Simply this...

UPS

I am SO annoyed!  My desktop computer has been limping along for some time now and I finally bit the bullet and ordered a laptop (my last laptop is from 1995 or so).  Dell whipped that sucker out about 3 weeks a head of time but do you think I could get a delivery from UPS?  Ultimately, yes, but not without a TON of aggravation.

Honestly, I really feel guilty about knocking UPS, they were out here delivering before the mail and certainly before FedEx ground - which I still don't know if we have THAT service yet... but this weekend caused me much angst.  The laptop was suppose to come on Friday...  I don't know about you but I am neurotic about tracking this stuff on line.  I mean, I want to know when the driver stops for lunch!  So, I tracked my package on it's journey to our door.  If I had only known...

Lately UPS delivers somewhere between 5 and 7 at night - sometimes even later, you just never know.  But Friday, they chose to deliver here at just before 2:45 p.m. I missed the freaking delivery by two minutes!  I even drove the neighborhood to see if I could find the delivery guy.  No such luck.  On line, it showed that the UPS facility they were using was Morrison Avenue.  This came as a surprise since it is in the East (New Orleans East) which was pretty devastated by the London Canal Breach.  Most of our packages have been coming through the Harrahan facility which is towards the West and was one of the first areas up and running after Katrina.  I called the 800 number to confirm this and they told me oh yes, they were open until 8 p.m.  and that they would notify them that I was coming to pick it up.  Oh... and I would get a call within the hour from them to confirm.

OK, fine... around an hour and 10 minutes later I called because no one had gotten back to me and to tell them that most of that area was very dangerous to travel in the dark (no street lights and a lot of debris still in the roads)and it was raining here as well and I was getting a little concerned.  No problem... the package was at the facility with a will pick up note.  Jump in the car, zoom over there and the place is closed.  CLOSED!!!  They closed at 4 which is why I didn't get a call from them. 

Back on the phone.  A very annoyed agent.. speaking of annoyed... have you tried to get through any of those stupid automated menus???? And God forbid you should ask for a direct line to the facility... our homeland security should be so tight!  Any way- I got an agent with attitude who was more than happy to pass me on to a supervisor (obviously she thought I was just too stupid to "get" what she was telling me- DON'T YOU JUST HATE THAT?????) and just because the facility was closed did NOT mean no one was there.  (Ok - can some one PLEASE explain THAT to me???).

So, on to the supervisor. HE tells me that that facility is on Katrina hours (I told him I knew that) and when I asked why the agents didn't know that - he said that he has asked the facility to send a memo to the company stating such.  <sigh... that is so stupid I didn't even want to go there)...at any rate....

We decide since there is no way I can pick up the package during the weekend, we will reschedule the delivery for Monday.  So, I patiently wait for Monday to come. For those of you who know me personally, you know this is almost a Herculean feat - but the Katrina drugs and Katrina Novacain (liquor) is working just fine - thanks.

Monday comes and I call. Again.  The website shows

I am currently writing this post - bear with me please...

This was sent to me some time ago - but tonight I just finally got to see it all the way through.  I guess there was a glitch in my media player.  I just sat here and sobbed.  I don't mind telling you I am very frightened of going home.  Our mayor, whom I have supported strongly, seems to be hell bent on losing the remaining voters he has.  I am seriously worried about his mental health.  I am afraid for my beloved city, crippled and broke.  And for the first time EVER, Bob and I actually discussed moving - but we have no idea where.

http://gmagic.com/katrina/

My love for New Orleans is deep and strong as is my commitment to her.  As you will see by the images on this slide show - it was not all that CNN presented - Yes, there were many poor blacks but in almost every photo you will also see whites who stayed behind.  This is not a racial issue- it was poor planning by the government and poor decisions by the citizens.  Frankly, it was not my first decision to leave.  These could be photos of my family. 

New Orleans is being left behind by Washington, D.C.  as well.  Never mind that the Port is one of the largest and busiest in the country.  Never mind that the cultural, architecture, arts (including music), not to mention culinary contributions to America have been amazing, we are, none the less, being left behind.  Ray Nagin came home to NOLA after the senate hearings and announced to our city that we have to fend for ourselves... do not count on our government to help us.

Never mind that pleas for money to build a better levee system and to help our wet lands have fallen on deaf ears since the 1930's and 40's.  YES, that long.  WE knew what we were facing, and Washington just turned their backs on us.  The levee outside my house has been raised twice in the twenty years that we have lived in our house, but that was a spit in the bucket compared to what we were asking for.

