My Day Compared To What?

I can't say this was a good day for me, but compared to the days of many people right now, I believe it should be a very good day. I don't have a son, daughter or granchild in Iraq. I can't even imagine the fear of the people who have loved ones over there, which has to make my day better than their day. I know there are adults, both young and old, who are extremely worried about their retirement accounts. Although my business stressed me to the limit, I know how good I have it compared to many. Congress did not pass the "bailout" bill intended to rescue the economy. People are frightened about their future. My stress seems minor in comparison. I have a director who is the best I have ever had working for me again, but her need for perfection is taking her to the edge. I hope I gave her the support she needed, but I am stressing over her stress. Our company is financially stretched. We made some major property improvements this year not anticipating a collapsing economy That means we used up a lot of our capital, so now we are capital thin at a time when banks may not be loaning money. Marty is the Chief Financial Officer. He is worried. I am stressing over his stress. He is my son and has always made only the best financial decisions. He is one of those rare people with a credit score in the 800's. I don't worry for myself. I was born on the edge of the depression. I recognize it was different then, as Marty has pointed out to me. We could grow our vegetables. Our water came from the ground. We didn't have electricity, so we didn't need it. I didn't give him a very good answer, because I told him I know that where I grew up is still out there in the heartland, and if necessary, I know we can share it with some of the folks who I love that still live there. That really isn't what keeps me from "losing it" during this trying time. It's just that I have lived long enough to know that whatever happens now, we (the United States of America and its citizens) are all in it together. We are brought closer and learn from our most challenging times in life. I know that either Congress will stop playing politics when our livelihood is threatened and they will pass that "bailout" bill this week, or American citizens will come together to rebuild this country in a way to make it even better than it has ever been in the past. Some of us may have just forgotten along the way or are too young to know how much we share in common with each other. I believe we learn compassion from needing compassion. We learn to be generous when we need others to be generous with us. I hope tomorrow will be better for all...and me too.

A Saturday "Sort Of" Day...

Today was a good day. Jerry and I followed our typical routine of having a cup of coffee while reading our morning paper. We always discuss the news. We watched a friend, Tommy Drissi, race in a televised event followed by a Formula Mazda race in Canada. I geared up for the NASCAR Nationwide qualifying and race, while Jerry took an early afternoon nap. Dana and Brandon (daughter and son-in-law) brought Carson over for me to watch while they spent the afternoon and evening with friends celebrating a birthday. Carson is a pretty "easy keeper." We move the furniture around a bit, so she is trapped in our great room. This keeps her from falling downstairs to the lower floor or trying to climb upstairs to the third floor. Our English Bulldogs, Max and Lilly, always get a little bit crazy when Carson is here. They love the food that finds its way to the floor when she is eating, and Lilly loves her toys. Since I was babysitting, dinner was a couple of chicken pot pies. Carson had her dinner at 6 PM followed by a walk on the deck, so she could ring the bell and the chimes a few times hanging under the eaves of the roof. That is a "must" activity when she is visiting her grandparents. Afterwards she had her bath in the kitchen sink, took her evening bottle and went fast asleep. I completed some crossword puzzles, and Jerry was using his laptop while we both watched Legally Blonde on television. I believe I have seen it at least four times now. Dana called a few times, as she always does when I am babysitting. The first time she called, I said as I picked up the phone receiver, "Stop that or I will slap you." Dana laughed and said, "Sure, Mom." The next time she called I told her I couldn't talk because I was looking for Carson. For some reason, she didn't believe that either. My other granddaughter, Leanne, who is 16 (17 in two weeks)called this evening. She had just arrived at her home following attending her girlfriend's birthday party. We talked for a few minutes and made arrangements to have lunch next week. Dana picked up Carson around 10 PM. She wasn't feeling well and attributed it to a burrito she had eaten earlier. Brandon had a few too many at the party, so he waited in the car when she came in to pick up Carson. Another blessed day.....

Old Favorites and Miscellaneous

You know, I have been thinking about my yesterday blog entry and the man who attends my Rialto Day Program, who resorted to violence when he saw his favorite couch sitting by the dumpster. I feel guilty. It's not a California law, although I won't be surprised to see it in the regulations someday. This is California and if someone suffers in any way, we tend to pass a law that makes sure it never happens again or if it does, someone pays a penalty to the State of California. The reason we had to toss the couch was because representatives of the State of California believe that any material other than leather or something of that type of material that can be wiped clean is unsanitary. I actually see the reasoning behind that recommendation, but I was just imagining today how comfortable he must have felt every day when he could take a break from the routine to relax on his favorite piece of furniture. I remember a couch we had when I was a little girl (a sharecropper's daughter living in Southern Illinois.) My sister in law, Pat, who was a full grown adult, of course, would always sit on the same place on the same spot on our couch everyday. She was a hard working woman and helped my mother with whatever work needed to be done, but when she relaxed, she always sat in the same place. Pat came all the way to Southern Illinois from Boston. She was of Polish descent. Since I was the daughter of a sharecropper, you won't find it hard to believe that our couch wasn't amongst the better built. Only my parents, myself, my brother, Charles (another child and not Pat's husband) and a couple of my truck driving brother (Eddie, Pat's husband's) children lived in the same house, so noone else really sat on the couch for any length of time. My dear sister in law, Pat, sat on that same spot daily when she could take a break from farm work for a couple of years and when you looked at the couch, there was an obvious little caved in area where she sat. I can still remember how really comfortable she looked while sitting there. Sometimes I would sit next to her, and she would talk to me while I colored in my coloring book or worked on my homework. She was always very kind, and I think now that I may have been pretty attached to that couch too. I certainly was attached to Pat. I understand how my developmentally disabled consumer must have felt seeing his favorite spot cast out of the building for garbage pickup as if it meant nothing to anyone. Perhaps it was the place he went to relax when he felt upset. I am sorry now that we didn't let him know that we had to get rid of it before it was dragged out of the building and placed next to the dumpster. Maybe if he had an opportunity to participate in the decision, it would have been easier to accept. We arranged for a company to take the furniture away, but it wasn't soon enough for my consumer. I regret that. Thank you God for today's blessings.

