Mom

Well, here goes. I haven't talked about mom for a while. She never fully recovered from the fall she had over a month ago. Last week she fell again. This time she was in her home and fell on carpet. She stayed on the floor for most of the day we think. She was so confused that we couldn't get the straight story from her. After this fall she was extremely confused and unsteady on her feet. A new CAT scan showed a blood clot putting pressure on her brain. Dr. Bucci operated two days ago and removed it. She is still in the hospital, of course. I went to ICU yesterday to check on her and found her strapped to the bed. I went off. I had the staff call the Dr. and get a sedative for her and stayed with her until other family could come. Needless to say she was not a happy camper. She used language I didn't know she was aware of. I seem to remember her describing me as an SOB and a snake for not taking her home. I think the hospital staff would have sent her home immediately if the doctor had let them. He assured me last night that she would stay until medically safe to go. The DR. put her back on her regular meds yesterday and is keeping sedatives readily available. Hopefully she'll calm down until she heals a little. Last night she was talking to her cats and they were 10 miles away. Well, more later.

I was in one of our stores yesterday and the manager was waiting on a customer and telling me about a problem at the same time. A man waiting in line began to scold her for not being fast enough. There was an open lane next us but this guy wouldn't go there, choosing instead to continue to harass the lady for her lack of speed. The guy she was helping began to ask for various items slowwwwly. First he wanted a pwerball ticket and then he took his time picking out a scratch off card and then he mused over which brand of cigarettes to buy. Finally the other man stormed out of the store. Life's too short for jerks like that to ruin your day. He'll probably call corporate and they'll give him a gift card to go away. They'll take it out of her bonus for the month. thanks for reading.

michael vick

Here's the sentence we all wish for Vick. Unfortunately this would be considered inhumane for the dogs. He might accidentally cleat them. Some people never grow up and highly paid athletes seem to suffer that trait out of proportion. thanks for reading.

Open for business

Well, as promised, here are some pictures from the newly opened CherrybombSC Tattoo shop in Anderson, SC. They got off to a great start with lots of visitors until a really bad thunderstorm came in and killed the traffic. We arrived to take pictures to find everyone standing around looking at each other. They did manage to make some appts before the storm hit. I think the pics manage to give you an idea of how clean and pro everything is. The first tatt they did in the new shop was on a person who cancelled an appt at another shop after seeing our place. The Artist/Owner is the handsome guy in the bottom pic. Left to right in the top pic is his wife, his brother in law and his mother. After he gets established he'll look back and wonder that is was ever that quiet at Cherrybomb. You can call them at 864-224-0554, his name is Jonathan.

Jitterbug Phone

Well, another bright idea down the drain. I wrote about this concept a few weeks ago and here it is. If you'll check my previous post you'll find where I stated the need for a simple cell phone for seniors or others who can't understand the complexities of the majority of phones. Here it is. You can even get an option for three buttons, tow, 911, operator. If mom had one of these she might actually carry it around and use it. I am for anything that makes life easier.
Well the lottery has reached 300 million. I predict there will be 10 to 20 winners who split the winnings. Sure would like to be one of them.

PrePay

We try to be a little more sophisticated at our stores. I must admit, though, that this sign would not be out of the question with some of our employees.

Finally! My son opened his tattoo shop yesterday! After jumping through bureaucratic hoops for two months he finally got all the approvals needed and all the papers signed and all the inspections completed. The DHEC inspector said that it was one of the nicest shops he had seen. We're going down tonite to visit. I'll take pictures and post them tomorrow. He is the first in our family to own a business. I am very proud of him and his wife. I am also proud of my other son, at 24 a home owner and father of three children. I would have gone crazy at that age with that much responsibility. I was part of the drop out, turn on generation.

Thought you might like to see a sample of CherrybombSC tattoos' work. thanks for reading.

Stumphouse Mountain

Here's some pics from Stumphouse Mountain. I know it's kinda vague but directly behind us is the entrance to the tunnel. The tunnel was bored into the granite mountain in the 1850's for a train route from upstate SC to Ohio. It's about 15 ft wide by 15 ft tall and extends 1600 feet into the mountain. There are no lights inside so you have to use a flashlight. Near the end there is a perpetual fog in the air. You can make some really spooky sounds inside and It took constant encouragement to get the Grandson to go all the way to the end. the builders ran out of money before they ran out of mountain. The War of Southern Secession stopped the tunnel permanently.

Here's a pic of Isaqueena falls. It's named for Creek maiden who helped the early settlers in their struggle with the Cherokee. This picture shows me enjoying teaching the grandson to catch Crawdads. He caught on right away and had to be drug away from the water. There are just some things only a Granddad can do. Some days stick in your memory. This will be one. thanks for reading.

New Comic

We're taking the Grandson to Stumphouse Mountain today. Gonna do the picnic, park thing. Be sure to check out the link to FMinus. This is a really funny comic strip. Even people with no sense of humor( you know who you are) will find something there to laugh about. I'll post pictures later from the activities today.

Gettin Fired

I used to worry about this years ago. Now, at this time in my life, I'm not so concerned about it. In the past three decades I've actually only been "terminated" once. I deserved it. I had grown complacent in my job and was not being productive. I was in sales and had gotten tired of the daily grind. Since then I have been a commercial plumber, a store manager, a cabinet builder, a maintenance director and now a fuel system technician. I've got too much experience to worry about employment. Fact is, I love what I do and actually look forward to work each day(usually).
Mom isn't giving me many problems currently. She is healing well from her fall and is back into a routine with her cats.
Our little dog dissappeared last week. She was a chihuahua, jack russell mix and had been with us for about 7 years. We let her out to walk and she never returned. We live well off the road and she would usually do her thing in the field outside the back door and then return to the door. When she didn't return I figured she was down at moms' chasing the cats, her only recreation. I think she wandered up to the road and someone picked her up. We will pursue the regular channels, ads, etc to try to get her back but I suspect she is gone forever. I hope she vomited in the persons car when they nabbed her. thanks for reading.

Lotto

Twice a week I buy a couple of Lotto tickets. I usually pick out numbers that are birthdays or ages of people I know. No real logic there, it's just that picking out random numbers is not really easy to do unless you think like a computer. I happen to think like a man. That is, I try not to think unless it's needed. After 30 some odd years of marriage I've learned to disengage my mind and my hearing. Anyway, like most people I always have some grand plan for how I'll spend my winnings. First, of course, I'll provide for my loved ones. Second, I'll invest anything left after First. Third, I'd like to help people. In my work I know a lot of single parents who are working themselves to death. I'd like to be able to maybe hand one of them a key to a new car and say " Hey, here's one thing you don't gotta worry about." Oh well, chances are really good that this will never happen. But, as they say, you can't win if you don't play! thanks for reading.

Day in the Life

This is how it's supposed to be. I'm sitting on the porch drinking a beer while the spouse is pushing the lawn mower. Do I think it's fair? Look, I gassed it up and cranked it and adjusted the wheel height. That's as fair as it gets. All she has to do is walk around behind it. I did all the dirty work.

Man, it is muggy in the South this week. I think the humidity is about 110%. I love it, makes the beer go down really good. On days like this I think about all those days standing at a troublesome pump when it's 30F and the wind is blowing about 40 knots. I seldom ever complain about the weather. You take what you get. It could usually get worse. thanks for reading.