Klowns in my Koffee

A good "Good Friday." This was a good time to clean up old business and generally air out the house. I worked a little on my job transition plan this morning to keep the momentum going but moved on when it started raining and the kids went from chanting "Mommy!" every two minutes to every thirty seconds when they could no longer play outside.

The Lupus Foundation truck came to pick up the porch full of donations. It's a pleasure to be able to walk down the hallway without approximating playing Twister. The Lupus Foundation does a wonderful job in serving those afflicted and raising funds for research to find a cure. I didn't know much about this particular disease. The most common form is Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease of the connective tissue. It manifests itself in a variety of systems, making diagnosis difficult and delaying effective treatment for years in some patients. The disease occurs nine times more often in women than in men. Prominent people who had or died of SLE: Michael Jackson, Ray Walston ("Uncle Martin" the Martian from one of my favorite childhood sitcoms "My Favorite Martian"), Phillipine president Ferdinand Marcos and the much-admired reporting free spirit Charles Kuralt. To schedule a pickup: http://www.lupuspickup.org/lupuspickup/web/whoarewe.aspx

While we are talking about both community service and cleaning up, here's another wonderful and free service. I had a damaged American flag that needed to be disposed up in a respectful manner. Some research revealed that the American Legion provides this service. I called the local post and they said to come on down. I took them the flag and it was easily taken care of. It also gave me a good opportunity to discuss flag etiquette with the kids. Legionnaires, count me in for the next pancake breakfast! http://www.legion.org/

We hit the library, the garden center and the animal shelter. When my older daughter was little, we regularly went to the animal shelter to pet the critters. I think we told her it was like the zoo, only free. I found a cat that I would like to bring home. I left without him, logically feeling that $100 could be better spent. Later, I looked him up on the website and found that he has medical problems, doesn't like other cats and isn't too good with children He's also been there a really long time. Naturally, all these negatives make me want to bring him home all the more. (Now you see why I could work at a place for eleven years where they had a meeting in which the upper management discussed whether or not I am Jewish.) My spousal unit surprisingly was supportive and suggested that we could back tomorrow just to find out more.

I also cleaned three rooms and took a nap. Still tired as all get-out.