Life Off Hold

A Real-Life Haunting Story

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:02:04 GMT

Tonight in ChatHt the topic briefly touched upon hauntings and I mentioned it happened to me once. The details were too much for a chat discussion so I promised to write it out.

It was back in the mid-70s when I was in my mid-20s. I was looking for a roommate and ended up moving in with another 20-something named Ellen. The house belonged to Ellen's grandmother who had recently passed away.

My bedroom was on the small 2nd floor which consisted of my room and, across the hall, a small room that just had old items of storage; that room was always closed. Ellen had the downstairs bedroom.

Here are some of the happenings in that house:

* My two cats used to get freaked out and follow something around the room with their eyes. They also pawed at the door to the storage area across the hall and acted like they wanted to get into there really badly. They never did this type of thing before, or after, this time period.

* My bed was right next to the only window in the room and there was no screen on it. One afternoon one of my cats raced up the stairs at top speed, jumped on and across the bed, and continued racing RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW. He was definately chasing something that only he could see. I was totally amazed. He looked like a cartoon character that runs off a cliff and then falls. He did fall, but it was a very small house so a short trip to the ground and some tree branches helped break his fall. He was ok. **

* I had nightmares frequently while living there which included having the sensation of being blinded and in the dark and trying to turn on lights in the house but they would not turn on. This was a re-occuring 'dream'. When I would awaken I would often find my bedroom light on when I knew I'd turned it off when going to sleep.

* One time in the shower I had a VERY strong sense that I was being watched by eyes that were in the bathroom in the corner near the ceiling.

* I didn't talk to Ellen about these things for quite a while, but when I finally did she told me that she had been seeing a black form, man-like, in her room. She got a bad feeling from 'him'. She had multiple experiences of this and it bothered her a lot.

* Ellen confided in me that there was a lot of family fighting going on concerning the grandmother's inheritance, which included the house. These incidents ended suddenly and I seem to recall that Ellen said the family had resolved their differences. Perhaps we were considered trespassers!

** As a humourous note to these events, my cat Herbie, the one who raced out of the window, apparently was not daunted by the experience. When I would sleep in some Saturdays or Sundays he used to 'let himself out' but jumping out that same window to the ground. It was totally different, though; he would very carefully leap from the window sill.

Ouch Update - 12/27/08

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:59:07 GMT

I'm keeping this little journal primarily for my own purposes, to have some record of my
symptoms & recovery.

Some of the swelling has gone down now and some areas of localized pain have
come into better focus.

The day after my accident I had a strong metallic taste in my mouth. My teeth had
been 'rattled' and felt loose. Now tonight I have at least one lower molar that is
suddenly sensitive to heat and cold.

I still have all the tingling in the limbs and from time to time part of my face (right
side) feels tingly and my right eye does not feel right. On Wednesday I had ringing
in my right ear too.

My right side is definately worse than my left, but I do have some tingling there too,
particularly when I raise my left hand to hold a phone to my ear.

My shoulders are painful, including between my shoulder blades. When I bend my
head back so as to look up towards the ceiling it hurts down to between my
shoulder blades.

I still have pain mid-back and in my lower back and my upper arms.

I'm a little less foggy and feel a little better today overall. I was able to get the dishes
done a little better, but I noticed I had trouble lifting a pan of water with my right arm
alone.

I still have some trouble breathing at times, particularly laying on my back in bed
and if I bed forward.

I have moments of short stabbing pains around my mid-section both above and
below my waist.

I've been fatigued easily and sleeping 10 - 12 hours and foggy and slow when
awake, although today I had less of that.

A Fall on the Ice

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:48:45 GMT

[Originally written and posted on my Facebook Notes on 12/24.]

It's always something. I spent Tuesday evening [12/23] in the Emergency Room
of the local hospital after taking a 6 PM fall on the ice in the parking lot at work.

I fell hard on my right shoulder and heard a "crack" sound around my neck or
back. After I overcame the initial pain, I noticed alarming symptoms:
difficulty breathing and swallowing on the right side, tingling in the fingers
and toes on my right side, some visual distortions, mental fogginess, headache
and muscle aches, and even a metallic taste in the mouth.

When I got home, I called the 24-hour Nurse Consultant service provided by
my Health Provider and he said I should go to the Emergency Room and get
X-rays and maybe a CAT scan. After a long night the x-ray results were that I
did not have broken bones, but just contusions.