People characterize New Orleans as a place where we shun outside interference.  Well, why the HELL should we count on anybody else?  Our pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears for decades - not to mention AUGUST when no one listened to our cries for help -  so we have learned to only rely on ourselves, with our very little resources.  Let those people sit back and be arm chair quarterbacks - they are the very ones that disregarded our pleas for help before.  And I say SHAME ON YOU - SHAME ON YOU ALL.

And you ALL have the nerve to question if MY HOME TOWN should even be rebuilt?  HOW DARE YOU.  You piddly ass little elected officials - what if this happened in YOUR STATE?  YOUR TOWN???  Just look at these photos, and tell me if they don't break your hearts.

This is not about black or white.  This is about a city in desperate need of help - on all levels.  I am so glad I sat down to write this, because even though I am afraid of the future right now, and what we face, I CAN NOT leave my city.  No matter what my fears are, I have to be here to help rebuild.  I will say I hope Ray Nagin gets some Meds - because we are going to be in deep doo doo if he just doesn't settle down.  There is honestly, no place I would want to live.  And trust me I have lived in most corners of America.

Watch this slide show - and then make sure you read the information at the end of it.  Very enlightening.  Someone needs to do something about FEMA and something REALLY needs to be done about the Red Cross.

I'm going to go have dinner - try to think productive thoughts and hopefully come home to write something happy- cause right now, well this is just the pits.

Going Home

I'm going home tomorrow and I have mixed feelings about it.  We're suppose to have water and electricity and sewer hook-ups so that's pretty exciting.  Maybe we can even spend the weekend there! It's about time too, because I am really tired of being one of those poor pitiful people from Louisiana.

It wasn't so bad the first couple of weeks when we were still stumbling around in shock and people were giving us discounts and free stuff - but now it is just a bother.  People just want to hear your story so they can tell their neighbors or friends at the next cocktail party about "these poor people from Louisiana..."  I'm not a collector's item and I am tired of being treated like an oddity - I have enough trouble being myself!

But when we go home, everyone is going to be talking about "what they did" or where they went or the damage (or lack there of) to their house.  I'M TIRED OF IT!  I want to move on...this little adventure has run it's course, I'm bored and it's time to get on with the reconstruction!  I want to have a button made up - "Don't tell me about it - let's just get on with it!".

We're meeting with our claims adjuster on Friday - so I am sure that that will be a whole 'nother rant too.  And of course, Yom Kippur starts Wednesday at sundown.  OY.  Glad we are going out to dinner to break the fast - I don't think I could deal with making small talk with the other worshipers...like I said - I don't want to hear any stories.  We have all lived it for the past 6 weeks and now it is time to move on.

I know that because when I went to pick Jessie up at school today I spoke to her best friend, Mary Francis.  For the first month we were here, Mary Francis had a very pained look in her eyes... you would hurt when you spoke with her - but it is gone.  Replaced by the hope of going home and it is good to see the twinkle back.  Almost like old times.

So if you run into me on the street or in the grocery store this weekend - I don't want to know anything except the essentials - Yard clean up services, electricians, carpenters - you know the next bunch of fun stuff!

Adios me amigos!

Travel use to be fun.  It's still fun if you are in a car or a train or a bus, even a ship!  But I can pretty much guarantee you that you ain't gonna be having fun if you're on a plane.  It wasn't so much fun going through security before 9/11 and now - well... "check the website" to see what you are and aren't allowed to carry on.

It is the running joke in our family that they could bring through nuclear weapons because I'll be the one stopped.  For the longest time my underwire bra set off the machine.  It is very humiliating to have a woman feel you up in front of half of the free world, but probably not as bad as not wearing a bra. Now you have to take your shoes off. And in some places your jacket.  In some places not your jacket. And I am grateful I don't have a laptop because they have several different directions for how to deal with that ... it would just give me a headache.

I wish they would all get together and do ONE set of rules of what you can and can not take on a plane. Or even HOW to get on the plane.  I am perfectly happy showing up in my PJs and slippers - Just tell me so I can be PREPARED! This week it is lighters, but it was knitting needles - nail clippers- and I even had a guy take out all the little spokes to my comb - the end where I can poof up my hair...?  But across the board rules would help.  I like knowing in advance what state of undress I need to be at the airport.

