C is for Christmas Decorations

No that's not last year's tree. That's this year's. It would be up sooner but Gordon draws the line at Halloween weekend. Since he's the one that does the majority of the work I concede. There are trees, and lights around the ceiling, and villages, and touches in every room. This year with two houses to decorate it's twice the fun.

I'm grateful for a husband who understands how much I love these decorations. I'm grateful for the bargains I pick up every year after Christmas that add to our collections. And I'm grateful for the feeling of serenity I get when surrounded by Christmas.

B is for Bargains

I'm not a big shopper. Somehow I missed that in the "female" gene. But when I do shop I love the clearance aisles, the outlet stores, the super sales, yard sales. Yes you could find me spending Thanksgiving night at Wal-Mart to get the super priced MP3 player as a Christmas gift. I guess the other B that goes with this is brains, I know that just because it is called a sale doesn't mean it is a good price. But when I find that one thing I've been wanting marked down to less than half of what I expected to pay for it, oh yeah I'm grateful.

Your Challenge Should You Choose To Accept It

Adrienne is doing NaBloPoMo, which I'm sure you have all seen on her site. I have a bit different take on it.

I've had a pretty yucky year, nothing totally traumatic, just feeling blah. And in this time I lost touch with what kept me sane. My twelve step program. Well, I am going to start trying to make my way back and the first thing my program gave me was gratitude. The ability to see good things even when there doesn't seem to be any good. Gratitude needs nurturing and I intend to do that in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Now Thanksgiving is the one day set aside to remember that there is a lot in life to be grateful for, and if you go around the dinner table asking each person what they are grateful for you get a lot of, "my health", "my family" "my job", but I'm talking the little stuff. The stuff that gets taken for granted.

So here it is, 26 days until Thanksgiving and 26 letters of the alphabet. The challenge follow along in your own blog, or just leave a comment in this one, you may just remind someone else of something in their life that needs a little gratitude.

A is for Air Conditioning. I hate being hot. I can't sleep without covers. I have a hard time breathing warm air. I love the ability to control the temperature. I am grateful I am at a point in my life that it is all about me being comfortable.

All My Children

Bryan turned 10 last week. I think I am on a soap opera where a baby is born, they go to a commercial and he is a toddler, a couple of more commercial breaks and you have a teenager.

Are we going to let the terrorists win?

Okay, keep in mind that it is 2:30 in the morning here and I can't sleep, I really need to though. So here is what is running through my mind. The republican vice-presidential candidate has the nerve to say that the democratic presidential candidate pals around with terrorists when she herself is a terrorist.

See this pro america comment really bugs the hell out of me. That and the "real" america, but as that was not actually said by her I'll stick with the pro america. How dare she decide what pro america is? How dare she decide that only her beliefs are true american beliefs, that any one who wants otherwise is anti-american? Guess what america is black, white, red, brown, yellow, rich, poor, middle-class, hetrosexual, metrosexual, homosexual, anti-sexual, christian, muslim, jewish, buddhist, conservative, green, liberal, independant, tree-hugging, gas guzzling, pro-choice, pro-life, home schooled, college educated, ignorant, blue collar, white collar, big kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rock, tall kids, short kids, even kids with chicken pox....

The america I want to be around for my grandchildren has room for everyone and allows the freedom to believe what you choose. The terrorists hate that about us, apparently so does Ms. Palin.

At least it hasn't been a year

I'm back, I won't claim to be here often, but I didn't want it to go a whole year.

So here's why I don't want to live in a conservative world. This is not a true story, although it could be.

14 year old girl, mom died because they couldn't afford health care, dad doesn't know how to talk about "girl" things. Without sex education in school, of course she believed Johnny when he said she couldn't get pregnant.

With no other option but carrying the pregnancy to term, she has a baby boy. Not a zygote, not an embryo, not a fetus, but a baby. A baby she didn't want but can't give up either. The government that insisted he be brought into life will now abandon him.

Junior lives off what little his mom can earn working two jobs. Without an education she has little to offer, even her time. Junior starts getting into trouble at a young age. School's in his neighborhood can't afford any after school activities, they barely manage books. Looking for someone's attention, anyone's, he soon has the attention of a local gang. For his eighteenth birthday he holds up a liquor store, things don't go as planned and a cop is killed.

Now Junior is on death row, the government fighting to take the life they insisted be brought to term.

Now I know there are a lot of holes in this scenario, and I don't claim to understand even half of what is involved with providing a government that works for the people, but it underscores why I am voiting for Obama. Not that I agree with everything by the way, I agree with the idea of the death penalty, I just don't think we have a judicial system that is capable of applying it fairly.

Everything I Know About Spines

Came in handy tonight as there was a question on Jeopardy that actually used the same spinal model they showed in the class today. It was very interesting learning about the spine and after seeing the intricacies involved it only reinforced my belief that although I know man evolved, there was some intelligent design guiding it.

Other than Jeopardy answers here's what else I learned:

Nothing to eat after midnight before the surgery.
Daily meds can be taken with small sips of water morning of surgery.
Bring all meds with you in their original containers. (Not pain meds)
Show up two hours prior to surgery
Go through the Main Entrance of the hospital to the admitting office next to the gift shop, do not stop at Starbucks.
From the admitting office take the elevator to the second floor.
Check in on the second floor.
Patient will then be taken to pre-op, family may be allowed to go with them.
Surgery will take 1-2 hours per level (ours is two levels)
Post Op will take 90 minutes to 2 hours depending on recovery time for patient and work load of nursing staff.
From Post Op patient will be taken to room probably on 5th floor, possibly on 7th floor.
Patient will be in hospital 2-4 days.
Follow up with surgeon in 4 weeks, driving will most likely be approved at that time.
Roller coasters may be approved after bone density testing.

