People of their word

I have been on disability for almost 10 yrs and Mike quite a bit shorter then that. And if there is one thing that we have painfully discovered is that there is no way we can live on our disability. We just found out today that the government in its infinite wisdom has decided that we need to pay out $95 a month for Medicare. Mike will opt out of Medicare because he has the VA, but I have to have this and we can ill afford to loose close to 100 dollars a month. So to this end we have been trying to get some work at home gigs going. We thought we had a sure thing going. About a month ago we got a free dinner and had to listen to a sales pitch for Master Guard fire alarms. To make a long story short Mike got a job offer from one of the gentleman in charge of selling this Master Guard alarms. It took us two weeks just to get an interview set up with this guy. He tells Mike that he will pay to get us set up with Ignite Electric(another long story), give Mike a cell phone to make calls and contacts to call. We were suppose (according to this bozo) be able to make good money. Well we were suckered. The old adage that if it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't proved true to us. Mike has been calling this guy leaving phone messages at his home and on his cell phone and has been sending him emails but he has not bothered to return one phone call. Not even a "Hey I'm really busy but I haven't forgotten about you". So Mike is going to call this guy and tell him to stuff his job where the sun doesn't shine. And we were really counting on this money to pay bills and pay to bring Tara & Elisa out here for the summer. We are currently talking to a lady online who will pay us for posting on forums. I can only hope that this isn't a scam either. If it is we will be in a world of hurt. It is frustrating and annoying to have people tell you something and not keep their word. I can't stand liars.

Spring storms yet again

Spring has definitely come to the state of Texas. For the past month we have been having storms once a week, usually on a Tuesday. For us in The Colony we have been fortunate in that the worse we have gotten was lots of rain and lightening. Others in the area have gotten tornados and flooding. This evening was not much different with the exception that we actually had tornado sirens going off in our area. We had a friend of ours from our church over for a visit and first we had to power go off. Then I was standing at the back door listening and could hear the sirens. At first Mike thought that it was a police siren, but then it got louder and we realized that we had to move to the hallway. We had candles lit in the living room and we just sat and talked for about 5 minutes or so, then Mike opened the front door and the sirens were off. We got power back about half an hour later. We were lucky there also. Just down the street from where we live, the power had not been restored as of about 9 pm. I will be curious to see if any of the other cities got tornados. I know some areas had a lot of flooding. This will help the drought immensely.

Texas Tornados

Ah Spring, the time where a young mans' fancy turns to love and everyone who lives in tornado alley holds their breaths, waiting to hear that dreaded siren and run for their lives. We have had two storms over the past two weeks that have produced tornados. There has been only one death when a young man hid behind a stack of lumber and suffered a heart attack when the wood fell on him. Not to bright, but considering we have had a total of 12 tornados in the Metro Plex, it could have been worse. Yesterday we had some storms move through and Fort Worth area had several tornados touch down. Mike and I were taking a nap and when our alarm clock went off the radio station was telling everyone about the tornado warning. We got up and turned on the TV and watched with much concern the line of vivid orange and red colors that were heading our way. Sandy had an appointment with her therapist and we called and canceled that when we heard that Denton county (where we live) was also under a tornado warning. We had told her we would pick her up after school so when the time arrived, Mike went out to get her. She comes home and tells us that the school officials had them in the halls because a funnel cloud was over the high school. She said the sirens were going off and the principals were on the PA system, telling them to stay where they were. What worried me was that the sirens were going off and we did not hear them! More then a slight concern. So we are going to get an all weather radio alarm clock that is connected to Noah weather radio and will go off if there is an alarm of any kind in our area. I will admit that I am terrified of tornados and if it were possible I would spend March through October in an under ground shelter. Perhaps when we build our own house we can do something like that.