However, the symptoms continue although some are a little less. The "crack"
has not been explained and so I still have symptoms and concern. The
paperwork says that recovery may take days to weeks.

I've been in a fog mentally since the accident and can't seem to do more that
the minimum. I haven't done any of the preparation work for my Christmas meal
or for the appetizers. I am home, and VERY thankful for that. VERY thankful!

Update - 12/25/08 Christmas evening

Now that the widespread pain has decreased, the probable sites of the damage
are starting to reveal themselves. I do plan to follow up with my primary physician.
I want what cracked tracked down and treated.

I found a diagram in my health files from decades ago when I used a TENS unit
for lower back pain:

I suspect damage at C8-T1 since I can't raise my arm without having numbness,
like when I have to hold the phone to my ear. Also, I have tingling and
numb sensations in my hands even when they aren't elevated.

Also the T8 - T10 part of my spine hurts and I have pains in my upper abdomen.

I also have some difficulty swallowing which might be C4.

L4 & L5 too - with tingling and pain in the feet.

Hopefully all of this is just from swelling and pressures, but I did hear that crack,
and that wasn't the ice.

Some of the swelling has gone down in the neck region and I'm less mentally
cloudy.

My lower back above the waist hurts quite a bit and seems to be bulged on the
left side.

My spine hurts right between the shoulder blades when any pressure is put on it.

I can't stand for long at a stretch and even sitting is painful. When I bend forward
I have some strain breathing.

Last night the vertabre in my lower buttocks 'unfroze' which made that region
feel somewhat better.

I'll keep you posted. Please keep me in your prayers.

Video: Broccoli Kitten

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:30:47 GMT

This kitteh is wack!

Video courtesy of icanhascheezburger.com and YouTube.

The Doghouse

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:32:04 GMT

PSA

This can be the time of year guys find themselves in The Doghouse. Don't let this happen to you!

Check out The Doghouse, particularly the video What It's Like In The Doghouse.

You'll laugh, you'll cry. You may cringe!

Well, Look at That!

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:09:37 GMT

Oh, Fail Blog, I love you!

A Cat at Play

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:00:50 GMT

Oh, how I needed this bit of comic relief tonight:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

My Polling Place Horror Story

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:42:11 GMT

I got to my polling place in the morning before work and stood in a 30 minute line just to get to a woman who looked up my address to direct me through one set of gym doors to a table where another woman looked up my street address again. This table was not busy at all; there were no lines and there were even open voting stations.

The woman at the table said I was at the wrong table should have been in the line for the other section (the other gym door) and told me I needed to to go back outside the gym and get at the end of the first 30-minute line and come through again. I told her I was already in that line and had been directed to this table by the staff at the head of the other line. Why can't I just go over to the line I should be in? (After all, it was their fault directing me to the wrong desk.)

The woman asked if I was a senior citizen and I said no, and she said then I had to go out to the end. I was furious and about to look for someone else in authority to complain to when the people ahead of me in the first line saw my dilemma and told me I could get back in behind them in the proper line. I did, but the whole experience had my blood pressure up [frustration!].

That line snaked through the inside of the gym and it was about another 40 minutes wait. Finally I got up to that table and handed them my ID. They could not find me on their list [frustration!!] so I was told to go to a third line where a person was in direct contact with the Voter Registrar office.

After waiting about 10 minutes in the special line the woman on the phone called in my information and then informed me that I needed to go over to the table that I was directed to in the first place! [ANGER!]

I went over to the very same woman who had given me the 50-minute run-around and she looked me up on the list and I was handed a ballot. I then told her that I had been directed to her table earlier and that she told me it wasn't the right table and had to go to the back of the other line. Now it was the right table. She emitted a vague excuse and I pointedly told her she wasn't doing her job.

I truly felt I was maliciously given the run-around by that woman. Either that or she was incompetent. I think it was a little taste of voter harassment though.

So, I spent 30 minutes legitimately waiting in line & 5 minutes (or less) actually voting and spent an additional 50 minutes in the run-around all to vote for candidates who did not have a snowball's chance of winning in my district or state.

Renewal 2008

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:46:31 GMT

At the beginning of this year I got re-energized in my spiritual walk, as if jostled from some kind of doze. It wasn't that I had been terribly remiss or anything; I had been going to Mass and did daily prayers, but it was like I was just dormant on low energy.

