How odd??? That's so strange that he would be an abuser without parental participation. But, as I type this, I'm remembering the story of the woman who finally jumped out of a window one day to escape her rapist brothers as written in the 'log book' at the Casa Myrna Vazquez battered women's agency hot line. The book was kept as both a teaching tool for other hot line workers and as one of many methods of cleansing for those who had taken the calls. The only bright spot in the whole exercise being that the stories were obtained because a woman had actually been able to make the call. My family preferred the more subtle, yet just as tried and true, emotional battery. She's not changed that much, but what she gets away with unashamedly has, forcing different changes whether she likes it or not. I'm glad for you that you've been able to find an internal, peaceable way to take control of your life. A prime example that the solution for all people doesn't necessarily have to involve picking up the sword, so to speak...

Ooooh... I'd love to own a pet squirrel! That whole fear of rodents thing people have, I just don't get. Of course, somewhere living in Boston Common is a squirrel who's p'ssed at me. Walking through one day, (something I admit to not doing nearly enough.. heading 'downtown' as we like to call it, is just such a pain in the a**) I looked at the little guy and decided to do a 'tnck 'tnck 'tnck just for the h'll of it. Didn't dawn on me that the sumbitches there'll actually come over!!! Nope - didn't have morsel on me. Still feel guilty every time I think about it... A feeling compounded about 'ooooh' I'd say about 100, right about now, times EVERY SINGLE DAY walking to and from my car over one of the little bridges past the resident and visiting ducks living in the koi/duck pond on the condo building grounds. I keep meaning to take a picture of it... I tell you, in the warmer weather, there's nothing like the feeling of a crowd of ducks stepping all over your bare feet jockeying for position while you dole out a loaf of bread. The canadian geese that had moved in too; not nearly as vicious as their reputation. Though one of the braver of the five caught my finger a little bit snatching bread out of my hand when I took a little too long turning my attention back to the crowd to the left. They do keep track... Everyday I leave the house saying, sh't I've got to buy bread - and everyday I've come home saying sh't I meant to buy bread! The fact that they DO get fed at least two times per day doesn't stop them from sending out the "HEY - Somebody's here!!" call amongst themselves complete with swimming right toward you. Lord forbid they not remind you of your failure to show your care for them each and every time.... dagnabit

Well, whatever you do - can you have the camcorder ready just in case anything unfortunately hilarious should happen to take place in the Battle for Attic Supremacy?

Way to go Cvl !!! This CI waiting game is so frustrating....and then to get an announcement about Heroes??? Who cares???? Nobody on this board!!!!

A camcorder! LMHO!!

We don't have one, which I'm sure is a good thing at the moment. I can just hear my husband's snarks about my filming him as he creeps and crawls his way over to the corner of the attic on his stomach! And me with, "Woohoo! I got a great butt shot, honey!"

Dayum...sounds like the varmit is bringing logs in up there! Must be building himself a small log cabin! Geesh!

I love feeding birds too. Several years ago I went through the application process with the National Wildlife Federation and got our yard approved as a Backyard Wildlife Habit. That means our yard is now registered with them as a sanctuary. We provide food, shelter (er hummm natural that is, we didn't agree to open our home to the wild bunch!), and water, nesting areas. We don't use pesticides or harmful chemicals, plant only native plants, leave as much of the environment natural as possible. We're lucky to have a half acre of land, most of it natural, native woods with a stream and a creek. Lots of wildlife around here, although the deer have been forced farther out because of human population.

I've spent many a happy hour building stone waterfalls in the stream and creek to aerate the water. The effort was immediately rewarded with native minnows (called stonerollers), all the various birds, dragonflies flocking to the waterfalls, racoon footprints show they are enjoying them, even the snakes enjoy them.


