Reflections of a Beautiful Day

So, yesterday was one of the best days ever! We arrived at the courthouse early, and we were pretty nervous. Aidan was tense, and I was tense Although I'm a positive person and knew chances were slim that she would be denied her petition, I was still wondering how I would help her cope with the devastating blow of denial, if that was God's will.

There were only a few people in the courtroom. We sat in the second row. I wore my scrubs to project a professional appearance. I've found people in scrubs are treated better just about everywhere. I wanted the judge to see her mom was a working professional and not some junkie on crack like so many other kids who go in and out of the court system. It still breaks my heart that so many young women and men don't have parents that love and support them.

The judge came in, a tall, skinny serious looking guy, but Aidan had heard stories that he was the coolest judge to have.

He asked who in the courtroom was there without their lawyer today. Aidan timidly raised her hand, but the girl sitting behind us raised her hand higher. The judge called her, and from what we could gather, she was requesting an early release from something, too. She spoke a little bit about her progress with a small, shaking voice. The state attorney stood up and argued that the girl still had $11,000 in fees, and shouldn't be released.

Aidan and I sank in our seat. Aidan still has about $1500 in fees left. So, we waited with butterflies flying in mocking summersaults in our stomachs.

The judge asked the girl if she was making payments on time, and if she'd ever missed a payment. She said she had never missed a payment and was always on time. The state attorney reluctantly agreed, and the judge said, "Motion granted."

Aidan and I both breathed an audible sigh of relief.

The judge then asked if anyone else was there without a lawyer, and Aidan apparently still wasn't ready, so the judge called on a young man. His probation officer read a letter with the reasons why this kid should be released from probation. He'd started school, remained clean for over a year, and was working and volunteering. His motion was granted.

Then it was Aidan's turn. I was hoping that the judge wouldn't feel he had to deny someone to maintain some kind of karmic justice because he'd just granted two petitions.

He asked Aidan what she would like, and she said in a very strong, yet gentle voice, "I would like to be released from house arrest, and have the possibility of being released from probation in a few months after I've proven to the court that I'm still responsible and doing well. Since I've gotten out of jail..."

The judge cut her off and smiled. He said, "I've read all the letters (from family, coworkers, and friends) you submitted several times, Aidan, and I'm very impressed with your progress. Your petition is granted, and I will be happy to see you here in a few months to release you from probation. Does the state attorney have any objections?"

He said, "We have no objections your honor.

The judge smiled at Aidan. "Good job, young lady."

I'm not sure, but I might've squealed in joy a little, because one of the bailiffs glanced back at me and smiled.

She said, "Thank you, you honor."

She came back to our pew to await the paperwork, and we couldn't stop hugging and smiling. Aidan had tears in her eyes, and I was close to having tears in my eyes.

So, we immediately went outside and took this happy picture:

Then, we had to celebrate for awhile. We went to Ruthy's for a late breakfast, and Aidan took my picture and posted it on Facebook.

After that, I had to go to my pre-op appointment at the hospital All my labs and bloodwork look good.

Then, I had a little time to relax before I picked up Tom from the airport. We went out and had a nice dinner, and today, we're going to go sightseeing a bit.

So, yesterday was the perfect start to a perfect weekend before the terrible day I'm sure to have Monday. Lol.

I hope you all have as great a weekend as I will!

We went and got our hair cut and styled, then went to the

The weekend...Walking Dead Spoilers Ahead

This weekend was pretty busy with kid doings. Joe is on fire winning awards and preparing for competitions and what not. His Model UN competition is this Friday-Monday in Orlando. The kids will bus over there, stay in a hotel for the entire time, and pretend to be the United Nations for awards and accolades. Parents are not invited unless they chaperone, and I'm not chaperoning because I have Aidan's big court date in Viera on Friday (where she'll most likely be released from house arrest--woohoo!), and my pre op lab work and EKG. I also want to slip getting my nails done sometime that day. Then Monday is my surgery. It'll work out well, because I want Joe's mind on other things than me.