Then, at the end of 2007 and early 2008 it was as if I was 'called up' again and came out of Sleep Mode. It was really the strangest thing which I totally attribute to a movement of the Spirit. I began to go to monthly confession at St. Patrick Church, a neighboring church to my actual parish, and then began attending Mass there on Sundays and other devotions such as First Friday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Instantly I felt at home at St. Pat's and in 'tune' with the parish. Despite belonging to a very good parish near my home the past 10 years, I never found a way to become involved in parish life there. It is a very Hispanic parish and both language, social, and cultural barriers kept me feeling like an outsider. In all the years there I never got to know anyone.

This was all so different than what I knew and loved when I lived in Danielson where I had many involvements with not only my parish there, but other groups and activities. During these past 10 years I really missed all that involvement and variety.

As I began going to St. Patrick's Church early this year, I also began attending weekday Mass a few times a week at another church near where I work on the other side of town.

About 5 months ago I volunteered to be part of a St. Pat's team that serves lunch for the needy in the community one Friday a month at the Thomas Merton Center. [The meals there are served daily by Catholic Charities but St. Pat's provides the meals and labor one Friday each month.] I love doing the meal service and being with the little team of people from the church. It is a blessing to have some means of giving in a way that is not just an envelope.

This September I also began a Scripture study at St. Patrick's:

Our group meets for 2 hours on Saturday mornings where we go over the Session question and then watch a 1-hour teaching on the Session by Jeff Cavins, one of the developers of the course materials. It is an excellent program with plenty of depth; EWTN is currently airing the 1-hour Cavins session lectures in this series.

I feel my entire life has been greatly blessed by this spiritual movement that has been stirred up this year. I feel it has been feeding other aspects of my life and after a long time in a 'desert' there are flowers blooming again.

Life On The Fly

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:54:48 GMT

Work has been crazy these past few weeks to the point that I feel that everything I do is 'on the fly' and the home front has not been that much different.

Work

The big job that we got brought in a boat load of cash for down payments which I had to map out to ensure it meets the upcoming job obligations while at the same time giving some to some of management who has been funding a lot of the company's needs out of their own pockets. I just found out today that besides using their own money for some purchases which were on expense reports, they also took temporary pay cuts this summer so we could keep from going under.

Besides the challenges of 'high finance' (such as it is where I work), the computer problems changing over from Macs to PCs became even worse for my world. The file attributes [.doc, .xls, .pdf, etc.] got stripped off all my most active files so that now there is not only file naming problems, but now neither computers can identify what type of file created the document. There is a very tedious and time-consuming work-around fix for this, but it is on an individual file level. This is layered onto other problems with formatting of the Word documents that requires handling too.

The net effect has been to put a tremendous drag on all my work as I deal with the file problems and shift back and forth between 2 computers to get a task accomplished. It is October 7th and I haven't finished entering September invoices yet. This is a full week beyond where I should be. I also have about a week's worth of work that has been deferred but is pressing because of these delays.

My PC & Mac with stacks of my backlogged invoices and other time sensitive work that has been delayed. Note the lack of any friggin' work space. The computers play keyboard and mouse wars throughout the day.

Home

On the home front, last weekend was Changeover Weekend #1 where my whole apartment goes into disarray as I get 2 window A/C units out of the windows and stashed for the season. This upcoming Saturday is Changover #2, the Clothing changout. You people in the south and up in the far north don't have to go this twice a year.

The only thing I like about the whole process is that it brings on the Nesting Instinct. I feel a growing desire to make homemade soups again. Honey, my fur-ladened cat is finally being welcomed back into my lap.

I am also fully experiencing my typical Fall Insomnia. It comes on during September and lasts until about early December; I think it is from the extra energy from the change in temperature after the heat of the summer. I used to try to fight it, but now I just reach for a book.

I have some new activities to share but I'll make a new entry for them.

A Ship Comes In

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:10:40 GMT

Today is a happy day at the 'ole salt mines in an important way. Our little company is always struggling to keep in business and in these past few months things have been extra rocky due to a drop in orders due to the poor economy and inflation.

Well, today we got not just one, but two BIG orders; the biggest since I've been with the company (10 years). It could not have come at a better time.

Thanks be to God!

However our company president is entering the hospital on Thursday to have a growth removed for his lungs. Please say a prayer for Ken for a successful surgery and complete recovery.

Network Labor

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:45:29 GMT

Six weeks ago, my very loyal, but very old (15 years!) Epson ActionLaser 1000 Printer finally printed its last page and was sent to the recycler. After much research I purchased a Brother MFC-7840W All-In-One Printer-Copier-Fax-Scanner with wireless capabilities.

