Smart Alecs, Friends and Family

I can tell from the comments made on my last post that most of you fall into the first category today.

Somebody out there told me I should have a blog. Said, "you will enjoy the experience".. I am still waiting for the enjoyment. Sorta been a pain in the behind at times.

I did not have to call a "fixer" Jerry. Did it all myself and didn't cost a penny. A headache, but no money changed hands.

Colleen, you would bring up April Fools... No, I am not standing in five inches of water either...

June, thank you so much for your input. Al least the others were able to read what they couldn't see.

Kellie, actually your idea was very good. St. Jude is coming in from the patio today and coming to my computer room. Forecast is for heavy rain, strong winds and hail. I think of your Grandmother every time I see him. She said many a prayer to him. She is the reason I got him in the first place.

I don't know why I had to "fix" this darn thing in the first place. It should never have been broken. The problem ? I played with the settings yesterday, trying to get all the print to go to one color. Seems like "somebody" else can get it to do it but not me. When I signed off, it was the way I started and you could read everything. Then last night Bob checked the blogs and told me mine was "broken" and needed "fixed".

From now on the words "fixer" and "fixed" will be spelled without the letter E in them. That way they become what they are. Another nasty four letter word we shouldn't use.

Can anybody tell me why when it did whatever it did, some print showed up and not all of it? Why didn't it all get lost out there somewhere in computer cyberspace??

Bad-Bad-Bad-Bad-Day

You won't believe this, but it rained last night. Really, REALLY rained. Poured. Deluge. I dealt with all my leaks at work and was so glad to get back to the "security" of my own home.

So much for that thought. I pulled in the garage, kicked off my safety shoes and stepped into the house. My heart stopped.. I swear it did....... The first thing I heard was this awful alarm going off in the basement. Purse and coffee cup landed somewhere upstairs, and I ran for the basement. I expected the worse scenario. My socks weren't wet. Buuuuuut, the sump wasn't running and I could hear water pouring into it.

I ran back upstairs and woke Bob. Not much he could do, but he didn't get as panicked as me. Grabbed the phone and called "Thrasher", our basement fixers in Omaha. I didn't think he was as explicit as he could have been in describing our predicament. They told him they would be out tomorrow afternoon.

The clouds are black, rain (heavy) , is expected all day. He left the room when I picked up the phone and called them back. I think he thought I was going to make a fool of myself, but at the expense of a flooded basement, I had some issues to discuss !! Namely the cost of our last 2 summers of flooded basements and on top of that what we paid for them to put this "System" in that was supposed to solve our problems. After they installed this system, I couldn't rest because I kept thinking if the power went off, what good was any system????? So about 2 weeks ago we had them come out and put a second battery operated pump in to protect us... Cost a bundle. We had all our bases covered... NOT so.

I told the woman who answered the phone just what I was thinking. I started with the cost of our two flood experiences, what we had paid the for the "cure" and what could happen to us if something wasn't done before tomorrow afternoon. I did not mention "LAWYER" or LAWSUIT" , but I think she got the idea. Either that or a hysterical woman got her attention. She called back a few minutes later, and miracle of miracles, someone was on their way to our house from Omaha.

The alarm never went off this entire time. Fire alarms should be so nerve wracking !!! About drove us crazy. You couldn't stand to stay in the basement for very long. The outcome? The original pump had burned out. (Installed 2 years ago, and only had a one year warranty). The battery operated one was charging, and doesn't kick in if the power is on? What is wrong with this system??

What was done ? We had them put a "new" pump to replace the burned out one. Then looking at the one in the furnace room, that was held together by duct tape, we had it replaced with a battery operated unit too. The "fixer" installed a bigger unit in my computer room. After the last month and a half of nothing but rain, and constant running, he thought it was too much for the pump.

I can't believe how much money you can spend when a "fixer" is in your home and you aren't doing anything but watching and listening. I am tired, I have a headache and I am ------ off. Sorry about the bad language. I am going to sign off and go to bed. Hope I am in a better mood tomorrow.