Joe also was one of two students whose photograph was chosen to hand in the new Museum of Arts and Sciences for the grand opening and the month following. We've been invited to the grand opening to be part of the celebration. That's on April 2nd. I haven't even seen the photograph yet, since he wants it to be a surprise. So, I'm looking forward to that.

This weekend, we had to get Joe a coat and dress pants for this weekend's competition, however, I didn't want it to cost my arm and leg, so we checked out our huge new Goodwill. It has a lot of name brand, new looking stuff. I was pretty impressed. Everything hung on the racks according to color, and it was like walking in a rainbow. Lol. So, we bought the coat and a new tie there for the very awesome price of $13, and the dress pants we got at Wal Mart for $27. Not bad!

Then, we had to drive around so Joe could get four photographs that captured the essence of the "East Coast" for a photography project. We saw a huge egret or heron in a neighborhood lake, and Joe crept up on it. I thought for sure it would fly away when Joe was about 20 feet away, but Joe must have some ninja stealth, or be a bird whisperer, because he got right up to within about three or feet of it. The breeze was blowing, and it's chest feathers lifted for the perfect shot. He took about 20 or so pics, then drive around and got some more pics.

 One was of our little beachy ice cream shop, Frozen Gold.

Another was of a barn in a field with a giant star on it:

And one was a palm tree, taken from the perspective of looking up at it's outspread branches.

I also liked this one Joe took inside of a little wooded area:

Sunday, Aidan had a tire problem, so I had to jump through some hoops to get that taken care of. I also did a few mountains of laundry.

I had the day off Monday, so I organized my mom's end table and recliner area, where she spends two-thirds of her time. I think I did a good job, but the odds are it won't last til Friday. I vacuumed up about 94,894 tic tacs from around her chair, and probably about 8 or 9 pills that I don't know the name of but apparently she didn't miss. Then I took the carpet cleaner and steam cleaned the rugs all around her area, too. Aidan went to get groceries, and after that we caught up on the first two episodes of the second half of the season of The Walking Dead. This is where the spoilers start, so if you haven't seen them yet, don't read any further!

So, The Walking Dead. How could the writers just wipe out what was left of a nice little healing family in one episode? What a downer.

After putting on burlap ponchos smeared with zombie goo so as to go unnoticed among the dead that have swarmed their little town, Rick, Michonne, Jessie, Sam, and Ron head to get the cars and get the heck out of Dodge.

But Sam (Jessie's young, maybe 10 year old, son), who has been struggling with fear of the "monsters who eat you while you're still alive" (thanks, Carol, you stupid psycho), suddenly sees a first in the entire six seasons this show has been on the air -- a little boy zombie, shuffling along in a blue onesie. How convenient that the first kid zombie in six seasons (excluding Carol's daughter from the first or second season) shows up just in time to make another little boy freak out.

Sam freezes and begins to whimper. Jessie, Rick, Carl and Ron try to coax him along, and really, when he started to whimper, Rick should have just grabbed him and covered the kid's mouth while whispering soothing words in his ear. Instead, they just try to quietly tell him, "Come on, come on...Sam, come on..." while his whimpering grows louder, and to my horror, a zombie comes up and chomps him, drawing other zombies in to completely devour the poor kid before his mother and brother's eyes.

Jessie screams, and Carl grabs her hand. The zombies fall on Jessie, but Jessie can't let go of Carl, and if she doesn't let go, the zombies will get Carl, too. Of course, when it comes to his own family, Rick takes no chances and takes action, chopping off Jessie's arm. So, Jessie and Sam are dead, with just Ron left. Ron's been struggling with Rick's violence for a while, since Rick killed his dad (who physically abused Jessie). Ron raises a gun, thinking it's Rick's fault (which it sorta is) that his mom and little brother are dead.

As he gets ready to pull the trigger, Michonne comes up from behind and stabs Ron through the chest with her sword, and the violent motion makes Ron squeeze off a shot before he falls dead. Then, as they get ready to keep moving, Carl says, "Dad," and Rick turns around to see Carl's bloody face, shot through the eye. The scene goes black as Carl collapses.

I won't summarize the rest of the episode, but Carl lives, minus one eye.

I've always wondered where the kid zombies were. There have been a few sprinkled around...mostly in homes. But the masses stumbling around in giant hordes have been pretty much exclusively adult. Until Episode 609, when Sam needs to have a good reason to freak out.

And man, I really wish Darryl would take a freaking shower!! Come on, there's plenty of hot water, laundry detergent, toothpaste and soap. You would think that doctor girl would've made him clean up before she stitched up the wound on his shoulder blade. Take a shower for Pete's sake, Darryl!

Well, I've got to get ready for a long day at work. I've got to make sure everything goes smoothly while I'm out all next week, so I've got to make lists on how to do things.

What the futhark?

Since I didn't write a post yesterday, I've had a whole day to think of a blog post. I researched a lot yesterday, and found some cool things related to abandoned airfields in NM, and the map of the Army Corp of Engineers that lists the locations of their huge "bullseyes" that used to be used for bombing practice. I could write about those things, but I don't wanna.

As usual, I want to talk more about Vikings...or the blue ringed octopus...or deadly Australian animals in general...hmmm, what should I choose?

Well, my title gives it away, of course! Oh, you didn't know that Vikings had their own alphabet, based on Germanic runic script, and that it was called "futhark?" Well, isn't that a fun word? Can you imagine the fun those rascally Vikings had with that word when they clashed with those filthy Englishmen?

Here's my relative Ragnar, as depicted by the History Channel:

Ragnar Sigurdson: Hey, filthy Northumbrian! I would like to futhark your bonny wife!
All the other Vikings snicker like a whole bunch of Beavis' and Buttheads ("He said, "futhark, hee hee hee.")

King Aelle: What?! How dare thee! Take it back, or I'll throw thee into that snake pit over yonder!

Ragnar: No, really...I want to futhark your wife. You know, teach her things.
All the Vikings make crude noises. King Aelle's wife starts to look very intrigued with the tall blonde Scandinavian joker.

King Aelle: Stop it! Stop it right now, you...you heathen scoundrel!

Ragnar: What? You stupid dumba$$...I just want to teach your wife the ABC's!

King Aelle: (still preceiving he's the butt of a dirty joke) KILL THEM ALL!
King Aelle's army roars forward, and the Vikings switch into berserker mode, and kill so many of them that the King is forced to retreat to home, where he cries into his momma's lap.

This is King Aelle, from The Vikings on the History Channel. He looks like a momma's boy.

Anyway, the futhark was a whole bunch of Runes that comprised the Viking alphabet. I like runes. Did you know we get a lot of words from the Vikings? Like the word Viking itself. It comes from the word vikingr from the verb root fara i viking, which means, " to go on an expedition." Or as the Vikings might say, "Let's go raid, trade, and steal!"

The word window is also a Viking word. Pretty interesting in regard to the chase, isn't it? Let's see, if Fenn's roots trace back to Scandinavia (and they do), we have Fennland and window, so far. It's so coincidental it's got to be confirmation bias. LOL.

But window is still a very interesting word. It comes from the word vindauga, which literally translates to "wind-eye." Now isn't that interesting?

Here's a common window, in case you needed a reference:

Oh, look! More chase related words! The word scant is Viking, which meant short, or lacking. I'm thinking it means short, as related to the chase. Also, the word foot. More coincidence? (Yes.)

And weak! Weak is a Viking word!

Two more Viking words that appear in the poem are "give" and "take."

Creek came from the Vikings, but it didn't mean what we believe it means. To the Vikings, it meant "corner" or "nook." I'm starting to think that's why you might not need a paddle. :)

When I Googled "corner nook," I got this picture of a girl in a creek...

Now, let's take a little time to talk about the word, peace. We didn't get the word peace from the Vikings, because apparently, there was no such thing, but maybe we did get the peace symbol from a Viking Rune, the Algiz (eolh, elhaz) rune, the rune associated with life, but inverted, becomes the Yr rune, and connotes death.

The Elder Futhark portrayed this rune like the one on the right. The Younger Futhark portrays the rune like our peace sign on the left, minus the circle. Could this represent old and new?

So, this special rune, the eolh (also Algiz or Elhaz) rune, means "elk," and was usually used in combination with seog, or sedge. There is some controversy surrounding this rune. Some scholars believe it represented phonetic z, and others maintain it represents phonetic x. Others believe the earliest form of the rune represented the hw sound and was called hweol, or wheel. There were also later variants of this rune. One was a superimposition of the Elder (Old) and Younger (New) Futhark, resulting in an asterisk shape. It can be found on this runic love charm, and the "binding" of elder and younger Futhark runes like this appears to be somewhat common. This is the Charmay Fibula...can you find the bindrune?

Here is the Elder Futhark:

If it does represent x, could it be that the entire word "peace," is the missing x in the poem?

Or could "go in peace" mean something completely different, as suggested above? If the inverted rune for life is our modern day peace sign, then "go in peace" may mean "go in death." Or it could represent that particular rune, meaning "go in elk-sedge," or "go in x." Or maybe "go in wheel?"

Another interesting thing worth mentioning is that while the rune in the Elder Futhark meant "elk" (or elk-sedge), the rune in the Younger Furthark meant "yew."

This yew tree is 1,000 years old:

One of the earliest poems this rune appears in is an Anglo Saxon rune poem. One stanza reads:

"The Elk-sedge usually lives in the fen,
growing in the water. It wounds severely,
staining with blood any man
who makes a grab at it."

For those of you who don't know, elk sedge is a type of grass that looks like this:

And here is where it can be found:

What the futhark?! Did I just eliminate my state?

And look, elk-sedge is used to make fly lures:

Isn't that totally interesting and coincidental? I think this is going to have to be a two-parter, because it's just too good...and I have more info to impart...

Poem on the Fly

A single word keeps coming into my mind, and I thought I would try and make a poem with it this morning.

So, here goes:


A difficult life, surrounded by fear,
She held it in for four long years,
Never let that man see a single tear,
Knew when and how to switch the gears...

Unconquerable.

Ashamed and feeling totally alone,
She couldn't find solace in the place called home,
She strayed from faith, began to roam,
Found peace in a place she didn't belong.

She began to find it hard to believe
In a God who didn't notice she grieved,
A happy childhood tossed in the seas,
Lost like a kite, tangled in trees.

The weight of her secret smothered her soul,
Shredded innocence will take such a toll,
Drugs and crime, a self medicating role,
And so she lied, cheated and stole.

But then...

God stepped in, plucked her heart,
Willed to grant her a fresh new start.
The way home was hard, every single part,
But she was willing, and she was smart.

Unconquerable.

Now she's back, my girl, my sun,
No longer does she feel the need to run,
The past is past, what's done is done,
Her smile is bright, and set to stun...

Unconquerable.

Her story is powerful, and she wants to tell,
Every kid still suffering in that bleak Hell,
There's hope that rings out like a bell,
And there's a Love so strong, no evil can quell.

She expresses her life through inspiring song,
Found her niche, a place she belongs,
Her hugs are fierce, loving and strong,
And I'm so thankful the skeptics were wrong.

Unconquerable.

Although I was there for her through the storms, the crime,
Now I find myself gaining strength from her rhyme,
In my time of weakness I hear her voice chime,
And I will look up, for now and all time.

The purpose in hardship, I now clearly see,
A family stifled, we are now set free,
We can help others achieve all they can be,
Help them survive their own stormy sea.

And so I go forward with a smile bright,
Even though I feel so close to the night,
I'm stronger now, she's taught me to fight,
I will make it through, there is no "might."

My daughter, so amazing, so beautiful,
So determined, unstoppable,,,
Has taught me to be...

Forever Unconquerable.

The Good and Bad of Florida, Part 2: Crazy People

The Memes about Florida are rampant on the Internet. Yes, there are plenty of "Ha ha! It's 80 degrees and we're at the beach while you're shoveling snow!" meme's, but the meme's about Florida's population of insane, bizarre, and bat poop crazy people are growing at an alarming rate.

