I TOLD them it wasn't a good idea make us bring her home

Diva is in jail. Well, in the Department of Juvenile Justice detainment facility, which differs somewhat from jail, but probably not for the purpose of this blog post.

She punched me this evening, at which point I told Superman to call the police. Two officers responded. When the first gal arrived Diva was standing on a chair in her room holding a broom stick (without the brush part attached). Kinda weird, I guess, and the officer asked her why she was standing on the chair. "Because I can." Whatever.

Then a second officer, a young man, showed up. I'm really glad they were both here. She screamed and cussed at them. The guy spoke firmly at her and demanded that she show respect for us, her parents. She essentially laughed in his face, except she wasn't laughing.

Superman refrained from punching her. He was in her personal space with his fist drawn back, but I told him "Don't do it!" He listened. I'm so proud of him. It was difficult for him to resist punching her. She screamed really loudly right in my ear. That hurt. She shoved me a few times, shoved her dad, too. Then when I still wouldn't get out of her room she started swinging punches at me, hitting me in the back and chest. It's almost 1 a.m. now, and this happened around 9 in the evening, and my chest hurts a little bit. It may bruise a bit, but probably not much if at all.

I realize that this report is disjoint. I'm writing what I remember as I think of it, so most if it isn't in the order it occurred.

Both of the officers tried to talk to her and get her to calm down, to no avail. They were in her room with her, Superman and I were in the living room, next to her room. Her room is the first one off the hall, just past the living room, so we were very close. But we'd stepped out of her room when the female officer suggested Diva might calm down and talk to her if we weren't right there. She didn't.

Both of the officers stepped out of her room to talk to us, and Diva stormed out of her room and out the front door. The male officer asked us if she was allowed to go outside, and I said no, she needs to be inside now. She was still carrying the broom stick. He went out to tell her to come inside. She refused (with profanities) so he took her by the arm to lead her back in. She exploded, and hit him with the broomstick. And maybe with her fists, I'm not sure. They were on the other side of the truck in the driveway and it was dark, so I couldn't see what happened. She did beat on him, though, and he filed an assault charge on her for assaulting an officer. I filed one, too, and they also charged her with resisting arrest. It took both of the officers to wrestle her to the ground to put handcuffs on her. Then they led her to the patrol car. The female officer stayed with her at the car trying to talk to her, and ended up putting her in a choke hold or something (I was a bit unclear on the details) to get her to calm down and shut up.

The male officer, after being assaulted by this mouthy 13 year old, called his captain to ask about putting her in custody tonight. There isn't anyplace near here to lock up juveniles. As far as I know, the only juvenile detention facility is in Columbia, the state capital. It's not quite two hours from here. There's a county jail here, of course, but they don't put juveniles there. Thankfully. As much as I think she needs to be locked up (or detained somehow) I really don't want her in jail with adults, even overnight.

They drove Diva away from home in handcuffs in the back of a police patrol car. I had to go downtown to the station to talk to a woman from the county DJJ (Department of Juvenile Justice) before they could take her to kiddie jail. I sat there in the captain's office with the captain, the female officer, and Diva. By then Diva was subdued and had that far-away "nobody's home" look in her eyes. She was there maybe 15 minutes before I got there, and the captain told me that she was totally unresponsive when they tried to get any information from her.

Poor Superman was a basket case. Sproing has been acting up a lot lately, being strongly oppositional (but not violent to people... he damages property, but hasn't hit anyone around here) and loud and sassy. It's been bad. Superman has been on the edge of a nervous breakdown for a few days now. He didn't look so good this evening. Before I went to the police station I gave him a dose of his benzodiazepine. Our therapist told our doctor to prescribe some for him but he never took any. He did get the script filled, though, and I'm glad he did. 'Cause he needed it tonight! FYI, (from Wikipedia)

Benzodiazepines enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which results in sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant and amnesic action.^[2] These properties make benzodiazepines useful in treating anxiety, insomnia, agitation, seizures, muscle spasms...

I was gone for about an hour or so, and when I got home Superman was still awake, but he was r-e-l-a-x-e-d. He'd been trying to read my previous post, but kept reading the same sentence over and over. He's funny when he's high. What with the amnesic action of the Lorazepam he probably won't remember much if anything of what we talked about tonight. He will undoubtedly remember The Diva Show, though. That's hard to forget.

