Well, Yesterday was spent trying to learn about blogs and their usefulness. I have always been kind of a poineer among my peers when it comes to things of the internet. I was the first person I knew that had AOL (many, many moons ago). Now, I have many friends and even family that use the internet in some way or anther.

My parents were much older (Dad was 40, mom was 38)when I was born. Very old fashioned, very church-going; Sunday morning Sunday school, sunday night, wednesday night, and every night of revival during two weeks in the summer.

Mom was very stern. She was the authoritarian in the house. Pretty much, what she said was the last word, but also very tender and sweet. She wasn't crafty like making quilts, but could sew her own clothes, she could crochet and made many afgans, and make something usefull out of nothing. When I got married (that will be another post later), she made me a beautiful afgan that I treasure. It is my "Linus' blanket". She was a friend to all, unless you pissed her off, then she was pretty much done. Otherwise, she would do anything anyone needed her to do. The last 5 years of her life she spent working home health care, taking care of people, sometimes younger than her, that needed help. She was not a nurse, but would help with light cooking and cleaning and making sure her clients had the things they needed to get through the day.

She stayed at home most of my life. When I was born, she worked in a chicken plant, and quit shortly after my birth. Stayed at home with me and my older sister, Donna. By then, my oldest sister, Sandy, and my brother, Jimmy were already married and out of the house. I think Sandy lived at home until I was about 6. Once I got into high school, she went back to work in a Lee Co., manufacturing denim jeans. She worked there until the plant closed in 1989. That is when she started working in home health care, and did that until her death in December 1999.

He entire life was committed to my dad. By the time I was 20, I think I was the only kid I know that their parents were not divorced. She would get up at 4am, cook breakfast and dinner, clean the house, do laundry, all before getting herself ready and off to work.

Althought she was a sweet, loving, and warm person, you didn't want to piss her off. Her wrath was fierce.

My dad and I have never been as close as me and my mother were. Not sure why. We just never connected, and could never talk the way me and mother did. When I was younger we would do things together, like go fishing, swimming in the lake. Sometimes he would take me to work with him. At that time he and my brother owned a meat market, so I would help them package ground beef, and ride along on their routes. We didn't have a refridgerated truck, we used and old buick.

When mother passed, we didn't think dad would last much longer because he was so dependant on my mother, but it didn't take long for him to remarry - just a little bit over a year. I liked Ms Scott, she was a widow to a good friend of dad's, so we all knew her, and was glad that dad had someone there to take care of him. I was living in Mississippi, and my brother and sisters all had their own lives and their own problems. My sisters did the best they could to make sure he was eating and the house kept clean, but when he remarried, it really lifted the burden from them.

Well, that didn't work out. Dad said she was crazy. Im not sure if they were married a whole year and then divorced.

Not long after that, he met *Vivian* at the Waffle House, and it wasn't long before he married her. I didn't like her at all at first.

Once, when I was visiting, she made a comment to me that she was just like my mother because she loved to read gossip i.e. enquirer, star, people, etc. I didn't say anything out loud, but if she could have heard my thoughts it would have been ugly. She is NOTHING like my mother and I did not appreciate her comparing herself in that manner.

Not too long after that, my car broke down and was going to cost a fortune to get it fixed. I have been driving a 1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse since 1995. I was ready to trade it in for something else because it was not as dependable as it had been for several years. Dad had agreed to sign with me (because I had abuse my credit out of ignorance, I could not do it alone). The day I called him to go to the bank to sign the papers, he backed out because *Vivian* thought his kids were out to get all his money.

I was pissed. Not as much as dad not signing the note, but because it was none of her business. As a matter of fact, it was not going to cost him anything, except his signature. I blew my lid at dad, and let him know exactly what I thought about vivian, and warned him that if she ever compared herself to my mother again, I would not keep quiet. Well, he must have relayed the msg, because she has not done that since.

It has taken a couple of years, but I have grown to tolerate her when I visit.

Last October, there was a strange episode with my dad. He bought a part for his lawnmower that did not fit, or did not work or something that required him to take it back. My brother went with him to take it back. They could not find the receipt, but dad said he got it in gadsden. They drove around all day and could not find where he bought that part. So, they come back home and find the receipt, and it turns out the place he bought it was in Albertville, just around the corner of the house, and dad was blaming someone else for taking them to gadsden, that was not even with them.

They ran all the tests and finally diagnosed him with Alzheimer's disease. That is when I decided to move back to Alabama. That is another blog to come later on.

Not too long ago, I was talking with Sandy, and she told me that *Vivian* wanted her name on all of Dad's finances. (now who is after who's money?) Her reason was that she was the one that has to buy his medications. When they first married, the deal was they were going to keep their finances seperate ... he had his acct,and she had hers.

They agreed, but not just like she wanted. The took all but a few hundred dollars out of the checking acct and put it in a C.D. - without her name. So there, you have access to dad's acct to get his medicine, but she is still throwing a fit until it gets to the point my brother has to get in her face and basicly cuss her out.

About the same time, Donna was visiting and somehow she and Vivian started cussing at each other. Vivian called her a son of a bitch, and tried to throw her out. Donna (who has the same temper as mother did) let her know quickly that she was living in dad's house, and if anybody was leaving, it would be her. Dad had to jump in between them as vivian was swinging to hit donna.

big stink

Well, this has been the framework of my life. Im so glad Vivian did not come into the picture 10 years ago. I wonder what things would have been like then? Very, very different, I'm sure.