Lilly Sway

BREATHE

lillysway — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:58:59 +0000

Well it has been a while since I had taken a good long breath and taken a little time to do what I love to do best and that is to share a little bit of myself with those of you who may gain a little insight from my day to day experiences. Frankly there are very few and far between free moments during the day so I have decided to make use of my insomnia and write I have found that no matter how an incident can lead you on a spiral downward tract, and there is no end in sight to the fall, a person can always stop it in its tracts we have the power within us to give importance to the matter at hand or to be smart and rise above it. The story at hand is what came of it. I have been in a literal turmoil since the electric company said they had a mistake of $1,600.00 on their record for my home usage they collected their money and threw me into that downward spin until I just could not breathe, I had all of my budget thrown off, I know that you may think that wow it’s not that big a deal but to our house hold that is a large amount of money and when your back is pressed to the wall with the likes of a money mongrel like the electric company you have no way out and there is nothing to do but to fold. I have had nothing but trouble since, everything was put on the back burner for payment our house note, the gas bill, the phone the water, and since the battle was fierce the power was eventually cut off while I contested the questionable error they had made. We also had to pay a reconnect fee + a deposit which we had earned not to have to pay because of our payment history. It all went down the tubes from there. That was in December and you only have to imagine the week without power until we could not hold out due to the cold and lack of everything that you need power for, well I gained high blood pressure due to the stress of what these past few months were like, and then not to my surprise I received a bill in the mail for my electricity this end of march telling me that my bill is $1,200.00 negative and further more have no bill to pay, I would guess for maybe a month or two according to their standards of measure and their lack of skill when it comes down to it. I was not given a chance to see if I needed that money in a check they just credited my account with out so much as a by your leave and poof magic there mistake was taken care of never you mind the state I was left in. It was a bitter sweet thing, this bill, there were no apologies, there was no refund of my late fees or the reconnect fee, I can tell you that there was that overwhelming feeling of relief mixed with anger. I had been chasing my tail trying to recuperate since December, my credit is out of whack and where is the justice. I stopped dead in my tracts and just decided not to just let it begin to fester in me like a sickness. I realized the world around me was still moving forward and that there was nothing more to say but to act on the problem. I am working hard on my health and taking control of that anger I have shifted it towards a great comeback. My stress levels are acceptable and I have learned that there is more than one way to skin a cat I am, and have been saving to make our house totally solar we are going green, and in the long run our planet can even benefit from this choice. So I have managed to stop the downward spiral in its tracts and decided to work just a little bit harder to make things right again at least I can try.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