A Somewhat Productive Day

I finally tackled a stack of mail today and spent some time organizing my brief case papers. We had a very hot day in Southern California, and I believe that contributed to the fact that police were called to two of my business locations. In Rialto, California, the police were called to assist in getting a consumer under control who was upset when he saw that an old couch was being removed from the building. The State Dept. of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division required that it be removed from the building, because in their opinion, it was a cloth material and not sanitary. The developmentally disabled young man who liked to sit on it was outraged when he saw it sitting next to the dumpster. He began attacking personnel immediately after he arrived at the day program. In Lakeside, California a consumer who was recently released from jail became agitated when he was asked to leave the classroom. He became violent and attacked several personnel. The police were called to that site. They waited for the PERT team to arrive and transported him to a psychiatric hospital. He was a member of a street gang prior to going to jail, and had started showing signs of getting involved in gang activity again. Our director of his residential group home is requesting an emergency discharge from our facility from the CCL Department of the State of California.

Dana and Carson came by after they attended a "Mommy and Me" session. Dana needed to sign some documents to change the listing price of their home in North Carolina.

I took several phone calls, ordered some more chairs for the Rialto, California site and wrote a contract for our equestrian training component in Lakeside. As usual, most of my time was spent on the telephone and the internet taking care of business.

Jerry made a deposit in our bank and went to the post office to mail several letters for me. It is really helpful when he makes deposits, buys supplies for our house and picks up the mail.

My granddaughter, Leanne, is supposed to return from camp today. I hope she had a good time.

Jerry has been diagnosed with early Alzheimer's Disease. Yeah, that's an "eye opener." Isn't it? I will talk more about it, I'm sure, but not now.

A Long Day...

Today was a fun day. I took a break from my normal routine and went to my granddaughter's swim training. Carson turned one years old on September 8, 2008. I took photos of her, and actually, I was quite surprised at how well she is doing. She is wearing the little swim float suit now, using her arms to go forward but still fighting it a bit when she is turned over to float on her back. After class, she and her Mommy (my daughter, Dana) and I went to lunch at Olive Garden. After lunch we took Carson to meet my x-husband and father of my other daughter and son, Jim Swineheart and his wife Carol. Since I have a son and daughter (Marty and Jodi) with Jim, he has always been "Uncle Jim" to Dana. Carson enjoyed every minute of our visit especially since their 3 year old grandson entertained her with teddy bears and lots of attention. Jim and Carol warmly welcomed all of us. They have raised several of their grandkids, and we kidded them about leaving Carson. They said they probably wouldn't notice for a couple of weeks that they had another kid. Afterwards we stopped by Carson's "Uncle Marty" (my only son's) home. Carson lives three houses away from Uncle Marty and my other granddaughter (Leanne), so she also was quite comfortable there. After a 15 minute visit, I picked up my car at Dana's home and couldn't believe it was already 4:30 by the time I arrived home where I was greeted by my husband, Jerry and our two English bulldogs, Max (10 years old) and Lilly (5 years old.) Jerry had been flying with his friend, Starr, who owns a helicopter, so he had a perfect day. Anytime Jerry goes flying either in his own airplane or with Starr in his helicopter, it is a perfect day for him. They had flown up to Big Bear for breakfast. I looked through the stack of mail he had picked up at the post office, chatted a bit and Jerry went up to take a brief nap. I watched President Bush's press conference concerning the economy, and around 5:30, Dana and my son-in-law, Brandon brought Carson to me for babysitting. They bowl on Wednesday nights. Carson played for a short while and clearly signed for me that she wanted to eat her dinner. I am amazed at baby's learning to sign so quickly and am glad that Carson has been taught by her parents to use baby sign language. The theory behind signing is that the brain development allows them to learn sign language quicker than speech, so it gives babies an opportunity to communicate before they normally would be speaking. I prepared her dinner, and she ate her entire plate of macaroni & cheese and peas & carrots. Afterwards, we sat out on the deck for a time while her grandfather watered the plants. She likes for me to ring the bell and rattle the chimes hanging under the eaves of the roof over the deck. Of course, the English bulldogs are following her everywhere she goes. That activity on the deck was followed by a bath in the kitchen sink, a bottle and an early bedtime tonight. I think she was exhausted from her busy day of swimming and visits to relatives. Finally, it was time for me to relax. My granddaughter, Leanne, is away at camp. Leanne is 17 and a senior in high school. Yes, I waited that many years to have another grandchild. Leanne comes home tomorrow. Thank you, God, for another blessed day.

What Have I Done?

Ok...I think I have a blog. I think my address is drj5150. I have lived a 5150 life, so it's about time I share my experiences. I am not technically smart. I am very smart, but I failed in technology. Actually, I was never exposed to technology until I was way beyond the quick learning stage in life. What does 5150 mean to me? I live in California. California is my home, because I have lived longer in California than I have lived in any state. The California Welfare and Institution Code, Section 5150 addresses the laws of Involuntary Commitment. If you have ever heard a police radio communication in California and a discussion regarding a 5150 situation, you know that they believe the person involved in the heat of the moment is mentally ill. There are several things you don't know about the event, but you do know that in the opinion of the police officer, he or she believes the person causing a problem in the community is in need of mental health services.