My Papa is gone

"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"
-William Shakespeare's Hamlet


It is with a heavy heart that I must report that my dear, sweet Papa is gone. He passed away Monday, September 17. He was the kindest, most gentle, genuinely sweet, most big hearted man I've ever had the pleasure to meet in this life. My bright and shining star has gone out. My heart is broken. Goodbye, Papa, I miss you so much.

James Alexander ........, 79, beloved husband, father, grandfather and friend, died September 17, 2007.

He was the son of the late Albert Waverland ........ and Elizabeth Mae Mauney .........

Mr. ........ was a machinist with General Electric for twenty years, and an avid woodworker. He served in the National Guard during World War II, was a state constable, and a member of West Greenville Baptist Church, where he held the positions of deacon and Sunday School secretary.

Surviving are his wife of 59 years, Ruth ........ ........; two daughters, Ruth Anne ........ of Greenville, and Linda J. ........ of Atlanta, Ga.; six grandchildren, Andrew ........, Brian ........, Crystal ........, David ........, James ........, Rick ........; and five great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by one sister and two brothers.

Memorial Service and visitation will be held Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 2 p.m. at West Greenville Baptist Church.

Memorials may be made in his name to West Greenville Baptist Church, 551 Perry Avenue, Greenville, SC 29611.

I AM PISSED!!!

I mean I am completely, totally, utterly, royally pissed! For the past 15 years or so my 3 sons have been eating Rice Oriental. Now it seems that the corporate meanies at General Mills have decided they're no longer going to manufacture it. Let me tell ya there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth around my house after I spoke with General Mills customer service on Friday and was given this disastrous news. Boo, General Mills. BOO! If you've used and liked this product and would like to express your displeasure at its being discontinued, let General Mills know!

Pops is still holding on

Pops is still hanging in there. He is very weak and getting weaker. His oxygen level has been dropping and his heart is getting weaker every day. The doctors are saying that he will probably not last as long as they had originally anticipated. I love him so much and cannot imagine my life without him in it.

Update on my Pop

Pops came home from the hospital on Monday, July 16. He is, and will continue to be, on oxygen full-time. He went to see his cardiologist on Thursday. The news is not good. If he is lucky and doesn't have any more trouble such as he's had for the past few weeks, he may possibly have 6 - 12 months.

I go to their house every day after work and feed his dogs and cats, do the laundry and anything else that needs to be done around the house. It's tough after working all day but they've done so much for me that I couldn't possibly say no. Unfortunately for them I'm all they have. I do the best I can but I wonder if it's enough.

A rough couple of weeks

Shortly after my last post my dad had to go to the hospital. Pops has not been well for many years. He's had 2 quadruple by-pass surgeries. He also has emphysema, spinal arthritis and osteoporosis. He had been coughing really badly and having trouble breathing for several days. Mom finally convinced him to go to the ER. They admitted him and he was in for 5 days. The day he came home, June 28, he seemed to feel fairly well. He went to the drug store and had his prescriptions filled, ate lunch and fed his dogs. He laid down to rest and woke up a couple of hours later not feeling well. Mom helped him to the bathroom and he began vomiting blood and having diarrhea. Again she had to talk him into going to the hospital the next morning.

After examination in the ER they determined he had a bleeding ulcer. It seems that during the previous hospital confinement someone had given him aspirin...on top of his blood thinners. They began giving him transfusions and went into his stomach and put clamps on the ulcer to try to stop the bleeding. He was moved to ICU.

Friday morning, June 29, Mom called at 6am...the hospital had called and said he was not doing well and that the family needed to get there ASAP. My sons, daughter-in-law and I all took off up there. I called my sister in Atlanta and she got on the road too. We were at the hospital for 12-13 hours. He stabilized and we came home that evening. He was doing so well on Saturday that they were even talking about moving him out of ICU and putting him in a regular room on Sunday.

At about 8:30am Sunday morning Mom called and he was in trouble again and the hospital had advised that the family needed to come quickly. Apparently the strain of losing all that blood and undergoing the procedure to clamp the ulcer had put too much strain on his heart and he had had a heart attack. Since he still had the aspirin in his blood (Dr. told us it takes 7 days for 1 aspirin to clear out of your blood stream) they could do nothing to treat the heart attack.