The initial set-up back in July went well, but I delayed trying to set up the wireless feature so that I could print from my laptop because setting up wireless anything is HELL. Everything worked just fine and dandy between my desktop and the printer, both ethernet-wired to my wireless router.

Well, tonight, boistered by a successful weekend tackling tasks on my To Do List, I decided it was Time. I began at about 7 PM with operating manual in hand and promptly entered the Land of Utter Frustration. On my travels tonight I crossed the border into the Low Lands of Anger, Shouting & Foul Language then onto the Kingdom of Tears & Supplication before emerging safely to the Isle of Wireless Printability.

I hate these journeys because the roadmaps are all written in Geek and entail wrangling with the conflicting Tribes of Windows, Security, and Third Party Hardware. Even the Wizards summoned to work their magic can have problems when the non-Geek (me) enters ISP info into the Printer when the connectivity is via ethernet.

I spent 1-1/2 hours struggling with a simple printer feature that was not described well enough in the manual and then 3 more hours rebooting, re-installing software and then finding what I'd done wrong. *slaps forehead*

Once again, I made a simple 30-minute job involving a wireless network into a major drama-fest of absolute agony lasting 5 hours.

At least when I head back to work tomorrow, my life will seem simple again. Woot.

Prayer or Blessing Against Storms

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:34:11 GMT

Let us offer this prayer for those in the path of Gustav:

(The Sign of the Cross is made where the cross is in the prayer.)

Prayer or Blessing Against Storms

Jesus Christ a King of Glory has come in Peace. � God became man, � and the Word was made flesh. � Christ was born of a Virgin. � Christ suffered. � Christ was crucified. � Christ died. � Christ rose from the dead. � Christ ascended into Heaven. � Christ conquers. � Christ reigns. � Christ orders. � May Christ protect us from all storms and lightning � Christ went through their midst in Peace, � and the word was made flesh. � Christ is with us with Mary. � Flee you enemy spirits because the Lion of the Generation of Judah, the Root David, has won. � Holy God! � Holy Powerful God! � Holy Immortal God! � Have mercy on us. Amen!

(From the Pieta Prayer Booklet)

As a note of encouragement and testimony in regards to this prayer, on September 1, 1996 I was doing a 'mini-retreat' to pray about some really intense happenings in my life at the time. I was living without TV or radio in those days so I was totally in the dark about happenings in the world around me.

During that prayer time I felt the Lord call me to pray this very prayer which I did. Later in the day I visited a friend of mine and happened to comment upon the sudden change in weather; it seemed like a storm was approaching. My friend explained that Hurricane Eduardo was heading towards New England and that Cape Cod was going to be hit.

That night on the news the weatherman reported that Eduardo took an unexpected turn to the east and would pass harmlessly out to sea, which it did.

I'm sure many people prayed that the storm would pass them by on that September 1st, and it did; as Gustav heads to the storm-ravaged New Orleans on another September 1st, perhaps some people will join me in this prayer for them.

ETA: The Storm prayer was taken from this site.

The Nightly Demand

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:44:27 GMT

Honey, my cat, hasn't been getting much press lately so this is a Honey post.

She's doing great, so great that she can get a little 'demanding' from time to time; usually it's when she wants petting, her daily gruel, or the 'birdie TV' (window to the bird feeder) On, but I just learned tonight that she now expects something else from me.

It all started innocently over the past month or so.

I got into a tortilla chip TV snack kick (displacing the more expensive sushi roll snack kick) and Honey expressed some interest in 'sampling' this crunchy snack. She liked it (SALT! Yum!) and so when I'd bring my little bowl of chips to the TV chair she would perk up waiting for her little taste. She would get about 1/4 of a large chip all crushed up in my hand and this would satisfy her for the night.

She soon recognized the chip bowl (sometimes from across the room) and would chime in with a cry to ensure I did not forget her portion.

Well, tonight I was out of chips. No chips. No chip bowl. I dared to sit down for the evening empty-handed. She began crying for her chip and would not let me off the hook! I pointed out the chipless state of the side table and made futile gestures showing her my complete incompetence and buffonery as a provider. Finally I tried to pass off part of a crushed salt-less cracker as a substitute; Honey told me it tasted like cardboard and gave up on me with disgust.

Tomorrow, chips.

Oh, and why we're on the subject of cats, here's a funny LOLcat from ICanHasCheezeburger.com:

Penance, I Guess...