IT ALL BECAME CLEAR

lillysway — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:38:04 +0000

I had been well sort of avoiding the yearly decorating for Christmas this year. I had let myself forget the important things are sometimes the simplest. It started on Thanksgiving Day we had that horrible light bill, and then there was the slow work month before it had taken a toll on my nerves. I had all but cried over the juggling of it all to work out, just choosing the most reasonable way to actually make our world seem normal was a challenge in itself, the weather was hot and balmy all through the season, my husband decided to paint the dinning room, and then he also brought in paint for the living room and I’m not sure what other room he intends to paint, and my 13 year old had managed to get herself punished so badly that she was left in the stone ages, and the whiney phase of you just don’t love me, and the why are you just so mean now, and I’m so bored there is nothing to do, and the all to familiar as soon as I turn 18 I’m moving out. I guess I managed to believe that decorating was so important right now. That has all changed this week. I have allowed my 13 year old 2 phone calls in the last month and she’s not so very bored now, she has the table to set, the dishes to clear, the car to clean out daily, and we have found that her room does have a floor, and just yesterday at dinner she was telling my 11 year old about how she would be the one to give him his old room back if he was grown and needed somewhere to sleep. It seems as though she may stay a while longer, things were starting to change for the better (except for the paint smell and the drop cloths everywhere) I got up today at 5am to a brisk cool day and to my surprise my 9 year old was waiting for me with a his piggy bank and a hammer in tow, It turns out that his school was hosting holiday shopping for kids, and when I asked if he was sure he said mom its December 12^th 12 days until Christmas and I have to get a few things. He left with $ 15.00 all of it in change and 6 cans of food for the holiday food drive when I picked him up he had a beautiful diamond bracelet (well they looked like diamonds to him) for his sister, a tool set for his older brother an already wrapped gift for his room mate my 11 year old, an eraser he did not say for who, a tape measure for dad he was so happy and bubbling over with joy he even had change in his pocket “wow” I said you really have Christmas on the run, you have completed more than half of your Christmas list, He said well mom I got tired of waiting for you to ask me to go shopping so maybe it was you who are waiting for me to ask this year instead. So I made yours first, and then dads and a few others, but I got dad something extra because well mom he is dad. I did not let him see my tears; he was in the back of the car anyway so I’m most sure he did not see me. I helped him wrap them all in secret we had managed to sneak them in without so much as raising an ounce of suspicion from anyone. During dinner he asked my 13 year old if she knew that there were just two weeks left for Christmas, and that if she was really good Santa could possibly see his way past all of the other stuff and her stocking might have great stuff in it not just a lump of coal. She just smiled and said well I guess I’ll have to take that into consideration before I go to sleep tonight. We had our dinner in our cozy breakfast nook and noticed that it had been a while since we had eaten a meal there together by the end of dinner we realized why it was to crowed for us now but we all laughed and did not seem to mind it so much the other choice would be to eat with the smell of paint. We sat there and made plans for decorating the house and maybe having a bunch of my children’s friends over to help. I brushed off those overwhelming problems and decided to deal with what I could on a day to day basis and that just maybe right now decorating for Christmas was the most important thing to deal with.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

Fair is fair, but if you’re the little guy, how fair is it?

lillysway — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:35:38 +0000

This week I was overtaken by an outrageous bill from my electric company. I was robbed and stripped of my dignity in less than a moment. (Once I had actually been allowed to speak to a real person) The company that I have employed to provide our home with electricity for the last thirty years has become a money mongrel: a pig of enormous, insatiable, glutinous, inconsiderate pomposity. This proposed reliable company has the audacity to profess to give you, the people that it feeds on, customer care. I have been thwarted in that respect. Left, shall we say: holding the bag and up the creek without a paddle. This company can only blindly consume its dues and more without ever conceding to the fact that they are capable of making gross errors. I say this only because they have made five mistakes, that’s right (5) in a row. Now, after I’ve paid my electric bills for four months, and they were quite high, I am left to comprehend that they are charging me a $1,600.00 bill that includes errors THEY made in August to September, then September to October, then October to November. They’ve told me that they found our bill to be incorrect and that we were not charged properly. In response, I asked them to come out and read the meter again. They said that this is after the fact and that they could do no adjustments for me. So, if I am to understand that if they can do no adjustments for me, now, after the fact. Then; how is it that they can do after the fact adjustments for themselves, FOUR MONTHS LATER? I think that I have the answer, and it’s not pretty. It is that they, the big, all-powerful company has simply decided that I have to pay what they are charging me simply because they are the big, all-powerful company. I propose, that they are clearly in possession of everything: computers, employees, and access to all of my electricity usage for the last 30 years. They flaunt this capability by professing to be efficient. Then why aren’t they also efficient in sending me a bill that is accurate in the first place and issued in a concise manner. If they can just say that they found a $1,600.00 error and I’m expected to believe they are founded, then that would mean that I also have to believe that all of my bills from August all the way to November and the past thirty years were correct. There, as clear as day, you have the problem that I am now faced with. If I went and purchased gasoline that was advertised on the sign as three dollars a gallon and stopped the pump on six dollars, for my lawn mower. When I get to the counter I fully expect to pay $6.00 and not a cent more. In a real business transaction the customer gets what he pays for in a timely, satisfying manner, fully aware of the cost and the method of pricing. I have to say that if the attendant had asked me for $ 6.00 and .20 cents, after the fact, I would have to challenge this reasoning. Which is just why I have burdened you, the people out there reading this, with a question. Fair is Fair but if you’re the little guy how fair is it? The unreliable, inconsistent, unfriendly energy company has now backed me into the corner and is trying to rob me as if I were being held up at gunpoint. No, they aren’t actually pointing a gun at me, but if I refuse to pay this outrageous bill than I will be left in “the dark”. This is what I am feeling, I’m completely at their mercy or lack of it. I have asked for help and there is no one that seems to want to help me. They just say:

