The pic of the sweet baby girl is my youngest daughter's soon to be newest critter. She is trying to think of names now. Lola might be it. The puppy is three days old now.

Well, it has certainly been an interesting day. First, I went to the doctor for the first time in over two and one half years. The doctor is one I really like, he is down to earth and is easy to talk to. The last time I went to him my cholesterol was high and he prescribed some cholesterol-lowering medicine. I took one month, but stopped because it cost just way too much and at the time I could not afford

. Today, when he asked how I was doing on it I honestly told him that I
was not taking it and why. I am also borderline diabetic, which right now can be controlled with diet and exercise (aaaagggggggg!!!) so, ok, I will stop drinking cokes. This is not going to be easy since I can easily drink twelve or more a day. I will need to lose weight too. I will start walking then will start swimming again. I also need medicine for depression. So, after my exam, the doctor left the room and came back with a bag of Lexapro (for depression) and,,,oh shoot, I can't remember the cholesterol meds and I am too lazy just now to go in the bathroom and get it. Anyway, I will not have to buy meds for as long as the doctor gets the free samples. And, as soon as my prescription insurance kicks in.

I also have something funny going on with my liver. The doctor has scheduled an ultrascan to see what it might be. It doesn't hurt and like he said I am not yellow, so he doesn't think it is anything serious. BUT, I have had two brothers die from cancer, one pancreas/liver cancer and the other they were not sure exactly where his started. He only lived seven days after his diagnosis. So, I am going to be a tad bit nervous until I find out what is going on.

On a lighter side, I went to a casino for the first time in about three years. I tried craps and lost, then went to a slot machine and did pretty good for awhile. Actually, I would have come out ahead if I had left sooner, but I was playing Wheel of Fortune and it was just so much fun. I only spent twenty dollars of my money, the rest was the casinos so it was ok. The bad part was the food. Casino food is usually good. This was horrible. Even the crab legs were overcooked. But, it was fun. But, I won't be going back for a long time.

I am going to start selling Leslie's cartoon glasses on ebay for her, then when I get done with them, she wants me to put her Mormon books on there to sell. She is doing it to keep me busy, because, when I have too much time on my hands, I do dumb things. Like play Wheel of Fortune.

And...

OK, the obsessions are kicking in, I can feel them now, sneaking up behind me. I suppose it is a good thing that I have a doctor's visit tomorrow. Have I mentioned how much I dislike and distrust doctors? Well, I do. But, I am going, since it has been three or so years since I have gone. So, I go, they give me meds for, oh say, high cholesterol which lowers that but eats up my liver.

You know that I am rambling now because I should be working on a story that I have had rattling around in the back of my head for a couple of weeks now. And, there is another one peeking over that one's shoulder, so, I suppose it will be another night of all night writing. I wish it were easier to write.

So....ta ta everyone.

Well, it's Memorial Day.....whoooo hooo. This year I find myself wishing I could get all pumped about it. I remember the Memorial Days of the past when I would throw some hotdogs, buns , chips and cokes in the car.........and the kids...and we would head up to the nearest creek to swim all day. That was so much fun. But, now, some of the kids
have kids and the one who doesn't thinks it is silly to spend time playing in the sand with his mama, so he is off fishing and eating the flounder they gigged last night. So, today I will put in a load of clothes, get my newest NetFlix movie and snuggle down on the couch with Gumbo. That's Gumbo up there in the pic.

Nothing much has been happening lately, which is probably a good thing. It's about time things quieted down. I am supposed to go up to Michigan in two weeks to get my two oldest grandsons and bring them back here for the summer. If I can afford it. I will need to do some major praying as I do my budget for the month. Those boys need the time away from Michigan and I need them down here. Even though they spend the first week asking me to repeat whatever I say to them. They are good boys. I was looking for the latest pic I have of them, but dangit, I think I deleted them along with some stuff that needed deleting. I will ask my daughter to send me more, so I show them off too.

Ok. I may write more, but I am also supposed to be working on a story for a writing group and I have a bad case of the popitifuls, so maybe that will be for tomorrow.

Weird dreams

I have been having this recurring dream. I am in an old rundown house. I am moving out, and there are people coming in and out who have bought the house and will be doing extensive remodeling. I am terrified because I know that there are pictures hidden there of my mother killing my father. And, I am the one who took the pics. There are people coming in and out, some I know from years ago and some I don't know. I keep trying to figure out how to get my father's body and the pics out of the house.

