Yes--Great Day

Today I am so grateful for a daughter who called me and invited me out to supper.

A strange and weird thing.  Remember me asking if my "visitor" from East Orange, New Jersey would comment and make themselves known to me.  Well--four other blogs I read also have that visitor on their Feedjit--the thingie that tells where your visitors are coming from.

Very strange is that the East Orange, New Jersey "visitor" is on ALL our blogs at the EXACT SAME TIME.  Now--that is impossible.  Curious as I am inclined to always be, I tried to find out why.  I contacted Blogspot, they don't really know because it isn't part of their system.  It is an add-on we have put on our side bar.  Feedjit seems to be slow in responding, but did see a bloggers help section that talked about it and it is some sort of monitoring device.  Not that they read our blogs--they don't.  It just pops in there a couple of times a day.

While this doesn't really concern me, it does tick me off.  I just may disable Feedjit for a while to get rid of it.  My blog, while not completely private, cannot be found by any search engine.  I had a hard time getting it off Bloglovin because they want ALL blogs listed and have them--without you knowing.  Because of the problem I had two years ago, I don't want my kids or some relatives/friends/neighbors to know I have a blog or go searching to see if I have one.

People can still access my blog through blogs I leave comments on and that is wonderful.  My kids would never read those blogs to see my blog title.  I'm not paranoid, I'm just a bit leery and my blog is my journal and a place where I can put all my feelings down, if I want too.  Some of those feelings cannot be shared verbally with family members--they'd think I was seriously daft.  I don't want them to know I am on Welfare and Bankrupt.  I am the eldest, strong one in our family and have to maintain that facade, HAH!
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Strange and Weird--last night around 5:00 a knock at my door.  There stood a man that looked kind of familiar.

"Hi Judy.  Remember me?"

"You look familiar, but I can't remember your name."

"Jeff--Darlene's son."
        <OMG>

"Well Hi...what can I do for you?"

"I have forgotten my Mom's phone number and she isn't home.  She isn't at work, I checked.  Do you have her number."

"I sure do."

I got it and a piece of paper and pen and told him and had him write it down.;

"Thanks.  The house is locked.  I've walked fifteen miles and I want to call and see when she'll be home.  Bye."  and off the porch he walked--very fast.

So, I watched him as he went across and up the street to Dar's.  I could see he was using his phone.

I sat down again and quickly, he's back at my door.

"Do you know someone named Denise?"

"No."

"Well I dialed the number you gave me and a  Denise answered."

"Let me call your Mom."  so I hit my speed dial number for Dar and she answered.

"Hi Judy."

"Hi Dar.  Your son Jeff is here and he is trying to phone you."

"WHAT!!!!!"

"Yes, that's right."

"OH MY GOD.  WHY IS HE THERE?  HE IS IN REHAB!  DID HE LEAVE REHAB."

"He wants to know when you'll be home."

"OH MY GOD.  OH...........I'M PUMPING GAS--AS QUICK AS I CAN!"

"Okay, see ya.  Bye."

"She is on her way."

"Okay--thanks.  I gotta get out of these wet boots."

and out he goes and back to Dar's.

I sat back down in my chair--knock at my door.

"Can I come in and sit down to change my boots."

"Sure."

In he comes and plops on the couch and changes into some sandals.

"Can I use your bathroom to wash my hands."

"You can use the kitchen sink.  I have better soap over there."
<no way I am letting this person out of my sight>

He sat back down, lit up a cigarette and started in.  He reminded me of Dar when she is wound up and hyper, but he is much, much worse.  He talked very fast, fidgeted all the time.  His words and sentences ran together--I could barely make out what he was talking about, but somewhere in there, he said that he walked out of the half-way house because he saw jobs open in Brighton, that he is skilled and can make a lot of money, work near-by and live with his mother and he finally has a diagnosis of his mental condition--bi-polar with hyper-mania.

"Thedocdrewalineandshowedmethatbi-polargoesupanddownoverthatline.  (inhale)
With my--ah-hyper mania,(inhale) Istayabovethatlineallthetimeand (inhale)
when I DO getdepressed (inhale) Ibarelygodownfarenoughtotouchthatline." (inhale and swallow)
  <got it--I think>

Of course 35 years of alcoholism and drug use haven't helped his condition.

Dar FINALLY arrived and came in.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?  WHAT DID YOU DO?"

No, "Hi how are you."  No hug from Mom.  Just that scowl and distance.

"Mom--I walked twenty-five miles to see you." (he told me he had walked fifteen). Can we at least talk. I have so much to tell you."

They finally left and Jeff thanked me profusely.  He really has a nice personality and is always polite.

I was exhausted.  He was here 20 minutes and I felt like I had been held captive where the noise never ends and they are trying to drive you crazy?
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9:30--another knock and it is Dar.  My door is locked, so I unlocked it and...in she busts!  She is only slightly less hyper-manic than her son had been. 

"I'm so sorry he came to you."

"It was okay.  I was glad to help him find you."

"Were you scared of him?"

"No..why--should I have been?  I thought maybe he was drunk, but I wasn't scared of him."

"No.  He's totally sober! "

"Wow--he really is hyper."

"You should see him when he IS drunk or on drugs.  He talks even faster and can't sit still."

"I've seen you when you were kind of like that."

"Oh--I know, but not lately--right?  I can't have him around me or I'd be like that all the time and I'd die from a heart attack or stroke.  He's not living with me--no way.  I don't know where he's going to live, but it's not with me.  I can't even.................."

and on and on she went while I sat and nodded my head and thought, "that poor kid didn't fall too far from the momma tree."

Apparently she took him out to supper and then took him back to a friend's house--the friend an alcoholic, which I did mention probably isn't the best place for Jeff to stay.  I guess today he is going to try and find a half-way house--there are three in Brighton and four in Howell.

I was so whipped after she left, that I went to bed at 10:30!
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Karen picked me up this evening and we went out for supper.  We had such a great time.  We talked and discussed and laughed and giggled and on the way in the car hooted so loudly with laughter that she almost missed turning in my driveway!