I am Karan from Olympia, WA.
Almost every other name used here is a pseodonym pseudonim pseudonymn alias.
The rest of it is true - mostly - and all of it is my own.
Don't even think about taking any of it, unless of course, you want to pay me.
Random Wisdom: We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time. - Vince Lombardi
The counter says that 2846373 have been flummelized, but I personally think it's all a big lie.
So....since last we visited wee Rejjie, many things have happened, all survivable yet all head-bangingly stupid. At this point in time, she’s spending every night of her life at her boyfriend’s apartment, emerging only once a week (sometimes longer) to allow us the privilege of “helping” her out. We also take that moment of connect to verify that she still breathes and is generally well. Ironically, she still considers herself living at home.
One of the benefits of her living at home is that her driving record has wrecked havoc with our automobile insurance policy. That’s not all together fair...because we own the car that she is assigned to and because she is still “technically” a dependent, she has wrecked havoc on our automobile insurance policy...wrecked havoc as in gotten us cancelled. It seems that two accidents, 3 tickets and a suspended licence are not so good for a good driver plan and not so good for us either.
Luckily the agent who tends to our automobile insurance needs gave us a heads up that our policy was getting dumped in mid-June and then worked his magic to find both Leonard and me to a new company where we can send our dollars. Rej is on her own....as in she will now have to have her very own policy that we will have to pay for.
I can see some of your heads spinning around...why doesn’t she just buy her own policy...she created the problem....let her experience the consequences. Yeah. We agree except that insurance is one of those nasty life truths that if you need to drive and get health care, you need to have insurance....and the lack of can be very far reaching, very expensive and very life affecting. So the truth of it is that the only real expense we have decided to cover for those two kids of ours is health insurance and car insurance. Period.
Now back to our reinsuring. Our new policy comes into effect on June 13th. It is a bit more bare bones than our previous policy and after spending probably more money than the cost of the windshield itself to insure, I was bound and determined to file one last claim with the old company. At this very moment, I am using McDonald’s free wifi while I await the installation of that windshield, replacing long winter-induced cracks almost all at the expense of the soon to be old insurance company.
I’m also going to spend some of this free-wifi time hunting for a new policy for Rej, either that or just sell her car and buy her a bike for all her non-insurable transportation needs.
Kids, the gift that keeps on taking.
So...I’m back in California...you remember, dialup land. This time though, we are sporting a new Verizon aircard/stick thingy that zooms us right into the space age. It seems that we weren’t the only children of Ralph who suffered with his way too slow access to the Internet and now we all contribute to the Broadband Internet gizmo pictured here which lives at his house awaiting the arrival of a serious user. I expect to whine no more, at least about this issue.
Our goal is to teach Ralph how to use it so he too can experience the joy that is speed.
Leonard’s birthday is today. We bought him a Shawn White snowboarding game for my Wii.
Sort of like a gift for me.
hehe
Nope, I don’t mean Leonard although he is the best dad I could have possibly selected for my children. The dad I wish to salute today is my father-in-law, Ralph.
A quick biography:
Ralph is born in 1918, is the third of 6 children - a Montana son of a second generation pioneer woman and a railroad man. His father’s family-man skills left much to be desired...or rather perhaps the more accurate way to portray him is that he spread himself too thin...with a wife and children at each end of the line. His father’s lack of a full commitment in presence and financial support left Ralph and his family to struggle at times and when it became necessary to work just to bring food to the larder, Ralph and his brothers quit school and signed on with the railroad, the only employer in town.
When he was about 18, his mother packed him a lunch with two sandwiches and a bottle of water, waved him good-bye and he boarded the train bound for California. In his pocket, his life savings totally $31. His plan was to join a friend in Ventura and sell men’s shoes and suits in that tiny burg and I’ve seen a picture of him standing along side the surf line as he touches the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Eventually he joined the war effort and spent his entire enlistment based in Sausalito, California. Not bad duty if you ask me. During that time, he tells a story about paying another airman $5 to cover his turn on duty so that he could go off base for a weekend job pushing a broom and earn $7. It so happens that his broom pushing job was with a packaging company that offered him a job immediately upon his separation from military life. It was also at that same company he would eventually meet the love of his life, Daisy, not coincidently, Leonard’s mom.
Time passed, Ralph learned the business, started his own highly successful packaging company and with Daisy, raised three children. By all accounts he was a strict dad but never did any of his children doubt his love of them. I met Leonard in 1979 and was welcomed open-armed into his family. It is the way of that family to collect and hold dear those that cross their paths. I still feel very lucky to have become one of them. When Daisy died in 1997, Ralph was devastated but actively worked through his grief. It was during this time, that I grew to adore him and I think, if I can be so bold, he grew very fond of me. I feel like rather than the woman his son married, I became another daughter to him and he became the father figure I missed in my own dad. Anyway, Ralph is 91 years old now. He is starting to fail physically and I think his memory isn’t quite what it was earlier in his life. (that statement there is pot calling kettle black) No matter, I love him much and I am more than willing to care for him when the time comes.
I am certain that never during his lifetime did he fail as son, brother, friend, father or grandfather. Integrity is paramount in his book and even though he has enjoyed success in all walks of life, he remains modest and appreciative of all that has come his way. If he were telling his own story, it would include funny little stories of his youth, how he met and courted Daisy plus side notes about what he considers to be personal failures. He is much embarrassed by his lack of a high school diploma and no amount of reminding him of his accomplishments erases that “short-coming”. He revels in the successes of his children, taking not one ounce of credit for the fine brood he begat or the integrity and example he’s provided and continues to provide.
So to Ralph, the man who in all ways is my father too, thank you much for being in my life!
I have no excuse for neglecting this place. There has been no catastrophe, natural or otherwise. Even though I’ve thought about Flummel, Flummer, Flummo at least 10,000 times a day, the truth is that I’ve just gotten out of the habit of returning here on a regular basis and I do miss it. I will endeavor to reassert my old habits...at least the writing habit.
That said, since I last reported:
”
So...Nikkie came down with a fever...not a good thing after major surgery. Very early on Wednesday morning, her sister and I drove her to the emergency room and waited there until tests were done and she was sent home at 6am. No sleep for any of us that night.
Later that day she had her post-op check up and a big old super powerful antibiotic was prescribed and she was given permission to drive again. I started to plan my trip back to Olympia. HOOORAY!
On Thursday, the fever returned and to the hospital we were sent again and this time, they checked her in for tests. She’s still there and on IV antibiotics and expects to be released tomorrow (that is Saturday for those keeping count).
My plans for a joyous return are on hold. In the meantime, my sister-in-law is crazy cleaning the house while I try to configure the new wireless router I bought for me them.
It’s never dull in Flummel-land South.
