August 18, 2008

Bye, thanks for the mess to clean up.

My neighbors have officially moved out.
They were mostly finished on Sunday evening, they came back today for just a couple more things, and then her husband came back over supposedly to clean up all the trash.
Wanna see his idea of cleaning up all the trash?
You can click for bigger.

He pushed all of their trash cans over near mine, and just dumped a bunch of stuff on top of them.
Broken garbage bags, pool floaties, moldy wet carpets, all kinds of crap.
Then over on that side of the duplex, is all the rest of their garbage.
There's no trash pickup tomorrow, it will come on Wednesday instead, but they aren't going to be coming back to put theirs to the curb.
Her husband said to me after I went out and told him about the no trash pick up due to the storm, "Well your boys can take care of this on Tuesday night then. You were good neighbors, the wife is really sad about leaving you, you were a good friend to her. All she's done is cry because we're moving away from you. Call her every now and then would ya? She really cares about you and your boys."

She is a good woman deep down, no matter how messed up their lives were, she did try to be a good person, she did care, and I know that when we said our goodbyes on Sunday, she was really choked up about moving away from us.
She said she didn't know what she was going to do now, what will happen to her when she has another diabetes spell, I was always there, I always heard her and came over to help, what's she gonna do, she just kept saying.
I told her she could call me anytime, I couldn't go to her, no car, but she could talk to me whenever she wanted.
She just cried even more.

But damn that man for leaving all that fucking trash for us to take care of.
The boys and I will take care of it, I don't want the landlord to have to deal with it, he works so much as it is, and he's going to have to do some major cleaning in there before he can rent it out again, so we'll deal with their trash on Tuesday night.
Well, whatever doesn't get blown away in tomorrow's storm.
I just can't believe they left all of that crap.
At the curb, he put a huge blue sectional sofa and a microwave before I finally realized someone was out there and told him about the no trash pick up.
I should have just let him take it all to the curb had I known he was going to be an ass and not come back to take care of it himself.
Sometimes, I just don't think things all the way through.

---

August 3, 2008

The girl in the window.

Quite possibly the most heartbreaking story of child abuse and neglect, in the St. Petersburg Times, on their Tampabay.com website on July 31st.
The article was titled, The girl in the window.

The family had lived in the rundown rental house for almost three years when someone first saw a child's face in the window. A little girl, pale, with dark eyes, lifted a dirty blanket above the broken glass and peered out, one neighbor remembered. Everyone knew a woman lived in the house with her boyfriend and two adult sons. But they had never seen a child there, had never noticed anyone playing in the overgrown yard. The girl looked young, 5 or 6, and thin. Too thin. Her cheeks seemed sunken; her eyes were lost. The child stared into the square of sunlight, then slipped away. Months went by. The face never reappeared.

Child Protective services had been there twice in just a few short months in 2002.
They never took the child, and what's even more disturbing is that they never even interviewed her.
If they had, they would have found that the 4-year old girl couldn't speak at all, warning bells would have sounded.
But DCF never spoke to her, they offered the mother child care help, but it was refused, and they went away.
If only they had investigated further, if only they had kept the case open longer and made more visits to the home over a few more months.
Maybe Danielle, now known as Dani, wouldn't have ended up as a feral child.
When two Plant City police offers entered the house on July 13th 2005, one of them came back out and vomited in the tall grass of the yard that hadn't been cut in months.
Things crunched under their feet.
Large German cockroaches were everywhere, under foot, on the walls, in the lampshades, in the freezer.
There was trash everywhere, dirty laundry, broken curtain rods holding up tattered and yellow stained curtains from years of smoking.
The house was full of, and smelled of feces from cats, dogs, and humans.
It was in the carpet, on counter tops, splattered on the walls.

The police were there to find and remove the little girl that neighbors had reported as being abused and neglected.
She had never been outside, she was only ever seen wearing a diaper.
She was 7 years old.
Detective Holste looked around at the filth, he asked the woman living there, the mother, where the little girl was.
She pointed down the hallway, and he went down the dark, dirty and moldy hallway, turned the handle on a door, and he found her.

First he saw the girl's eyes: dark and wide, unfocused, unblinking. She wasn't looking at him so much as through him. She lay on a torn, moldy mattress on the floor. She was curled on her side, long legs tucked into her emaciated chest. Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice. Insect bites, rashes and sores pocked her skin. Though she looked old enough to be in school, she was naked - except for a swollen diaper. "The pile of dirty diapers in that room must have been 4 feet high," the detective said. "The glass in the window had been broken, and that child was just lying there, surrounded by her own excrement and bugs." When he bent to lift her, she yelped like a lamb. "It felt like I was picking up a baby," Holste said. "I put her over my shoulder, and that diaper started leaking down my leg." The girl didn't struggle. Holste asked, What's your name, honey? The girl didn't seem to hear. He searched for clothes to dress her, but found only balled-up laundry, flecked with feces. He looked for a toy, a doll, a stuffed animal. "But the only ones I found were covered in maggots and roaches." Choking back rage, he approached the mother. How could you let this happen? "The mother's statement was: 'I'm doing the best I can,' " the detective said. "I told her, 'The best you can sucks!' "

The little girl has been permanently taken away from her birth mother, she's been adopted, but she's never spoken a word, she doesn't know how to speak. No one ever held her, talked to her, sang to her, played with her. She was left alone in that room, in dirty diapers, in a room full of dirty diapers and filth. You have to read that story, the whole thing.

I was ok reading it, not crying but my heart was just breaking, and then Sebastian came out and asked me what I was reading.
I lost it.
I just completely fell apart.
I sobbed barely breathing, trying to explain to him what I had read, I could barely speak.
I simply can't fathom how someone could do that to a child.
To just place her in a room in the dark, in dirty diapers, with more dirty diapers around her, bugs eating her skin, in her hair, never ever speaking to her, never loving her.
My heart just broke in a million pieces for Dani, and I am so glad she has found wonderful new parents who are loving and patient, and a 10 year old brother who is the most awesome little boy.
His heart is huge, it's amazing the sacrifices he's made for his new sister.
Really, you must read that story.
Just get your kleenex ready, you're going to need them.

---

July 30, 2008

I'll be your hero today ma'am!

So my neighbor and I both had to go to Amscot today, it's not far from our house at all, and she had a quarter of a tank of gas left.
It should have been more than enough to get to us there and back to our street to get gas.

As we're coming back down US41, we swing that left at the huge intersection of 41 and Stickney, the van starts sputtering, dying, it's running out of gas.
Crap.
We manage to make it through the intersection and about another 150 ft or so, when it's just dead, not going to move another inch.
So her son gets out and starts pushing the van, he's 12 years old, he's small, you would think that someone would stop and help push the van to the gas station right?
But noooo, no one stops to help.
I tell her to let me out, that if I get out and just start pushing, we'll actually get a few guys to help us.
She doesn't think it will work, I bet her $5 it will, and I get out and put my hands on the car.
All of a sudden, da-da-da da dadum! I'll be your hero today ma'am! 3 guys are suddenly offering to help push us.
A guy on a bike, a guy parked his Bronco in a lot, and another guy who's walking, are all helping push the van to the gas station, about 30 more feet from where we were.
They were pushing that thing so hard and so fast, I had to stop. I couldn't keep up with them, and it's a good thing I did because her son dropped his Swiss Army knife out of one of his pockets as they were all pushing and running the van down the street.

We get the van to the gas station, her son is now putting the gas in and had gone in to pay for the gas and get us all something to drink, it was so hot out, and I put my hand in front of her, palm up, and said "$5 bucks please!"
We both started laughing, but it's amazing that nobody stopped to help a kid push a car, but as son as they see a woman, big strong men come out to help.
Female in distress! Help! Help! *laughs*
I didn't make her pay me the $5, it was just a funny thing, but it is pretty sad that no one helped the kid, but they'll help a woman.

---

July 13, 2008

Magic Jack is not quite so magic.

I'm sure you've all seen the commercial for the new Magic Jack internet phone jack that gives you free calls right?
Don't be so quick to jump on it as a the bargain you've been looking for.

BoingBoing has pointed out a very interesting EULA agreement for the Magic Jack you might want to read very carefully before you buy this product.
It's actually a very evil agreement, and if any of you have already purchased this or were thinking about it, you need to get rid of it ASAP.

"You also understand and agree that use of the magicJack device and Software will include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for the magicJack device to work ... Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the relevance of the ads."
...
"Any claims, legal proceeding or litigation arising in connection with the magicJack device or Software will be resolved by binding arbitration.... in Palm Beach, Florida."

These targeted ads will snoop in on your phone numbers and calls, to serve you the ads that they claim are needed to make magicJack work.
And by agreeing to use it, you sign away all of your legal rights to sue should your computer get screwed up or they defraud you.

I know the economy sucks, and everyone is looking for ways to save money on bills and all the other household items, but magicJack is NOT the way to go.
There should be some way that the telecommunications people can force scam companies like this to make it so that when consumers get to the point of sale on stuff like this, that it should have to go through some kind of authorize.net procedure so that the EULA pops up and the consumer has to read it all the way through and agree to the terms before they can enter their credit card.
The magicJack site doesn't make it easy for people to see the ToS or the Eula, you have to Google to find out where on the site it even is.

---

July 6, 2008

Dealing with a lying, scheming kid.

