My niece Gail was telling me how her best friend is dealing with a breakup and child custody and visitation issues. It breaks my heart. Her friend is trying to get out of an abusive relationship and because her boyfriend is a psychopath who will do anything to control her and abuse her, he has taken their baby daughter and left the state and there is nothing she can do about it.

It must be terrifying to know that your baby girl who cannot even talk yet is under the complete control of a man who is a violent criminal and yet you cannot even file a police report or do anything to get her back home with you safely.

The only thing she can do is hire a lawyer with money she doesn’t have and go through the court system, which takes thousands of dollars and months – if not years – to resolve. This is unacceptable. Her daughter is the victim in this situation and there is nothing in our justice system to actually protect her. How does our society allow this to go on?

I loved the books by Jerry Maguire about the backstory of the Wizard of Oz. They were so different from anything else I’ve ever read and they style of writing was very descriptive. That man has a very fertile imagination.

I also like the series of the “The Girl” like “The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet’s Nest.” I am ready to watch the movie now. I hope it is as good as the book.

This year we get two extra days to file. I had no idea why, but evidently Monday was a holiday in Washington DC so they had to honor that day and give everyone extra time. This year the returns are due on April 17. So I have two more days to procrastinate and I plan to do just that.

Now they are selling for $29 on Amazon – plus the cost of shipping. These are not even stylish sandals – they are just rubber thong flip flops. That is just crazy! For some reason Sam’s Club does not have any sandals on the floor, which is my second favorite place to shop for bargains. I guess I will have to look harder and maybe shop a few non-traditional stores to build up my summer supply of footwear.

I’m ready for short sleeves and flip flops. How about you?

My step son posted something on his Facebook wall about needing ranch dressing to dip the cardboard in and that the noise was so loud he couldn’t hear himself think. Then he said, “Where am I?”

My first thought was is he OK? LOL It didn’t make any sense to me. But then I saw one of his friends say something about chuck E Cheese and that was it. I don’t think I would have guessed that place in 100 guesses. But once I saw the answer I knew that was right.

He said he was concerned that both of those music services require a download to work. He was asking if there are any music services that do not require any download. I’m not aware of any, but I asked why he thinks a download is a problem? The only thing I could think of was that the computer might be the company’s property and he is not allowed to put anything personal on the company PC. But he said he was just worried about any viruses that might be transmitted via downlaod.

The Camry is all digital on the dashboard, which makes me nervous. I used to like the switched and slides that made things work. Now that everything is digital, if you have a problem with the battery or any of the computer chips or fuses than you are out of luck. Not only do you lose the functionality of all the accessories but it will be expensive to get it fixed. I don’t like all this computer dependence in a car.

Give me my switches and knobs so I know something will work when I need it!

I have always heard this saying but cannot recall the circumstances of why someone would have first said it to me. I do believe that all the trials and errors are there to teach us lessons. If you can overcome your problems, you are a stronger person for it.

I don’t think it was Dwight – I can’t imagine why he would have been walking in the parking lot at Opryland. But you never know!

But some people are in such a hurry or have such bad habits that they think it is OK to drive through a fast food restaurant and then grab the food right out of the bag and eat it while driving. That is a bad idea. And trust me, you don’t want to try eating a taco while driving – it is nothing but messy and you will not only be wearing most of the taco on your shirt but it could cause you to be so distracted that you cause an accident.

There is a lost art to sending cards and letters by mail. My mother used to take great care in selecting a card – it had to be a Hallmark card. Then she always signed the card with a short personal message, with the name of the recipient and the date noted inside the card. Then she chose a stamp that fit the occasion.

For some people, even the postmark on the envelope was important – they would take a card for Valentine’s Day to a post office with a name somehow related to love or romance. I know there are post offices out there that get most of their annual business just on Valentine’s Day because of the name that goes on the post mark.

In my opinion, the worst and most dangerous storms are the ones that come through at night. First, because most people are asleep and don’t hear the warnings so they do not take cover. But also because most homes have the bedrooms on the second floor, and when a tornado strikes a house, the roof and the second floor are the most likely to suffer extensive damage. So, if people are asleep in their bedrooms and a tornado does hit their house, they have a very high probability of not surviving that storm.

At my house, we got a lot of wind and rain that re-arranged parts of my backyard. Thankfully, we did not have a tornado come through this area. But there is a huge gully that was washed through my backyard and down the hill that didn’t used to be there. I have to get a shovel and fill in a huge hole and the canals that were created. When I say huge, I mean that an entire car could be driven into this hole. I don’t have any idea how long it is going to take to replace all that dirt, shovel by shovel.

One of my good friends that I’ve know since the 1980′s is retired and having a lot of health problems. She had to to go to the hospital recently for total hip replacement surgery. They kept her in the hospital for 3 days and then moved her to a nursing home for the rest of her recovery and rehab – estimated to take about 8 weeks, maybe longer, depending upon her healing and progress.

I can just imagine how upsetting it must be to realize that you have to spend 2 months in a nursing home. I truly hope that the surgery goes well and that she recovers quickly.

Another good friend is dealing with serious financial issues and having problems with her bank. She is trying to work with the bank to get everything resolved, but her fiance is a hothead and every time she makes headway with the bank he gets upset and causes trouble for her. I don’t know what to say when she calls me, crying, because I cannot give her money and even though she is convinced that the lack of money is her problem, I believe that her real problem has nothing to do with money.

Today I found a game called Bookworm and it reminds me a little of Scrabble. I downloaded the free trial and get to play a few free games. If I like it, the purchase price is reasonable – cheaper than the Playstation and XBox games.

If there are specific, concrete things that the educators want the parents to do that will result in a better education for the children of America, let me know exactly what the parents need to do. I will help get the word out and maybe we can turn this thing around.

Our future depends on it.