Its a small world after all

Oldest Son, the paramedic, was working Monday night. One of his calls was a traffic accident. A man was driving home to the Bay area and suffered a mild heart attack and heat stroke. Oldest Son ran the call and then ended up having to transport him to a hospital in Big Town, about two hours away.

Flash forward to this afternoon.

MIL and SIL Who Lives Around the Corner are waiting at the Amtrak station in Big Town. One of the nephews has been staying with MIL and they were sending him home on the train today.

While they are waiting for the train to arrive, MIL strikes up a conversation with a man sitting next to her. He starts to tell her a story about how he was on his way home and while traveling through the valley, suffered a heart attack and heat stroke and crashed his car. He had just been released from the hospital and was trying to make his way home to the Bay area.

When he told her where he was when he had his accident, she mentioned that her Grandson was a paramedic in that same town. He told her that the paramedic who helped him that night was so nice and helpful and that he even called CHP for him to find out where his vehicle had been taken. She described what Oldest Son looked like and what his name was and the man was positive they were talking about the same person.

He said if it was her Grandson who had helped him that night to make sure she tell him how very much he appreciated all that he did for him, especially taking the time to find out about his vehicle.

When SIL Who Lives Around the Corner called me, she was still at the train station. She asked me to call Oldest Son and then call her right back after I asked him if it was him who had ran that call. After I explained to my stunned son how I knew so many details of a call he ran five days ago, he was even more surprised that his GMA had actually talked to the guy. He said he had wondered what happened to him and was glad that he was okay and headed home.

When I called SIL back she said the passengers were just starting to board so she was going to try to find the man and to let him know.

Yeah, I know I am all menopausal and everything from not having enough room in the dishwasher for all the dirty dishes to the grocery store being out of half & half makes me burst into tears these days, hearing that just made my heart and my eyes fill up.

My son.

Out there helping the world.

Just kill me now

It was 112 yesterday. The record that stood for 110 years was broken. Way to go San Joaquin Valley. We rock!

You know you're in trouble when you get up at 7am and have to take a cold shower or hear people saying, "Its only going to be 107 today, and down to 104 by tomorrow, THANK GOODNESS!"

I am really surprised that we haven't lost power except for just one day. Of course, now that I said that, everything will probably kick off around 4pm today.

Hating summer, as usual.

He REALLY wants cake

J left her red flip flops here last night.

BIL found them in "The Flats". Now that he has put in a swamp cooler, everyone seems to congregate in The Flats more than any part of the house.

He asked me if I could take a picture of something for him and send to my sister with a message.


send a cake or the flip flops will be wearing cement shoes and floating with the fishes

He is holding her flip flops ransom until Daddy P makes him a cake.

Fire chasing 101

My motto, "I love drama, as long as it isn't mine", was put to the test today.

BIL and I were heading to the hardware store, my new favorite place to go since BIL moved in and loves to fix things for us, when he saw a column of black smoke off in the distance.

Me, being the voyeur that I am when it comes to that sort of thing thanks to my Dad, right away turned off the road to try and find the source of the smoke. As we were weaving our way through the streets trying to find the fire, I mentioned to my BIL that it seemed to be awfully close to where my cousin lived.

Turning down a few more streets and I commented on the fact that the fire seemed to be VERY close to her house.

As we turned the corner, I was shocked and scared to see that it WAS indeed my cousins house on fire. Talk about a sick, sinking feeling in my stomach.

We pulled in just after the fire engine got there, just as her sons and daughter-in-law were running out of the house with the baby. Right away, BIL and I asked what we could do to help. We didn't know whether we needed to be pulling things out of the house or what. The front yard was filled with black smoke so they asked us to take the baby to our car to keep him away from the smokey air. Friends and neighbors were coming over to see if help was needed but the fire department had it under control. I called J as soon as I got the baby in my van and she came rushing over, ready to start pulling pictures off the walls if need be.

Turns out, it wasn't the house on fire, thank goodness. The fence along the side of the house was totally destroyed but the fire was put out before it jumped to the house. The family is spending the night in a hotel tonight because of the smoke damage inside the house.