He did finally stabilize and was moved out of ICU on July 4. We don't know when he will be able to come home. We are hoping it will be soon. There will be a lot of restrictions. He will basically be bed-ridden. He's going to need oxygen and a hospital bed. His room will need to be as dust-free as possible. He will not be allowed to drive and cannot go into his woodworking shop without a mask. It's going to be so hard on him to give up what little freedom of movement he's had.

I am just completely worn down.

The hits just keep on a'comin'

I'm just not sure how much more I can take. On Monday, June 4 there was a company meeting at work. Seems our "illustrious" President (aka the spiky haired, ugly Hawaiian shirt wearing little bastard) has decided the company no longer needs the print department where I work. The only up side is that we have been sold and will still have a job at least for a while. The down side is that we're going from being owned by a multi-billion dollar company with 10,000+ employees worldwide and tremendous benefits to being owned by a small businessman with no benefits except health insurance with premiums so high that I won't be able to pay them. So, I've lost my pension, health insurance, life insurance, short/long-term disability...pretty much everything that gave me some hope for the future. And I STILL don't have heating and air for my mobile home. I'm just not sure how many more hits I can take. Will anything good ever happen in my life again?

It's been a while...

I have so badly neglected my poor little blog. I've been working a TON of overtime trying to save up enough money to replace the heating and a/c unit that was stolen (if any of you kind souls out there could spare a few bucks to help me replace the unit, it would be truly appreciated - PayPal link to the left). So far, I'm still not there. I have been making some progress on cleaning the pig sty though. You can see the difference on the wall where I've been washing it. The whole place looks like that. Every wall in the home is going to have to be washed down. It's really gonna be fun when we get to the cathedral ceilings in the living room! I really get discouraged sometimes. It seems the harder I try, the harder it gets. Hopefully I'll be able to find time to post a little more often. Have a GREAT day!!!

Pervo Update

Photo courtesy of Greenvilleonline.com

The guy who impregnated a 9-year-old child has finally been sentenced. Somehow even 25 years doesn't seem like long enough for this disgusting, repulsive bit of human garbage. The boys in the cell block are gonna LOVE him. A word of advice...keep your back to the wall and don't drop the soap in the shower.

Virginia Tech

To the families of the students and faculty members slain at Virginia Tech: our thoughts and prayers are with you. My heart breaks at the thought of all of these young, promising lives brought to such a horrible end. And the knowlege and wisdom of the faculty members that is lost forever. Also, we must remember the family of the troubled young man who brought about the carnage and the trememdous burden that has been thrust upon them. May God be with you all and give you strength.

This is VERY bad...but

A 4-year-old child was killed in the parking lot of the apartment complex where she lived. A 15-year old who was driving without a license has been charged in the accident. But, I have a question...why was a 4-year-old in the parking lot at 11 pm???!!! Where were the parents? Why wasn't someone watching over this little one? My thinking is that the parent(s) should be charged with neglect and jailed. There's no reason in the world why that child should have been there at that time of night. Why, people, why?

Superman and Wonder Woman

59 years together!

My parents will celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary on March 20. We had a little get-together today since we won't be able to be there on Tuesday. Happy Anniversary Pop and Gm. LOVE YOU!!!

Some things I'll never understand

I'll never understand how a father could molest his daughter. What kind of sick mind must you have to do this? 30 years. That's all. He will eventually be released but that child will have to live with those memories for the rest of her life. How very, very sad.

Back to work!!!

The population of this country is 300 million.

160 million are retired.

That leaves 140 million to do the work.

There are 90 million in school.**

Which leaves 50 million to do the work.

Of this there are 35 million employed by the federal government.

Leaving 15 million to do the work.

2.8 million are in the armed forces.

Which leaves 12.2 million to do the work.

Take from that total the 10.8 million people who work for state and city governments.

And that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.

At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.

Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.

Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.

That leaves just two people to do the work…you and me.

And there you are, sitting on your ass, at your computer, reading jokes.