The next step for her is to go before a judge. Juvenile Court is being held in an adjoining county tomorrow*, but I don't know yet if she will be on the docket. If she doesn't go to court tomorrow she'll go Monday. No Juvie Court on Friday. I'd rather they waited until Monday. I think it will do her good (?) to cool her heels in kiddie jail for a long weekend. Perhaps it'll teach her a lesson. She has no clue how good she's had it here. She thinks we're horrible restrictive parents. HA! Our main faults are being too lenient. The kid needs an education.

I don't know what's to become of her. Once a kid hits the DJJ system it's really easy to go there again. (This is my hypothesis, anyway.) The first time handcuffed in the back of a patrol car is hard. The second time is easier. Etc. I wish it didn't turn out this way. I wish she'd taken to the psychiatric intervention we tried. I don't know now if she'll stay in juvenile detention or will go to another psychiatric placement, or maybe to a children's home of some kind. I don't know. I really really really really hope they don't try to send her back home. I told the arresting officers, the police captain, and the woman from DJJ that I fear for my safety and the safety of the rest of the family with her in the house. You know, she threatened to kill us about 1.5 years ago. I won't forget that. She was wild crazy mad tonight. When Superman was in her face with his fist cocked she showed absolutely no fear, no sense of hesitation at all. She'd have tried to knock his block off if he'd stayed that close for long. She ain't right.

*Technically today, but since I haven't been to bed yet, my brain still thinks it's Wednesday.

Gay Marriage

I read this great article on a blog from a heterosexual father of three supporting gay marriage. I recommend you visit his blog. In the meantime, I'm posting this diagram from the article.

General update and a quote

This was the quote in today's A.Word.A.Day offering. Is this significant to my life today?

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. -Peter Drucker, management consultant, professor, and writer (1909-2005)

I discovered a website of gay stories. I was up until, um... (shhh - 5:00 this morning)(don't tell Superman) ... pretty late reading one of the stories. It was good, sure. But why do I do this to myself? Why do I sabotage my health and sanity with behaviors like this?

Superman and I were just talking about the stress in our lives. Their names are Sproing, Diva, and Money. Oh, and the repairs and remodel "we" (mostly he) is/are doing on the house and yard. We want to move, but the house and yard need a lot of work to get it into sellable condition.

I'm really too tired to think about it much. I'd get too upset if I tried, so I'm going to ignore it for now. And go to bed early tonight (I hope!).

Superman says he feels like he's on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I had me another mini-breakdown Sunday after Sproing acted like... well, Sproing. I'm worried about Superman, though.

My brain isn't working well. Too tired. I will go to my Art History class in an hour, then meet with my academic advisor about finishing up my research project. We might be going in a different direction now, actually. I want to tell you about it, but I'm too tired. Briefly (really this time!) I'm looking into the possibility of starting a gay-lesbian-bi-transgender support group and/or community center for my course project. This may just be an empty exercise for the experience and a grade, or perhaps I will find enough support for the thing to really get off the ground. At any rate I'd like to start a PFLAG chapter. Of course there isn't one in Greenwood. According to the PFLAG website, there are five chapters in South Carolina: Greenville, Spartanburg, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Charleston. The closest to us is Greenville, about an hour north of Greenwood. I've been to that one a few times, but the travel distance precludes much involvement. We need one in Greenwood, imho.

And I'm rambling again. It's what I do when I'm tired. Also what I do when I'm not tired, but more so when I'm tired. Like now. This is a perfect example of rambling.

Oh, shut up Java. Post this thing and go to school already.

It's Wednesday

Interesting quote of the day:

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)

The weather has finally gotten nice. The sky was partly cloudy today and temps were only in the 70s (24 C, + or - about 3 degrees). If we have a few more of these days in a row perhaps our "cold" water will get cold. For months now the water running from the cold water tap has been tepid. It's a bit too cool for a bath, definitely too warm to cool anything off (like my hot hands).

