It wasn't inconsideration.......

In my last post about my sister going to the hospital again..... Well, she's now home and all seems as well as it can be. I hope that the Arkansans that read my blog do not think that I do not appreciate the great job they are doing taking care of their mom, mother-in-law, friend, Mimi aka my sister. I DO appreciate the fact that they have taken time off work to be there for her, and stayed with her round the clock. I love them for the wonderful job they are doing! I just wish I could be there myself is all. I wish I had the means to be able to take off 6 weeks or 3 mos. just to come take care of her. But, unfortunately, I do have to work and keep my job (and my husband) in order to maintain this lifestyle to which I have become accustomed. Not that it is lavish by any means, but we do go out to eat and to the club for drinks, racing and camping. So, it is a nice life, but I have to work in order to have it. So, if I offended any one that thought I didn't think they were doing a good job by what I last posted, I apologize. It's the control freak in me, really, I think. I can't control what's going on with my sister, I can't be there to take care of her, ya know how it is!

a weird tax, to the horse pistol again, reponsibility

In my elustrious state, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, there are no taxes on the necessities of life which would encompass food, clothing and shelter. The thing is that is Sales Tax. However, as most of you know that read my ramblings, I live in a mobile home park in which I do not own the property on which my mobile home sets. I lease it. I pay a monthly rental fee to keep my home, which contains all my stuff, on a piece of land that measures approximately 45' wide and 100' long. For this monthly fee, we get no purks. We have to pay quarterly for our trash removal. We pay our own water and sewage. We cut our own grass. We have even invested in beautifying our little corner of the world that we don't own by doing some landscaping including planting flowers(annuals and perrenials), tomato plants, pepper plants, a planter (two tiered) on the end of the house and mulched. We are of the few around here who take in pride in the curb appeal of our home. Since we lease the property, we do not pay real estate or as more commonly known, property taxes. However, we do have to pay property taxes on the mobile home every year. I don't understand that. I paid $38,000 for this home in 1995. There was no sales tax on the home. They tried to charge me sales tax, but I pointed out that homes are not taxable in the state of PA. After some checking, they found I was right and we did not pay sales tax. But, I have to pay $60 a year property tax on the home itself to the county of Allegheny every year. Wouldn't you think that the county would follow suit from the state on this matter? The county doesn't charge me tax on food or clothing. Why my mobile home? I have a $32,000 pick up truck. I don't pay taxes on it. But I did pay sales tax on it. To both the state AND county. Now, my mobile home is registered just like my truck. With the DMV. Yeah. The DMV. It has a title just like a car or truck, not a deed. So, I ask you. How does that work?



My sister is in the hospital(I lovingly refer to it as the horse pistol) for the 2nd time since her surgery. No they think she was impacted. I feel so bad. I wish I could have 1/2 her pain. Not all. But I'd take half. I can't believe what she's going through so soon after loosing Jerry. I wish I could bring her up here so I could take care of her. I would go down there,(permanently) but then I'd have no job and no husband. I don't think I could convince him to move to Arkansas. Especially in the summer. WAY too hot for him! So, Dar, come to Pittsburgh for a month and I'll take care of ya!



Now, here's a work thing. I took a phone call from one of our material reps that was for Wynn, my big boss' son. When he came in the office, I gave him a message that she wanted him to call her about this new part we are trying to bid on because, it seems someone called her about the same part from somewhere else. Wednesday, I sit in my chair and he comes downstairs, doesn't say good morning or hi as per his usual, he just bellows my name. It startled me and I jumped and yelled WHAT?!!! He asked me what the rep wanted when she called on Monday. I told him again "for you to call her because blah blah blah" and repeated it. He said No, she called to tell me to check my email cause the information I wanted she had sent. So, apparently he never called her back and he thought she didn't send the info. Did he check his email to see if it was there? No. Did he call her back on Monday when I told him to? No. So, was it my fault that the info he needed he didn't know he had until Wednesday was my fault how? I guess by assuming he was reponsible enough to return a phone call and she would tell him in their conversation not only the part I told him, but also that she had emailed the info he wanted. Stupid me.

Racing, Camping, Quiet time, Raccoon, Beached

Well, I feel like I have been on a world tour and never left Western PA!! On Thrursday, June 28th, Dean and I took the camper and met with friends at Lernerville Speedway, a dirttrack, in Sarver, PA. That's in Butler county. It's about 40 miles from where I work. I call our friend Jeff when we get on 28N, and it turns out, he's not too far behind us. So, we get to the track within minutes of each other, decide where our camping spots should be and set up. Now, the thing is that we reserved 4 spots together. One for Jeff and his girlfriend, Mine and Dean's, Tom and Lisa's and Sam and Charlotte's, so we would be guaranteed to be able to camp together. However, reserving the spots only guaranteed we had reserved spots. It didn't designate the spots. But, we were lucky enough that we got 4 together right on pit entrance road. That means I got to see all the car haulers pull in. (Except the ones that came in when I was asleep).

