Tuesday,October28
Cody's Mom stopped by today. She is out of prison, living with her boyfriend in
Wayland, and is clean for the time being. She says that she is back in school and is hoping to change her life around. She must have said thank you about 100 times. She said the fact that we forced her to look at herself is the reason she is changed. I hope this is for real and only time alone will tell.

Change ... Change -- Change!!!!!!!!!!

Not long ago I read a joke ... It said all the politicians running for president are promising change to the American people. We send them billions and billions of tax dollars and they send us the change.

Funny?

Not really; there is too much truth in it to be funny.

That got me to thinking ... They all promise change. How about if they run on a promise of restoration rather than change. A restoration that would take us back in time to a place where things ran better, smoother and life was more enjoyable. Change? That, in truth, is what they have been giving us all along.

We used to have a strong dollar ... Politicians changed that.

Life used to be sacred ... Politicians changed that.

Marriage used to be sacred ... Politicians are changing that.

We used to be respected around the world ... Politicians changed that.

We used to have a strong manufacturing economy .. Politicians changed that.

We used to have lower tax structures ... Politicians changed that.

We used to enjoy more freedoms ... Politicians changed that.

We used to be a large exporter of American made goods ... Politicians changed that.

We used to be an openly Christian nation ... Politicians changed that.

We used to teach patriotism in schools ... Politicians changed that.

We used to educate children in schools ... Politicians changed that.

We used to enjoy freedom of speech ... Politicians changed that.

We used to enforce LEGAL citizenship ... Politicians changed that.

We used to have affordable food & gas prices .. Politicians changed that, too. ... and one could go on and on with this list.

What hasn't been changed, politicians are promising to change that as well if you will elect them.

When, oh when, is America going to sit back with open eyes and look at what we once were and where we have come and say, enough is enough?

The trouble is, America's youthful voters today don't know of the great America that existed forty and fifty years ago. They see the world as if it has always existed, as it is now.

When will we wake up? Tomorrow may be too late. When will America realize ... Politicians are what is wrong with America?

Friday morning, according to the news, it could be black Friday. It is 9:13 am and the news media are predicting a rough day on wall street. Hey wall street, welcome to our nightmare. Even Alan Greenspan admits he was wrong about the economy. He is now calling it a recession. Wake up, we have been in a recession, we are now starting to talk depression.
Another thing that is happening is a political move called, "watch my hand". Misdirection is something politicians do to avoid a subject they don't want to address. To get your mind off Iraq, we will talk about the economy. To get you mind off the economy, take a look at the political race......... Spin doesn't work anymore.
Back to Wall Street. What does gambling and wall street have in common? Answer.....The House always wins.

Well here we go again............
Monday night we laid Samantha Anne Van Antwerpen( our cat) to rest in a special spot in out yard. Donald and Akiko came up and we had a Small service. Donald laid his cat to rest and did the honors of covering her up. Samantha has been his cat for 14 years. Now that Donald is married, Sams job on earth was done.

On Monday and then again on Tuesday I was in court to set up preliminaries for Codys fishing ticket and Lindsey's car issue. What amazed me was the volume of people that were there, until I started to hear the charges. One was a dog running loose ticket(30 dollar fine plus 70 dollar court cost). This guy pleaded guilty because he didn't have the time to fight it. He was out of town when his dog got out of a fenced in area. He suspects that someone let him out, but he pleaded out for 100 dollars which he felt it was better then fighting it. The other side of the coin showed people with many tickets and still having a drivers licence. Pay the fine and keep the licence.

I noticed today that India had it's first successful lift off of a flight to the moon. No, this is real and not a joke. The joke is how long it will take for them to put a customer assistance center on the moon. I believe their country is full of customer assistance.(try calling any customer, or help line and you will get someone in India).

Today at 4:40 PM Samantha left this world. She was too old and too sick, so we had to put her down. If we didn't put her to sleep, she most likely would not have survived the week, and always in pain. In the end she could not walk, and her systems were shutting down. We will bury her tonight. Samantha will be missed. Sam was Donald's cat.