Any questions?

Gotta love 'em

Megan went to the movies of Friday and I was dozing in the chair around 6:30 Sean came in:

S: My mom needs to borrow something.
G: What?
S: I don't remember.
G: Should we call your mom?
S: Nope.

Sean begins wandering around the kitchen. Then says, "that" pointing at the spice rack.

G: Salt?
S: No
G: Pepper?
S: No, the one with the red on it.
G: Lawry's
S: No, the one with red.

I meanwhile have been walking into the kitchen I pick up the Lawry's and say, "this?"

S: Yea, seasoning stuff.
G: What is your mom making.
S: Steak
G: OK then she probably needs this.

I fit the salt into his pocket and off he goes to ride his bike home. About 5 minutes later Robin calls, "I need butter for the potatoes, I have no idea where he got the idea I needed Lawry's"

Back comes Sean with the Lawry's and I send him off with a stick of butter.

About an hour later I went over to Robin's

G: How come I wasn't invited over for steak?
R: Steak? We had pork chops.

Later I was on the phone with Robin's uncle when her landline rang. We figured it was Megan calling for a ride home from the theater. Robin had Josh and Sean on her lap and asked Sean to answer it. It rang again while he looked at Robin, then again while he slid down her legs, then again while he turned up the volume on the TV, then again while he twirled across the room, then again while he tossed everything off the table looking for the phone ringing yet again on the counter. He picked it up and said, "they hung up." Reminded me of a living "Family Circle" comic.

Best Laid Plans

We left the Detroit area around 9:00 pm, the plan had been to leave around 7:00 but I had planned the plan very loosely with many plan B's, so I was still okay. Mapquest had us driving to Port Huron and crossing into Canada on the Blue Water Bridge, but we did that the last time and Megan wanted to go across the Ambassador. I can do that. The plan was to fill up on gas and get soda and ice just before crossing. I haven't crossed on the Ambassador in years and I was a little confused on where to turn. We missed the gas stations but I had 3/4's of a tank so I figured I was okay. We were in Canada when Gordon mentioned soda and ice. Damn, Canada has yucky diet soda. We stop at a gas station and for 3 sodas, a coffee, 4 candy bars (Aero), and a bag of ice it was $15.00 even. And yucky diet Pepsi at that. Oh well, I had ice now so I would have good, cold soda soon.

The plan included driving until I was tired and then stopping for the night at a hotel. But the plan included the proviso that if Melody was in labor I would not get tired. Gordon was in charge of that. Sure enough about 12:45 when I was thinking about another hour and we would stop, we got the call that Melody was going to the hospital with contractions 3-4 minutes apart. Book light and trivia cards came out and we were now on a mission. Adrenaline kicked in and I never did feel really tired. We decided to stop and put some gas in still in Canada just to make sure and do a potty stop. I put in $20.00 for less than 1/2 a tank and the restrooms were closed for the night. Once we crossed back into the US (around 2:45) we checked in on Mel and the contractions were still 3-4 minutes apart they had given her pain medication but not the epidural yet. We had to make another stop for restrooms and I filled up the rest of the tank at $3.15 a gallon. (Cheap compared to the $3.50 it was in Michigan.) Once we got to Rome we could follow the blue hospital signs and made it to the hospital with no problem around 6:00.

Melody had just gotten the epidural. I was allowed into the room with Mary and Jonathan but Melody, Bryan, and Gordon had to go to the waiting room with John, and various friends of Melody and Jonathan. Melody was experiencing some side effects of the epidural one of which was shaking. It was very unnerving to watch her just tremble in the bed. The adrenaline was gone and around 7:00 I said "I think I'm going to pass out" had I been standing I would have been sure that I was going to pass out. After that I could hear everyone talking but I could not respond in any way. I was saying to myself that I couldn't do this, but I had no control at all. I heard the nurse call for the Rapid Response Team, they had just introduced such a team on ER so I new what it was and did not want them to respond. Eventually the smelling salts got to me and I came out of it. The Rapid Response Team was there and wanted to take me to emergency. I declared that I did not drive for 9 hours to sit in an emergency room while my baby had a baby. We agreed on a trip to the cafeteria where I got some cereal. While I was out they had brought Gordon in and sent him to the car for a soda for me. The car was on the other side of the hospital and Gordon is still walking a bit slow, so we made it back to the maternity ward about the same time. I insisted I was fine and went back in. Melody has stopped the trembling but was starting to itch. She was digging at her face like a mad man. She had no feeling from the waist down and her legs kept slipping off the bed and someone would have to lift them back up for her.