But Delta... <shaking my head> I am so embarressed for you. It is no wonder why you are filing for Chapter 11.   Delta was always my carrier of choice.  I was a Silver Medallion member during Jake's first year - Grandma miles I use to call them.  But then I didn't need to get carried any place and that was ok too.  I don't mind not boarding before all the riff raff...especially since I am part of the riff or the raff, I dunno, I never registered.But I keep being put in these ZONES.

If you are reading this you've probably read about my awful day trying to get to Florida. Delta over sold the flight and  I was a nice kid and volunteered my ticket (solely so my day could end RIGHT THERE!).  I was not given any perks at all, no miles, no Delta Bucks, nothing  - and I really didn't want them either... I just wanted to go back  home and get some sleep! I traveled the following day and everything was working out ok until...

I tried to check in for my outbound flight just after I arrived.  I have a thing about wanting my boarding passes in hand.  Apparently, I can't do that if I am leaving the airport (like who's gonna know?  They strapping one of those ankle homing devices on me???) And the woman at the desk tells me that I should want to get out of Dodge early if I can because Atlanta is experiencing bad weather. ("Honey, you don't know from bad weather" is what I'm thinking...)

So... I take care of Mom, turn in the car and get in line for my flight.  They bump me up to the earlier flight and suggest that I check in at the desk when I arrive to see if I can take the same flight to Dallas - the continuation of the flight I'm on. They keep telling us it is going to be jammed packed... but there are empty seats! Not so bad for me - I have 2 empty seats next to me... but it makes me wonder about all those people wait listed.  Southwest would have had people in those seats and we would've become so close we'd be exchanging emails for invitations to our kids' weddings.

Upon arrival,  I get to the desk and they tell me they have 28 people wait listed before me.  Fine - I'll just go and get my boarding pass for my regularly  booked flight... do that and *oh my* what is this??? I am not a confirmed passenger - I am wait listed. And why??? BECAUSE THEY ARE OVER SOLD!!!!  Can I tell you I almost swallowed my tongue??? I spent almost $500 to spend this day with Mom and I can't even get home???  I talk to at least 4 Delta people... and am given a lot of little pieces of paper - but none of them has a seat number and all I can think of is - YOU SO DON"T WANT TO SCREW WITH ME RIGHT NOW!  I tried to upgrade to First, I even tried giving them the - Oh - I have such a pathetic story to tell you... and that didn't work (Personally, if I was with the airlines I would have put me in First Class...for free)

AND... then the woman at the gate had ATTITUDE.  I am looking at the screen and I say - you tell me I am on the wait list and I don't see my name.  "You're # 5" she says.  "I'm looking at this screen right here with ALL these names on it and mine is not there." I say.  She all but puts her hands on her hips and says - "Well the screen I'm looking at says you're number 5!".  Inhaling deeply, thanking GOD I don't have the energy to leap across the desk and strangle the bitch (mostly for fear they'll drop me to the bottom of the wait list!) I just turn away.  I did NOT say thank you.  That will tell you just how pissed off I was.  So - if you're in some airport flying Delta - what ever they are showing on the screen IS NOT the big picture.

Bottom line - I finally got on and got home.  Other bottom line - it was a lot of stress I could have done without - Thanks Delta... I will absolutely rethink my travel arrangements when ever I fly again. DLTwon't be among the top contenders.  And people wonder why I like to drive...

Tomorrow I fly off to entomb my mother. (Those of you who are faint of heart stop reading now lest I offend you).  She did not want a service of any kind, which really sort of bothers me.  I mean, it’s not like you’re really dead if you don’t have a priest or a rabbi or someone do a send off.

And I am trying to figure out if I should see her before she gets slid into the wall or not.  Technically I am suppose to id the body.  But I have her license and I suppose they could take it from there.  But I have got to tell you this whole thing give me the creeps.

I’ll probably take a look at Mom before she gets sealed away forever- but what is with being embalmed anyway?  I mean really think about it.  You’ll have all your body fluids drained and replaced with chemicals (which probably killed you in the first place!) and then what?  Why do we do this?  I mean – who are you going to see after the casket is closed? Is there some reason for trying to look good in the after life? Does it get you a better place in heaven? And judging what I see on TV (like THAT’s true!) it doesn’t seem to help much.

