faith and caution when strangers knock

When I grew up respect for authority figures was the norm. For instance, I didn't call my friends parents by their first names; they were Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Jones not John and Jane. With my parents there were no mixed messages. I respected the word and rule of my parents with a healthy measure of fear of consequences.  Being that I grew up in a law enforcement family and a Catholic family, cops and the religious were held in high esteem.  It made for and interesting mix of faith and caution when it came to how I developed in all areas. Needless to say I can truthfully tell you my family is an interesting bunch and that I had an interesting upbringing.

Post their police careers my Dad and my Uncle went into business together in the same beach community where our family beach house was located.  And it brings to mind a something that happened when I was about 14 or 15 years old at the beach house. 

I was glued to the TV watching my first airing of The Godfather so I’m thinking 1974 or 1975. Of course timing being everything it is just at the point of the movie when the director/producer finds the horse head in his bed and my heart is racing, I’m alone and I hear… knock, knock, and knock! I jumped about four feet off the couch made my way to the door to find two men in suits standing at the door.

  

Remember what I said about faith and caution?

 Enter faith.

“We’re agent Mulder and Scully (no that’s not their real names, I stole those from the x-files) and we’re agents with the Federal Government (FBI/ Secret Service) is your Dad home? He glanced to confirm my dad’s name on his little pad, Henry right?” Without thought my hand went up to the lock but I didn’t lock it, for now the door as a barrier was enough.

Enter caution

At that point they each produced badges and showed them to me. I remember thinking as I was looking at the badges; I should ask for more I.D. if they’re real agents they’ll have ID too. “Can I see your I.D’s? They showed me their picture ID’s.

Thinking back I’m sure they had already deduced that I was home alone but I didn't want to tell them that myself after all I was a kid and they were strangers.  When I mentioned I’m going to call Dad and tell him to come home they ask if they can come in the house. Funny how even a thin storm door between them and me gave me the tiny bit of courage.  I said no and told them to wait outside. Then I locked the storm and wood door and dialed Dad.

Dad arrived in five minutes and they all came in together. Introductions were made and they got down to business at hand which if you’re curious had something to do with someone or other and counterfeit money being passed in local businesses.

Then surprisingly one of the agents said to Dad with a grin, “I’m guessing you were a cop?”  “Yes.”  Dad replied. “And you know this how?”  The agent went on to exclaim. “Only a cop’s kid would grill us about our credentials and then leave us on the porch, you raised her well.” And he shook my Dads hand as if to congratulate him.

Then Dad turned to me. “Why didn’t you let them in?” All three pairs of eyes turned towards me and I knew they were very curious to hear my explanation. I took a deep breath knowing I had faith that I used common sense and exercised caution the way my Dad had taught me in order to keep me safe in an unsafe world.

Then I explained.

“The decision was simple.”  “How was I supposed to know the badges and I.D’s were real if I’ve never seen one before?”  “For all I know they could have come from the five and ten cent store.”

I find this is really disturbing

This obituary was pulled from Nevada's Reno Gazette-Journal on Tuesday.  

Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick born Jan 4, 1935 and died alone on Aug. 30, 2013. She is survived by her 6 of 8 children whom she spent her lifetime torturing in every way possible. While she neglected and abused her small children, she refused to allow anyone else to care or show compassion towards them. When they became adults she stalked and tortured anyone they dared to love. Everyone she met, adult or child was tortured by her cruelty and exposure to violence, criminal activity, vulgarity, and hatred of the gentle or kind human spirit.

On behalf of her children whom she so abrasively exposed to her evil and violent life, we celebrate her passing from this earth and hope she lives in the after-life reliving each gesture of violence, cruelty, and shame that she delivered on her children. Her surviving children will now live the rest of their lives with the peace of knowing their nightmare finally has some form of closure.

Most of us have found peace in helping those who have been exposed to child abuse and hope this message of her final passing can revive our message that abusing children is unforgiveable, shameless, and should not be tolerated in a "humane society". Our greatest wish now, is to stimulate a national movement that mandates a purposeful and dedicated war against child abuse in the United States of America.

My stomach just kept on turning and turning the more I read.
What's your reaction?

things that keep me up at night

I went to the doctor today for my Restless Leg Syndrome. For those of you who don't know what it is it's a sleep disorder/neurological condition which causes a drop in dopamine in the brain resulting in a number of symptoms.

