The War Dance

When I was in the process of leaving my ex one of the stranger things he did was take the giant bag that I had saved all of our receipts in for the year (tax purposes) and burn it. I watched him take that bag and build a fire in the front yard and do a war dance around it whooping and hollering the whole time proclaiming his victory over the world at the same time.

I did not say I word. I did not try to stop him even though I knew I was watching the difference of paying substantial taxes and getting a refund go up in smoke before my eyes. I let him burn it because also, contained in that bag, was the receipt that the police had given him when they had confiscated his guns when I had called them about the domestic violence.

Without that receipt he had no chance of getting those guns back - ever.

It was money well spent.

My Hostage

When I left my husband he had taken what he thought was a precautionary measure to stop me. He took all my diamond rings and held them hostage. If he had been in his right mind he would have known that I would never have stayed with him for anything so trivial but I did want my rings. So, right before I walked out the door, I took a diamond ring that his dad had given him before he died to be my hostage.

I had no intention of keeping the ring. I knew it would be just the leverage I needed to get my ring back. I took off up interstate 95 from West Palm Beach headed for West Virginia and family. Along the way I learned he had cancelled all the credit cards except for a gas card which was enough to get me home and feed me along the way.

I stopped at a rest area in Melbourne, Florida and used the opportunity to clean out my car. I left. About 2 hours up the road (Daytona, Florida) I realized that one of the bags that I had thrown away contained Bobby's diamond ring. My heart dropped and I immediately did a U-turn and headed back to the rest area 2 hours away.

I was going south. The rest area was on the north side of the freeway. Just when I got next to the rest area (facing the wrong way on the interstate) I saw a garbage truck pull up to the exact trash can that I had thrown the ring away in. I had to dart across the median (thank God, it was a nice flat spot and I could do it!) and speed into the rest area with my horn blowing. Of course the garbage man that was carrying the trash can to the truck was paying absolutely no attention to my blowing horn and I pulled up and jumped out of my car yelling for him to stop!

The look on his face said, "what in the world is this crazy lady doing?!?" I got him to put down the trash can and frantically started to search through the trash. Not too far down I found the bag and when I pulled out a diamond ring the guy said, "geez, I'm going to have to start routing through the trash myself."

Anyway. Ring Saved. I got my rings back as soon as Bobby learned that I had his dad's ring and I safely mailed his ring back to him. I didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if I hadn't retrieved that ring. He would never have believed that I had thrown it away accidentally.

Books that Meant the World to Me When I Was Growing Up

1. Walking Tall - I read it about 10 times

2. Christy - I read it at least 4 times

3. The whole Black Stallion Series

4. Any Biography or Autobiography

5. Cammie's Choice, Cammie's Challenge and there was a third one in the series that I can't recall the name of. It was about a girl that wanted to ride hunters (horses) and the work she did to make her dream come alive.

6. All Creatures Great and Small, All Creatures Bright and Beautiful and the rest of the James Herriot collection.

7. Loves Tender Fury - the first romance novel that my mom allowed me to read (7th. grade). I read all 500 pages in one day on our way back from Florida.

8. The Alfred Hitchcock Mysteries ( a series about child private eyes)

9. The Girl Who Owned a City and Zanballer - books where girls ran the show

10. My prized possession was my bookshelf. I had a collection of over 300 books and I treasured each and every one of them. I read a book a day, sometimes more, for years. No one ever saw me without a book in my hands. The library was my favorite place and the apple tree next door. I would sit up in a crook in the tree and read and eat apples to my hearts content.

A Grease Fire

When I was in jr. high school. I was frying a piece of fish. The pan caught on fire. I calmly picked up the pan and walked with it to the sink. I put the pan in the sink. I turned on the faucet.

the whole wall exploded in fire quicker than you can blink!

I squealed for my "Mommy". She was in the other room vacuuming the floor. She dropped the vacuum cleaner and came running because she heard that tone of fear in her child's voice that no mother ever wants to hear. I know that she put out the fire. I don't remember that part. She was not mad. She was glad that I was alive. She was glad the house didn't burn down.

She immediately taught me the proper way to put out a grease fire - smother it. Use a lid, throw salt on it, throw flour on it. You have to take away the oxygen supply. Oil and water do not mix. Water spreads the oil. Oil spreads the fire.

Stopping a Shoplifter - who was right? who was wrong?

Here is what happened the first time I almost got fired for stopping a shoplifter. The only reason I wasn't fired is because I took a 6 month long leave of absence to care for my sick father a week after this happened. The leave was planned.

I was walking through the store and I observed a boy (age 10 to 12) opening a toy phone and taking it from the box and putting it in his pocket. I knew this boy. He came in the store a couple of times a week to buy candy and such and he was generally alone.

I walked up to him and picked up the empty box (the phone was only $1.00). I asked him where the phone was that I saw him take out of the box. I told him he wouldn't be in any trouble if he just gave it back to me. At first he denied it and I repeated he wasn't in any trouble, I just wanted the phone back. He gave it back.

I thanked him for giving it back and I told him he would have to leave the store. My goal wasn't to get him in trouble it was just to scare him a little so he wouldn't shoplift again. He asked me if he could stay and I told him "no" and I followed him out of the store. Let me repeat that I had seen the boy in the store alone more times than I could count.

Bob was the cashier that day and he saw me walk the boy out. When he asked what was going on I told him. About a 1/2 hour later I was stalking and I asked Bob,"when I walked that boy out did he look like he was mad that I had caught him or did he look ashamed about being caught?"

Bob laughed and said,"he looked like he was ashamed for what he had done."

"Good," I said, "that's what I was hoping for. Maybe he won't do it again." We started to laugh.

Just about that time a woman walked up to me and asked me if I had seen her little boy. My stomach sunk. I asked her to describe him. She did. It was the boy. I told her that I had seen him and I told her exactly what happened.

She freaked out! She said I had put her son in danger of child molesters. She said some man had followed her around the store the whole time she had been in there. She generally went nuts. (by the way her son was in the car) She wanted me fired. It didn't matter that I was trying to do him a favor by not turning him into managment.

She denied he was shoplifting as MOST parents do I have learned. She was also furious that Bob and I had been laughing about it even though we were just laughing because it sounded like he had learned his lesson. It was also AT LEAST a 1/2 an hour (maybe longer) before she started to look for her son. Which shows she knew he was some place familiar and safe and she didn't have to watch him every second like you would in a bigger store. (we get that a lot in our store by the way)

I admit I was wrong when I didn't find out if his mother was in the store with him. But I knew the kid and I knew he was in the store all the time. I would much rather have handed him over to her to begin with but that was when I was younger and dumber and thought all parents were like my mom and would take appropriate action when their child was caught stealing.

Now, we just let them steal to their hearts content. Nobody wants to lose their job.

Did You Know We Have 2 Blood Pressures?

I didn't but I do now. We have the blood pressure that they check in your arm. My blood pressure there has been good for years now with the help of medication.

We also have a blood pressure in our lungs. Apparently my blood pressure there is terrible. Now they have switched me from a C-pap to a Bi-pap. I think that means I am worse.

I LOVED the C-pap and I wanted to marry it.

I HATE the Bi-pap and I think I would be just as well off with nothing. I am trying to use it. I am not sleeping again.

sigh

"runnin' the tv line"