Notice how the following meme says Florida is where crazy people MOVE? So, the crazy part doesn't apply to me, because I was BORN here. :) Oh, it doesn't apply to Paul, either, because he's cool, not crazy.

Remember the guy who threw an alligator at a server at a drive through? Well, people do other strange things with alligators here. Like the guy who took an alligator to a store and tried to use it as currency to buy beer.

This is actual footage of the guy. Thankfully, the clerk said, "No Sir, you can't buy beer with an alligator."

But, alligators have a sense of humor, too, and apparently don't like to be used in criminal activity. One time, a robbery suspect was hiding from police, and a nearby alligator saved some taxpayer dollars and saved the po po's from making fools of themselves by eating the suspect.

And, only in Florida is molesting alligators a crime:

In my research for this post, I discovered food is something Floridians value more than freedom. Almost every criminal act seemed to involve food in some way or another.

Like this guy, who attacked three women with a sword and a peanut butter sandwich. Were the women starving and trying to take his peanut butter sandwich?

Or this guy who attacked his girlfriend with a banana...ohhhh, he looks pretty freaking scary. I guess he does look like someone who could make a banana a lethal weapon.

This guy didn't really commit a violent crime. Like many criminals in Florida, he's just stupid. He tried to use his taco as ID after he sets his car on fire. How do you "accidentally" set your car on fire, anyway?

And people seem to get very violent if you get their order wrong, or don't have the food they want. I would imagine that being a waiter or waitress of delivery driver in Florida is a very dangerous job!

We have a lot of people pretending to be cops here. But usually it's because they're trying to score with a woman. This guy just wanted a free meal at IHOP...and to pull down his pants.

No corn dog is ever so important to get stabbed over. Come on, really?

And this brilliant example that Darwin was wrong decided to call 9-1-1 because McDonald's ran out of nuggets. She could've just walked down about a half mile down the road to the next one.

Even utensils can get you killed here.

And this news article is seemingly pointless, and somewhat impossible, seeing as this is FLORIDA. Oh, and Dollar Stores in Florida deserve a whole post of their own:

If people aren't murdering other people over food, crimes usually involve naked people and/or sex. Some crimes bizarrely involve both:

The naked and the sex starved are also sadly rampant here. I think people think because it's so warm and wacky here, you can just roam around naked willy nilly all over the place.

Here we have the relatively innocent crime of stealing manhole covers between a naked crime and a sex crime:

Florida's criminals are like no other criminals in the world. Like my buddy Cherries Waffles Tennis that robbed the Waffle House. Here we have Crystal Metheny. What the heck are these parents thinking? At least Crystal wasn't arrested for meth, But she may have been on it when she decided to shoot up someone's car.

Our news journalists have developed a sense of humor as the news gets stranger and stranger:

Here's a compilation of some Miami mugshots. Sometimes at work, my boss and I look up arrests that happened over the weekend in Volusia County, and we've seen some that even beat these. The sad faced guy with blue hair at the bottom is especially funny to me. And if you look hard, you will see Beaker from the Muppets.

We also have the dumbest criminals in the world. Like this guy who thought he could cash this check. I wonder why he chose $368 billion? Why not $367 billion or $369 billion? Did he think 368 would be a little less conspicuous?

And then we have this fake dentist who apparently thought kissing a patient's butt was worth losing his fake license and going to jail over.

Then, we have things that aren't really criminal, but just plain dumb, or weird, or bizarre. Like this mysterious giant Lego guy that washed up on the beach:

Click this link to see what the Brevard County Sheriff's Office just came out with! Hilarious! By the way, Merritt Island, where I grew up, is in Brevard County.

According to one news source, the strange events that happen here in Florida on a daily basis are signs that the apocalypse will start here. Notice the first picture of the bawling lady. It says "another," meaning this must happen on a regular basis!

Or maybe even the ZOMBIE apocalypse.

But, never fear, Paul. If you don't steal anyone's food, or protect yours with violence, or molest alligators or use them to commit a crime, or run around naked, or try to cash billion dollar checks, you'll be fine in our beautiful state.

And I'll be around to protect you, since I am a Viking Ninja Superhero. :)