If anything exciting happens with our adventure tonight, I'll be sure and report back.
PeachyBC

^NICE! and inspiring... Since moving in, I've made the determination that wherever I end up buying there WILL be animals either a duck pond or a more natural open setting for all as you've described... Oh Yes. It will be done. Hmmm... Just remembering the landscaping company belonging to the ambitious side of the family on which I was, unfortunately, not born. Parris Creative Design LLC in Concord, NH. No website - apparently don't need one given their deep roots in the community. Had to have been 300 to 400 people easy in attendence to my cousin Mark's funeral on Pats Peak, where he died. There's two RNs -his brother and sister- on that side, too, about 1/2 a generation above me. It's too bad they live so far away... Will be keeping the company in mind, though, if, once I've figured out where to live, it's within reasonable distance.

I happen to be the expert on squirrels and other creatures inhabiting attics. We always seem to have a squirrel or two or three getting into the area above our living room. They literally pull off a piece of my wood shingle to get in.

Going up into the attic may not be the answer. They are impossible to catch. You could set uo a trap, but I'm thinking that killing the little guy is not you, especially considering the pet story.

What works for us is to wait until you know that the critter is out of the attic. Squirrels leave the nest during the daytime to gather food. Then block the entryway from the outside with very strong material - they have strong claws & tremendous strength for their size. Make sure they can't get in another way, too.

Good Luck!

Aww, thanks you guys , you`re all really sweet. I think I can say things are better for elderly here than they are in the US, but it`s no Utopia here, but I think you all understand that. Waiting lists are long and there are nursing homes that don`t deserve to exist.

Anyway, I have my "own" patient! It`s this woman that I got along really well with already. There is no need to really make her undergo a whole lot of neuropsychological tests yet, because it`s clear what goes wrong, but she really wants to talk to someone about her past and I get to do that in a structured way. We`ll try to write down the story chronologically, which will give a nice indication of what she knows, how long she can focus on something and more importantly, she seems to...repeat a few things which makes her stories sound kind of "empty" (because if you try to dig deeper she just repeats something) so it will show if she really remembers everything. Which we then can put next to some information that still needs to be gathered from her son to check if it`s correct. Enough about that .

Critters....not my specialty though .

Of course I`d like to hear how everyone else is doing!!! So how are you all?

Edit: Cvl, what you described is exactly what neuropsychology is also about! It`s more the research side, I`m choose the clinical side, but obviously that kind of stuff is what gives the information that is used in the entire field. Research is so extremely important *thumbs up*

Hi DonnaLucy,

This squirrel is busy making it's nest up there during the daylight hours. Then quiet as can be at night. I'm pretty sure it's a squirrel, since that's who I've seen scurrying across the roof. Doubt it's an opossum or a raccoon, although neighbors did have an opossum nest in their house -- ground floor area though.

We don't want to trap the dude just block it's entrance into the attic. Can't get to the end of the gutter easily from the outside because it's 3 stories up from the ground. I'm not climbing a ladder that high and neither is my husband -- no matter what he thinks! So, we're going to try to block off the end of the gutter from the attic. If that fails, I'll see if our gutter cleaner dudes will come out and rig up a wire mesh attachment to the end of the gutter and the existing gutter guards. If that fails, I'll call the County Extension office and find out what they have up their sleeve. The moth balls worked great until recently. I won't be surprised to find out the critter moved them or got rid of them! Squirrels are extremely bright and very persistent!

All's quiet at the moment. That's a relief. That gnawing sound was getting on my nerves!
PeachyBC

Woohoo Cvl! Well said! I couldn`t agree more!



Edit: Was my post moved? Because I think the thread is gone, but more importantly I did NOT post this comment in this thread. And I was logged off all of a sudden...

Seraphina,

Moderator Rowe said earlier today that she was going to bleep the "Announcement" thread. She must have moved your post into here.

Ah, okay, mystery solved . Thanks

Interesting. My squirrels go out during the daylight, especially in the afternoon. Not a peep up there until dusk.

Your husband sounds like mine, even considering going on a three story roof

One time we had the biggest argument because my hubby went up on our roof to clean the gutter (it's two stories in the back of the house) and wanted our 14 year old son to go up there & help him . NO WAY JOSE

Well, I hope that your pest problem gets solved very soon!

Yeah, I moved all the posts here because they were too funny to delete. Unfortunately, a whole squirrel dialogue got rammed in between the original posts and your reply...