So the day is beautiful but I'm depressed. I dunno why. I don't care about much, and have been tired all day. I only took one nap, though, so that's good. I wanted to take another one this afternoon, but the kids got home from school and started fighting with each other so that kinda nixed my nap idea. They got into a shouting/shoving match, then Diva and I argued with each other for a while. Sounds like fun, no? I sent them both to their rooms, and Sproing came out 15 minutes later with a decent attitude. She had a pissy attitude the rest of the afternoon. She's gone to church (it's a social thing, I seriously doubt there's any spirituality involved) but will no doubt still be pissy when she gets home. Hell, I'm still pissy, so that won't help matters, will it? Perhaps Superman can run interference so she and I won't have to interact.

Superman bought a truck, as I may have mentioned. We went to Charlotte last evening to get it. It's a champagne color, extended cab F-250. I haven't driven it yet. Frankly I'm not in the mood to. Superman said last night that now we need to sell Manny, "of course" he says. He wants to transfer the license plate from Manny to his new truck, meaning of course that Manny is dead to him. He'll also drop Manny's coverage when he insures his new truck.

I don't know why I am so in love with that truck. It's a piece of junk, seriously, and not very safe to drive anymore. Lots of stuff doesn't work. I suppose it represents something to me. Too tired and depressed (or perhaps afraid) to figure out what.

My Mama had a heart catheterization today. She's been very tired and short of breath recently. The doctor found a very small blockage in a small branch of an artery, the same he saw when they did this a year or two ago. It hasn't changed, and the surgery to correct it is more risky than leaving it alone. She's also retaining fluid, and has been on diuretics for many moons. The fluid retention is better than it has been, but she'll continue with the diuretics. All in all things are fine. Doc says he would like her to get more exercise, but she's got some nasty arthritis in her back that is causing lots of pain. So, obviously, water aerobics! My dear brother, the Favorite Uncle with the motorcycle, is staying with her tonight to make sure she's OK. He spent the day with her, too. I'm glad he lives close enough to be able to do that. He's in the Daytona Beach area, less than an hour (if traffic isn't too bad on I-4) from Mama in NE Orlando area.

That's all I got, folks.

Life goes on

I feel detached from myself. Almost like I'm looking at my life from the outside, but not quite. I don't know who I am. All of a sudden I showed up in this strange life and I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it. It's a mild dissociation, and I'm sure it'll pass. I think the imminent change of season might have something to do with it. I often get disoriented in the early fall and early spring.

Although I'm waiting for fall to get here and she isn't in any hurry. It is still hot hot hot here. And dry. We need rain. Looks like we'll get some from the tropical system that was lately in the Gulf o' Mexico. (Can't remember what they named it.)

I went to the fabric store this afternoon. That's always fun. I want to make a warm winter coat for Light, so was looking through the pattern books. I found ONE pattern for a nice long lined coat. I was able to get the interfacing, lining, and shoulder pads for the coat, but not the outer fabric. The store had a hunk of thick wool fabric that I liked, but didn't have quite enough. The coat requires 6.25 yards and there were only 5-and-a-little-bit yards on the bolt at the store. But Superman, who like a super man went to the fabric store with me, mentioned that we will be in the Charlotte area in a couple of days and can go to Mary Jo's Cloth Store! Yippee!! I love that place. They have tons of fabric, practically anything anyone needs. Or wants.

Twitch is home for the holiday weekend. I drove up to Charlotte and brought him home Thursday evening. Loads of fun. School is closed for Labor Day, and he doesn't have any Tuesday classes. Cool, huh? We will take him back home Tuesday night. But yesterday he went with Superman and Sproing to the Charlotte area, because of course he's home for a long weekend break, so he had to go back to Charlotte for the day. Whatever.

But, there's a good reason they went to Charlotte. Superman is in the market for a new pickup truck. They found one! We will go back Tuesday after Superman has a chance to go to the credit union for the $$s. He's been approved for a car loan, but hadn't found a car yet, you know how that goes. Anyway, he found a pickup he likes. It's an F-250 with a 5.4L V8 with tow package. Extended cab, so it has a small back seat, not a full 4 door crew cab. He says it has a large bed, plenty for carrying all manner of cargo. I'm all excited.

I am sort of taking a class this semester. Classes started last Thursday. I am sitting in on an art history class, and so far I really like it. Absolutely love the professor. I've met him, but never took a class with him. He's an old guy who keeps talking about retiring, but hasn't yet. Many people have told me I should take at least one of his classes. The class I'm in covers the Renaissance and Baroque, or maybe Rococo. I haven't a clue about the time lines for those periods, though I will by the end of the course.

