Today the phone rang.  David and I were getting ready to go buy some apple cider and then go out to eat.  But the phone rang and David answered it.  Let me say this first before I go on.  I don’t always answer the phone if I am busy or think it might be a salesman.  We do get sales calls at about the same time every day and I stopped answering the phone at those times.  But David cannot stand to hear the phone ring and always answers.Then he will engage with the sales person to tell them to take our phone number off their list, but they never do.

Anyway, the phone rang just as we were getting ready to leave and David answered it. He came carrying the phone to me saying it was my sister on the phone with an emergency.  I took the phone and my sister was sobbing on the other end.  It seems she and her daughter, my niece,were in a car accident.  She kept talking through her sobs so I asked her if someone else could talk.
Then a policeman came on the phone and told me they had been in an accident and that they both did not have life threatening injuries.  Then he said that my niece had alcohol in her and I told him she did not drink.  Then he said she had told him she had not been feeling well and was taking cold medicine that had alcohol in it.  She was going to be taken to jail nevertheless for wreckless driving and would I like to speak with her?  Of course and she got on the line still sobbing saying she didn’t want to spend the night in jail so they had a lawyer to talk to me. Now this is where my spidey  senses should have been alerted, but no.  The lawyer got on and I asked him what happened and that my niece said the accident was not her fault.  That the lady had pulled out in front  of her.  I asked about the other driver and the lawyer said she was a pregnant lady.  My heart sank. Back on line to my niece.

I then asked my niece where my sister was and she said she had been taken to the hospital.  She was hysterical about spending a night in jail and the lawyer said she needed bond money.  I asked her where her Dad was.  She said he was out of town. My sister and her husband never go anywhere without the other.  Again, my spidey senses should have been alerted, but they were not. Then I asked her why she didn’t call her brother and she said something I did not understand and then the  lawyer got back on the phone to explain to me the circumstances that she would need bail to stay out of jail.  I asked him how much was bail and he said, $90,000 and my heart sank  again.But then the court would take ten per cent which was $9,000.  Then he asked, well,how much could you send? Now, dear reader, my spidey senses should have been jumping off the charts, but nooooo.  I said I would have to talk to my husband and I asked the lawyer for his call back number.  The phone suddenly went dead.

I told David we were going up there, a one and a half hour drive.  My sister and niece needed me!  We both packed bags expecting to spend the night and off we went.  I proceeded to tell David what the lawyer had told me.  I had even taken notes!  We had to make a stop for gas out of town when David told me, “Call your sister.”  I said, “ What, she is in the hospital!”  “Call your sister,” he repeated so while he pumped gas, I typed in my sister’s number and it rang and rang and my brother-in-law answered.  I said,”Are you home?”  “Yes,” he said.  “Is(my sister’s name) there?  By that time something was dawning on me.  He seemed confused by my questions.  Then my spidey senses finally started working and I realized we almost were scammed.  If not for David thinking maybe things weren’t exactly kosher we would have continued on to see my sister in the hospital where she obviously was not!

When we started putting the pieces together I noticed that things did not add up.  How was the lawyer at the accident so quickly?   How did they know my niece and sister’s names and I realize I had given them to the person on the phone. And why did the lawyer hang up when I asked for his callback number?  I think they knew the jig was up when I wanted the fake lawyer’s phone number! I was so thankful that my sister was well and at home, that my niece was not going to jail , that there was no pregnant lady. All there was were some very good actors on the phone. The girl who played  my niece deserves an Academy Award!

I am writing this as a warning.  I never thought I could be easily tricked like I was today.  These thieves are good at their work.  They know how to play  on people’s emotions.  All I could think at the time was my loved ones needed help. I was an easy prey.  Thank God for a husband who sensed something was not right.  Don’t let this happen to you. Never send money, we didn’t.  Ask for a callback number, I did do that. And never offer up too much information to a stranger on the phone.  I unwittingly did just that,  I learned valuable lessons today and will never be that gullible again.  I do know never to send money or give credit card numbers or bank account numbers to people you do hot know or have not called yourself.

I hope you have learned something from what happened to us today. There are very scary people waiting to prey on us.  Bye.

 

Now I know why many bloggers wait forever to write new blogs.  Life gets in the way.  The past couple of months have gone by in a whirlwind and now it is October, one of my favorite months of the years.  It usually starts to get cooler now, but we have been having Summerlike days for weeks now and hardly any rain.  We are living in a drought area now where we are not allowed burning outside.  Today it is grey and cloudy and they say it is going to rain, but they have been saying that almost daily and no rain.

We went to a wedding last month. Our oldest grandson’s. He met the love of his life at college.  He was a lacrosse star and she played on the basketball team.  So two athletes got together and got married.

Ahh, the kiss. The best part of the ceremony!

They washed each other’s feet during the ceremony which I thought was extra special.  Shows how they will serve one another in this marriage.

Jesus washed feet in the Bible. It shows a humbleness and love and shows He was also here to serve His Father.

Somebody isn’t happy at all to be married!   It is now two become one for all the rest of their lives.  So proud of both of them and so blessed to have another granddaughter.

This is the groom’s brother.  I asked him if he was going to be next and he kind of acted like it might just happen!  He has a girlfriend he has been dating since high school.  So…..

This is David and me and our daughter and younger son.

My son and his wife, my daughter-in-law.  Very nice lady.  She makes beautiful jewelry.  They got married a few years ago and since then I have worked on something to give them and brought it to the wedding and gave it to them finally.

\

I started this quilt several years ago and always thought I would give it to them if I ever got it done and this Summer I sat down and began hand quilting thinking I would get it done for Christmas, but it went faster than I thought and I got it done and knew I would see them at the wedding so decided to take it there and give it to them as a late wedding gift.  Thousands of stitches in this quilt. Done with love.  They live in Florida so I hope they can use it.  The quilt measures 108 inches by 108 inches and fits a kingsize bed very well.

 

Our granddaughter and her husband who have been married just a few years.  The girl beside them is my grandson’s girlfriend and the girl on the end is my son’s stepdaughter.  I didn’t recognize her at first because I haven’t seen her is a few years, but we had a nice conversation. She is going to be an animal ophthalmologist if I understood her right.  Sounds interesting!  Our granddaughter has a good job at Conner Prairie an 1820 pioneer reenactment village.

Groom’s mother, my daughter-in-love, and her husband who has helped raise the kids. Yes we are an American family with his, mine and ours and whoever else wants to be in the family.  I will take them all and love them all.

My daughter and her husband, my son-in-law.  A very good one, too.

A small wedding cake for the bride and groom to cut. Thankfully, they did not shove pieces of cake in each other’s mouths like I have seen done on Facebook.  I really believe some marriages end right there when this happens because it shows lack of respect for the other person.  David and I fed each other little pieces at our wedding.

250 cupcakes later!  Red velvet was what I got and it was good.

Here is my grandson with the girl he walked with down the aisle. Right now he is the tallest person in our family.  Well over six feet and still growing, I think.  Very handsome, but it seems like only yesterday I was babysitting him while his parents worked.  He reminds me of my daddy in manner and personality.

I think they enjoyed this too much!  Ha!  I don’t blame them.  When you came into the door of the building where the wedding reception was held there was a table with pictures of the parents’  and grandparents’ weddings and of course, David and I were kissing in ours.  Guess our grandchildren take after us!

It was a happy day and we had a good time.

I think I told about our old dog, Molly, who had surgery last month on her mouth and her tail.  She had a growth on both places and her poor tail had to be bobbed.

 

Went from a long Labrador tail to this.  I call her Molly Pugtail now.  She doesn’t seem to mind. I think she feels so much better and has lost some weight and acts like a puppy most days.  So glad we could get it done for her.

Then there are these two…..

Lucy and Sugar.  Look at Lucy. She looks like I am going to beat her. She always gets this look every time I take her picture.  Her ears all droopy and “please, don’t beat me, mama.” look on her face.  Don’t know why she does it, but every time.  She wouldn’t know what a beating is.

Now this is a Labrador tail.  Look how shiny Sugar’s coat is.  Like a seal almost. I love all these dogs so much.  I always say if I were rich, lived on a farm with a big, heated barn I would have ten or fifteen dogs.  I have been looking at silver Labs online, but don’t think we can manage four dogs and I worry what will happen to them if we are gone.  My son-in-law told me once they would take care of our animals so I feel better about that.  When they say dogs become almost like your children, they are right. They are dependent on us for everything like children and need to be around us like children do.

