I’ve never been a fan of Michael Jackson’s so it seems normal that my cubs don’t know much about the guy. Certainly, they know who he is, but the last time I purchased anything he’d been a part of was when I was mucho younger and I owned a vinyl copy of Thriller. Needless to say, that’s buried away in a box somewhere in storage with the rest of the “antique” music.

That said, his death was the subject of conversation around here. I do think the guy had a lot of issues, but, like him or not, I must admit he was a bundle of talent. I don’t think we’ll ever see a performer with his kind of draw for a very long time.

After the news of his death hit and every television station from here to Cuyuga was covering various aspects of his life, Babycub surprised me once again.

She looked at us with a puzzled expression and announced “I had NO idea he was black. Did any of you?!?”

I guess the whole concept of “black or white” that he seemed to be stuck in the middle of was more interesting than I thought. My child once again didn’t pay attention to race or color. She was – clueless.

Peace

I went,  I swam, I fished, I sunburned – I did lots and lots of things up at the lake.

Mostly, I just relaxed and enjoyed being surrounded by people I love.

I returned to find a letter from the IRS letting us know we owe them an additional $880 because one of our dependents’ names didn’t match their social security number. I figured the hub didn’t claim a family pet, therefore this had to be some type of error. With that in mind, I made a phone call to the tax dudes.

After listening to the seven various options I could choose to be on hold for, I sighed when the mechanical voice announced my wait time would be 10-15 minutes. I listened to muzak – which wasn’t too bad – kudos to the feds on this one. While waiting, I mentioned to the hub that I’d be less than happy if the person who eventually took my call had a horrendous accent that I couldn’t understand.

Before you get your knickers in a bunch about me being some kind of racist – calm down! I’m betting every one of you has had to make a phone call that ended up somewhere in India with some dude or dudette that you could barely understand. That drives me bonkers!

Finally, an actual human came on the line. Immediately, the crabby person inside me realized I’d been zapped to the realm of the “damn he has a funky accent”. I told myself to just be pleasant, calm down, don’t fuck with the IRS, be nice, and all that jazz.

His accent puzzled me. I’d heard it before – it wasn’t horrible, just difficult to understand at times. As we spoke, I decided to find out where my tax dude was located. I couldn’t place the country he was in – it was time to come right out and ask.

Duh – he wasn’t in another country – he was in Boston!

Yup, I’ve heard that accent before. Inwardly, I giggled about this while he looked things up, matched names to numbers, and fixed my tax woes.

When all was said and done we didn’t owe a dime. Our tax return had been accurate – someone there entered Babycub’s name into the system incorrectly. The bad thing? Had we been wrong, our “tax” would have been under $300; the rest of the amount was all late fees, penalties, and interest. Wowsers! I’m damn glad this was THEIR mistake!

Peace

I was going to be out of here by now, but sometimes plans get changed a bit. Instead of already being at the lake, we’re hanging out a wee bit longer and possibly not even leaving until tomorrow. Such is life.

In any case, I’m bailing on you for a few days. The sun is shining, the fish are biting, the lake is calling. I’m actually not sure how long I’m staying there this time. I’m freeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It’s summer and I have no commitments that make it necessary for me to head back after a couple of days.

I’ll be back some time next week.

In the meantime – hold down the fort around here and play nice with each other. Sheesh, we need some of our other bloggers to come back and start writing.  It’s getting damn quiet ’round these parts.

Peace

Do you ever just want to smack some idiot politician upside the head and ask them wtf they are thinking?

My governor – and do pay attention to this asshole because he’s planning on making a run for the White House in 2012 – needs a good smackin’.

While we are no California, my state is in trouble financially. Our congress put together a bill that would enable the state to continue to offer almost all of the services currently offered. To pay for this, there would have been a tax increase on those making more than $250,000 and on alcohol. Seems like a relatively painless fix to me.

However, enter Emperor Pawlenty who swore to not raise taxes once he was elected. He has what is basically a line item veto or unlimited powers and decided to balance the budget himself. Excuse me? Why the hell do we HAVE a congress if the Emperor is going to do whatever the fuck he wants anyway?

Can you tell I am pissed?

This asshole has stuck to his “no new taxes” throughout his reign over my state. He’s simply cut cut cut and passed the need to tax or raise fees onto local governments. Shit still goes up, but the Emperor will be able to honestly say “when I was Emperor of Minnesota, I balanced the budget without raising taxes”. What a jackass.