While I was down at the cafeteria her doctor had said that it would be soon, he was going home to change and get his kids off to school and when he got back she would be ready to go. We never saw him again. The midwife that had seen Melody last week while she was in was now on duty and she took over. She was incredible. Melody was at about 9 1/2 centimeters and her water had not broken yet. The midwife explained that since Mel was in no pain and was totally comfortable she preferred to let Mel's body do more of the work right now in pushing the baby down, that Mel could start pushing now but that it would be better to wait for the baby to get further along. So we waited, Mel napped. Around 9:15 they broke her water and we waited, Mel napped. Around 9:45 they were ready to start pushing. Mel pushed like a champ. The midwife coached like Sparky Anderson. As Melody was pushing the midwife was letting her know which pushes were doing the right stuff. "that's a good one, another one just like that" "nope a little lower push down some" Apparently the epidural does not numb everything so as the baby got lower Melody could feel the pressure, which felt a whole lot like pain to her. Soon we could see her head slipping out when Mel pushed but as soon as the push was done she would slip back. With each push a little more would come out but then go back as the push was done. It felt like she pushed forever and just as the head was staying out a little after the push Melody declared she was done and could not do this anymore. The midwife in true Sparky fashion "oh yes you can, and when you feel like you want to yell use that breath to push harder instead" Mel did and the head was out. There was this glorious head of dark hair. The midwife stopped Mel from pushing and did what she needed to do. When she was done Mel pushed again, the rest of the body came out and the baby turned around. We could now see the face but not much else. They put her (and we weren't positive it was a her) on Mel stomach and Mel yelped. The baby was not crying which scared us laymen a little, but they rubbed her back and she was off. Jon cut the cord and the gender was confirmed. Lynn Marie was here.

More later, probably. See Lynn's blog lynnmiz.blogspot.com for pictures.

Clean Melody

Melody finally showered last Saturday. I do believe a good time was had by all. It reminded me of a Beauregard party with lots of beer and food flowing all day and most of the night long. There was a bonfire, a barbeque, presents, cake, cards, Kareoke, and at the end just some freestyling guitars. Lots of people in and out I passed, although not aced the test on names. I intended a much longer blog on the shower, and on how Best Buy employees talked me out of a totally implulsive purchase of a computer this week. But it has taken me two days to get the pictures from the shower loaded on my computer. (Mel, whatever that exlorer thing was that loaded on the CD would not allow me to copy the pictures to my hard drive, I had to open each one in my photo program and then save it to my computer.) And then upload to Yahoo. I kept Yahoo even after everyone else went to Flicker since I knew how to use it. Unfortunately, progress is everywhere and Yahoo is not the same as it was. A few (four) pictures failed to load and I have no idea why but you won't miss them. There's lots of pictures, mostly of the gifts and two separates sets so there are duplicates. But if you want pictures can be found at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/album?c=gretchengerth&aid=576460762396927671&pid=&wtok=j.4mnNQsSu88zo4PZ8fWZw--&ts=1176073323&.src=ph#page1

Happy New Year

Yeah, Yeah, I know, I'm sorry, now deal with it.

If it's any consolation I've thought about blogging several times over the past few months.

The things I remember that I wanted to mention:

WARNING LABELS

We have become a society lacking in personal responsibility, and as such more and more warning labels have appeared to cover the rears of corporations serving us so as to save us from ourselves. The most disturbing of which I recently (recently is probably not the correct word since I am actually typing this months later) found when eating a Reese cup that had traveled for a while in my purse. Anyone who has had a Reese cup travel around in their purse knows that a decent portion of chocolate remains on the wrapper once the candy is open. The most efficient way to remove the chocolate is to lick the paper. When the paper is in such close proximity to ones eyes one is able to see "Candy is a treat and should be consumed in moderation." If only someone had told me that many years ago.

BOGUS GIFTS

Upon completing the creation of inane warning labels, corporations have moved on to creating inspired promotions to get us into their stores. Having spent a lot of money at Circuit City in one trip during my Christmas shopping (around the last time I blogged) Circuit City sent me a gift card. The front of the card simply says THANK YOU - worth 10% of your next purchase of $50 or more. The back however is more informative "Offer good for one use and applies to total qualifying purchase on a single receipt within the specified offer dates. Not valid on previous purchases. Offer excludes computers, music, movies, games, game hardware, Sharper Image, Infinity, Velodyne, Bose, Polk, Apple, Kicker, MTX Thunder, LG, plasma TV's, LCD TV's, KEF, Outlet, and Gift Card Purchases." I'm not sure what's left in the store to spend $50 on, but I think I remember seeing some Reese Cups by the checkout the last time I was there.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED

Mostly from fiction. My entire knowledge of the Civil War is gleaned from novels such as North and South by John Jakes. I think what I learned in school was how to learn and have continued to do so every day. I guess a lot of what I know I also got from games and game shows. I know that Neville Shute wrote On the Beach only because it is a question in the original Trivial Pursuit game (I think I remember that the question was actually "what novel was a follow up to Neville Shute's ?????") I can't recall the name of the original book in the question but I remember if the author was Neville Shute the answer was On the Beach. I have no idea what the book was about. Anyway the pondering on the way that I learn came into play twice in the past couple of weeks. (In actual time it was the past couple of weeks, we are nearing the end of what I remember about what I wanted to blog.) I just finished an amazing book, Exile by Richard North Patterson. Although, I have loved all of the previous books by this author I wasn't really looking forward to this one and was slightly disappointed when Mommy started the other book I had brought home from the library and Exile was the only thing left that I had not read. By page 3 I was hooked, and I realized that I had no idea of why the Palistinians and Isrealis were fighting. I'm not sure how that happened but I do not remember ever "learning" about the conflict, I just "knew" that Palistinian equaled terrorist and Isreali equaled sufferer. But reading this book I understand more, I have a clue, not a phone a friend clue more of an ask the audience clue, but a clue non the less. The other instance where this type of learning came into play was regarding the dumber than a fifth grader show. A question last week dealt with area, math is one subject I have retained since my school days and knew the answer immediately, when I was talking to Gordon (not known for his math skills) about that show he mentioned that he struggled messed up on the "half" portion of the question but knew the formula for area since it is repeated throughout the Pink Floyd movie The Wall.