I've always been one of those people that firefighters hate. The ones that have to rush to a fire to watch. You would think I would know better, being that I have two sons who are firefighters, but I cant help it. Its something that was ingrained in me from an early age by my Dad, the original fire truck chaser. Maybe that's the reason both my sons became firefighters. I drug them along, just like my Dad did me.

This time was no different. I wanted to "see the fire" but it became a totally different experience when I realized it was the house of a family member in danger. It was really scary. I know this wont change me. I will still start to drool when I hear fire engine sirens blasting. The urge will still pull me to find the fire when I see smoke, but I think from today on, I will have a little more respect for the fire and the people who are involved. You just never know when it could be you or yours.

Even MacGyver had a bad day once in a while

We now have a swamp cooler in our family room, aka: The Flat (where BIL is living) and it is freakin awesome. Cool air blowing throughout the whole house, costing pennies to run compared to running our air conditioner. Now, of course, you cant run the thing once the temp hits 100, which is pretty much every single day in summer, but until it gets that hot, the thing is amazing. I wish we had got one years ago!

Our swamp cooler, (evaporative cooler for those of you not in the know) came from SIL Who Lives Around The Corner. They got a new one about two years ago and their old one had been sitting in their back yard ever since. It was in pretty bad shape when we brought it home.

Until WonderBIL got a hold of it.

We knew we were going to have to put a little time and money into it because for one, it hadn't been running for the past two years and two, the nephews had stripped it for parts for their fish tanks. BIL, who I have since renamed MacGyver, had the thing cleaned, scrapped, rewired and painted by 8am. Before we ran to the hardware store to buy the rest of the needed parts he wanted to make sure the motor was running so we plugged it in and waited for the hum of the motor to fill our ears.

We waited...

For the hum of the motor...

yeah, no hum.

Four hours later, after he had taken the motor out, taken the motor apart, taken the cords off, taken the switch apart, and then put it all back together again, we still were not hearing it.

Five hours, six hours, seven hours later...after standing out in the sun, all day, trying to find the problem, he still could not figure out what was wrong.

He was starting to get a headache from all the strain, got out his glasses and saw the problem right away.

Crossed wires.

All damn day he spent trying to figure out why it wouldn't run and it was all because he crossed two wires when he was rewiring the cord and has bad eyesight.



He fixed the problem, plugged it in, turned it on, motor hummed AND blew dust, dirt and leaves all over him.

I'm telling ya, you cant buy that kind of entertainment.

Finally released!

My nephew M-moo, being walked out of the hospital by his nurse, his GMA and his Auntie

The boy was finally released from the hospital today! He had his surgery last Thursday. He seemed to recover quickly from the appendectomy but high temps and pneumonia were keeping him from going home.

All he wanted was to go home. Oh, and to have toast.

Today he got both!

If you happen to see this...

Check out page 6, top right corner. My daughter, holding up the infamous "Bite Me" sign. An even bigger photo than what was in US Magazine. She is mortified. Again.

Page 9, top right corner. The person hold out the book for Taylor Lautner to sign, yeah, that would be my sister.

Another day, another hospital

As if we hadn't spent enough time in the hospital lately.

Yesterday morning my 17 year old nephew, M-moo, went to the doctor because he had been sick. Bad stomach pain, throwing up. What was thought to be a reaction to shrimp turned out to be appendicitis.

The surgeon said that it was gangrene and his body was preparing itself for the appendix to burst. I'm not sure how a body can prepare for something like that, but it doesn't sound good. He got there just in time. We are hoping he can come home today but as of last night he had a fever so we have to wait and see.

And speaking of hospitals, MIL was finally released Tuesday night. She was never so happy in her life as when her doctor said she could go home. The lady in the next bed was really driving her nuts. It turns out she was homeless and according to what we were able to over hear, she is there on a pretty regular basis. She will OD on her medications when ever she wants to get off the street for awhile and was put in the cardiac ward because there were no other beds for her. That's how she knew she could have coffee, even though coffee isn't allowed on the cardiac floor. Since she really wasn't a cardiac patient, she was given a two hour pass to go downstairs to get her own coffee, only to be brought back to her room by security because she was panhandling down in the hospital lobby. County hospitals, what can you say.

MIL is home, thank goodness, and she seems to be fine, but has an appointment next week with a neurologist.

Now if we can just get M-moo home, hopefully, no more sickness for awhile.

I hope.

Please.