This is where it always ends, and I wake up in a total panic. My father died of liver failure in 1974 and my mother died in 2001.

Bank woes and 'christian' hackers

This is going to be a complaint post. First, my bank apparently found out last summer that a some of the customers's bank card numbers were stolen along with thousands across the country. They said they notified us about this last June. I don't recall getting a letter telling me about this. If I had, I would have immediately cancelled that card and gotten another one. Apparently, our numbers were only stolen, not used. So, a week or so ago, I did get a letter telling me that some of the cards had been showing some activity and so the bank were going to cancel the cards, effective this last Monday. They were going to send new cards which we would have to call in to activate and then go to the bank to get new pin numbers. Sure enough, this last Monday, my card was no longer valid. However, I have not received my new card yet. Nor has at least one of my friends who also uses this bank. I called the bank just a few minutes ago and was told that the cards were mailed out last Friday and everyone should have theirs by this Friday. Ok, I can live with that. But, here is the problem. Since, for whatever reason, I did not know that my card number had been stolen, I did not check my accounts that closely. I know, I should do that weekly anyway, but, I trusted the bank and did not see any large amounts going to places that I did not authorize. And, since Katrina, a lot of my important papers were lost. I do not have a year's worth of bank statements to check. Now, I can go to the bank and get them for $2.00 a page, which will be around $100 or so. Because, you see, their online banking page only goes back 3 months. Big help there. So, I suppose I will be ordering those copies just to be sure.

Now for the other complaint. There is a woman who I met on Paltalk who has a blog that I read daily. This woman had the 'audacity' to question a well-known online minister's view on something. I actually heard a man say that this was the reason that women should not preach. This woman are not preaching, nor do they want to. This woman had legitimate questions about something this well-known apologist said and has/had on his website. All this happened weeks ago, the two have talked and still disagree. That should have been the end of it. However, there is a troll who has made it his life's mission to harrass this woman every chance he gets. On Paltalk and on her blog via her comments section. She deletes his comments and blocks his IP to prevent him from commenting again, and he somehow gets around the block. This person, who loudly proclaims his 'christianity' has no qualms about also being a hacker. He has bragged about it to several people. He has hacking programs that allow him to go invisibly into a chatroom, where he sits and records what is said. He then edits the recordings and plays them in other rooms.

So, my question is, would a Christian do this? And, why is he doing this? Is he jealous of the people he is recording? What should be done with someone who does this? Banning? He can get around a ban. I think I know, from listening to him for several hours over a couple of years, why he is doing this. And, to be honest, he is not the only one causing problems. The people who allow him to post things in there rooms should be ashamed of themselves. For example, he admins in several rooms. Before he signs onto Paltalk and goes into a chatroom, the conversations are good and disagreements are handled in an adult manner. But, as soon as this person comes into the chatroom, he will put something in the banner that is meant to cause strife and division. And, if noone reacts or comments on whatever is there, he will come to the mic and say...'what do you think of what's in the banner?' or something like that. He will do this several times, until an argument is started, people get their feelings hurt, or some of the people leave and go into another chatroom. Before this man came on the scene, these people, as diverse as they are and with differences in some points of doctrine, were able to discuss things rationally. Since he has been here, the group has split and some have even left Paltalk with no intention of returning. Since he has come on the scene, some people cannot discuss any differences, without insulting. People who have had issues with someone else, who before this troll, were able to lay those issues aside. Now, some use what this person does. They listen to and replay his recordings over and over. They laugh and ridicule others. They allow this troll to insult others in their chatrooms. This troll will go into a room, invisibly of course, with people who he does not like with the sole purpose of recording something he can later use.

How Christian is that? Would a Christian be a hacker? Would a Christian continually cause division and strife among brothers? And, more importantly, would a Christian allow this? Why do others who claim to be saints, allow this? Why has none of the many other Christians who know this troll and know what he is doing, not sat him down to tell him that he is wrong in what he is doing?

Soon to be a star......

This evening I talked to a young man on Paltalk that I first 'met' back in 2000 or so. I thought for the longest time that he was at least in his 30s because of the way he talked and the things he said. Especially about the bible. Turned out he was only 18.

