Bad day on our highways

Everyday is a news day for me but today is a local news day. It seems like all the stories that caught my eye this morning were from in or around Houston. And most of them involved cars and speed.

A 22 year old man was reported to have been driving in excess of 100 mph when he crashed his Chevy Cobalt carrying himself and his 18 year old girlfriend into a van with five family members in it. All but the driver of the speeding Cobalt and a 59 year old female passenger in the van were killed in the accident. The driver that caused the accident is unaware that these deaths occurred yet. Killed in the accident were the 18 year old girlfriend, a 78 year old man who’s birthday is today, his brother and sister-in-law who were both 83 and his 60 year old nephew. The family members had traveled to celebrate the 78 year olds birthday.

In the second accident, a 17 year old stole a pickup truck and was spotted by police. He ran from the officers and subsequently crashed into a SUV in the intersection of South 79th and Elwood in Houston. The accident killed a 23 year old man that was driving the SUV. The 17 year old has no license and claimed to have ‘found’ the car.

A third accident occurred when a ladies vehicle was carjacked. Thankfully the carjacker allowed her to remove her children from the vehicle before he took off in it. The police chased him until he crashed into a gas meter. No one was hurt in this accident but a nearby restaurant had to be evacuated because of the leaking gas.

And finally, at a Low Rider car show one of the vehicles carrying a family involved in the celebration burst into flames. A three year old was in a car seat in the back of the car. The father managed to get his son out of the burning vehicle, but they both suffered burns and are being treated at the Medical Center.

I hate to drive. It’s a true story. I would rather be a passenger than a driver. Accidents like these make that feeling even stronger in me. Tim is an excellent driver and I would rather put my faith in him. Not that I’m a bad driver. I just get nervous and I know I shouldn’t be in control of a vehicle when I’m nervous.

I also know that accidents happen in a split second and sometimes even the most experienced and confident drivers are still involved in them. My heart goes out to the families of the victims in the accidents I’ve talked about this morning. I pray they find peace in whatever way they can. I know that’s easier said than done.

And the winner is...

Some of my favorite news stories involve people that aren’t all together there. You know what I mean, they’re a few crackers short of a box, their elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor, they’re not the sharpest tool in the shed.

These criminals tickle me. Not that I like the fact that they are criminals. I don’t like criminals. But I do think the stories written about them are too funny and in most cases they get caught because of their less than genius actions.

I like to give them awards. They are ‘boobie awards’ in my mind. These people do things or say things that 99.9% of the general population believes to be unintelligent.

Usually I’m the only one that is aware this award was given. I don’t normally talk about them. They are silent awards. Just for me. I assume most people agree with me and that makes it unnecessary to announce them.

But this week I just couldn’t keep the winner to myself. I found this particular criminal SO unbelievably deserving of the award that I felt the need to announce it. So without further ado, the winner of this weeks ‘boobie award’ goes to…

Feliks Goldshtein of Highland Heights, Ohio

Feliks decided to rob a bank. He prepared himself by donning a ski mask and grabbing his toy gun. He then went into the crowded bank and patiently waited in line amongst the other bank customers for his turn while wearing the mask. When he reached the teller she told him to remove the mask, he said no and showed her his toy gun. He took some money and left only to be caught a few minutes later thus securing his place as my ‘boobie award‘ recipient of the week.

As an added note, Feliks also wins my prize for the weirdest original spelling of their name. I think he even beat Meyghan.

It could have been SO much worse

When my daughter was in her infant and toddler years, her father and I lived basically in the middle of nowhere. We were surrounded by woods and a wonky, practically straight down hill that had a twisting road cut through the middle of it. There was a lot of wildlife. You could watch whole groups of animals cross that road if you were quiet and sat in just the right spot. There were bears, wolves, even a panther that stayed on top of that hill and screamed like a murder victim in the middle of the night. I thought they were beautiful creatures but I’m no fool, they were dangerous too.

So we kept guns. I loathe guns. I grew up with military parents and was made to learn how to shoot. Our father would take us out to our Uncle Alfred’s ranch and set up targets and we’d all take a turn. If we didn’t do well, we’d take three or four turns. Perfection was a big thing in my family growing up. But I learned and I can handle a gun if it’s required of me.

There were many weeks that I sat alone in that log cabin with a young baby as my only company. I had to protect her as much as I had to protect myself. So the guns were there. Luckily I never had to shoot anything although one time I did fire it into the air because a brown bear was on the hill directly next to the house. I could see it out the kitchen window! And I really didn’t want it to get comfortable there.

I don’t consider myself anti-gun even though I hate them. I believe there are times that a gun is the only answer. And I don’t consider myself pro-gun either. I’d rather not have one in my house and do not have one now that I live somewhere that all the animals are either in peoples houses or behind cages in the zoo.

I saw in the news where a four year old in Ohio shot his 18 year old babysitter because he stepped on his foot. The fact that he shot someone out of anger at four years old is a whole different story but for him to be able to get to a gun and actually shoot someone is shocking. Why wasn’t it locked up? We always kept the guns in a gun cabinet behind bulletproof glass (yes, I know) and two locks with the keys being kept in different very out of reach places. I just can’t imagine leaving open access to a weapon that causes death to any child of any age but especially with a four year old in the house.

They said in the story that no charges were being filed against the four year old. Well duh is all I can think of to say. At least in the video they suggested that the parents may be charged with something. Negligence maybe? I would think so. I know I’m not perfect, far from it actually. But I also know not to leave a gun sitting around LOADED just waiting for the accident that’s sure to follow. I’m glad the babysitter is ok and I hope these parents have learned a valuable lesson.

And the work begins

I only have about nine of my posts from my original Crazy Life site that I can post here. It's ok though. You live and learn. I just keep telling myself that. So...

I'm going to go ahead and do the work to put those nine posts here. It's nine more than I would have had if I was starting from scratch. I understand I am starting from scratch really. But what can you do?

You have to laugh

So many of you that have spent time following my ramblings knows that I can be a royal, for lack of better words, goob. I had the idea that I could move my website over here to Blogger and therefore save us a little money each month. It wouldn’t be a ton of money, but every little bit helps.

I proceeded to know that I could import my already existing Crazy Life blog to Blogger and all would continue on as it was before. I set up the blog from my dashboard. I hit import blog. It said importing blog. Then it said oops!

Oops was not really the word I was hoping to see. Something along the line of success! would have been much better. But alas, my goob self decided it was not a problem. I would just leave my website alone. No loss no gain.

No issues with that, right? Right (said with pure sarcasm in my voice). No issues. No blog, but no issues. I have to say the deleting of my cookbook a week or so ago was a lot worse than this. This time I didn’t cry. I just sighed and said to myself that I should have known better.

All of my links lead you to this page that you are on now. At least I got that part right. Or so it seems. I’ll have to go through the three million places I have my links posted and make sure they all work.

I do have some of my posts saved. Not all of them. Not the last months worth. But it’s ok. You live and you learn and you go on because to do anything else would just be silly.

I’m not going to stress over it. I’ll go through the posts I have saved and repost any of them that I like on this site over the next few days. And then I’ll just start over. It will be ok. And at least I’m laughing.