Weather forecast

 The last weather forecast I gave for the area was back in the summer when the given was hot and dry followed by more hot and dry.

Today started out lovely.  High of 77 degrees.  T-shirt weather to be sure.  Last December we had high 80’s.  Assured that 80’s in December is a bit much, but you get the idea.  Texans are NOT used to cold weather.  We don’t know what to do.  We damn sure don’t know how to drive in ice expecially.  About 3am we are expected to get freezing rain and sleet.  Snow on top of ice tomorrow.

This is how the day before our once a year ice storm goes:

OMG did you hear the weather forecast - artic blast expected.

Check every weather forecast on television and the internet. 

Go to the grocery store and stock up on grocieries.  (It may last for months instead of only one day).

Get the car filled up with gas.  We may get caught out in bad weather and stuck there until spring thaw. (Which will actually come within 24 hours).

Call work and say: ‘you know bad weather is on the way?  Well I’m calling in ahead of time.  I DON’T DRIVE ON ICE!!!

Go to work today and work like a sugar mill jackass.  Get EVERYTHING caught up….I may not be back til spring.

Go to Mass - Pray that I’m off at least one day…..don’t let me wreck my new car.

When I leave work tonight it is raining, lightening and thunder.  No ice yet, 34 degrees.

I make it home just fine.  :-D  Maybe I’ll check out some of the food I stored up on.

Happy Thanksgiving and other thoughts for the day

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  Tomorrow starts the season when the Americans begin their holiday gorge which, eventually, concludes in an extra 8 pounds (average) weight gain.

I met a lady about 21 years ago.  I never liked her a lot, but my sponsor told me I had to listen at meetings.  She’d always say things like ‘if you stay sober 30 years like I have, you’ll get what I’ve got.’  I would think: ‘ don’t threaten ME lady.”  But since I DID listen to everything she said, I heard this……”The day I forget to be grateful, may just be the day I forget to be sober.”  Thank you Pew B. for that jewel of wisdom.  I’ll never forget that, and I passed it on to the kids at work tonight.

I am so thankful for my sobriety and my relationship to God as I understand him.  Behind that is a very long list of wonderful people.  But, without my sobriety, I would have none of them.  Without God I wouldn’t have my sobriety.

Susan let me read from her meditaiton book today.  It was great.  Todays reading was “Meditation for Bad Girls”.  YES - FINALLY a meditation just for me.

I don’t have the book in front of me but a couple of things that hung in my brain. 

Bad girls are in touch with the ‘bitch within’ because they run with dobermans in studded collars.

Bad girls rarely marry for love, that’s why their last name changes so often.

Bad girls may share their satin sheets, but they seldom share the depths of their soul.

Bad girls are loyal to a fault…..people have been seriously injured that broke her pals heart.

There were two pages, but that’s all I remember. 

I’m not a bad girl any more.  I haven’t changed my name in a very long time.  I don’t share satin sheets, I have shared my soul.  Well, maybe I am still bad, because I am in touch with……THE BITCH WITHIN!

The Doctor was in

I ended up going to the doctor today.  For a while I’ve been having headaches and getting dizzy - my face hurts….nothing real bad.  I’ve blamed it on allergies.  Night before last I woke up and my throat felt like I had been swallowing broken glass.  I went to work yesterday, hid out in my office and just did paperwork.

This morning I am feeling no better.  I think I should go see the doctor, as my sister would not appreciate me bringing my problems t0 her house, allergies or not.

But that is not the real reason I went.  I can shake off a cold.  I can live with allergies.  I went from fear.  Since I was diagnosed with cancer on 23 years ago, knots scare me.  These two that I’ve had in my arm I tried to ignore for a couple of months, but they’ve suddenly decided to grow.  WTF. 

She said there is nothing to worry about - fatty tumors.  Fat I have plenty of. :-)  The sinus infection I’ve been harboring for a while now, however is another story.  Bad enough for two injections.  One antibiotic and another steroid.  And oral antibiotics for a week.  And a reminder that sinus infections CAN kill you if you get that infection in the brain.  However, you must HAVE a brain to get it infected. :-D  I’m safe.

Not working today, Laying up and taking care of me.  I might just call in sick tomorrow too. 

Hunger - the new “non-word”

As everyone knows I am a workaholic.  I rarely have time for the newspaper, except when I’m in a waiting room.  Today, I was waiting to get my oil changed at the Saturn dealership.  I was a little aggravated about my selection of reading material.  One newspaper was dated October 28th.  While I hadn’t read it, I wasn’t terribly interest in ‘old’ news.  The newest addition was yesterdays Star Telegram.  What I read made my blood boil.