I went and dug through my archives, and nope, I haven't posted about the situation with the kids in the neighborhood, so I'll do that now.

A few weeks ago I got a call from my neighbor, she's the mother of the boy who about a year and a half ago, maybe longer, who had been doing all that lying/truth telling about his father abusing him.
The real truth has never been discovered, but what the kid discovered, is that lying to get people in trouble works in his favor, it makes things go his way for awhile.

During this phone call, she starts going off about how Sebastian is older than all the other kids in the hood, that her son and another little boy aged 12 or so, have been friends since the 2nd grade, and Sebastian just sorta moved himself into their little circle of friends and how violent he is when they play.
She said that her son told her that Sebastian punched this other kid in the side of the head so hard that his head split open and he had to go get stitches.
I said hold on a minute, this kid had to get stitches and this is the first I'm hearing about it?!
Why didn't his mother call me or come to my house, if my kid gets hurt by another, damn first thing I'm doing, any reasonable parent does, is notify the parents of the offending child that something happened.
She starts yelling even louder that this really did happen, her son said so, the parents of ALL the other kids don't want Sebastian around, etc etc.
I found that to be rather odd because one of the other kids in this little group had just been at our house that morning inviting Sebastian over to play.
So I went next door, this lying kid has a hard time lying face to face, he gets red, looks down and to the left.
Left lying, right remember, it's a cop trick to know when people are lying about stuff.

I get over there and start asking more questions, telling her what really happened that day, that it was another child who actually hit this kid in the head, but it wasn't hard, it was actually a finger flick, no skin ripped open, no being rushed to the ER, no stitches.
Her son wasn't even there that day, he was off at a swimming party with a different friend.
I looked right at the boy and asked him who told him this.
He starts stuttering, uh uh, that's what I was told, I don't know if it's true or not, they told me it was.
Who is they? Who are the parents who don't want Sebastian around? And exactly how many stitches did this require, and why did this mother not come to my door and yell at me for this?
A pissed off parent usually goes straight to the other parent and bitches them out for serious bodily injuries.

He keeps stuttering, looking left, has no direct answers, his mom is now yelling at me for interrogating her perfect son.
I said to her, "How many times has he lied and gotten you and your husband in trouble for child abuse? How many times does he lie about all kinds of stuff? You are constantly telling me that he lies about even the simplest things, yet you're going to take his word for this without speaking to the boy who supposedly got hurt or his mother? If your son and he have been friends all these years, you should have his phone number, call her right now and ask about the stitches. I demand to know how many stitches, I want to see the injury, and I want this kid to tell me Sebastian did it."

Her son starts stuttering even more, says he hasn't seen any stitches, he now thinks the other kids in the hood may have been lying.
She now starts saying oh, if there's no injury, then there's no reason to call this kid's mother.
I started yelling at this point.
"I'm sick and tired of the lying! I'm sick and tired of him lying about Sebastian all the time! So here's what's going to happen. Sebastian is no longer allowed to play with your son or any of the other lying brats in the hood. Period. That way, if someone does get hurt, no one can blame him because he won't be anywhere near any of them. They can find the real culprit of the bullshit, which is the known liar, and they can deal with him and his mother. I'm sick of this shit."

She yells at me for calling her son a liar, and I said you call him that yourself every single day, so don't start saying he's Mr. Fucking Innocent right now. Not going to happen.
She apologizes, makes him apologize to me, and asks if her son and Sebastian can still be friends.
I said "That's up to Sebastian, I can't make him be friends with someone who lied about him causing injury to another child, making people afraid of him, making the other kids in the hood not want to be around him. Why would he want to be friends with someone who lies about him all the time?"

She makes her son come outside and apologize, Sebastian doesn't care, goes back in our house.
I said "See what happens when you lie? You lose a good friend, someone who actually liked hanging out with you. Too bad. maybe one of these days you'll learn not to lie and make up bullshit stories."
He started crying, apologized to me again, I came inside too.

This morning, she calls me up and goes through this huge story about her husband being mad about the fireworks mess in the driveway her son made, he's not home right now, so could Sebastian go out and clean it up? She'll pay him to do it, $10.
I said he's sleeping and it's up to him when he wakes up.
I'm not going to make him save her son's ass even if Sebastian wanted the $10.
That kid is a lying, scheming, pain in my ass.
If her husband gets pissed off about the mess, he can yell at his own son who made the mess.
Not our doing, not our mess, not our problem.

---

June 24, 2008

Save some, spend some.

I wish I had had some extra cash on me tonight, because Publix had this huge shelf section filled with all sorts of clearance items.
They had so much stuff on it like some really nice place mats, their cute little matching salt and pepper shakers, table cloths, candles, soaps, laundry detergent, baby items, and holiday items.
All of it marked way, way down.
I always look at the clearance section, and if there are any good deals on food items like canned foods or pastas, I snag those right up because I like to keep my cupboards stocked with the basics.
I did grab a couple different spices they had on the shelves, and I asked the manager who was stocking even more items on it, why these were all so cheap now.
He said they had decided to no longer carry that particular brand of spices and herbs any more, so they had to make room on the regular shelves for the other brands and a new brand they now carry.
I bought 4 bottles, cinnamon, oregano, basil, and garlic salt.
All 4 bottles were normally priced at $2.99 each.
I got all 4 of them for exactly $2.00
Bargain-o-rama baby!

I picked up some more lunch meats, ham and Genoa salami, more bread, a pound of burger so I could make spaghetti later in the week, and some subs for dinner tonight.
Summer is sub and lunch meat season at our house.
It's amazing how much teenagers can eat.
I just went shopping on Thursday when I got paid, and had bought ham, salami, and roast beef, a pound each, and when I came home from the doctors today, all of it was gone.
It lasted about 5 days, that's not too bad I guess, with all 3 of us eating it I suppose.

Oh!
While I was waiting in line and ordering the lunch meats, Sebastian was waiting to order the subs.
The guy who was working the sub counter completely ignored him, and waited on 3 other customers who came to the counter after we did.
I got done getting the meats and walked over there, and Sebastian was like "Mom, let's just go, he keeps ignoring me, let's get something else, he won't wait on me."
The guy heard him, and I looked right at him and said, "I've been standing over there getting what I need and watching my son. You did ignore him, you took people who were in line after him, why? We are in here all the time, you know him, he buys subs all the time."
He tried to say he didn't see him, and I said "You didn't see this 6 foot tall young man standing here?"
He stuttered an apology, and a lady who always works in the deli and usually waits on the teens, came over and pushed the guy out of the way and took Sebastian's order.
There was a manager standing there, she heard the whole thing, and she pulled the guy aside and spoke to him. Then the guy took off his apron and walked into the back room.
Maybe she sent him on a break or fired him, I don't know, but I do know that this isn't the first time he's ignored the teens when they order subs or deli meats.
Mark can't stand the guy, he says he does it to them all the time, and Mark has had to raise his voice to get service.
It's not like the teens are really young kids with no money, they always pay for everything the buy, and the amount of times we are in there buying subs and other lunch meats from Publix, you'd think they would treat them a little better.
Maybe that guy just hates teenagers, and I know some teens can be real idiots and troublemakers, but my boys are always respectful and polite.

I've like totally rambled on, sorry about that, but bad customer service just irritates me.

---

June 18, 2008

You have no 4th amendment rights in a natural disaster.

Wake up Americans!
What is happening in parts of Iowa from the flooding, is just as bad as the water itself.
Government "strike teams" are invading people's homes, harassing the owners, and threatening them with arrest, for being in their homes and questioning the illegal searches of property.

Cops break down doors, threaten residents who question them as part of martial law conditioning, authorities prevent people from re-entering their homes

Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee "strike teams" breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.
No warrant, no knock home invasions are being carried out on the flimsy pretext of "checking for structural damage" as cops harass and threaten with arrest people who refuse to have their homes ransacked by thugs in uniforms.
Cedar Rapids police chief Greg Graham promised residents over the weekend that "Law enforcement officers are not entering homes," and that firefighters would only enter homes through unlocked doors and windows yet the video clearly shows locked houses being broken in to.

People, this is some serious shit.
You need to wake up!
Your 4th amendment rights are and will be violated in times of any natural disaster under false pretexts.
Just as they did during Katrina, law enforcement are breaking into homes, forcing lawful homeowners to leave their homes, and illegally seizing lawfully owned weapons.

The 4th amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

They are breaking into homes, forcing people to leave, threatening them, and when people question what the hell is going on, why their home and properties are being violated, the "officers of the law" are telling them to shut up, go back inside, or face arrest.

Just because a natural disaster happens, does not give ANY government office the right to declare martial law, invade our homes and property, seize our legally owned and obtained weapons, for any reason.
They must obtain a warrant which states their reasons for the search and seizure of our personal effects.
A lot of these "strike teams" are made up of law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and utilities workers.
Excuse me?
When did all these people become structural engineers, and be able to legally determine whether or not a home is safe?

Even if there was a legitimate reason to inspect homes, why on earth do they not even bother to knock on the door?
Cops immediately attempt to break in or climb through windows uninvited because this procedure is all about sending a message - when a crisis unfolds we are the bosses and you - the peasants - will yield to our tyranny.

