A Very Disturbing Experience

Daily Prompt:  Enroll, Bewildered, Tend, Simplify, Insist

I have missed the daily prompts this month for a few days.  So, I have linked some of them together in this post.

My daughter called me on her way home from the doctor’s office asking if I minded if she stopped on her way past to rest a bit.  She had developed a migraine with all the symptoms that go with it.  Of course, I said she could stop.  I was a bit bewildered that she had called to ask permission but realized she must have left her key to my house at home.  She simply wanted to know if I was home.

Kelly had laid down for about an hour after taking her migraine medication.  I got her up in time for her to pick up my grandsons from school.  We said goodbye, she headed to the car and for some reason instead of walking around the front of the car which was the shortest route to the driver’s door, she went around the back of the car.

I saw that she had not started the car yet and was wondering what was taking her so long.  Lo and behold, Kelly came back into the house saying, ”  There’s an old dog behind my car and I can’t get it to move
straydog1 (2).jpgI approached the dog who didn’t move.  I tried to give him some water and food, he just turned his head away.  This poor animal was emaciated and had cuts on his back and paws.  You could see and feel his ribs.  He was soaking wet from the rain.  When he laid on his side he moaned in pain.  He was wearing a red collar with broken pieces of rope on it.  He clearly had been out on his own for a while.

I walked into the house to grab my cell phone to call the Sheriff’s Animal Services Office and when I returned outside there were about 25 turkey vultures circling in the sky.  I was afraid to go back into the house for fear they would land and begin feeding on him before he stopped breathing.  So, I sat outside with the poor dog gently petting his head.  He began to have tremors so I covered him with a blanket which seemed to help.  He began breathing heavily and never opened his eyes until the Sheriff Department came for him.

The two gentlemen who arrived were very kind to the dog.  They gently wrapped him in the blanket that was there, picked him up and placed him in their truck.

Not to oversimplify what I was feeling, but anger says it all.  I tend to become very vocal when animals are abused or neglected or mistreated.  When God put humans over straydog2.jpganimals, He did not have mistreatment of them in mind.

You know to own a dog here in this state you must have a dog license.  If I were in charge I would insist that anyone attempting to get that license enroll in a course on how to take care of their dogs.  But I guess it would be like anything else, people would not follow the rules and defenceless animals would still suffer.  It makes me just a little bit nuts.

There must be a special place for people who neglect, abuse and throw their animals away like trash.

This is not the first experience I have had with this problem.  A few years ago a litter of kittens were left in an old birdcage on the front of my property.  At nine o’clock at night, my husband opened the back door to let our dog out, and seven little furry kittens came running into the house.  Thankfully, they were able to get out of the cage and find their way to our back door.  I took them right up the street to the shelter in the morning.  

Wanda

 

 

 

 

 

Birthdays

Daily Prompt:  Tend, Simplify

Today I get to celebrate two of my favorite people’s birthdays.  My grandson Andrew turns fourteen today.  I can’t believe the years have passed so quickly.  I tend to still think of him as a little boy.  He certainly is growing into a fine young man.  His mother, however, isn’t always convinced.  She’s in the teenage shock years.

I chuckle and tell her he is just like you.  To that, she asks how I ever put up with her.  I simplify my answer by just saying it was illegal to murder your kids and my reward for not doing so is my grandchildren.  🙂

The other birthday is that of my youngest granddaughter, Isabella.  She turns two today.  She has turned into a toddler who is smart, funny and simply one of the brightest lights of my life.  Unfortunately, she lives far away and my only visit with her will be via facetime.  I am not really complaining, just wishing I could be with her in person.

Tomorrow all the family with the exception of my son’s family will be going out to dinner to celebrate Andrew’s birthday.  I am blessed to have him living close.I hope we can also get Isabella on the phone so we can celebrate a little with her too.

This modern world with cell phones that allow visits across miles is wonderful.  What a great time we live in.  I remember the show the Jetsons.  It was an animated futuristic show that had picture phones they used.  Who would have thought that they would become a reality that everyone used?

Today I will be spending the day at my granddaughter Alannah’s dance competition.  The kick off of her season is today and thankfully it is being held at the local community college.

God has truly blessed me with a wonderful family.

Have a wonderful day!

Wanda

 

 

Welcome To My World Or My Tale of Woe

 

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February 10, 2018 tail/tale

Have you ever had one of those days?  You know, the kind of day that makes you just want to buy a gun and shoot something.  Well, I really would never do anything like that, but I sure came close yesterday.

Actually, yesterday was not really the beginning of this tale of woe, but rather just the last in a series of incompetent, thoughtless, events that have been making my life miserable.

