Odd Monday

It's Monday, it's been an odd day.  Otter's fine, more on her dental adventure in a bit.

Friday's horrific news is still on my mind.  It would be upsetting and terrible beyond words anyway, but my mother's heart is broken for all those parents who don't have their children to hold anymore.  It is simply unfathomable, that someone would do something so despicable.  I know the shooter most likely had mental issues.  But that doesn't heal the grief of the families.

Our system is broken.  People with mental illness need help.  Plain and simple.  But they don't always get it.  If someone doesn't act out, they are frequently going without the help that they so desperately need - until they do act out.  Not much has come out yet about the shooter specifically other than that he had issues, but not much has been released about his problems.  Maybe that's the way it should be.  The point is that he most likely needed help and maybe he was getting some help.  But it wasn't enough.

I'm not sure if it's made the national news or not, but there was a near-miss school shooting/bombing in Bartlesville, which is about an hour north of Tulsa.  It would have been similar to the Columbine shooting.  If not for a couple of scared but brave students who told the assistant principal about what they'd been told - and threatened with harm if they did tell - and he believed them.  The 18-year old boy in this case was arrested Friday morning, a couple of hours before the CT tragedy happened.  But it would have been another one.

Otter told me that she noticed that I always, always hug her first thing when something like this happens.  She's right, by the way.  I told her that she'll understand when she has children of her own.  She wasn't complaining, just stating a fact.

OK, on to other things:

Otter's oral surgery was this afternoon.  She had the upper two wisdom teeth removed.  It was quicker than last year's when the bottom two were removed.  For one thing, one of the uppers was already coming in pretty good.  She's doing ok, she had some yogurt when we got home and a pain pill.  The dentist gave her a slightly stronger one, since last year's didn't even phase her.  Not surprising, given the way that redheads metabolize things.  She goes back Thursday afternoon to get the stitches removed.  Until then, she's going to be careful with what she eats.  I took her to Arby's for lunch today, then I was going to take her to the library but they were closed due to a major water line break in Tulsa.  So I wound up taking her back to the office with me for a couple of hours.

However, not before the Redhead Curse made it's appearance!  She had a nosebleed.  In the middle of the check out line at the dollar store, where we'd run in for a couple of things after lunch.  She had one over the weekend, it wasn't bad and it was also not unexpected - dry air and the fact that we're still dealing with allergies that normally would have stopped weeks ago.  Today's was not extremely bad, but it was probably worse than yesterday's - or it might have actually been Saturday, I'm not sure.  Today's was surprising, and it was the one time when we didn't have kleenex handy.  We were next to be checked out, so I asked the clerk if they sold kleenex and told her why I was having to interrupt her.  The clerk literally ran to the other side of the store and grabbed me a box.  I opened it right then and then of course I bought it.  I thanked the clerk for doing that for me.  Otter got it stopped quickly, and then she stuffed her jacket pockets as full of kleenex as she could get it.  She mentioned it to the dentist just in case.  The dentist is well-versed in the care of Redheads, but nosebleeds are probably not something she's used to having to deal with like this.  But Otter was fine, she hasn't had another one.

The Star Trek rumor of the day is this:  The blonde woman in the previews is not Dr. Dehner but is in fact Carol Marcus.  Interesting idea.  It does not look like the bad guy is Kahn, he could still be Gary Mitchell but he could also be Garth of Izar.  I suggest that non-Trek fans (all 5 of you) google the names, it's a long story to explain who they all are and I'm tired.

We did get our Christmas tree up yesterday.  It's kind of pathetic, actually.  We used the smaller fiber-optic tree, I think it's probably about 2 1/2' tall or thereabouts.  But it's not exactly straight.  It leans a bit.  I straightened it as much as I can but it's still not quite there.  It also doesn't stay in it's base very well so most of the ornaments are actually towards the bottom and back side, it needed ballast.  We don't have a topper on it, I didn't get it with the ornaments I brought down from the attic but it's probably just as well given the lack of stability.  I did manage to find the wreath and the stockings.  We used older ornaments, some of which are from our Aunt who lived with us.  Froggy, I think you probably have some of her ornaments as well.  I also brought down one of my smaller Nativity sets.  I didn't want to deal with the big set, the box is heavy and I was seriously afraid that I would drop it on the way down from the attic.

Now, I just have to see about a few things to put under it!  Otter's already given me her list, that didn't take her long at all.  :)