More Social Problems

While I was in Lincoln there was a terrible thunder and lightening storm that sparked a fire in the Yarnell area.  It burned many homes and due to a wind shift, 19 Hot Shot firemen lost their lives.  This was a tragedy to be sure becuase these men are the ones who hike miles to an area where they clear a line in an effort to stop a fire from going further.  their jobs are risky but they are the elite of the fire fighting community.  Our Granite Mountain Hotshots  based in Prescott, were the 19 who lost their lives and that has left a litter of complaints, fund raisers, accusations and finger pointing, politicians arguing over what can or should be done versus what is not being done and the bottom line is that 13 of these Hot Shot firemen were not full time employees and there lies the problem.  They are not eligible for payout by the city because they lost their lives working for the city due to being seasonal workers.  A couple of the wives have been proactive and the news media has at times handled that badly.  The politicians got into the fray and one in particular exhibited a very condescending attitude towards these ladies.......one of the ladies in particular.  We are in an election process right now and his comments just may have lost the election for him...........but I doubt it because wierd things happen during election time.
All around town one can see evidence of grief and mourning for the loss of these men.  There are shrines set up just about everywhere and they consist of many things.  All the way from pieces of  purple ribbon twisted in the same shape as the symbol for breast cancer and worn on lapels etc., purple tulle tied to fences, mail boxes, street lamps, and cars, to one large shrine consisting of tee shirts from fire fighters around the country, shovels, boots, hard hats, flags, crosses of all kinds and composition, flowers, stuffed toys, candles and notes of condolences from near and far.  At first sight is was mind boggling to see it and commanded a reverent air about the area.  Now, after many rainstorms and winds as well as blazing heat, the major shrine looks rather ratty and has become an eyesore rather than a place to command reverence. 
There have been myriad fund raisers but no one knows what has happened to the money that has been raised to help the families of the hot shots.  One hot shot did not die because he was moving their little truck to a different area and was not with his team and he has had many mental battles, according to the paper, over why he was spared and not dead like the others. 
In the paper today a committee was featured that is supposed to be the distributor of the donated money.  They say that the money is in a local bank and that they have been distributing funds as needed to the families, for immediate expenses, but the legal wrangling and the tax involvement is on going.  There are still many more fund raisers planned and people are selling all sorts of things to raise funds - rubber bracelets with 'be strong' written on them, medallions cast with the logo of the Hot Shots on them, and the list seems endless.  There is a metal permanent shrine consisting of 19 crosses that has been erected at the fire station where the Hot Shots were based.
We have a local newspaper that is not much more useful than to wrap fish , but it contains a parade of the social ills that have beset our community.  Stories of knifings, shootings, beatings, political chicanery, and pointed/biased editorials.  I suppose things have not changed much since the Old Testament times where we have stories of genocide, fratricide, homicide, infanticide, incest, spys, suicide, debauchery, corruption, lying, racism, laciviousness, cheating, stealing and hegemony, and that is not a complete list by any means.
So I guess that in order to live some semblance of 'observant life', we pick our way gingerly across this 'playing field' called mortality, and try to run between the raindrops.

Scam Grandma

Well, I have heard of these phone calls and never thought I would get one but today, on a whim, I answered a call marked "Blocked" which I rarely ever do.  However, I did find that one of my physicians has his phone call to the patients marked Blocked -not good for business in my opinion.

So I answered this call - just for a lark and to my surprise a voice on the other end said "Grandma?".  I knew instantly that it was a scam phone call because a friend of mine had received one recently and we all had a good laugh over it - her grandson was in the same room as her at the time, and so he could not possibly be on the phone to her with a sob story asking for money.  My first comment to him was, "My how your voice has changed!"  and he did not get a clue.

This well developed male voice went on with a very disturbing story of how his friend had been killed by a drunk driver in Mexico and he and another friend, whom I should have known from his high school days, were on the highway going to the funeral and they had been stopped by the highway patrol for a broken tail light, " and you would not guess what they found in my car." he went on to say, and at that point I chimed in and said " So they found a dead body?"  He did not even get a clue that I was toying with this call, this caller is pretty dense, "No, " he said, "they found a big bale of Marijuana" and I said to him "Well, at last they caught you with the goods.  You should have been more careful!".  He still did not get a clue that I was toying with him.  He said "I am now in jail and I need you to not tell anyone what I am about to tell you."  Promise me Grandma, you won't tell...............At this point I had heard enough, I just told him, "you know what honey,  you are not my grandson.  My grandson is 6 weeks old and I really doubt if he would have a drivers license or be in possession of Marijuana.  You sir, are a scam artist."  He then started on asking if I could give him a phone number of someone who would help him out with money........!"  Are you kidding?  I hung up on him and have had a good laugh over it.  He was not even smooth in his delivery and not convincing that he was my grandson.  Even Ethan, at age 10 is still a boy soprano and he is my eldest grandson, and then comes Oliver at 7 years of age and August  now a little over 6 weeks of age.

