Good Morning Mel!
Dang I'd be really hacked off too if some jerk ruined my nights sleep! I'm with you.....People can make noise during the day but don't make that same noise at night so I can't sleep!! I would have called the cops and gotten him for disturbing the peace!
We are pretty lucky here where I live, it's quiet here.
I hope you and Alan have a great time at Dunkin Donuts this morning. We're busy here getting ready for our party tonight. Looks like it's going to rain most of the day so we have to go to plan B.....and have the party inside...... We're disappointed because we have a great yard for a party.....oh well.....maybe our next party at Easter time we'll be able to have outside.
Have a good day Mel....maybe take a nap after going to Dunkin so it doesn't ruin your whole day.....

I have two police officers (one's a detective like they have on Law and Order) living right next door to me. I spent the other evening on the porch with the husband (he was waiting up for his wife). Even if I rang his bell (he works nights, so he wouldn't have been home), and his wife is a little bit of a thing, and you see, the noise was 5 minutes in length, but who the heck cares how long, it made me jump off the bed and it threw my back out. I have sciatica, so I don't jump off the bed usually.

No, there is really nothing I can do with the family upstairs. And wait until you hear this. Years ago, the parents were away and one of the daughters started a fire. So the firemen come, put out the fire, but there was a lot of water damage in my apartment which is underneath these people.

Now we have renters insurance. Of course we made a claim, the insurance adjusters came into our home, they then sent a cleaning crew to our home, they took all the clothes out (because of the smell of smoke), they cleaned our whole apartment, and my insurance paid for it.

Well, my insurance company sued the people upstairs for the amount of the cleaning and loss of our items. We didn't sue these people, my insurance company did. My husband even warned them the day after the fire. He said "we have renters insurance, and you will be getting a notice, it may take a while". We have always been friendly.

Well, two years pass by, and I don't know what the heck happened, but I walked out of my apartment, one of the daughters (and she's a lawyer no less), she is outside on the porch, I smile and say Hi, and she turns her back on me. I had no clue. I said "I beg your pardon, have I done something wrong?" See, I believe if you've slighted someone, get to the bottom of it, apologize and hopefully be done with it".

She never responded and every single day they would all (5 daughters) cut me dead in the front of the house. Now one can get a complex if this goes on and on. One day, I came home to find spit on the front of my glass storm door. I thought it was the crazy teenager who lives next door (who is now in prison for assaulting 5 people).

Seven days in a role someone spit on my front door. I would come home from shopping, wipe the spit off, go inside, and later when I opened the door, there it was again!!! Drove me crazy for 7 days. I had no clue.

Well, one day we are pulling up in front of the house (this happened when Alan was still driving), and there on the porch is one of the daughters talking to a friend and there is spit on my door. She was the youngest, about 19 at the time. I smile and say hello, she says hello. I then ask "Hon, who on earth is spitting on my front door" and she just looks at me and says "why it's me, you sued my family, what did you expect me to do"? I just looked at her, called my husband over and says 'it's her, she's the one spitting on our door". he said "why on earth are you doing this to us? she explained and he said "don't you remember, two years ago, after the fire, I told you that my renter's insurance would go after your family, we had this whole conversation". She started to cry, asked for my forgiveness, ran upstairs and got the window cleaner and started to wash my front door. I did not know what to do. I just stood there speechless (and I don't get speechless believe me). Now her mom had died a few months before (of that human form of mad cow), and I knew she was hurting. I just grabbed her and did what a mother would do. I hugged her.

She started to cry and I said "don't ever spit on my door again, and she apologized and all was well". It took her other sister a bit longer to talk to me. She just, all of a sudden, one day, started to speak to me. After all that time cutting me dead in the street.


So if you think I'm going to knock on doors, yelling and screaming that an old elderly man is turning on the tv for 5 minutes, well, they scare me with their unpredictable behavior. So we'll just buy earplugs.

Maybe this was a one time thing. I have no idea.

It's horrible when you don't own your own place, have unstable people living on top of you and you never know what you can expect.

This same 19 year old (when she was 15), had a fight with one of our neighbors. She pulled a knife. I grabbed her and pulled her into my living room and said "you don't pull knives on people, what is wrong with you, what would your parents say". She was so full of rage.

Well, now she's 27, still has 4 sisters. She takes care of the sick father (who she can't stand by the way), so I'm not making any waves.

Do I want to kill them?? Oh yeah!!! Will I do anything??? No, because I don't trust them. I'll continue to smile and hope that this was a one time occurrence.

I remember when she was 15 and played rock music all day and all night and drove us crazy. She doesn't do that anymore.

I just want some peace in my life. I don't think that's too much to ask for.

Melody

HI Mel! I hope you got a good nights sleep last night! That's miserable when you can't sleep and you just lay there watching the clock and you know you are laying there because of some jerk who's tv's to loud!

Well we had our annual Labor Day party last night and it was a blast. 15 people showed up and all brought yummy food and one friend brought us a 2 story Martin bird house! I love it! Now I've just got to get Mike to pound a long pole in the ground so I can get the bird house up. I'm a bird lover......actually I love all animals.
We have a little possum that's coming to our yard now. He's SO cute! He looks like Yoda from Star Wars! Last night during the party.....with all the lights, music and people milling around he just walked right across our patio! Everyone was saying "OH MY GOSH! That's a possum!" and I said "Yep that's Willey and he's a resident here!" LOL LOL
Also yesterday our humming birds were flying back and forth over the house to the feeders and flowers they like. One of our friends hadn't ever seen a hummer up close....but he did yesterday! He was sitting at one of our picnic tables which is very close to my humming bird/ butterfly garden in our back yard and a hummer came to the feeder and sat there for a solid min. eating. Our friend was amazed! We have a baby hummer this year and it's been a blast seeing him/her feeding. He's as small as my little finger!
So anyway......today Mike and I spent the morning cleaning up from the party and now we're inside because it's pouring down outside. We were lucky that it didn't rain during the party last night! We were tickled about that!!