That's all for now, it might not take a couple of months next time.

And Now...

Okay I know it's been a while. But get over it.

I'm sitting here loading I-tunes in order to load music on Megan's new I-Pod and I have some down time. An I-Pod those of you who know me may say, but I thought you were at Wal-Mart at 3am the day after Thanksgiving to buy the $88 5GB RCA MP3 player. Yes I was, and I do believe that is the last RCA product I will purchase. I tried an RCA Camera at Easter that I have never been able to work. The MP3 player was an even bigger disaster. It was really cool if all you wanted to do with it was walk around and look really cool, however if you actually wanted to listen to music, not so much. No matter what I tried, or which program I used I could not get any songs to load on to the player. Although I know very little about MP3 players I'm pretty good at figuring out computer programs. I found the manual on the installation CD which told me all I needed to do was drag and drop songs through explorer, however no one told explorer which placed a big X over the device when I tried to drop on it. Through Media Player whenever I tried to sync the songs prepared and then stopped. Yahoo Jukebox had my hopes up as it when through each song on the Kellie Pickler CD taking a couple of minutes on each one only to come up at the end and say "Problems occured loading the following tracks" and then listed each and every track. That was the final straw and we went back to Wal-Mart where they began with "we have a 15 day return policy on electronics" tried "we can only exchange for the exact same thing and that was a one time only thing" fortunately no hysterics were necessary for a manager to be contacted and a full refund was agreed upon. This worked in their favor as I spent twice as much on the way out with the I-Pod. Hopefully this will go smoother.

Oh No You Didn't

Kathy had once posted about a friend of hers that had written a book, the title may have been, Is It Just Me. It was something about how many unpleasant encounters this person had with other people in consumer situations. I thought about this a lot as I too seem to have more than my share of unpleasant encounters, is it just me? I may be a little too involved to determine the answer but I don't think so. For example:

I was at Meijer's the other day, for once there was not a long line for the cashier and I was actually impressed. There was one person in front of me and she had already paid and was walking away when I began putting my purchases on the counter. (Chips, Pretzels, Hamburger, and 1 of 5 Sodas.) The cashier's phone rang just as she began ringing up my stuff, in the time it took to ring this up I learned that the previous customer had just had a baby, was not breastfeeding, did not have a social security card and could not apply for social services because of this, and that her and her husband were in the store frequently often attempting to scam the store with price label switching among other things. When the cashier got to the soda I told her I had 5, she rang up 6. I told her I had 5 total and that she needed to take one off, she sighed heavily as if this was a burden but took off the extra soda, without counting how many had rung through. I then swiped my credit card and said "it's credit", I waited a while and the cashier said "You need to put in your PIN", I said again "It's Credit". Again the heavy sigh and she said, "You're going to have to start all over" to which I replied, "Maybe if you weren't so busy on the phone I wouldn't have to start all over again." The cashier then says into the phone, (are you sitting down?) "I'm going to have to call you back I have a very rude customer." Oh No You Didn't. At this point the rant began, "Rude customer!, I'm rude!.........I would like to speak with your manager." The manager came and I explained what had happened, the manager expressed her apologies and thanked me for letting them know. And although I know that going to a manager really did not change anything, it let me vent a little (not that I didn't call Gordon as soon as I got in the car, and repeat the story to mom when I got home, and then tell everyone at work the next day.) Anyway, try as I might I can't find any personal culpability in this.

In other news, at a very pleasant shopping experience at Bed, Bath and Beyond I came upon a Twinkie cookbook (although I was there for a clothes hamper I could spend a day in the kitchen department just looking.) The book was interesting until I got to the meat section, Pigs in a Twinkie: sausage, twinkies and syrup. OK, pancakes are sweet, people put whipped cream on belgian waffles. But when I turned the page to the turkey sandwich I had to slam the book closed.

Last but not least we had an incredible thunder snow last night. Thunder, big lightening, all while it was snowing. The effect was awesome to watch. The snow on the ground this morning, not so much, especially for those of us on crutches.

In No Particular Order

Well slightly particular, I will get rid of the yucky stuff first. The decision was made and life support was turned off for Gerri Wednesday (10/11/06) morning, she passed away shortly before 1 am Thursday. It was one of the hardest things to do, and yet it wasn't. I don't know how to explain it better than that. Keep in mind though that if I ever do that again I get to be the one in the bed with the morphine drip.

On a lighter note it was mentioned in The Week that the leader of Iran Muslims has decreed that it is okay to masturbate during Ramadan as long as it is not intentional. I can not imagine the end of that sentence.. I accidentally.......

Mommy has left for California during the most important time, so I am saving all of the political tracts and phone messages that she receives. I'm not sure if she can change her absentee ballot that she already mailed if any thing interesting is found in this stuff. I guess if I were her good daughter I would go through all of this and highlight any good stuff, but I'd rather just throw it all away. Maybe we'll take that route.

I've heard rumors that Melody is here, and there have been a few sightings but they have not been confirmed.

Vegas is coming up really soon, and since I took three days off when Gerri died and am now taking another three days I will be working close to 30 hours Monday and Tuesday to get caught up. But I'm sure Vegas will be worth it.

That's it for now, my house is being invaded by hungry people looking for spaghetti, maybe Melody will be one of them.

