Carol's random babble

My mom died this morning.

I'm a master at holding it together. For a while. Every now and then I erupt. It might not take much - but when I reach the tipping point, I just can't help myself. Once, in sacrament meeting, Kent started talking to me in a normal voice while the sacrament was being passed . I kept telling him to wait, but he kept talking. I started getting upset and had to actually walk out while the sacrament was still being passed, so I could go off and cry. Usually, though, it's something like I have asked the girls to do something and asked them and asked them and they just don't do it, and eventually I start yelling and screaming. Or my eruption isn't even related to the problem - but something triggers it and I go off. Sometimes it takes the form of not speaking to anyone (particularly the trigger). I'm pretty good at not yelling since we moved to an apartment building, but I did slam my bedroom door the other day (can't even remember why, just that I was...

Mom in happier days.    Last Thursday I rented "The Hobbit" and took my laptop to the nursing home to watch it with Mom. Since the movie is nearly 3 hours long, I didn't expect to watch the whole thing with her in one day. I watched about 45 minutes there. Mom watched 5-10 minutes (not all at once) and dozed off. I finished watching it at home. On Sunday, I visited her twice. The first time she didn't wake up at all, so I sat and read from my Kindle Fire. The second time, she woke up a bit, and I talked to her, but I don't think she comprehended what I was saying. She tried to say something once, but it was just garbled. The rest of the time she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. I don't know if it was voluntary or involuntary. When I held her hand, she squeezed my fingers, but I don't think that was voluntary, either. One of the aides said her color wasn't good. I hadn't noticed, except that her arm was red and blotchy (mottlin...

This is something I sometimes have trouble with. I pull a package of meat out of the freezer but don't use it right away when it is defrosted. Then I wonder, what day did I pull that out? Is it still good? Often I end up throwing stuff away because we didn't use it soon enough. This infographic from All You should help: [Source: Daily Savings from All You ] Does that clear things up? I should start labeling things with the date I got them or when I pull them out of the freezer.

I didn't know this boy. My daughter in high school didn't know him, either. He killed himself today. One of his friends made this video. It is worth watching. I really think the video says it all.

I have mentioned before that I have been without a car since the end of October . Donna has been driving me to work and home, shopping and occasionally to church. It's all been very inconvenient for everyone concerned. I got my tax refund on Feb. 15 and went car shopping. I had checked out various dealer websites, but wasn't having much luck in my price range. I'm not willing to get into a loan situation and don't want to give my friends' contact information for the application in any case, so my search was limited to what I could do with the cash on hand. One dealership had a car that was okay, but I only drove it around the lot a little because the brakes seemed a little squishy and it didn't move for a few seconds when I pressed on the gas - leading me to think there might be a transmission problem. Another dealer didn't want me to test drive the car further than "around the block." The belt was screaming, so it needs to be replaced, whi...

School vote today for increase to PPEL in Fort Dodge. Why I will vote yes and what could happen if it fails: My daughter has orchestra, and FDSH is the only school in the area that offers it. It's a big reason why I don't open enroll her elsewhere (like MNW where they have school-issued laptops, for example). Orchestra is frequently at risk of being cut for budget reasons. If the physical needs of the schools are taken out of the general fund, orchestra may go away. There goes my main reason for keeping her at FDSH. So maybe I open enroll her at a different school and FD schools lose the money for her, making it more difficult to pay for things. Or maybe I decide that we'll move out of the area - to Ames or DM or somewhere else with an orchestra program. That would mean that all the money I spend here for rent, shopping, etc., now goes somewhere else. Now imagine if 50 or 100 parents do this. Maybe I don't have the math right, but I think it means if you have a $100,000...