664789's blog: "My Thoughts...."

Like my father's accident wasn't enough now my mother-in-laws house burned to the ground in a bizarre accident early Sunday morning. She lived on a back road not far from our home. There is a sharp curve just before her house and apparently a guy was driving while intoxicated and took the curve way too fast. He lost control of the car and hit the tree just off from the back of Rose's house. The car then burst into flames and slammed into the deck off the back of the house. He fled on foot and never let anyone in the house know what was going on. The fire spread quickly from the deck into the cellar and then to the rest house. If not for a neighbor getting up early we would have lost more than the house. At the time there were 4 people inside. One of them being my oldest son Zachary who always spends weekends with his grandmother. The other three were of course my mother-in-law Rose, my sister-in-law Amy, and Amy's girlfriend Nikki. All did manage to get out without any injuries but they lost everything else. For the time being all three are staying with us. I have no idea how often I will be on between trying to help them get settled and going back and forth to Albany to see my father. To my Fu families....I am sorry I haven't been on, but it's not like I do not have a good reason. If needed I will step out of the families...as at this point my outside real life is much more important and it seems a near death experience of an immediate family member is not good enough reason to have certain titles and jobs taken away from one family anyways. I have enough stress right now that I don't want to have to worry about trying to please everyone I know here on Fu.

My father was struck by a car Saturday night while crossing the street from his motel to go to get a bite to eat at a near by pub. He is now in critical condition in the Surgical ICU of Albany Medical Center where I have spent all week. As of Friday when I left he had a broken right arm, broken neck, compound open fracture of the right leg, broken left leg, and multiple lacerations including a tear to the flexer tendons in his right hand. He has undergone multiple surgeries to stop and check for more internal bleeding in the abdominal area, along with multiple x-rays, cat scans, and an MRI (which I do not know the result of as of yet). He has a long long road of recovery and recuperation ahead. I will most likely be spending weekends in the Albany area so I can see him as much as possible. Right now I am more upset by the article in the Post Star (which is the local paper for the Glens Falls, NY area) which makes it sound like it is my father's fault he was hit. Background behind the accident. My father is a traveling contractor. He goes from town to town where they send him for work and for the last few years has spent winters at the Town & Country Motel on Route 9N in the South Glens Falls/Fort Edward area. This is located on the West side of Route 9N. He was crossing the street with his friend Jennifer to get something to eat at Johnnie O's which is a pub located on the East side of Route 9N. To get struck in the North bound lane (as they were) they would have almost been completely across the street. Yet it's their fault they were hit? I am sorry but I just don't think so. My father raised my siblings and myself on his own, this is just not something he would do. He always led by example. Not to mention the fact that he was hit by a 70 yr old woman. Was her driving impaired, is she able to see correctly, etc? Typical of the State Troopers here in NY we may never know. They just called it a "No Fault" accident and left it at that. We have no idea what they did for an investigation and may never know. http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/10/28/news/local/14040501.txt is the link to the article in the Post Star if anyone would like to take a look at it.

US Military rips away pet of deployed US Soldier shortly before Baghdad Pups can send puppy to safety in Minnesota (This isn't my normal fare here, but I had to write about this because it is so tragic. Please read.) One of my good college friends is in Iraq right now. A couple months ago, she told me about Baghdad Pups, a really amazing organization that provides medical care, clearance and transport for the animals U.S. soldiers have come to love during deployment in the Middle East. There are some initiatives that everyone - regardless of their political views - can agree are fabulous. This is one of those. Baghdad Pups gives our soldiers hope by helping them send their pets home to safety. It's such a unique and touching idea. I couldn't wait to write about it. Except today, I wish I could be writing about anything else. Because something so awful has happened that I'm writing this through tears. My friend has been held in Iraq by the stop-loss policy for over 15 months longer than her original commitment to the military. It hasn't been easy for her--and the puppy she saved has been one of the few things that has kept her going. We've been hearing about her puppy, Ratchet, on Facebook for months. She's shared pictures of him as he grew from a frightened ball of fur to an adorable young dog. We learned when he was accepted into Baghdad Pups, and how her parents were going to take care of him until she returned home. She's kept us up-to-date on his travel schedule, and badgered us into contributing money to bring him home. He was supposed to be on his way to Minnesota right now. Except he's not. Last Wednesday, my friend's commanding officers seized Ratchet as he was on the way to the Baghdad airport en route to his new home with her parents. Why? Because: "It is against military regulations for active duty troops to befriend animals" It gets worse. According to the Baghdad Pups press release on my friend's behalf: "Soldiers can face immediate court-marshal [for befriending animals] and some even see their animals brutally murdered by a direct gunshot to the head from commanding officers who will not bend the rules." It was so close.... Ratchet was on his way to the airport. And now he might be killed, just because some power-hungry officers decided to flex their muscles and punish an innocent animal because Gwen dared to care about him. And to make it even worse, she is under military investigation for caring about a helpless puppy--something hundreds of other soldiers do in Iraq. She is absolutely devastated. I'm devastated for her. I cried for days last fall after the cat I rescued died of old age. I can't imagine how horrid it would be to save and love a pet, to be full of hope that he will be a part of your life after you finally come home - and to have that cruelly snatched away. I don't know why this has happened to her. She has been through so much already. It's just awful. Please help me get attention for her. She hasn't asked, but I'm hoping that we can help her. This horrible situation is happening to Gwen, but it affects all our soldiers overseas. They're in a terrifying situation every day, and it's not unreasonable to let them have the simple joy of having an animal that loves them. Is it? As a soldier wrote to Baghdad Pups: “I have sacrificed a lot to serve my country. All that I ask in return is to be allowed to bring home the incredible dog that wandered into my life here in Iraq and prevented me from becoming terribly callous towards life.” Could you take a minute to help spread the word about what is happening to my friend? We want to get news out there about her case before the military decides to "eliminate the problem" by killing her dog. Could you please Digg or Stumbleupon this post or send it to a friend. Or, if you're in MN, could you call one of our senators? All we want to do is help Gwen send home the puppy that has made her sacrifices bearable... who was already on his way to Minnesota before the military decided to punish her by seizing him. Thank you so much for your help!

I have been extremely busy with the kids and their activities so I have not been on as much as I would like lately. When I do make it on sometimes it is only long enough to burn my 11's and other times I am here for a little bit. I will be back on more normally as soon as we figure out a better way of getting the kids where they need to be. To all Demon Crew, Rating Revolution, and Shadow Levelers members I apologize for my absence but I will make up for it as soon as I can.

I have had some questions about my default pic lol. It says will strip for fubucks. No I will not strip for fubucks, but I will certianly work for them. I'll rate pics and stash, even F/A/R or bomb contests/giveaways for the right price lol. I'll even makes tags, animations, and graphics. There are only two things I have never done on Fu. One is had a happy hour and the other is get the spotlight. So at least by working for fubucks I can get a bit closer to getting the spotlight and help someone else out while I'm earning those fubucks. So now that you know what I'm up to don't be afraid to make me an offer. Nothing is too small or too large. Lets see if we can make a deal and help each other in the process. Now that I have bored you enough lol, thanks for reading. Danielle