Scattered About

So, our boy is at camp--we brought him up last weekend, we'll pick him up this weekend.  Got an email from the camp folks, saying that, while the rest of the area has no water, the camp still does. Already feeling bad that our boy is at camp during record-breaking heat, though happy I chose for him to be in a cabin rather than tent--the cabins are air-conditioned!

Miss him terribly.  Hope he's having a wonderful time.  Hope they know how to keep him safe in this heat.

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Hubby picked our first cuke today--it's beautiful!

Tasted wonderful!

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Watched a horrifyingly bad movie last night--"Attila" with Gerard Butler as the mighty Hun, Powers Boothe as the Shifty yet strangely noble Roman who . . . well, I won't tell you.  Wouldn't want to give it away.  Such a masterpiece of historical inaccuracy, you're sure to pick it up unless I spoil it for you.  As Mr. Munchkin Troll 2 will rush to let you know in his snotty, humorless, dull-wit way, the world hates a "spoiler."

Yes, that's Alice Krige.  A very young Isla Fisher is featured, too.

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 The class reunion I won't be attending but somehow wound up a committee member?  Disaster, I'm thinking.  The folks doing the "real" work chose a venue so expensive that most of our classmates can't afford it.  Sure, the fancy steak house with the DJ is nice, but most folks need a cheaper option.  22 days out, and only SIX have bought tickets.  There will be a cheap "appetizers only/cash bar" get together the night before, and I'm thinking that's going to be the only draw.  Can't put all the blame on the mostly "haves" who set it all up--had our class officers stepped up and done what they're supposed to do, the rest of us wouldn't have had to blunder in and try to set something up months too late.  If folks'd had more than a few months warning, they might have been able to scrape together the cash.  

Sad days.

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So, our internet crashed for over 12 hours the other night/morning. Lucky us, we can do the whole "mobile hotspot" gig.  Not so lucky?  Our boy didn't realize that eats up data like a piranha eats errant livestock in an old Wild Kingdom installment.  Not understanding the data gig, he went to sleep without turning off the mobile hotspot.  Which catapulted us to 92% of our monthly plan allowance with two weeks still to go.  Hubby called them today,and they agreed to set us up to the next data level for this month, then set us back down at no charge.  Very nice.  Now, let's see if it actually WORKS that way.  

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I'm working on a Zimmerman/Trayvon entry.  Not tonight, though.  I have a dental-related face ache.  

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Caught a bit of the 700 Club the other day.  Listened to Pat Robertson blather on about how "you can't outgive GAWD," but that the solution to bankruptcy is to TITHE.

I kid you not.

Remember that--if you can't make your bills, if you're underwater, struggling, foreclosed upon, just SEND CASH TO PAT ROBERTSON!  Really, because GAWD'll give back "30,60, and 100 fold!"

I'm reminded of when I once worked for "the largest telemarketing firm in the world."  We used to take calls for some now-deceased player, went by the name "The Reverend Ike."  

Now, many years ago, the Reverend Ike was sending out "prayer cows."  Yes, that's what I said. Little fuzzy cardboard holsteins. The point was something like this:  make a call, get a cow (and an envelope full of utterly nutty religious crap), sleep with the cow under your pillow while you pray about your money problems.  Then send the cow back with YOUR MONEY and some ghostie in the sky will return your investment however many fold.

Or instead, you could write your name and prayer on the included "prayer seeds" and "plant" them by mailing them back with twenty bucks (or more) every week for a few weeks until your prayer came true.

Or you could just call and give your money that way, and screw the cash cow and prayer seeds.  

We'd sit on break and compare the calls.  The horror, the heartbreak.  And finally, one night, I broke.  An old woman called and went on and on about how she was putting her trust in the LAWD and REV'REND IKE, utilities be damned!  She was crying, THANKING ME for the opportunity to "do the LAWD'S will." She just KNEW that, by giving the only money she had, the money for her LIGHTS and HEAT, she'd be rewarded.

I was nearly in tears as I made that decision.  The decision to risk my job and stop this poor, deluded woman from freezing to death in the dark.  And yeah, had there been a monitor on the line or a supervisor nearby, I'd have been escorted from the building.

I talked her out of it.  I convinced her that "God" had already given her the money to pay her utilities, and that it would be wrong to NOT do that. 

I had my own "prayer cow."  Wish I knew where it was, I'd love to post a pic.

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And finally . . . Ever been totally haunted by something? Years ago, Hubby and I were out for breakfast with my family when I spotted a guy. A handsome young man, scruffy jaw, sun-browned, green/hazel eyes, hair a very light brown/dark blond, sun-streaked. He had a backpack, and he looked so incredibly familiar, I couldn't take my eyes off him. As he was leaving, he smiled and said hello to me, and I said, "I am so sorry, I know I've been staring--you are so familiar to me, have we met?" He said no, he didn't think so, he wasn't local. Just passing through.  He seemed a little uncomfortable once I said he looked familiar, though he was still very friendly and quick to flash that marvelous smile. I wished him safe, happy travels and obsessed for days. And then I remembered where I'd seen his face before. 

A missing child poster. 

I went nuts searching online until I found his picture. Was it him? I don't know--the age would have been about right, and he looked just like this boy. I didn't notice anything off about his jaw, but he had a scruffy sort of stubble going on. I called about him, reported the possible sighting, but I still don't know if it was him. I wish I'd remembered at the time why he rang bells for me, I'd have known to ask more questions, pay closer attention.

Patrick Shawn Betz

And age-progressed: