I like to keep you folk entertained sass. ;)

I'm home from a long but voluble meeting, it seems I became VP as well as booking agent but VP is a nominal role so the two were combined. There was great support from the artists, everyone on the Committee is experienced in the field they are elected to and all are passionate about making this work again.

I'm glad it's a motivated group--nothing worse than having to drag a bunch of dead carcasses around!

Gilmer, your choice of words is so downright uplifting! :lmao

An entertaining tidbit from the Florida Keys;

This morning just after midnight the power went off, It was on again in about 20 minutes, I heard a story on what happened today.

Apparently some brainiac decided to take his ferret and a hatchet up a utility pole and try to cut the powr lines (why he had a ferret with him I doubt anyone will ever know). Well, the line electrocuted him and when the police arrived they had to shoot the hatchet out of his hand as the electric forced his muscles to contract so tightly they couldn't get it out any other way. Unfortunately I also heard they had to put the ferret down .

Poor ferret!

Good morning Marchers :) Ken I'm lol here at your story but, like Gilmer, I am sorry for the poor ferret!

I have a day at home today, every so often Mr Marcher and I give each other a day off and today is that day for me. I've quite a few bits and pieces to do this morning then I am going to spend the afternoon with my feet up finishing off the squares for blanket #8. My lovely friend who sews them up for me is coming for the weekend so it would be great to have them finished for then.

Toots how is the insomnia? Any better?

Have a good day all.

Isn't it? She's such a smart eloquent woman then she gives us a mental image of dragging around dead bodies. :lmao

I consider it my sacred duty!

Budd... :lmao Darwin at work. Poor ferret, agreed.

Yup I agree, unless the ferret was the brains behind the who,e thing, which by the sounds of it is quite possible!!

Marcher I have loathed every committee I have served on ( having been volunteered, never choosing) so it sounds like you have a good bunch of enthusiastic minds there.

Sass I worked in dementia care for a while when we first moved to Scotland. I was bitten, kicked and smeared in excrement. ( though the rest of the staff did eventually take to me!!) it was hard work and frequently a thankless task and often repetitive, we had jail breakers who skidaddled if a door was left unlocked ( it was meant to be a secure unit for that reason) we had someone who kept hiding behind curtains, but we also had lots of lovely patients and then those poignant moments when someone would have total lucidity and recognise who and when they were, and wonder where they were. That was hard,but if you could get them talking it was wonderful.
What gets me most is that certainly here in the UK, you get paid a pittance to do that job, and yet it takes huge strength of character to do it full time long term. I certainly couldn't have. I on,y worked on that particular unit when they were short handed. Often enough to get a real feel for it and to get to know the patients, but I couldn't have done it for any length of time.

Gilmer I'm glad your dad seemed to be okay there, I'm sure he was. Did you enjoy your weekend off??

I had the most exquisite, blessed weekend, thanks. I relished every second of it.

At the nursing home my dad got agitated at night, which is common: "sundowning"--but in the daytime he flirted with the nurse and the aide. He still has an eye for the ladies and probably always will, no matter what his state of mind!

Gilmer, I'm so happy to hear that you had a good weekend. You certainly deserved a break!

Toots, I once worked in a nursing home for a summer and it was hard though it did have some rewarding moments. In this country, too, pay is incredibly low for those kinds of jobs. It seems to me to be especially poignant to contrast CEOs earning millions compared to an aide in a nursing home earning a pittance. I can't fathom how a CEOs work is so much more important.

Budd, oh my - that poor ferret!

Marcher, great that you can have a day at home. I am in awe of how much you do! You sound so calm and centered - you are a wonderful example.

Gilmer, glad you had a nice weekend!

When I picked up my dad Monday from the nursing home, he was very feeble and couldn't support himself. We had to lift him to the bathroom, etc. We knew that we are definitely beyond our capacity for competent care. He was even worse today.

Today the appraisers from the dementia care facility came and checked him out officially. He qualified as an appropriate member of the community. We just have to switch hospices and get a new hospital bed in his room--and he'll be ready to move in. Probably Friday, or Thursday at the earliest. They will have a dresser and a chair at the place until we can move his more familiar furniture in on Saturday (the furniture he's had since the 50s).

Meanwhile, while we're waiting, we have hired a home health care service to come in tomorrow through Friday from 8-4. The lady is trained to assist with Depends, lifting, light housekeeping, meal preparation, bathing, dressing and grooming, and companionship. What a huge relief it will be to have her here!

