Stormy Weather

I spent one sleepless night worried about my friends and family in MA because of the flooding and eight days of rain they have been dealing with. Now I get to stay awake wondering if the niece, Jewel, and family and friends are smart enough to realize that having a wedding at Coco Beach, FL might not be the smartest plan for the weekend.

Luckily the friends we have going down are the kind of people that will load the whole party on a trailer and tow it north with the tunes blasting all the way as they dodge the hurricane if they have to. I think the newest prediction is it will be further south of them. I feel badly for the neice. I hope it all works out for them.

I have been working on a website for a guy that has a new tool for picking up firewood without bending or stooping. It's pretty nifty. I don't recommend Moo see it, but the rest of you can check it out at "Simple" Simmons four legged Firewood "Spider" .

Anyway, he was meeting me at work to set up the site and such after work. I went out to let him in the door and there was a chick fight that looked fairly serious going on across the steet a piece. It appeared that the watching kids were trying to break them up but not succeeding. I started right over to shut them down, or at least treat the wounded, when a car screeched right next to them and parked the wrong way on the street. Another woman got out and approached the kids so I slowed down a little to see what the deal was.

As near as I could figure, she was the mom to one of the girls there. Her girl wasn't fighting. She tried to figure out what the fight was over but the girls made it sound like it was just name calling, started repeating some of them to each other and were off again, hair ripping and slapping and falling down. The other woman just stood there and watched. I told them I was calling the cops and went back to work.

See, I knew the problem was that neither the mom or I could touch a child that is not ours without legal repercussions and both girls needed to be "restrained". There is actually a law on the Michigan books that makes it a crime to "restrain" a minor. Truthfully, I decided I just did not have the time to go to jail for some stupid teens. There was no blood so I just went on with my site building and called the cops. The kids were well gone when they arrived, of course.

I hate physical conflicts. I have only been in two or three (that were not my sisters) and I did ok, but I didn't like it any better as a participant. You have to be able to defend yourself but I have not come up with a valid reason to attack another person, especially in school.

"She took my crayon", or "He pulled my hair," do not qualify, neither does boy/girl friend stealing, lying or rudeness. Saving face? Forget it. Calling chicken? Nope. There is no honorable reason to hit someone except to protect yourself or someone else and we are back to defense.

Stupid kids!

I went home late and the mate had sliced ham and swiss so I could have my favorite stacked ham and cheese hot on buns left over from the bn hn bjnh (my b key has been refusing to b on command - I just yanked it off and cleaned it up, sorry) big doings on Sunday.

I was so tickled with the kids Sunday. Not only did the girls (the mates girls, technically) make it with all but one grandboy, but my son and his wonderful wife with the newest grand girl took the time to join us. All the kids but one were there, she lives out of state and doesn't make it home much but we love her anyway. Then the Mom with the cousin came over and then my eldest nephew and his wife made it with their boy who is about 6 months older than the grand girl. Throw in a cat or two, I left the dogs outside, and it was a full house.

I had made plenty of my secret receipe sloppy joes, with chips, pickles, cheese, a birthday cake made by the mate's eldest and ice cream provided by his youngest there was more than enough for everyone.

The Lions screwed us up by losing spectacularly but other than that it was a great good time. We had a poker game going in the other room and the 3 older grand boys shot pool upstairs or rode the bicycles to the creek and back.

They started leaving with sleepy kids around 3:30. With no left overs and paper plates it was a quick clean up. Mate's eldest got him the robot movie with Robin Williams and that was dropped in for the rest of the afternoon. My eldest boy got him a new Kung Foo cronicle but he had to leave before we could watch it. The mate watched it the next day and it was a riot!

I keep telling the kids, "No dustables, no gifts, just come and visit with us or have us over." They have toned down a lot on the presents but some of them just HAVE to buy gifts. We deal with it as long as they come to see us when they give them. It really is true that the fun part is hearing what they have been doing and how life is going for them and seeing what new tricks the grands have learned. And I just love a card game, for like - ohhh - three days in a row all day long playing different games.

It's pretty quiet around the house this week. No emergencies, no bail outs. Other than our friends on the east coast and the neice in Florida this weekend there isn't much stress.

I'm appreciating it while it lasts!