From my backyard

Y'all know how much I love odd news. You know what's better than odd news? Odd news that happens in the county I live in! The following stories were reported in the Barrow Journal (my sarcastic replies thoughts are in italics):

Image via Wikipedia

Man threatens men who got him out of jail

Two men contacted authorities after the man they bonded out of jail threatened them.

The men said they went to the Barrow County Detention Center to bond Randy Burton out of jail. Burton had been arrested after a fight which took place on July 28.

As soon as the paperwork was completed, Burton met the two men in the lobby of the jail.

According to the men, Burton said “I will kill you both and take a bat to you.”

The men said Burton continued to yell and said they would both “get what’s coming to you.”

Both men said they felt threatened by the comments.

Warrants were issued for Burton’s arrest.

1. You should have known he has anger issues since he was arrested for fighting.

2. Dude. You were in the lobby of the jail...hello? At least wait until you get home to threaten someone's life.

Bear found on deck, goat missing

Image via Wikipedia

A man contacted the Sheriff’s Office after a close encounter with a bear.

The man said his dogs were acting “crazy,” so he opened the back door to let them go outside. When he opened the door, he noticed a black bear walking up his staircase to the back deck.

The man said he quickly closed the door.

The deputy found tracks in the back yard which appeared to have been made by a large animal. The deputy searched the property, but did not find the bear.

The complainant further advised that a neighbor’s goat had gone missing a few days earlier.

1. "He quickly closed the door." I'm right there with ya buddy!

2. A neighbor's goat had gone missing....mmm hmm, that was a hungry bear!

Red haired lady targets clothing store


A deputy was dispatched to a Loganville Highway clothing store in response to a complaint by a sales associate.

The sales associate said a red haired lady comes into the store on Fridays with her two small children.

The children are allowed to make a mess in the store while the red haired lady tries on clothes.

Image via Wikipedia

The sales associate said sometimes the woman buys clothes, but often she does not. The associate said she has entered the dressing room several times after the red-haired woman has been there and found store security tags on top of the partition.

When asked why she had not called 911 before to report the shoplifting, the associate said it was against store policy to prosecute shoplifters.

The associate requested that a deputy occasionally walk through the store on Friday evenings.

1. Using your children as a distraction? That's either genius or insane. I'm voting for insane but I'm right on the fence...

2. It's against store policy to prosecute shoplifters??? I bet Target is super happy that that got published!

3. You should never trust a mysterious red haired lady...wait, my hair is red...but I'm not mysterious so I think I'm safe!

Have a great day everyone! 

Santa's Helper? Not quite..

It is the Christmas season so really I was not too surprised to come across a story this morning about Santa. Ok, it was about a mall Santa not the real Santa. Well, it was about a mall Santa and an Elf. About a bad Elf. A very bad Elf indeed.

Specifically the Santa was a Southlake Mall in suburban Atlanta Santa and the Elf was 45-year-old William C. Caldwell III who decided Santa might like some dynamite for Christmas.

Caldwell decided he wanted his picture taken with Santa so he donned the Elf costume and stood in line with the kids at the mall. When it was his turn, he told Santa he had a bag full of dynamite. Santa decided he didn't want to take any chances and called security who showed up and detained the bad Elf until police arrived and arrested him. The mall was evacuated but alas, the bad Elf was also (thankfully) a lying Elf because no explosives were found.

I think this picture sums up my thoughts about that bad Elf...

Exactly.

Hello strangers

Just thought I'd let y'all know that I haven't completely abandoned my blogs. We've moved from South Texas to Georgia and things are a little hectic right now. What is wrong with the economy? Can anyone answer that for me? Last year at this time things were wonderful and now we can barely keep a dollar in our pockets. Ugh. See you tomorrow hopefully!!

PCA is no more

Back on January 8 I began talking about the salmonella outbreak that has since been linked back to the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) and specifically to their Blakely Georgia plant. As of this past Friday, February 13, the PCA is no more.

They officially filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Virginia on Friday. Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidates all of the company’s assets and distributes that money to the company’s creditors. That’s good news for the creditors and in my opinion good news for us. We won’t have to worry about any more food coming from PCA.