“Oh, you mean that it is the electric company that you have a problem with? Well, if you are trying to fight them, you need an army of lawyers that would well exceed the amount of money that they are charging you. So, do the smart thing, just pay the bill, it would be the smartest thing to do.”

That’s right, the lawyer that I went to, said the smart thing is what I should do. Wow! Have any of you ever been in a situation that left you overcome by an overwhelming livid feeling, so profound that you could spit in someone’s eye? While he was stomping on all of my dignity, he had the impudence, along with his consultation fee, to say “Just DO the right thing”. I’m the little guy here, and I am being accosted while my stability is being threatened. Oh yeah, I am trying hard to do the right thing. I just can’t seem to find one single person who can help me do the right thing. Now beaten and robbed, I have to just adjust my thoughts of what is Fair and do without so that I can feed the monster that call itself Reliant Energy. What a crock…

Food for the Mind

Lilly Sway

Pictures

lillysway — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:34:30 +0000

Today I spent most of the day cleaning and dusting and I have quite a large collection of photos on display and it makes for a busy cleaning day, but I am not complaining. I am one of those people who frame’s most all of the pictures I take. .I try to put them all out at one time or another, it is my intention to live a happy a life as I possibly can, and one of the reasons I make the time to continue this hobby is to help realize that statement. I have photos in boxes but for the most part I feel one should have their memories out, to cherish the years right in front of them each and every day. I find that time goes by quickly and if I store everything in a box could I ever get the chance to take a moment and remember a great day or reflect on why something has changed. I have purposely surrounded my self for the most part with my life right before my eyes, my husband started the collection of framing a special photo on the wall here and there you know dad stuff and after a while he got bored, but I have grown to enjoy most everything about putting the photos on our shelves or the wall for display I can go down the hallway and find myself smiling at a funny costume my 18 year old wore when he was 3 and I can appreciate the heart ache my husband feels when he looks at a picture of our daughter when she was 5 and the reality that hits him to just look across the hall and see that she is now a beautiful thirteen year old on the way towards becoming a woman, I can see my best friends in their happiest of times, or I can feel my heart warm with love when I look at my most memorable times, like when my children were born (and how good I looked then). I had the opportunity to talk to a friend the other day, it had been a long while since we had time in our busy lives to spend catching up, but as I hung up I saw her picture up on my shelf and it was as if we had just seen each other, so her being in another part of our state and not where we could have a lunch date or see one another didn’t seem to matter as much just the visual connection was enough, the best part of having my memories surround me is that sometimes the visual is all I have left of a particular friend or family member that has passed away, because we will always have that instant, that perfect day, that special moment frozen in time, that special picture, you know the one you don’t really mind dusting at all.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

