Vigilante Lisa

With this boat purchase this week - I picked up almost every single brochure at the boating place. Brochures on boat safety, DNR Regulations, etc, etc - - one of the brochures I picked up was one distributed by our US Government. It was called Eyes on the Water - which is an initiative by the 9th District Coast Guard that requests the following:

Do you live, work or play along the shores of the Great Lakes? Then you probably know the waterfront–what’s usual and what’s unusual–as well as your local law enforcement officials do. They need your help in a Great Lakes-wide program of “block watches” over the waterfront. Help cast a wider net to keep America safe.

What to look for

As a regular along the waterfront, you have a good idea about what routine behavior looks like. And you might be able to recognize unusual behavior when you see it as well. It may be innocent, but reporting it to authorities will help ensure our security.

Places of particular interest

Keep an eye out for strange activities around key waterfront locales, such as the following:

• Under or around bridges.

• Around entrances to tunnels.

• Near power plants

• Near water intakes/treatment plants

• Around oil or chemical facilities

• At fuel docks

• Near military bases

It goes on and on. I found the chaturbate brochure interesting - - and since we will be spending a good deal of time in and around the Great Lakes areas this, and subsequent summers . . of course we’ll do our part.

My question, however, is - - does this make us vigilantes? - - or does it make us part of the government sponsored Citizen Corps?.

The Citizen Corps is part of the overall Freedom Corps:

Americans responded to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, with courage and compassion, as well as a renewed commitment to doing good and desire to help others. In January 2002, President George W. Bush created the USA Freedom Corps to capture the spirit of sacrifice that emerged throughout our communities and provide Americans with meaningful opportunities to serve their communities and our country.

Citizen Corps, a vital component of USA Freedom Corps, was created to help coordinate volunteer activities that will make our communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to any emergency situation. It provides opportunities for people to participate in a range of measures to make their families, their homes, and their communities safer from the threats of crime, terrorism, and disasters of all kinds.

That being said . . . I have to wonder about the Minutemen Project. The more than 1,000 people — including 30 pilots and their private planes — on the Arizona/Mexico border who monitor the movement of illegal aliens and report them to Border Control.

Aren’t these citizens responding to the call to duty made by our President, and government, after September 11th? That call to duty being the launch of the Freedom Corps, Citizen Corps, and subsequent other Corps. designed to get citizens involved in keeping an eye out for suspicious and illegal behavior - then reporting it to the proper authorities?

And our President turns around and calls these people ‘vigilantes’ and vows to pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law.

He wants citizens involved . . . he doesn’t want citizens involved. Which is it, anyways? Now we have to figure out the grey line between a volunteer citizen corps and vigilante activity. If you happen to know the deciding factor that differentiates the two - - please do share.

I realize I’m a bit behind on this story presented on www.jasminlive.mobi - - it happened weeks ago. It’s just “Eyes on the Water” brochure brought it to the forefront of my mind again. If we should decide to keep our eyes open while frequenting the Great Lakes - - I guess you all can just start referring to me as “Vigilante Lisa” . . . or something.

They are keeping him in the hospital for another day or two, yet. He had a few episodes of Trigeminy, mixed in with some episodes of VTach. They gave him meds to deal with both issues, which helped - - but it bottomed-out his blood pressure as a result.

They came very close to tranferring him back to the ICU yesterday because of the blood pressure issue - but things seemed to have settled down now.

It’s funny how we are brought back to our humble beginnings - - all pretentions are lost when something like this happens. How do I know this? I called and talked to Dad today. “How are you feeling, Dad?”

He says, “Great. I pooped and walked today.”


Weekend is here!

It’s the weekend.

They are gone to their Dad’s for the WHOLE weekend!!

It’s absolutely gorgeous outside today.

We’re headed to the lake to take that boat out, finally. We haven’t had a chance to take it out yet because the weather here has been pretty crappy. It’s made a nice driveway decoration, though!

So - I’m off for the day. I’m not going to think about teenaged drama. I’m not going to think about work. I’m not going to think about laundry that needs doing or grass that needs cutting.

I’m going boating and to soak up some sun.

Try and stop me. I dare ya!

:)

Sweet Home Alabama

I’m flying to Atlanta on Friday. From there, I’m driving over to Alabama (over? down? up? whatever.) to spend the weekend fixing up a house on some lake somewhere.

Sounds fun. I’ve never seen the house. I don’t know what town it is in. I have no idea what lake it is on. But it’s our vacation home now. And I’m going down to help get it ready for our first party in June - when we’re celebrating Tammy’s 40th and Chris’s 35th.

