Some Updatin'

Well, it has been a crazy few days. First, my grandmother passed away on Monday morning. She was 93 years old and a wonderful little lady. I had a thought this morning as i was in the shower. When we were kids grandma and grandpa Boki weren't our favorites. My brothers and i were spoiled rotten by my mom's parents, who lived next door. BTW the guy who bought our house, some 30 years ago, committed suicide a few weeks ago... in our old house.... creepy. I digress.
About 10 years ago my grandpa Boki had a stroke or something (i don't think they every really diagnosed what happened) and basically couldn't take care of the house. In steps me to mow the grass and cut the hedges, etc. I would stop after work as the lawn needed cut. (they had an acre of land) Grandma would call and tell me the grass needed cut and ask me when i could stop. Usually within a day or two I would stop over and get the job done with grandpa's awesome Craftsman riding mower. Afterward, I would come in the house and she would have dinner ready for me and give me $20 if she had it. (which I always declined and she would slip in my pocket). We would sit and talk and she would tell me stories (none of which I can remember) about the old days at the Boston Store or what her friends were doing while we ate. Then we would watch Wheel and Jeopardy and I would amaze her with my answers. I am a master Wheeler and do pretty decently on the first round of Jeopardy, as long as the answers aren't about Shakespeare or Greek Gods. Double Jeopardy... forget about it. I do remember she made a mean "city chicken" with mashed potatoes. She kept meticulous records of the weather in a spiral binder and wasn't afraid to show it off. Those are my favorite memories of grandma. Just me and her at the kitchen table kibitzing like a couple of old ladies. 93 years... a good run grandma. My brother and his family live in her house now and he rides the mower. Maybe I'll stop over this summer and get on that mean machine one more time.... hey Bear, pump up that right front tire that always goes flat and have my money ready... 20 bucks is still pretty cheap for an acre of mowing... I'm not doing it for free.

In other news, the Erie Police Department owe me 2 hours of sleep from last night. It seems when they were following up on a domestic dispute at 4:30 am and they got shot at. they set-up a 4 x 8 block perimeter to look for the guy. for a good hour there are gunshots in the neighborhood and he seems to be in different areas like he is moving through backyards. Next thing you know the guy's house is on fire. The cops can't send in the fire fighters as they might get shot. They then evacuate the surrounding houses with a borrowed armored car and finally let the fire fighter start putting out fires on surrounding houses, all while being "covered" by the police. I seems that the guy probably shot himself in the house after he set it on fire, but wow, it was exciting police scanner listening. The stupid casino and Target channels kept coming in and it was too dark to find the button to lock-out the channels out so I heard some jackpots being hit and price mark-down discussions in between. I guess it's o.k. to have the scoop on the hot slots and Target sales too.