Speaking of Wal-Mart (see previous post), about a year ago something funny (or not so funny) happened to me at a local Wal-Mart. G-man and I came out of the store and were walking across to the parking lot when this little old lady in a big car came driving by and ignored the crowd of people walking across (including me) and drove right into us hitting my cart. When she realized she had hit something she took off like a bat out of hell. The security guard tried to catch her in his truck but she was long gone. So he drove around to us ands we had just reached our vehicle by that time. He said “That was Miss Lucille, she can’t see for shit. She knew she hit something cause she floored it. She just don’t know what she hit. I’ll go by her house tomorrow and tell Miss Lucille she don’t need to be driving no-more. She does this ‘bout once a week.” I wasn’t mad before I talked to him but I was afterwards. If it had been a younger person doing that he would have called the police. But because it’s a blind elderly woman it’s okay and she should be allowed to keep doing it until she kills someone. That was the last time I went to that Wal-Mart! Who wants to risk their life for cheap toilet paper? Not me, thank you very much.

My eldest picked up his puppy about an hour ago. I am glad he is back in town. This time he was gone for 2 weeks. I hope he doesn’t have to rush out of town again for awhile but I am sure he will. Who knew that the pipe organ business was such a boomtown business. Now our dog is laying around looking depressed. He misses his puppy girlfriend. Maybe I should get him some doggie Prozac.

We did end up going out for Chinese food last night at Lil Miss’s insistence. She swore that was all that she could eat. Nothing could pass her parched lips except Chinese food. And it is Chinese New Year right now. So off we went. What did Lil Miss eat for dinner? Four spoonfuls of wonton soup and a forkful of rice. What did she order? Wonton soup, spring rolls and sweet and sour chicken. So much for the appetite of a five year old.



After dinner she suddenly felt hungry (imagine that) so she ate Apple Jacks for a bedtime snack while she hacked off her Barbie’s hair. I told her that she could chop the hair off of 2 Barbie’s. I pick the oldest ones in her collection here. Something got lost in the translation however and she chopped the hair off of 4 of them. It was not a pretty sight. And then she wanted to keep the pile of hair. (shudder) At least she isn’t pulling their heads off anymore. I suppose that is progress.



Sonny Boy has a dentist appointment this afternoon. Getting him to his appointment is my only commitment today. Hurray! So after I got Lil Miss off to school and drank a cup of coffee I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I can’t begin to tell you how good that felt. But it made me realize something. Every morning at 8:00am I get so exhausted that I can barely hold my head up. I take one of my back medications at 7:30 each morning. Are you seeing a pattern? I think I am going to try to take only half a pill each morning and see if that helps with the sleepiness. I don’t want to be sleeping my life away you know. Who knows, maybe the back meds are partly to blame for my feeling depressed lately. If you combine the side effects of the back meds with Midwest weather, a moody 17 year old and all of the other crud in my life it’s a recipe for depression by any definition. Although with the back meds that I take you would think one of the side effects would be a smile on my face. Now you want to know exactly what it is I take don’t you? Lets just say it is strong stuff and they record my drivers license every month when I get a new bottle of pills. The problem with all of that stuff is they are heavy on side effects but don’t really take your back pain away. Nothing really takes back pain away. But that’s another story.

First off I want to thank everyone for their kind words on my depression. I have gotten so many comments and emails and I really appreciate it. It is so nice to know that I am not the only one to have gone through this. I know things will get better and I’ll smile again soon. And I have a plan. I truly do! It seems that the movie theater I went to yesterday has a membership program and you get free popcorn on Tuesdays. So I joined. Now all I have to do is make sure I can go on Tuesdays. I’ll have to tell Lil Miss’s mother to get someone else to pick her up Tuesday afternoons. It can be done. Next thing you know the employees at that movie theater will know me on a first name basis just like they do the resident nut-job lady that talked to me the last 2 times that I went to that theater. She told me she was paralyzed from the neck down and is only just starting to come out of it. I open my mouth in shock and asked her if she had an operation or an accident. Oh no, she replied, I just woke up one day paralyzed. Okay… Just out of the blue, eh? And the conversation digressed from there. What have I been saying all along about being a freak magnet? Just further proof!



I check the weather report for Schweinfurt Germany each day to see what sort of global conditions my daughter is living in. Poor girl, today’s weather is still cold. Too bad he didn’t get stationed in a warm area. Hawaii maybe? She is supposed to call on Sunday. It’s hard to believe that it was just a week ago that we put her on the plane. Seems like it was months ago that she left. I miss her.