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:06:05 GMT

& / . * $ | " ? < > : ^

and trailing spaces

What am I talking about here?

Illegal characters in PC file names, that's what. Illegal! Macs, our company's computers up until this week, could care less if these things litter filenames. They're cool, man. Make a whole filename out of them; Mac could care less.

Since the dawn of our company's Computer Age (circa 1995?, certainly a few years before my start in '98) our employees have been liberally peppering their filenames with these handy symbols, particularly the & / . * and the stealth trailing space(s).

The Slash / is so useful dating a file in the name [3/2/00], or separating a Drawing number from the Revision [1237/2], or abbreviating "Warehouse" to W/H.

The Star * brings the document to the top of the folder and our engineers really love the Star. They put it as the first character in every filename on all their Drawing files.

The Period . was used intensively by very literal abbreviators. Personally, if I'm in the Inventory Folder, I don't need to be cued that all the files in that folder that begin with INV. are really referring to INVENTORY. I get it! A 10-year-old gets it! Actually, the period seems to only cause problems at the end of the filename, but it bothers me as an unnecessary and possibly harmful character.

The Aperstand & is the innocent player here. Who wouldn't use it in company filenames like Procter & Gamble or for items like Pipe & Fittings. Needless to say, it is a very popular file symbol, used frequently.

The Trailing Spaces <-- are stealth because they are invisible. They only cause havoc if they trail the last character in a filename: LIFEY'S PHOTOS <--trailing space.

Up until this week, none of this mattered in our little company world; then the PCs were rolled out this week, one to each clueless employee. Our desk space is now consumed by two CPUs, two Monitors, 2 Keyboards, 2 Mouse & Pads, and all kinds of extra wires. It is the Old MAC vs the New PC and boy are we having fun now!

The file or folder named, for example, * Instructions & Procedures 4/12/07 (<-- with trailing blank) confuzzles the PC with all those illegal characters (or even just one) in the filename. The PC copes with this by assigning a new name to the file made up of random letters and numbers and the ~ character, something like this: C6RHUY~4.

Oh joy.

The filename can still be read properly on the MAC, so the task becomes one of hunting down all the illegals and removing them from the filenames. Every filename.

In a fit of OCDism, I took it upon myself to do this work for our little Engineering group. I have to do it for my own files on the Engineering Server and I know the 2 guys I work with would have no patience for such a tedious task. I like to do things systematically and I also want to get off the Mac as fast as possible. I am also concerned that people will start trashing useful files and drawings because they don't have the MAC anymore or don't have the patience to do the translation, a return to Babel, if you will. I hate the chaos and with work a little slow for me this week I developed a plan and system to process the filename conversions.

The Mac is essential to see the true filename and to make the changes that are necessary. Once the illegals are removed, or changed to legal characters [+ - _] then the filenames make sense on the PC.

Unfortunately, it all has to be done by hand, filename by filename. The Engineering Drawings are the worst because it is not uncommon to have as many as 6-10 illegals:

* 1256/3 L-6 FIBER. W/4"WHL 1.5HP/230/1/XP <--trailing space

The above example contains 8 certain illegals, and 2 periods that may or may not be trouble for a total of 10. The one folder I worked on at the end of the day today must have had 200 filenames needing changing, all similar to the above. That's up to 2,000 illegals. That was only one of about 40 Drawing folders that will need to be processed.

After catching as many as possible illegals and then checking the PC folder, some files will still show up with the confuzzled names on the PC and then I have to compare the two lists of filenames to find the missing files. Usually the illegal culprit at this point is the dreaded Trailing Space.

All of this work does not ensure that the new file will be readable on the PC; I've had Word files that would open on the MAC but then give an Input/Output error on the PC; I then have to edit the MAC file and rename it and sometimes that will solve the problem. That is a problem to be managed down the line; I don't have time to open each file and rename files. Later this week and next week my workload will pick up so I have to roll through the material now.

Penance!

The Drive Home

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:06:07 GMT

Well, I drove through an almost tornado tonight.

From WFSB, Channel 3 about 30 minutes after my experience. The path had move to the south-east of my encounter by the time I captured the video from the storm coverage.

I was driving home after 6 PM tonight from Stratford, CT and the sky was dark and low; the rain began before I got off at my exit, Wordin Avenue, in Bridgeport, CT. I then turned north onto Howard Avenue and by then the rain was coming down in massive sheets and it was very windy.

