Weekly tidbits

For the second night in a row we'er having rain! Yay! I can do without the tornado warning tonight though, since I'm heading off to bed. I heard we're in for a cool down too. By Friday it will only be 75! Hallelujah and thank God! Steve thinks this is the end of summer. Uh, Steve, it's August in Nebraska, honey. We're not done with summer.

We're going to Lincoln so we can go to Wyuka again. I've gotten some more requests for grave pictures from there, and since it will be a NICE day, we're going to go. My Aunt Ruth and Uncle Don are buried there also, so I can pay my respects and get some pictures of their grave. I'm loving being a ghoul and I don't care who knows it.

I did some cemetery lurking today too, I got a couple photos I needed, but then a beagle of all things chased me out of the cemetery! Well, not totally out of the cemetery, that would be ridiculous, but I couldn't get to the last grave I was looking for because this stupid dog kept growling at me. I tried to be friendly, you know, "Hey buddy, how ya doing? Good dog", all that stuff, but he just kept showing his teeth and growling. A freaking beagle! Anyway, I finally retreated to the air-conditioned car and gave up for the day. I realized when I got home the heat index aws 104 - no wonder I was sweating like the proverbial pig!

I got an interesting e-mail today from someone I don't know. Whoever it was didn't sign their e-mail, but they said they had read on Find-A-Grave that I had posted an obituary for someone from Harvard, but I didn't have a bio, so they sent it to me! I was kind of surprised, but I was glad they did. The lady had an interesting life and now she's not just a name and some dates on a piece of marble. I hope more people do the same.

I took the day off today. I worked the weekend and even though we're positively buried at work (kind of fits in with the grave chatter, doesn't it?) and overtime is approved I didn't even log in once to check my e-mail or anything. Just took the entire day totally off and didnt' even think about work. Well, until my cell rang about 8:30 tonight and I was sure it was the hospital because someone had forgotten to tell them I was off, but it wasn't so it was only a bad moment!

Speaking of cell phones, why the heck are people so freaking rude? The other night I was working when my cell rang. I didn't recognize the number, but what the heck, so I answered it and this lady says, "Hi, it's me". I had no idea who she was so I didn't say anything while I tried to place the voice from somewhwere... Then she says, "Is this Karen?" I told her no. "Who is this?" Excuse me, you called my phone, who are you? (I didn't say that, but I should have). I told her who I was and she says, "Why do you have my sister's phone?" What the...? I said, "Maybe you misdialed." Then, she gets this really nasty tone of voice, "It's programmed in my phone, I didn't misdial." Hmm. I asked her what number she called, then she asks me what my number is! I told her I wasn't giving her my number, she could tell me what number she called. Hey, how do I know it was programmed in her phone? Anyway, she rattles off my number and I told her I'd had the number for about 3-4 months and I wasn't Karen. Then she gets all huffy, "I supposed she changed her humber then?" Well duh... I just hung up. Idiot. Apparently she changed her number and sister or not, she didn't share that with you, and that's not my problem. Geez. I thought it was kind of odd, it was her sister, she had the number programmed into her phone, but it had been over 3 months since she talked to her? Plus, how long to they keep a number before they reuse it? I thought it was odd that I hadn't gotten any other calls for this person either. Until tonight. I picked up my phone without looking at the number and this guy was like, "Hey Karen, it's me...." Poor Karen. She has a lot of family and friends who have no names... I'm still ticked about the "sister" though, she was rude. At least the guy tonight apologized for calling the wrong person.

Meg is back at her apartment again. Did I already mention we got the car back? Yeah, another 300 bucks and it's good as new... I wish somebody in this family was an auto mechanic. I think we have too many accountants and not enough mechanics. That was a not so subtle hint to my son, who can't decide what he wants to go to school for...

My father-in-law called the other night to remind me to remind Meg about what a horrible part of town she lives in. Thanks, Bob. I didn't know that. Like I don't worry enough on my own. He said he was down near her apartment and there were some "characters" walking around. Hello, Bob. She lives near downtown. Downtown Omaha is full of "characters". That's why every stupid revitalization attempt has failed. Too many characters. Now that I think about it though, what was he doing in that part of town, anyway?

It's going to take me a while to relax and feel like she might be safe living there. Sending me text messages at 1 in the morning asking me if I'm still up are not relaxing! I can't even remember what she wanted when I called her, I was just relieved she hadn't gotten mugged.

Just when I thought the maybe were really empty-nesters Matt called yesterday, and I shot off my big mouth. His lease is up on their house next month and he and his roommates don't want to continue to be roommates (which is fine with me, I think one of them is a little abrasive - and he's really into body building. Probably taking steroids.... There goes that imagination again...). Anyway he doesn't know for sure where he's going to live, maybe with some friends... Of course I had to tell him he was welcome to come back home. What the hell possesses me sometimes I'll never know. I mean, if he needs to move back home to be able to afford to go to school, that's fine, he can come back home, really, but I just blurt out, "Oh, come on back home if you need to". We must get rid of this 5 bedroom house. It makes me irrational about having my kids live at home. They are adults for Pete's sake! Besides, I have 6 dogs, there isn't any more room for humans!

It nearly killed me at the time, but having him live at Omaha Home for Boys for that year really, really helped him in more ways than one. Obviously when he came back home his behavior was better, he did better in school (until he went back to live with his dad, but that's another story altogether), and he just seemed in better control of himself in general. The thing is now he's eligible for scholarship money just because he is lived there. Not too bad. Of course there are restrictions, he has to keep his grades up, etc., which I think is a good thing. Plus it keeps him in touch with people from the home who had a positive impact on his life when he lived there. I'm really grateful to them and all they do.

Man, I'm rambling. I'm not really tired after the 2 hour nap I took tonight, but I can't keep my thoughts together for anything tonight, as if you couldn't tell. So, later...