Freaky Friday!

Today's high temperature was:  68 degrees

Sunny all day!!

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Dar called last night and told me that 2 Ltr. Diet Pepsi was .88 cents at the Meijers, but only Friday and Saturday and a limit of 6.  She works there and told me she would pick up 6 jugs for me.  Nice of her.

This morning, I had to run up to Howell, so I stopped at the Meijers store there and got 6 jugs of Diet Pepsi--that is all.  This afternoon, I decided to run into the JoAnn's in Brighton to return the yarn I bought Wednesday and so I stopped at the Meijer across the street and got 6 more jugs--and two cucumbers.

Dar came by after work with 6 more jugs.  So, now I have 18 jugs of Diet Pepsi, which should last me three weeks and maybe another special will be on by then.  

Don't scoff at me!!! I don't drink coffee or tea, so this is my caffeine.  Just think if your favorite coffee went on sale for 45% off?  AHA--now you get it, LOL.

Charlotte--not to bother you, but I think I figured out the yarn problem.  It's not the color, it's the brand!!

I thought we were using Baby Soft--I always use Baby Soft for ALL my baby projects.  Come to find out, we were using Softee Baby.  Baby Soft is made by Lion's Brand and Softee Baby is made by Bernat.

After working 8 rows with the Softee Baby and getting really

ticked off at the way it split--practically every stitch,

I cut off what I had crocheted and threw it away.  I still have

quite a bit left on that skein, but I took the other three

skeins back and got my usual brand

...and have 8 rows done with it--not one split.  

I can now crochet as fast as I normally do.

I think this white with pink will make up a

nice blanket for an expected baby girl? 

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Dar is having a lot of problems and is in the midst of trying to have a nervous breakdown--and she may succeed.  Her youngest daughter, who use to live with her, moved out two years, with her four children, and has accused Dar of child abuse.   Dar hasn't heard a word from her our the grandchildren.

Dar has two sons.  One has bipolar.  His wife is the one who "heard" that Dar had accused her of being a bad mother and wife.  Actually, Dar's brother said that, but it got back to the wife that Dar had said it.  The son has sided with his wife and Dar has not heard from them in six months.

Dar's other son, has lived with her from time to time.  He is a Heroin and alcohol addict.  When he's sober, he is very nice and comes out to visit...and of course, Dar lays money on him to "help".  Then he goes off into his other life.  Dar hasn't heard from him in almost a year.  She thinks he might be in jail.

Dar's oldest daughter and her had a nice, normal (I think) relationship.  The daughter is a Lesbian and has a life partner.  They came to visit Dar over Christmas and both are very loving to Dar and really nice people.

Dar was going to move down to North Carolina to live near them.  Apparently, when this daughter was young--7 years old--she was such a great swimmer that there were coaches who wanted to train her for the Olympics.  The girl would have had to move near the coaching facility and the cost would be $1,000.00 every six months.  This was back in 1968.  Dar didn't have that kind of money so she never told her daughter about what the coaches had said.

Now--the daughter has found out (from Dar's sister-in-law) about it and is very angry at Dar because she didn't find a way to facilitate her swimming.    She called Dar last week, confronted her and told her she wanted nothing to do with her because...get this..."you weren't a very good mother.  Not telling me!  Not allowing me to get the coaching I needed.  Not even allowing me to make a decision if I wanted too or not?."

GOOD GRIEF!!!  The girl was 7 at the time.  This was 46 years ago.  Aren't parents suppose to be the ones to make decisions for their kids?  Especially a 7 year old??

Dar is very depressed and says, "Now, I'm going to die alone and never see any of my grandchildren again!"

To add insult to injury--Dar has a leak along her roof line, from her living room all the way back to her bedroom.  I cautioned her about having someone check for ice damming on her roof because it looked to me like she had it and told her (early on) to get the calcium chloride bags to throw up on her roof.

Not only that--the tub in her bathroom is falling through the rotten floor beneath it--she has had a leak behind her shower for at least a year.

Not only that--she had a raccoon get under her house and it has torn up the "under the floor" insulation and the covering that holds our "underneath" insulation in place.

Not only that---she has a hole in her roof from branches falling on it during the ice storm, SO--water has been leaking into her roof insulation all winter AND she has black mold.

Dar lives in a $50,000.00 double-wide manufactured home.  It will cost her $7,000 to get a new roof.  I have no clue as to what the other repairs will be.

She has called contractors to look at it and they just shake their heads.  "Luckily, I have house insurance," she said.

"Hm-mm.  I also have house insurance, but...they would not pay for a new roof when I had the ice dam problem.  AND...they won't pay for flooding in your home."

"Well-mine will!" she said.

She told me this evening that the insurance agent is telling her they will NOT pay for the roof--that it is normal "wear and tear", which my insurance company told me two years ago.

She pays $700.00 a year for insurance with a $1.000.00 deductible.  She DOES NOT have replacement insurance on her house OR her contents.  She has her contents only insured for $20,000.00.

I pay $350.00 a year for my insurance with a $1,000.00 deductible.  I have $50,000.00 replacement on the home and $30,000.00 on the contents.

I can see the next few weeks are going to be a very difficult time for Dar and ...probably a lot of her hysteria will flow through my living room too.  

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I have been crocheting the last three days because, cross stitching was making my arm and neck hurt so much.  I think perhaps I bend my head over too much when I cross stitch.  It doesn't matter--I enjoy crocheting too.  

I have also been reading voraciously!  I haven't read much in the last couple of years, but...all of a sudden, I can't seem to put the books down.  "Oh--it's late.  I'll just read one more chapter."   "Oh, can't stop now...I will read just one more."  And soon it is 1-2 in the morning.  (and you wonder why I don't get up until 9:00 in the morning--if I'm lucky.)

I read Melissa Gilbert's autobiography entitled "Life On The Prairie".  Wish I hadn't.  She was darling as half-pint, but................in her real life--especially when she got older--she was (I don't want to get sued for slander), let's just say, a pretty mixed up young woman, not living a very healthy, moral life.  She now lives up in Howell with her 3rd or is it her 4th husband and goes to my doctor and shops at Meijer's...so seeing her is often.  I can't really look at her because of the horrible way she lived her life.  Oh well--best not too put our actors on pedestals I guess.

Now, I am reading Melissa Sue Anderson's book about her time playing Mary on Little House.  I hope she doesn't end up the same.

In between, I read, "Mark of Evil" which is written by the guy who wrote the Left Behind series--of which I own every book.  Man, was it good!!  Man was it scary!!  Man, if that is the way our society is going to go, I hope I don't have to experience it.  Man!!  All Bible based and really good reads.

These, a little brighter today, by my porch steps.

As I go in and out, they just make me smile.

Have a nice weekend, Ladies.  Maybe tomorrow, I will get the vacuuming, mopping the kitchen floor and a bit of raking done.  Lord know, I have put it off long enough!!

See ya--Jude