Some crooks just are not smart!  However, many seniors in this area are scammed daily by just such calls.

Some time back a lady called and after she had identified herself (I still did not know her), she said "Mr. Smithers (or some such made up name), will be at your home next Tuesday  at 2pm, to help you with your estate planning.  We would like you to have all your papers out ready for him to look over and tell you the best way to plan your estate.  He will also look over your Trust."  I said to her that we had just had the Trust drawn up and did not need anyone to look over it.  I also told her that I did not know her Mr. Smithers and neither did I have an appointment with him.  She said, well, you do need your TRUST examined because the laws have changed since it was done.  That was puzzling becuase only about 4 weeks had elapsed since we had it drawn up.  She went on to say, Well it must have been your husband who set up the appointment.  In any case, he will be there at 2pm on Tuesday.  I managed to keep her on the line asking her questions etc. and finally she said, "You sound awfully young. You are 82 years of age aren't you?"  I then came to the conclusion that this was indeed a scam and told her that she had better find some other person who was really really old to see if she could squeeze their life savings out of them on this pretense.

Other scam artists come often to Prescott and send out flyers offering a free meal - sometimes at a really upscale restaurant, but mostly at the "Feeding Trough" type restaurant.  They come with flashy clothes, slick presentations, canned jokes, and greedy eyes.  Some of them come in expensive suits, flashy rings (probably from K-Mart), suave haircuts, perfect tans, or open neck shirts, Salvation Army Thrift Store slacks and coat that do not fit well and scuffed shoes along with the greedy eyes. They have investments that you NEED TO MAKE this month and to take advantage of their offer sign on the dotted line.  they promise "You can make millions on our plan" - correct that - they can make millions on your money and give you little return if any or if at all.  Anyone can be a financial planner  even a flim flam con artist.

Well, so much for the excitement of today.  Later on I have to be at the Family History Center for my 4 hour shift and I wonder what I will have to solve today.  Last week a lady came in trying to find her birth mother or information about her own parentage.   Apparently she was adopted by and raised by her birth  grandmother and not her mother who was 16 yrs old at the time.  I told her that we only deal with dead people here.  She did not give up at that point but pursued the need to solve the parentage problem.  The more she spoke about the family relationships, it became clear that this was probably an interfamily adoption.  In any case, those who know the true story are all dead and the records are closed.

compassionate service

In our quilt guild we have many branches of service to and from our members.  The classes we arrange are for the members to increase their skills in quilting and the 'from' part consists of my part in the organization. 
We have a group that meets the fourth Monday of each month except December and we accept donations of fabric from just about anywhere but mostly our fabrics come from the members or their estates.  Consequently, we have about 20 totes that are filled to capacity with fabric that we use to make quilts to be donated to the various agencies in our area.
Last month my helper and I called all the agencies that have been serviced in the past to see if they were still in need.  One agency informed me that their leader was on vacation but that they would contact me when she returned.
My phone rang and when I answered it, a voice on the other end asked me if I was still interested in being a client in their housing facility - a women's shelter.  You can imagine how surprised I was to get that phone call.  After some talking it was determined that my name had been indeed taken for the leader to contact, but had been put on the wrong message pad and so I was being contacted to see if I still needed their services. 
The sad part about it was that this agency was in need of 7 quilts.  3 teen aged children, one 8yr old, one 4yr old a one yr old baby and a tentative client who was also 4 yrs old.  Because we did not get their phone call in the expected period of time, we had distributed the pile of quilts that we had on hand.....and we had none to give to the shelter.
Each month, the community quilts group gives their time to make quilt tops from our fabric totes and at work day, we sandwich the quilts with batt and backing and then roll them into a bundle for distribution to those who want to quilt them for us or tie them whichever they are able to do it is ok.  With no quilts to help out this need at the shelter, I put out an SOS on the guild grapevine - an email that goes to all the quilter group members.  Before the weekend was over, I had received 15 quilts and at our reguilar business meeting this week 25 more quilts for the community quilt project were turned in for display in the church where we meet.
So, today I went to the women's shelter to deliver 6 quilts - these are adult size and I also took 12 quilts to the Court Appointed Advocate group at the Juvenile Detention Center in readiness for the upcoming National Adoption day in November.  They expect to have around 67 adoptions take place that day.  Each adoptee gets to pick out a quilt that our community quilts people have made from the donated fabrics.
We had a request from one of the advocates at Catholic Charities for a quilt to be raffled at a benefit dinner at a local church early next month. The money raised from this raffle is earmarked for underwear for the teenage girls that are in the "Teen Closet" population.
The lady I talked to had, at one time or another been homeless while growing up and has experienced at first hand what it is to be in dire need of everyday items.  She was ever so thankful  that we had singled out one of the quilts for her to use as a raffle quilt to raise money for her group.
Oh yes, it is a lot of work to be head of this committee to do compassionate service to the community, but the people I have met so far have been such wonderful caring individuals and I admire them for the work they do to help those who stand in need at this point in their lives.