Think about it.  Years from now aliens will land at Palm Beach Memorial Gardens and stumble across all these people in drawers! Do you suppose they'll think everyone just had drawers for room like those hotels in Japan and maybe this is just a big condo unit?  And when you really think about it, those drawers have a lot more room than your average airplane seat, which FYI is marginally more room than was given the slaves in the ships coming from Africa. Why I know this I have no idea, but I feel at one with Kunta Kinte when ever I fly. You’d think they’d make a little squeeze for the dead folk – it’s not like they’re going to complain.

Cremation is what I’d like.  Well, actually – I should donate my body to science, but it would probably scare the hell out of the medical students not to mention it is against my religion.  We’re big on returning your body to God in much the same condition he gave it to you. (Wrinkles don’t count).  Some of us have a little graffiti on us… which we shouldn’t… but that’s ok.  It is still an ashes to ashes, dust to dust deal. Which is why I don’t understand the cremation part.

We (meaning those of my religious persuasion) are dressed in a simple white cotton gown and placed in a wooden coffin.  It can be a fancy wooden coffin – but it has to disintegrate. No moisture shields, no cement liners. You, cotton and the wood.  Oh, they also provide you with people who watch over you during the night –I dunno why – but they do.  So, we’re big on the ashes to ashes part.  So why not help it along some with the big oven?  I don’t remember that part in the bible… but I am sure some one can show me some reference to NOT do it.  But it seems a waste all that land, all those buildings.  And so few remembered.

People don’t have to be remembered by a plot or a head stone.  While it can be comforting to the living – the real value is to teach your kids a living history of your family and continue it to your grandchildren.  That’s a legacy that will endure.  With my mother’s death, my children now have no grandparents. Bob’s parents were both dead before we go married… but my kids KNOW them.  Andy could virtually shop Bloomingdale’s with her Grandma Renée and Jessie could chat about the hotel with her Grandpa Joe, because we have told them so much about them.  Lots better than a batch of chemicals… like God’s not going to let you in if you don’t look good?

Sunday's Bounce

Don't know if you have been reading me long enoughto know that when we "moved" here we each got a splurge... mine was plants for the 2 x 6 ish plot in the patio.  So that's the back story.

I think I have killed my zinnias, would that be zinniacide?  Or maybe they just committed suicide becase it is so damned hot here.  Not that I'm complaining - it may be 105 degrees here but the humidity is a low  oh 75% or less, so I am not sweating like a bovine but have moved to the swine family.  But the zinnias are not well.  I cut off everything I could and planted some snapdragons around them  - hoping they would look like they belong there... would that be considered covering up a crime scene??  It's ok, but I am now worried I should have said some words in passing for the zinnias.

At any rate, I was out in the "garden" today... really regretting that I hadn't taken a photo of it before it all became dead twigs with dead flower tops. I wanted to post it but between the heat and the dog pee - well, I won't live long enough to see it make a come back.

I added a couple more jasmine vines - like planting new ones will make the place suddenly tropical and inviting.  I'm worried about my poor gardenia bush though.  What was once a thriving gorgeous specimen is now like 8 branches with a couple of leaves.  I am thinking it is because I couldn't get deep enough in the bed with the trowel so I have now mounded dirt around the exposed part... and mulched yet again.  Where is my Mom when I need to ask her.  Twit!!!  Dad was the one with the green thumb!!! Mom just told you where to weed!!!

So other than listening to the voices in my head, I think about the gardenia bush.  I had planted all this stuff so the dogs would have something to lift their legs on - so why am I surprised that it has all been peed to death???  At just that moment Able comes and pees right into the center of the bush...I mean the sucker straddles it and just floods it!

And it hits me.  A pee shield!! What a fabulous idea.  I can see my fortune being made here now!  Like an invisibility cloak for plants... hmmm I am liking this a lot..so I go into the kitchen and get my glad wrap stuff for the freezer... you know the one that you can press the sides together and make them stick??? I am so on a roll here...

Voila- I now have a shower cap for the bush. I figure a couple of things can happen...

1.  being with this hothouse effect that the gardenia bush will now grow to gargantuan size or

2.  mildew and rot away...

3. I have discovered another amazing brainstorm that could be a subsidiary of the rain cap company.  Sell various dog pees so you can "plant" them where you want your dog to pee.  Cut your dog walking time in half!  Or mix it up in your yard so the dog will have new intrest in going out and not peeing on your white carpet!