This is bullshit people.
There are police barricades set up preventing home owners from even re-entering their neighborhoods.
When questioned, no answers are being provided, they are simply being told to stay behind the lines, or go to jail.
Reports are sneaking out that a group of home owners pushed their way past the barricades and ran to their homes where they then barricaded themselves in.
Once in their homes, they hope to be able to stay put, but the police with all their illegal break ins, could force these people back out by breaking in, breaking down their doors, and taking them to jail in complete violation of their 4th amendment rights.
The Mississippi river is being reported to soon overflow it's banks.
If that happens, more neighborhoods will flood, and the possibility of more illegal strike teams being created, is inevitable.
This stuff is just crazy.
I really thought we may have learned something from the complete clusterfuck that happened during Katrina.
People were forcibly evicted, even if they lived miles away from the flood zones on high and dry ground. Their homes were invaded, they were forced to leave, and their legal guns were ripped from their possession, with no receipts given to them to get their guns back.
Many people were told "Too bad, hire a lawyer to get it back, if it can be found and proven."

What I think the government learned, was that declaring an illegal martial law, illegally removing the lawful weapons, and removing people from their homes, worked out so damn well in New Orleans, we might as well do it during every natural disaster.

---

June 16, 2008

On my mind all day.

It's been a super quiet summer day here.
The teens and I haven't done much at all, we have been playing some games, watched Clerks II again, and for dinner I'll be making enchiladas.

This news story has been on my mind all day.

TURLOCK, California (AP) -- Police killed a 27-year-old man as he kicked, punched and stomped a toddler to death despite other people's attempts to stop him on a dark, country road, authorities said.

The child was somewhere between 1 and 2 years old, and he was beating it, kicking it, and stomping the poor baby to death before police shot him.
Now that the man is dead, we'll never know why he was doing that to the child, but I'm glad the police shot and killed him.
He didn't deserve the kindness of being arrested and getting a fair trial, he beat a small defenseless baby to death.
People stopped and tried to make him stop, he just shrugged them off and continued.
The police officer ordered him to stop and step away from the baby and he didn't, he deserved to be shot and killed in my opinion.
I don't understand people like this, I don't understand people who kill children.
What could the child have possibly done to deserve what happened to him?
Cry?
Soil himself?
What could he have done?
It just broke my heart to hear about this today, people like this make me sick.

---

May 12, 2008

Hoppy birfday to woo.

Christine made a post about kid friendly restaurants and birthday parties for kids, and entitlement jerks.
Basically the dad was mad because the restaurant didn't offer his 3 year old son no free gift or cake at his birthday when they dined out.

I worked in many different restaurants when I was working outside the home, and I can tell you that not a single one ever gave anyone, kid or otherwise, a free gift or free cake, on their birthdays.
The cake was added to the bill, and it was usually just a slice of cake from our dessert menu unless someone called in advance to arrange for a whole cake for the entire group to have.
We would sing if asked, but most people didn't because it is publicly humiliating for both the birthday person and the restaurant staff who are forced to sing it.

That dad is a butthead.
He complained about the crappy meal, the bad drinks, the bad service, and yet he expected the restaurant to shower his 3 year old with a gift and free cake, as well as sing the damn happy song.
______________

But we did do this once, to Sebastian on his birthday, at our fave Chinese buffet here in town.
He was about 10 or 11, and my sis and I felt like embarrassing him.
We pre-arranged with the manager to bring a cake over at the end of our meal, a small Pepperidge Farm one we brought ourselves, and also to sing to him.
The entire staff who work there are Chinese with very heavy accents.

We finished our meal and Sebastian thinks that's it, when the whole wait staff comes over with his cake and like 100 candles on it.
It was like on fire, I thought for sure the smoke alarms in the place were going to go off.
We never asked for the candles, the staff did that on their own, but it made it even more funny to sis and I.
They get to the table, Sebastian is already mortified because of the flaming cake o' death, and they start singing.
"Hoppy birfday to woo, hoppy birfday to woo", all really thick Chinese accents, so thick you could barely understand any of the words to the classic birthday song.
Every patron of the restaurant is staring at our table, people are standing up to see, and how could you not see?
There were 20 wait staff all dressed in matching black pants and white shirts, singing very loudly, and a tiny cake with flames shooting off the candles.
People were laughing, some were singing along, and Mark is nearly pissing himself with laughter.
My sister and I have tears rolling down our cheeks because all we wanted was the cake brought over, and maybe like 2 waiters to sing, NOT the entire staff, and it was just so loud and so bright, we were losing it with laughter.
Sebastian's face was bright red, he was so embarrassed, but it was just awesomely funny.

We've never done that again, but we threaten it every time one of the teens have a birthday.
We always take them out on their day to where ever they want to go, and when we get there, we joke about how we tipped the waitress etc to bring a cake and sing.
Both teens usually get immediately red in the face, and ask like 100 times through the meal if we're kidding or not.
We usually hold out on the joke till the very end, when we finally tell them we were kidding, but watching them get nervous every time a waiter passes by our table is priceless.

---

May 3, 2008

It shook the pictures off my walls!

It's just Mark and I at home tonight, Sebastian decided to go back to my sister's house for the night and will be home in the morning.
When it's just Mark and I, the house is super quiet.
I'm doing my thing on my computer, and he's doing his thing on the Xbox playing PSU.
We stopped for awhile earlier, ate enchiladas while we watched the movie I reviewed below, and then we both went back to our thing.

Anyway, we were both just doing our thing a few minutes ago when we hear this loud boom boom thud, boom boom thud, coming from the sub woofers of a car coming down the street.
It started getting louder and louder, and then the windows and walls started shaking, 3 pictures fell of the wall from behind the couch which is not by the window I might add, it's an interior wall.
I thought for sure this car was in my driveway, that's how loud and how bad the windows and walls were shaking, so I got up and opened the front door, about to seriously bitch someone out.

There was no car in the driveway, not in front of my mailbox or my neighbors, or even the next duplex over to my left.
The car was 4 houses down and driving super slow like maybe he was looking for an address or something.
It was that far away but it still sounded like he was right in my driveway!

Sarasota has some pretty tough noise ordinances.
If it can be heard by a police officer 25 feet away, it's too loud.
My driveway is about 25 feet long, and this car was 4 houses away and we could still hear it and feel the bass.
Sarasota has an impound law now as well as fines associated with loud noise.
On April 22nd, the city commission approved a version of the new city laws that would result in a warning for the first offense, the second time, violators are required to pay a $25 fine, plus more than $150 in fees, and the vehicle is impounded. The fine jumps to $250 for the second offense and $500 the third time.

If a cop had been on my street, this guy would have been so totally busted.
Why the hell do they need to have the music that freaking loud?
I love music, I love loud music, I fall asleep at night with my headphones in and the volume all the way up, but when driving in a car, that loud is not only annoying, but dangerous.
If someone honks at them, they can't hear the car horn, if an emergency vehicle is coming with sirens blasting, they can't hear it.

I mean, it was 11pm and he's driving through a residential neighborhood that fucking loud.
There's just no need for it.

---

April 21, 2008

You fucked up someone's life because of a plant.

I have received only 1 negative comment on the situation with Sebastian, I just got it.

A guy who used the name "no way", but has a valid email address, Gregory Rice, said this;

No fucking way was this a good idea. The kid/s already applied to
college. How long until he graduates, less than a month? But now, he
can take another year of high school, get put on probation, and you say
serves him right, like he was really trying to harm anybody. He was
probably just joking around with Sebastian anyways. Now he/s gonna get
fucked like nobody/s business. I can/t believe you decided to fuck up
someone/s life because of a plant. You/re all a bunch of dick wads.
fuck you.

I replied to him with the following;

It wasn't a joke. This kid has been trying to get my son to smoke all fucking year.
He would pull him into the construction hallways, light up, and try to get my son to smoke it.
He had tried sliding a joint in one of his books one day, invited him to his house to smoke, offered to walk home with him and smoke.
You don't know the situation, you don't know how serious the situation was.
Believe me, we agonized over what to do with this, it wasn't an easy decision at all.
But my son and I had a choice, turn this kid in, or risk my own son getting caught with it and expelled.
I nipped that problem in the bud, sorry if you don't approve, but if this kid valued his future for going to college, he shouldn't have persisted with his attempts to push on my son.

I know it's just a plant, I don't care if people smoke weed, I really don't.
Most of my friends do, I used to, the last time I took a hit was December 2005.
But it was my choice, an adult choice.
I don't think pot should be illegal at all.
We bust pot growers and sellers, users, and we throw them in jail over "a plant', when there are far bigger dangers in this world the ATF could be cracking down on, but it's not for kids.
If adults want to toke away, I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with some asshat pushing drugs onto my kids.
They are kids, they can't make that kinda decision that has serious legal consequences if they get caught.
To teens, it's all fun and games, they don't realize just how fucked they'd be if they got caught with it.
Expulsion from school is just the tip of the iceberg.

And ya know what, if this was a joke like you say, the kid won't have any thing on him when they get the dogs, he won't be in any trouble if he has nothing.
They have the dogs at the school today, they are taking them room to room just like they do every year for the whole 4/20 holiday, and they let the dogs walk amongst the students.
If this kid has it, the dogs will bark, if he doesn't, he's free and in the clear.
The only thing the cops know is that this kid might be holding.