Nice. Real nice

**(this did say 85 million but it was brought to my attention that the numbers just didn't add up - oopsy - anyway it was intended as a bit of humor, not a statement of fact) :-)

Literary Excellence

It REALLY sucks to be me!

As I previously posted, some p.o.s. made off with the heating and air conditioning unit of my mobile home. Well, today I got the lovely news that it will cost $4500.00 to replace it and repair the duct work underneath. Whoo!! The hits just keep on a'comin'. I was expecting $3000 - 3500. But this just caught me completely by surprise. I'm pretty much speechless. Think I'll go and curl up into the fetal position in a corner somewhere. I've added a PayPal button on the sidebar. If anyone would care to help a gal out it would be greatly appreciated.

Back again

In spite of my best intentions, I haven't posted in a while. Things have really busy at work and I've just been too pooped. My divorce is final and I am getting ready to start cleaning the mobile home and preparing to move in...as soon as my son gets a job, that is. Can't pay all of the bills on my salary, that's for sure! At any rate, the cleaning is going to take, literally, weeks. This is some of the mess my dear ex left for me:

I'd lie about that too!

One day, when a seamstress was sewing while sitting close to a river, her thimble fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "My dear child, why are you crying?" The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water and that she needed it to help her husband in making a living for their family.

The Lord dipped His hand into the water and pulled up a golden thimble set with pearls. "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord again dipped into the river. He held out a silver thimble ringed with sapphires. "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

Again, the seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord reached down again and came up with a simple leather thimble. "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "Yes."

The Lord was pleased with the woman's honesty and gave her all three thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home happy.

Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the riverbank, and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under the water. When the seamstress cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked her, "Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney. "Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.

"Yes!" cried the seamstress.

The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!"

The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to George Clooney, you would have come up with Brad Pitt. Then if I said 'no' to him, you would have come up with my husband. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord, I'm not in the best of health and would not be able to take care of all three husbands, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to George Clooney.

And so the Lord let her keep him.

The moral of this story is: Whenever a woman lies, it's for a good and honorable reason, and is always in the best interest of others.

That's our story, and we're sticking to it.

Signed,

All Us Women

Birthday Calculator

This was fun! Here's what it says about my birthday. What does it say about yours?

20 April 1949

Your date of conception was on or about 28 July 1948 which was a Wednesday.

You were born on a Wednesday
under the astrological sign Aries.
Your Life path number is 11.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 3 & 6.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path number 9.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2433026.5.
The golden number for 1949 is 12.
The epact number for 1949 is 0.
The year 1949 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/29/1949 and ending 2/16/1950.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Ox.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Beaver; your plant is Wild Clover.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Paony, the second month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 21 Nisan 5709.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 22 Nisan 5709.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.16.15.7.2 which is
12 baktun 16 katun 15 tun 7 uinal 2 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Wednsday, 21 Jumadiyu'th-Thani 1368 (1368-6-21).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 17 April 1949.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 24 April 1949.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 2 March 1949.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 5 June 1949.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 12 June 1949.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Saturday, 24 September 1949.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Thursday, 14 April 1949.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 1 March 1949.

As of 1/10/2007 8:59:30 AM EST
You are 57 years old.
You are 693 months old.
You are 3,012 weeks old.
You are 21,084 days old.
You are 506,024 hours old.
You are 30,361,499 minutes old.
You are 1,821,689,970 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Joey Lawrence (1976) Carmen Electra (1972) Don Mattingly (1961)
Clint Howard (1959) Luther Vandross (1951) Jessica Lange (1949)
Ryan O'Neal (1941) George Takei (1940) Nina Foch (1924)
Lionel Hampton (1908) Harold Lloyd (1893) Joan Mir¢ (1893)
Adolf Hitler (1889)

Top songs of 1949
Riders In the Sky by Vaughn Monroe That Lucky Old Sun by Frankie Laine
Cruising Down the River by Blue Barron (also Russ Morgan) A Little Bird Told Me by Evelyn Knight
Mule Train by Frankie Laine Some Enchanted Evening by Perry Como
You're Breaking My Heart by Vic Damone Slippin' Around by Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely
Forever and Ever by Russ Morgan A You're Adorable by Perry Como

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 8.25205479452055 years old. (You old hound dog, you!)