Comfort in Food

lillysway — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:12:12 +0000

Today, I started to shop for cooking ingredients to accommodate the upcoming holidays. Since childhood, I have been in love with the kitchen and all of the familiar aromas. Even when I feel a little tired or stressed I can always cook up a storm in the kitchen. I owe this purely to the anticipation of how good it will taste when I have finished. This week, as I picked up a little of this and that, I needed a few fresh spices to add to a special recipe. I was giving it a practice run in the kitchen when my oldest son pointed out how it smelled just like grandmother’s kitchen. His response to the aroma was to ask if we were having company. I had cooked up a little roasted hen and some trial-run dressing and rolls; all made from scratch. As I tasted the meal, I was suddenly overcome with joy. I felt so happy that I began to look for old holiday music. During supper, I realized that my family was growing up fast. The children seemed so mature, although I noticed that they were giggling at the same old music that we had listened to every holiday season, for years. At least, that is what I thought that they were laughing at… upon further investigation I found out that they were really laughing at the old centerpiece on the table. I had gone all-out with my holiday trial-run; I had even decorated the dining table. When I had first set the centerpiece on the table, I did not have time to take in the fact that it was the one I had made for my mother when I was twelve. I had crafted it as a special home coming for my oldest brother. He had been on his honeymoon and was bringing his new wife to our home for the very first time. During his furlough in Italy he fell in love and married a wonderful woman within a matter of three months. I wanted the table to look especially beautiful that thanksgiving. My thoughts were very warm and comfortable as I grew lost in old memories. Finally it all made sense and I made the connection to my sudden burst of happiness: it was the food that I had prepared all day, they were the recipes that my mother had left to me in her cookbook. Within were her special ingredients, her special way, to entice you to come to the table for an unforgettably delicious meal. I was in heaven and I had managed to unknowingly transform another routine Saturday meal into a beautiful passageway to that oh so comfortable place just by making a little comfort food.

Iggy the Dog

lillysway — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:24:15 +0000

While I empathize with the work that Ellen Degeneres does in the name of saving pets. How could a doggie drama attract so much attension from the public? Are we not, as a country, facing more important issues? What about PEOPLE? Are animals more lovable than fellow humans? Oh, Wait… animals can’t talk back to you. The reason that they stare at you so lovingly is bacause you feed them. They have the abilities to show emotion but what of your fellow humans who are starving or living under bridges? What about orphans that are mistreaded and abused “behind close doors”? I wish that such public outcry would arise to fight problems which actually need solving. I have no problem with people having pets, but since when is the placement of a dog more important than news that actually affects people?

Food for the mind

Lilly Sway

Taxi Any One?

lillysway — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:03:06 +0000

Yesterday was a rainy day there were yellow raincoats running all around the elementary school the rain came down in sheets but thankfully the sun was still shining very strong until I got to the area where my children wait for me to pull up for them but as it was finally my turn the rain only came down harder, after loading them up and trying to exit the school grounds we noticed a neighbor’s car had broken down, we stopped and asked if someone was coming for them, she said that her husband was stuck on the other side of town in traffic so we offered them a ride home we then all piled up in our vehicle and headed to her street, she looked in the mirror to see what her children were laughing at, her makeup was running so she had raccoon eyes as her son called them and we all had a big life. After dropping them off we continued along with a smile as we got back on our regular route to the middle school the rain continued to pour, as we approached the school we saw no raincoats, that’s right not here, it would simply not be acceptable to carry one, thank goodness umbrellas are still okI made my daughters take one ( some how they were still soaking wet). When I finally made my way through traffic towards them as I opened the door I could see that they were with 5 other teens, before I could say anything they all jumped in they were soaked to the bone, the rain clouds had covered the beautiful sun which meant driving in it was dangerous enough and having kids trying to dodge cars while running across the big 4 lane street was out of the question in all good conscience it was really hectic traffic on a regular day much less on a day like today, so I did not protest and we went along our way laughing as we left wet teens here and there. I finally closed in on my particular neighborhood street but only made it half way my son called me and said that he had caught a ride to his nearby campus for afternoon classes, the professor had not come in because of the flooding in his area so classes were cancelled and his ride had already left the parking lot which left him in need of a ride home, as we pulled onto the campus my daughters jumped into the front seat, before I could ask them what they were doing I saw my son standing in the rain with two of his friends I pulled up beside them rolled the window down and asked if someone was in need of a ride they all laughed. A little rain can bring many people your way you could find yourself in a good mood after driving in it all day so the next time the weather tries to block out the sunshine make your own even if it is in a crowded vehicle full of wet people, well today is looking like more rain is coming our way. Taxi any one?