"Pokers"

I didn't know until today what "pokers " were. When the boys were here, Damien was very explicit in telling me Raidyn got my pokers. I couldn't get him to show me what he was talking about, but it was obvious that Raidyn had done something he shouldn't. Maybe Damien was willing to tell on Raidyn, but didn't want to be responsible for the ultimate outcome of me finding out ? Can little ones think that far ahead, and do siblings care about each other ??

Well, as I was cleaning house today, I found the "pokers". I have a United States map and I put those needles with the colored heads in the places I have been. Shows me where I have been, and shows me where I want to go for my "bucket list". Looked liked Raidyn pulled all my pins that he could reach. Those that weren't on something or in the carpet, were put in some spot I have never been. I have never been out in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Baltimore. Way off the coast !! I replaced all of them, as I remembered where I have been. Now i will have to go back tomorrow, and check to see what pins are placed where I have never been.

Would you believe the last, and hardest pin to place was Kalamazoo? The place we have been the most ?????

Friday

Friday was really a good day for us. Nothing happened. Sounds funny doesn't it? We took lunch to Jenn's so she wouldn't have to cook. The boys loved their Happy Meals. Don't think Jenn was as excited over her "Big and Tastey".

We had ugly clouds all afternoon and evening. All it did was thunder for a while and that was it. Parts of the state were under severe warnings. I am including a link to the storms I told you about earlier. The hail storm that hit O'Neill and northeast Nebr. There are some really awesome pictures here. Hope you will look at them. They actually came to us from Jerry in Georgia. Thanks Jerry.

http://www.kbrx.com/WEATHERPHOTOS.html#hailstorm

It still amazes me how news travels all over the world so fast today on the Internet. Nothing like the old crank phone we had on the farm. We couldn't "dial" out most of the time, much less "dial" up. Now we have broad band.

Wonder what our grand children's generation will have for communication????

Boys At Play

Here they are. Peyton did manage to settle down and played real well for 40 minutes. Out of 2 hours and 45 minutes I feel like it was a success. We are making progress. He could have cried the whole time.

Bob just dropped him off at the hospital to be with his Dad. Hope he is good for him. Bob is going to be leaving to volunteer and I will be alone with the other 2. As tired as I am, don't think I could cope with Peyton too.

Oldest Damien, middle is Raidyn and , of course, the baby is Peyton.

Peyton

It is 7:55 AM and Peyton is crying big time...

Peyton

It is 7:30 and Peyton is on my lap. He isn't crying out loud, just a sad little wimper type thing. I think this will be a long day.

Grandchild

Dan just called. We lost another grandchild. Jenn was 13 weeks pregnant.. The doctors think the baby might have died as long ago as 4 weeks. She will go into the hospital in the morning for a D&C.. This is their second miss-carriage.

We will watch the boys. If Peyton co-operates.. Dan is going to put a car seat in Bob's car this afternoon and if Peyton is not so good for us , Bob will take him to the hospital to Dan in the morning. He tolerates his dad, but when he wants mom, he wants mom......

EYES

Now I changed the back ground and I can see even better.... Think I will make that appointment soon.

Eyes/Meg/Weather

I will start with the eyes. I have been using red text (large) because I thought I could read it better. I don't think that is really working, so I am going to try black (large) instead. What I really need is an eye doctor appointment. May do that soon.

Bob talked to Meg yesterday. She was having a rough day. I think she thinks she should be feeling better by now. I think it is hard for her to understand it will take weeks for her to start feeling good.

The weather? You won't believe this, but we had rain last night. Good thing too, since it hasn't rained since Sunday, and Friday, and Thursday, and Wednesday, and every other day before that.

The northeast part of our state was in a severe or tornado watch for most of the evening. O'Neill was forced to call out their snow plows last night. They had so much hail they were needed to clear roads.