Yesterday he announced “his” budget for my state. It’s going to hurt so many people horribly. There will be cuts to the healthcare benefits of the poor. There will be cuts to numerous other social programs that are there to help people.  Public schools k-12 will have their state aid payments deferred for months. This means schools will have to borrow money to make their bills. Higher education institutions will have to make drastic cuts to get past the cuts they are facing. City, county, and township governments are going to be scrambling to balance their budgets and finding new ways to take on fees to help make up the difference.

Essentially, the middle and lower classes just got fucked by the governor. Those who could afford to kick in a bit more won’t be hit at all – additional fees or local taxes don’t tend to hit people making quarter of a million dollar salaries anywhere nearly as badly as those making twenty grand a year.

Financially, my family is relatively stable. I don’t like additionally fees, but we can handle them.  We have health insurance. My heart goes out to those who cannot afford additional costs or have to make a choice between food and a trip to the doctor.

Oh, I guess it doesn’t matter. I guess I should be lucky that I have an Emperor that didn’t raise taxes. After all, he did keep a promise.

Peace

When I drive into my little town I pass a sign announcing the population as 810. We really are that small. We have no stop lights, but there is a four way stop sign in the middle of town. Most everyone knows each other. It’s one of those sleepy little places that most of the world sees as dull and boring. That’s what I love about it – the quiet peacefulness and the sense of community that pulls us all together.

This summer our little town is going to come alive for a few days. We’re getting company. It seems Hell’s Angels are having their summer gathering here. They’ve booked a bunch of hotel rooms at the casino on the edge of town (my little town butts up against an Indian Reservation that owns the casino). I think others will be camping at the state park near my home.

It’s going to be an experience. Hell, I think there will be more bikers than residents.

Some people are really worried/nervous about this. I’m not. I figure they have no reason to bother me and I have no intention of trying to crash their parties while they’re here.

The local police are planning for the event, some bars are actually closing, and some of my students have said their families are packing up and leaving while the bikers are in town.

I’m actually kind of looking forward to seeing what this will bring.

Have any of you had experiences with this bike gang? What’s your take on it?

Peace

No, he’s not on drugs.

He’s just “odd”.

Today one of the guys in summer school came in from their morning break and began to pace the room.

He walked back and forth.

I asked if he was okay. He said yes, that he just felt like pacing.

He kept pacing back and forth.

He did this for almost twenty minutes – then he sat down, flipped on his IPod, and that was that.

Odd.

I guess sometimes one just has to pace.

Peace

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re obsolete? Last night I was restless and antsy. Everyone in my world seemed to have something to do – except me.

A few friends called me to chitchat – I amused myself with that for a bit. I was glad they called because I was feeling lonely for some unfathomable reason.

The hub was off earning money.

Boycub had a friend over and they were playing video games, guitars, and watching movies.

Babycub was spending the night at a friend’s house.

The older kids are busy with their lives – as they should be.

It came to me while I wandered around the house, wandered outside the house, flipped the computer on, flipped the computer off, flipped the tv on, flipped the tv off, picked up a book, put down a book, etc.

Nobody really needs me anymore.

The world would still spin. Life would still go on. Things would be the same if I was zapped from the planet and taken to some new universe.

I’m not feeling sorry for myself – it’s no pity party that I’m on. It’s simply reality.

It seems I have done my part for those that I love. My family can stand on its own. My friends are strong and can do whatever they need to do without me.

I love those people and I know they love me – yet – there is nothing so remarkable about me that would make my loss anything that cannot be dealt with.

Weird, huh? Weird to realize that no matter how important we think we are – we really are just another person in the lives of so many.

Would they miss me? They damn well better or I’d be pissed as hell.

They just don’t “need” me. Nobody really does.

I should have mentioned one more thing. At the end of the night when all was quiet there was a text message that came through. It was a personal conversation – yet – for a few minutes I was “needed”. How odd that little things like that simply can make you feel warm and fuzzy all over inside.

Peace

I love the road construction dudes that can sympathize with constuction frustrations.

Today in the midst of construction chaos I was blessed to be next to the little old lady in the too big car. She was in the left turn lane; I was in the go straight ahead lane. I’ll admit it looked a bit confusing because of the construction. To actually go straight, you had to slip to the next lane while going through the intersection.

Granny didn’t seem to get that part.

When the light changed, I followed the sign and started to drive through the intersection. I had to quickly stop when I glanced over and noticed granny wasn’t making the left turn her lane designated. Nope, granny was going straight through too.

Unfortunately, the lane wasn’t going to be big enough for both of us. Granny stopped and started yelling and waving her hands at me. Babycub was giggling and saying “I thought grannies were supposed to be sweet – that’s one mad granny”.

While she had her granny tantrum, I drove through the intersection with the road construction crew laughing and giving me the thumbs up sign. At least THEY knew I wasn’t the one in the wrong lane!