I'm not the one who fucked up this kid's future, he is if he's holding a bag of weed today.
I'm not the one who chose to push on a freshman all year, try to force him to smoke all year.
I'm not the one who said I'm giving you a bag of weed and a pipe to smoke it out of, and I'm putting it in your back pack.
I'm not the one who may be holding that bag of weed today, and neither will my son.

If this kid has it, he will be caught.
He will have made the choice today to bring it to school with him.
He made his choices when he kept trying to push it, insisting, telling my son what he was going to do.
If he has it on him, he made that decision himself.
If the dogs find it, then it's all on him.
He should have thought about his future before pushing all year.

---

April 18, 2008

We'll be turning him in.

Sebastian and I talked at lentgh this afternoon over this whole thing, and I gave him the options.
He gave me the name.
I'll be making the call early Monday morning so they can catch this kid however they have to without involving Sebastian at all.

He's still very worried, but he knows something had to be done.
And being the super awesome kid he is, he's even concerned for this kid's future.
He said to me, "Mom, he's a senior. He's applied to colleges, got accepted I think he said, this will ruin his life."
I told him that our turning him is not the thing that is ruining his life, it's the choices that he's made, not ours, that have determined what his future holds for him.
This kid chose to push drugs on to others, he chose to smoke them, he chose to try and force another student to take possession of them, that's all on him, not us.

I hope that all this goes off without any major problems. I'll be worried sick all day Monday and every day after that, but I know it's the right thing to do, and Sebastian knows it is too.

---

April 18, 2008

We expect a pot problem on Monday ma'am.

I have awesome kids you know.
They come to me with everything, that open door policy I drilled into them as soon as they could speak and understand, has paid off.
They tell me everything about what goes on at school, girls, their bodies.
Very open and trusting relationship.
I consider myself very lucky.

But then stuff like this comes up, and I feel like I have a fractional ownership in exactly what my responsibilities are towards the school.
Do I tell them and risk my kid getting beat up?
Do I tell him to do something else just to save his own neck?

Here's the situation.
All year long, Sebastian has been bothered by another student who wants him to smoke pot.
The whole year, this kid has asked him to smoke during lunch, hang and smoke after school, buy some, take a hit, just try it.
The whole damn year.
And Sebastian is an incredibly awesome kid, he has come up with some kind of excuse the whole year, as to why he can't smoke.
He's hungry, doesn't want to miss lunch, has to get home after school, his mom needs him to do chores and homework, doesn't want to get caught, doesn't want to smoke but hey man, it's cool if you do, not my bag man but have at it.

Sunday is 4-20.
That's the international pot smoking holiday, for those of you unaware.

So this drug pushing kid has been planning how to get Sebastian to smoke, and seeing as Monday is the day after the biggie holiday, he plans on giving Sebastian a bag of weed and something to smoke it out of during 7th period, the last class of the day.
He plans on just putting it in Sebastian's back pack if Sebastian won't willingly take it.
Which he won't.
He's said no about 200 times this year, he doesn't want it.

But here's where we have a major dilemma.
Does Sebastian turn this kid in, he won't tell me the kid's name because he knows I'll make the call, or does he take it and get off school campus asap, just to save his own ass?
He's terrified that if he turns this kid in, he'll get beat up.
The kid and his "friends", are not nice people. They live in the ghetto portion of our city, they are always in trouble at school for one thing or another, and Sebastian wants no part of any beating that could come his way as a result of ratting this kid out.
Or, does he just let it get in his back pack, get off school grounds without being busted by the school po-po himself, and I flush it down the toilet?

I called the school anyway.
I spoke to the school officer, I gave him no information at all.
Not my name, not Sebastian's, nothing that could identify my son as the rat.
I explained what's happened all year and this kid's plan to slip it in the back pack during 7th period.
The officer was very understanding, he understood my need for anonymity, and Sebastian's.
He said there are two and only two things we can do.
I can try to get the name out of Sebastian this weekend, and because the school is already planning on having a "pot problem" on Monday, the day after the pot holiday, they (the school po-po) can simply walk the halls with their dogs and sort of casually and accidentally, come upon the kid holding the weed.
Or, Sebastian upon receiving the weed, when the bell rings to let class out, go straight to the office, ask for an officer, and turn the weed over to them.
They will not punish him if he turns it in, I was promised that they would do nothing to Sebastian if he turns it in.
The officer said that students find drugs all the time and they turn them in.
They are only asked where it was found, and then they are let go with a word of thanks for being honest.
He said if Sebastian walks off campus knowing it's on him, if it's found out later that he held it, he will then face trouble, suspension or expulsion is likely.

I asked the officer 3 times for his word, that if my kid turns this in, he will not be asked to rat out the kid, and he will not face punishment.
My kid doesn't want it, has said no in every possible way all year, and the big day is now coming and he's absolutely terrified.
Could I keep him home Monday?
Yes, but the kid has said he will give it to him whenever he returns to school.
One way or another, Sebastian is getting this bag of weed.
This kid is intent on giving Sebastian pot no matter what.

I am going to try talking to Sebastian all weekend, try to assure him that he will be safe, and I will leave the decision to him. I can't force him to rat this kid out knowing how much he fears this other student who is by the way, a senior.
The only reason they are in this class together is because it's an elective in computer and digital design, the field Sebastian is interested in, and a lot of seniors take it for the extra graduating credit.
I will leave it up to him but I will make him understand he can't leave campus with it, he'll be in major trouble if it's found out later he had it on school grounds, he either has to tell the kid's name, or turn it over when the bell rings.

It sucks people.
It truly sucks that Sebastian has been under this kind of pressure all year, but I am so so proud of him for coming home and telling me everything all year.
He's honest with me, he tells me what's going on, his thoughts, his fears, and he asks me for my help.
I knew he was under this kind of stress, and I did attribute some of the big fight he and I had to this situation, and I always make time for him when he wants to discuss it, and we do.
He usually drops it after a few minutes, says it's so hard to deal with, not sure what to do, but I also know he has many other stressors.
Being a freshman isn't that easy, the work is harder, there's far more students than middle school, puberty, everything, and it all builds up.
I'm trying here, I really am, but even with all the back and forth the teens and I go through, I am so greatful they come to me with this stuff.
I am lucky beyond words that they trust me to talk about this kind of stuff.
I can't even imagine going through this and not being able to talk openly with your parents for fear of being punished for even "associating with those kinds of people".
He's doing his very best to survive public high school, and I'm doing the very best I can, to help them survive.
I wish this was easier for all of of us, but it makes my heart swell when they come to me with this kind of stuff.
I'm doing something right here, I know I am.
Being a single mom is tough work, but times like this lets me know I'm doing ok.
My kids trust me to talk about anything, even super bad ass stuff like this.

---

April 11, 2008

I'm not anti-American.

Sometimes I get off the wall comments on posts that don't even have to do with my views on religion, but someone comes along, figures out I'm an atheist, and then says something really stupid like this.

"You're anti-God! you're anti-American! Get out of the US if you don't love the God this country was founded on you godless immoral heathen! We who love our God and savior don't want you here!!"

Ok Laura, calm the fuck down.
Being an atheist in no way makes me anti-American.
It simply means I don't believe in your God.
This country was founded by people searching for religious freedom, the freedom to believe in whatever God or Gods they wanted to.
They were being oppressed, so they left an started a new country where they recognized that all people had the right to choose what they believed in.
Yes, most of them believed in the Christian God, but when they wrote the constitution and the 1st amendment, they made sure that each person would have the right to exercise their rights to believe or not believe.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
That doesn't say that we the people, all have to believe in the same God, it means free exercise to believe what we want.

We have all the 1st amendment to protect us from religious persecution by our government, not be forced to believe in any God by our government.

If I was anti-American, I'd probably post a lot more about how much I hate the government and our current president, how the war in Iraq is unjust, or whatever.
But I don't.
I follow politics, I vote.
I believe one vote equals one voice.
I know that it's a privilege to have the right to vote, so I vote in every local, state, and federal election.
I don't waste that right given to me.
I don't snub my nose at the 1st amendment, I applaud it, because it gives me and you, the right to believe whatever we want to believe, and to not be persecuted for those beliefs by an oppressive government.

Laura, your comment has not, nor will it be published.
It was not on topic to the post you left it on, so I junked it.
Sorry.
But if you'd like to have a rational discussion about being an American, and what the 1st amendment means, feel free to email me. There's a handy dandy button at the top of the sidebar just for things like this.
But if you send me an email full of hate, telling me to get out of this country I was born in and that I have respect for, call me names, be ignorant and disrespectful, I will not reply, but delete it.
I'll be respectful to you if you are to me.
And I respect your right to believe in your God, and even your right to say hateful things, but I don't have to reply to them.
Those are my rights.

---

April 5, 2008

Totally off day. V 2.whatever

I don't know what's wrong with me today.
I woke up this morning with a general feeling of blah.
That blah has stayed with me throughout the entire day.
I have not been able to shake it or determine why.
It's like absolute boredom combined with being the most tired I've ever felt, yet 3 attempts at sleeping throughout the day failed.
I just laid there staring into my pitch black room.

Due to this boredom, I agreed to watch a movie I said I wouldn't.
Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Yup.
I watched yet another CGI animated rip off of a classic cartoon.
FYI, the chipmunks never, not once, not ever, rapped during the height of their cartoon fame.
I know 'we gots to update things for the times yo', but for god fucking sakes Hollywood, just leave the classics the fuck alone.