It seems like there's something else I should tell you, but I can't think what it is. If I think of it, perhaps I'll add it later. Or make a new post.

A busy week

I'm so busy that this is the first time all week I've had my computer on. There are over 100 unread messages in my inbox, and none of it is spam.

My dear friend Indigo is visiting us this week. He lives in Baltimore. He often comes to visit in August. I wouldn't do it if I were him because it's just too hot in August. But heat doesn't bother him nearly as much as it does me, and this is a good time for him to visit. So here he is. And I'm glad. And we've had a good time.

I am also rearranging my spaces here at home. Since Light has moved into her own place in Pennsylvania, I'm taking over her bedroom and making it my new office. My old office, which was also trying to be a sewing and crafts room, will now be sewing and crafts without trying to be an office. All of this is still in progress, so what it really looks like now is a big mess in both rooms and in the living room too, just for kicks. My messes tend to overflow their banks. I saw some progress today, finally. There's lots more progress yet to occur.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is my busy day of the week. I do my Hospice volunteering all afternoon, then one of the family therapist people comes to see us in the evening. Any errands or whatnot must get done in the morning. I'm usually pretty beat by the end of the day.

Right now I'm watching Braves Baseball. Top of the 9th, Braves down 2-3 against the Cubbies. And I'm going to try to get through some of my email backlog now.

Cute Kitty Pictures

I has them!

Allow me to introduce our new cute kitty, Saratoga. Sara for short.
As you can tell from the above picture, she has lots of white fur. So in addition to Scheherazade leaving her black cat hairs everywhere, we now have source of white hair so no matter what clothes we wear the cat hair will be evident.

In the above picture I was trying to photograph her but she was curious about the camera and came to check it out.
I gave her a little bit of milk. Don't tell the kids, as I discourage them from doing this. But they aren't here right now (Hallelujah!) and if I pick up the plate before they get home from school, no one will be the wiser.
Sara is a playful baby, and like Scheherazade likes to gnaw on electrical cords. And other things she shouldn't chew on. She's been busy this morning, but is now asleep on my shoulder. Awww!

I tried to sleep in a bit this morning, but had those disturbing dreams that I get when I'm not fully asleep nor fully awake. This morning I dreamed that we lived in a huge old house that needed lots of work and had way too much junk in it. Superman was trying to be helpful by putting away the half dozen or so old ironing boards by disassembling them. Not helpful! The kids were disobeying, I couldn't find anything, and was specifically looking for my deodorant. Then the in-laws showed up to help, and they hate being at my house. In the dream I was lying on a mattress in the family room, naked, covered by a sheet when they walked in. In reality I was lying on my bed, naked, covered by a sheet. Thankfully no one but the kitten was there. I was glad to wake up!

Here's a useful chart for those with cats. It tells me that I must stop Sara from playing with my pothos leaves. My pothos tells me I should water it, and get the damned kitten away from it already.

I discovered a way cool YouTube channel this morning. Check this out:

I love this piece of music (Beethoven's 7th symphony, 2nd movement). The animated score is fascinating to watch. At least I think so. Give it a chance. At least watch it from the 2 minute mark to the 3 minute mark. Each instrument has a different color in the animation. I find it fascinating. Double click on the graphic above to go to the YouTube channel to find lots more animated classical pieces. I'm enthralled.

I'm going to watch/listen to more pretty music and perhaps read the newspaper or something else, maybe something useful. Today the world is my oyster. Boo-ya

Celebration and miscellany

Let's begin with hair. Diva needed to get her hair "did", so I took her to the beauty college where they do hair for cheap. This is the before shot.

And here she is after.

She holds herself with more confidence and has a better attitude when she knows she looks good. I like that, especially the good attitude part. I like the beauty college, too, especially their prices. I plan to wander over there this week and have my hair cut, too.

And speaking of my hair,

mine is slowly turning gray. It's part of the aging process and it doesn't bother me. I'm actually surprised that I don't have more gray hair. But let me tell you, I found it pretty weird when last week I pulled a gray hair out of my nose. Normal, I suppose, but I didn't expect it.

I have this song floating around in my head this afternoon, so I am sharing it with you.

