Go Pistons!

The Great Cache-count Race: It's now 1775 the beginning of September. I am reminded of the Caterpillar pillar in Hope for the Flowers.

Our local radio station, KFBK, discovered a couple of weeks ago that a local man drew the pictures of World War II that are in the Smithsonian exhibit. He's in his late 80s and said that he'd sure like to see the exhibit and the WWII Memorial. A local developer, Alex Spanos, called and offered his personal plane, for the vet, his family, a doctor or nurse if needed, etc. So they flew to Washington for the dedication, and the radio station was broadcasting stories till Reagan's death eclipsed all else.

Well, this apparently got them all thinking, and Spanos chartered a United plane to take 65 vets and a companion, so the radio had a fund drive today. They wanted $100,000 for this (meals, lodging, stuff in Washington) and got $260,000+! So once this "Freedom Flight" is over, they will send other vets by regular airplane. Rush Limbaugh donated $50,000 himself.

I don't know why I get nervous about these court dates. It isn't like they'll throw me in jail if I get it wrong. I spent at least 2 hours polishing up the court report (which is pretty easy since I start with last year's and just update it, from the spreadsheet I keep as we go along) and prayed over it a lot. (*I* couldn't go to jail, but I could mistakenly get a like fate for Casey if I were stupid.) I sent it via e-mail to the office and then went off to the funeral, so I wasn't at all sure everything had worked out all right. Then my supervisor is on vacation, so I couldn't even call and find out how it was going. We printed up a couple of (non-letterhead) copies just in case.

At the courthouse, I went into the courtroom when the doors opened. I'd noted with surprise someone videotaping, but it turned out to be an adoption. Then the judge came out to set schedules, asked first off if anyone was here for "Casey." I raised my hand, and he waved back, and said "well, she waved, I'll wave back" since he really meant the lawyers and all. Embarrassing. Then he said "I hope the CASA comes, because I'd like to talk to them" and the presenter said I was there.

So now I was really nervous, since I was expecting to have to defend or further explain something in the court report. Eeek. I kept telling myself, "it's all right, he won't bite" but it didn't help much.

Scheduling took about 20 minutes, and then the judge walked out and walked back in, official court time now. (Nobody stands, there's no "hear ye, hear ye!") Another case was heard first, while I finished reading the social worker's report. Then it was our turn. I went up and sat at the table next to the child's attorney, who was a substitute. (As was the judge, in fact.) Everyone accepted the social worker's report. Then His Honor asked me if I had anything to add, and I said "no." He went on to say he'd read my report, did I have anything to add to it. "No, your Honor." Then he said he'd noted, in the social worker's report, that Casey had three important people in the child's life: mother (who hasn't been seen for over two years), foster mother, and me. The judge said that my dedication, seeing the kid every week and going on outings, was wonderful and he commended me. Wow. And the hearing was over, and I floated out of the courtroom.

This afternoon I went to see "Raising Helen" which was fluffy, but cute.

I've been dancing on the upper limit of my Yahoo! 6 meg email limit, so the last time I was on the Netscape machine, I dumped out the old mail, which helped. Today, to my astonishment, they've raised my limit to 2 gig, and the red "trouble bar" is no more. Well, maybe it is, but it'll take some time to know! Also, instead of 100 spam addys in the filter, I can have 200. So, apparently there were some bugs, and for much of the day I couldn't get to my mail at all. Motley Fool points out this is in answer to Google and gmail, and all I can say is, I hope some serious competitor to Geocities comes up and Yahoo! again responds by increasing bandwidth, since I've been hovering at the top for years and every so often I have to go delete pictures. Competition is a wonderful thing.

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I hope he's right!

What's so wrong with interrogation?

France is nice this time of year.

Snicker... Kerry working closely with Reagan...

PJ O'Roarke:

Just as today Kerry is brave sailor/bold war protester; foe of Saddam/friend of Hans Blix; political underdog/entitled nominee; big government liberal/corporate tax-cutting conservative; rider of Harleys/marrier of Heinz; and, incidentally, still a real jerk.

The Lt. Gov. of Massachusetts called on Kerry to resign. Flipflop said he was representing the people by running for President. That's why he missed the tie-breaking vote on a subject he holds dear, no doubt.

Gee, I wonder why?