We had a really good time. The racing was great! After qualifying, there was a 30 Lap 'Uncle Sam"concie race on Friday night. Some guy I don't know won that. Josh McGuire. Between the qualifying and the race, they chose people from the stands to enter a horseshoe competition the next day at noon. You got to pick a driver from the list they had and be teamed up with them. A friend of Jeff's, Rich Baumgartner got picked and teamed up with Lynn Geisler. The ended up winning the tournament to the tune of $200! Friday night they had a live band. Nomad. It actually is an acronym for North Of the Mason Dixon. They were really good and Dean and I enjoyed them. After the horshoe tourney on Saturday, we went back to camp and just hung out till 4 when it was time for the driver autograph session. My favorite driver, Scott Bloomquist, was in the first seat. So, I told him that the baby's first birthday pics were great that his mom had emailed me and I told him about recognizing his eyes on the cover of the latest issue of Dirt Late Model magazine which I had him sign. I hugged him and wished him luck in the race. Then there were 6 heat races and the winners of those later got to "pull a pill" for the starting positions of the Feature, aka The Firecracker 100. Since my favorite driver won his heat, he was down on the front stretch to take his turn to pull his pill. I went down for pictures. I yelled over to him "c'mon, baby. Pick that #1. He was the fourth driver to pull his pill, He pulled out the #1! I thought his chin was going to hit the track his jaw dropped so far! He looked over his shoulder at me as the announcer said "He's got the pole!" The crowd reaction was mixed, as it always is for him. Boos and cheers. You either love him or you hate him. It sounds exactly like the reaction Jeff Gordon gets when he is introduced at the Nascar races. Bloomer led every lap but one, and that one he didn't was only for a matter of 20 feet of the track. It was a great race!

Watchin' the

haulers come in.

Rich, his son Teddy, and Geisler

My favorite Driver- Bloomer!

Waitin' to pull his pill. (He's on the quad)

The Victor!!!!!!

Now, here's a little soapbox issue for ya. The Track's camping rules said that "Quiet time" was from 1:30 am to 6 am. That meant no loud generators, music or partying between those hours. Obviously, some of our party didn't think they had to obey those rules, so Thursday and Friday night, I didn't get much sleep. Saturday night, I stayed up and at 1:30, I told them the music had to be turned off and that they had to keep the noise down. I was able to go to bed about 2:15. Then we got up Sunday morning, had breakfast, broke camp and pulled out.

Monday and Tuesday were usual workdays, then Tuesday after work, Dean and I were off in the camper again. We camped at Raccoon Creek State Park. It's in Beaver County, not far past the race track that is our usual saturday hang out. It is usually very peaceful there. But this time, there was a family across the road from us that wouldn't tie there dog. He wasn't neutered and he kept comin' over to our camp sniffin' around and trying to get his nose up Bitsy's you know what. Another soapbox issue: The park rules say that you must have you dog leashed at all times. They obviously didn't care about that rule! And they had a toddler who was probably 2 or 3. He cryed more than any kid I ever heard before. And I had alway heard that you are supposed to hang your trash bag from a tree. So we did. The thing is that I didn't put it high enough and the raccoons ripped the bottom out of the bag! So, we moved that to the bed of the truck. Thursday, it rained a good bit in the wee hours of the morning and some through the day. We ran errands in the morning and ate breakfast at a little country restaurant up the road a piece. We had gone to the bank to deposit my pay, to walmart to finally use the gift cards that we got for Christmas and to Giant Eagle and to Get Go. Went back to camp and I finished my book and Dean watched DVD's of the Steelers' road to the SuperBowl. We roasted marshmellows on the camp fire and went to bed. Sometime during the night, the raccoons came back for a visit and helped themselves to one of the steaks we bought the day before and some leftover barbecue ribs and some cherries. They were able to unlatch the cooler and get in and get the food! I never thought they would be able to figure out how to unlatch the cooler! That night, we bungied it shut and turned it toward the camper so they couldn't get at the latches!

Friday, we went to the beach and swam in the lake. It was really nice. Lisa and her oldest son, Zack and his friend came out to join us. We had a great time! But they could only stay a very short while. So, it was home for them and back to camp for us! But, we had made plans for them to come back on Saturday, go swimming, cook out at camp, then we would go to the races together. Raccoon is not that far past our racetrack. Sidebar: did you know that RACECAR spelled backwards is racecar? I digress. Sorry. So we did all that and had a really good time. Again, it turned into Sunday and we had to break camp and come home. I read a book for two of the days, and the read alot of the stories in my Reader's Digest, the read a couple of articles in the Dirt Late Model Magazine. Dean and I played cards one evening, roasted marshmellows over the campfire a few evenings, did nothing the night we got there except set up camp, have dinner and go to bed. I slept for 10 hours that night! I never do that! I think I was still exhausted from the first weekend at Lernerville.........

Dean, Bitsy and Bailey @ camp

Dean and Lisa on Friday @ the beach

Lisa's son Mac (R) and his friend

Lisa sunnin', Tom and Dean

Lisa's son Zack and his friend in the lake (by the green raft)

All in all it was a good, relaxing time. No noise till all hours. Quiet time in the park starts at 11 p.m. How cool is that? Vary kewl, vary kewl, as my brother in law would say. I did get some sunburn on my one leg. I didn't think I was out of the water as long as I really had, and the way I was sitting on the beach towel, the inside of my right leg up to my knee got a little burned. I put solarcaine on it right away. I also stubbed my little toe on that foot on my bed one night. And I closed the screen door on my thumb one day, so I have a band-aid on that. Nothing that won't heal.

Well, it's time for me to

and get my butt in bed. It's a school night, ya know.