The kids are in school right now (Hallelujah!). I am having a wonderful day. I got a lot accomplished this morning after I dropped Diva at school. Sproing took the bus, which is opposite from how I expected they would get to school today. At any rate, I did a lot of mundane errands and took the cat (Smudge, formerly known as Scheherazade) to the vet for her shots. The other errands were mundane, the cat was not. We both managed to survive, but I now have cat scratches on my back from where she climbed over my shoulder to get away from the vet when he gave her an anal probe (checking for worms).

We need Smudge's updated records in order to bring home our new cat from the animal shelter. Yes, Diva talked her Daddy into getting another cat, and the shelter doesn't allow the animals to come home unless other pets are up to date with their shots. Good plan. I let Smudge's vaccinations expire (forgetful, not malicious) so this gets us back on track. But the point of this paragraph is the new kitten. I am not excited about this addition to the household. Hopefully the new kitty will keep Diva occupied and out of my hair for a good long while. Expect cute kitty pictures soon.

Speaking as we were of anal probes, Superman and I saw "Cowboys and Aliens" this weekend. I liked it, am glad I saw it, but probably won't watch it again. There are movies that I want in my library, and others that I'm happy to see only once. I want to get "How To Train Your Dragon" for my personal library. And call me crazy, but I want to see the smurf movie, too. I know it's bad, that's obvious from the trailer. But it's silly, and has blue smurfs in it. Plus NPH. I'll let you know how that goes.

And speaking of libraries, I read a good book. I like gay romances (M/M, but not so much F/F) and stories about gay characters. There are a lot of tawdry gay romance books out there that are not of stellar literary quality. Light, fun reading, but not much to make you think. I usually like to think. I read The Brothers Bishop by Bart Yates, and it was fantastic. It's a rich book, made me think. Nice literary allusions and stuff. It was almost as good as At Swim, Two Boys by that Irish guy, um... (hang on, gotta look it up) Jamie O'Neill.

I have also recently read two of Michael Thomas Ford's novels, Looking For It and Last Summer. They're good, enjoyable, better than run-of-the-mill, but not excellent. I want to read the rest of that series.

The kidlets will be home in about an hour. I want to piddle around here a bit more before they return. I'm sure I'll be back soon with kitty pictures.

Internet trouble, I had it

For a couple of days last week our access to internet was denied. I think it was a technical problem. While I was unable to surf the webs I wrote a blog post. I have since then forgotten about it until now. So here it is.

But first, let me say that tomorrow, Monday August 15th, 2011 is the first day of the 2011-2012 school year. And there is much rejoicing, at least from me. Don't know if the kidlets are as excited. Don't care, either.

Everything you are about to read is out of date. I am writing this on Saturday night (August 6th). It’s almost midnight. I’ve had two beers in quick succession and I’m rather tipsy. My arms aren’t responding the way they normally do.

Here’s the lowdown: the plumbing is fixed, praise be. Superman once again earned his title by clearing the kitchen drain. It took a lot of smelly work, but he did it. He’s wonderful. And he is out of town. Monday is his brother’s 40^th birthday, so he and Sproing went to the old homestead to visit The Folks and celebrate baby brother’s birthday. I’m here with Diva, praise be (I jest). I miss my husband.

School starts a week from Monday, Praise Be! August 15^th sees the young ones back in school from 8:00 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. They are usually dropped off at school around 7:30 and don’t return home on the bus until 3:55, so I have that much freedom. It is truly a wonderful thing.

The reason you are reading this after the fact is that I’m posting it after the fact because the fact is that our internet is inaccessible. I suspect the router. The kids tell me that we had a power outage Friday afternoon as I lay sleeping. It couldn’t have been a very long power outage because I lay sleeping with my CPAP, which is powered by electricity. My lungs would have noticed if the power had gone off for more than a few seconds. Back to the point: perhaps the power outage did something wonky with the router. Or the modem, the gods forbid. I haven’t fiddled with it yet, since the need isn’t powerful. Maybe Sunday I’ll see what I can make of the mess.

And speaking of school starting, the youngsters are in “need” of new clothes. Honestly they don’t really need new clothes, but it’s the start of a new school year and tradition dictates new clothes. Sproing had few pants that worked for school, and no shorts that fit. Friday morning he and I went out and bought him a few new shorts and a couple pair of pants. He also acquired four new t-shirts, socks, and boxer-briefs. He’s ready to roll. This afternoon in the heat I took Diva out. She honestly didn’t need a thing, but because I am a Wonderful Mother I bought two new tops and a new pair of pants for her, plus socks, underwear, and a few bras.

