Ten years ago...

I'll start with the day before...

On September 10th around 3 a.m. CDT, I was as usual sitting at my computer with Poser open tweaking a character I had been working on. All of the sudden my monitor blinked off, popped and smoke started pouring out of it. I woke Parker up and he quickly took it apart to make sure the fire was out. Later that morning he informed me that the horizontal hold transistor or something like that must have gone out but my monitor still worked limited to a smaller resolution. As if that were not bad enough, that evening we tied our two dogs out in the side yard to get some exercise and left to get a part at the hardware store. When we came back, one of the dogs had wrapped herself around the water faucet and pulled the pipe out of the ground making us a nice pretty fountain in the side yard. No water for the rest of the evening.

That night I spent awake as usual working on poser with my limited monitor capabilities till the wee hours of the morning so when Parker left for the hardware store early on the 11th I was asleep. He woke me when he got back followed by a call from my mother. Parker turned on the TV and I, like most people that day watched in shock and horror at the images on the screen. I logged on line after a bit, can't remember when exactly, that day is a blur and honestly I probably didn't look at a clock. One of the moderators for an e-group I (still) run had suggested that we suspend the rules to allow free conversation and the other mods agreed. We needed that contact. The rest of the day was spent reading email from friends all over the world not only on that group but other email lists as well. I hugged my babies a little tighter that day when the got home from school and the evening was spent explaining the ugliness of the world to them and making patriotic t-shirts because it was all we could do at the time. I still have my shirt packed away.

I was asleep when it happened. I went to bed upset that my dog had broken a water pipe and that my monitor was burned out and was limited to an 800x600 resolution and woke up to a nightmare where my pipes and viewing resolution didn't matter so much. I will always remember, I will never forget.

I created this graphic that day...

Don't Quit - Author Unknown

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When we might have won had we stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faltering man.
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late when the night slipped down
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver lining of the clouds of doubt
And you can never tell how close you are -
It may be near when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

Author Unknown
===============

This Poem truly is by "Unknown Author" though it seems quite a few people have tried to claim to have written it. In my research I've found that it was published as early as 1876 and is now public domain. Unless the people who are claiming to have written it had a time machine they are simply not being truthful.

OMG! Srsly?

So this morning I was reading my son's facebook wall and noticed this girl I've never heard of, and I hear about a lot of girls from my son, is trying to be miss queen beeotch taking up for her bff who is his ex-girl-of-the-week. Not that she needs the help, just this girl seems to think she's all that and a baga... *rolls eyes* While doing this she presents herself as a complete idiot by using so called alternative spelling which I guess is supposed to make people look cool but to me it just makes you look like an uneducated idiot. I said something about it and she came back with:

Nd I happen to be doin good in English. This is facebook not English so yeaa I write correct n englsh class but if yuh hvent noticed people write words differetly on here cuz it's not school! Duhh! So watever you just don't do it cuz yur old so not my fault

No dear child, I don't do it because it makes you look like you are either uneducated or have a very low IQ. You are doing good in English? I can't tell, nor am I taking your "wurd" for it. School isn't just a pastime to fill in twelve years of your life. What they teach in school is actually used in real life.
u may get ovr urself nao, kthxbi!

So much...

So much has happened since I last posted. The most prominent is that my ex the pedophile showed up on Facebook and had the audacity to actually contact me and my kids. What he got was a collective, "Fuck off!" from all of us. Someone must have reported him to Facebook as a child predator because that account is no longer there. It was both frightening and liberating at the same time. I also now know that the man is still the same person he was before he spent 15 years in prison. I guess he both found God and lost him again while he was collecting college degrees courtesy of our tax dollars.

Found out he's already worked his "charm" on some other poor woman, named Wendi. Yeah, it's creepy that he chose someone with the same first name as me. She's totally brainwashed by him. Came on my daughter's fb wall giving us all a what for because we were picking on poor Doug. *rolls eyes* She got what for right back for defending a man who raped a six year old. According to her it's my fault he went to prison. *shakes head* Well, the only thing I can think of as to how it would be my fault is that I turned over his confession that he wrote to me to the DA. In all actuality that was doing Doug a favor because if he would have proceeded with a trial and made those girls take the stand to testify he would have gotten life behind bars instead of a plea bargain for 15 years.

I remember the day I went before the Grand Jury in Midland and the looks on the faces of the jury members. They wanted to fry him. I got to see the medical reports that day and I was horrified. That day was when I started calling it a rape of a six year old instead of just saying she was molested. Rape is what he did and the only term that can describe it. He should have spent the rest of his life behind bars but I wasn't given a choice, that was all in the hands of the DA.

Finally!

After many years of Jimmy the Rat Bastard getting away with not paying child support it looks like they are going to get a judge to issue a warrant for him. Apparently he pulled another stupid move. They decided it was time to review how much child support he was paying Audra and apparently when he got the paperwork he pulled another dead beat dad move and quit his job. What a LOSER! They are still going to raise what she is owed each month with or without him there and it will most likely be way more than they had it originally set at since most of the other kids are over 18. They will use what he is capable of earning to set the amount since he isn't interested in having a say.

I would like to see him try to claim he can't find work in the oil field right now too. Even if they aren't drilling like crazy up here in Wyoming, they are punching holes in the ground making it look like swiss cheese down there in West Texas. Jobs to be had there for sure. Besides, apparently he just quit a perfectly good job for no reason other than OMG they were going to collect some child support.