w00t w00t booyah

25 years ago, it was a dirt lot without even a road leading to it.

Today, it's fast cash. Yup. That's Sis' house - on the market, priced for a fast sale.

I'm out of things to say anymore.

And no...not a word from her. Rude text messages, avoidance (she's even unfriended me on Facebook) and absolute granola-grade flaking out.

When I'm not livid, I'm terrified.

25 years ago, it was a dirt lot without even a road leading to it.

Today, it's fast cash. Yup. That's Sis' house - on the market, priced for a fast sale.

I'm out of things to say anymore.

And no...not a word from her. Rude text messages, avoidance (she's even unfriended me on Facebook) and absolute granola-grade flaking out.

When I'm not livid, I'm terrified.

Yesterday, I got an amazing phone call. Turns out, calling your congresscritter DOES work to your advantage. The best part is that I'd likely call him anyway, as much trouble as we've been in - Ted, save my bacon! Someone is stealing my bacon! It's BAAAACON!!!

Gawdernit.

I'd better laugh. It's that or kill things.

Turns out that being told I had to wait for public school to open, enroll my kid, walk him into a classroom and watch him struggle and fail out of it before an IEP could be *considered* let alone received, was not true. (Even thought that was what I had been told, just about as fast as possible before I could be hung up on.)

See, I got a call from a Director, relative to the LAUSD for the division of special education - after a number of people had been consulted - during a summer break, mind; they had to go out and find these guys on their vacations - and it was enlightening, to be blunt.

One, LAUSD and the State of California do not abandon you after they accredit your private school and leave you to cope with accommodation if you child needs it. There actually is a 'shadow' to what you would expect in the public system for the private - it's not as robust, mind but it's there - and my kid is enrolled in school. If he needs an IEP, he will get one. I will not need to move him to get it. And if current school can be 'fixed' to accept kid with the presenting features (hell, this week alone makes me wonder where exactly the problem IS anymore), I can't imagine they would refuse the services to make it happen.

He might get it in his home district - or he will get it in the nifty one the school lies in. That will come next two weeks or so.

Monday, his teacher went on vacation...and I brought in a doctor's note for kid. Tuesday, he goes on field trip and sticks the landing. The rest of the week has gone as well or better.

At home, kid is still waking up checking for us in the wee hours - and the night after the field trip, woke up calling for his teacher not to forget where he was. "Miss Angie, I'm right here!"

That's not every night, but often enough still to motivate us in the daylight hours to find a way to make it stop.

But the sheer amount of vibrating in place seems to be waning a bit. We've run into other kids and teachers from the old school too lately - it's definitely something in favor. I've also been actively working to find things to 'put back' from routines held from old school. It means hash browns for breakfast from Burger King once in a while, and playing video games instead of talking to me - but.

What have I learned.

You don't quit. You don't stop being a pushy broad and if you're scared witless, it's okay for that to work in your favor.

And there's a lot more to this - at least in the State of California - than I thought. More to come, I am sure of it.

But now, I think I can start picking up other things where they left off and stop doing this 110% of my waking time. For a while. Works in progress, things in motion - that sort of thing.

I'm just now finding out what went boom while I was away from the 'net in KY.

Two major breakups, and one person has left my company for greener pastures. That's for starters.

Also, some of my favorite people haven't been posting...much, as of late. That's kinda worrying as they like posting and the lack of it usually indicates Bad Things they don't want to talk about...they, who can talk about everything and anything. Hence, the pricked ears.

And then I got slammed with something this afternoon so hard my ears are still ringing. This is something I would have wanted to know (it's a death, and a bad one) when it was going on. But I didn't. The why is fodder for the dummy salute.

I want to do better at this, but damn if I know how. Isolation, hello.

I'm just now finding out what went boom while I was away from the 'net in KY.

Two major breakups, and one person has left my company for greener pastures. That's for starters.

Also, some of my favorite people haven't been posting...much, as of late. That's kinda worrying as they like posting and the lack of it usually indicates Bad Things they don't want to talk about...they, who can talk about everything and anything. Hence, the pricked ears.

And then I got slammed with something this afternoon so hard my ears are still ringing. This is something I would have wanted to know (it's a death, and a bad one) when it was going on. But I didn't. The why is fodder for the dummy salute.

I want to do better at this, but damn if I know how. Isolation, hello.

You're very pretty. No, really. I have to keep saying that because it's true. But.

It's getting to be very much like the old parrot joke. You know, the one where the foul-mouthed bird gets shoved into the freezer and left there to think it over for five minutes? And when he comes out, the only thing he asks is 'what did the chicken do?'

Yeah. That.

I mean. What the heck did Haiti do? Is this some kind of gentrification plot I was unaware of or something? If so, jeeeeeeez. Right now, they estimate 50,000 dead right now...and up to 3 million before they get a handle on things again. My head doesn't get around numbers like those. They just don't.

(I just keep thinking of empty cruise liners and hospital ships lining up to take people away from this nightmare. As fast as they can dock and board. Pretty crack fantasies have their place.)

I've already sent some bucks to the Red Cross. I've seen some pictures - the only ones worse were taken in Hiroshima after the bomb dropped.