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

The Big Yellow

lillysway — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 01:38:22 +0000

Today I would like to bring the most disturbing thing that I have observed in the past few months to your attention. I have been working from home lately and for the most part it is great. The cost of doing so is that you are easily accessible to anyone and all of their emergencies. People don’t feel qualms calling someone that is home all day and that doesn’t really work. It can be a very annoying assumption that makes me angry. But sometimes you are set in the right place at the right time for good reason. As I carried on with my usual run of the mill day, back and forth to the local post office, the school runs and so on I’ve had the misfortune of running across the neighborhood buses and their drivers on a day to day basis. I was used to taking the larger, more accessible road to leave my neighborhood after dropping my children off to their different schools. I used to only pass by a bus already parked at the schools or on the four-lane highway. I was shocked at the indifference that some of the drivers so candidly display to the rules of the road. I’m not a person who can tolerate the endangerment of one child, much less the 40 or so children that are on each bus everyday. I must let you know (from experience) that the constant barrage of children can be nerve-racking everyday. However, the saying is: “if the kitchen is to hot for you, then get out”. I became more and more aware as the month turned into two. Most of the bus drivers that I observed never stopped at a stop sign and these supposed tested and trained drivers did not even use their equipment properly, like when they are about to unload children at a stop they are supposed to warn you by flashing their lights the color red, and releasing the stop sign and they unload while an arm extends from the front of the bus to insure the crossing children’s safety while in full view. I guess these particular drivers just thought they had to pass their test, and not practice what they had learned at bus driving school. I have to say that you may think that I’m just nit picking at a couple of common mistakes, but I have stayed silent on this subject for two months and have just tried to ignore the ongoing disregard not just of road rules but of children’s safety. In all of good consciousness I could not take it for granted that you think that your children are in safe hands when they mount that big yellow bus. I grant you that all bus drivers are not in the habit of jeopardizing your children, but if you think that the bus is a safe haven, while you go off to work, well then you must live in a world of denial. What would I have you do? Well, that is entirely up to you, but I have completed my obligation and I realize that there are bus drivers who take their job seriously so I only reported the one bus driver that constantly had a phone in her ear while she drove past the stop signs and went barreling through the neighborhood like a bully with no end in sight. If she had been struck by another car she surely would have screamed foul and she would have gotten away with her accident. Most people who entrust their children to these drivers would rather think that an individual who drives alone must have been in a hurry and be responsible for an accident that children were hurt in. I saw this lady run stop sign after stop sign and honk at other cars if she thought they were trying to cross before her. I was further upset by the fact that she used her horn frequently when caught behind a car that stopped at a stop sign. I overheard the same bus driver telling another bus driver that she almost did not make it on time because a dummy actually stopped at a stop when there were no cars to stop for, when her friend said “girl you better watch out for people who may have seen you, they’ll call it in on you, like they did me”. She just laughed and said “Yeah, let ‘em call. Nobody wants my job, nobody wants brats in their car. That’s why I have this job. No one else is going to do it, so just let them call, I don’t care”. I called the bus barn and had a condescending manager tell me that one cannot just call the bus barn and say that bus # so and so on a particular route did a bad thing because he said and I quote “I assure you, that all of our bus drivers are trained to drive defensively and cautiously and if there is a complaint you will have to come out to the bus barn and fill out the proper forms.” Yes, the proper forms. I had to chew on that one. I did encounter the drivers on a day to day basis and I thought that maybe it was a fluke and that they were just getting used to the route. No, that was not going to satisfy me, surely other people have to have seen this type of driving. I began to ask the moms in the car-rider line and everyone I talked to had seen or experienced the same bad driving. When I asked if they complained the answer was the same “that’s why I do the car rider line”. They all seemed to know how the bus drivers were abusing the road but not one of those people would go and report it. I reported it and stated that the reason was the driver with the phone in her hand while driving and I finally did go and fill out the forms but now the thing has turned into as the manager said “a big mess”. I’m really sorry that there are so many things wrong with this big yellow program, but when will someone stand up and say “Hey! This is wrong”. Why is it so hard to do right by our children? Taking it for granted that someone else is going to care for them as you would is not right. I‘m one of the parents who sits in the car-rider line and goes through traffic everyday to receive my children. I manage to sacrifice so many comforts along the way: like sleeping in, having “me time” but I have learned what is really important. I realize that most of us have to work, but our schools are already overcrowded, the system has so many requirements that our teachers are pushed to the brink and they have the most important job to do. They have to insure the prosperity of our society as a whole by giving our children the knowledge to succeed. After parents entrust children for 7 hours to be enlightened and help them to understand what is required of them in life, why would we just let some crazy bus driver snatch all of that beauty and eagerness away from us? They have an obligation to keep our children out of harms way. I refuse to just stand and watch. I feel compelled to try to wake you up. I was asked by the bus barn manager which route it was that my children wait for their bus on, and what bus they regularly get on. When I said that they were car riders, he said how was it that the bus driver’s actions affected me on a day to day basis. For those of you who don’t get it, I don’t use the school district bus service. I said to him that I just happen to think that all children should be safe, and that should be important to everyone whether you ride the big yellow or not.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