Yet more proof that men don't have a brain

Mike did something yesterday evening that confirms what I have been saying for years. Men have no brains. It got chilly last night and we decided to build a fire. We had used sticks and boards we had found around the neighborhood. One stick, while brittle, was too long to fit in the fireplace. Mike goes out into the garage to break it. He leaned it against an empty kitty litter bucket, with plans to snap it in half. He puts one foot on the bucket (you can see where this is going) lifts his other foot and at that time the bucket crumples and shoots out from under him and down he goes. I am in the living room adding pieces of wood when I hear a thud then "Ouch, that was really stupid". My first thought was "Oh God! He has fallen and hurt himself." I go out into the garage to find him on his feet, holding his right upper arm. I ask if he is OK and he says he doesn't know. I look down and find the bucket in pieces and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what has happened. I ask him what happened and he tells me the sordid details. He is fine, thank Good. He has a bruised arm, scraped back and shoulder and wounded pride. I told him that from this point forward, if he gets anymore of these "brilliant" ideas to run them past me first. He will never live this one down.

How stupid can you get?

There was a story in tonights (4/4/07) news about a woman who came home to find her apartment being burglarized. She watched until they left and then followed them. At some point they realized that they were being followed and started shooting at her. She was very lucky, she walked away with only a flesh wound to her lower arm. What really upsets me is that this idiot woman had her three kids in the van with her. They were unharmed, but can you imagine the terror these poor kids felt as bullets were hitting the car that they were riding in? This poor excuse for a woman admits that she shouldn't have done this absolutely stupid stunt. My take on this is that she should be charged with reckless endangerment of her kids and CPS should be brought in and those kids taken from her. At least until she proves that she is putting the kid's welfare above her own.

Terrorists, Grandma and coughing teenagers beware!

Not only do terrorists and your grandma need to be aware that they may be booted off a plane, but now our teenagers need to be worried. There was a sixteen year old girl who was booted off of a plane because the pilot felt that "she was a risk to the other passengers". She was on a class trip to Washington D.C. and New York. She caught a cold while she was there and when she boarded a Continental plane to come home she fell asleep. She woke up and started coughing and couldn't catch her breath. After a few minutes she was fine. Her friend said it was just that annoying little tickle that you just can't seem to get rid of. She was examined by a doctor that was on the plane and was determined not to be a threat to the other passengers. But the pilot insisted that she leave anyway. She had to spend an additional night in New York with a teacher. Continental left them to find their own lodging and they had to pay for clothes and toiletries because all of their things were on the plane on the way home. Continental said they would pay for the hotel room only. The mother talked to someone from Continental who said the matter would be dealt with internally. If any of my daughters were treated this way I would sue Continental for everything I could get. You just don't boot kids off of a plane because they have a cold. You best be sure you don't have allergies or asthma if you fly on this airline. Especially after they have been examined by a doctor and deemed not to be a threat. You can be I will never use Continental Airlines.

Hot topic

We have a very sensitive topic around here. It's called illegal immigration. There are several states that are on the front lines as it were in dealing with this growing problem Texas, California and Florida. There is a small city where we use to live called Farmers Branch. There is a large Latino population living there and local law makers have put a ballet forward to make it illegal to rent apartments to undocumented immigrates. Now I am of the opinion that if you are here illegally, then you have no business being here. What sort of ticks me off about this is that there are people who don't live in Farmers Branch who are contributing large amounts of money to the against camp. Which means that these people are tipping the scales toward making it legal to rent to illegals. Somehow this seems wrong. If you live in Farmers Branch and are swimming in the bucks then by all means contribute how you feel toward this ballet. But there are rich cities around Farmers Branch who are sticking their noses in business they have no real right to be in. If you feel that strongly about illegal immigration then start your own ballet,. Now I know that what happens in Farmers Branch will set a precedence for the rest of the country, but it seems wrong that other cities can and are swaying the outcome. I have also read that a person who is working in the against camp was arrested for removing for signs from businesses and some people who live in Farmers Branch are afraid to put signs in their lawns for fear of reprisals. I feel for the people who live in Farmers Branch and I am glad we no longer live there.