We aren't under water as deep as Iowa, but this is serious too. A lot of farm ground is still under water or too wet to get to. Some farmers haven't even planted corn yet and it is almost too late to plant anything else. If they could plant beans the fields are too wet and then more rain comes. Then there are those areas where they got the crops in, they aren't flooded or too wet and the hail came. Not gonna be a good year for farmers in the mid-west I'm afraid. Watch those prices go up !!

Dumster Diving/Garbage Day Finds

You ain't gonna believe this one !! Remember the halogen light saga? Well, Kellie, it turns out we still had the darn thing and dad didn't set it out until last night.

You have already guessed it. Someone nabbed it before the garbage man got here. If they only knew the story behind that lamp !!! Free ain't always so good .......

We can't be sued, can we ??

Meg and Bob

Bob talked to Meg yesterday and she was feeling stronger. Sounds like her cough isn't as bad. Bob too, had a better day.

Took Bob to Famous Dave's for dinner yesterday. First time I have ever seen him take that much food home. His appetite definitely hasn't returned. Guess he can have leftovers for lunch. I have all of my chicken left. Plan to nuke a potato for each of us and call it good.

Hope all you fathers out there had a great day............

Weather

Boy did I speak too soon. I came upstairs Sunday morning about 6:00 and the sun was coming up real bright. I came up again about 8:00 and it looked like midnight. That quick we were in a severe storm warning. Thunder, lightning and another inch of rain. It could have been worse. We heard Milford had softball sized hail and Ashland had high winds and golf ball sized hail.

Supposedly, we are not to get rain again until Thursday. It is real dark and cloudy now, so we will see. I want that weatherman's job. Who else gets paid so much and it doesn't matter if they are right or wrong?

Bob and Meg

Meg called earlier today and she is home. She feels somewhat better, but still has that cough that won't go away. They think she may have a touch of bronchitis.

Bob is still uncomfortable at times. He slept most of the day. We did make a quick trip to the Dairy Queen this afternoon for chocolate malts. I think that was the highlight of our day.

I can't beleive we have made it 48 hours with no rain. I even got my saftey shoes outside in the sun today to dry.

Kind of a long short weekend if you know what I mean.

Meg and Bob

Bob saw Meg yesterday morning. They had removed some fluid and she was feeling much better. Bob and I stopped on our way to check him in. Her door was closed and the nurse thought she was napping so we left. Don't know any other news there.

Got Bob checked in at 1:30, right on time. Other than the IV it was 2 hours of not stop paper work. What is wrong with this world? You should have seen the size of the notebook she was writing in !! All she did was flip pages and write. She did see me nodding off and shivering. (Colder than heck in there.) She wheeled in a recliner, got me a pillow and a blanket straight from the oven. I tried to doze and she continued writing in "that" notebook.

He went in around 3:50. I went and had a you know what, stopped in the cafeteria to get a pop and went right back to his room. He was already back and eating crackers. The whole thing took 20 minutes. The nurse kept on writing. She finally stopped and said she was tired of that book. She opened it up, removed 3/4 of it and took it to a cabinet out in the hall. Then she kept on writing. If it wasn't important, why was it there? What will they ever do with it all ? And will anybody ever read any of it?

In less than an hour the nurse told me I could go get the car. Bob told her he wanted to go visit his sister before he went home. She told him he could see her tomorrow and he needed to go home. Said when the pain pill wore off he would be hurting. We did stop at the drug store and get a perscription filled for more pain pills and came straight home. Good thing. By that time, he was miserable. Had a very uncomfortable night.

It is early, so I don't know if he is going to want to go see Meg today or not. If not I will go up myself. Just have to wait and see.

Food

We don't have to worry about Bob and food . He came down and talked to me after my last post. He re-read his paper work last night and found out he only had to fast for 8 hours.

Soooo, he got up early this morning before I got home from work and ate breakfast !! So much for no food after midnight. Anyway, he won't starve.

Hospital

By now most of you (I hope) know Meg is back in the hospital. She has fluid in her lungs and around her heart. Something like that so don't go quoting me. Bob thought they would try to drain some of it today.

