Checking In

Hi all:

Basketcase checking in here. I have returned from Chatt. this past Sun. afternoon after spending Wed. thru Sun. there helping my niece and her two girls get moved from their rental house to my sister's house. My sister has the son that returned from Ohio to bury his dog Marley that passed on on Christmas Day and is still being kept on ice as I write this; so Marley has not been laid to rest yet! It took 12 of us (counting my niece and her girls) to get her moved. This is not an experience I care to repeat ever! I have no doubt my niece could be on the hoarders show! I'm serious and they need your prayers about this problem. I don't know if any of you out there have ever heard of Brother Dave Garner who has passed on but was a comedien. In one of his routines, he makes the statement, "Knowing that you can't ever; if you haven't never!" That is how I felt with what all we had to do and wade through to get them out of the rental house. Also, if y'all remember the Uncle Remus stories and Brer Rabbit - I can now identify with Brer Rabbit. My sister (remember there's 15 years between us) used to read those stories to me when I was little and she was so good with the dialect and all and I told her that when this move is over, I wanted her to read them to me again as I know how Brer Rabbit felt; PLEASE DON'T THROW ME INTO THAT BRIAR PATCH! I am going back up there tomorrow to see a muscial production that my great niece (one of the movees) is in. She goes to CCA Center for Creative Arts School which they have regular subjects and all but there is concentration in the arts and hers happens to be Musical Theatre. She is talented. However, during all this moving she was gone a good bit and didn't necessarily make the most of her time when she was with us and on the weekends they practiced for 8 hrs/day and after school until 9:00 p.m. I've got to go and see what took that much practice! Also, everyone that was involved with the move (well most of us) will be attending opening night also! We did have excitement on Sat. morning as my sister, my best friend and I arrived at the rental house to begin the last stuff to be done. My niece has two dogs, a cat, and two fish that are now residing with them at my sister's! The total count at my sister's house is three adults, two children, three dogs, one cat and two fish! Sounds cozy doesn't it? But I digress! The older dog of my niece's spent Thurs. and Friday night by himself at the rental house. Now this dog, has lost a bunch of hair, is older and big. He does not like men and various other people of which my best friend and I happen to be in the various other people the dog does not like. Anyway, we were afraid he might be on his last leg Friday night as he was limping and just rather lethargic' so we had no idea what we would find Sat. morning. But alas, the dog seemed better and got up and barked at us! So my best friend and I went into my niece's room to finish vaccuming sequestered ourselves away from my sister and the dog as she was trying to get him to go outside. She reached for him to turn him around to go outside and he bit her on the arm! When she hollered for us and told us he had bitten her, we looked at each other horrified as we had no idea what we would see when we met her in the kitchen (you know, like blood gushing from a bad bite!) My sister has a pacemaker and is on plavix; fortunately it wasn't too bad but she bruises very easily and quickly and it did break the skin and was bleeding, but not gushing; my best friend and I took care of it and my sister left for a Walgreen's nearby to let the pharmacist look at it and he said we'd done the right thing; but to call her doctor and get an antibiotic which she did. Now my nephew (the dog doesn't like him either) was none too happy about this event and so about midnight on Sat. night when we're deciding which car the dog was going to ride in to go to my sister's house (I told them I could tell them which car the dog was not riding in!) anyway, my nephew offered to be the one to drive him home but my niece took him in her car as we were none too sure if my nephew would have arrived at home with him or not! Anyway, it's now over with and I'm still so worn out from it all and to beat it all I had to be reminded of how pampered I've been for the last 37 years as yesterday I dropped something behind the clothes dryer and in getting it out I knocked the vent sleeve off the dryer. So I had to pull the dryer out as far as I could and climb back there to fix it. Well, the stupid clamp wouldn't do right so I ended up at Ace Hardware and found out that I needed one of those nut screwdriver thingys which of course I said I didn't have so he got me the right size for the price of 5.99 which if I had the rewards card with me I could have just paid .99 for but of course I didn't have it! So I bring it back home and after much ado finally got it and the clamp on there and when I was returning some other tools to Charlie's tool kit, I find out that there is a whole slew of those little nut screwdriver thingys!

However, all the above has been a small price to pay for the blessings that the good Lord and Charlie too, with all his hard work for his company has bestowed upon me. The ins. situation has finally been satisfactorily resolved and I am extremely grateful to my husband and the good Lord for that blessing! Thanks for all the prayers and hope everyone is doing well! Take care and God Bless!

Jan (Basketcase)