The article was written by Elizabeth Williamson from The Washington Post.    Title: USDA to drop ‘hunger’ from its annual report. 

“The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again.  But they may experience ‘very low food security’.”

(WTF?!?!?!?)

“Every year, the Agriculture Department isses a report that measures American’s assess to food, and it has consistently used the word hunger in describing those who can least afford to put food on the table.  But not this year.  “……………..

“The department said that 12 percent of Americans - 35 million people- could not afford to put food on the table at least part of last year.  Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times.  Beginning this year, the Agriculture Department has determined ‘very low food security’ to be a more scientifically palatable description for that group.”………………………..

“……………..The catagory ‘very low food security’ described as experiencing ‘multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake’ will take the place of hunger.

“Anti-hunger advocates say the new words sugarcoat a national shame.”

“The proposal to remove the word hunger from our official reports is a huge disservice to the millions of Americans who struggle daily to feed themselves and their families”, said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, an anti-hunger advocacy group.”

If we take the huge raises that congressmen grant themselves yearly, and the cost of secret service for presidents families after they leave office, we could take a chunk out of the non word (hunger) in America.  Take away 3/4 of their huge retirements and let them live on the social security that they are trying to do away with and we might even be able to house the homeless.  Shhhhhhhh……that will probably be the next ‘non word”. 

Thought for the day

The test of happiness is gratitude. 

Stolen from………….someone on ewtn.

Can a person be happy without gratitude?  Can a person be grateful and not be happy?  I’d never really thought about those questions until I heard the thought on tv the other morning.

I am a very grateful person.  I also see myself as a very happy person.  I think it is one of those ‘chicken or the egg’ questions.

Happy birthday Gina (the bastardette).  A day late in the posting.  She was 37 yesterday.  :-D  Age is not a sacred secret in this family.  On my 37th birthday I was diagnosed with cancer.  Birthdays are something for me to rejoice in.  Mine AND my kids.  Love you my precious daughter.

Happy V.D. and other thoughts

Happy Veterans Day!  So many people that I know have given precious years of their lives to defend our country.  Thank you so much.  It is because of people like you that I live in freedom.  Words can never express what that means to me.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to live every day of my life in fear, with war raging around me.  Thanks to you I have lived to old age without having to know.

Today is the final Hurricane soccer game.  God I hope those kids end the season with a win.  No matter what, they will end it with fun.  We are going to have a party at Double Dave’s Pizza Parlor afterwards.  My adopted, Kathleen, helped the kids make a picture album.  All of the kids individually and as a team in their soccer uniforms.  Each kid has a page with their picture and something they wrote for their coaches.  They will present this to the coaches at the party.  Also two tickets to the Major League Soccer Championship game tomorrow.  And a soccer ball with all the kids signatures on it.  Soccer clinics begin in December to get our new team together.

Thought for the day:  Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.  Confucius

UPDATE:

The kids won their final soccer game!  YEA, MCFADDEN HURRICANES!!!  7-2 final score.  It was perfect. 

The Army Brat & his new wife

 Chris and Sara Jimenez….aren’t they cute!  Since Chris joined the army he has lost his baby look and has become a man.  He still calls me often.  He loves the army.  I am so glad.  He looks better in that uniform than an orange jumpsuit.  He’s still in Ft Benning, Georgia.

Kids like this one are the reason I have stayed in the same job for all these years.

North Texas Drought

The U.S. Drought Monitor has removed the area of “exceptional drought” (D4) from North Texas.  However, despite recent rain, all of North Texas remains in the severe (D2) or extreme (D3) drought category.

Driving home tonight from the ranch was like driving through a laser car wash for 25 miles.  It rained so hard.  Several places the water was over the road. 

The kids played soccer in the rain and had a ball.  It was like playing on a slip and slide.  It was slick.  They lost but had a good time.  One more game and the season is over.  Pizza after the game on Saturday.

All Souls Day

All Soul’s Day is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away. This comes from the ancient Pagan Festival of the Dead, which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family. Candles in the window would guide the souls back home, and another place was set at the table. Children would come through the village, asking for food to be offered symbolically to the dead, then donated to feed the hungry.

Today and tomorrow my special memories are as always for my hero, my Dad.  Also my Grandmother, my cousin Jan, my best g/friend Connie, my dear friend Charles.  Also for all of my AA friends who took their lives because they could no longer live with their disease.

May they rest in peace.