Hi Roxie:

I wore Ear Plugs last night just in case. But Alan said nothing happened. Your household sounds like lots of action and lots of fun going on.

How blessed you are!!

Melody

P.S. Just called up my friend who has Stage 3 Lung Cancer. Been almost two years now. Her mom (who is 83) answered the phone. They all go there now every day (except for her children who can't face this). My friend can't even come to the phone anymore. I'm going there tomorrow with the access-a-ride.
How sad, she was such a good friend. Doesn't look good. She also has had anorexia for over 40 years. So I'll hug her and her family and visit for the day. That's all any of us can do. Not going to be a happy day for anyone tomorrow.
But it will pass. It always does.

HI Mel!
I'm SO happy to hear it was a quiet night at your house last night! Maybe the noise was an exception and not the rule now.

Gosh that's SO sad about your friend. I'm glad you are going to visit her. Most people who have such health problem slowly lose their friends because they can't face it. I know she'll appreciate your visit!

Mel, I am sure your friend will benefit from your visit. You are the best cheer-er upper! That is a wonderful thing to do for someone, even though it is difficult.

Mel, you amaze me. It seems you really put a lot of effort into doing for others. I am so bad about getting out and doing things like that, and I drive and have a car. You are doing it with access a ride! I want your energy and attitude!

Well, unfortunately I never learned to drive (maybe that's a good thing now-a-days given all the crazy people behind the wheel). But Access-a-ride is my only option if I want to go anywhere and for $2.00 door to door, you really can't beat that.

I just got home from visiting my friend. Boy did I get an education. I knew she was anorexic but what I just found out today is that she was bulimic up until a few weeks ago. That's correct. I thought she got over all that years ago. Seems I was dead wrong. We would go out for omellettes and I just found out today that when she got home, she would, well, do what bulimics do. I never knew. That's why she had no chance in hell in fighting the lung cancer. You need good nutrition for that fight and she still refuses to eat and they can't force her. And she was still using laxatives, even after she had her colon resected because of previous laxative use. Boy, did I learn about anorexia today. I really had no true grasp of how serious a condition this is.

She's down to 50 lbs and while I believe she recognized me, well, it's going to be over soon. I just held her, then I held her 83 year old mother and her sister, then we all went into the other room and they all devoured my muffins. You would think they never had a blueberry muffin before. Even the people across the street came in.

I wish I could say it was nice socializing but unfortunately, she is now on palliative care. The hospice person was there besides the aide. I also found out that family members can administer morphine from a dropper.

I never knew this. I always thought a doctor or nurse had to do this.

So she is without discomfort and it should end peacefully soon.

She was my good friend. I wish her a good journey.

Say a prayer, okay??

Thanks, Melody

Thank you Melody for taking time to do this. I know it must have been very hard for you to see her in this condition. I'm just glad she has family there. With my Mom in the nursing home as long as she was, I've unfortunately seen too many people in that condition altho for different reasons. It always saddened me when no family was there.

Thank you Melody for being there.

Billye

Hi Billye:

You know what used to get me about people in nursing homes (and I still don't get this to this day). Twelve years ago, both my parents were in Richey Manor Rehabilitation and Nursing Home in Florida. It was a very very nice place, very hospitable. I flew out as much as a person can fly out.

At the time I was 48 so these people in the wheelchairs were all over 75. I will never forget this one lady, always walking around with a cup of coffee. Since I didn't know her story, I met her for the first time and she looked me in the face and said "where is my room?" So I looked at her arm band and said "oh, here it is, you are in room 4B, I'll take you there". I took her to her room and on the other side of the room was another older person and there were tons of photos behind them. It's a hospital bed but a homey environment and they like when you put up photos, keepsakes, etc.

Well, this nice lady had no photos behind her bed or up on the wall or anyplace. So I put her on the bed very gently, and bid her goodbye.

Ten minutes later I see her over on the other side of the place and I walk over to her and she goes "where is my room?" I just looked at her completely baffled and I said "But I just took you to your room". Some nurse walked over and whispered "alzheimers" (I really do not think I completely understood what that was 12 years ago).

So I was visiting my parents for 5 days (I stayed in a nearby motel). I would go there bright and early and leave around 10 p.m. every night.

Do you know how many times that poor lady would ask people "where is my room?" I asked the nurse "what is her story? how come she has no photos up?" and the nurse shook her head and said "granny dumping". I said "what the hell is granny dumping".

It seems it's very common in nursing homes, people just take an elderly family member, who is senile and just dumps them at the door and drives away.

I had never heard of such a thing in my life up until that moment. I think that was the single most appalling thing I had ever heard of.

I made it my business to get that lady coffee whenever she wished. I also took out my makeup case every day and made up all the elderly ladies. You should have seen them with the fake necklaces, all my makeup, and eye shadow on them. I even gave one of them my Sudden Beauty instant face lift bottle. She liked that it tightened up her wrinkles. These ladies had a ball.

And so did I. They were all nice, but very lonely. So for 5 days, I put makeup on everybody.

It was the best thing I ever did. And the best time I ever had.

But Granny Dumping??? It should be a crime.

Melody