beach...

More tomorrow.

Shortened Entry in the interest of peace

My father-in-law is failing.  That is a fact.  He is currently living with my brother-in-law and family and contemplating a move to Hospice.  I cannot express how grateful my husband and I are that his brother is there to take control.  He is truly going beyond his comfort level to help his dad in his final hours.  And, for the most part, over the past 16 months, the entire family has rallied around and helped out where they could.

<> Yeah, I deleted it...

I really wish I could post this as written...but I can't.  There is always that chance someone will read it...and all HELL will break loose.  But I'll save it and maybe someday, I just won't care enough to censor myself! As it is, I won't post the full message...just know that I wrote it.

April 15 - A Bad Day in History

My husband was born on April 15.  There is nothing spectacular or fantastic about that.  But historically, April 15 has not been such a good day. 

1865    President Abraham Lincoln succumbed to an assassin’s bullet.  Shot while watching “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC, President Lincoln is widely considered one of our favorite and best presidents.  He served during one of the most troubling times in American History, the American Civil War and managed to preserve the Union in the end.  His assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a ferverent supporter of the Confederate Cause and thought that killing Lincoln would bring victory to the South.  He was later executed in a burning barn, following a massive manhunt.

1912    In the late hours of April 14, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic.  At the time, the Titanic was billed as “unsinkable” and was the largest and most luxourious ocean liner afloat.  She sank in the very early morning of April 15, 1912, taking with her 1,514 passengers and crew, including the captain, Edward Smith.  While there were many notable figures on board, there were also hundreds of 3^rd class passengers who were seeking a new life in the United States.  The Titanic was outfitted with the legal amount of lifeboats, but not enough for everyone on board, but the crew seemed to adhere to the “women and children first” rule, for the most part.  What I find most astounding was the fact that one of the survivors was the Managing Director of the White Star Lines, J. Bruce Ismay.  Apparently, he was not one of the great heroes of the Titanic, ie The Band, The Strausses, JJ Astor, etc.

1927    The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 began on April 15, 1927.  On this day, over 15 inches of rain fell on New Orleans in an 18 hour period.  This overwhelmed the levees and much of New Orleans and surrounding parishes were underwater.  This flood spurred flood control measures.

1955    The IRS moved Tax Day to April 15 in 1955.  It can vary slightly but the 15^th is generally considered to be Tax Day.

Of course, there are a lot of good things that happened on the 15^th as well.  The Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp was liberated in 1945; Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755. The list goes on and on…

Just thought I’d let you know…

Viral Videos and charitable organizations

Most people are good-hearted. They want to help other people in need, to ease their suffering and stop brutality. That being said, they are also easy to take advantage of, just by posting a Facebook post about the injustice being done, the suffering across the world, etc. I believe in helping my fellow man, however, I'm not one to just hand money over because some organization says this person is evil, this group is worthy, and so on.

Really people....do your homework. Before you blindly post viral videos, find out if they really are what they say they are...Check out CharityWatch or something comparable (for things like Kony 2012) or Hoax Slayer/Snopes/CNET for internet viruses, scams and hoaxes. If everyone was just a tad more careful, we wouldn't have so many hacked accounts. Of course, I'm not immune, but I am always suspicious.

New Leaf

OK...so I decided to join a gym. I know, I know, completely out of character for me. But they opened a new one near where I live and I need to do something. Especially when my dearest, darling husband rubbed my stomach and said something about Junior. Yes, he is very lucky I didn't kill him right there.

I had been toying with the idea of this new gym. It's HUGE, has tons of machines and looks cool. I went there this evening and was totally unimpressed with the gentleman who showed me around. And I was prepared to workout tonight, but I was overwhelmed. And there was no one to show me how to use the machines. So, I left, and called my Sister-in-law, who I think goes to this club. I'm going to see if she is going tonight and I will go with her later. She can show me what to do, at least to get started. I'm going to commit to this, at least for a year.

So, I will try to update my progress. We'll see how it goes...

Let’s face it: families are a pain in the ass. To borrow a cliché, you can’t live with them and you just can’t shoot them. Oh wait, that’s not the right cliché! You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. But sometimes, I just want to run far, far away. Case in point, the interaction (or lack thereof) between my daughter and her father. If she needs something from him, she never asks him directly. It’s always a message to me to relay to him. So, I get the bitching from her and from him. Yeah, that’s always what I need to start my day. And if I tell her to ask him directly, I get an attitude from her. I can’t win for losing. And it goes both ways. He won’t directly ask her anything either.

This morning, it was about a battery for her car remote. Easy request, you would think. But no, he complained about the speed at which she goes through batteries and the fact that he doesn’t know what type of battery it takes. This progressed to “she should just get it fixed herself. She always wants me to fix it, do her oil change, fix her car…” and so on. WAIT ONE MINUTE…you’re a freaking mechanic AND her dad…reasonable expectation that you would fix the damn thing, change her oil, etc. His response to that “Did your dad change your oil?” After I finished laughing at the mere thought of my father doing something mechanical, I said “Hell no. But let’s turn it around. Did your dad take care of your sisters’ cars up until he got sick?” (His dad knows about cars, their maintenance, etc and had connections for all of the peripheral people; mine is lucky he knows how to turn one on and drive it). I got no answer for that one…

My point this morning: Ask me anything you want ME to do. I will help if I’m able. But if it’s something for Greg, please ask him. I just don’t need the headache of being in the middle.