The teens have been surprisingly well behaved today.
I think they can tell I'm just sort of out of it.
They haven't fought a single time the entire day.
Maybe they're the ones not feeling well.
Hrm.

Oh, would someone hand the generation behind me a dictionary, and highlight the words slut and whore?
K? Thanks.
See, I'm sick and tired of people calling everyone a whore, as in "man, she fucks everyone, she's such a whore".
See, that there is called a slut.
If she's fucking everyone, she's a slut.
If she's fucking everyone and getting paid for it, then you can call her a whore.

And another thing, why do people always have to come along and ruin a good hypothetical what if conversation, with facts and figures?
Yes, let's just zap the fun out of the whole thing.
You're so mature, you're the awesome. /sarcasm>

---

March 29, 2008

It should be called open season on snowbirds.

Oh my, my my my, I have had a helluva day.
I went grocery shopping this afternoon, and I swear, every single senior asshole snowbird, was in Publix today.
The snowbirds suck, all of them, but the seniors are by far the worst.
I know I've bitched about this plenty of times, but today, I wanted to physically kill one of them.

Publix was overly crowded with snowbirds, the majority of them were of the senior variety.
The most obnoxious species to behold.
If you see one, or a small crowd of them, stay out of their way.
They have absolutely no manners and believe that the world revolves around them.

Publix had the hair-brained idea, that having every stock clerk on the floor and stocking shelves from noon to 4pm, was just the best thing ever.
But no, it's not.
Saturdays are busy shopping days, it's the one day of the week most people have off of work and can go get food.
Having 20 stock clerks clogging the aisles is just bad.

I went in the cereal aisle, or I should say, attempted to go in the cereal aisle, when I was immediately blocked in by a stock clerk to my left refilling the pop-tarts, the granola bars, and fruit snacks, and 2 shoppers in front of me going my direction, and 3 trying to go the opposite.
An old woman, approximately 65-75 years of age, came in behind me and proceeded to bang her cart into my ass.
I turned to her and said; "Ma'am, I can't go anywhere. There are people in front of me, and no room to go around because he's stocking the shelves".
She made a face that I assumed wrongly, to be of understanding.
Just a mere 30 seconds later, I thought I had been hit by a car.
Well it was a cart and not a car, and it was this same ladies cart, and it wasn't just a small hit, oh no, it was a full on slam directly into my tail bone.
I turned around and snapped; "What the fuck is your problem lady?! I told you, I can't go anywhere! If you want to go up this aisle so badly, why don't you ask the stock clerk to move, or better yet, why don't you say excuse me?!?!"

She stared at me, the stock clerk and the other customers in the aisle turned around to see, and she yelled out; "Move!"
I repeated that I couldn't move anywhere due to the amount of people in the aisle, and that if she rammed me with her cart again, she'd be very fucking sorry.
She clutched the handle of the cart and moved it back like she was getting ready to take aim at me again, and I turned around to fully face her, and said; "Don't. Even. Think. About. It."
Sebastian who always goes shopping with me and had seen her hit me, grabbed my arm and said; "Mom, is your back ok?"
I told him that no, it wasn't. She hit my tail bone. I felt the cart slam into my rods and screws, I felt it all the way up into my neck, but if this woman dares to try and hit me again, I'll ignore the pain I'm in just long enough to take her cart and shove it up her wrinkly ass.

Sebastian let go of me and backed up.
The old lady now had this look of horror on her face, and the stock clerk was trying to get his stuff out of the way to get out of the aisle.
The other customers started to back up and move out of the way as far as they could so I could pass through.
When there was enough room for me to move forward, I slowly turned back to face my own cart and then moved up the aisle.
The other customers just all stood staring at me and the old lady, waiting to see what was going to happen.

She came up the aisle, this look of superiority on her face, and as she passed me, she turned her cart into mine and pushed it, then kept moving up the entire aisle, not getting a single thing from the shelves at all.
She went up the entire aisle and turned to go down another.
She didn't even need anything in that aisle.
What the fuck?

I hate these people.
I hate these old, rotten, rude, assholish snowbirds who don't live here, but make the local people's lives a living hell from November to the end of April.
I cannot fucking wait till they all go back to wherever the fuck they came from, and the roads, the parking lots, and the stores, will once again be safe to be in or on.
They drive like they own the roads, no blinkers, they take up 3 parking spaces, they treat everyone they come in contact with like they are lower forms of life.

Hate.
Them.

I spent the rest of the time in the store in absolute agony.
That was only aisle 5, I had 15 more to go, a lot of groceries and other necessities to get before I could come home.
It took me over 10 minutes to check out, every register that was open, had huge long lines, they kept calling over the speakers for clerks to come bag and retrieve carts from the lot.
Normally, I can get in and out of the store in about an hour, today it took me nearly 2 hours to get everything I needed and get checked out.
I couldn't wait to get home.

I've been home since about 3pm, and my tail bone and lower back is on fire.
I've taken 3 pain pills and slapped on a lidocaine patch, and I am still in horrific pain.
When Mark was helping me put the patch on, he told me it was black and blue.
I turned to look at it in the mirror, and there was noticeable color change.
It hurts so freaking bad.
I swear, if she had hit my body again, I would have lost it on her.
I would have taken her cart and slammed it into her, and I don't know if I would have stopped.
It would have been self defense maybe.
Maybe temporary insanity, but she would have deserved it.
I am so sick of these people doing this shit.
I am so over them behaving like assholes in the store, taking things right out of people's hands, hitting people with the carts, being rude, never saying excuse me or thank you when someone does move out of their way.
I cannot wait till they all go home.
The end of April can't get here fast enough.

---

March 14, 2008

They should make up their minds.

The school that is.
Today was supposed to be another half day, and what time is it, and where are my sons?
Not here, and when I called the school, they said the students were being held for the full day, the principal thought it was best, sorry they didn't notify the parents.
That's it, sorry.
Grrr.

I went up to the corner store this morning, and spent some time chatting with the store owner about the crazies in our neighborhood.
The crazy lady who flipped out on me over some plastic light sabers 2 years ago, went in his store, and was flipping out on him because he has a guard dog in a fenced in area in the back.
She said having it caged up like that was abusive, and she heard that he beat his dog to make it meaner.
He asked me if I knew her, and I relayed the light saber story.
He said she told him she worked for animal control, and she was going to get his dog taken away from him.

I've seen him with his dog, he does not abuse it at all.
That dog is protective and loving to his family, but strangers who get too close to the fence, yeah, he barks and growls like he's supposed to do.
The lady is freaking nuts.

Then we talked about the crazy French lady who wears a winter hat and gloves in the middle of summer, and how she steals from stores.
He was pissed at her because she knocked over a bottle of wine, and when he went to get the mop to clean it up, she swiped another bottle and left the store.
He knows she did because he has security cameras, and it caught the whole thing on tape.
I told him, yeah, she's been baned from Sweetbay, Publix, and 7-eleven, and the previous owner of his store, Pete, banned her for the same stuff as well.
He (new owner) was worried about baning her because he's the new store on the block, and doesn't want to get a bad rep.
I'm all man, every store around here has banner her, trust me, nobody would blink if you said she was banned, they all know her very well.
He said thanks, that was good to know, and I got my purchases and came home.

Now I'm just waiting for the teens to get home, and whether or not it's going to rain.
I can feel it, felt it last night, and the sky just got a little darker.
Hopefully it won't downpour until after the boys get home.

---

March 7, 2008

Highly annoyed afternoon.

I am so agitated, I'm ready to put my fist through the door or window, but I can't because I don't have any home insurance to cover the damage that I might do, and the landman would be really mad at me.
But man, it sure would be nice to be able to destroy something right now.
A hole in the wall, a door off the hinges, some spray paint on the clean white walls.
Maybe I'll just go scream in a pillow or something.
Or perhaps, I should try "breathing through the heart" to calm myself down. /sarcasm

I had the most annoying therapy appointment I've ever had in my entire life.
I will write a whole separate post about it, because I also want to include a little video to tell you all about why I'm so annoyed, and I need to film and upload it for your viewing pleasure.
That was an hour and a half of my life I can't get back.
And yes, I know a few people who will be laughing at me, because the whole point of biofeedback is to calm one's self down to a point of total relaxation, which then relieves stress as well as pain.
Very unhappy.
Very.

---

March 4, 2008

I almost allowed myself to be sucked in to the hate.

I still have some bad feelings about an on-line company I used to work for, bitter, nasty feelings.
I have even more of those bitter, nasty feelings towards one person involved in particular, and I do my absolute best to refrain from any interactions with her.
I keep myself very guarded most of the time.
Like 99.9%, I am on guard, I hold every emotion in, and I come out sounding like a robot.
It's much better to be cold and robotic, than it is to lower myself to the level she has in the past.

I've allowed myself to become too close to some of the people again, and she is one of them.
A conversation took place, I snipped back. It wasn't as nasty as it could have been, and when pressed, I immediately apologized for my brief moment of quip.
I will not lower myself any lower than that.
I will not go where she has gone, I will not say anything more on the subject.
I went too far as it was, but my emotions were high, my anger and bitterness over the previous company were running high, and I quipped when I should have bolted out of there as fast as possible, only leaving dust or the glow of some led tail lights in my absence.

