the next day

I dunno.

This is like watching a TV show and being able to comment on the script. I see my granddaughter, who is street wise way beyond her 15 years, struggling to fit in with her dad and his rules. He took away her cell phone and she is on restriction for I don't know how long. He imposed these things because she lied to him, telling him she was one place when she was at another place. I asked him, "What can she do now that you've isolated her from everything? She cannot talk on her phone to her friends and she cannot go anywhere." I tried to lead him to understand that isolating her is not punishment. It's isolation. He is cutting her off from everything. No friends. No social interaction. No activity outside of school. And, it appears he's not providing her with any kind of companionship. How very lonely she must be ...

He's coming over tonight, to pick her up and take her home. I've asked him if we can talk together a little before they take off. Please let the wisdom of my age provide me with the words and actions that will serve them well.

Pretty please?

my granddaughter is a rebel

I just got off the phone with my 15-year-old granddaughter's father. He's not my son-in-law, because he never married my daughter, but he is her dad. Anyway, this kid is in a lot of trouble. She just recently came to live with her dad after going through a whole lot of crisis type stuff with her mom that included skipping school, smoking pot, shoplifting and lying. Her mom wasn't able to deal with her and they apparently came to blows over something. So, now she's with her dad.

He's got her in a special school for kids with her kind of problems, but the system isn't moving fast enough. While he waits for help for her, she's lying to him about things and doing stuff she shouldn't be doing --- like smoking pot and sneaking off to meet "friends" he doesn't think are good for her.

She's going to be staying at my house tonight, until he can get himself together and think it through. He's already been in trouble with the family courts for the way he's expressed his anger towards her in the past, so he's very cautious about being with her when he's upset.

I'm distressed because I don't know how to help this child. I love her very much, but I'm also aware of how manipulative she can be. She learned it from her mom. Who learned it from me.

Where do we go from here?

Florida Flu

Photo right: a 3-D model of the flu virus

I caught the flu from someone, somewhere last weekend. Maybe they didn't know they had the flu. Or, maybe they were just beginning to feel bad. I dunno ...

The only place I went was Wal-Mart, with my husband on Saturday afternoon. I didn't hug or kiss anyone since I didn't see anyone I knew. Why, I didn't even shake hands with anyone. But, by Sunday afternoon, I was down for the count. Having NOT had the flu since 1997, I was completely caught by suprise. I laid on the sofa Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, taking Motrin for the body aches and headache and moaning and groaning about feeling so awful. My 3-day weekend for MLK day went away. It was "sick time" for this old girl. When I was finally able to get on the computer again, I thought I would look it up and see what this flu crap is all about. Here's what I found: The flu is a respiratory illness caused by infection of the Influenza virus which belongs to the Orthomyxoviridae family. Infected individuals usually experience a rapid onset of flu symptoms which typically include: muscle aches, high fever, head ache, chills, fatigue, dry cough and runny/stuffy nose. Symptoms begin within 48 hours of infection and generally occur suddenly; recovery from the primary infection may take up to two weeks. Flu complications can involve secondary infections such as life-threatening bacterial pneumonia or pneumonia caused by the Influenza virus itself. Reports estimate that annually five to twenty percent of the population of the United States becomes infected with the flu with over 35,000 deaths related to complications each year.

I had no clue how bad it is to get the flu. And, that little thing about pneumonia scares me. I did have pneumonia in 2004, over the long Thanksgiving weekend and I learned that it leaves damage on your lungs that never goes away. Pret-ty scary stuff ...

My timing for becoming ill seems ironic, doesn't it? Why can't I be sick Monday through Friday? Oh, no. Not me. I get a break from the everyday, run-as-fast-as-you-can rat race of a job I love and what do I do? Yard work? Nope. Catch up on my laundry? Nah. Clear my always overflowing in box? Not on your life!

Thus far in 2008, I have managed to acquire food poisoning for the New Year and flu for Martin Luther King's birthday. I wonder what February holds for me... President's Day is a "legal" holiday. Will this be the long dreaded bad cold? Or worse? Stay tuned!

I hate underlining

Well, I have been all over the place here trying to figure out how to eliminate the underlining from my post title. Can't find a damned thing that I understand! All this time I thought it was easy creating a blog, then along comes this annoying underline feature and I'm ready to take a ball bat to my computer! Aughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

It's bad enough that people write in ALL CAPS --- long diatribes on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness --- all written in caps which take twice as long to read. Then there are the lovely individuals who use script fonts in all caps. I just love those guys and gals! What are they thinking about? Someone! Please! Tell me!

But, underlining is the most annoying typographic treatment there is because people don't use it properly. And, today, I'm just not in the mood to explain why! Just suffice it to say, I hate underlining.

The post-holiday, mid-January, they're making me crazy blues

It's Tuesday, the fifteenth day of Janaury. Jeez, but it took me long enough to get here, didn't it?

I created this blog back in December with the intention of providing myself with a place where I could write about the things that matter to me and, often, not to anyone else. My intention is to write something at least every other day. I've enjoyed visiting those blogs where the artist creates a new piece of art every day and posts it for sale. Well, I don't have any illusions about being an artist, but I think writing every day (or so) is an important exercise to improve my skills and help me get through all the junk so I can get to the "good stuff," whatever that might be.

So, there you have it. For now.