Bob also is going into the hospital this afternoon for a procedure. They are going to put a stint in the tube from the kidney to the bladder. If his backaches go away for a month, then they will operate and remove the stint and fix the narrowed part of this tube. This type of stint isn't like those for hearts. They aren't meant to be permanent.

I guess I will stay with him until they take him in. Then I will go visit Meg. Then go see him when he comes out. Then when I am bored I will go back and visit Meg. Handy them being in the same hospital.

He doesn't have to be there until 1:30 this afternoon and the procedure will be at 3:30. Don't know why he agreed to this. He knows how he is when he has to go soooo ling without food. That is all he will think about until it is over. And talk about. They said he should get out about 6:30 or 7:00 this evening. I worked all night and this is gonna be one looong day.

Happy Friday the 13th !!

Did You Know ?

Did you know it is possible for one person to mop up 100 gallons of water in 5 hours? Take my word for it. I just finished doing it. Mop bucket holds 5 gallons and I dumped it twenty times.

I left the house early last night thinking "that woman's" office or something would be flooded. Didn't get that far. Made it into the plant as far as the second set of double doors. Purse and coffee went up on the steps and I grabbed a mop and bucket and started in. Second shift chief steward came along shortly after. He got me clocked in and called the shop. They came and blocked off the main hallway. Minimum of one inch of water from one end of the hallway to the other. At 11:30 I went up stairs and checked the offices. Nothing drastic, just put up 2 wet floor signs and went downstairs.

After lunch I joined "the view" (he was in for out of class overtime) in the cool room. We have this riding machine we call the scrubber. When the tank is empty, you set the controls and it has the ability to suck up water. He parked it in the hallway running and we each took squeegees and started pushing water. The water was at least 2 inches deep. Every 10 minutes he would go dump it while I kept pushing. Ninety minutes later we sorta had it under control. Did I say it was actually raining in the cool room? Nice, steady and cold. I have no idea how many gallons of water we disposed of.

Then it was on to long V's break room. Totally flooded. The water was going from one room, under the walls and into the next room. That is where a lot of the water in the main hallway was coming from. Under the walls.

I came home with soaked shoes and socks. Pant legs were wet up past my ankles. Cold, miserable, tired and sore. I have Damien and Raidyn coming soon while mom goes in for a check up.

I don't think Grandma will be quite up to par. Grandpa will have to do some heavy duty babysitting.

After 9 hours of flood control, I am too tired to even think straight. I am afraid to ask Bob what the weather forecast is for today. It is very cloudy and looks like it could pour. Could be a repeat tonight.

Sirens

The sirens started about 7:45 last night and didn't let up until 9:00. Ugly, ugly night. We had over 3 inches of rain in that time frame. Streets and basements were flooded all over town.

Spencer called me several times to see if we were in the basement. What he really wanted to know was if our basement was flooded. Answers were always yes, followed by no.

He said they were in their basement and he had his helmet on. Something our local station suggested last week after the sirens went off. Go to the basement and have children put on their bike helmets for protection. Not a bad idea if you think about it.

Tornadoes were reported in almost every direction from Lincoln. The weathermen on both local channels didn't know what to report first. It was a frantic evening for them too.

Then about 12:00 AM the rain came again. A downpour ! This morning when I got home, Bob told me we had water in the basement. Not bunches, but just about the same as last time. Will have to call Thrasher now.

We have had so much rain, there is no place for it to go. The ground is past saturated. I can't remember a spring so wet. I think by July and August, we will be praying for rain. Unless we are under water .

Insurance Adjuster

I forgot about Friday !! The adjuster finally caught Bob. He happened to be in the area trying to take care of as much of the storm damage as he could. He stopped by (I was in bed) and took a look at the damage from the halogen light exploding.

The living room carpet is totalled and Bob thought he said hall ways and both sets of stairs (because they match). Not the bedrooms. Don't know why, as they match too.