Did I mention that it was hot today? I don’t know what the official high temperature was this afternoon, but in my estimation it was over 100 degrees (F). The humidity was ridiculously high so it felt miserable. Perhaps the actual ambient temperature was only in the high 90s, but the heat index was beyond miserable. And Superman took our air conditioned Aveo on his trip, leaving me with the un-air conditioned truck. Did I mention “miserable?” I finally was able to take a shower at 11:00 tonight. I feel a lot better. Sweat was my hair mouse.

Those Mexicans don’t put twist tops on their beer bottles. I have bottle openers handy in many rooms of the house. I’ve become a beer aficionado, at least with the beers I like. I just opened a Dos Equis. XX. Double yum. This is my final beer of the night. Really. When I have enough alcohol to affect my sense of balance, my feet get hot. Just thought you ought to know.

I heard the most amusing phrase on the radio Friday. It was an NPR news cast, the 10:00 top-of-the-hour news brief. “…and an undisclosed number of independent polygamists…” Isn’t that a hoot? What the hell does it mean? It sounds like a title of a David Sedaris book. Speaking of David Sedaris, last week I read When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I recommend it.

I’ve had enough beer that I feel all loving toward everything and everyone. Oooh, I love you soooo much. I’m not drunk enough to ignore the fact that I am ridiculous in this state, though. You’re glad you’re just reading this and not with me to observe the ridiculosity of it all. Spell check doesn’t like “ridiculousity.” Silly spell check.

C is coming over tomorrow afternoon. We will go to the fabric store together. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? I miss him. He and N are doing really well in their new apartment. They share the apartment with another gay couple and a single girl. It’s an interesting three bedroom, 1.5 bath apartment. Two of the bedrooms are fairly large, but the third looks like an afterthought. (Spell check is wonderful when one is tipsy. My fingers aren’t so reliable after three beers.) That third bedroom is perhaps 10x10, maybe less. The young single girl occupies that room. I want it, though. I would love to have my own little private room in C and N’s apartment. It is half a block from the college, and less than two miles from home. That room could be my private hideaway, a safe place for escape when I need to get away from home. And I could park there and walk to campus, negating the need for a parking pass.

The problem with three beers is the resulting headache. I don’t have hangovers the morning after. I have my hangover headache pretty much immediately. Champaign tends to give me a headache before I finish the first glass. I love the stuff, but don’t like my body’s reaction to it.

It seems to be time to go to sleep. Damn, it’s after 1:00 a.m. already. I love to write rambling blog posts like this. But I am especially tired. So I’m going to brush my teeth and go to sleep. Goodnight.

Family stuff and other miscellany

I got a bag of Terra chips at the grocery yesterday. I prefer to think of them as guilt-free snacking.

Of course they aren't really. But they're better than potato chips, I think. And they're yummy, considering they're vegetables.
The bag promises a complete serving of vegetables in every ounce! I don't generally like vegetables. I sometimes drink vegetable juice (like V8), a 12 ounce can, cold, chugged quickly. That's 2 servings of vegetables! But enough about vegetables.

We could talk about beer if you'd like. Did I tell you? Superman discovered a beer he likes. Corona. With lime. I'm as surprised as he is. One of my summer goals is to develop a taste for beer. It is working. My tastes tend toward the pale ales and an occasional lager. My current favorites are Shock Top and the Blue Moon's Summer Honey Wheat.

Before we get to the family issues, let's now discuss plumbing, specifically plumbing problems. I has them. This time it's the kitchen sink. This is the second time this year we've had plumbing trouble. Hopefully this time it won't cost $4500. (I like my new pipes.) Over the weekend the kitchen drain began to drain very slowly. For the past couple of weeks the drain has been emitting a foul odor. I thought it was the garbage disposer. I fed it a couple of limes (which we have for Superman's Coronas, see above) and that helped for an hour or two. When it failed to drain properly Superman, bless his heart, went under the sink to investigate. He removed the garbage disposer, took it out back and hosed it out thoroughly. He discovered that the cause of the draining problem is in the pipes behind the wall. Something is obscuring the pipes. We got new incoming pipes, but not drain pipes. He has a plumbing snake, which didn't work because the drain pipe makes two (he says) right angle turns. So he bought some chemical drain cleaner. He reassembled the pipes and applied the drain cleaner. It didn't help much. And that's where things stand now: not draining very well.

