~ Little Man made a trip back towards old town on Sunday before the Super Bowl. Its been one year since his best friend died. His old group of friends all made the trip down to the grave site. The group has basically fallen apart this last year. Some of them (not just Little Man) have moved away. In the way of high school kids, some of them have moved on to other clicks. I will tell you that most of them still use RIP *kids name* as their online status. Little Man did not handle the day well. For those of you who may be new readers or don't remember the story.... This young man and a few friends were out late one night screwing around. An adult came out yelling at the boys (we're talking noisy kids after midnight here folks) and the boys all broke and ran. LM's friend went to jump a fence and sliced open his femoral artery. It was one of those wrought iron fences. The ones that look like an upside down heart. The found the kid at 8 the next morning. Dead. Little Man was just getting out of bed when he got the call. He called into work that day and got fired. (thank you so much su^*ay). The group all missed several days of school over this. Little Man was a wreck for months. He blamed himself for his friends death. Apparently, he had been invited to go hang with the kids that night and didn't feel like going out since he worked that night and had to be back in the next morning. He thinks that if he had gone over there - his friend would still be alive. I have told him 1000 times that if he had gone- he would have just been out getting into trouble with the rest of them. It doesn't help. Time and moving have helped some although he still has a shrine to this young man in his room.
~ The poor guinea pig passed on to that big animal heaven in the sky today. I knew that there was something wrong with him yesterday. I had given him some carrots and he didn't run making all his guinea pig noises of happiness when I put them in his cage. He didn't eat them at all. Poor Cartman. (hey! we didn't name the poor thing- we inherited it with the name). And no, I didn't give him a big fancy funeral. I'm not a sentimental type person. I have a friend who has pet rats and when one dies she saves it so that they can cremate them. She is a very caring person with her animals. I am more of a realist. Well, except where my Smokey was concerned. That was my dog. I still miss him although Lucky does amuse me somewhat. So RIP Cartman.
~ The Insurance company sent us 7 pages of things to fix from our flood last month. 7 pages. Vis made it thru about 3 pages and as she hadn't seen the damage, she was at a loss to know where to go next. A lot of what needs done, I can take care of myself. Things like painting the hallway. They budgeted it at over $100 - I can do it myself for the cost of a gallon of paint. Now, don't think I'm getting out of this one easily. There are 7 pages and over 3 grand in damages from this nice flooding issue. But, I will have a lot of new floor when its all said and done. ;)
~ I feel for all my friends on the east coast that are getting hammered with that white stuff that falls from the sky and sticks to the ground. My mom said they're getting a boat load of it too. If it makes y'all feel any better, we are supposed to get some on Thursday. Of course, its supposed to be almost 50 by Thursday afternoon so all the white stuff and ice that we're supposed to get in the morning, well, it will be gone by afternoon. Which means instead of 4 inches of mud on the ground, we'll have 6. But at least we won't have snow. ;)