There are 100 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 58 candles.

Those 58 candles produce 58 BTUs,
or 14,616 calories of heat (that's only 14.6160 food Calories!) .
You can boil 6.63 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1949 there were approximately 2.8 million births in the US.
In 1949 the US population was approximately 131,669,275 people, 44.2 persons per square mile.
In 1949 in the US there were approximately 1,595,879 marriages (12.1%) and 264,000 divorces (2%)
In 1949 in the US there were approximately 1,417,000 deaths (10.8 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1949 the population of Australia was approximately 8,045,570.
In 1949 there were approximately 181,261 births in Australia.
In 1949 in Australia there were approximately 72,999 marriages and 6,572 divorces.
In 1949 in Australia there were approximately 75,260 deaths.


Your birthstone is Diamond

The Mystical properties of Diamond

Diamonds are said to increase personal clarity to help one see things clearly as well as be straight-forward and honest. Supposedly, the higher quality the diamond, the better it is supports these qualities.
Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)
Opal, Quartz, White Sapphire

Your birth tree is
Maple, Independence of Mind
No ordinary person, full imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-respect, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, many complexes, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.


There are 349 days till Christmas 2007!
There are 362 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was in its last quarter.

It Sucks To Be Me

As I have posted previously, I am in the middle of a nasty divorce. Things had been looking up for the past few months. My soon-to-be-ex and I went through mediation and finally reached an agreement on ownership of our former home. I am supposed to take possession and make monthly payments to him until I have paid his share of the value of the mobile home. Our final hearing is scheduled for January 11. Well, yesterday my oldest son and I decided to just walk around the place and look things over. I could not believe my eyes when we walked around the corner of the house and the freakin' heat and a/c unit is GONE!!!!! Some low-life p-o-s came up, cut the wiring and carried the damn thing off. I am just at the end of my rope. I don't have the money to replace it and we can't live in it without heat and air. Does anyone know of a nearby bridge that I can jump off? I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE!!!!!

The last time I saw it:

Miss Beatrice

Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all. One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea.

As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, a condom! When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat.

The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist. "Miss Beatrice", he said, "I wonder if you would tell me about this?" pointing to the bowl.

"Oh, yes!" she replied, "Isn't it wonderful? I was walking through the Park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground. The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease.

Do you know I haven't had the flu all winter."

A Woman's Brain

A coworker sent me this cute email. I got a pretty good laugh out of it, hope you will too! If you know who designed this let me know and I'll certainly credit them!

Have you ever wondered how a woman's brain works ? Well .... it's finally explained here in one, easy-to-understand illustration:


Every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something that needs to be done, a decision or a problem that needs to be solved.

Good thing a man's brain requires only two balls.

Back to the old blog

Well, I tried Blog Charm for a while and things went pretty well. Now, it's decided not to publish my posts. So, I'm back to the old faithful blog.

I know I've sorely neglected my poor little blog. Things have been crazy the last couple of months. My divorce is still pending. The day before the hearing was to be held, my attorney's secretary called and said the hearing was postponed because the judge's mother passed away. So, that's rescheduled for January 11. I will be so glad when this is over. In addition to that, I've been working nearly 60 hours a week at my job, trying to help my son with his job hunt and helping my parents out around their house whenever I can. I guess I'm just tired.

And, I guess I'm a tad depressed too. Even after the divorce goes through my two youngest sons and I won't be able to move back into our house until at least one of them finds a job to help pay the bills. As much as I hate to do it, I'm taking one of them to McDonalds to apply. Not that there's anything wrong with working at Mickey D's, don't get me wrong. It's just that he worked so hard during his 4 years in college to get good grades so he could get a good job. Every where he applies it's the same thing...no experience. Well, how the hell do you get experience if no one will give you the opportunity to work??? It really just pisses me off big time.

Well, enough complaining. I'm gonna try to get back in the swing and keep my blog up-to-date. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year to one and all!!!