Sunday, May 31, 2009

Other proof I'm getting old

You probably thought you had better hearing?? You were wrong!


The highest frequency you can hear is: 12khz
Try the Teen Buzz and see how well you can hear

The outcome

Well, at least for now.

You'll remember that I posted, a week ago, about Morgans troubles and travails.

In the event, I didn't attend the conference with Child Protection Services. I couldn't see a lot of point to attending; nothing I could contribute would be of any value to the process.

She lost custody of her children. That's passed to the father and his family. I doubt it would have passed there if it had been just the father alone though; I suspect his parents had some influence on the outcome. I don't mean unwarranted influence though, merely that they seem to have been supportive.

The loss is, for the nonce, temporary, with the carrot of the return of parental rights contingent upon successfully completing a drug rehabilitation regimen. One might expect, then, that immediate efforts would be expended upon finding such a regimen within her means (or more bloody likely, ours). Perhaps it's early days but so far I've seen or heard of no such efforts.

I imagine I come over as extremely negative about Morgan and let me tell you, if that's the impression you're getting you're absolutely right. I've watched her go to the dogs for six and a half years, ignoring every piece of good advice on the way down, refusing to take any responsibility for herself.

Well, six and a half years is long enough to be given free rein. If, after that length of time and a few nights spent in the cells the message hasn't gotten through then I reckon we're talking a case of wilful deafness to good sense that I just can't be bothered with.

So let her rot!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Time for a good whinge

I haven't had a good one in ages!

Morgans second was delivered this week - Thursday morning to be precise. I actually didn't know the second little bastard had entered the world until Friday morning; my wife didn't think I'd be all that fussed to know. And let me tell you, she was correct.

What I did know was that on Wednesday my wife and Morgan had rushed off to the hospital on what turned out to be a false alarm; and that Morgan had been denying possible reality by saying 'it can't be born today'. When the kid's my age I'd posit that a day here or there will make no difference and indeed, to the kid today it probably also makes no difference. But it seems that the extra day *did* make a big difference to Morgan.

Everything had been scheduled to happen on Friday. I have to confess, not being a father, that I was a trifle puzzled at this 'scheduling' thing. Surely, I reasoned, a pregnancy came to a conclusion in its own time? Even if one were able to pinpoint to the second the moment of conception there is *still* some uncertainty, no?

All of which shows how out of touch I am with 'reality' today, for, as almost all of you are thinking, they had scheduled an induced birth. Such a pity for Morgan then, that nature had taken things into her own hands.

For, on the Thursday, the news came that Morgan had failed a drug test. Now you'd reckon that after some run-ins with the police, a few nights spent in gaol and the might of the State of Arizona in the shape of Child Protection Services focussed on her, that she might realise that partaking of her favourite, illegal, recreational drug a few days before giving birth to child number two might not be a good idea.

Hence her panic when nature took its course. Of course, I'm sure she calibrated her indulgence, calculated to a nicety breakdown and excretion rates, allowed for margins of error in the testing process and knew with absolute certainty that on Friday all the evidence would be gone. I'm equally sure that pigs can fly!

Well, the might of the State of Arizona swung into action and on Friday the family interview took place. I wasn't present of course; the first I knew about it was Friday afternoon when I found the family copy of the paperwork sitting on the kitchen table.

All kinds of restrictions; Morgan is not allowed, on pain of imprisonment, to take her children off the premises without an 'approved monitor' accompanying her. Want to guess who the approved monitor is?

As I said to my wife over dinner that evening, it's effectively house arrest for us! Oh sure, I can go out anytime I like. I can even hop on a plane to Australia (and I will, 117 days from now, not that I'm counting). So can my wife, if Morgan is still at the hospital. But she comes back here tomorrow and that's when the house arrest starts, for Morgan cannot be trusted and therefore my wife must be constantly here to monitor the situation.

In the light of that it almost felt churlish to object when I discovered that they are running a background check on me! I understand their logic but it doesn't sit well with the presumption of innocence. Fortunately they'll find me one of the easier investigations; I've been through it before for other purposes and haven't changed address since then. Always assuming an FBI background check is 'good enough'.

There's another family interview taking place this Wednesday and I'm still debating whether to attend. I'm not sure there's anything I could constructively add. I'd be much more likely to make things worse by objecting to the aforementioned presumption of guilt without evidence. Probably best left alone.

I'm sure that attitude is how anti-semitism managed to grow in post Weimar Germany.