Weekend

Did you all survive the long weekend? ours started off pretty shaky. Husband was supposed to have a 4 day weekend. Well that turned into a three day and then a two day. Side job needed to be done. So come Sunday he finally had a day off.

Sunday pretty much nothing got done. Smoked some ribs for dinner. Let the ducks out into the yard. Not really much. I ran some errands. One was off to ABC for liquor. While I was in there some guy walks back in after making his purchase and asks for another bag. No big deal right. Yeah he blurts out I need a bag some lady is going to give me her crabs. Umm OK dude. Cashier and I just stood there and stared at each other before finally laughing.



While my husband was playing with his grill, some guy drives up. Ok he helped us dig a ditch a few months ago, but we don't know him past that. We are not friends. We have talked to him maybe twice, for less than 5 min. Anyways he comes driving up and asks to park his camper right in our front yard oh and he doesn't know how long. Who does that? Who asks someone they don't know hey can I park my ugly broke down camper in your yard. That would be a negative. No you can not park anything in my yard.

I only imagine this is what would have been left.

Then comes Monday. The day of the cook off. Husband smoked a pork butt and a beef brisket. Most of the day was quiet and later on people started to come. We had probably 30 people here. Man were there some stories. Everything from a flip flop flying to a broken chair.

One of the neighbors was being silly and teasing me. So yeah I took my flip flop off and tossed it at him. Direct hit, his hat went flying. Everyone laughed because yeah I was not trying to hit him.

Another male neighbor grabbed my husbands ass, that was like hmm OK then dude where did that come from.

Everyone ate and everyone was happy.

To end the night husband sat in a old plastic chair and it broke. Husband is fine the chair well we will be having a funeral later in the week for it.



Then I get up this morning and wow the kitchen blew up. That was fun cleaning up.

Not Always As They Seem

With the age of social networks one of the things we have been working on is explaining that people are not always who they seem to be. That people do lie. People do stretch the truth for many different reasons.

Of course there will always be the predators who's intent is to harm others. We always want our kids you be aware of them. You know things like don't friend people you don't know, never meet anyone from the computer. Yes I know I have broken these all myself.  So if you must meet someone let others know where you are going and meet in a public place.

Beyond the predators there are the attention seekers. You know the kind, the ones who always have some trauma or drama going on. Typically their intent is just to get attention. You can tell this by watching the shifts in their story. It becomes more traumatic as attention fades. Someone who tripped and bruised their knee now needs a life saving surgery.

The third type are the scammers. They always need money. I'm not talking about the little donate button on a blog or the ads. Hey if a blogger can make a couple bucks go for it. I am talking about the people who repeatedly get in desperate situations. Every couple months they are losing the house or need to pay utilities. They are always looking for others to pay their bills while they sit around with the latest and greatest toys.

Now I'm not saying everyone in internet land is out to scam or harm. I am just trying to teach my kids to pay attention. If something doesn't seem right it probably isn't. Before you send money or gifts pay attention to the persons past or others comments.

Missing

When a child or venerable adult goes missing there are two responses. First that it is a tragic mistake. The second someone must be fired. Which response you get depends on the circumstances. Let me paint a picture for you.

It's a nice sunny day and a group of people are out enjoying the day. One of the group members wanders off. Everyone goes into search mode, police are called, etc. Sadly there is no good end to the story. The person was hit by a car as they tried to cross  the street.

Ok now what do you think? What would you say if I said it was a family reunion? That the person just slipped off. In a family situation we would all say it can happen in a blink of a eye. In just a split second and it is no ones fault.

Ok same situation but it is a school field trip. Maybe the side bent down to tie her shoe? Maybe another student called got her attention? In a split second that blink of a eye things can happen. The difference no one will give the side any sympathy. More often than not people will be demanding she is fired and faces criminal charges.

Why do we hold teachers, aides, therapists in this super human realm. They are not allowed to make mistakes. They cannot be human. They must be above human at all times. Sure there are many cases to many to count of just outright neglect and abuse but there are dome cases that it was human error. Not any worse than an error any one of us could make.

I guess all I am saying is let's put the pitchforks down. Let's work together. Let's get all the facts in a case before we burn people at the stake. After all we are all human.