I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Bren-2007

Afternoon Friends,

Nice and warm today, although we're under a tornado watch.  Wish all winter could be this warm.

Blue ... I love Wendell.  He and Lilah make me smile.  Can't wait to meet him.

Chick ... So glad you got good news today.  My friend Brenda has really been struggling recently.  She has a full body PET scan tomorrow.  Really hoping the aromasin is helping.  The faslodex didn't work .. but maybe this AI is doing the trick.

hugs to all,

Bren

1Athena1

Phew indeed, chickadee. The Sir Spheres (sounds liker a knight in shining armour) sounds really promising. I know liver mets are very tricky to treat. Hopefully NED will ask you out some time soon. :-)

bluedahlia

Yorkie, he loves to play fight all day long.  Lilah has warmed up to him now amd gives him whatfer.  Love Wendel's back toes.  The white spots just stick out.  Lovable and adorable little furboy!

Chick, love to hear good news!

Bren, can't wait for you to meet him too.

Wabbit

Smiling widely here about your good news Chickadee!!! 

Very late start to the day today.  Storms and tornado watch until the wee hours of the morning and I can't sleep when that is going on.  And I feel I must stay up and dressed ... I do not want to be in my nightgown if the house falls on me or I blow away   Not the weather you expect at the end of January. 

blue ... your doggies are so cute!

And it continues ... office shooting in Arizona today, guy mad at doctor and shooots and kills him (California), 6 year old kidnapped off school bus and bus driver killed (Alabama).  No doubt I missed some.  The problem IMO is the worship of guns as the mega best problem solver for all things that might p*ss us off.   Wanna be safe?  Get a gun.  Wanna be treated right?  Get a gun.  Nobody will mess with you that way dude.  Working out problems other ways is for sissies.   Cause you can just get out your beloved guns and blast them to pieces.  I am beginning to think we are hopeless. 

  

crazy4carrots

Chick -- Wonderful to hear such "nothing" news!

Blue -- Since I've met Lilah and know what a wee munchkin she is, I now have a much better idea of how teeny tiny Wendell is!

And now for something head-scratchingly bewildering:

CBS News reports that a high school in the far northwest suburb of Chicago will be conducting a school shooting drill which will include all the usual securing of the classrooms by teachers: locking of doors, closing of curtains, switching off of lights, and huddling in shadowy corners.

But this little drill will feature something extra special for the kiddies: the sounds of gunshots as blanks are fired in the school’s hallways. Yes, nothing like a bit of post traumatic stress to round out the school day.

According to the e-mail sent out by the Cary-Grove High School to parents:

This drill, “may cause some students to have an emotional reaction. … Additionally, we have trained social workers on staff who can speak directly with your child should he or she need added support.”

(Read full text of the e-mail here.)

bluedahlia

Linda all I can say is WTF!

Chickadee

Never been too impressed by what school "trained social workers" are capable of.  If I was a parent I'd keep my kid home.  Personally I think this sort of exercise would be better done after hours or on a teacher in service training day.  The adults can put it in perspective. 

We homeschooled for disability reasons after years of frustration with school "experts" but if I was doing it over again with a typically developing kid, I'd homeschool again in a minute.

1Athena1

Same here. I have little regard for social workers as a group. Trained ones to me just means they are even more narrowminded.

QuinnCat

Chick - great news.  What a relief....and thank you for describing this new technology you have at your avail. You certainly do have great medical care...hopefully not too far away.

Hope Wendell and Lilah actually get along?

Who was the ridiculous woman on that gun panel that needs to shoot off 4 men entering her home?  Was that a hypothetical?  I caught the part by one of the Senators....wasn't a shotgun used, or wouldn't a shotgun be adequate?  She was hysterical.

bluedahlia

Kam, they do get along.  Took a while for the Princess to come off her pedistal, but now she's mothering him when they're not play fighting.

pupmom

Boring, yes, but totally awesome news Chick! 

Blue, Wendell must be so much fun!

QuinnCat

Blue - can you see similarities between her relationship with Wendell and her relationship with Virgil?  How does a dog show mothering??  Ok, she's not teaching him how to go down steps, is she?

alexandria58

Hooray for boring, Chickadee!!!

Guns and stupidity: perfect together.

Athena: on social workers - got a load of them while working as a defense lawyer for parents whose kids were taken away by child protective services.  Some tried really hard, but there were others.... Suffice it to say that one of my villians is a caseworker for the child protective agency.

1Athena1

Can't wait to read your book, Sandy!

pupmom

Ok, I've got to come to the defense of my former colleagues. I worked very closely with school social workers and with the exception of Speech/Language Pathologists I've never seen a harder worked group of school personnel. The amount of paperwork they had to complete was in itself a full time job, which, since they HAD to see kids on their caseload, meant many worked many hours overtime. Sure, we all did it, but I didn't have caseloads dictating how I spent my "duty" hours, so often I caught a break. Those guys never did. As I said the SLPs were worse off. It seems that every other kid qualifies for their services. My best friend was an SLP and she hit her wall when her caseload hit 100, meaning she had to see 100 kids 2 to 5 times a week, about 20 to 30 minutes each session, depending on their degree of disability. Do the math for a 40 hour job, then add about that much time for paperwork and meetings. No wonder we were both tearing our hair out by the end of the year! THe next year, which was better for her and worse for me, we both retired.