My dislike of this woman runs deep.
Fakeness in people bothers me like nothing else.
Having 2 faces, one that is all sweet and kind, and the other, equipped with a wicked and sharp, forked tongue.
I make no apologies for my dislike of her, only an apology for sinking to her level.

These are things I am working on, personal character flaws of mine, that need to be dealt with so I can stay above those low levels, not allow myself to be entertained or hyped up into joining the group.
I had a very good handle on it for the last few months, but the company has become more of an issue with more of my friends dealing with issues with this company, and my wanting to help, sends me in to see the other things going on, and wham, I slipped.
I will be refraining from being part of the group of people desperately trying to make a change for the better.
I cannot help them any way, no matter how much I would like to.
And in my inability to help, and my desire to stay away from the fray, I will be able to give myself the space needed to stay away from one who can bring out the less than good human levels in me.
I strive to be the best human I can be, I do make mistakes, but I am the only one who can make myself better, so I'll take the steps needed to do so.
Friends can still email me for advice, but there will be no more joining in the conversations, because I find myself sinking to those levels which make me ashamed of myself.

---

February 27, 2008

Mark Lunsford to sue Florida sheriff's office over handling of daughters case.

Source.

Jessica Lunsford, the cute little 9 year old girl pictured here, was kidnapped, raped and murdered 3 years ago, by John Couey who lived just across from her home. Couey admitted that he kept her alive for 4 days before finally killing her, and that is part of the reason that Mark Lunsford is suing the Citrus County Sheriff's office.

The proposed lawsuit, which has not yet been filed, claims that if law enforcement officers had searched the mobile home of John Couey, the registered sex offender convicted of Jessica's rape and murder, instead of just searching the home's yard the night the 9 year-old girl disappeared, she would have been discovered.

Evidence revealed during Couey's trial showed that Jessica was kept alive for as many as four days before being buried alive. Couey was sentenced to death in August for the crimes.

Lunsford claims he is suing not for the money, but to bring about a change in the laws for searching the homes of sex offenders.
The Jessica Lunsford Act was created after her death, that made the monitoring of sex offenders even more strict, so sheriff Jeff Dawsy doesn't believe this is happening. He said he was disappointed and surprised that the intent to file suit was taking place.
Dawsy says the little girl was dead long before they hit the streets looking for her.
But that information directly conflicts with the statement by Couey, who says she was alive and in a closet from 3 to 6 days before killing her. He stated they could hear the searchers calling for her, and she was inside his sisters mobile home, alive.

During the search for Jessica, the mobile home's property and yard were searched several times, there are reports that neighbors told the officers to search inside the home, that something was going on in there, but the officers never searched inside the home.
The intent to sue also states that if the neighbors had been told about Couey's status as a sex offender when he moved in just 2 weeks before her disappearance, she might have been saved.

Lunsford says the sheriff's office wasted valuable time investigating his own father, questioning him about Jessica, instead of searching the home of the sex offender who lived just 100 yards from their front door.

But there are many critics of Lunsford, many calling him a liar and shady, and only suing for his own financial gain.
Lunsford has been given a brand new H2, (Hummer) "living high on the hog", he has a checkered past some are saying, others want to know where all the money raised from the charity rides has gone. They want an audit of all the monies raised and given to Lunsford.
Local radio personality, Bubba the love sponge, has been doing his own investigation into Lunsford.
It has been said that Bubba is about to expose Lunsford, and has had private investigators digging deep into his past and financial records.

Many people are questioning Lunsford's activities.
On the night Jessica was abducted, Lunsford was out partying at a bar with his 18 year old girlfriend. He and Jessica lived with his parents, and they left the door unlocked for him for whenever he came home.
The sheriffs confiscated Lunsford's computer and found some disturbing images on it, yet because his daughter was missing, they halted any investigation into those photographs.

This topic is high on many local Florida forums, a lot of people have some very strong opinions of Mark Lunsford, some calling him a meth head, a junkie, and having some dealings which are shady and possibly illegal.

I don't know where I stand on this.
I am now questioning his finances myself. He went from living with his parents, into a brand new home, driving an H2 that was given to him, and there have been many charity rides to raise money for the Lunsford foundation, but where is the money?
There is no accounting of those monies raised, and what about those pictures on his computer?
What were they of, and why did the police not investigate any further?
This will be an interesting story to follow, and if the suit does go forward, I am hoping that an audit of all the charity monies raised is done before letting this go any further.
I think people deserve to know what happened to that money, and if this suit is really about changing the policy on sex offenders, or if it's just for Lunsford's own gains.

---

February 18, 2008

It's a shame I can't shake them out of my life.

You ever have people in your life who are just negative?
They have to start trouble where there is none?
They take everything as a a personal offense to them, even if it's not?
I wish I could just shake these people from my life, but that's not possible.
It's simply not possible.

It's times like these, and people like these, that make me want to just quit doing what I'm supposed to do, but I would be letting others down if I did that.
I know I'm blunt, to the point, always been brutally honest, and other people can't handle that.
They want things sugar coated, they want to be coddled, they want to have the same kind of control they have in every other part of their lives, and they don't have it, so they are attempting to get me removed from what I was asked to do.

Honestly, it would be easier to just quit.
It would make my life so freaking much easier.
I wouldn't have to deal with this type of behavior any longer.
Maybe I could just take some time off and let them run amok, do what they want, get away with what ever it is they feel like they deserve to do all the time.
I don't know.
But I do know I'm over this crappy ass behavior and so are other people.
Man, I'd love to publish some of the emails I get from others who are so over the negative bullshit.
I need a vacation, but I have stuff I am supposed to do, and I will continue doing it until I'm asked by the people that put me in this place, to step down.
Blah.

---

February 3, 2008

Now that was an exciting night!

So we were having the BBQ and watching one of the most intense and well fought super bowl games I've witnessed in a long time, when things got a little exciting right here in my own hood.

The duplex to the direct right of me, the one where the drug dealer just recently moved out of, has new tenants.
They have been in there for about 2, maybe 3 weeks now.
Anyway, we're all cheering, screaming at the tv, eating ribs, wings, pasta salad, deviled eggs, beverages of all kinds, and then we hear screaming of a different kind.

The woman in the duplex, was screaming in pain, the man, be he her boyfriend or spouse, is unknown to any of us, is yelling and screaming back.
Things are being thrown and smashed, dogs are barking, and someone dialed 9-1-1.

At first, just one cruiser showed up with an ambulance for possible injuries in a domestic dispute.
Then another cruiser, and another, and another.
We were all told to get in our houses, so the teens and I came back in ours, Dave went back in his with the rest of his guests.
Within just 7 minutes, there were 9 cruisers and 2 swat vehicles, and the ambulance, and a K-9 unit. They were lined up in front of my plex and that plex, and 3 cruisers were in my driveway.
All the officers were in tactical positions, guns drawn, and aimed at the front door and windows of that duplex.

The man was now holding the woman hostage with some kind of weapon.
It took from the end of the 1st quarter of the game, until the beginning of the last quarter of the game, to get the situation under control.
An officer finally had gotten in the back door of the plex, and got up behind the man, tackled him and disabled the weapon.
The woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital, and the man was cuffed and dragged out by 5 officers.

I was able to watch the entire thing go down from my driveway, no photos, I did try, and got yelled at to turn the camera off and get in a safe position behind a vehicle.
When it was all over, an officer came and apologized for disturbing our super bowl party, but they had to take tactical positions around the property, and that required no citizens to be in the back yards or peering out windows.
I was only allowed to stay in my own driveway because 2 officers and their vehicles were in it, and I stayed behind them.

Between this all, I kept going in and out and checking on the game, the teens did watch it for me and kept me posted through the screen door.
I got to see the awesome last quarter, and am so freaking impressed with how well both teams fought their asses off.
I couldn't believe how it ended, but wow, a damn exciting game.
17-14, un-fucking-real.
Congratulations to the Giants, and well played to the Patriots.
They fought like hell, they should be proud of their season, and how hard they played tonight.

How was your night and super bowl party?

---

January 31, 2008

May I speak with Heydee please?

I have been getting calls non-stop from some credit collection people for my old room-mate Heidi.
It's been weeks of them calling 2-3 times a day, and me hanging up after they ask for Heydee.
I don't know anyone named Heydee.
Hee hee.

But today I snapped.
I hate collection calls, Heidi has not lived here in what now, 3 and a half years?
So instead of hanging up after the message that says "Please hold for a call from something something LLC", I waited to speak to one of the idiots.

Some guy with a thick foreign accent jumps on the line and asks me if he can speak to Heydee.
I say who? Playing dumb, want to hear him screw up the name again.
He repeats, "Heydee".
I say, you mean Heidi?
"Um, H-e-i-d-i, Heydee."
No, that spells Hi-dee. Heidi.
"Oh, sorry about dat ma'am. May I speak with her?"
No, Heidi has not lived here in like 3 and a half years. As far as I know, she's back in Seattle, I haven't seen her or spoken with her since she moved out.
"Are you sure ma'am? She put this telephone number down as a contact number."
If she put this number down as a contact, she lied to you, because she has not lived here in over 3 years now.
"Do you have another number for her ma'am?"
No, did you hear me? I have not seen or spoken to her in over 3 years. I don't know and don't really care, where she is. And take this number out of your system.
"We can't do that ma'am."
Excuse me? What? You can't remove MY number from HER contact information? This is not Heidi's home, phone, or address. It belongs to me, Kat Cooper and my sons only. Remove the number from her contact sheet.
"We can't do that ma'am, it's the only contact information we have for her, she must be using it somehow. Sorry to bother you, we will try again later."
He hung up.