Truth in Advertising

I really meant to post this weekend and then time just got away from me. Other than alot of rambling, the only truly interesting thing was a sign I saw on my way home this weekend. From my office I take Lahser up to Square Lake Road, the drive up Lahser is very pretty with lots of colorful trees and nice homes. On Friday one of these homes had a sign out front that said "Upscale Garage Sale" I laughed so hard.

Saturn is a whole nother planet

First the good news, the recent outbreak of e coli has been traced to spinach.

Mom mentioned that it has been a really long time since I have blogged. (And to give credit where credit is due many others have also mentioned it, some repeatedly.) However, I told mom that the reason I have not blogged is that there is nothing going on in my life that is truly mine to blog about. Most of the stuff in my life is going on around me and blogged about on the appropriate blogs.

I did however have a couple of interesting stories this week: Worth about 10,000 words or so.

On the retail end our Walgreen’s opened. Of course it is right where any respectable Walgreen’s is across the street from Right Aid. But when God opens a Walgreen’s he must close a Blockbuster. I knew of course that Blockbuster would be closing having a niece in the biz. But no notice of any sort was given, on Tuesday Robin went to pick up a new release movie coming out that day. She was told that their shipment had been misdirected and that the new movies would be there the next day. On Wednesday when she went up there the store was completely empty with a note on the door stating that if you had any returns to drop them through the door and that appropriate legal action would be taken for any materials not returned.

On the traffic end, Thursday, while driving home I was unfortunate enough to be traveling behind two gentlemen with VSP* syndrome. The good thing about driving home on Thursday is that you beat the weekend traffic; the bad thing about driving home on Thursday is that the construction that is moved for the weekend traffic is still in place on Thursday. So, just as we were cresting the Zilwaukee Bridge the traffic came to a crawl and after a short distance we came upon a sign stating that the left two lanes were closed in two miles. We were in the middle of the three lanes available. Of course knowing that two lanes were closing in TWO miles traffic started panicking with the need to get all the way over to the right immediately. I, of course, do not have this issue and continued to cruise while I could. I then came up on the VSP victims. In their manly-men pickups the size of Montana they decided to prove their machismo by controlling the traffic on a major interstate. Now I am familiar with, and have a slight respect for, the maneuver by semi drivers to maintain the pace of traffic in these types of situations, where they block the lane that will be closing and force the merge point where they are, while keeping pace with the lane that remains open. I have the slight respect for this as this does attempt to maintain one merge point which does improve the traffic flow, however, I maintain that this merge point is already clearly defined by the end of the lane and it is only one’s arrogance that decides they have a better point. But in any case that is not what these afflicted gentlemen were doing. The traffic in the far right lane was at a stop and go at about 5 MPH and they continued to move along not stopping when the right lane did. As they did not stay with the traffic in the merge to lane I did not see their intent as improving traffic for all. It was confusing as to why with the left two lanes blocked the cars in the far right were not moving, but being on the decline and behind two mega pickups I could not see what was going on. We soon saw the problem as there was a stalled car in the right lane, the lane everyone had to have since the other two were closing in TWO miles. Seizing my opportunity I swung in front of the stalled car and then back into the middle lane in front of the poor VSP sufferer. This exercise earned me a full frontal view of his no doubt larger body part, but I’ve been flipped off by better before. I cruised along until the lane closed where I easily scooted into an opening of at least two car lengths, earning myself another flip off from the driver behind me. The lanes were only closed while under the overpass and we were back up to three lanes and continued on an uneventful drive.

Friday I had many errors to take care of, the most important being a trip to the dealer in Saginaw for a few car repairs. My front right turn signal stopped working a while ago, and when I had my oil changed I had them fix the bulb. They were not able to do it then because the bulb that was in was not burned out and a new bulb was not the issue. They concluded there was probably a short in the wiring which would need the dealer to correct. Shortly there after my front left turn signal went out, I figured I would have that changed when I did the right. Then my left started working again, leading me to believe that there was also a short in the left wiring. Not long after the knob that changes the direction of the heat/air stopped working. Getting to the dealer moved up on my list of things I needed to do, as I have a fondness for defrosted windows and have grown attached to being able to see what is in front of me. Gordon scheduled an appointment for 1:00 in Saginaw and we did our other errands first. A little history about my ION, I have put more turn signal bulbs in this car than I have in all of my other cars put together, about a year after a bought it and I had already put in 6 turn signals in the front there was a recall for a faulty harness in the front turn signals. I did take it in and had it replaced, but still went through turn signals. I have also been to the dealer for repairs more with this car than I have with all of my other cars put together, if this had been my first Saturn there never would have been a second.