Now I have never gone through the neighborhood and peed, publically or privately, but I suspect that if I needed a smell to make me go - well honey - I would have them all!!! Doesn't that make sense to you??? Well... I don't care what you think, it makes sense to me!

And where am I going with this??? Doesn't matter where you're planted, or who pees on you - if you want to - you can flourish!  (didn't think I could bring this all together did you! LOL)

Night y'all!

I couldn't do it... I just couldn't watch TV yesterday.  This Rita thing has just got me a tad frazzled.< imagine me putting my wrist to my forehead...>

What is up with this already??? Ya know - I have always felt that I had a charmed life and all these years I have been waiting for the "other shoe" to drop - you know... payment for this life?  DIDN"T KNOW THE SHOE WAS GOING TO BE A FREAKING HIP WAITER!!!!!

This thing with my mom... well... I love my brother but he is a moron.  Apparently they can't ship dead bodies from Lubbock (I can tell you right now this post is going to offend a lot of people- can't help it- it is just how I deal with death!).  So they have to hire a hearst to drive her down here.  Well... Mom always did love going places in a limosine, but usually she wasn't crated.

Yeah, crated.  They won't give her her  a "home" until she gets to Florida.  There was a brief moment of stupidity on my part (and I have had more than my share these days) where I actually thought about driving up there and picking her up in my Suburban.  Sort of a new twist on Weekend with Bernie.  Or worse - Thelma and Louise.  My mom and I never had much fun together when she could speak, so I was sort of hoping we could have one of those bonding moments before she slid into the wall next to my Dad.  Guess not... can't get on her flight.

And there's another thing.  Calling funeral homes and being um, moribly correct??? ... Uh, I understand my mother is under your care...Under your care????  The woman is dead for God's sakes.... although I will admit I can't think of any other way to address it.  Hi, I understand my Mom is staying at your facility until she can catch her flight?  Hi, I hear my mom is chilling with the home boys until next week.  Hi, I'm Peg Bauchat's daughter and I understand she' there for a beauty make over???  Nope... can't see it. 

And tying to dance around the fact they are shipping my mother in a freaking crate... I'd like to discuss my mother's travel arrangements.  The woman is NOT flying First Class - she is in a wooden crate!!! Could you please tell me when you will be meeting her flight... The guy tells me - well we arrive at CARGO an hour after the flight arrives.  Great, now I have visions of my mother on the tarmack wondering why it is taking the cabana boy so long to arrive with her Pina Colada.

Nope, I really don't do death well.  My mother got mad at me because when my Dad died, my kids and I were all sitting in the front row looking at him all laid out... but his hands were funny.  They were crossed, like they should have been clasped at the bottom of his chest- but the hands didn't really touch each other.  I made a passing comment about Dad looking like he belonged in DisneyWorld in the Hall of Presidents... my kids burst out laughing - which was just fine by me... but my mom thought it was disrespectful.  <psssstttt.... Dad would have loved it!>

Death is a funny kind of thing... ok not if it is happening to you, but it IS going to get you one day.  And that is how I feel about it.  A natural conclusion to a person's life.  I am more inclinded to celebrate the life of the deceased than to wear black and look miserable.  And, I do have this unfortunate habit of breaking into hysterical laughter...

A couple of years ago we had a marathon of deaths.  In the 40 days of Lent we had something like 45 people we knew died.  My kids at ages 14 and 15/16 had entire funeral waredrobes.  It gave us a lot of chances to talk to them about death.  You should do that you know, talk to your loved ones about what you want and how you want to go.  And you should talk to your kids about it so that it isn't some big lie or mystery.  It just is.  And it happens, every day.

Me?  I'd like to be creamated and thrown from my Iris float... but I can't.  Jews can't be creamated and I am pretty sure that ashes are not an approved throw.  But I do want to have the biggest damned party in town.  I want every one to go have a drink in all of my favorite restaurants.  I want them to wear red, tell jokes and throw their heads back in laughter.  I want them to celebrate that they are alive and so was I.

So today, tomorrow and every other day you have, Live it.  Do at least one thing a day just for you... even if it is just a phone call to a friend.  And that is really the most important thing you'll do all day.

Adios me amigos!

Don't You Just Hate it...

Don't you hate it when things happen late at night and you have no
one to talk to about them?