We went to a comedy show last night featuring Jim Gaffigan, who is from our state.  He had a series on tv for one season several years ago that I watched and enjoyed.  Anyway, we drove to Indianapolis and driving through downtown on a Saturday night was quite the thrill. There was something going on because there were women dressed in formals and men in dress suits all going into this one building. There was a picture of one the Indiana Pacers outside so I was wondering if it had to do with the Pacers.  There was also a knifing last night in Indianapolis if you saw it on the news.  There is not a lot of violent crime there so this was not the norm. Evidently some drinking was involved and an altercation about where a truck was parked.  Tempers flared and someone got knifed.  Why I don’t like being in big cities anymore.  Especially at night.  But that is me.  I like the country, but it is not like bad things don’t happen in the country, also. I  watch a lot of murder shows and there are a lot of murders in the southern part of my state. David and I just did a road trip and went through this town where two young girls were walking a train trestle and evidently got accosted by a man who shot them both.  It was on one of the shows I watch.  Anyway, one of the girls had the presence of mind to take a picture of the man as he walked toward them with her cellphone and it was a pretty good picture, but it took forever it seemed for the police to find the murderer. They finally did and he got arrested, put on trial and convicted. I don’t know if he got life or the death penalty, but either one would have been appropriate for such a horrible crime.  Two young girls barely in their teens.  I don’t know how their parents stood it all.  But back to where we were going……

When we got to the venue, David showed his cellphone to the gatekeeper who was supposed to help us download our tickets.  He sent us to the box office where we found out Stubhub had sold the same tickets twice and that a couple were already inside in our seats!  The cashier told David Stubhub is good at doing that and found us seats that were far better than the ones David bought. Eight rows back, center stage!  Anyway, don’t buy tickets through Stubhub.  They, in essence, steal your tickets that you buy and sell them to someone else.  We learned our lesson well.

Anyway, Jim was funny although he talked mostly about Bourbon.  I know.  That doesn’t sound like it would be funny, but it was.  David and I were talking about bourbon before the show.  I don’t know why.  But I was wondering how it tasted.  It’s big at the Kentucky Derby.  I don’t drink, but for some reason I have always wanted to know how it tasted.  Maybe because I read Gone With the Wind when I was a girl and the men were always drinking bourbon.

After the show we were hungry.  Neither of us had eaten anything all day but a package of peanut butter and crackers and me a Snicker bar.  We like Pizza King and I found one on Garmin so we took off down the streets to the restaurant,but when we got there, it was already closed.  It was 10;30 at night so I was afraid we would not find anything open but fast food which I don’t like anymore.  I looked up on Garmin and found a Bubbas which we both like so we set it on Garmin and went to look for it.  It was open until 11;00 and I asked the girl at the desk if it was too late for us, but she asked this one waiter and he said he would wait on us, so we got our seats and ordered our meals. The waiter was so nice and did a great job getting our drinks and food out.  I got a hamburger with sausage cut up on it, queso cheese, lettuce and tomato and it was so good.  Probably because I was so hungry.  David got the same.  We left the waiter a very nice tip because he was so nice.  I told him we would be coming back.  We usually eat out in Greenwood when I have to go to my eye doctor.  I have to go again in December.

Our motel was very nice except we had to ask for something to help me get up on the bed it was so high and I am short.  The manager was kind enough to bring a bench for me to crawl upon.  I have to use a stool to get up in our Jeep also and this trip, David forgot it. Left it in our driveway when we left so he and I had fun getting me up on my seat in the Jeep.  I wish we had added the extra step you can buy when you buy a Jeep.  I cannot get up on high seats. You know those high stools some restaurants have.  We ate out with some people once and I could not get up on those stools.  Finally, after being helped by two strong people, I got up there, but it was not comfortable so I steer away from those.

Another thing about some motel beds is they have four little bitty pillows on them that are not at all comfortable so we always take our own bed pillows.  The bed in this particular motel was very comfortable once I got up on it and I slept like a baby.  I need my creature comforts.

David will be taking another short vacation before the Holiday chaos starts at the store.  We have some plans and I will tell you about them later on.  Hope to do some Autumn leaf looking trips and there is a light show we are interested in so stay tuned.  Hope the cooler days come soon as I want to start wearing sweaters and socks again.  Been barefoot almost all Summer!  Bye.