Hurricane Remnants

In the middle of the night the cell phone alarm announced a dangerous weather condition, but the warning was too late: a huge cell from the last hurricane in the gulf made its way to our neighborhood and it was impressive.  The remnants of the storm were ferocious, with lightning striking very close by and rain falling in massive amounts. The dogs were upset by the weather conditions and cuddled closer as we were all awake from the noise of the lightning.

This morning, as we took our walk, we could see where the sudden thunderstorm brought heavy rain with it.  The streets are covered in sand and weeds, but there is no standing water. In a way, the deluge of water refreshed the landscape, smoothing out the sand and leaving it looking groomed. The debris on the streets will soon be gone as the cars driving through the debris will break it into pieces that will then sweep away with regular traffic.

My best guess is that we were in the eye of the storm as it moved through. The lightning strikes were louder than usual, which means they were closeby, and one of the  strikes actually shook the house.  We're lucky that there was no damage caused by the storm. With all the sudden rain that came with the storm, we'll have yards full of desert weeds that crop up quickly after the rain falls -- and take hours to remove from the landscape when they get tall enough to use the weed-wacker.

Welcome Fall.

Me Too

My perception of the Me Too movement is that there are far more females putting themselves out as victims of sexual assault than the bandwagon can hold.  If we are to believe the numbers by the rallies they hold and the protests they make, one would be hard-pressed to find a woman who has not been a victim of some sort of sexual assault.

And I don't believe that.

I would ask these protestors how many of them made credible accusations and/or involved law enforcement at the time of the alleged assault. Suddenly coming forward 20-40 years after an alleged assault diminishes its credibility to being a "me too" accusation without merit. It's really easy to jump on a bandwagon these days, making accusations without any credible proof, and these kinds of actions can destroy a person's life.  Public demonstrations bring out people who need public approval of their lives; people who truly are traumatized don't seek the limelight.

Ms. Ford, however, came across as a credible witness in her testimony at the confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh.  She was not hysteric and histrionic, but composed and right on point with her accusations and evidence of sexual assault all those years ago in a school setting.  Yes, she was clearly emotionally engaged in her testimony, and I believe her truth in a way I would not have had she been one of the group at the elevator who accosted Senator Flake and screamed their accusations of sexual assault at him.

Regardless of what the FBI background check affirms, Brett Kavanaugh is finished in his quest for the Supreme Court. His behavior while on the stand at the hearing demonstrates that he is too egocentric and arrogant to be a good Supreme Court jurist. He also has too much dirty laundry hanging off the lines to be at the highest level of jurisprudence, and I doubt he'll even be returned to his current Court position in light of the past week's revelations.

UPDATE:  So, I am wrong.  Kavanaugh is already sworn in as the newest Supreme Court Judge. Let's just hope that his old drinking buddies don't suddenly start talking about the good ole days when they've had a few too many beers.

Updating Sparkle

The people next door have finally both said it’s okay to find a forever home as they simply are gone too much, leaving Sparkle on her own.  She won’t stay in their yard as she has no food/no water when they’re away, and she literally climbs the chain link fence to get out. I talked with the husband the end of last week and he said “take the dog,” which I did.  Evidently, he didn’t transmit that message to his wife, who sent over the oldest son to see Sparkle on his way to school. I went over and talked to her and she said they really don’t want the dog, but the kids love her, and I told her they can come over and play with her in my yard (which she so far has not escaped).

Meanwhile, Sparkle is always right beside me whether we’re in the house or outside. She likes to be up on my bed, too, along with Daisy and Cinnamon.  Sparkle learned quickly about our morning cookie routine and waits for her bite to be fed to her.  She’s very quiet for a big dog and loves chewing on my favorite pair of sneakers that I left out – it’s been a while since I’ve had a puppy.

Friday we’re going to the vet for a check-up, rabies shot, etc., and I asked for an x-ray for the leg that the children injured when they were “playing” with her about 3 months ago.  I’m sure it’s healed and nothing can be done to undo the injury, but I’ll feel better knowing what happened.  Sparkle used to hold her leg way up, but she now uses it and puts her paw on the ground when she’s walking, so it can’t be too serious, but I need to know.  I’m also going to have her neutered as I don’t want a litter of puppies to deal with.

UPDATE:  Sparkle's leg was broken when the children played with her too roughly.  There is nothing that can be done about it now -- except to have an expensive surgery by an orthopedic surgeon, which I'm not in a position to fund right now.  She uses the leg, so it's not impeding her movement, but it's not right.  I also got all the shots she needed, and had her chipped, and got a voucher for a discount on having her spayed.

I don’t want to have 3 dogs, especially with my upcoming trip, but sometimes we receive gifts we didn’t know we wanted, and mine is a female German Shepherd dog.

Uplifting

Yesterday, the new garage door system would not work.  I had been out and about and when I returned home, I hit the down button and nada: the garage door wouldn't shut.  I tried about a dozen times to get the equipment to work, but it would start to close and then go back up.  Frustrated, I called the installer business and asked for a service tech to come close the garage door for me.

He arrived and the system worked like a charm.  He raised the door, closed the door, raised the door, closed the door a dozen times and it worked perfectly.  Feeling like a fool, I told him that I had tried to get the door to shut and it hung up at the same place every single time I pressed the button.  He said he believed me, but he can't fix a problem that he can't see.

Okay, so now, every time I leave, I'm going to wonder if I have to cast a magic spell to get the door to close!  Technicians always say that the most challenging problem to fix is an intermittent problem as they have to be able to replicate the problem to find a fix for it.  I'm going out later this morning, so I'm just going to remain optimistic that the darned door will close for me.

Caught in the Act

The General Manager for some Denny's restaurants in our area called me.  She had received my comments from the Denny's website and wanted to apologize for the experience we had at the I-10 store. She said that she had negative feedback before, but mine was more specific and gave her something to work with.  She asked me to go back to the restaurant Monday and see if the experience was different. She would comp our dinners and we would be "secret shoppers."

I agreed and last night, we went to Denny's.  The crew must have been expecting us because we were treated like visiting royalty!  Every single person on the crew greeted us personally and came back during our dining experience to see how things were going.  Last visit? No service; This visit? Too much service.  I told Y we had been made and they knew who we were and were going way out of their way to provide us with the ultimate in service.  He asked me how they would know who we are, and told me that maybe I was just overreacting.

As we finished dining, the supervisor came over to our booth and thanked us for coming back and giving them a second chance to get it right. She apologized for our previous experience and told me we are always welcome at their restaurant.  Nope, we hadn't identified ourselves … but she knew.

I'm not sure how informative our feedback would be about this visit as they obviously knew who we were and went overboard to see that we had a good dining experience. The food was prepared properly, the service was good, and the experience was fine. I'll recommend to the GM that she send in another couple of secret shoppers to see if the crew performs as well for strangers.