Tonight I was going to start introducing my family on my Blog,
starting with Jessie.  I had this great "lay out" in my mind,
complete with a couple of photos.  Then Rita became a big threat,
the moment she became a CAT 4 I got a blinding headache, the likes
of which I haven't had in over ten years.  Being on the East side of
a hurricane is more dangerous, stronger winds and more severe rain
bands,(like I'm telling you something you don't know).  So there my
poor house sits, in my home of New Orleans, about to get pounded
again.  But that is something for the insurance companies to fight
over - and I really had decided not to write any more hurricane
stuff.

But then I got an e-mail.  AN E-MAIL! from my sister in law that my
mother just passed away at 10:25 tonight.  What's a woman gotta do
to catch a break here?  My mom was an ornary old biddy and age did
not improve her.  No one thought she would ever out live my Dad, but
she did.  I sure hope Dad had fun today in heaven 'cause it is the
last Peace he's going to have for a while!  It is strange now.  My
oldest brother and I are the only ones left. 

There were 4 of us.  Three boys and me.  Jimmy, David and Jeff. 
Jimmy is 66 - I'm 53.  Jeff - who was 7 years older than I, passed
away from a bizarre case of cancer when he was 42ish.  We think it
was from exposure to Agent Orange in the 70s.  He was a test subject
for the Army back then at Natick Labs in MA. Who would think it
would be more dangerous than being in Viet Nam??  David died on my
birthday just about 2 months past his 60th birthday. 2002, I think-
it was Jakie's first Chanukah too. Jim, my only remaining brother
has been a heavy smoker (and has been all his life) and has
emphysema.  I am told he has about 2 years.  That will make me one
lonely little girl, who's a little nervous about her health!

But then, this isn't about me - it should be about my mom.  She
wasn't a great mom.  She did what she could to the best of her
abilities, but basically, she wasn't good at mothering.  She ADORED
my father and he adored her and that is what was important I guess. 
That and the fact that we had a less than mediocre relationship,
made me the mother I am today.  I became the mother I never had.  My
kids and I are very open and talk about most everything (somethings
more than I would care to! lol) and I would like to think we are a
close family, so, she really left a great legacy behind in her
grandchildren, my children. 

Peg was a real pip.  I don't think she ever had a thought that was
edited by her brain.  And of course this was unhampered by the
touchy feely stuff we have going on today.  It took me years of
therapy to be able to accept her for herself and laugh at what we
would refer to as "Peg-isms".  But she was my Mom and I loved her. 
PIA that she was, I am a lot like her.  Don't ask me my opinion if
you can't take hearing the truth! (Good God Renée - that is a
horrible outfit/haircut/fill in the blank here) and actually, I have
passed this little trait on to my kids too, only with the edges
softened and we laugh a lot more when we do it.

Some how in the next few days I have to figure out how to get from
Dallas to Palm Beach where Mom will be entombed next to Dad.  She is
in Lubbock at the moment.  There will be no memorial service(s),
most of her friends are dead any way, just me making sure she gets
to where she is going. So I guess this will sort of be her eulogy. 

My Mom was short, brunette and could be very funny.  In 1944 she
worked at Sears in Canton,Ohio where she saw my Dad, who was a
manager there.  She found out that they took the same bus and tried
pick him up one day - Didn't work.  She did arrange a double date
with him and the rest was history... they were married,
excommunicated from the Catholic Church (mom was a *gasp* divorcée)
and lived fairly happily ever after.

Mom was a great cook.  Ok, she was great until she decided to try
recipes from the New York Times. Even Dad rolled his eyes at some
stuff and he would eat anything. The worst was the TOFU Turkey
Dressing for Thanksgiving.  She was honest, short tempered and a
snappy dresser.  My parents use to co-ordinate their outfits.  They
were the envy of their friends. (and no, they would not dress ALIKE -
I said CO-ordinate!)

She loved animals and we almost always had dogs.  To this day I
can't eat liver because she would make a liver stew for our pets.
She was good hearted and a good friend.  Peg was determined, hard
working and fun loving.  Nothing like a great game of bridge or dice
or poker for that matter to bring out the competetive side of hers.
And while it may not have been her strong suit, she was my mom.  And
I love her.

Night Mom, rest well and safe journey. Love you.

renée

September 24th

So, this is it.  Random thoughts - no fancy banner, just black and white me.  If you can't stand the heat don't read the posts... there will be no baffle from my brain to my fingers.  If I offend anyone - I'm sorry - but ya can't please every one....