I was stopped at a red light at Railroad Avenue. There was a large three-story brick 'mill' building to the left of my car blocking the wind. In the intersection the wind was driving the rain from left to right. Despite the obstacle provided by the building, my car was rocking by the force of the wind. I have never, ever, felt such rocking by the wind!

When the light changed I considered just pulling over under the railroad overhead, but I continued to make my way home in the driving rain.

About 1-1/2 blocks later I was at another major cross-street, Fairfield Avenue; the rain was still as heavy as before but it was being driven in the opposite direction, going from right to left.

Thanks to Google World (and Snag-It for the arrow), I found where I 'cowered' behind the building in my rocking auto while the wind whipped down Railroad Avenue.

This was nothing compared to what my internet friends in the fly-over states routinely experience, but it was something new for me!

Mad Men Marathon

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:44:27 GMT

AMC begins a marathon of Season One of Mad Men beginning Sunday, 7/20 at Noon, Eastern.

It is a story set in the early 1960s in New York's hot advertizing industry. The storyline, acting, and detail of the culture of the time period are all first rate. The show is up for Best Drama and Best Actor and numerous other categories in this year's Emmys.

The second season begins Sunday, July 27th.

A Neighborly Vent

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:04:06 GMT

In May I aquired a new neighbor in the apartment above me; she is near my age and works as a nurse on either the evening or overnight shifts, depending on her assignments. She is a nice woman and I've had her over and stopped by a time or two.

In the beginning she had her TV on too loud at night and I was able to yell thru the ceiling and she turned it down. Things were ok for a while after that.

Then, around the beginning of July, she had what sounded like a CD playing one song over and over and over all evening and, worse, overnight. Continually. There was the portion that sounded like a hip DJ then it would morph into music with a pronounced drum beat that would go on for a while, and then finally finish with a flourish of drumming. Then the DJ ... on and on and on.

Even with my A/C on right next to my head I could hear this through the floor from right above my bedroom. I thought she was away, and since I was using my A/C, I just put up with it for the time being.

Once in June I stopped up when she was not home and I could hear music; later I stopped up again and she was home and I mentioned that I had been there before and thought she was home because the stereo was on; she said she leaves it on for security - so that an intruder will think someone is there.

Well, this morning at 5:45 AM I am awakened and the song is extra loud, and she is up there. I've been home sick for 2 days and I'm still not well, but I got up and wrote her a note asking her not to play the music in the overnight hours; I told her I could hear it even with the A/C on and that it was driving me crazy and disruptive of my sleep. I mentioned that the tenant rules calls for quiet between the hours of 11 PM and 7 AM and I said that I'm sure she appreciates the quiet when she sleeps. I slipped the note under her door before heading for work. We'll see how this goes.

She is on the 3rd of 3 floors with 2 apartments on each floor. There have never been any break-ins during the 10+ years I've lived here. Of all the apartments, her 3rd floor unit is the safest because an intruder would virtually be trapped if detected since the only exit would be down the fire escape past the other units or interior past 5 other apartments. If any apartment was going to be broken into, it would be one of the 1st floor units.

Also, I went up to her apartment while the music was playing and it could not even be heard from the outside so it would not keep "the intruder" from breaking in anyways.

Also, if there was any time our building would be hit, it would be in the daytime since the street empties of cars when everyone goes to work.

No matter the case, I've given her the note. If she continues then I'll contact the management agency, then the landlord. If none of that is effective then I guess I'll just have to start turning my stereo on loud during her sleep time while I'm gone; after all, I don't want intruders either!

I was sooooooo hoping to have a friend in the building, but I just can't put up with the noise anymore.

Fourth of July

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:58:04 GMT

"It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect, at least: it will inspire us with many virtues, which we have not, and correct many errors, follies, and vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals. And the new governments we are assuming, in every part, will require a purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues or there will be no blessing... But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence; in which , unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe."

--- John Adams, July 3, 1776

Lord, thank you for all your blessings we have received as a Nation and as families and individuals in this past year in this great country you have given us.

Lord see the United States of America thru yet another year and be with us through every trial and travail.

God bless and keep all who serve our great country and give all who are in positions of authority the Holy Spirit to guide them with your Wisdom.

Make us One Nation Under God for our Good and your Glory.

Blessed Virgin Mary, Patroness of the Americas, pray for us.

Snacky Goodness

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:17:03 GMT

Oh why, oh why, oh why!

Oh why are there so many delicious snack products, and so few calories in the 'budget' to indulge in them?

Here is a new out-of-this-world delicious temptation that recently found me: