Badness in my life & a couple bright spots
It has been a couple of really trying weeks, even a lot of the good stuff has been a lot of work.
I'm teaching tax classes again, though not as many as last year. I enjoy the work, but I'd probably enjoy it more if my mother and the most talkative of last year's preparers were not in the class I was teaching. She makes me nervous and complains about everything and he won't shut up.
It's been a couple of weeks now, but an old family friend died. I say old, because she was a friend of my grandmother's for my entire life, but she was really only about my Mom's age (mid-50s). She'd had a lingering cough for awhile and been to the doctor several times, but they kept saying it was probably just a cold or allergies. When, after a couple of months of this, they finally did a chest x-ray, they found a tennis ball sized tumor on her lung, and she had pneumonia. She died six days later. Bonnie was a joyful woman with a huge heart. She'll be missed.
A week ago, my Dad's cousin was shot and killed by police. The story is kind of a convoluted mess. The statement made by police says that they were answering on a call of an assault in progress at Jimmy's address. They claim that they arrived and announced themselves as police. They say that Jimmy came to the door with a knife and charged them leaving them no choice but to shoot him.
This is what the family says. Jimmy and his mother lived in an apartment in a house which has been broken up into three apartments. His sister lives in the downstairs apartment and a cousin lives in the apartment upstairs. The cousin upstairs had been dating a guy, but she kicked him out. The guy had been hanging around all day and trying to get in the house. He'd go upstairs and bang on the door. He tried to climb a ladder to get in her windows. The cousin didn't want the police called, so nobody called them. Jimmy eventually told him to go away, and they had quite the argument outside the apartment. Family got Jimmy back in the house, but the guy continued to stand around and scream obscenities at the house, and tell them he was going to hurt them, that sort of thing. The yelling stopped about the same time that they heard a loud bang on the front door. Jimmy and his mother (my Aunt Berdina) thought that the sound was the guy trying to get into the house so he grabbed a knife, the only weapon he had, and went to the door. They, the cousin, the sister, and several neighbors (many of whom didn't even know the family) all say that the police never identified themselves either before or after busting down the door. They opened fire, fired six shots, hitting him five times.
It has become apparent that the ex-boyfriend is who called the police, though the police say he was unharmed. One of the neighbors apparently filmed the incident on his cellphone, so we may get some actual answers at some point. I know that it sounds like the kind of outrageous story a grieving family makes up so they don't have to believe that their brother/son/whatever died because of his own actions, but there are a lot of things that make me believe they're telling the truth.
First, Jimmy has been in trouble, quite a lot of it, but rarely for anything violent (there's a domestic battery charge from years ago and if family history holds, then he and a girl were probably beating up on each other, not right but not exactly monstrous either). Second, the police department here has a history of busting down doors without announcing their presence. A few years back, they did so and two officers ended up dead, because the guy on the other side had a gun and shot what he assumed were robbers as they came through the door. More recently, a woman at my church had her door broken down by officers who were actually responding to the wrong address. They never identified themselves. It doesn't make sense to me, but apparently it happens here kind of a lot. And then there are all of the witnesses who aren't related and don't have any reason to lie about it.
Jimmy was the sole means of support for his mother and his sister Dawn. Aunt Berdina is not in good health, and they don't know how they're going to get by without him.
If that wasn't bad enough, found out at the funeral yesterday, that the cousin who had been dating the guy who called the cops was run over by the idiot ex. He came to her mother's house and waited until she tried to go to her car, then ran over her with his car. She was still in the hospital yesterday and I haven't heard how she's doing yet today. The ex has not been taken into custody at this point.
Let me just say, I hate funerals and having to go to two in less than a month is like some special brand of torture. At least they were both Catholic funerals which I find marginally more tolerable than most, and as Jimmy was from the Native American side of the family, there was fry bread at the luncheon after the graveside service. Fried dough makes everything better. I was afraid we would have to do the days long drum ceremony, but Jimmy hadn't ever received an Indian name so he couldn't have the drum ceremony.
Now for the good stuff. First, in about a week, my sister will be back in Kansas. She'll still be about 3 hours away, but Hutchinson is a lot closer than Montgomery, so we're all pretty happy. And after two exhausting trips, Mom and I were able to find her a very nice place to live that will let her have her cat. That was way more trouble than I had anticipated.
We'll be leaving Monday to help her get moved. The car is not in perfect shape, specifically the air conditioning seems to have chosen now to go bad, but it should make it there and back. Money will be tight, but what's new.
My other big happy thing is that NaNoWriMo is drawing close. The new website went up yesterday and even for the big rush, I was always able to access the site and the forums. The things they changed were apparently a huge improvement. I'll be writing a sequel to last year's NaNovel which I will finish the massive edit job on after November (maybe after tax season if i don't manage to get it done before January). I don't exactly have a plot worked out, but I have a kind of vague idea. I doubt I'll have time for more in depth plot work between now and then.
So, positive thoughts, and prayers are welcomed. For Bonnie's family, for Jimmy's family especially, but also for patience for me and safe travels for Mom & I.
I'm teaching tax classes again, though not as many as last year. I enjoy the work, but I'd probably enjoy it more if my mother and the most talkative of last year's preparers were not in the class I was teaching. She makes me nervous and complains about everything and he won't shut up.
It's been a couple of weeks now, but an old family friend died. I say old, because she was a friend of my grandmother's for my entire life, but she was really only about my Mom's age (mid-50s). She'd had a lingering cough for awhile and been to the doctor several times, but they kept saying it was probably just a cold or allergies. When, after a couple of months of this, they finally did a chest x-ray, they found a tennis ball sized tumor on her lung, and she had pneumonia. She died six days later. Bonnie was a joyful woman with a huge heart. She'll be missed.
A week ago, my Dad's cousin was shot and killed by police. The story is kind of a convoluted mess. The statement made by police says that they were answering on a call of an assault in progress at Jimmy's address. They claim that they arrived and announced themselves as police. They say that Jimmy came to the door with a knife and charged them leaving them no choice but to shoot him.
This is what the family says. Jimmy and his mother lived in an apartment in a house which has been broken up into three apartments. His sister lives in the downstairs apartment and a cousin lives in the apartment upstairs. The cousin upstairs had been dating a guy, but she kicked him out. The guy had been hanging around all day and trying to get in the house. He'd go upstairs and bang on the door. He tried to climb a ladder to get in her windows. The cousin didn't want the police called, so nobody called them. Jimmy eventually told him to go away, and they had quite the argument outside the apartment. Family got Jimmy back in the house, but the guy continued to stand around and scream obscenities at the house, and tell them he was going to hurt them, that sort of thing. The yelling stopped about the same time that they heard a loud bang on the front door. Jimmy and his mother (my Aunt Berdina) thought that the sound was the guy trying to get into the house so he grabbed a knife, the only weapon he had, and went to the door. They, the cousin, the sister, and several neighbors (many of whom didn't even know the family) all say that the police never identified themselves either before or after busting down the door. They opened fire, fired six shots, hitting him five times.
It has become apparent that the ex-boyfriend is who called the police, though the police say he was unharmed. One of the neighbors apparently filmed the incident on his cellphone, so we may get some actual answers at some point. I know that it sounds like the kind of outrageous story a grieving family makes up so they don't have to believe that their brother/son/whatever died because of his own actions, but there are a lot of things that make me believe they're telling the truth.
First, Jimmy has been in trouble, quite a lot of it, but rarely for anything violent (there's a domestic battery charge from years ago and if family history holds, then he and a girl were probably beating up on each other, not right but not exactly monstrous either). Second, the police department here has a history of busting down doors without announcing their presence. A few years back, they did so and two officers ended up dead, because the guy on the other side had a gun and shot what he assumed were robbers as they came through the door. More recently, a woman at my church had her door broken down by officers who were actually responding to the wrong address. They never identified themselves. It doesn't make sense to me, but apparently it happens here kind of a lot. And then there are all of the witnesses who aren't related and don't have any reason to lie about it.
Jimmy was the sole means of support for his mother and his sister Dawn. Aunt Berdina is not in good health, and they don't know how they're going to get by without him.
If that wasn't bad enough, found out at the funeral yesterday, that the cousin who had been dating the guy who called the cops was run over by the idiot ex. He came to her mother's house and waited until she tried to go to her car, then ran over her with his car. She was still in the hospital yesterday and I haven't heard how she's doing yet today. The ex has not been taken into custody at this point.
Let me just say, I hate funerals and having to go to two in less than a month is like some special brand of torture. At least they were both Catholic funerals which I find marginally more tolerable than most, and as Jimmy was from the Native American side of the family, there was fry bread at the luncheon after the graveside service. Fried dough makes everything better. I was afraid we would have to do the days long drum ceremony, but Jimmy hadn't ever received an Indian name so he couldn't have the drum ceremony.
Now for the good stuff. First, in about a week, my sister will be back in Kansas. She'll still be about 3 hours away, but Hutchinson is a lot closer than Montgomery, so we're all pretty happy. And after two exhausting trips, Mom and I were able to find her a very nice place to live that will let her have her cat. That was way more trouble than I had anticipated.
We'll be leaving Monday to help her get moved. The car is not in perfect shape, specifically the air conditioning seems to have chosen now to go bad, but it should make it there and back. Money will be tight, but what's new.
My other big happy thing is that NaNoWriMo is drawing close. The new website went up yesterday and even for the big rush, I was always able to access the site and the forums. The things they changed were apparently a huge improvement. I'll be writing a sequel to last year's NaNovel which I will finish the massive edit job on after November (maybe after tax season if i don't manage to get it done before January). I don't exactly have a plot worked out, but I have a kind of vague idea. I doubt I'll have time for more in depth plot work between now and then.
So, positive thoughts, and prayers are welcomed. For Bonnie's family, for Jimmy's family especially, but also for patience for me and safe travels for Mom & I.