Beth Posted! A stitched together, Frankensteinlike blog.

Well things have finally calmed down some around here. I'm talking personally. Nothing really extreme. Just a lot of stuff. I have managed to get 3 days off in a row. The irony here is that I actually, supposedly, earn enough time off every week, to take just about 8 weeks off a year. That's not too shabby. And that's what I would do, at least until two years ago. I've logged 42 years with this job. The last two years I've only managed two weeks off a year. The last few years have been quite difficult. So this three day stretch was most welcome. Then again I'm still working for which I am grateful. Retirement is not all that far away. I can't wait.

And yes I am going back to a certain island in September. I have not had enough of this place as of yet. I have a vacation scheduled in the middle of September and to tell the truth my focus is on that middle September week. My company is scrambling, trying to re-invent itself. Re-modeling stores and "allegedly" lowering prices. So what happens? My very unaware immediate boss hangs all these "new" signs claiming our new lower priced bacon at $7.99 while never bothering to change the old "higher" price of $6.99. And so it goes week in week out. How do we stay in business?

When we do go back to the "Vineyard", boy does that sound pompous, we will try to take a side trip to the other island Nantucket. Of course that all depends on cost. People have asked me why don't I pick some place else to vacation. Why? I do like the mountains up north but I can't explain the feeling of serenity that both Arlene and I get from going there, in the off season of course. Besides it's a relatively inexpensive vacation and who wouldn't want to be on an island in about 3 hours from your front door. We are fortunate to have such a resource close by.

OK back to reality. So after 3 days off from work, going back stunk. We did have some police action today as they caught a woman stealing. Then just up the road a piece we had some more police action. Police were bringing a prisoner into Massachusetts General Hospital for some kind of treatment in the emergency room when the prisoner went for one of his police escorts guns. One officer was  shot in  the leg and the other officer shot the prisoner in the chest. Massachusetts General is only a mile and a half from where I work. There were news helicopters in the air for several hours. All has calmed down at this point and the officer will be OK. The prisoner is in critical condition. Lucky for him  he decided  to go nuts in an emergency room.

OK it's time to get this puppy published. It's been sitting around for a few days and it's the best I can do.

I'm outta here.