I had a wee sample bottle of Irish whiskey, tucked away from a trip to BevMo - don't ask me what it was now, it didn't impress me all that much.

Not before being pounded with candy corn and mallocreme pumpkins or by itself.

Now, now. I can explain.

(For the record? I was very surprised the combination is AWESOME. WTF.)

Remember yesterday being the day of Things Not Working? It didn't end when I got home - and for one unlucky bunch of folks, it got REALLY bad.

As in their house caught fire, totally involved bad.

But from my house, all I could see was black smoke coming up from behind my back fence - the one I share with a light industrial park, and it smelled like burning light industrial park as much as burning single family house.

This is after I had determined it wasn't my house on fire, of course. Hey, who needs house fire #4?

And kid hadn't had a nap at daycare again - and predictably, was dawdling over dinner, really too tired to be very interested in anything.

Jim is in the bathroom having a moment, and ignoring me shouting for him.

I tried stepping outside to look down the block and quickly determined I wasn't going to be able to determine our exposure without getting in the car and going around the block - so ran back in, yelled through the bathroom door THAT THERE'S A FIRE IN THE BACKYARD and gave very terse directions. Get ready to bug out, I'll be right back.

(We'd have to load both cars to get the three of us, and then the three cats loaded. It would take more than thirty seconds, doncha know.)

Xander was completely spooked - but I was able to go get in the car, drive down the street, verify that someone's house was on fire (BIG response, I counted five engine companies), not the industrial park and we were not going to be hit by it, drove back home and stood down.

And then tried to explain to Xander that someone's house was on fire, it was being taken care of and no, I don't know what happened to set it on fire. Only that it is, the fireman are there and everything is okay now.

There's also a bath to get done - which the boys do - and trying to get one book read is too much to ask, so I take kid to bed, cuddle and put down.

I also sit with him. Swear to God, the moment the feet and hands got still, he was OUT. Thuddy thud thud.

While I still hear sirens. Now, it sounds like they're headed for the hospitals. I still don't know much more than what I gathered that way - but whatever it was, it was as bad a thing as you'd see. House fire, with injuries. Big bad juju.

That's when I went back to my laptop, sampled the whiskey...put it aside and got down the candy. Nope, no ants. Win.

(I understand you can eat Fruit Loops with root beer, but I haven't done it yet.)

Discovered that this combination is win, simply by accident of not really thinking very much about it and oh, wow candy still in mouth, add booze.

Shut the computer down, took a book to bed - and about two hours later, Xander has a night terror and the only thing I can decipher is 'Mama.'

No, he didn't wake up - but I tucked in for half an hour with him anyway. I'd really scared him, poor kid. This potential loss anxiety is going to have to get addressed - it's just not fair.

I hope he got his nap today - you can see that this is not a good combination going to the evening, even if it means he goes to sleep a bit earlier.

I'm angling for food out tonight.

I had a wee sample bottle of Irish whiskey, tucked away from a trip to BevMo - don't ask me what it was now, it didn't impress me all that much.

Not before being pounded with candy corn and mallocreme pumpkins or by itself.

Now, now. I can explain.

(For the record? I was very surprised the combination is AWESOME. WTF.)

Remember yesterday being the day of Things Not Working? It didn't end when I got home - and for one unlucky bunch of folks, it got REALLY bad.

As in their house caught fire, totally involved bad.

But from my house, all I could see was black smoke coming up from behind my back fence - the one I share with a light industrial park, and it smelled like burning light industrial park as much as burning single family house.

This is after I had determined it wasn't my house on fire, of course. Hey, who needs house fire #4?

And kid hadn't had a nap at daycare again - and predictably, was dawdling over dinner, really too tired to be very interested in anything.

Jim is in the bathroom having a moment, and ignoring me shouting for him.

I tried stepping outside to look down the block and quickly determined I wasn't going to be able to determine our exposure without getting in the car and going around the block - so ran back in, yelled through the bathroom door THAT THERE'S A FIRE IN THE BACKYARD and gave very terse directions. Get ready to bug out, I'll be right back.

(We'd have to load both cars to get the three of us, and then the three cats loaded. It would take more than thirty seconds, doncha know.)

Xander was completely spooked - but I was able to go get in the car, drive down the street, verify that someone's house was on fire (BIG response, I counted five engine companies), not the industrial park and we were not going to be hit by it, drove back home and stood down.

And then tried to explain to Xander that someone's house was on fire, it was being taken care of and no, I don't know what happened to set it on fire. Only that it is, the fireman are there and everything is okay now.

There's also a bath to get done - which the boys do - and trying to get one book read is too much to ask, so I take kid to bed, cuddle and put down.

I also sit with him. Swear to God, the moment the feet and hands got still, he was OUT. Thuddy thud thud.

While I still hear sirens. Now, it sounds like they're headed for the hospitals. I still don't know much more than what I gathered that way - but whatever it was, it was as bad a thing as you'd see. House fire, with injuries. Big bad juju.

That's when I went back to my laptop, sampled the whiskey...put it aside and got down the candy. Nope, no ants. Win.