Our living room set was totaled too. Only the sofa and love seat had burns (fifty cent size on sofa and 2 pencil eraser sized on love seat). The over sized chair and Ottoman weren't burned, but being a matched set, they got the ax too. We have only had them for a little over 5 years. We knew as soon as we bought them and got them home, we didn't really care for them. This just isn't the way we thought we would replace them.

Then he took a picture of the lamp ( I made Bob put it in the garage and save it) and he was gone.

Sunday night, the lamp went out to the curb for the garbage man !!

Grandkids Without Drama?

We had both boys Saturday night for a "sleep over". It was Raidyn's first time ever away from mom and dad. Considering everything, he did pretty good. The picture on the top is Damien tolerating the camera. The picture on the bottom is Raidyn, NOT wanting his picture taken.

If I counted right, we had 5 episodes where Raidyn "didn't" want grandma anymore. He would cry and put his little hands under his armpits and stomp away with his elbows flopping. Made me think of a chicken flapping it's wings. I just told him that was ok with me and all but one time it didn't last long. That time he threw a toy and I said that's it. SIT..... He cried and cried (with his little hands under his armpits) and finally asked where grandpa was. I said "in the basement if you want to go see him." Off he went with his elbows flapping big time. I wish I could have been in the basement to see what happened or what was said. Evidently he didn't get too much sympathy because he was right back up and must have decided he might as well play, because it beat crying and grandpa wasn't having nothing to do with it.

I made a big bed for them on the living room floor, one for me on the couch and put one of their favorite DVDs in. (Kids get spoiled at grandma's.) They each had a sippy cup of milk. This is where I was really worried. Would Raidyn go to seep, or cry for mom ??? Surprisingly, he lasted about 30 minutes watching the DVD and fell asleep. He only woke up once during the night and wanted more milk.

Damien on the other hand (who loves sleepovers here) was up several times. I fell asleep right after they did, and the TV was still going. At 1:00 AM a weather alert came on and woke me. I got back to sleep but the wind and rain woke Damien and me at 2:10 AM. I got him back to sleep pretty fast, but shortly after 3:30 hard rain woke us both again. That is when Damien decided he needed to hug Uncle Casey. Then I had to tell him Uncle Casey was working. They just don't get the idea that people work in the "dark" time. A hug, a kiss and more milk in his sippy cup and he went back to sleep.

At 5:00 AM he shook me and said "It is daytime grandma." I could not convince him it was still time to sleep. I got up, made my coffee and we came downstairs so we wouldn't wake Raidyn. He played (had all the toys to himself) and had a ball. I sucked on my coffee and wondered what in the heck I was doing up....

Raidyn lasted until 6:15. I couldn't hear him, but grandpa did. (Sent him right downstairs to grandma.) I tried breakfast about 7:30, but that didn't go over too well. Damien wanted pudding and nothing I offered Raidyn interested him. Got some cereal down Damien but Raidyn kinda went without. Figured he wouldn't starve so didn't push the issue.

Mom picked them up about 11:00, and that was our "sleep over" .

Meg

As most of you know, Meg got home from the hospital Sunday. She is definitely getting better, but had no idea the surgery was going to be so rough. Several of her kids made it home to see her and that helped. She will be starting PT pretty soon.

One More Fixer Guy

After our storm the other night that dumped three plus inches of rain, in 45 minutes, I came home and asked Bob if we had water in our basement. He said nope. I came down stairs and sure enough we weren't flooded. No soaked carpets, no water soaked walls,no furniture floating. Everything looked fine. I came home from work this morning and started moving all my junk out of the way for "Thrasher Basement" to come and install a battery on our sump pump. I have been scared to death all spring with all the storms. What would happen if our power went out? What good is a sump without power? I had to ask Bob to help me move my table, as it is hard to move alone. THAT is when it happened.

Wet socks !!! Water !!! In my basement !!! You don't even want to know what I said. Then we could see the faint water stain going from north to south where it had already dried. The south side was the wettest.