I wonder if granny ever settled down.

Peace

I cannot stand drop-in, unexpected company. I really hate when that happens when I’m enjoying home alone time, sitting on my deck, sipping a glass of wine, and chatting on the phone. My yard is really private – nobody can see me back there and I love the solitude. Imagine my dismay when I looked over and saw that damn bear about twenty feet away!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (that was me, not the bear)

I was stunned that it had the balls to wander in in broad daylight while it could obviously see, hear, and smell me. That’s a bad sign – the hub is calling the DNR tomorrow to see if they will come trap it or something. It’s pretty apparent that the fuzzy invader isn’t afraid of people even if it did scamper off when I yelled at it.

While I was bear watching, the hub and kids were fishing on a nearby lake. Hub didn’t expect they’d catch anything, but they were itching to go wet a worm. Babycub isn’t big on fishing. She’s like me, she only enjoys it on warm days when the fish are biting quickly. Boycub lives for fishing and will go any time he can.

The hub called to get a bear update and to give me a fish update. At that time Babycub had already caught two fish and Boycub only had one. Since that time, Babycub has sent me a series of text messages that I absolutely cracked up reading. I just have to copy them here so you can see what a little scamp she can be. (I’m changing the names here for privacy reasons)

7:29 p.m. – Update on the fishing score: 4 to 1 with Babycub on the lead. Oh, and we just recieved another message: The leader, Babycub, has just caught another fish, making the score 5 to 1.

7:36 – New news brief: the score is now 6 to 1. Oh, no its 7 to 1, with Babycub still in the lead.. We’ll keep u updated for more.

7:42 – New update! Babycub has caught yet another fish making the score 8 to 1!

7:47 – Sadly, the current runner-up has recently caught a little bluegill, slightly evening the score to 8-2.

7:55 – Babycub has just made a comeback, making a 12.5% increase in score. The score is now 9 – 2, with Babycub in the lead.

7:58 – Another update has just occurred; Babycub has caught ANOTHER fish.

8:04 – The score is now 10 to 2, and there are large bootmarks on the back of the other fishing contestant, Boycub’s buttocks.

8:11 – Boycub has attempted to regain some of his wounded dignity by catching a largemouth bass, making the score now 10 to 3.

8:15 – Babycub is making yet another comeback, but with Boycub right at her heels with a fiesty panfish.

8:21 – Babycub caught another fish, while trying not to! The score is now 12 to 4.

8:25 – Boycub has caught a fish, although the competition is over. Ending the competition, we declare the champing Babycub at a score of 12 fish! The runner up, Boycub, caught a total of 5. Join us next time on Fish Watch, on this channel.

Sheesh, I was getting some of those texts as I was typing this entry. The fishing contest just ended. It’s making me laugh because the hub was sure they wouldn’t be catching anything tonight; he had a killer headache when they left and was hoping to be home soon.

They wrapped things up and I had to slip back online to finish out the Fish Watch thing. It cracked me up. My fisherpeople should be home any minute!

Oh, poor Boycub I did text him to offer my sympathy. The little stinker sent me back a message. He’s not quite as wordy as his sister his simply said “bite me!” I very nicely sent him a message back that said “Oh honey, why don’t you suggest that to the fish instead of me.”

Methinks his pride is becoming more than wounded this evening.

Peace

I didn’t recognize the number on caller ID, but I knew it was local. The call went like this:

“Hey Ms. C., What’s sodomy?”

To say I was speechless is an understatement. I paused then said “Uh, who is this????”

“It’s J!” She responded as if calling her history teacher to ask about sodomy is not a big deal. Of course, this girl and I have a unique relationship. I’ve already explained breast pumps, labor pains, and childbirth to her. Even so, sodomy wasn’t something I was prepared for.

“Uh, I guess you could say it’s a legal term for anal sex” – yup, that was about as graphic as I wanted to get with this one.

Meanwhile the hub was standing near me and his jaw dropped to the floor. Quickly he starts pestering me under his breath. I guess I can’t blame him; he’s not used to hearing me discussing sodomy or anal sex on the phone while casually sipping a beer in the sunroom.

I had to ask. A part of me wasn’t so sure I wanted to hear the answer, but the bigger part of me was itching to know just WHY one of my sixteen year old students was calling to ask me about this.

She’d been watching some cop show on television. Some dude was charged with sodomy. She was clueless and figured she’d ask me. Luverly! She giggled when I suggested she use a dictionary the next time then said “Why should I do that? I have my teacher on my phone!”

Yup, she does. Gotta love that one.

Peace