Our oldest cat, Samantha, has been losing alot of weight lately, and now is skin and bones, doesn't want to eat or drink anything. She is 13 yrs old and is mostlikly at the end of her life. She has a vet appointment today at 4 pm, and then we will decide what to do. She is not in pain, but she is just wasting away and can hardly move around. Our middle cat, Tabatha, started to lose weight at the same time, but when we switched her to soft food, she has seemed to respond. Our youngest cat, Pauwz, is fat and very healthly. All three cat are indoor cats, and both have been spaded.
This morning at 10:45 we have tto appear with Cody to contest his ticket for fishing for salmon is a trout stream. There were no signs, and the DNR man said that anyone should know the difference between a trout stream and a salmon stream. Obviously the salmon and the trout are also confused. All the fish that Cody caught were salmon and there were no trout anywhere.
Kari's Mom keeps demanding that Kari return home, but everytime Keri tries, her Mom locks her out and says that she is not wanted. Her father and step father are the same way. They don't want Kari living with us, but they don't want her. I thought teenagers were mixed up, but these folks,....................... We were ready to go to church last night when her mom called. After two hours, her mom concluded that she did not want Kari, but would pray for her. That is two hours I will never get back.

It's Friday and I feel I'm letting Cliff down. This week has had little excitement as compared to other weeks. Let's see.................
Kari, was suspended from school for one day for swearing at another student. Cody has to serve a day in "In school suspension" for using his phone during school hours.
This week I have been putting up storm windows, and painting others. This also includes cleaning screens and putting them away.
Real excitement

By our standards this week has been pretty slow. Cat and Sean got home from their honeymoon yesterday morning. They had a great time and are now starting to look for a new place to live.
All 3 of our high schoolers decided to take the day off from school yesterday. One was suspended for the day, and the other two felt left out. Their joy was short lived when I put them all to work around the house and at church. They were helping also to clean and put up the storm windows.
I went down to the secretary of states office to straighten out the car that LJ uses. She got a ticket because the plate were wrong because her ex-boyfriend stole the title and got his own plates for the car. Well, even though the secretary of states office truly screwed up when they issued him the plates, they say that there is nothing that they can do about it because it is now a civil matter. Talk about passing the buck.

Sunday Morning waking up. After driving overr 300 miles yesterday, we returned home around 10pm. Cody was gratfull that we came and got him or else he would have had to sleep outside the bus terminal because non of his relatives have cars. (I'm not kidding). He got to see his grandmother and that is important. Now at 8 oclock in the morning I have to run over to church to make it ready for worship service. I ussually do that on Saturday, but for those hours spent driving, I could not do that.

Well, Liz and I are off to Bay City. It seems that Cody's family reunion hasn't gone as he hoped. Even though I had said that this would happen, everyone else said I was wrong. Guess what? I was right. Surprise Surprise. I should put togather a list of "I told you so", but that would just piss everyone off. Here is hoping that all goes well.

The people have voted. On Bolgspot and Live Journal the two who voted have agreed that I am nuts. Although no one has suggested a place for me to wear my nice white coat with the straps, crazy seems to be the best word. Well.............when I look at my friends, I feel in good company. I don't have to worry about losing millions of dollars in the stock market, because I am not invested. Now these people are really crazy. I would rather bet on black and let the wheel spin. The president of the United STates has no clue what going on, and he keeps giving the same speech on how everything is fine. Now that is crazy. The people of Michigan have a Governor that has driven the state into the ground, and she keeps blaming the other party, that is crazy. If she ran for re-election today she would most likely win, that is crazy. Open intersections, that is crazy. You can't catch salmon in a unmarked trout stream, but it doesn't matter if you are Indian, that is crazy. In a country where you are suppose to be innocent until proven guilty, 9 out of 10 times you are guilty until you prove your innocence, that is crazy. With all this craziness going on, if some had said I was sane, I might be offended.

I need to write a book. What happens around our house could make a best seller. Those of you who follow my post(Lord Knows why) know that this year we took guardianship of a 17 year old, had three marriages of my kids, my wife has been hospitalized, and I've had on going heart problems. I had thought that after the last wedding, things would calm down, but noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I have a quack dentist taking us to small claim court for work that he botched back in 2002. That same day we have to appear in small claims because of Mosley driving school. They failed Cody after just driving around the block. I paid for a full road test, highway driving etc., and got a drive around the block. I stopped payment on that check. Cody went fishing this week and got a ticket from the DNR because he caught salmon from a trout stream. This stream was not marked. This ticket could cost up to 700 Dollars.
Last night Lindseys female friend was arrested because of unpaid fines and driving on a suspended licence. On her way to help out her friend she was pulled over by Roosevelt Park's finest. I had sighed the car over to her, but her boyfriend a stolen the title . I went down to DNV last week and reported it lost, and they issued a new title. I had asked them what would happen if someone else used the first title to try to gain plates, and they assured me that there would be no problem. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Her boyfriend had used the title and went down and got new plates for the car, and since the plate now didn't match up, they were going to arrest Lindsey and the people in her car, impound the car and give Lindsey a ticket to appear in court. At one am in the morning I had to get out of bed, find my paperwork, and try to stop them from impounding the car. I was successful in avoid having the car impounded,no arrests, also talked him out of towing the car to our house (me paying the tow charge), and was able to drive the car home. The officer took the licence plate and still gave Lindsey the ticket to appear.
On top of all this, Cody wanted to drive to BayCity for a family reunion. I had to come up with $100.00 for a round trip ticket on Greyhound.
On top of this, we have another child with family problems that needs a place to stay. Her mother and father don't want her, but they don't want her living at home unless she gets a job, and give them all the money. She is still in high school.
For those of you who know us, we have always had an open door policy, and our home has always been a safe haven for trouble kids, and other friends of our children. Instead of running the streets at night, they have a safe place to stay.
Those of you who think I'm crazy, raise your hands.

