Friday Fragments - Feb. 22

Why is it that bad weather and illness always seem to hit on Fridays?  Can anyone tell me?  Actually, the illness has been building since Monday night/Tuesday morning when I awoke to the feeling of "stuff" shifting in my ear.  It's been building ever since and today I am about at the point of stabbing myself in the ears to relieve the pressure!  I promise I won't, but....geeeeeezzzz!  It's driving me nuts.  As for the weather, we aren't supposed to get the snow that is slamming the middle of the country, but temps are right so that the prediction is for icy roads.  So far we've seen nothing but wind and a few sprinkles, which is fine with me.  I'm getting kind of tired of driving the bus through Friday afternoon blizzards.

Well, Mom and I had a new experience this morning.  She called me on my way home from work and asked me to stop and buy her a package of Depends.  Uh, I knew those days were coming around the corner, but that sure was fast.  I was wracking my brain trying to think what could have brought her to this point so quickly.  Seems I forgot she is getting a colonoscopy done today.  The Liquid Plumber stuff she had to drink to flush out her system is giving her a rough time and she was just nervous about going out.  Still, it was a taste of things to come, I guess.  Mom will be 69 this year.  Not old by today's standards, but not young, either, and she's always been kind of an old soul.  She acts older than people I know who are several years older than she is.

Tim has put Megan to work.  Literally.  Our pastor is always telling him to hire on any help he needs for the work on the old church building our church is remodeling, so he decided he was going to put her to work cleaning up the mess around the building (some of our workers are not so careful when they work and make big messes).  She did that the first night, but none of the other men have shown up this week so he's been using her to help him with building projects.  It's a win-win situation.  They're spending more time together, she's actually out of bed and doing something, she and I can't argue if she isn't here, and she's getting paid.  What's not to like about the situation?

I've got a date (sort of) with my hubby tonight.  It's the Lenten season and that means fish fries.  Well, it does around here, anyway.  We've both been saying how we'd like to go to one and get some good fish.  He called me this morning and suggested we go tonight, so he's going to meet me at the bus garage after work and we're going to a fish fry just down the road.  I picked that one because you don't have to have cole slaw or mac and cheese with your fish.  They also have fries, pierogies, and halushki.  Yum!  

Friends of ours have really been through the wringer the last couple of years.  The husband went to the hospital with a ruptured appendix and found out if he hadn't gotten there, he likely would have died within hours....the infection had spread that much.  In the course of being treated and healing from that, doctors discovered that he had very advanced and aggressive colon cancer.  He had to have major surgery for that, from which he got a major infection that nearly killed him.  The follow up treatment was MASSIVE doses of chemo and radiation that sapped him of strength, made him sick as a dog, and have left him with neuropathy (a severe tingling in the hands and feet).  He has a colostomy bag and has fought more than one infection and depression has hit more than once.  On top of the physical and mental toll, the financial burden is beginning to   hit.

Just as life should be starting to get better (he's back to work) and they could start digging their way out from under the medical bills....life has smacked them down again.  This time the blow comes from their adult daughter, a former foster child that they adopted when she was 10 or 11.  The girl (woman) met "the love of her life" in high school and the road has been downhill and rocky ever since.  She was older because of being in the foster system so she was able to move out to live with the boyfriend before she finished high school.  The boyfriend has been in and out of jail for a wide variety of things.  The daughter avoided jail for writing bad checks because she gave her parents a sob story and they paid her restitution.  The two have two beautiful children, a 2 year old boy and an 8 month old girl.  Even that hasn't kept them from getting involved in drugs and continuing a life filled with crime, bad choices, and violence.

Last month it came to a crashing end.  The boyfriend bought drugs from someone staying with "friends" of his on Friday night.  By Saturday morning he'd hatched a plan to rob the drug dealer of his drugs and money.  Our friends' daughter drove him there and she and another woman drove down the road to wait a while.  What happened next is anyone's guess.  The bottom line is that a gun entered the picture and the boyfriend ended up dead, shot in the head and chest.  The daughter and three others are sitting in jail.  There was one preliminary hearing already.  It's continued today.  In Pennsylvania if you are involved in a felony crime where someone is killed, you are charged with homicide even if you had nothing to do with the actual killing.  The line of thinking is that your actions contributed directly to the death.  So, the lot of them are facing charges of homicide, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.  If I understand correctly, they've offered our friends' daughter a plea bargain.  In exchange for testifying against the others (who apparently are all trying to say the plan was always to kill the boyfriend and she was in on it), the charge will be dropped to 2nd degree homicide.  Worst case scenario with that.....life without parole.  In the meantime, two kids have pretty much lost both parents and our friends find themselves in their 50s, with health issues and financial problems raising two children.

I am really concerned about our friends.  The stress is getting to them.  I know the husband is depressed.  They are having dinner with us tonight.  They need someone to vent to.  Please, if you are the praying type say one for their family.

Well, this chick is going to try and catch a bit of a nap before heading back to work.  It wasn't a good night for sleep and I'm kind of sleepy today.  Have a wonderful weekend!