In a story I read this morning it was reported that officials had also shut down the Texas plant this week because products tested there had positive results for salmonella too. When health officials went in that plant they found rodents, feces and feathers in the ceiling above the production area. Because no inspections had been made by the state there previously, ALL products ever produced there have been recalled and are being destroyed.

To date the salmonella outbreak that has been traced back to the Georgia plant has sickened over 630 people and possibly caused nine deaths. There are over 2000 products on the recall list.

I’m once again left wondering.

How many plants are producing food but not being inspected by states?
How many foods have I eaten since March of 2005 (the date the Texas PCA plant opened) that could have possibly contained peanuts or peanut products?
How lucky am I to have not gotten ill?
How many illnesses were actually salmonella but never treated so they haven’t been documented?
How many people work in plants that are nasty?
Don’t they know people are eating that food?
Don’t they care?
Why don’t they do anything to change it?
Why?

FDA Product Recall List

Not my cookies too?!?

I wrote about a week ago about the peanut butter salmonella outbreak that is causing illness all over the country. That has now been expanded to include all peanut products. Officials have tracked the salmonella back to a Georgia plant that provides peanuts to 85 food companies including Kellogg.

Keebler cookies have been pulled from shelves as a precaution and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is no longer just a bulk peanut butter issue. They are now looking at all products that contain peanuts and peanut paste including baked goods containing peanuts.

The Blakely Georgia plant is owned by Peanut Corp. of America and provides peanuts to 85 different companies. Peanut Corp. has recalled 21 lots of peanut butter that they believe to be the culprit but some companies, such as Kellogg’s, have pulled all their products that contain peanuts from store shelves. Kellogg also pulled their Austin peanut butter sandwich crackers in addition to the Keebler cookies.

Officially there have been over 450 cases of salmonella illness and six deaths from this outbreak. An elderly North Carolina man died yesterday from the same strain of salmonella that has been found in the offending foods.

Four people have died in Minnesota and Virginia (two in each state) and one person has died in Idaho. Four of those five people were elderly. Food borne illnesses are generally worse in the elderly, young, pregnant and people who have reduced immune systems.

I personally am glad I haven’t had anything with peanuts in it for a while now. At the beginning of the outbreak, it was just coincidental that I hadn’t eaten peanut products but now that it’s been in the news, I’ve purposely avoided them. I suffer from Graves Disease which is an autoimmune disease. I just can’t take that chance.

While I don’t expect people to cut all peanut products out of their lives, I do think at this time it would be prudent to check all your packages for peanut products and specifically for who produced those peanuts and if it was the Peanut Corp. of America. 85 companies produce a lot of products. And many products either contain peanuts or were cooked in peanut oil and people are unaware of it unless they have a peanut allergy.

I have been known to enjoy a Keebler cookie on occasion however and knowing that Kellogg was worried enough to pull them from the shelves has me scared. The only upside that I can see from this outbreak is the companies will be more aware of the situation and hopefully do more to test their products BEFORE they are sent out to the public.

Our Georgia trip

We made a trip to Georgia back in July for the birth of our grandson Gavin. It was an unexpected trip. We had planned on going in September when Gavin was actually due, but he couldn’t wait that long. He wanted to be here now! Thankfully everything turned out ok and he is happy and healthy at home.

While we were there Tim took me to see Stone Mountain. I had never been. I had heard of it. Many years ago my parents had taken a vacation and Stone Mountain was one of the places they visited. I had even seen pictures of what my father had dubbed The Mount Rushmore of the South. I don’t know if that was something it was really called. He was funny like that. He liked to give things names.

But up to the point that Tim took me, I had never seen it with my own eyes. It was breathtaking. I was literally in awe looking at the etching on the mountain. I couldn’t believe anyone could carve something like that.

We took the skylift up to the top of the mountain. Again, beautiful. Heights aren’t exactly my thing but once we were on solid ground I was able to enjoy the view.

There’s an entire park surrounding the mountain. There are places for the kids to play. And I hear they put on an awesome Fourth of July fireworks show. Maybe next year we’ll make it in time to see it. I hope so. I think I could love Georgia without much effort. It’s truly a gorgeous state.