Hi easterlily07,

Thank you for trusting us enough to share some of your personal history. I'm happy you are in a good place these days.

I don't want to lose your comments or the responses to them. Would it be alright if I moved them into the Off Topic thread?

rowe

More than alright rowe.

I realized I had 'spoken off of the thread'.

I have been more of an advocate for others than myself. The sword, doesn't always work....and usually backfires!

...call a Bishop. These two Protestant churches in town were having a squirrel problem. They tried all the remedies you mention and few others, to no avail. Eventually they noticed there were no squirrels hanging around the Catholic Church, so they went and asked the Bishop about it. The Bishop said they'd the same problem a few years earlier, and had also gone through many humane attempts to remove the squirrels, all without sucess. His solution? "We baptised them all. Now we only see them on Christmas and Easter."

Good luck, Peachy!

Quick update on "Squirrel Gate". lol

It's definitely a squirrel. My husband suited up for the attic attack (gotta wear long sleeves, mask, etc. cause of all the fiberglass insulation). He worked his way over to the cramped area where Sir squirrel or Lady squirrelette is creating its nest. I watched for signs of the critter. We both heard a frantic scurrying, then I saw the squirrel emerge from the attic. It peered back at the attic in surprise, it's "shadow tail" bristled out as it hung over the edge of the gutter. You could almost hear the squirrel's thoughts, "What the bleep!" LOL

My husband couldn't get close enough to cramped area to block it off. So po'd as he was, he wanted a ladder tall enough to get at the spot from outside. Uh huh...ya'll know how I feel about a 35 foot ladder climb! NOT! But off to Home Depot we went. After a reasonable discussion of "How are you going to get that monster-sized ladder home, where are we going to store that thing?" etc., we came home with some environmentally safe, critter safe Havahart squirrel deterrent that hubby sprinkled all over the chosen deluxe accommodation attic suite. No sight or sound of the attic dweller so far this morning.

Cvl,

LOVED the baptism suggestion!
PeachyBC

Always happy to hear a good Catholic joke (that's clean) that I can share at work!

Thanks CVL, and God Bless

You know it's good when you've got people reading the d'mn thing as a true story until they get to the punchline!!



...or was that just me??...

Especially in the case of physical violence...!

Hmmm... Well, if Rocky does decide to come back, how's a resourceful homeowner get their hands on a sturdy cherry picker, instead? Not being one, researching the idea's never occured to me; might actually be a pretty stupid question to be posing all out in public like this, but I wonder...

Hahahah, that's a good one, and it's sooo true.
Vurtgirl

No, you can come out of your lil hoody face, I read it the same way. Then again, I am sick as a dog. Man you guys hit it right on the nose. That's how good you guys are, you can diagnose someone over the internet, without them even knowing...lol...

I think that's so cool that you guys are taking the critter safe way. I know they can be sooo annoying. My dad, on the other hand, loves to grow tomatos, cucumbers, peppers (diff. kinds), herbs, all sorts of stuff in the summer time, and he hates the squirrels, they're his arch enemy. He fights them any way he can. Lil old man chasing squirrels. How can you blame em, think about it, if we were lil squirrels and saw a nice big tomato, we'd want it too...lol.., or a nice cozy attick for the cold winter time. Too bad they're noisy neighbors, or they could have had a chance, but they are adapt to living outside and over at my boyfriends house we have a family of them living in the tree/ground? Somewhere out there, cause they always come to the porch for feeding, and they're the same ones day after day, year after year. We also have skunks out there and ground hogs, possoms, racoons. Haha, we put seeds and lil nuts out there for the birds and squirrels, and one night, the cat always likes to go onto the porch at night, so we were about to let it out when we saw a huge racoon up here, it was hilarious. They are awesome creatures too. OK, enough of the Discovery channel here.
Hope you finally got em out sweets,
Vurtgirl

haha...lmao, Rocky, hahahah, I think that's a great idea. Either that or some type of lift, or maybe considering the costs, time to call the critter people in. The nice ones, not the kill em all ones.
Vurtgirl

Yeppers, this new thread you all propose is a great idea. As Naydi said earlier, Goren=not real, VDO=real. Feel free to wax philosophical to your heart's content on what a perfect man Bobby Goren is/would be. I trust that our regulars know how to keep it about the character and not the nice man that creates the character for us.