The amazing thing is that there is actually an agency whose specialty it is to provide extensive care when you need it as long as you need it at the drop of a hat!

And the price is a bargain for the services they provide! We could not believe how reasonable it was! They deserve triple the price!

I am absolutely floored and so grateful to the Lord. What seemed like an impossible situation just melted away like ice cream on a hot day!

(((Gilmer)))! I'm relieved to hear that your dad will move to the facility so soon AND that you have competent help coming daily. I'm sure this is all very, very difficult emotionally but so good that you have planned ahead. Sending prayers and hugs!

This morning I felt like a salmon swimming upstream.

Then all at once everything fell into place! :)

Glad to hear some good news Gilmer

Soooo . . . in the wake of another drinking binge and having been given an ultimatum to seek immediate treatment or move out, I'm back.

I was sober for very nearly a year after moving back here. I'm really scared that at the end of the day, I want to drink too much to exercise the will I'm going to need to quit, even though it's so painfully obvious to everyone that I NEED TO QUIT. I actually wrote in a journal earlier this year that I would never give up drinking entirely. So that's not good. Rethinking that attitude now, obviously. I actually wrote down that I could not come back here and post without feeling dishonest and phony knowing I simply wasn't as committed to my sobriety as you all are.

So it's going to be AA or counseling for me, it looks like. Not that either of those ever seemed especially helpful to me in the past.

It's not a banner day. I could really use some encouragement and a hug. Day One.

Hi Me so - welcome back :)

that thought that you drink to much to ever quit, or that somehow you're not the right temperament to quit is just nonsense - nonsense borne of fear...and maybe a little pride and stubborness.

I never thought I could quit either - but I drank to the point I had to...it was that or die. So I went from drinking all day every day to nothing....and I've stayed that way.

I'm glad I did quit completely - it gave me the chance to build the life I wanted for myself and to be the person I wanted to be.

I would never have had the chance to live this life I lead now if I was still drinking.

I used to define myself by my drinking. I see now how much I was selling myself short.

Make this time your time MeSo. It's scary sure but you're not alone.

Embrace the change :)

D

Thanks for that, Dee -- all words I need to hear right now. You're a gem.

Good morning Marchers :)

MeSo I am so glad to see you, SR is the right place for you and all of us here can give you heaps of support. Dee's right you know (he usually is (though his views on winter and summer are completely wrong)) about that voice telling you you can't quit or you're not the right temperament or whatever. Everyone who wants to quit can quit.

Can you do something today about AA or counselling? I know it's late afternoon but even a phone call would put you on track. Stick close to SR MeSo, stick close to us.

Gilmer I am so very very glad about the new arrangements for the care of your Dad!

Have a good day peeps.

It's so good to have you back, MeSo! :hug:

As a matter of fact, you prompted me to look up meetings in this area, and there's one close by. I wish I were half as comfortable with AA as I am here. I should probably find a women's group. That would be LESS awkward.

Thank you, Marcher dear, for your kind words and support. I probably wouldn't be in the fix I'm in if I HAD stuck closer to you guys. The complacency. The alcohol is indeed cunning, baffling and powerful. It is really good to be back here.

Love to you Gilmer!

Right back atcha! :)

how could you not love this? lol

http://2013.cnsawintercongress.com.a...carousel_1.jpg

Hey, MeSo! When a craving hits, you come here. Ask anyone here if you can have a drink. Put us on your phone if you haven't already. There's only 140,000 people here to help you.

(((MeSo)))! I'm glad you came back here! A question for you ... is it possible that somewhere inside you don't feel you "deserve" to have a happy and sober life? Or that you are afraid that you can't do it? That may not be the case for you but is for some.

I wasn't able to stay reliably sober until I did an intensive outpatient program. Not saying that it's the answer for you but please keep the rehab option open. Some of us need more help than others. No shame in that!

Although I didn't want to admit it to myself, I now do think that part of me thought I didn't really want to get sober. In retrospect, I think that I didn't want to feel like a failure if I couldn't. Fortunately, I had a terrific pdoc who I think knows me better than I know myself. I went to him last summer and laid everything on the table. He then organized things for me to get into the outpatient program and kept tabs on my progress.

Do let us know how best we can support you in this!

Marcher, have you ever heard of "Thunder from Down Under"? My daughter was given a ticket to go :-)

This definitely rings a bell!