Excuse me?!
They won't remove my number from her contact information? The bitch has not lived here in over 3 years, yet she's still using it as a reference number for stuff?
Man, if I ever see her again, I'm gonna fucking hurt her.
How dare she keep using this number and address for whatever it is that she's doing.
Makes me glad I did get her out of here when I did, who knows what kind of shit she's gotten herself into now.

---

January 30, 2008

Lots of strong opinions on the post below.

Most of the women would be as upset as my neighbor, one guy blames the wife for not pleasing her husband in bed, some think she should just tell him she knows, some think she's a liar too, some people think porn is just fine, others think she's violating postal laws by opening his mail.

On the mail issue, the husband has given his wife permission to open all the mail no matter what it is, because she is the one who does all the bill paying.

For the guy who says she's not pleasing her husband as the reason he's turned to porn, what if she is pleasing him? Does that change your view on his porn ordering?

For those who think porn is just fine, remember now, to each person their own. Not everyone likes or enjoys porn like you do. Some people find it nasty and disgusting, and truly oppose it.

He may indeed call the company and ask where his product is, and when they say they were shipped, he'll just keep checking the mail even more. This guy is not the brightest bulb in the bunch here, he lies about where he ate lunch everyday, he's not gonna come out and ask her for this.

For those who think she's a liar as well. Yes, she is, but as a wife who opposes porn of any kind, and has this show up in the mail with her husbands permission to open all mail and packages, she's doing what she thinks she needs to. This is her marriage on the line, not mine, not yours. Two liars under one roof makes for a lot of secrets about a lot of things on both sides of the marital bed.

Would it make any difference to any of you if they had a 12 year old son who shares the exact same name as his father, and could possibly open these packages thinking it's for him?

Does having a kid in the home make any difference at all?

---

January 29, 2008

I'm a music nazi.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's songs being credited to the wrong band.

When Shell was here, she had a small mp3 player problem that Best Buy was able to take care of, but we had to dump all of her mp3's on my pc for them to do it.
So I ended up deleting most of her files after she left, I should have kept them all, but in the ones I did hang onto, I found a huge mistake.

She had attributed the song "Once bitten twice shy", to Poison.
I played it and it definitely was not Brett Michaels, but in fact Jack Russell belting out those famous lyrics.
That's Jack Russell, of Great White.

You didn't know what rock and roll was
Until you met my drummer on a grey tour bus
I got there in the nick of time
Before he got his hands across your state line, yeah

Shell is not the only person to screw up the attribution, oh no, not the only one.
Although, I am slightly disappointed in my bestest friend's musical faux pas.

I went looking on line to see just how many other people have screwed this up, and found that not only Poison was given credit, but Warrant, White Snake, and omg ugh, White Lion.
Seriously people, how could you make such a mistake?
I have to forgive the younger crowds, they have just recently begun finding the joy of 80's hair metal, but not the people of my age group.
There is no forgiveness for any of you!

I am now left wondering if I should have kept all of her files and gone through them to see if she made more attribution mistakes.
Shell honey, are you getting old?
Your memory of going to see Great White at the Civic Center, must have gotten lost to your alzheimered brain.
Or was it the alcohol? *wink*

---

January 16, 2008

I've begun without them.

Cleaning the house that is.
I've started the laundry so I have clean sheets and blankets for Shell to use, I need to do the dishes, vac, mop, and then the boys can do the bathroom and their rooms when they get home.

I stayed up really late last night, it was about 4am when I finally went to bed.
the alarm went off at 5:45, I got the teens up, sent them off to school at 6:30, and then went back to bed, hoping to sleep till at least 10am.
I set my alarm to get up at 10, but I didn't need to, my phone woke me up over and over again starting at 7:30am.
Grrr.

I have a feeling it was my neighbor, because at 9am, she called, and when I answered the phone in a gruff, she was all 'what's wrong Kat?'
I explained to her about the phone ringing repeatedly, and the person hanging up, and she was all sorry, I didn't wake you did I?
I said some jerk kept calling and hanging up, so I'm awake now, but I hate it when people do that.
She just kept saying sorry.
I know it was her.
Grr.
Then some doctors office called looking for a patient.
I said no, wrong number.
The nurse said 'are you sure?'
Why gee lady, let me double check my ID, I might have forgotten my name over night, or maybe(!) that person moved in while I was asleep, let me check the rooms!
I said yes, I'm absolutely sure that person does not live at this phone number, check your number again.
'Oh, I dialed a 5 instead of a 6, I'm sorry.'
Uh huh, and I'm the one who doesn't know my last name or who lives here. *eyeroll*
Stupid people.

I have tons of stuff to do today, I need to get busy on all of it. Home stuff and work stuff.
Oh, what did my neighbor want?
She wanted to know if I was going to the store because she needs dog supplies, dog food, a de-wormer, and some flea stuff.
She said she's too sore to go anywhere today.
Um, she have a car, I would have to walk, and I'm sore today as well.
See, Shell is headed down, and it looks like she's sent some cold Maine air ahead of her so it will feel like home.
It was 40 degrees last night.
It's warming back up again though.
High's will be mid 70's for the rest of the week, nights will be low 60's.
That's perfect Florida weather for winter.

---

January 11, 2008

Momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

One of the other things I saw in the Avon brochure, were some rings that could pass as diamond rings. This is campaign 3, not even due yet, and the description on the ring page, is that the only one who could tell the difference, is a certified jeweler.
It was a gorgeous ring too. I folded the page over, I do that when I think I might want something.
Anyway, I've never been big on owning huge wicked expensive pieces of jewelry, I do own some really nice real diamond rings, but I don't wear them places because it makes me feel like I'm gonna get robbed.
Seriously.
So I have a few rings that are fake that I wear everywhere. The bands are real SS.925, but the stones are not. I feel safer wearing fakes. I can't really explain it. I mean, if some idiot thinks it's real, I'm gonna get robbed anyway, but at least I won't be losing something that was worth a ton.

---

January 6, 2008

Not stuck, just tonsils.

I posted super early this morning, about how it felt like my pain pill was stuck.
Well, it's not stuck, my tonsils are swollen.
I can barely swallow anything at all at this point.
I can't even get freezing cold water to go down without feeling like I have a set of large gold cufflinks lodged in my throat.
I just had Mark look in there, and he was like "Holy crap mom! Your tonsils are HUGE!"

Fabulous, just what I needed.
It has been such a super long day and night.
Tons of stress, people acting all freaking superior than every one else, people complaining about stuff left and right.
No matter what position I took, it was going to upset someone, so I just held on tightly until it ended.
It was very nice to hear though, that I handled it correctly.
It's nice being thanked for putting up with crap.

I need to get to bed.
Sebastian will be home around 8am, so no sleeping in for me, and I am in such pain in my throat right now, I have a freaking migraine to boot too.
To anyone who has emailed me or is waiting on a reply, I will get to it tomorrow.
I had planned on doing them all tonight, but I had to deal with that other stuff. I apologize.
Later days.

---

December 8, 2007

Adult bullies.

Have you ever had to work with people who are just nasty?
I don't mean nasty in a dirty, smelly way, or nasty in a dirty joke telling way, but nasty in a they are mean way.
I've worked with some people who believe they are above everyone else, that they know everything, they talk down to others, and feel they have every right to do this.

They go out of their way to tell you they've been doing the job longer than you, they know more about a subject than you, they can read better than you, just really snobby behavior.
I can't freaking stand it.
Know it alls, snobs, sarcastic, scathing. They claim they just tell it like it is, but what it really is is just mean.
It's like adult bullying.
Actually, I can't even call them adults because they don't behave like adults, they behave like playground bullies.

I try to keep a positive outlook on things, I rant and complain when I have to, just like everyone else, but I do try to keep the positivity flowing as best I can.
I don't know what it is about these kinds of people.
Even when they say mean things to me, I blow it off and stay positive.
I do think about it, but I don't dwell on it.
I was thinking about it just now, and so I figured I'd ask all of you, how do you handle adult bullies?
How do you deal with people who go out of their way to put others down?

---

November 3, 2007

More robberies in Ybor.

Last night, another local girl from the forums was robbed in Ybor.
They got her purse, cell phone, all her jewelry including her D&G watch, her digital camera, her boyfriends wallet and pretty much anything they had on them.

This is the second time someone local to me has been robbed out there.
It's not the same place it used to be at all.
You could go there and walk around and not really be bothered except by staggering drunks falling down or bums asking for change. The religious freaks would usually yell at you that you're going to hell, but now it's become a major center of crime.
Police presence has even stepped up dramatically, and it still happens.
They pull up, ask for directions, or even just walk up to you and say hello, then the next thing you know, they have a gun pulled on you telling you to hand over everything you have.