My banking institution lost a deposit that was made by my daughter into our joint account.  This account was opened because we do not live in the same town and she and her husband have been helping me financially to help get me through some rather unfortunate circumstances.  I am truly blessed.

Ok, getting back to the lost deposit.  My daughter made the deposit the last week of January.  It was a week before I called her to see if she had forgotten to go to the bank.  She informed me the had gone.  I hated to tell her that it was never credited to our account.

My daughter went to her branch to investigate.  She was told that they could not locate the deposit and since she did not have her receipt there was nothing they could do.  Did you just hear my head snap around to look at the teller?

Ok, fast forward to this past Monday.  I went to my branch of the bank to pick up some papers that were faxed to them from the mortgage department.  The first thing I get told is that no one has seen these papers.  You guessed it.  The steam began to flow out of my ears.  The teller supervisor at my branch is a wonderful, caring, helpful woman who walked from behind the teller window and investigated what might have happened to them.  After a few minutes, she came walking out from a back office with papers in hand.  Needless to say, no one else was interested in assisting me.

It was at this point that I decided to voice my dissatisfaction with the institution that had the honour of taking care of my money.  I spoke to one of the officers of the branch explaining all of the unbelievable crap that I had been going through since my husband had passed away in 2016 and the lost deposit was just adding insult to injury.

She very diligently lodged a complaint with the home office.  By the time I arrived home, my phone was ringing.  This woman, I’ll call her Pia, (get it? as in pain in the ass) was not the least bit happy with me for lodging the complaint because she was the one responsible to locate the missing deposit.  She also felt that for my daughter and I to suspect that the money was pocketed by the teller was just the worse thing that she had ever heard of.  I explained that when my daughter investigated what happened to the deposit she was basically told that there was no recourse.

Now, here is where it gets really good.  My daughter used her debit card.  So, how is there no record of the deposit?  I specifically asked this Pia if there isn’t a record of every time the card is swiped.  I was told yes.  I asked if the bank card number was a unique signature.  I was told yes.  I asked her if the teller used the bank card, can’t she determine what happened.  I was told yes.

My daughter went back to the bank to again look into it.  She did not remember the exact date, but it was the last week of January.  She was told that there was no way for the bank to generate a report on her bank card.  So, in other words, tough cookies!

Ok, that’s the history.  Today Pia, called me to tell me that my daughter’s story is inconsistent and that there was nothing she could do about the missing money.  In other words, she insinuated that my daughter lied about the deposit.  Her reasons for saying nothing could be done was the fact that there was no receipt, she could not remember the exact date and that there was no record of her accessing bank 24 the online customer service site to have the home office look into it.

Can you imagine my reaction?  I told her that number one, my daughter was taught not to lie and she had no reason to lie about a deposit that was causing her so much grief.  For the record, my daughter is 46 years old.  Number two, I reminded Pia, that she had told me that a receipt was not necessary and further told me the debit card would indeed have a record of the transaction so it was not necessary to know the exact date.  Number three, the darn bank 24 customer online service has not been working for the last several days.

Now here’s the kicker.  Pia told me I was lying.  I asked for the name of her boss and a phone number I could reach that person with.  She refused to give it to me.  Can you believe this?  I was livid!

First thing Monday I will be closing my accounts.

I was so upset that I sliced open two fingers as I tried to cook supper last night!

Wanda

 

Friendly Fill-Ins Week 92

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Friendly Fill-Ins Week 92

Here are my answers for this week.

1. The Winter Olympics are my favorite games.  I love to watch Curling.  I became addicted to it when my son discovered it as a child.  And who doesn’t like figure skating?  I am looking forward to watching as much of it as I can.

2. I think the most romantic movie (or book) is I can’t say which book or movie is the most romantic for me.  I am a fan of old movies where romance was the order of the day.  Most movies now are not romantic as much as sexually

3. Recently, I had an odd experience when I was shopping and ran into a woman I thought I knew.  I was exuberant in saying hello and she was the same.  We started talking about our quilting and as the conversation continued I began to suspect I had made an error in thinking that I knew this woman.  All of a sudden she got this funny look on her face and said to me “I don’t think you who I thought you were.” I laughed and said yes I think we have definitely made an error in judgement here.  The thing is, we have been keeping in touch ever since.  Seems our common interest in quilting has sparked a friendship.

4. I believe that love is the most important human experience.  Without love, we are just islands with no bridges between us.
Wanda

The News

Daily Prompt:  Bewildered

In the evening after day is done

I listen to the news of the day.

I wait and wait for something uplifting.

Something of faith, or charity, or kindness, something good.