So I get to the dealer at my scheduled time and explain that I believe there is a problem in the wiring for the right turn signal, as it does not work and the bulb is not burned out. The left turn signal works intermittently leading me to believe that there is a problem with that one also. And that the knob controlling the direction of the heat/air does not work. The service director (Koltt) asks if I have extended warranty, I say that I do and that I believe it covers a rental car. (I learned this tidbit at my last trip to the dealer where they checked my warranty on a speaker phone. I have never once been offered a rental car during my extended waits at the dealer) Koltt calls in my VIN and says that I do have the extended warranty but that there is a $40 diagnostic charge if the repair is not covered under my warranty. I know that I have a comprehensive warranty that includes everything so I say go ahead. He then reviews what is wrong with the car, the left front turn signal does not work. No, the left works intermittently it is currently working, it worked when I turned in here, but it has in the past not worked, the right is not working at all. So, the right turn signal works intermittently. No the right does not work at all the left works intermittently. After making sure he has written it down correctly we retire to the waiting area. About twenty minutes later Koltt comes in and tells me that my knob is busted and they will need to take the dash apart to replace it but it is covered under my warranty, also they have replaced the front turn signals and they both work and that I will have to pay the $40 diagnostic since the only problem was a burned out bulb. I stated that this was incorrect since I had replaced the bulb and the light did not work, I asked to see the burned out bulb. Ten minutes later Koltt returns with a burned out bulb and a good bulb, he says that the right turn signal was working when they replaced it but after it was bumped it went out and they have determined that there is problem with the harness wiring that needs to be replaced and that would be covered by my warranty. The left bulb was burned out and is now working since it was replaced and that I would have to pay the $40 diagnostic charge for that one. I stated that the bulb worked just fine when I turned in this afternoon and if it was burned out it had just burned out, (not a big surprise as I have had my turn signals checked when I got my oil changed and had them work just fine only to have one burn out on the way home) the reason I had brought it in was not for a burned out bulb but because it worked intermittently and that a burned out bulb would not work intermittently. He said that he did not know when the bulb burned out, but since I had asked them to check it and that was the problem I would have to pay the charge. I stated that I would pay the charge since I wanted to take my car out of the dealership when it was completed and that I would later take the issue up with Saturn, for him to make sure his name was spelled correctly in big bold letters on my paperwork. I decided to go outside and smoke and walked through the garage I asked Koltt how long it would be until the heater was fixed. He stated that he was working on getting me a rental car. Koltt then returned to the waiting area and stated that they were not going to charge me for the diagnostics but that I would have to pay for the bulbs, I did not like this but said okay. I have had the turn signals replaced many times when I got my oil changed, the most I have ever paid was $5 per bulb, I know I can buy them 2 for $5 at Wal-Mart and do it myself but I hardly ever need two and always lose the second one anyway (I know, but my refrigerator is only so big.) Koltt said my rental should be ready in a few minutes and my car in a few hours. Once the rental was ready we went to Long John Silvers to get something to eat and were on our way into the dollar store when we got the call that our car was ready. We went ahead and did our dollar store shopping and when we returned to Saturn our paperwork was not ready. We waited a few minutes and they brought our paperwork in, a few staples later the cashier said “That will be $34.70” and handed me some papers. I looked through the papers and could see the $34.70 total on the bottom but nothing that could bring me to that total. I told her that I did not understand what the $34.70 was for. She then called for a service director. Someone (not Koltt) then came in and said that I had to pay for the bulbs. I had had a few minutes to look at the paperwork and said ”Okay here’s the bulbs, $11.90 not the best price I’ve seen but not bad for a dealer” I was then told there was a $23 labor charge to replace the bulbs. OMG, “one, a small, deformed, retarded monkey could change the front turn signals, two I could have had said monkey change them if your wiring wasn’t bad. I did not bring my car into the dealer, take a day off work, and drive 60 miles to have bulbs changed. Redo this paperwork so it clearly states what I am paying for and make sure your name is right next to Koltt’s.” The paperwork was redone with a new charge of $11.90 plus tax. We took my car and went to Meijer’s on our way out of the parking lot Gordon turned on the radio, guess he was tired of my ranting. The radio did not work, I was not picking up any stations. The Saturn dealer was almost directly across the street so into their parking lot we went. Koltt saw us pull in and went into the back of the garage, the other service director whose name I did not get came out to the car and said “what’s the problem”, I said that my radio was not working, he asked if it worked before I came in this afternoon. What an asshole, I told him yes, but so did my left turn signal. I also told him that I had this problem previously in my old Saturn and that it was that the antenna had been disconnected, and that maybe when they had put my dash back together they had forgotten to connect it. He had us go to the waiting room and 15 minutes later came back in and said that I was right the antenna was not connected and that they had fixed it. They didn’t even try to charge me for it.

On the ride home Gordon read more thoroughly through the papers. Here are the comments:

Line 1 – customer states the left turn signal works intermittently
Tech Comm – customer states left and right turn signals are in op. Both bulbs have black spots on them. Replaced both bulbs and wire harness needs replacing also.

Line 2 – customer states the right turn signal is inop
Cause – defective part
Tech Comm – c/s right turn signal inop. Verified concern. Right turn signal harness has a loose connection with bulb causing bulb to blow. Replaced right turn signal harness.

Did you catch those words? Here they are again “CAUSING BULB TO BLOW” Not only could I not have said monkey replace the bulb because of their faulty wiring, but their faulty wiring caused the problem to start with. And if I had been born a Gerth I would have paid $75.

I’m thinking Nissan.

* Very Small Penis

I know it's been a while

It's been a very busy week.