(I understand you can eat Fruit Loops with root beer, but I haven't done it yet.)

Discovered that this combination is win, simply by accident of not really thinking very much about it and oh, wow candy still in mouth, add booze.

Shut the computer down, took a book to bed - and about two hours later, Xander has a night terror and the only thing I can decipher is 'Mama.'

No, he didn't wake up - but I tucked in for half an hour with him anyway. I'd really scared him, poor kid. This potential loss anxiety is going to have to get addressed - it's just not fair.

I hope he got his nap today - you can see that this is not a good combination going to the evening, even if it means he goes to sleep a bit earlier.

I'm angling for food out tonight.

There are days I'm pretty sure international adoption is not the best way to deal with families too poor to raise children.

Then a story like this one crosses my desk.

For the record, the whole thing offends me. The fact it happens, the ads on the page from our darlings at CNN (*hisses*)...name it.

IA also isn't an option in Yemen, just in case you were wondering.

Things that haven't changed, number one: I am still surrounded by people with diabetes.

Things that have changed: the cost of a bottle of insulin.

(The DDoS stuff yesterday made me lose a buttload of stuff - the fingers flew, but the network went OM NOM NOM NOM *finger* - alas.)

Keep in mind Cliff passed in 1998 - at the age of 36. This is not to say if you get a type I diabetes diagnosis, you will as well. When he was diagnosed in 1969 - NINETEEN SIXTY NINE - at the age of 5, there were no meters, no in-home anything other than wee little tabs you peed on (that ALWAYS indicated positive, if you left them alone long enough 'just to make sure'), no time-release style insulin, no disposable ANYTHING...and all insulin was of animal origin. You a vegetarian? Uh oh. Close your eyes and take the shot - it's all we got. And they thought one shot a day of regular was GREAT. (Oh, and no A1c monitoring. Have a nice life!)

Cliff was also from a family that had a high cholesterol issue - he never fell below the mid 300's without medication - and often was MUCH higher. Set-up? Oh very much so.)

He started showing signs of major complications in his teens.

You weren't allowed in public schools, public pools (yes, really) and people either thought you were contagious or genetically inferior. (You're still 4F for the draft.) It wouldn't be until AIDS showed up that type I would be 'discovered' as an auto-immune disease, likely of viral origin combined with a genetic tendency towards overkill - yay viral research, hooray - oh, about 1988.

I remember how much some things cost - finding the $$$ to pay for it all after he retired disabled and lost 1/3 of our income permanently will engrave such things on your memory.

A bottle of regular insulin, beef/pork origin from Eli Lilly - $8. Box of syringes, oh about another $11 or so. (I still have some tucked away - they're very useful. Don't look at me like that. I'll feed you some congnac-treated strawberries and amaretto lychees someday.)

So we would have multiple bottles working at any one time - and a kit in the car, a kit at the desk at work - no problem. Didn't even bill insurance for it. If I needed to get all the dough out of a medical savings plan, fine. But - *shrug* - eh.

The recombiant DNA insulins were *just* coming online in the nineties, and while they were recommended as soon as they came out, the stuff wasn't all that available, and was a tad bit more a bottle. We kind of looked it as an experiment and gee whiz, that's keen.

A tad being - oh, it was $12 vs. that $8 I just told you about, for the stuff Eli Lilly was culling from the slaughterhouses.

Imagine my surprise when I went to go shop plain regular insulin yesterday and discovered Eli Lilly had stopped manufacuring that $8 a bottle stuff in 2005. Now, all insulin (it looks like) is recombinant DNA origin - and the $12 a bottle stuff?

Would you believe $41 a bottle?!

*jaw drop* That's -

A lot of things I'd rather not put to paper. The fact this product is a result of my taxes going to fund research for it - not to mention voluntary donations and fund raisers to boot - ah. Yawp.

I can HEAR Cliff in the afterlife from here - the screeching is amazing. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS - yes, yes, yes. Okay. I got it. I got it.

When you hear in the news that diabetes is now an epidemic, you just tuck that away somewhere. Without this, people don't live. Without *enough* of it, people live very compromised lives - and complications? Don't get me started.

We have some of the best tools to treat this that has ever been. You get this diagnosis, you can expect to have a lot of work - and never see what Cliff saw before you leave this place for the next one. If you can get access to the tools and use them. Meters that retain records and only require a tiny scratch (Cliff was seen at a hospital in 1996 that was still doing all its monitoring by draw. That's a stick in the arm, for you and me. How many times a day? They recommend four times, yanno. DRAW. 1996. Yo. When he died, I donated them his meter in his memory. Dumbshits.) They routinely put kids on pumps like clockwork and the results are incredible.

$41 a bottle. I've said I am glad I don't have to do with Cliff what I did in the nineties, now. There is nothing like finding out your information is out of date to get slapped in the face - and do you think Eli Lilly has a prescription drug assistance plan for regular insulin? Gallows humor kicking in here. You might as well ask the Clean Air Board in California for financial assistance to get air to breathe.

Wow. If you ain't rich, what right do you have to live. They used to just keep you out of the public pools.