By 6am, all her and her boyfriend's debit cards had been used to get gas at 13 different gas stations, and their cell phones had been used to make hundreds of calls.
She was able to watch it all happen from her home computer. One browser on her bank page, one on her cell service page.
Just watching as things get racked up before the companies could close the services down.
Sad.
They will probably get everything reimbursed by the bank and cell providers because they reported it, but man, how crappy.

This is why when I go out anywhere, I get cash from an atm before I even go, I leave all valuables at home, keep my cash, my id, and my cell phone in a pocket, leave my purse locked in the trunk of the car.
I don't have much but what I do have, I can't afford for anyone to just take from me.

---

October 30, 2007

Candy, costumes, and creeps.

Tomorrow is Halloween and if you're a parent and haven't already done so, now is the time to check your local or National Sex Offender Registry for the sexual predators and molesters in your neighborhood.

My sons are far too old for trick or treating anymore, but I still run the search every few months just to see who has moved into my neighborhood.
I just ran the search and it came back with the following results.

Radius 1.0 Mile
Offenders/Predators found 11

That's a 1 mile radius around my house. I can tell you that it's approximately 5 blocks in all directions.
11 of them.
The majority of them are on released supervision, which means they must check in and are being monitored by law enforcement.

You should check with your local law enforcement about the rules regarding the homes these people live in, and Halloween.
Here, no registered sexual offender is allowed to decorate, hand out candy, or even dress up and walk the neighborhood.
They are restricted to their homes, and may also not have porch lights on, which is traditionally an indicator that kids can knock or ring the bell to trick or treat.

Just to see, I ran another check and this time set the parameter to a 5 miles radius.
Radius 5.0 Miles
Offenders/Predators found 149
Wow.
That's far too many pervs near me.

Parents, if you haven't checked your neighborhood yet, please do it tonight or tomorrow before you take your children out.
Trick or treating can be so much fun, but you need to stay safe and stay away from the homes of resgistered sex offenders.
Check your neighborhood, make note of the addresses where they live, and don't go to those homes.

---

October 28, 2007

Don't drive or park on my lawn!

I certainly hope my neighbors to my right, yes, the drug dealers, are able to find themselves some good truck accident lawyers or already have one, for what they did.
This is my front lawn.

These are the tire tracks going through my front yard, all the way through my side yard.
(I know, the lawn needs to be mowed. Mark is actually doing it right now)

This is the tree they hit.

And this is the back of their house where the tire tracks end.

Why is this such a big deal and they may need a lawyer?
We have a septic tank in my front lawn, the drainage field runs the entire width and length of my front yard.
There is also a septic tank in the side yard belonging to their own duplex.
If they have broken my drain field, my landlord is going to sue them.
This is the second time they have done this, and now I have to go out there and place huge signs or get a barrier fence, to prevent them from driving on my lawn again.
I don't know why they did this in the first place, but it will not be happening again,

---

October 27, 2007

The punks are at it again.

When I went for my walk tonight, well early evening, I noticed a whole bunch of mailboxes had been baseball'd.
You know, mailbox baseball?
It's a game that's been played for years and years by punk kids all across this country, where you go driving by, or the younger ones who can't legally drive yet, riding by on their bikes, and with a baseball bat or some other hard swingable object, you take out the mailboxes on a street by whacking them off their posts.

I saw 5 of them just on the right hand side of the street as I walked up.
That was just my street, I didn't go on my usual walk route tonight.
I just went up the street on the right side, and down on the left.
Even though the blood doc told me to rest as much as possible, I don't like to miss my walking days, so I only walked up the street and back.
About 20 minutes total instead of my usual hour long walk.
As you can see from the time stamp on this post, I'm obviously not sleeping, but I was playing the GH3 demo and blog and forum surfing, and lost track of time.
By the time I realized what time it was, it was much too late to take the Restoril.
Oh well.
I'm sure I'll fall asleep soon.
I hope anyway. *laughs*
Off to answer emails and more blog reading and commenting.
Later days!

---

October 24, 2007

Wear your cheesy grin, and just smile, smile, smile.

Yesterday I posted about some teachers being concerned with how Mark is behaving in school, and after I spoke to him at great lentgh last night, he went to school this morning with the promise of trying.

I received an email from one of the teachers a few minutes ago, letting me know Mark appeared to be in a much better place today, and thanked me for my support in helping her, help Mark.
This is my reply.
She'll probably think I'm nuts now. *LOL*

Dear Ms. W.:

Mark and I had a very long, very detailed talk last night about his behavior at school.
He knows it is unacceptable, and will not be tolerated.
He was also heavily encouraged, to be more socially interactive, instead of the sloth like creature he has been portraying in class.
What that means is, he will answer questions when called upon, he will interact with his fellow students, he will refrain from drawing images, although totally harmless, that might possibly cause people to be concerned.
I think he finally understands now that his behavior was causing people to believe he was either so sick he was dying, or a severely mentally disturbed young man, on the brink of committing a bad act.

Mark said to me he doesn't like people, that's all fine and good, I don't really like very many people myself, but when in a social setting such as school or any public setting, one has to behave like everyone else lest they think something is wrong you, and start making phone calls questioning your mental state.

In this day and age of kids shooting up their schools, teachers will no longer ignore the quiet kid in the back of the room. Those are the types of kids who pulled the triggers in almost every school shooting.
Teachers have been told what signs to look for. So even though Mark simply wants to do his work and be left alone, being alone and quiet is like a tornado siren warning that that kid might have issues, and it needs to be looked into.
He gets it now.
Our talk did a lot of good, even if it made him angry that he would have to interact with people, he understands how it looks to other people when he sits quietly, and alone, showing the look of a depressed teen.

Thank you for contacting me, don't hesitate to do so again. If he falls back into his old habits of sleeping and not participating, let me know, and I will get him back where he needs to be.
The last thing I want is for him to fail his classes, but I also don't want people thinking there is something wrong with him and he needs therapy. He doesn't, he is just a bored teen with no motivation to be part of anything bigger than himself.
He finds society fake, and people's actions phony. He doesn't understand that society even with it's fakery, it has a need to be cohesive and fluid. Those on the outer rim, are always looked at like they don't belong and will do something crazy.
He understands now how his actions were causing people to think of him. He said he will try harder to fit in, he'll try to talk and be part of it all, and to do more work than just what is required by January.
He really just wanted to be left alone, but he knows how it appears to others to be the quiet, un-involved kid.

So just let me know if he slips back, we'll work on it.
Any day that I receive an email or call that says he's not participating or sleeping, is a day he loses all his fun stuff like video games, which he loves.

---

October 23, 2007

So, women and whores.

I'm writing an article, not sure if I'll post it here, but I will be submitting it to a women's issue type magazine, hopefully for publication.

Anyway, this mornings internet discussion was about women who post pictures of their breasts on the internet.
Now, as a woman who has been taking pictures of my breasts and submitting them to the boobiethon every year since 2003, I was intrigued by what was being said.

A young man asked the following question; (please try not to cringe at the obvious lack of writing skills)

Ok, is posting pics of ur g/fs boobs on the internet (with her knowing and being 100% ok with it) whore-ish??
i think it is but some ppl tend to disagree

A woman, a very young woman at that, age 20, said this;

If the girl posts a pic of her own boobs on the internet - whore.
If the guy posts a pic of his girls boobs on the internet - disrespectful.

So I threw myself into the fray and said no, it's not whorish at all. If the woman is ok with posting her breasts on the internet, bare or covered, it's entirely her choice, and not a whorish thing to do.
I used my own example of participating in the boobiethon, and people were all no no, of course that's not whorish, that's for a good cause!
But wait, it's still breasts, and some people sent naked ones and others covered ones.
They still said no, it was for charity.
Hrm.
The conversation kept going, just what type of picture of breasts posted to the internet, decides if it's a whorish picture or not?
One of my issues with the entire thread was that women were calling other women whores.
Why would any woman say something that degrades another woman?
Why would they send out such a harsh judgment on their fellow sisters?

One reply was, it depended on what type of site the pictures were posted to.
Charity sites like the boobiethon, where the pictures are helping to raise money for a cause, were just fine.
But sites like rate my tits (not linked for obvious reasons) and myspace profiles, were very bad, and definitely the sign of a whore.

A single fellow woman stood up and asked the same question, "What the hell is with women calling other women whores? Can't they just be proud and sexually confident?"
No, sorry, they can't.
Several more very young women spoke up to say breast pictures on the internet were whorish.
Even women who themselves have pictures of their breasts in varying states of covered, posted on this very forum.

Such odd judgments coming down from some very self righteous gals doncha think?
Luckily we had some other level headed women step into the discussion.
"I think there are so many other factors that make a woman a whore, pictures of boobs doesn't even cut through the surface of that one."

By definition- Whore: a woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse, usually for money; prostitute; harlot; strumpet.

But we still had women coming in and saying that it was tacky, without class, and flat out attention seeking. Then we had some really silly, laughable answers like this one; "Ummm, that is whorish, why would you want other people to see your boobs when you have a b/f...those are your b/f boobs only!!!" Well boy, am I glad to learn that once I get into a relationship, that my breasts suddenly become the property of the boyfriend. I'll keep that in mind.

More and more of these young women were saying how tacky it is to post pictures of your breasts, because they were for your partners eyes only, no reason to ever post that shit.

The hypocrisy taking