Hi Rowe!
Haven't seen you in a while. I've been sicky. Anyway, I don't know if you looked back a page or so, but we were actually talking about just that, the fact that you had to delete a thread kinda similar not so long ago. So that's why we were thinking of being extra careful with the name of the thread and the first post. That way it's very clear what this thread is and isn't about. It's actually a great idea if members stay within the idea that Cvl is posing. It'll be nice to finally have a new topic with some thought put into it. Still waiting for Cvl to start it though....hint, hint...lol..
Vurtgirl

Gawd, I hate Bono. How could a band go from being so great to just annoying the h'll out of me so, sooo much? Just finished muting that horrible duet with Green Day. Such a great humanitarian. The music thing: Please stop. Please stop now. If Aerosmith could do it (still taking bets that the "undisclosed" surgery that Steven Tyler had was hip replacement.... not even kidding either), you can do it, too. Let me remember you the way you were.

Well, speaking of people who stopped, or at least seem to have, though they didn't necessarily effect me one way or the other: Did/do genuinely enjoy this song...

Man you hit it right on the nose. Bono is a big nono. Haha, silly vurt likes to rhyme.
U2 use to be really great, but that was a long, long time ago. He just wants to keep furthering his 'agenda' and needs to realize the music isn't helping anymore.
I mean I admire that he helps so many people, but as far as musically, no more please.

I am sooo annoyed right now, I hate UPS. They lost a Next Day Air package of medicine. Now a new replacement urgent Next Day Air is due by 3PM and it's already 2:30PM and no UPS. What is wrong with these people? Is there a UPS black market for psychotic medecine that I don't know about? Come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! (screaming with you) Ha -You never know about the black market thing. If so, may be a new criminal on your route, who's due to be highly disappointed upon consulting his/her Davis Drug Guide. (or PDR to satisfy anyone's need for a LOCI/Goren tie-in... ) I'd be on the horn bugging the living sh't out of them - as I'm sure you are. You'd think, as a customer service move -better word, but too braindead to think of it- they'd have done an urgent Next Day "First Priority" delivery a la FedEx; with guaranteed arrival by 8:00am? Just not right to toy with people's emotions like that...

Oh man, thank God it actually made it here. Thankyou Naydi. You must have sent me some goodluck or something. The pit of my stomach is hurting so bad right now. It was in pain all night from being sick, as you and Cvl diagnosed before I even realized since last week, and after this, oh my is it hurting. I did get on the horn to them and it's funny how just after that, he came rolling in. Same guy that does this route every time. He seemed nice enough, but I don't know who stole the last one. They confirmed that is was stolen because it did get to the local office. It was actually scanned by them, and you could see it online, so they couldn't hide that fact or lie, since they couldn't come up with the package when my boyfriend went there to get it. The delivery guy had one of the packages, but the other one, who knows. He said he never had it, and he could very well be telling the truth because he's not the one that stocks his truck and it passes through many hands. Who knows, I'm just glad it's finally here. It's been two weeks of phoning and waiting, from the time they messed up at the pharmacy, till now, it's been h'll. What a hassle. Now I've got to drive all the way to my families house. I hope I don't throw up in the car. Yummy huh?
Vurtgirl
I was thinking just the same thing about them sending it Fedex, Naydi, cause as I said, they had messed up from weeks ago at the pharmacy, and had sent it to me free Next Day Air cause of that, so after it was lost/stolen, they really should have gone with another company and had it here early a.m., but it seems very rarely do you find people that actually care enough to go that extra mile. Plus I just found out last night that they had the ability all this time to send it to a local retail pharmacy for us to pick up, but they didn't even do that. They said they would do that if it didn't get here this time. Man, oh man. Well thanks for listening and sorry for all the ragging.

I'm not even going to say a word because it will NOT serve toward helping you de-escalate from all the stress and tension!! But.... Well... I'll just say that people just make me sick sometimes - and I'll leave it at that!