The fixer guy, put a hose in the unit they installed, and said there was a blockage, probably from dirt or silt. He said we should have them, or us ,check it every year. You just hook up a hose to your water supply, pull up your carpet, put hose in in opening and turn on water. If your carpet gets wet, you know you got a plug. Which is exactly what happened when he did that. It is wetter than before he came.

So, after more dollars than you want to know, we have a battery that will protect us from power outages and rain but not from"Mother Nature's' dirt or silt.

This week has been a drain on dollars. We are spending it a lot faster than we deposit it. I know we don't rank up there with Katrina, the tsunamis, the war or most anything else in this world that is going crazy ( republicans) , but we will not turn down any donations.

I can't tell you what preceded this, as I am too upset to talk about it...... maybe tomorrow.

Storms

What a night !! The sirens went off about 8:30. And went forever. Stepped out the back door and the wind was from the east. Very unusual. We went to the front door, and WOW.... What a cloud. It was almost hypnotising. There were so many cases of funnels, winds, baseball sized hail, heavy rains (2 to 7 in.), and flooding in Nebraska, I can't begin to tell you all of them. Basically, most of the state was under all of these warnings at on time or another.

Then I went to work and it happened to be calm at the time. Three o'clock. Lunch break. I went outside. It rained like I haven't seen it rain in a long time. Downpour doesn't quite do it justice. It would come down in torrents blowing to the south. That quick, the wind would change and blow it to the north. We had our flag blowing straight out facing west. At the same time you could watch clouds racing east. Then we would have rain pouring down on us and could look up, slightly to the west and see stars at the same time. Also at lunch, I heard Joni, a friend had called in to say she would not be in to work on first shift today. They had a tree come down on their roof, and their home was being drenched by rain.

The bad news is, late this afternoon conditions are to be the same, and more, possibly worse, storms are coming. We even have the "storm chasers" in town. They have been here for over a week. Should get more footage tonight.

Bob wants to go to a class get together in Columbus tonight, and I hope he can go. He is really looking forward to it.

Meg, Day 3

Bob did not go up yesterday. I tried to talk him out of it and I think Ginny did too. We think Joe spent the day with her and I am sure Mary was there when she could. Bob is going up today, so will have an update later

Boo - Boo

My "not so favorite" body shop guy called yesterday and told us when we could bring the truck in. He also told us he had finished he paper work and what it would cost. His "guesstimate" went up, a bunch !!!!! Since we are leaving for Bentonville next week, and there won't be time to fix it before then, he said I, and I did say I, could bring it in this morning and they would pound it out and get a working tail light for me. Good thing, as I was trying to figure out how I could drive 400 miles without making a right turn!!!!! This picture shows my "poor" Ram yesterday after Denny tried to get the tail light glued on and working. Didn't work. Plug was broke, so I got a new one or something today. The actual damage is this gouge with the entire tail light piece missing.

Kellie, Denny said it would take 2 or 3 days to fix the truck. I will tell dad to pack a bag. I am thinking you should keep him at least 2 weeks, as he is safer at your house than at home. Don't worry about feeding him. Bread and water is fine.

Talked to my brother Arvid last night and discussed vicious Neons. Got me worried. I am seriously thinking maybe I should have it "put" down. It could become a liability. What if it hit a visitor or their car????? We are talking law suits here !! Don't think my insurance guy would like that.................

Meg, Day 2

Bob went to see Meg yesterday. I knew he shouldn't, but he did. He has forgotten what an awful surgery it is and doesn't remember how bad he looked the first few days. He came home really sad and depressed. Says he is going back today. I told him he might want to stay home. Day 3 is the worst. But I think he will go up later.

Brother

Happy birthday to my much older brother Arvid today.. Also happy birthday to my grandson, Shannon on reaching the ripe old age of six !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you both.

Younger drivers/Etc.