alexandria58

Yorkie: you're right, there are a lot of caseworkers who care deeply and who are overwhelmed by the caseload .  I've seen many caseworker who do a good job under adverse conditions. BUT I've also run into caseworkers who put as little effort in as possible and who were, at best, incompetent.  I had one case where the caseworker put the kids in foster care because she didn't like my client, the mother.  After the kids were taken, my client was screaming that the foster mom wasn't taking good care and the caseworker blew her off.  Well, one child was so badly bitten on the face by the foster mom's dog that he needed ten stitches - although the foster mom just sent the kid to school without seeing a doctor.  it was the school that got the child to the ER for the stitches.   I had another case where a kid, who was doing ok but the caseworker didn't think the mom's using alternative medicine was accepable - and another case of caseworker not liking the mom and the child wound up in foster care.  Child went from a well-adjusted kid to threatening suicide, acting out at school, stealing.  No complaints from school or anyone else until the child was removed from her mother.  Took me four months to get that child home.  

suzieq60

Just saw this in our newspaper online

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/girl-who-performed-for-barack-obama-shot-dead/story-fnd12peo-1226565579608

When is it going to stop!!!

suzieq60

Staying home today - no sleep last night. Steve was out til late watching the boxing and I woke up worrying. Pool problems yesterday, the repaired salt cell stopped working again after I brought it home, so I was worrying all night about the cost, then voila - it's working this morning. Can'twork from home a my internet has been slowed down due to reaching the data limit - sigh.

pupmom

Wow, alexandria, those are real horror stories! I never saw that level of incompetence and callousness in the schools, but I saw some lazy people. Those people were just biding their time getting to retirement, and yeah, some of them were barely into their careers! A lot of these folks were teachers but some were support personnel or administrators.

bluedahlia

Kam, their relationship is different.  Virgil was the alpha.  She has now taken that position and is telling him with her yawns, during play fight.  Very interesting to watch their interaction.  And funny too!

I have a barrier across the stairs because she can go up but she won't come down, which means I have to go up and get her.  E will tell you I have a shitload of stairs in this house.  Not exactly compatible for a Parkinson's patient but I just love the layout.  Its a workout to go to bed at night lol!

1Athena1

I love how Fossil looks a different shade with different pictures.

In other canine news, I am happy to report that my "niece" Emilia is doing just fine after a metabolism problem that led to one major surgery and a separate case of obstruction. She has to eat special food, but she is back to her wonderful, Labradorian self. Sorry for the size:

I took a picture of her that was so out of focus that I decided to photoshop it and make it puntillistic. :-) Here goes:

alexandria58

Wow!! Really like the photoshop version.

1Athena1

Thanks - I messed up so badly on the size that I couldn't even see right to put "sorry about the size" in the right place! :-)

gardengumby

May I say that I am extremely disappointed in Mr. Deval's choice of temporary Senator...

QuinnCat

Blue - thanks for the update.  Wasn't it Linda who posted the Youtube of one dog teaching the puppy to go down the stairs?  It was heartwarming.  After it was posted here, got reported on tv as a gone viral video.

Who did Deval choose?? I have a feeling, not Barney Frank as he was rather subdued last night on Last Word.  Bad choice, if not.

IllinoisLady

Fossil, Wendel, and Lilah.....what a great read about each of them this afternoon.  A great pick-me up.  I'm tired from my day, but other wise feeling ok.  Have a bit to go yet with the back, but I do think we may be turning the corner a little and getting some progress.

Almost hate to 'read' the news of late.  As someone mentioned earlier.....the greatest problem solver ever.....a gun.  Even better if it holds a lot of rounds at once -- military style.  I'd love to say a few things about the great Mr. La Pierre, but I don't have three straight days.  He did tone some parts down....really. 

Anyway......hope you all have a nice night.

Jackie

1Athena1

Thanks Mods - much better!

Chickadee

Got this in an email(anonymous baby) and just had to share today's heavy dose of CUTE!!!!!

3monstmama

Just ducking in to say hi.  Its been a crazed couple of weeks.  I think I said before that my mother was diagnosised with Stage IV ovarian cancer in November 2011 and had moved out where I was for treatment.  She had a goofy idea that she could do it all by herself but my godbrother and I bullied her into coming closer to us for treatment.  She finished her chemo the last week of August (had to do it pretty much every week from January to August) and we were hoping to have a nice time for the holidays.  Unfortunately a week before Christmas she ended up back in hospital and just after new years, she was diagnosised with a reoccurance of the cancer.    She took it quite hard---I could literally see the gumption fly out of her at the onc's office.  The following Wednesday she decided she didn't want to do more chemo but wanted to learn about hospice.  It was clear that she believed that if she didn't do chemo she would feel great despite the cancer which was by no means the case but she was never one to listen to things that contradicted views she had adapted.  sigh 

That weekend was VERY rough for her as she had a lot of pain but refused to accept the recommended meds.  Me, I was home on my sofa with the flu (thank you tamiflu for making it the shortest flu ever!)  By that Tuesday she was back in hospital to drain the fluid from her left lung.  That Friday, she was released from hospital back to skilled nursing because they said there was no medical reason for her to be in hospital.  After that it was just a fall off a cliff, as though she decided she was going and she went.  We got the call Monday morning at around 3am.

In part because I know she was in pain and it was only going to get worse, I am not overwhelmed with grief.  I am glad it was quick and that she is no longer suffering and no longer imprisoned by her body which had really served her well up until the end.  Not sure how to phrase it but this was my first adult family death in nearly 20 years (as well as my first death since becoming a buddhist) and I was intrigued by my reaction to seeing her body in her room.  Never had it been more clear to me that our bodies are simply containers for the real us.  Looking at her, it was so clear that her container was empty.

Any rate, if I am absent in the coming months, it is only because I an overwhelmed with playing executor with her estate and doing a lot of travel in connection with that in addition to that regular silly old full time job thing.  But I will be thinking of all here and sending positive energy your directions.

pupmom

Chick, those pictures are just soooooo adorable!! Thanks for making my day with that cute overload!