Instead, it’s the noise I hear…

It emanates through the airwaves carrying with it

The atrocities of the day while trying to crush my spirit.

I can’t give into that oppressive fog drifting over me.

I fight it.

I can’t believe there is nothing good to share.

Where has the good gone?

Why can’t anyone find the good to share?

I am bewildered.

Wanda

 

 

 

Daily Prompts, and Challenges, and Comfort Zones, Oh My

 

 

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Image borrowed from PC Tech Magazine

 

Daily Prompt:  Enroll, Permit, Creature

Since I have moved over to WordPress I have endeavoured to participate in the daily prompts & challenges offered.  I haven’t always been successful.  I mean I had gotten so busy with life I posted little of anything in the recent past.  Well, I am attempting to change that.

I have begun to get back into the blog challenges that I enjoyed taking part in.  Even enrolled in some of the self-help offerings that WordPress makes available to improve my meagre blog offerings.  So permit me to apologize to you at the beginning of this post if they have fallen short in any way.

We are all creatures of habit.  Without realizing it, we gravitate to what is comfortable to us.  Before we know it, what we think of as our style is actually only the limits our comfort zones impose on us.  It is now and has been since I began this journey into the blogosphere with Cookies & Moo to venture outside my comfort zone.  Sometimes I am successful and those are the posts I am most proud of.

I will tell you that my photography has improved with the photo challenges.  So much so that I started a sister site Wanda’s Photography.  If you haven’t seen it, take a look and please by all means let me know what you think.  I love constructive criticism.  I found some very generous bloggers who share tips and tricks about photography and I am so very grateful for their generosity.

I also created Wanda’s Reviews where I post my reviews of the books I have read.  My reading has slowed down a bit over the past year, but look for that to pick up again soon.  Again, your input is welcomed.

Last summer I had written a post in the form of a short story.  I sent it to my daughter (she’s talented and brilliant) who at my request edited it for me and gave me her input.  I decided not to publish it because I thought about turning it into a series of children’s books.  I used to love to write when I was young, but life became so busy with family and career that I gave it up.  But now, I think the time might be right for me to explore moving forward with the series.

I guess my point is that this silly blog has pulled me from what I have become so comfortable doing into exploring other possibilities.  I have met (well communicated with through this vehicle we call blogging) so many wonderful supportive people who have shared their time, talent, and trials most generously.  I am very grateful for their example and it is their example which is pushing me to stretch my blogging abilities.

Wanda

 

 

 

 

Cee’s Share Your World

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February 5

Here are this week’s questions with my answers.

What would be your ideal fantasy way to spend Monday?  I have never fantasized about ways to spend Mondays.  I know that many people have fantasies about not having to start their work week.  But for me working as a nurse on the night shift, Monday’s held no real significance for me.  I often worked on the weekend so Monday was just another day.  Honestly, I would have to say it would be the same as any other fantasy of spending the day on a beach with white sand, warm breezes, gazing out over beautiful blue water reading a good book.

What one person that you are out of contact with would you like to say thank you to?  I would like to be able to say thank you to my husband Gary.  I lost him suddenly in 2016 just one month short of 41 years of marriage.  I didn’t have the chance to tell him all of the things we always think we have the time to say.  I would like to thank him for being the most wonderful father any children could even have and to thank him for spending our marriage doing everything he could possibly do to make me happy.

List your favorite toys or games as a kid?  I loved dolls.  My favorite baby doll was Tiny Tears.  I named her Janet.  Susan was my Gerber Baby.  I still have them.  My favorite stuffed animal was Mr Dog.  He was actually a she and came with three puppies that were zipped up in her back.  One black, one brown and white.  Mr Dog looked like a basset hound with long drooping ears and was the best mommy to her puppies.  I still have her.  One of her puppies has gone missing though.  I got her for my first Christmas in 1951.  In 1957 my Pop Pop took me shopping to Lits Department store in Trenton, New Jersey.  I fell in love with a small blue and white teddy bear.  His left ear squeaked.  He is no longer the pretty blue he once was, but I still have him.  My grandfather died of cancer the following year.  That little Teddy bear still means the world to me.  I also got the first Barbie that came in a black and white striped one-piece bathing suit.  Mine had a dark brown ponytail.  I lost her when we moved from one place to another, but have replaced her with a reproduction.  Lastly, Patty Play Pal was another favorite.  I also lost her, but several years ago an anniversary edition of her was produced.  I had to get her too.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week?  This past week I got to spend time with some very talented quilters.  One thing about quilters, they are very generous people.  They share their supplies, they share their talents and they share their time.  Since moving down to North Carolina, I have been abundantly blessed by getting to know many of these women who I now number among my friends.

Wanda