What is it with younger drivers? Did they not read and study their drivers manual? Did they not understand what hand signals are? Two mornings in a row, I put my arm out my window, signaled a right turn and slowed. Both mornings, and one was in heavy rain, cars rode my bumper right up until I turned. Did they even know what it meant? Did they think I was going to make a "gesture", or what? I want my turn signals fixed !!!! Probably more than my gouge. I am really afraid of a ticket for failure to signal a turn. My favorite body shop guy said, " Oh, they will only give you a fix it ticket." Never heard of a "fix it" ticket. Sounds like a bribe. Wonder if he was pulling my leg. He is capable of it. The way my luck runs, it would be one with a BIG fine.

To answer your question Kellie. If my truck is an overnighter, Denny will need to take your dad home with him. Don't worry. He isn't fussy. Steak, pork chops or meat loaf. Add mashed or baked potato and your green bean casserole and he will be just fine. Then lead him to your couch for his nap, and he won't even know he's not home.

Spell check. The spell check on this blog bugs the heck out of me. (Now that I found out how to use it.) Aol is so user friendly. If it "don't " like my language, I can hit "learn it". This spell check "don't" like my language and doesn't give me that option. Really now.... What is wrong with kinda, gotcha and overnighter? These are everyday (American) terminology. This blogs spell check "don't" like them and won't learn them.

We had another brief and fast storm come in last night. Some lightning and thunder show we had. It hailed pretty good for about five minutes. First time I had ever been in the offices when it hailed. Impressive the noise it made hitting all of those windows !!! I just stayed in the isle in case they started breaking. (Prayed they wouldn't until 1st shift when somebody else would have to deal with them.)

Don't have much else to comment on this morning. Gonna (take that spell check) go read my e-mails.

Update on Meg

Meg came through surgery just fine. No heart damage or anything unexpected. Don't know when Bob will go to see her, but I intend to wait until after the third day. That is one wicked operation.

Dodge Ram Vs. Neon

This is a no brainer, right???? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

For some reason, I know not what, Bob left his car parked in the driveway yesterday. Not all the way on his half either, and I didn't know it.

You already know what is coming don't you? I hit the "darn" thing when I left for work last night. Just his side view mirror hit my truck. No damage to the "darn" thing that I could see. My truck???

Wellllllllll, it knocked the tail light plum off. Then it put a nasty little gouge in my truck. I took it to my favorite body shop guy ( happens to be my son-in-law, Denny) this morning. He saw me pull in and came out to meet me and first thing he says is, "I see you've got a boo boo". I was tempted to tell him what I called it, but I didn't.

Then I proceeded to tell him that it was his father-in-laws fault. I told him the whole story , you know. How Bob's little Neon hit my Dodge Ram truck? He just listened quietly and smiled at me through my whole sad story. About this time, I began to feel like maybe he was humoring me. I don't really remember him taking my side. Ummm, but then I casually asked how much it would cost to fix my truck. Then the polite smile vanished and he very business like said , between $600 and $700 dollars. He said they would write it up and give us a call and we could bring it in. I said "Bob" could bring it in. He said, "We will give him a ride home". I said "He could wait all day for it".

Bob may need to get a part time job to pay for this boo boo !!!!!

Meg

Meg went into surgery at 8:30 AM this morning.

Hospital

We went up to the hospital yesterday and saw Meg. She was just finishing her lunch. She said she had had a headache and hadn't been able to eat any breakfast, but ice packs had helped. She thinks a medication is causing the headaches. She said they don't want her walking or doing any un-necessary activity. She is actually very calm and not too worried. Right now it is still set for some time Monday. Don't know what time. Mary is trying to find someone to babysit the kids. I could, if it was morning, and if I could get to bed around noon. Even if the hospital gives a starting time, you can't count on that. Then when the family member comes out of surgery, it is hard to leave for a while until you know everything is really all right. Mary is checking into a couple of drop in day care places here in town. There are a couple I can think of. The only problem there is, they are so darned expensive, and you never know if they have their allotted number for the day. They also want advance notice of when they are coming. Kinda hard to know if you aren't sure when they will operate. Just waiting to see how the day plays out.