Speaking of sick, sucks that you are, but at least you know now what was contributing to what was going on. Anything beyond this would be PM, unless you feel comfortable, but I'm wondering if part of it all didn't have to do with the contents of your late-arriving package as well?



*btw - I appreciate and think it's wonderful that you are so open in disclosing the existence of your condition. There's got to be at least one person who's read one of your related posts here who's been brought one step closer to not seeing psychosis as a strange, scary, and taboo part of the human condition...

Haha, yeah, that really got me going last night when I found out that they could have had it transferred to a local retail pharmacy, but didn't want to pay the few extra bucks, even after everything they put us through.

No, I never actually ran out of meds, I got a week extension from the Doc, but the stress definitely added to my anxiety.

Yeah, I don't really hide the fact that I'm crazy...lol..or the politically correct way of saying it, chemicaly imbalanced. I mean I don't go out of my way to tell everyone, but it is who I am, and always have been, so it's kinda hard for it to not to come up once in a while. You're right about the stigmas, but I guess I have been through sooo much hardship in my life, that I just don't really care what judgemental/ignorant people think. I wouldn't want to be liked by someone who had a problem with who I really am. I hope that my attitude helps others like me that may be more shy than I am. You're right though, it would be nice to help erase some of the ignorance as well.
Vurtgirl

Hiya, vurt! Just got off a very long shift, so to save space and time I'm gonna roll a bunch of posts into one:

There is definitely a black market for meds, but I don't know if UPS has anything going in that department. Have to say, though, if I worked on a package delivery route and intended to steal meds, I don't think I'd wanna steal pysch meds. Aside from the relative lack of street value for them, that's not exactly a group you'd want to leave angry and unmedicated


Hooah! What'd I tell ya, girl, you're stronger than you think...and you never cease to amaze me (in the good way, not the uneasy and vaguely disturbing way naydi does).

It's coming, I promise! Just let me get some sleep...


hmmmm...little old man, chasing squirrels, nice big tomato...Now that's a set-up if I ever heard one. You oughta see if you can write a sketch or something around this vurt. I bet it'd be funny as h#ll.

Hope you're feeling better!
*hugs*

A spike in anxiety - yeah, that'd pretty much do it for any chemical condition...

Such a great attitude and outlook! Have any tips you can give around, delicately, getting my sister to stop calling my house semi-frantically "making sure (I'm) all right" (read: still alive) if she hasn't heard from me for over 3 days? Geez... You tell somebody that you've finally been told that 'yeah - you're actually kinda low in fully utilized seratonin and dopamine... it's not "just you"' and suddenly your world is coming to an end every 3 or 4 days if not for some sort of intervention from 8 miles away... Here's to hoping that, one of these fine days, she'll figure out that she's got the order of event risks backward - at least for me.
(hate the new winking guy... just looks plain smart-a**edly ugly now.. the old one goes away, comes back, goes away, comes back... just leave the old one up there!)

Somewhere in a UPS processing center is a new employee figuring out which one's are keepers and which one's aren't. Here's to hoping the jacka** is writing the sh't down somewhere so it doesn't happen again!
Yeeeeeaaah.. it's a gift you just can't fake... <contented sigh>


Aaaah D'MN!!!!!!!!!!! Had one all typed up and ready to go until realizing the word used was "It's". The moment's gone now...


-----------
...briefly disrupting the air of deafening silence emanating from the direction of one reportedly bizarre Cancerian; a word from an inarguably, conclusively confirmed Cancerian freakshow....

Violet

Hooboy, thanks for the chuckle na!



Vurt - you are an amazing woman and it is a beautiful thing that you are open about your condition. I was diagnosed in 1992 with "atypical major depression" and have been successfully managing my condition for many years via therapy and meds. I believe I suffered from it as early as 13 years old, but it was chalked up to typical "teen angst." I don't hide my condition either - I only bring it up when someone else discusses mental health issues - as a show of solidarity and to help dispell the stigma. Thanks for sharing; it's bound to help someone along the way to recognize something in themselves and spur them to seek help.

