Work week is over. They still haven't caught the peeping tom yet, who has been lying down on the floor outside the doors of the women's bathrooms trying to look in through the air grate.  This week was also marked by a flea infestation in the carpeting if the unit dose area, but I was lucky to be in the IV room, so was not affected.

Dan went back to the doctor. They still want him to go in for an MRI (brain scan) later this month, which was the fastest the hospital could schedule it. His blood pressure was still up, so they doubled the dose of his medication , which bothers him (makes him dizzy, ect.) But he hasn't had any more of his debilitating headaches lately, which is a good thing, indeed.

I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding the other night and loved it. It was refreshing seeing a romantic movie with lead characters played by normally good looking people rather than plastic Hollywood fake good looking people. The story of the cross cultural romance was very sweet. Reminded me a lot of a wedding a couple of summers ago where Dan was the best man. The groom was an old money WASP and the bride was second generation American, with a great big exuberant Mediterranean family.

Listening to the rock band Evanescence tonight.

"Bring Me To Life"
(feat. Paul McCoy)

how can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I’ve become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

now that I know what I’m without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life

frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead

all this time I can't believe I couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I’ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

(Bring me to life)
I’ve been living a lie, there’s nothing inside
(Bring me to life)

With the court papers from Tennessee, I finally got the ownership of Dad's truck straightened out. The state of Arkansas considered me the owner, the state of Michigan did not until it had more papers from the probate courts. I am now the legal owner, but Bill is the real owner, but I cannot sign it over to him until he has his driver's license. I still think sadly of my father every day. What a pain to have to deal with this crap while still mourning...  (my heart goes out to my oldest sister who actually has to deal with the lawyers et al.) I hope when I go, I leave things in much better shape legally for my children...

 

 

The weekend is over...

Did end up going to the party last night. It was quiet while I was there, other than the giving of some unusual gag gifts, though I have since heard it got pretty wild after I left...the house where it was held is a lovely place out in the woods near Dexter. Has a pond with a fountain, several decks, a walk out basement with a bar and an antique snooker table...cool place for a party...

Ordered some Detroit Tigers tickets today...the game will be late this month...looking forward to going to the game. They are doing OK this year, so I am finally being allowed to go to a game. I have not been to a game in the new stadium yet!

Have been reading Tony Daniels's Metaplanetary, a science fiction novel set in the far future. Like Sullivan's Lethe, the first several chapters have left me scratching my head in puzzlement. Hopefully, once I get farther into the book, I will finally figure it out. I recently read Nicola Griffith's Ammonite and found it to be an interesting book. It is about an anthropologist who is sent to a planet where a virus has killed all of the men...it was well written, and a coming of age story for the main character. I have also read Garth Nix's book Mister Monday, the firts of a science fiction/fantasy series for children. I liked it. It was interesting and fast paced, with a lot of mysteries to puzzle over. And the hero, a boy with asthma, was quite a sympathetic character.

The only movie I have watched lately was Skinwalkers, made by PBS...a very good adaptation of a very good book by Tony Hillerman, set on the Navajo reservation and featuring Navajo police officers solving a series of murders.

With the nearly constant rain this summer, the garden is going crazy. We have so many things blooming now!

I've been spending a nice day with the kids. :)   Went out to lunch, then to the toy store to buy birthday presents for Steven's best friend, then to the book store, then picked up Steven's friend for an afternoon visit. Then came Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Tonight will be taking the friend home, then taking Bill (or letting him take me) to his soccer practice (was Sunday through Thursday, now I think it might be gearing up to six days a week), then housework and bill paying. Tomorrow afternoon I will take Steven to his friend's birthday party, and then I might sneak out to Chelsea for a little while and go to a party myself...

We still have fireworks from Boomland that we haven't exploded yet. We were going to set them off tonight, but it looks like it will be raining... Maybe next Friday instead...

I also need to make plans to sneak away and see a play at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, though maybe the kids will be willing to come out with me...(they really enjoyed going there last year and seeing Taming of the Shrew). This year they are showing The Merry Wives of Windsor and Much Ado About Nothing, two plays I have not seen on stage...

Listening to some Frank Sinatra this afternoon:

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town
Chicago, Chicago, I will show you around - I love it
Bet your bottom dollar you'll lose the blues in Chicago
Chicago, the town that Billy Sunday couldn't shut down

On State Street, that great street, I just want to say
They do things they don't do on Broadway
They have the time, the time of their life
I saw a man, he danced with his wife
In Chicago, Chicago, my home town

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town
Chicago, Chicago, I'll show you around - I love it
Bet your bottom dollar you'll lose the blues in Chicago
Chicago, the town that Billy Sunday could not shut down

On State Street, that great street, I just want to say
They do things that they never do on Broadway - hey
They have the time, the time of their life
I saw a man, and he danced with his wife
In Chicago, Chicago, Chicago, that's my home town

I have seen your eagle soar across the mountain sky;
How blessed Lord, am I.
I have seen your dolphins leaping, laughing in the tropical sea;
How I am blessed by Thee.

I have seen the waves crash into the cliffs of Maine;
How transitory is any pain.
I have seen sunrise on the rims of your canyons grand;
Lord, I await to see your promised land.

Lord, a wonderful man calls me wife;
Thank you so much for my life!
For the beautiful children you lent me to raise;
I cannot give you enough praise!

Lord, my life has been a wonderful gift,
My soul in yours you uplift;
When death comes and opens its maw
May I still be calling on you in awe!

So far, so far, so far
From lush green mountains
So far, so far, so far
From brown frothing streams
So far, so far, so far
From the homes of my forebears
How did I come to be sent across the sea?

So much is strange here in desert lands
With the endless horizons
And the cold night stars.
The women, engulfed in veils,
Making sooty fires to warm their children.

So far, so far, so far
From hills blanketed with dogwood
So far, so far, so far
From mist shrouded trees
So far, so far, so far
From my family
How did I come to be sent to such a barren land?

Life is so different in this place,
Instead of corn people grow goats
And even death comes so strangely
With blood, bullets, burns, battle
And war planes falling from the sky.

So far, so far, so far
From cold mountain springs
So far, so far, so far
From hymns sung in my boyhood
So far, so far, so far
From the snug log cabin
That sheltered little children from the snow.

Will I ever see those green hills again?
Hold my dear mother against my heart?
Laugh with my brothers and sisters?
See a face that moves me with its feminine beauty?
Until they send me home, I must go on.


To my father, who went from his childhood home in the green and wooded hills in West Virginia to the deserts of northern Africa as part of the Army Air Force in WW2. The memories of the sooty fires and veiled women are among the few wartime experiences he was ever willing to talk about, as he experienced (and wished always to forget) the fighting in northern Afica, and the Allied invasion of Italy.
_________________

To My Father

Trapped for life inside of a cage,
Bars forged from lonliness, honor, and duty.
I will die alone like you.