Ai-yai-yai!

Or that should be, "Eye-eye-eye!"

It all started with my eyeglasses case.  I had a spring-loaded glasses case which had somehow broken in the last couple weeks.  It's snap was snap-less, but  it still protected my glasses, and I only opened it twice a day, so it was fine broken in my bathroom drawer.

On Friday night, I dropped my contact into the sink as I cleaned it.  I do that once in a while.  Not too often.  Every other time during the last nearly 30 years, I've gotten it out without any problem.  Not this time!  This time, it cracked.

But I didn't know it!

Saturday morning, I put it in my eye.  Ouch!  I thought it was a hair. I rinsed it and tried again.  Still owie!  When I examined it, I found the darn crack.  My spare contact didn't feel any better.  My eye had been injured a little by the cracked one.

I left my contacts off for a couple days.  On Monday, I tried to wear them.  It felt....ooookayyy.  My vanity told me that I could handle it for my day of work.  After the third hour, I could handle it no more.  I took out the contact on the pained side and drove around to the next couple patients with vision in one eye.

Thank goodness it was a short day!

Yesterday, it felt a little better, so I left them on, but smartly this time I took my contact case and my glasses in their non-snappy case.  As usual, I had an armful to take out to the car in the morning.  I shoved everything onto the passenger seat,  ran around to the driver's seat and took off to start my day.

That day, I tolerated the contact for about five hours, which amounted to my workday.  Yippee!  I ran into the house with my contact case and glasses case to switch out.  Ahhhh...contacts out!  Relief!  Now, put on my glasses.

Opened the case.  No glasses!  What the....?

They must've fallen out of the case on the way in from the car!  But I can't see to find them! 

"Erin!  I need you!  Please help me find my glasses!"

She shot into action and found them right away on the driveway.  In the path to the car, not from.  And they were smashed.  Badly.  They looked like Ralphie's glasses.  Whaaaa-aaaaah!  I started crying.  I needed those glasses!  I dried my sniffles and felt very sorry for myself the rest of the day into the evening.  I took my guide-dogs out for a walk.  I talked on the telephone to my big sister.  Luckily, my wonderful husband heated up some dinner for me.  And, luckily,  I could read.  So, I crawled into bed early and read and read and read.

Today:  A trip to The Eyeglass Factory

Frames:  $59.95.  Lenses:  $89.95.  Being able to see again:  Priceless.

R.I.P

"Lawlessness Knows No Holiday"

As promised, the story of Officer Squid's Christmas morning. 

You can also see the video in full screen by clicking the little "Full Screen" icon to the bottom right of the picture (look for a rectangle-within-a-rectangle).

Watch for a few of my heroes, especially one special hero!

From the Santa Barbara Independent:

Christmas Morning Stabbing on Eastside

Suspect Sergio Quintana, 36, Arrested; Victim Cesar Ortega, 32, Recovering in Hospital

Saturday, December 26, 2009

By MATT KETTMANN

Christmas morning started off on a particularly naughty foot for Sergio Quintana, the 36-year-old resident of Soledad Street on Santa Barbara’s Eastside who allegedly stabbed an acquaintance on Milpas Street near Haley in broad daylight Friday morning. The victim, 32-year-old Cesar Ortega, managed to flee in his vehicle and escape to his neighborhood on the 100 block of South Soledad Street, where he called police at about 10 a.m. from outside his apartment.

Once the police arrived, they found Ortega suffering from “several stab wounds to the chest and abdomen,” said Sgt. John Corre, amounting to what they thought were life-threatening wounds. He told them that he’d been stabbed by Quintana, and pointed up the street, to the 100 block of North Soledad, where the attacker’s car was parked. The police were able to quickly find Quintana, and he was arrested without incident for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

Upon being admitted to the hospital, Ortega was treated and, according to Corre, “his wounds were not as serious as we had anticipated.” He’s now being classified as in “guarded but stable condition.”

