Facie’s Ramblings

Last night I attended a local crime watch meeting. There was what I considered a decent turnout, probably about 75 people, though less than one of the first meetings, which had close to 200. Crime, for the most part, has gone down in my neck of the woods. Fortunately, the police caught a daytime burglar last year, which resulted in burglaries dropping from an average of about 31 per month to about 11 per month. What is interesting to me is how the burglar was caught. A woman came home to see a guy getting into a car in her driveway. She was fortunately able to provide a good description of the perp and the car to the 911 operator (more fortunately, the perp just wanted to get away and not hurt her). This information enabled the police to locate the car/perp, although the officer in pursuit at first did lose him. Fortunately again, another resident noticed this car speeding away, so he pulled over on the side of the road and flagged down the officer to let him know in which d...

Here is what is on my noodle today, in no particular order:   Yes, the snow is pretty and all. And I won't even say that it would be fine with me if it does not snow again until December (except I just did). But I will say, I am done with excessive snow and the ensuing snow days that seem to keep on coming. And I am even more irritated that some schools want to get out of teaching 180 days. The kids need it, and I pay a lot for my kid's education besides. I read a somewhat disturbing but not too surprising article about how being laid off affects your health. I am really trying to be positive about my situation, and most of the time I am, but I can't help feeling a little down and of course worried sometimes. Not as worried as Brian, however, and we all know what worry can lead to. Speaking of health, which leads me to health insurance, is it any wonder that people ignore their health problems when they have little or crappy insurance? I was having some weird pa...

A friend of mine/fellow blogger recently wrote about rescuing some plants from a long-abandoned house. I have the opposite problem: next-door neighbors (son and his mother) who do nothing to keep up with their property other than occasionally mowing their lawn. Notice the pictures of the shrubs I posted. These people no longer walk between these overgrown beasts to get to their front door; they now cut through the grass. I know when I took Jordan trick-or-treating there this past Halloween, I pretty much had to turn sideways to get through. I think Kate Moss would be challenged to fit! The owner of the house is somewhere between mid 20s and mid 30s and is completely mobile; in fact, I have seen him attempt some type of martial arts in his backyard. So why is it so hard to trim these shrubs? We have shared hedges, and if you looked at them head on/between our two houses, you would see his side growing wildly and ours looking neat and trim. Brian has threatened many times to go over ther...

One of our neighbors, Fran, passed away on Thursday. A few weeks ago, I ran across the street to ask his wife how he was doing (Fran had cancer). Betty said that hospice had come that day. My limited understanding of that service was that people used it at/near the end of life, so I assumed his time on this earth was ending soon. Still I did not know what I could do to help, so I simply hugged her and said I would pray for them. Bri and I did not know these people well. I first met Betty when Jordan was just a few days old and my mom was staying with us. I had just gotten out of the shower, and I heard my mom talking to a woman whose voice I did not recognize. I could not imagine why my mother let a stranger into our house. Fortunately, Betty seemed nice, and from that time on, Bri and I waved whenever we saw them. At Halloween, when I would take Jordan trick-or-treating, Betty and Fran always invited us in for a few minutes. And once when our power went out and I did not know how to g...