Ranty Nurse Amy

I didn't realize what a horribly rough patch @RantyAmyCurtis is going thru. Her story popped up in my Twitter timeline, and I got myself involved in the conversation about it. It got a tad heated (not between Amy & me), I was behind a couple of really nice chocolate stouts, and thought to myself, "Self, we gotta do something about this."

Amy wants to get her marriage annulled, and the Church's ecclesiastical court fee to process it is $500.00, which she does not have.  That, plus other debt I know nothing about, have her in a tight bind.

Did I mention she is raising three boys?  By herself?? While she went to nursing school, graduated, passed her boards, and went on to qualify for a specialization as well.  All of this reminds me of Martha, and what she went through to adopt and raise me.  (Story here, if you're interested.)

So. I said to myself, "Self, I can stay online here and try to talk my ginger friend down."  That, as you might expect with a ginger,  didn't exactly happen, but it at least stopped. I knew that there was really nothing I could say to Amy that would make it all better, so what could I do? "Self, I said, let's go set up a gofundme for her. She can get the annulment, and have a life free from the ton of spiritual baggage of not having it."

So, I did.

From about midnight last night until just before I posted this, the fund is at $200.00.  Wouldn't it be great to have the $500.00 funded by tomorrow night? Once that happens, I'll ask her if she wants to continue to raise money to help w/ her debts or not.

So, click the link, and make a donation so Amy can freely get on with her life!

P.S. To my ginger friend:  I have a great deal of respect for you as a person of faith, a successful business woman, and as a person.  I have found that, without intending to, I manage to step on your toes from time to time. In our conversations, it is never my intention to cast things in concrete. Last night, all I was trying to do is describe what Amy is up against, not defend it to you. I am sorry that I didn't make that clear to you.  I can describe a bunch of things about the Church petty well, even though I disagree with some of them.

Again, I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

Updated: Thumper and Me (Cross posted from the 'Window' blog)

Update: So, off we went to the vet last week.  Thumper was knocked out, blood drawn, and X-rays taken.  X-rays came back clean.  Initial bloood word showed that, yes, his thyroid numbers are low.  Vet wanted to do a more specific test, which I ok'd.  There was enough blood from the draw to do it, which was good.

Bottom line: his thyroid is low, so he is now on a thyroid med.  After a month, the vet wants do do another test to see what's happening.

Started them med last Friday (7/20). He seems to be a bit calmer.  He's hopped into my lap a few times, letting me pet and scratch him. He also comes up to me for attention. If he's focussed on something not me, I can get his lead off without lighting him up.  It's very clear that he is uncomfortable if I bend down and reach for him. Potentially hazardous to me. He sems to improve a tad every day, so patience and caution are the most important thiings for me to bring to the game.

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About a month ago, the day after my second cataract surgery, Thumper decided that he didn't want me touching him. I've talked with two dogtrainers, who have done some informd speculating, and the concensus is, get him a physical.

So tomorrow, we are of to the vet. "How", you may ask, "can he get a physical when no one can touch him?"  The answer is, anesthesia. He will be knocked out, poked, prodded, x-rayed, and assesed.

And then we'll know if he is salvagable. By which I mean, 1) can he and I somehow get along btter, being a happy, fun dog; 2) do I take my loss and return him to the shelter; or 3) is he so far gone physically that the only answer is putting him to sleep.

To recap, I lost Baxteer, Benny, and Griffin last year. I've been depressed since Thanksgiving.  (I'm just figuring that out, and yes I have a Dr's appointment scheduled).

This truly and deeply sucks.

Site Tweakage...

...has happened.

That is all.

They're At It Again. (Updated)

UPDATE:  Alfie has passed on.

“My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings at 02:30,” Evans, 21, said in Facebook post decorated with a broken heart and crying emojis.

Via Weasel Zippers

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Didn't we fight a war to stop this? WTF happened??

Happy Birthday, Kiddo!!

Publicity still from one of her speaking engagements.

Happy Holidays...

...by which I mean:

Happy Thanksgiving

Merry Christmas

Happy New Year!

And, this:

I am told that this is President Eisenhower's recipe. Go. Enjoy!