I get a creepy feeling in my legs and an urge to move. This usually starts after dinner when I sit and increases in intensity when I go to bed. When I lay down the sensation is accompanied by an aching deep in my legs, primarily in the bottom half but sometime the entire legs. Relief comes from moving, sometimes just rubbing my feet together or stretching will help but mostly I need to walk.

Anyway,  my regular neurologist wanted me to see the sleep doctor in his practice, he's concerned that along with the RLS that I might have sleep apnea. Bill's been saying that he thinks when I sleep on my back I stop breathing for bits of time. I snore as well which makes it easy for him to hear the pauses in my breathing. At least he thinks so.

I have insurance (I've always considered it to be good insurance) so I went into this without much worry of being covered or even the least concern of the cost. His charge is $1,689. If the insurance company pays less I would be responsible for the remainder.This is for a full night in the sleep lab and the full diagnosis of the results.The lady in the office told me that my insurance company has a reputation of not paying much.  But my deductible is reasonable so I'm not all that worried.

So I said to myself, self.....  I've been to the doctor a number of times this year and surely I've built up something towards my deductable right? My deductible can't be more than $250.00-$300.00. Well I checked and I have two words holy crap! My deductible has been raised to $1,000. Damn it to hell! Don't get me wrong I'm so grateful I have insurance but $1000!

I thought Obama-care was supposed to save us money. Put one in the not true for me column.

I hope my Political Representatives, my President and my insurance company are bedding down all nice and cozy tonight (sarcasm). I know they don't lose sleep on the little guy or gal.

Jen plans to keep breathing, my legs will keep moving unfortunately, and I'll try not to dwell on my soon to be dwindling bank account, damn it!

mom's the word....

Have I mentioned Mom's not been well? She developed gout three weeks ago in her wrist which lingered. Then two days ago on the same side in the toe. My mother is 85 and walks with a cane so even with the wrist she had to move into my home because not being able to use that wrist made her so unbalanced we worried she'd have a fall.

Needless to say we (my step daughter and I ) had to help her with her personal needs for two days after the men carried over here the other day .Poor mom! If you know anything about gout is very painful and it's your bodies way of saying "you're not treating me well" and "you better to make some changes." She's on limited medication since she has kidney disease but she's responded well enough to ditch the wheel chair and walk with a walker.

After a bit of reading and research we adjusted her diet to a more alkaline based diet with a small amount of acid foods to naturally purge her body of the uric acid that's built up in her system. This is what the web page says and it really makes sense after some thought. "Our bodies are really a complex biochemical laboratory (with a soul thrown in!). They work best at a pH level between 6.75 and 7. The food we eat greatly influences how alkaline your system is and consequently, how well you absorb your nutrients."  If you'd like to take a look at the food list you can find it here. We're hoping to cut short her need for medication by this change in diet. We'll see what the kidney doctor thinks next week at her appointment.

It's my understanding that gout is rather common. If you have any tips of stories that might be helpful I'd sure appreciate it.

I like her because....out of the mouths of babes.

In a few days school will start for kids everywhere if they've not started already.
Anyway it got me to thinking about all the cute stories that I remember about my kids and the grand-kids and their school experiences.

I thought in honor of school I'd share an adorable story about my daughters middle son when he was younger.

Let me just set this story up by saying that he is very shy and did not go to take to school with ease in the beginning. To say she was worried about how he'd do in school was an understatement. Moms! We always have one we worry about.

Needless to say she arrives up at school and there he is sitting up in the front of the classroom with a big dimpled smile on his face. He seemed OK, and in fact he was actually more than OK. She did the meet and great with the teacher and then when they got home she spoke to him about his positive attitude of which she was happily surprised.
Now here's the story and I'm paraphrasing here....



"Emmanuel, Mommy was a little surprised to see you up in the front of the classroom."
"I like my seat" he replied.
"You like your teacher then?"
"Yes Mommy she reminds me of Grandma."
"Oh!" "And hows that?"
He then extended his hands near the front of his chest in a motion she didn't understand.
"You know Mommy." he said earnestly smiling at her.
"No I don't know, you have to tell me."
"I like her because she's like Grandma in the breasts!"