That's where things stand now because Superman left town. With Light. Yep, she moved out. She's now in Pennsylvania. She and Superman packed her van and our car, and on Sunday morning they headed north. After some 15 hours, they arrived in Indianapa. They drove slowly, what with being so weighed down. And Light's van gets absolutely horrible gas mileage above 60 mph. And they drove through some torrential rain, just as she and I did on our way home from Indianapa last month. What's with all the rain?

They left Sunday morning. I sighed deeply, but did not cry. Here's the thing: if I would go ahead and have a good cry and get that over with, I'd be OK. But tears weren't there, only sighs. And all day long I felt the weight of her leaving. She took one of our two black cats, the sleek one. We also have a fuzzy one. The sleek one, Samhain, is my nap cat. He's technically her cat,and she wanted him, and I was glad to have fewer cat. But he is my nap cat. He snuggles up to my shins or behind my knees when I sleep. Our fuzzy cat is not nearly as pleasant to sleep with. She likes to attack my feet with her sharp claws as I sleep.

So Light is gone. Moved out. On her own (sort of). And Superman is away for a few days. He is on his way home right now. In the meantime I am here with two 13 year olds.

The Children. Oh my. As I discussed last week, Sproing has been a royal pain. Superman and I had a heart-to-heart with the boy on Saturday. We restated our expectations of him and laid out a series of consequences (punishments) for misbehavior. He then spent half an hour alone in his room. Since then he's been wonderful. Since Superman left he has been helpful and pleasant and all those wonderful things he's capable of. I also have a box of candy from which he gets rewards if he behaves.

Diva has been OK. She's somewhat sullen, but not openly defiant. I can live with that. I told her that I will get her some new clothes for school (which starts in a week and a half!! Hallelujah!) only if she cleans her room and hangs up or folds and puts away all of her clothes. There are now a lot of clothes hanging in her closet. I haven't done a careful inspection, but there is still a lot of junk on the floor in her room. She seems to have a lot of clothes. She's a typical teenager in that respect. It doesn't look to me like she needs new clothes, except for maybe a few new undergarments. Of course she will insist that she gets some new duds for school, and I'm OK with that. But she isn't getting much, not nearly as much as she wants.

Sproing needs new stuff, too, but not too much. Some nice shorts, maybe a couple of shirts, and socks and underwear.

Sproing has new motivation to behave well. He has a girlfriend! He met her at the skating rink this weekend. Well, he's kinda known her for a while, but they got together at the skating rink. They're "going together" now. Around here that means they talk or text on the phone and chat on Facebook a lot. Of course he loses his phone and computer privileges if he acts out. Ha ha ha! This is so easy!

About the girlfriend business: this is different. He has occasionally mentioned something about a girlfriend at the skating rink before, but no one has ever really affected him until now. He really means it this time. I realized this was different when I saw the note he taped to his door which read "I love M____." The whole thing is amusingly dramatic. She almost broke up with him yesterday when another of his friends said something to her about something he said. She broke up with the last guy she went with after only one day. This "going with" thing is loosely defined. I'm not sure of all the rules. It's all very amusing. I am glad to see him participating in this social discourse. I doubt this relationship (as such) will last through the week. They plan to go skating together on Friday. This will be the all night skate event. If they are even still going together by Friday, I will be surprised if they are still together at 7:00 Saturday morning.

And Superman is going away again this weekend. His brother's birthday is next week, so he's going to the old homestead to visit all his family for the weekend. His dad is still alive. Perhaps his dad realizes that now that he's so close to the end, he gets a lot more visits from his children. Eh, whatever. I don't really mind. His dad is a good man. I don't get along with him, but he's a good man nevertheless. The rest of his children now live within half an hour of their old home except Superman. The folks want Superman to get a job around there so he also can move "back home." HA! I don't think he has told them he wants to move to Pittsburgh.

Alas, duty and the children call. Time to make a bit of lunch and nag Diva to fix up her hair and clean her room. The joys of parenting...