Didn't See This Coming!! (Updated & Bumped)

Update: I had it in my head the the young woman at the rear-right in the picture of the kids was Grandma George. No. It has to be Florence because That. Is. A. Picture. Of. The. Kids! And that  is NOT Grandma George. Duh!

I chatted with Jane and Ed, after I managed to locate them on the north (dry) side of Huston where all is well with them. Jane mentioned that Richard has his family's Bible, and has mentioned an older brother as well. I still need to contact Richard.

Wilma and I had an e-mail exchange, she and her husband Earl are still living in the same house. Both of them are in their 80s. Jane and Ed are in their 70's as is Richard (and possibly his wife).

This is from an e-mail thread I had with my daughter Sunday. The simple backstory is, I have an account with Ancestry.com, and I get their promotional emails from time to time.  Last week, they were offering free access to employment records (census pages). Since I'd poked around there the last time they had a free trial, I didn't pay much attention to it, although I kept the email, and therefor the link. What  I found was startling, and prompted email to my daughter and family.

Email #1:

OK. Lazy Sunday AM, can't stand the insanity  that is the news, so I hopped on to Ancestry just for grins and giggles, since they have their free trial weekend going on.

Was looking to see if I could track down Martha's employment history, and the first record of hers that I found was the 1920 census. First thing I noticed was that Fred Hansen was listed. He was Grandma George's brother, Martha's uncle. (I recognized the names of her two aunts.)

To my utter surprise, the listing for Grandpa Rafe's family showed that Martha had an older sister! She was, according to the report, the first born of the six kids. She not listed on the 1930 census, and I have no farkin' clue about what happened to her.

I have no memory of mom ever mentioning her, so I assume that she passed on sometime in the 20's. She was listed on the 1910 census for Gramp's family. I took a swag at her birth year as 1906. I tried looking her up, but didn't find much. There is a Ancestry time line for herb that I can look at, but I have to sign up to do that.

I'm going to see if I can get in touch with my cousin Richard, to see of he knows anything.

Now, this is an interesting surprise.

Here's a screen cap of the relevant section of the census page:

I grew up with three uncles - Ralph, Han, and Clarence, and an aunt - Margaret, along with three cousins - Wilma, Richard, and Jane. I have an address for Richard ("The net is vast and infinite." Maj. Kusanagi), so I'm going to ping him.

Later that day, I called Jen, and, as noted below, we spent some time poking around on said web. The e-mail below followed:

Jen & I had a long chat yesterday, and part of it was spent banging on the interweb to track this down a bit more.

Mom's older sister was named Florence, born in 1906. (Martha was born 6 years later, in 1912.) She passed away in 1923, at the age of 17. We don't have any more information than that, other than she is buried at the cemetary in Albany, Il., which (is) a town on the Mississippi upriver from Moline.  Mom's dad and mom are buried there as well. I visited there in 1994, when I took a long weekend from Detroit to go over to Moline and Sterling to visit mom's younger brother and sister. (I have no recollection of seeing her grave.)

I guess I'll ping my cousin Richard, and try to locate my cousin Jane as well, to see if they remember their parent mentioning Florence at all.

So far, no luck locating Jane. Her husband is a retired marine, so I reached out to @treehuggingsis who is also a retired marine, for some guidance:

That's as far as I got about Jane yesterday. I'll give Facebook a try later.

I also poked around for vital records in Rock Island county, and the remembered that, unlike Los Angeles, many places keep vital records at the state level. I got a copy of the request for the State of Illinois, filled out what I knew, and sent it off to Jen, who was able to get more info out of Ancestry than I could, mostly dates which are needed on the form. When she populates that info and returns the form to me, I'll print it out and send it off.

Finally, the only photo I have of the family as kids is this one:

Grandma (back row, right), and five kids. Now I know that  this was taken after Florence passed away, so no no earlier than mid-1923.   

The six George kids, back row, L => R, Ralph ('Doc'), Hans, and Florence. Front row L =>; R, Clarence ('Tuffy'), Margaret, and Martha. From my conversation with Jen, this had to have been taken before Florence passed on in July, 1923.

What a surprise.