Tammy is the wife of Chris’s business partner, Dan.

Dan and Chris, along with their accountant, decided the company needed some serious depreciable assets to offset some of their taxes. So, the company purchased a vacation home. On a lake. Somewhere in Alabama.

If I sound clueless, it’s because I am, really. I’m all for it - - but picture the conversation I had with my mother today:

Me: Hi Mom - - is it ok for the to come over this weekend? I figured they can help around the house with some of the outdoor things that Dad hasn’t been able to do. Clean the gutters. Mow the lawn. Help get the garden started . . that type of thing.

Mom: Sure, we’d love that. Where are you going?

Me: Alabama.

Mom: Alabama?

Me: Yea.

Mom: Where in Alabama and why?

Me: I don’t know where - and to get the house ready for a get together we’re having in June.

Mom: A house? Are you moving to Alabama???

Me: No. It’s a vacation house that Mosaic bought. It’s on a lake somewhere down there.

Mom: So, you don’t know where it is? Or what lake? Or anything?

Me: Nope. I’m just going along for the ride. By the way - - we’re having a 4th of July bash down there this year - - do you and Dad want to come with us? We’ll be driving down that week?

Mom: Not if we don’t know where we’re going. (smirk)

Me: I should have more information by then, smarty pants.

Yep. Clueless as hell - that’s me!

Slobo

For those of you who don’t already know this guy - - Michael is our latest hire at E.Webscapes. You can find his personal Jasminelive blog over at Slobokan’s Site O’Schtuff. He also has sites at Retro Mental and The Alligator Pit.

Michael has been invaluable as a tech with us at Blogs About Hosting for the past year. His knowledge, experience and incredible troubleshooting skills made him an easy addition to our E.Webscapes team when the opening came up, so he’s able to transition in very smoothly without any trouble at all.

In his his own words:

Michael, the new guy, brings a decade of experience to E.Webscapes. He possesses vast knowledge of HTML, CSS and PHP, and is quite skilled in Wordpress and Movable Type. With troubleshooting and installation issues as his main forte’, he brings a wealth of knowledge and personality to the table. Just be careful what you put on the table, as he does tend to eat a lot. Especially on Thursdays!

We’ve already got his nose to the grindstone over here and plan on keeping him busy - that way we’re able to keep him off the streets, and out of trouble. If you get a moment, go on over to Michael’s main blog and say hi.

Oh - and for those of you who know me well, you can feel free to impart words of warning to the poor guy :p

One more time...

… for good measure.

If your site is hosted by Blogs About - we have a Support Center. The Support Center is there to centralize all support requests, technical and otherwise. It is also there for billing issues, upgrades and the like.

We put it up there so that our clients can get quick and responsive service. With almost 300 people that we service just through hosting - - it is impossible for me to handle all of the requests by myself. We’ve hired tech staff. Chris assists me a great deal with support. I am still heavily involved in it - - but simply cannot run it on my own anymore - - which is why I have help.

As stated in the numerous notices that have gone out in regards to the new Support Center:

I do not answer hosting support, billing or customer service requests - or design requests - at my justagirlintheworld.com email address. I don’t check this account often enough for you to get a timely response.

I also do not answer hosting support, billing or customer service requests at my E.Webscapes email address. This account is strictly for design clients and design inquiries.

I also do not answer hosting support, billing or customer service requests at my Right Voices email address. I check this email account about twice a week. If you’re sending in support requests there - - don’t count on a reply.

If you are hosted with Blogs About - please use the Support Center. That is your avenue for responsive support inquiries.

If I sound like I am repeating myself - - I am.

Today is the day!

We’re going to pick up the boat today! We decided to go with the 1800SR3 instead of the 1800MX because of testosterone.

Yes, that’s right. The whole Y chromosome thing demanded the upgrade. Chris just couldn’t control himself.

Boys and their toys.

Of course, I’ll sit here and act all indignant about him spending the extra cash for it - - and on the inside I’m thrilled with it and will enjoy the benefit of it as much as he does. But it’s a woman’s job to bitch about it, isn’t it? Would I be lacking in my responsiblity if I don’t at least pretend like it’s a problem?

I talked to Dad today. He’s still in the hospital, probably will be until after the weekend. He says, “Break that boat in for me so that it’s all nice and comfortable for me when I come over and hitch it up to my truck and drive off with it for a month, ok?”

I told him if he wasn’t careful - that’s how we’d bring him home from the hospital. We’ll tie him down to the back and drive him home via Lake Michigan!

Later!