First with Gerri things are not going well. I am very glad not to be the person responsible for making the decisions here. Since my last post they have extubated, intubated, and then put in a permanent (although it will close if it ever gets to the point that she no longer needs it) trach. She has been evicted from Henry Ford Hospital as it is not a long term care hospital (she was there 28 days) and moved to a long term facility in the old Outer Drive Hospital. As a long term facility she can stay there up to 25 days, although their "program" is only 21 days. If the decision is made to continue treating her she will need to be moved to one of the five nursing facilities in the state of Michigan that can handle her needs. I know all too well the pain of losing someone suddenly and the pain of watching someone die slowly, however this crap of making decisions along the way really sucks. Every place in her body that can have a tube coming out of it does, and they have created additional holes for extra tubing. She is awake, alert, and responsive, but unable to talk or write or communicate in any way that is effective. She is noticeably uncomfortable and restrained so that she can not pull any of her many tubes out. Everything is functioning normally except her lungs (and today her digestive system since they had the feeding tube set at Gordon instead of Gerri) and there is no clear cut answer on whether or not her lungs will ever again function at a life sustaining level. As frustrating as it is to visit and see her so miserable and unable to communicate whatever it is that she is so frantically trying to say, I realize it is a thousand time harder for her than it is for me and the alternative to visiting is to leave her there alone. So I will continue to go see her whenever I can 2 or 3 times a week and Gordon will be going back downstate in a couple of weeks when he can get around again (more later on that). Tonia is pretty set on moving Gerri into one of the nursing facilities, in the hopes that her lungs will improve and she will be able to come home but that decision is a couple of weeks away and the way things have been going anything could happen.

Gordon had ankle surgery yesterday afternoon and although it was supposed to be an overnight in the hospital he is still there. Hopefully he will be coming home tomorrow since he does not have a feeding tube and is receiving normal hospital rations. He had the surgery in Bay City and Megan and I stopped on our way up yesterday evening and brought him some snacks to get him through the night. When we found out he was spending another day Bryan and I drove down this afternoon with more snacks and a couple of 7-11 hotdogs. His foot is in a metal contraption that looks very similar to the brace thing that Chris Reeve wore on his head. He will need to wear the brace for 3 months (I think, it might be 6) and use crutches or a walker for a year, on the up side he gets a handicrapper placard for the car.

Megan is home safe and sound. Her flight was delayed and as it was the last flight into DTW for the evening and nobody was in the terminal her flight was naturally delegated to the very last gate in the Metro Detroit Area. All of the ticket counters were closed when I got to the airport and I had no idea of where to go to get the gate pass to pick her up. I finally found someone who could direct me to the Northwest office in baggage claim. Apparently Northwest was suffering from computer issues and they were not able to print me out a gate pass, I said fine just bring her here to baggage claim. But no this was not an option I had to pick her up at the gate, after much ado someone wrote me up a pass to take through security. Security was of course closed since no one was leaving on a flight for several hours. I finally found someone who was able to call security and they opened up for me. As I was disturbing their break time I was given the special treatment that included testing swabs of the inside of my purse and a thorough pat down. I retreated to the ends of the earth with my book to await her plane. I was joined later by a woman in her 60's meeting her sister (also in her 60"s) I'm not quite sure how that qualified for a gate pass but oh well. Megan of course was the last one off the plane with her escort. Of course the computer system was still down and they could not verify that I was actually supposed to pick her up, but alas they gave her to me anyway. One of her suitcases was missing and knowing where the Northwest office came in handy as we put in a claim for the lost luggage. By this point it was after 2:00 am and I was very tired. They had to verify that indeed all of the luggage was off the plane and then one woman kept bringing in bags off the conveyor saying is this it? I thought I handled it all very calmly but my face must have showed my frustration as the other woman behind the counter said "Ma'am we're all tired", I just asked her if she had been at work at 8:30 that morning and if she had to be back there again in a few hours. She finally figured out how to put in Mommy's address as a temporary address in case the luggage was found before Friday and sent us on our merry way. At 11:00 the following night we got a call from the luggage company saying the bag had been located and that they were going to be in our area "this evening" could they drop it off then. I was a little confused as to what time frame "this evening" constitutes at 11:00 pm, but said sure and they showed up a 4:00 am (Megan was still up so she took care of it.)

My computer died earlier this week booting to a screen that just said www.dell.com, there was no options, no place to exit for set ups nothing. I called a computer place in Bay City (near the hospital) and brought it in on my way to see Gordon. I called them while I was with Gordon and they told me it was spyware that had crashed it and that they were deleting the spyware and loading a anti-virus software. On my way out of town I watched it boot at the repair shop and paid them their $60. Got home fed the kids and hooked everything up only to get to the dell.com screen. I eliminated plugs one by one and when I unplugged my USB hub the computer booted just fine. I could then plug in the USB hub but the trackball connected to it did not work. So I unplugged the trackball plugged in the old yucky mouse and have not had a problem with it. I hate the mouse and will look for a PS2 port trackball.

I think that's everything and my poker is just about done taping. And if Will makes it into the jury house I will quit watching the show.

What a Smile

For a baby that didn't start out too cute Jonathan is extremely cute now. I'm not sure if he really is that cute or if it's just his huge smile which stays on his face pretty permanently. (Unless of course there is a camera pointed at him.) (I just found out my delete key is not working, that could be a real pain in the butt.) We had Sabrina and Jonathan all day yesterday and they were fun. We have Josh right now and are expecting Bryan and Sean in a few minutes. I have missed these kids something awful, it's been almost a month since I have seen them.