*hugs*
rowe

YAY-YAH!!!!

*moves in to throw a high-five to her MDD sister*

Right back atcha, sis. I still remember how ashamed I was "back then" and I sort of feel more like "out and proud" these days. (No offense meant to those who use that phrase to define their sexuality.)

People with MDD can lead very happy, very successful lives if they get the proper treatment. I never discourage anyone from seeking help, no matter how minor they think their symptoms may be...because those symptoms can rapidly snowball out of control.

<off my soapbox>

Good News:
I was asked to speak for 10mins at the Pathways to Nursing: A Community Dialogue event my organization is staging next week


Bad News:
I was asked to speak for 10mins at the Pathways to Nursing: A Community Dialogue event my organization is staging next week

Congrats Naydi! It's an honor to be chosen to speak. To know that people respect you and know you have alot of info to share. I understand how you feel, though, about the part of getting out there, without your hoody face, and actually doing it.
I have faith in you Naydi. I have no doubt you'll do a great job.
Maybe you can get someone to record it with a digital camera for us to see. 10mins is a long time for sure though. Just speak really, really slow and keep repeating yourself. I'm just teasing. You'll do fine sweets.
Vurtgirl

Yes yes yes yes! Want to hear my girl live (or at least a decent Memorex).



And go topless. That way nobody will notice if you make a mistake. And if you tape it topless, we can sell it on the Internet and make $$$$$!

That would be just heaven on a stick. Do it, Naydi.
Finally, Cvl, you have a plan for making millions that will work. I was beginning to despair of these millions, too, but this is a sure-fire goer. S'pose we'll have to cut naydi in. Oh well, only one less chateau on the Loire for me.

(soooooo... what does she says that doesn't kill it all; doesn't insult herself cuz, ya nah... i have been able to support myself rather well all these years...a ho gotta eat; and doesn't amount to running and hiding in the corner like a wee frightened little punk of a b'tch? I KNOW:)

...and what in da'ell are you gonna be doing, my little Ozland creature, to attach your name to this sure-fire money train??? 'less that's why you're keeping the tan up so diligently? We're gonna need a one-two punch if we're to expect to see any real money out of this... That was Janet's problem. Sun bathing thing got old - No follow up - No CD sales.

You're a Big Picture person. I like that.

Plan is: Cellphone video of topless speech leaked to press by moi, your tanned PR flack. Cvl as your agent gets big money for 8-part series option with Donald Trump (using her classic severed-head prank, always so amusing). Rosie O'Donnell slams The Donald for nurse sex-ploitation and bad comb-over on severed head. Now we're rollin'. Leno, Letterman, poss new "face" of Revlon, a gig on Dancing With The Stars.

You arrive at NBC to tape a PSA message, get beaten to a parking spot by Vincent D'Onofrio's Escalade. Quite understandably, you puncture all four Escalade tires with nurse's pin. Row ensues with VDO. He strikes you with brutish force (well, just remember to fall down when he is within ten feet or so).

Variety headlines fracas : "Actor Bashes Black Florence Nightingale - Was There Criminal Intent?" D'Onofrio releases vehement denial of same. As usual, he issues statement through the Reel via a Family Spokeperson, and it never appears anywhere but on fan boards.

Publicity storm drives LOCI ratings to new high. You are invited to do guest spot in ripped-from-the-headlines part especially written for you by Warren Leight. You play a young African-American serial killer nurse from Boston who punctures her victims' tires before severing their heads (Cvl wrote that bit into the contract). You get your teeth capped for free.

Along the way, we amass unspeakable wealth with book deals and out-of-court settlements. We all get fabulous cosmetic dentistry and move to the South of France.

Oh God, she's back!

This Sh't Is Getting Blown Up and Framed!!!!



...i think i pulled something...

Bwalter,

I haven't been able to comment on this since I read it because every time I get ready to post, I reread it and I laugh so hard I can't function! You have such a quick lambent wit!!!! It is pure joy, B. How I love it when you post these beauties!

I've started a "Classic BWalter" writing file. Whenever I need a pick me up, I can open the file and be guaranteed a great laugh.
PeachyBC