Until a more thorough report is issued Monday morning, Corre was unable to go into more details, as there are still a couple witnesses that police are tracking down. “Right now, all we would be giving would be the victim’s account,” said Corre, explaining that accuracy is most important before any public statement. But it sounds as if the motive has already been worked out, and while Corre made it seem that the case was pretty cut and dry, he did say that some of the underlying issues are “interesting.”

Corre could confirm, however, that the victim and suspect did know each other before the attack and that “we’ve seen nothing that shows any gang relationship.”

The Daily Sound's Story:

Man stabbed in Christmas morning altercation

by Colby Frazier • Dec 26 2009

One man spent Christmas in the hospital and another landed in Santa Barbara County Jail after an altercation ended with a vicious stabbing.

Just after 10 a.m. yesterday, authorities were dispatched to the 100 block of south Soledad St. on reports of a medical emergency. Upon arrival, they found 33-year-old Cesar Ortega suffering from multiple stab wounds to his chest and abdomen.

Lt. Brent Mandrell, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara Police Department, said Ortega identified the stabber as 36-year-old Sergio Osvaldo Quintana.

Investigators began a search for Quintana and located him driving a few blocks away on Ortega Street.

Mandrell said officers conducted a “high risk” traffic stop and arrested the man.

Mandrell did not know if the stabbing took place at one of the men’s homes, or how, if at all, they knew each other. He said investigators were not considering the stabbing gang related.

“It’s all under investigation,” he said.

Quintana was being held in county jail on suspicions of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Mandrell said Ortega was in stable condition.

Merry Christmas!

Highlights of Christmas 2009!

Our day started *yaaaawwwwnnnn* at 4:00am to open presents. The officer had to get to work! He leaves at 5:30am.

We didn't take many pictures. Here are some.

Kevin got a Taun-Taun Sleeping Bag! He didn't know he wanted it, but he thought it was one of the coolest presents. Read the story on ThinkGeek's page.

Erin got her wish: a leopard-print Snuggie, The Blanket With Sleeves!

Cocoa and Kibble got filled rawhide bones in their stocking! Kibble, as usual, sat down and ate hers right away. Cocoa carried hers around, looking for a place to bury it, before she was let outside to bury it proper. Here is Kibble, asking Cocoa to please share cuz her's is all gone.

"Uhh, no I don' shink sho."

Most of the day for us was spent napping (I went back to bed before the sun was up!), playing with our toys, reading our new books, and dreaming of what we were to get with our gift certificates. Kevin didn't nap. He went fishing in the afternoon.

Officer Squid had an exciting morning at work. See separate post.

The cooking didn't start until about 4:00 with the making of the rolls. We roasted a turkey breast, which took just a couple hours. We had mashed potatoes, stove top stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, fresh-baked white rolls, cranberries, champagne and sparkling cider.

Poor Mikey had an incident with the champagne. A mistake was made as to the bottle chosen when the table was set. An unchilled bottle was brought out, and when it popped, it popped hard! The cork got Mikey in the nose! Ouch! We had a bit of clean-up to do before sitting down.

Dinner was served at about 7:30. Traditional turkey dinner for us, with nearly everything still homemade except the stuffing and the gravy. It still felt a little spared-back....maybe because the cooking didn't take all day long. We enjoyed a pumpkin pie and a French silk chocolate pie for dessert. Mmmmm! The Kitchenaid does a superb job whipping up that chocolate silk!

We stayed up to watch the 11:00 news. (See separate post)

We had a nice holiday! Merry Christmas!

♥ 23 ♥

We celebrated our 23rd anniversary last weekend. It was a nice day!

Saturday we went out to Rattlesnake Trail. It opened a couple months ago, after the Jesusita Fire shut it down. The weather felt like spring, and we had flora and fauna to trick us into thinking it was spring, as well!

The trails were in good shape but there was still evidence of the fire.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch, and then we drove down the hill to the Santa Barbara Inn, where it all began 23 years ago. A little champagne at sunset sweetened the evening.

View from our balcony at sunset.

Guess what? There was a phone in the bathroom!

We had a wonderful dinner later. We were treated very fine at Opal Restaurant.

View from our balcony in the morning.

On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at Sambo's, on the patio. The weather was so perfect! Sitting outside was perfectly delightful for breakfast.