Processes of mourning

When I travel anywhere I usually take along some sort of hand work.  Presently I am working on 3/4 inch hexagons to make a fabric from them to be used in a garment.  It will take many of these small hexagons to make a decent piece of fabric from which I can cut the bodice of the Uptown Jacket pattern I just purchased.  I feel that anyone can go into a store and purchase garments, but sometimes they are just like cookie cutter garments - everyone has one - and there is no distinction between what I have and what others have, therefore, I like to make my own garments and I feel happy inside them.  Some years ago I made a jacket out of greens of all shades blending into the green/yellow range.  I called it the Red Eyed Green Tree Frog and I  wore it happily until  I spilled something on it and then had to wash it.  That was a disaster because I had used both batik and regular fabric.  The batik has been through many washings during the preparation of the fabric but the regular fabric does not go through a washing process and therefore has not been shrunk.  Well, I have a mess on my hands and in deep mourning over the jacket. However, I am about to 'unstitch' it and make it into another garment for me to wear - I have also lost a lot of weight since I made the jacket and it is way too big for me.
I took a hexagon project with me to work with on the plane to Nebraska and was sure I had made many of the little hexagons on the plane but when I looked for them in Nebraska I could not find them.  I really doubt that I left them on the plane - that is not my nature - however, the deepest mourning for the hexagons was not the finished items, but the small blue scissors I was sure I had taken with me.  These are EXTREMELY sharp and made of tungston steel and can do some real damage to human fingers that get in the way of the blades.   They are less than 3 inches long so the TSA says we can take them on the plane - however they could be lethal if I had that sort of inclination.  When I could not find the finished  hexagons that I was certain I had worked on during the flight, it occurred to me that I had also lost my little blue scissors.  Now that was a tragedy because they cost me a small fortune at a quilt show....and I have not seen them anywhere else since them.  I mourned the loss but said - well, maybe one day I will find another pair to take their place.  Imagine my happiness when I was in my sewing room to find my little blue scissors, all snug and happy on my sewing machine and knowing that they are not lost in some airport or airplane.
When were were in Nebraska, Jacob and Sara wanted us to move in with them and live there.  I know that this is not a good scenario unless THERE IS A DEFINITE NEED for this to take place.  They have a house with three levels.  Our bedroom would be on the ground floor (read that basement) and to join the family on the living area we have 20 steps up.  The main bedrooms are on the top floor and the residents of this house are much younger than I and my knees kept telling me that this was not going to work.  As I age I am not sure of my footing and with small children scrabbling around on the floor (read that Lyla, Oliver and soon August) I could trip over children and that would not be good.
Oh, the house is large enough to accommodate all of us - including David if it came down to that, but the most definite problem would be the severe winters that they have in that part of the country.  I do not do cold weather very well any more.  Prescott's weather is much more suited to my physical needs and the aches that come with really cold weather such as in Nebraska are not present here in Arizona.  On the one hand it would be wonderful to live close to the grandchildren and to have constant contact with them, but close proximity means enduring the freezing temperatures of the mid west.  So I am in mourning over this as well.  My grandmothers heart wants to be close to the grand children, but my physical body says that this is not a good idea.  Oh, yes, there are people living there who are my age, but they have lived there since they were young, and they are used to the severe change of seasons that they experience. Even Sara was raised in Snow country in Johnstown, Pa and Jacob was raised in the harsh weather of Wyoming so the cold does not bother them.  I , on the other hand was raised in Hot and Dry Australia and I like it that way.
I came home from Nebraska to my clothes and possessions after living out of a suitcase for 8 weeks.  I took minimal clothing so that I was under the weight limit for the plane.  I came to the USA with one suitcase and what I stood up in and now I have a house full of "STUFF".  So I did a major clean out of my closet and some lucky soul who has gone shopping at Catholic Charities has the opportunity to wear the clothes that I can no longer wear - either too short, too big or too small.  I hope to achieve a happy medium with clothing one of these days but I certainly do not want to shop at the upscale stores where they sell Stodgy looking matronly clothes - but I do qualify as a Matron I suppose, but I do not want to wear such stuffy looking clothes.....nor do I want to pay the price they are asking.  The next thing I have on my list is to reduce my possessions to a minimum - I own too much stuff and I have absolutely no idea how it all came into my house.  I seem to attract stuff like a magnet!!!
I just hate it when stuff breaks.  I think that our refrigerator has broken because it is leaving puddles of water on the floor.  So I took off the grille that is on the bottom and found that every dust bunny in the world had taken up residence on the coils under the fridge.  So I got the vacuum out and tried to suck the little creatures out but some of them are rather stubborn.  So I got out the Swiffer long handled duster and shoved that into the bowls of the fridge and got out many more hiding dust bunnies.  I just hope that I have not done more damage than good.  The fridge is almost 14 years old and with planned obsolesence that the manufacturers build into these wonders of the modern world, I think that it has probably run its course.  The fridge we had in Mesa was on its last legs only after 5 years and that was disappointing.  I left it in the house for the next people to worry about.
So, we mourn the loss of some silly things but most of all we mourn the loss of 'time' - it seems to go way too fast these days.