lillysway

Best Friends Forever

lillysway — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:41:50 +0000

I have sat and watched my two boys who are in grade school bicker and battle over just about anything, and it is of no surprise boys just are that way, I had 5 brothers and 8 uncles so I have seen it most of my life, but the other thing that I have grown to love about my boys, my brothers, my uncles, and my brothers in law is that no matter how bad the argument, they just seem to get over it and are usually the best of friends shortly afterwards. I was watching my sons argue over a certain game they are allowed to play only 1 hour and only if homework is finished first, we always set a timer and they usually play until the very last moment but the older of the two had become a little bored half way through the game and a fierce battle erupted the younger one sighting that if his brother felt that way about the game he should have had forethought enough to mention it before they were halfway into the game, starting a new game with only a half hour left was a waste of his time and no sooner said than a big battle was on, there were name calling ( like ignorant, dummy, and the one I here most often stupid), rolling bodies came right after the names and then I sent them to their room I heard a big thump , they share a room so they were not in there together but a moment and they had already picked up where they had left off I had a thought, when I entered the room and told them that they had 5 minutes to decide which of them would move to their older brothers room, he had left for college and that they should let me know which one would stay in the room they already occupied, I also informed them that this could not go on. I did not give them a chance to say a word and left them in there, I then shut the door behind me. (I must confess I sort of shut it loudly). 5 minutes came and went, and an hour had gone by still not a peep from that room. If you are a mother you always think the worst so I began imagining all these bad things that could have gone on. I went to their room and heard laughing when I opened the door I saw them playing a game of checkers absorbing the picture of perfection while trying to ignore it, they just said hi mom did you need something I shut the door and opened it again not once but twice had I entered the Twilight Zone? Were these the same two boys? So I just said who is moving out they looked at each other and the younger of the two said mom I can’t leave this room and the older replied the same before I could intervene my youngest said with the saddest face mom I love this guy I have lived with him all of my life and he is my best friend and that’s forever, so if one of us has to move we decided we are both going. And mom I’m begging you please don’t take my brother away from me we decided that we just won’t play that game anymore. I was left speechless and then I quietly shut the door and went and found my old family album I looked at all my brothers and uncles and remembered all of the fierce battles they fought, I remembered when they went away to the armed forces and that they did not all come back, I knew that they most assuredly had the same kind of brotherly love that my boys had shown me today. I did not make them move and I know that there are more battles to come, but for now all is quiet on the front.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