♥ ♥ ♥ All-in-all, a terrific anniversary celebration! ♥ ♥ ♥

Happy Winter Solstice

Yippee! Winter Solstice! Now the days are getting longer!

Things I like about winter:

• You can still go in shorts and short sleeves on many days in this beautiful place
  
• Christmas!
• New Year's Eve!
• Kevin's birthday celebration!
• Remembering the street singer, on a day about now, 1990, when I was walking down State Street, verrrrry pregnant. He paused when he looked at me and said, "You've been naughty and nice!"
• Having a contest with myself to see if I can write the correct year with 100% accuracy. I write the date a dozen times a day!
• Valentine's Day
• Rainstorms
  
• The days are getting longer!

What is your favorite aspect of Winter?

What Would Jesus Say?

If he saw these...um....creative Nativities?

Click this link. Be sure to see all pages!

Lucid Dream Realized

OK, I'll try not to bore you with dream stories, but this lucid dreaming is fascinating to me. I had another one this morning.

Again, the impetus was not being able to immediately fall back to sleep but noticing when I finally did. The trigger was a dream of holding Doughie in my arms and saying to her, "Oh, Doughie, we've been friends for 40 years!"

....hold on a tick...40 years? That's not a dog's life....! A dream sign! "I'M DREAMING!"

Again, I ran to Kevin to tell him. He was sitting at a big desk and said nothing as I told him I was having a lucid dream. "Look!" I exclaimed as I pinched my cheek. "I can't feel it! I'm dreaming!"

I tried the flips that the real-life Kevin had told me to try. It didn't work very well, though I attempted them a few times.

"I'm just going to fly!" I told him. "I will just flap my arms and try to get off the ground!" I was very excited!

It worked! I floated around and flew around outside. I was in Los Alamos, and I flew all around the street looking at the snow on the ground, sparkling in the moonlight (this came from BobBIE's texts of the previous night about the snowstorm). It was only the second time I remember flying in a dream.

After a while, I flew to the beach with some other flying people and as I sat on the beach in a beach chair, I thought it was about time to stop dreaming and get up. (I could hear Erin up and getting ready for school). I did stop the dream, but I didn't get up.

What a fascinating mental process is a dream in itself, but then to enter this state of lucidity...it is really cool. Brains are awesome! Read more about lucid dreams here. Go try it!

****

Plate o' shrimp! The quote of the day here on my blog is this:

"Let us suppose, then, that we are dreaming, and that all these particulars—namely, the opening of the eyes, the motion of the head, the forth-putting of the hands—are merely illusions; and even that we really possess neither an entire body nor hands such as we see." --Rene Descartes

November Police Blotter

From the Daily Sound

Nov. 28, 12:23 p.m. — Police were called to an apartment complex in the 600 block of Garden Street on reports of a woman refusing to leave a residence. The resident said the 35-year-old woman had come over to visit and take him to lunch, but had disappeared into the bathroom for an extended period of time.

When the resident checked on the woman, he saw her smoking meth from a pipe. The suspect refused to leave and locked the resident out of his apartment. With the help of the apartment manager, however, officers gained entry and found the suspect in the bathroom, naked with her belongings strewn about the room.

The 35-year-old appeared confused, had dilated pupils, complained of being extremely thirst and was constantly twitching. Police recovered a used meth pipe from the room. Authorities booked the woman for being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bail was set at $2,500.

From EdHat.com:

On 11/12 at 10:20 a.m., Officer Squid responded to the Brooks Photography campus at 801 Alston Road on a call of suspicious circumstances. A week before, employees discovered a room dead-bolted with a lock that did not belong to the school. They forced entry and discovered evidence of someone living in the room: Clothing, hygiene products, damp washcloths, and other personal items. Today, they found a room normally unlocked that was dead-bolted from the inside. They heard noises, but no one would answer or open the door. When Officer Squid arrived, employees forcibly removed the lock and out came the suspect: Michael Othello Shirley, age 40. Shirley said he has been secretly living at the school for 3 weeks. He was arrested for vandalism and trespass.

Shirley