Things are still going along with Gordon's mom, one day good, one day not so good. We had a few really bad days and then the next she was awake, alert, and responsive. It is so hard to tell what is going on and what to expect. She has been on the ventilator for over a week now, but for most of that it has been turned off and the machine was not breathing only giving oxygen support much like the tubes that go under the nose. On Friday we found out that although the vent has been turned off and she had been breathing on her own since Tuesday they had been turning it back on at night so that she could rest. Yesterday it was turned back on full time, this is part of that up and down. Wednesday they talked of taking the vent out on Thursday but by Thursday she had had two good days (Tuesday and Wednesday) in a row and had worked loose her arm restraints, she then attempted full scale extubation on her own starting with the feeding tube in her nose. This caused her anxiety level to soar, and she had to be sedated and given new restraints very similar to boxing gloves. I was there on Friday to speak with the nurse and we found out that it is her anxiety level that is keeping her on the vent and I have no idea how they can fix that. She has a high anxiety level sitting on her own couch, short of keeping her totally sedated (in which case they cannot remove the vent) I don't see her being unanxious while in the hospital. So we will have to see what will happen, they can't leave the vent in much longer as it is too prone to causing infection and if they need to keep her on the machine they will need to consider putting in a permanent tracheotomy. It's a hell of a decision to have to make, trying to define quality of life. It's one thing to be kept alive in a vegetative state and another to be kept alive alert and responsive but unable to do the things you want to do.

On a much happier note I am getting rid of Megan for a couple of weeks. Some suckers in California have agreed to entertain her. I haven't quite worked out how she's getting to the airport but have no fears she will be there.

Update

Okay first the waterfall, yes it is whatever Dad said it was, with c, q, and a bunch of vowels. These falls are in the lower peninsula where the tip of the index finger meets the middle finger. We first visited them while Dad was visiting and returned in honor of his birthday last week. When Dad was here we took 23 up the coast of the Lake Huron and came back down 33 which runs down the middle of the state and right past our high school. This year we took I-75 up to get there quicker and moseyed down 23 for the return trip. Our initial visit was on a whim and we arrived with no bathing suits or towels, this time we were better prepared with suits and water shoes, towels and a disposable grill for hotdogs. Megan brought Jacque along and we had Sabrina. Megan and Jacque dove right in while Sabrina is not much of a swimmer, she likes to walk around the edges and find stuff. She found lots of stuff at the waterfall including over a dozen frogs and a dead mouse. After a while Sabrina and I took a walk up the falls to look for stuff and after a 1/4 mile or so I bemoaned not having Gordon there for a hand to balance on, she said "Wait right here I'll go get him," unfortunately there were way too many bends in the river for me to let her venture on her own so I returned with her. I talked Gordon in to making the trek and drug Megan and Jacque with us as no one would be there to watch them. Megan hated every minute of the walk until we came to another set of falls farther up. Just before the falls the river opened up and was chest deep smack in the middle was a long rock (bench) waist height so we could sit on it and have the water pour over us much like a jacuzzi (only slightly colder, though not nearly as cold as I was expecting). All in all it was a lot of fun and hopefully we will make it back there sooner than it took this time.

Unfortunately we returned to two urgent messages from Gordon's sister Tonia, Gerry had a brain aneurysm and was in Henry Ford hospital (the same hospital his father passed away in earlier in the month). Knowing there was nothing we could do then and I was in no condition to drive another 2 hours we went to bed (those that needed to sleep did those that couldn't sleep didn't) and left to drive down the next morning. Gerry was taken into surgery for a procedure that is called coiling she came through the procedure well and was making good progress. She had a shunt placed in her head for drainage that she did not approve of so they had to keep her restrained so she would not pull it out. She wanted to go home and was very aggressive so they were keeping her relatively sedated. On Wednesday while we were at the fireworks Tonia visited her and said that she was alert and responding. When Tonia talked about going to bingo Gerry began nodding furiously. Thursday when Gordon and Tonia got to the hospital Gerry had developed an infection and was running dangerously high fevers and her breathing had become very labored. They were treating the fevers with Tylenol and had begun giving her antibiotics for the infection but they were not sure what the cause of the infection was. They were also afraid that her labored breathing could cause her to have a stroke or a heart attack before they were able to treat the infection. They needed permission to put Gerry on a ventilator. And although everyone is in agreement that they do not want Gerry (or anyone else) kept alive by artificial means the doctor was able to explain that the ventilator was not a means of life support but of life assistance. Gerry was (is) breathing on her own, the ventilator is to facilitate her breathing not a substitute for it. The doctor's asked for one week on the ventilator to give them time to find out where the infection is coming from and treat it. After a week they will be able to determine if they can be successful at treating the infection and if she will be able to continue without the ventilator. With the ventilator in Gerry is kept under almost complete sedation so that she doesn't fight the assistance from the ventilator. While we were visiting her yesterday she received a breathing treatment (her respiratory nurse is from West Branch) which she did not like at all. This brought her conscious and in a fighting mood, her eyes looked like they did when anyone said anything derogatory about one of her kids and you could see her jerking her still restrained hands to start shaking her finger. They got her sedated again and when the doctor came around she told us that Gerry was progressing well. They still did not know the cause of the infection but were going on the assumption that it is pneumonia, but that the cultures should produce results in the next couple of days.

So Gordon, Megan, and I came home for a few days Gordon is in touch with Tonia and we will be back down tomorrow or sooner if necessary. Gerry is a fighter, she has had to fight most of her life, I don't think she know any other was of doing things. She's 77 years old (I only say that since I know there is no way she is reading a blog - ever, but I will deny it if any one tells her I said that. She insists that she is only 75.) and her only medication is an inhaler for asthma. She has always appeared so weak and unhealthy that I has assumed she was more infirm than she is. Keep up the good thoughts and prayers, although I have never been a big on prayer Gerry is and it's worked for her for a long time.

Say a Prayer

This was supposed to be a long blog about our wonderful day at the waterfall yesterday. Unfortunately, Gordon's mother is in surgery right now for a brain aneurysm and we are again on our way down state. Say a prayer, hell say a lot of prayers, we need every single one right now.