lillysway

Not Such a Great Day

lillysway — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:02:46 +0000

You may find it amusing but my day today was not such a great day I had tried to leave the house in an orderly manner, early enough to reach the math tutor, choir practice, lunches, and I was somehow trying to beat the traffic hour, so I could get to the post office before the line was impossible, well my 8 year old decided to give back his breakfast that he scoffed down even after I warned him twice that he was not going to hold it down if he did not slow down, oh well he didn’t, gargling, a quick change of clothes and we still make it out of the door in good time or so I thought, maybe not the right time is what I should say because when I turned at the stop sign I turned right and went 2 blocks and was stopped, in the middle of my path was a woman that I often see walking her dog. I could not believe my eyes her dog was going (at traffic hour) right on the road and she let him, he was leashed but she had not tried to even move him off the road when he was in circles trying to make up his mind where I was being honked at by now, because now there was a long string of cars behind me, and as far as I could see past the sign. So I just could not join in on the honking because I was completely mesmerized by the woman’s indifference to everything going on around her the traffic that was oncoming had finally cleared so I contemplated crossing the yellow line as I live in a large neighborhood the has lawn service trucks, cable trucks, and on any given day someone is having their carpet cleaned so crossing the line to go around is almost impossible to avoid and I was now being yelled at to go just move it lady, I crossed the yellow line and went around the lady’s pet. I heard a lot of name calling shame on you the name callers, (that is what I was thinking) when I heard a sound that was the start of a siren go on and off twice I turned my head towards the noise an officer waving his finger at me in the child correction mode mouthing no no, I pointed at the dog in the road and as he pulled me over and then asked for my license and registration I motioned to him to look at the dog and asked are you going to give me a ticket ?, I am blocking everyone because of that dog and we can’t just sit and hold traffic up or was I supposed to. He then said that he was just going to warn me, and that I should know better than to cross the yellow line and take it upon myself to start a chain reaction he said look behind you now they all think they can do the same. I said again do you see the dog? He said this is only a warning ma’am I took the warning and left the dog scene seething, and of course we were all late for all of our morning obligations, because when a little something goes wrong in life it just seems to fester into a big something sometimes. I felt as if I should go right home and get under the covers but I continued on with my tasks I thought to myself no this day most certainly can not be a good one, I thought that because after being stuck in traffic half an hour I felt my lap wet and noticed the my coffee had over turned and the spill proof cap let it run all over my clothes It was not so bad because I was wearing black, but when I stepped outside of the car my shoe heel broke I was already at the post office which had a line that led outside of the door, I decided to try and make the best of it. I went in anyway, got my mail off to its perspective places but then I still had a box left in the car when I finally came out, 1 and a half hours later. I just said I’ll do that one tomorrow, As I got in the car I got a call that my son had accidentally sat in a bed of ants (he’s allergic) so I went directly back to where I began at the school, his first question was mom why are you not wearing shoes and what took you so long I was going to say something to the effect of having a bad day, but when I saw his big swollen hand and his big sad eyes, I just said never mind darling lets get you taken care of, so after treating him and putting him down for a nap I found that I had left the back door open ,because I had stepped on a pine cone and had hurt my foot. How you might wonder did I manage to just know that the door was not shut well I saw a big black furry thing run past me, it was a squirrel, yes it went straight for my kitchen I had no idea how scared he was when he saw me, but as for my fear I had it in check with my trusty broom in tow we ran around the kitchen, the living room, the garage, and finally he was out and gone I had not even noticed that my son was standing on the couch laughing at me and the squirrel. I had a mess to clean up and soon I realized the day was all but over and it was time to pick up my other children from school do my son and I packed a quick cooler with junk and two waters, off we went. I looked as if I had been in a brawl but there was no time to change I was in car rider line and when I had finished all of the rout to pick up and drop off all the car pool kids and my own children all I wanted was a bath and a warm cup of tea. I bathed drank my tea, and went to start supper I had a large crock pot so thank goodness I put roast to cook that morning, I just stood there thinking of that lady what was she thinking, why did she not even care to try and control the pet and keep him off the road the street she was on was long and grassy, maybe her intent was to just let him go in the road so she would not have to deal with the mess, and how could that officer chastise me for trying to alleviate the problem, I had no sooner finished steaming some nice potatoes and carrots when my husband came in from work and said that his day was the worst he’d had in a while, and that all he wanted to hear about was my great day, I told him that, well it was not very different from most days and put supper on the table it was my pot roast that was slow cooked to perfection, but when my son saw it he asked if I had cooked the squirrel, I just smiled and when my husband said what squirrel I just said to him my day was not such a great day, but I can tell you that it certainly was interesting.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

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