Eyesight blues

For those who know me and have known me, I've had glasses for years and years and years. As a matter of fact, the only people to have known me without glasses were my parents my older brother and sister and my little sister, Suzanne. That's because I've had glasses since I was 5 years old. I still remember to this day the test that I had when I was preparing for school. It was at Columbia Elementary school in Kaysville, Utah. I was looking at cutouts of hands, you know the ones where people draw a line around their hand and you're asked to point the direction that the fingers are pointing. On the ground, there were some footprints and they led up to the hands. When they asked me to point, I couldn't see the hands, so they asked me to move up the footprints until I could see them. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up on the closest footprints and still couldn't see the hand. I think that was the 20/200 line or something.

The only reason I'm bringing this up is because, as I mentioned before, I got some new glasses and they didn't quite seem right. I told my doctor (my wife's boss) and he invited me back in. I went in and I looked on the 20/25 line and, although it was a bit fuzzy, I could see. He tweaked it a bit, asked me to look at the 20/20 line and I could see a few letters, but I couldn't see any of them clearly. I guess that's the best I'll get. My eyes suck!

The other red white and blue flag

I didn't think that I'd ever wear this flag.

My wife works at an optometrist and picked out some glasses for me and they have the logo on them. Oh well.

Askamony

If you're a member of the LDS church, you've heard of the Testimony. if you've been to BYU, you've heard of the Thankamony and the Loveamony, but I have a new one for you, the Askamony. This is where people get up and ask the Elders quorum to move them in front of the entire congregation.

What the...

You fill in the rest after you read this:

Sheriff: Woman Sat on Toilet for 2 Years
By ROXANA HEGEMAN – 20 hours ago

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who stayed in her boyfriend's bathroom for two years, spending most of her time on the toilet — so that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the man finally called police.

It appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat, said Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple. The woman initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the boyfriend.

"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."

Police declined to release the couple's names, but the boyfriend, Kory McFarren, agreed to be interviewed Wednesday by The Associated Press. He identified his girlfriend as Pam Babcock.

McFarren, 36, told investigators he took Babcock food and water and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.

"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."

McFarren told the AP that he wasn't to blame, and that it was solely Babcock's choice to remain in the bathroom.

"She is an adult; she made her own decision. It was my fault I should have gotten help for her sooner; I admit that. But after a while, you kind of get used to it," McFarren said.

Although authorities said they think Babcock was in the bathroom for two years, McFarren said he wasn't certain how long she stayed there. He said she had a phobia about leaving the room because of childhood beatings.

"It just kind of happened one day. She went in and had been in there a little while, the next time it was a little longer. Then she got it in her head she was going to stay — like it was a safe place for her," McFarren said.

But McFarren said Babcock moved around in the bathroom during that time, bathed and changed into the clothes he brought her. He said they conversed and had an otherwise normal relationship — except that it all happened in the bathroom.

McFarren, who works at an antique store, said he has been taking care of Babcock for the 16 years they have lived together.

McFarren called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said.

Police found Babcock clothed and sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked as if they had atrophied, Whipple said.

"She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said.

She was reported in fair condition at a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.

McFarren said that his girlfriend has an infection in her legs that has damaged her nerves, and that she has no feeling in her legs. She may wind up in a wheelchair, he said.

Authorities said they did not know whether she was mentally or physically disabled.

The case has been the buzz of Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.

"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said.

Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.

He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.

"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

Common Sense

I have to disagree with the website Obsolete Skills where it talks about common sense as an obsolete skill for the obvious reason. Those who have common sense tend to be better off than those who don't.

Local Politics

Yesterday we held city council elections for my city Warr Acres. I live in Ward 3 where you can see, if you visit the site today, that Phil Owens is the winner of our ward. Phil Owens is the eldest brother of one of my best friends growing up, David Owens. Something that's a bit funny about that is that my home owner's association, Wind Tree is in a lawsuit with Warr Acres and wants to resolve the situation. If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm the VP of the board for the association. We invited the incumbent, Walter Johnson and the other Ward 3 council member, Dean Johnson to the meeting. Dean Johnson returned our phone call to come and said he would come right off the bat. Walter Johnson, however, did not return our phone calls. Since I knew that Phil Owens was running for council and since he was a friend of the family, I called him up and invited him to our meeting. He said that he had heard about the meeting from Dean Johnson and that he had spokent to Walter Johnson about it and that Walter had said that he wasn't interested in going. I invited Phil and he said that he would come out.

The meeting was scheduled for last Wednesday (2/28) and we finally got a hold of Walter Johnson. He said (ready for this) that he was sick and couldn't come (yeah right). So Wednesday, I let everyone at the meeting know that when I invited Phil to the meeting, he had already told me that Walter wasn't coming. After that, everyone at the board meeting got behind Phil and in the end he won, but boy it was a close one. The final vote count was 136 votes to 132 votes. By the way, there are 4 members of the board of directors of Wind Tree.