Anyway, we found that we have similar tastes in music, like Leon Redbone and John Prine and Tom Waits. This kid is very talented. He sings, writes and plays the banjo and guitar and the last time I talked to him, before tonight, he was teaching himself the fiddle. Tonight he sent me his myspace site where he has two of his songs. I like them both, but 'Suicide Blues' was my favorite. Ya'll seriously need to go there and listen to it. And, remember his name, because you will be hearing it again, most likely on CMT.

Eight months ago....

Eight months or so ago my world changed forever, the physical part anyway. We are now working on a new normal. Highway 90 goes right along the beach from Bay St Louis to Ocean Springs. It is still makes me sad to drive down it. It's like a friend said, it is almost as if we are in a funeral procession, because we are still stunned to see the devastation that Katrina brought us. The beach front had some beautiful hundred year old houses and churches that are just gone.

I spent the hurricane in Baton Rouge with my youngest daughter. And, I have to admit that I did not believe that the hurricane was going to be as bad as it was. There was wind damage even in Baton Rouge and that is about an hour and a half from the coast. We prepared though. We got in extra food and diapers and bottled water. And, then sat back and waited. It was not an option to go anywhere, traffic was so bad that some of the people who did try to evacuate gave up and came home.

I slept on the couch and woke up early Monday. The wind was already howling around the buildings and the power was off. Over the next three or four hours we watched tree limbs breaking and falling. We watched the parking lot to see if it was going to flood. But, mostly we sat and wondered what was happening over here on the Mississippi Coast. If you are ever here when we are expecting a hurricane, you might hear us joking about how we need a new roof or that we wanted to remodel anyway. Trust me, these are just whistling past the graveyard jokes.

Since we had no power to watch TV and the phones were iffy, we did not know the extent of the damage. I tried to call my oldest son who sat out the hurricane up in Saucier.....which is only about ten miles north of the coast. Finally, my oldest daughter who lives in Michigan got through to us to tell us what she was seeing on CNN. I could hear the stress and fear in her voice, so I knew it was worse that even she was telling us. Just before we lost connection she said that David (my son) had managed to get through to her. That was a relief to know that he and his family were not hurt. He told her that he was told that all the houses down by my house had gotten a lot of water. My house NEVER floods. Suddenly the jokes about remodeling were no longer funny.

That was the last news we got until Wednesday, two days after the hurricane. David got through to tell me he had checked my house and it was ok, except for the roof. I started breathing a little easier. We still did not have power, which meant no news. (It also meant no A/C. And, I can tell you that it is seriously hot and muggy after a hurricane. There is not even a breeze. I will tell you too that when the guy across the street came in every afternoon and started up his generator we told each other all the evil things we would like to see happen to him.)

Finally, Wednesday evening the lights came on. The sounds of windows and doors slamming lasted about ten minutes. I am surprised that there was not a brown out from all the A/Cs coming on at once. Then, we turned on the TV and sat down to see what the world had been seeing for three days. Still, I guess because it was on TV, it did not seem real. My son turned on the computer and found a NOAA website that showed the area. He found his best friend's house. It looked as if a giant had come through and ripped the roof off the house, swept the house itself away and then put the roof on the ground.

I did not come back here till the next Wednesday. I drove over to see for myself that my house was really ok. The first thing that struck me was that there was hardly any traffic on the interstate. And, what traffic there was, was convoy's of National Guards, and of electric company trucks from all over the country. And, the smaller convoys of people from the different churches and organizations from all over the country who were on their way to help. People, ordinary everyday people, took time from their jobs, and their families to come to the coast to help. Just because help was needed.

Driving into Gulfport was surreal. The power was still off in most areas. Debris was still on the roads. People who had stayed home and rode out the hurricane had a look in their eyes. The Katrina Look. I drove down my street and when I saw the live oak tree in my front yard I stopped the car and cried. That tree was only as tall as my waist when I bought this house and now it shades the whole front part of my yard and house. Most of it was still there, but it had taken a beating. It's still lopsided, but I see new limbs sprouting, so it is going to be fine.

I did not go down to the beach that day. I was not ready. It was late October before I finally did drive down the beach. Pictures and news footage are ok. It does not compare to actually seeing the church that is just a shell now,or the yards piled with debris and garbage, or Marine Life gutted. Not one building was left untouched and most were destroyed.

My oldest daughter came down last month. It was her first time seeing it firsthand. Her youngest son was surprised to see that things were not all cleaned up and rebuilt.

The coast is coming back. Houses are being rebuilt and businesses reopening. There are still piles of debris and blue FEMA roofs though.

Hurricane season begins again in June.