Thursday morning. I've just gotten Cody, Lindsey, and Karri off to school. Yes, we have brought one more troubled teen into our house. I'm not sure how long this one will be here. She's a good kid and hopefully we can reunite her with her Mom. Both Kerri and her Mom are tired of arguing.

Cody's father called him the other day. Seems he has a women on the east coast and one in Muskegon, both baring his child. He pays no support for any of his other kids.

I'm off to church for a few hours to clean.

Most of us don't remember 1929. Many of us will remember 2001. 2001 was the last recession and 1929 was the last depression. Yesterday was the first time I have seen these two dates mentioned together in a same article. Our great financial figures are now starting two use these two dates. If you were to look back a ways in my blog history you would find I predicted this. Little ole me, who can hardly balance a check book, little ole me who thinks the word prime is what you do to a pump to get it to work. Now these wizards of wall street are starting to use word like recession and depression. They were afraid that if they used these words, it would then happen. Our fragile economy can be crushed by a careless use of a word? This isn't just happening folk, this has been happening for a while. People have been making fortunes off speculations. I call it capitalism gone amok. The one's who defend an unfettered free enterprise system are getting bailed out. You don't fix a problem by throwing dollars at it, dollars just burn and fuel the problem.

Unbelievable. My oldest daughter got married this weekend. This was two weeks after my oldest son got married. Being the parents of the bride, we had to pay to Lions share. Along with that we paid a bunch of Donald and Akikos and the first wedding we paid in full. In other words, I'm happy, and broke.
The rehearsals and wedding went off relatively without a flaw. By the end of the reception, I was in no shape to drive, or even walk and talk. I enjoyed myself to the fullest. I haven't drank that much, smiled that much, and danced that much in a long time. I guess the women wanted to dance with the drunk fat man. What the hell, I am so proud of my daughter, and so happy for her that I wanted to enjoy it to the end. Since I was paying for it............ it was party time. Liz was fantastic through the whole thing. She started to pick up at the end, and in her sweet way got everyone helping to clean up. We didn't get home until around 4am. (I think)
Catherine was absolutely beautiful and was the happiest that I've ever seen her. I was so proud walking her down the isle. My little girls was not playing dress up this time. One half of our family is married. Lindsey and Cody still have to get married, and hopefully that won't happen for a while.
I was upset that only about half of the people that rsvp ed didn't show up. I will try to save much of the food, and store the paper products until the next party.

It is the day before the wedding. Last night Liz and I had to go out to Revenna to pay the reception hall. This was the first time that I had seen the hall. It is very beautiful, but come on, it is way out in the sticks. We took the pickup truck so I did feel at home.
The church is already set up, so we don't have to worry about that. Today we have to purchase the food, table servings and set up the hall. Liz has to finish sewing some skirts for the flower girls. The rehearsal and dinner is tonight and tomorrow is the big day. Also today, I have to pick up Louie's "58 from the shop. He is chauffeuring the couple.

Did you ever have one of those days when you know that you are forgetting something. When trying to get this wedding going I need a list to remember things. I just keep losing the list. I always keep hoping it is not Alzheimer's. I realize it is most likly sometimers or brain farts. It could be the meds along with the stress. Why am I doing this? I can't remember.

Wednesday October 1, 2008.

Yesterday was the first time it has felt like fall. It was cold and rainy. Things were much sunnier on wall street. Without the bailout, they had a huge gain. The bailout bill is being changed, pork added, to try to get it pass the senate. Old habits are hard to break.