In and out of the blender

I spent 8 weeks in Nebraska with Sara and Family.  Initially I was there to babysit the kids while Sara was finishing up working for the Nebraska School District and I stayed till 17 July.
It was difficult being in this household for so long - mainly because my life has moved on from the child raising mode to the 'almost retired but not quite' mode.  The difference between the way I was raised, and the way I chose to raise my children and the way my grandchildren are being raised is quite stark.  For instance, I had story books that I read - some of them just fell apart from over use.  TV was not available and radio was all we had.  I liked to listen to "The Lady" as I called her.  She was a voice on the radio that told stories for little kids, taught us songs and had us doing rolling around on the floor exercises a few days a week.  Mostly I just played outside in the sunshine and fresh air.  My parents read to me a lot and I had loads of Little Golden Books that were were well memorized from being read to me.
My own children were kept busy with plenty of crayons, paper, glue, tape and loads of imagination.  I would have Bill bring home Pampers Boxes from the pharmacy and these boxes became cars, boats, space ships, play houses, doll hospitals, hiding places, flimisy trampolines and provided hours of fun for my children.  When the box became unrecognizable or vandalized by sharp objects like scissors, it was simply discarded and a new box appeared from the pharmacy and my children occupied themselves with the new box till it also was demolished.  We had Sara take dance classes and she was also in Brownies and for a short time she took Gymnastics at the request of her dance teacher to improve her flexibility.  David took Gymnastics in the hope that it would help his co-ordination but he could not stand still in line waiting for his turn.  He was in scouts as a cub and then as a boy scout and earned his Eagle Rank.  He is very proud of his Eagle rank.  We went hiking at the trails at UPJ (University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown) and also went to Wolf Rocks at a nearby state park.  There was plenty to keep them busy.  From time to time we had TV but did not watch it much....no time!
Sara's children are natives of the pushbutton generation and are total tecchie tots.  If I got stuck on Angry Birds (and that is often) I would hand my Iphone to Oliver and he would just sail through the level and the next two or three levels as well and then hand it back to me.  I can hand my Iphone or Ipad to any of the three of them and they know instantly how to make it do something other than be a very expensive mini computer with icons on the screen.
The highlights of the 8 weeks were successful fishing trips by Jacob and the children to a nearby pond and I cooked the fish for them.  Lyla had a Dance Recital and her question to many people was "Have you been on stage?"  I have been on stage in my dance recital.  Bill and David came to visit and that created an interesting situation - there were two sets of parents and two sets of children in the house.  Bill and I as parents of Sara and David and Sara and Jacob as parents of Ethan, Oliver, Lyla and the newest Friest edition, August.  We were all focused on the birth of August but Sara wanted to wait till after the 4th July celebrations.  Well, we should say, August waited to make his appearance until after the 4th July celebrations.  The amount of fireworks that were ignited that night made the whole place sound like a war zone.   It is a wonder the little fellow was not scared into being born due to the noise, or perhaps he felt it was safer to be inside the womb than outside with all the racket the fireworks were making. I have no idea how much money was spent, but the after math was bits and pieces of fireworks littering the roads, sidewalks and front lawns.  I was amazed to see the lanterns that were floating in the sky.  Of course any fireworks no matter how large or small are totally unwelcome in Arizona.....this place is one great tinderbox and a stray spark would level Prescott in short order if it got into the dry grass.
So August arrived and I got to hold him when he was only a few hours old.  I have never been near a baby that young before.  Sara did well and we are all surprised at how well she did.  I made him an outfit for his blessing and I made it out of fabric left over from Sara's wedding gown.  Ethan's blessing outfit was of silk charmeuse, Oliver's outfit was made of Silk Dupioni, and Lyla's blessing dress was made of brocaded satin with pretty butterflies woven into it.  If Sara has another baby, I have no idea what to make the blessing outfit of - perhaps some patchwork calicoes?????