This is a nightmare

I am writing this on my cell phone, that being the only device in the house with Internet access. I’ve been marooned here with no transportation since Saturday morning. Mom isn’t back from camping yet. And she took the router, because of course she did.

Through no fault of my own (even the cops said so) I ran my car off the road, over a ditch, through a fence and into a cornfield. No injuries. It’s in the shop and I am stuck. No idea if it is worth it to fix.

Meanwhile, Charley stuff is piling up and all I can do is observe this on my phone and groan. I had promised to write a special entry for a friend and can’t do that either. I can go on Facebook and read emails and that’s kind of it. Doing any kind of writing is hard. Cell phone keyboards were not designed for long messages like this.

I just want you all to know I haven’t abandoned the site or this blog, I am just in a difficult position right now.

In better news, I have stopped shaking from the new medicine and really feel no different than before, which was kind of the point.

Make-a-List Monday: Expectant fathers

This list idea was supplied to me by T.T.: men who left behind a pregnant wife, girlfriend, whatever when they disappeared.

1. Eric M. Apatiki
2. Jose Julian Beltran-Sedano
3. Joshua Charles Berry
4. Gene Jacob Cloud Jr.
5. Joseph Consentino
6. Ryan Cooper
7. Ronald Reed Duck Jr.
8. Ryan Jacob Esparza
9. Douglas E. Goodwin
10. Franklin Wayne Harrod Jr.
11. Derrick Ray Henegan
12. Cole Duane Jackson
13. Jonathan Bruce Jackson
14. Torey Clark Newlin
15. Erik Thomas Ruiz
16. Kareem Jamaal Ward

Feeling a bit better now

I think I’ve started to get used to the new meds because I’m almost back to normal. Dad and I are going on a day trip to Michigan tomorrow, then I have to be in Ohio to watch Mom’s cat for the weekend while she’s on a camping trip. (Not sure if she has internet access or not.) When that is all done, God willing, I shall resume updating and answering my emails and posting some important stuff on this blog. I miss it very much but I was in no condition to do it before.

In the meantime, here is our new kitten, Aria:

Black cats don’t photograph very well and it was hard to get a good one for her. But I think this turned out well enough. She’s a very rambunctious critter and likes to go streaking from one end of the house to the other for no reason at all, and play Trampoline on the bed while Mommy and Daddy are trying to sleep. Aria and our other cat, Carmen, are still warming up to each other. It’s got to the point now where they will play together a bit, but if either one realizes we humans are watching, they’ll start hissing at each other. Knock it off, you two, you’re not fooling anyone.

On hiatus

As you all may have noticed, I haven’t updated much this month or blogged much etc.  The basic explanation is this: I got a change in my medication and now, cause of the side effects from the new medicine, I can’t type very well or even walk down the stairs without gripping the rail or I’d fall. I’ve got major tremors and my manual dexterity is shot. Just writing this paragraph took a long time because I kept having to go back and correct word spellings.

I sincerely hope the situation will resolve itself soon.

Make-a-List Monday: People with children in foster care

This list is for parents of had children who were living with foster parents at the time the parent disappeared. I don’t count cases where the kids were placed in care after the parent disappeared.

1. Andrea Leigh Cotten
2. Hope Renee Curry
3. Ann Bernice Duncan
4. Shannon Lynn Fischer
5. Tammy Ann Hill
6. Danielle Nadine Mouton
7. Tammy Sue Lynn Passineau
8. DeNeka Dashay Walker
9. Janice Arlene Younger

Make-a-List Monday: Adults who spent time in foster care

This list is for grown-up missing people who spent at least part of their childhood and/or adolescence in foster care or otherwise under guardianship of the state. I think it is a good idea for a list, even though it is quite short. Probably it should be longer.

1. Lutricia Steele
2. Anna Marie Zirkle

In other news

I visited my nephew in the hospital today, for the first time since the day of the accident. Frankly, I kind of wish I hadn’t, because what I saw was very concerning. He looked awful and he didn’t really acknowledge my presence. He was tossing restlessly on the bed, but didn’t move his left arm or leg at all, and his mother said he couldn’t see well on his left side — which may be why he didn’t acknowledge me, since I was sitting on his left side.

The important thing is he’s still alive. He’s incredibly lucky; he’s doing as well as a person can be in his situation. I keep telling myself that. But it was distressing to see him flat on his back and looking so terrible.

I didn’t stay long; a gaggle of his friends showed up and it got pretty crowded. Once he gets out of the hospital they’ll begin rehab.

And Michael and I are going to be getting a new kitten. We already have a much-loved cat, Carmen, but we had been in the process of maybe thinking of getting her a kitty companion for quite awhile. Remember Michael’s friend Ellen who died? Well, Ellen and her husband Ron had gotten a kitten shortly before her accident and now her husband doesn’t want it anymore. He can’t stand to look at it because it reminds him of Ellen. It’s just the kind of cat we were in the market for: it’s female, it’s black (I wanted a black cat because they’re less adoptable than other cats due to the superstition, and Michael wants one because his first-ever cat was black and he has a soft spot for black cats) and it qualifies as a rescue cat because it needs a new home. We’ll get supplies and kitten-proof the house and then collect the kitten in the coming week. Ron has agreed to pay for the last of its shots, and the neutering.

The kitten is ten weeks old. We have decided to call it Aria. Michael wanted a name associated with Ohio State University — Carmen is named after Carmen Ohio, the OSU song — and I suggested Violet, after Violet Meek, the former dean of Ohio State’s Lima campus. Michael didn’t like that name and suggested Brutus, after Brutus Buckeye, the mascot. I said Brutus was completely unacceptable for a female cat. We decided Aria would be a good name, though, because it goes well with Carmen. I mean, Carmen is a song, and an aria is a type of song, so…

When Aria arrives I’m sure I’ll post loads of adorable pictures of her.

Select It Sunday: Stacey Kelekoma

Selected by Annie (not my friend Annie aka forthelost, but another Annie): Stacey Haunani Kelekoma, who disappeared on August 25, 1986 from Anahola, Hawaii, age 14. She was added to the NCMEC site just a few days ago. Very little information is available in her case, and what little there is, is contradictory. It’s unclear if she was abducted or ran away or what.

YouTube Saturday: Five cases

I’ve got:

Monica Cassandra Carrasco:

Tommy Damon Daniels:

Bedriye Sayrun:

James Leon Throneberry:

Wensheng Zheng:

Flashback Friday: Mark Peal and Kevin Conner

This week’s Flashback Friday is for friends Mark Peal, 10, and Kevin Lee Conner, 13, who vanished from Port Angeles, Washington on August 26, 1971. The boys were on a camping trip when they went off exploring and never came back. An extensive search turned up nothing and they’re assumed to be dead.

Interesting to note how tall, and how skinny, Kevin is: at thirteen he was 5’10, about average height for a grown man, and weighed just 110 pounds.