Burning Down the House

Some good news on the family front first - my sister, her partner, the three kidlets, and my mother seem to be okay the last time I spoke to them earlier on Tuesday. Sister and her family live where those fires are that have been going on in eastern Florida so it got pretty scary there for a while since the flames got awfully close and were seen from their house. My mother had been up there visiting to attend my niece's school play (she was Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz"! Go her!) so mom was trapped up there. They even evacuated for the night. I'll try them today (Wednesday) to see how things are then.

Ick family news - Apparently, last Thursday my mother called me to tell me that my father called me and I, after seeing his name on my caller ID box, hung up on him. Er...mom? He didn't call me! First off, the phone didn't ring, his call does not appear on the caller ID box, and I wouldn't have immediately hang up on him, besides, my mother's name is on their phone's account and not his. According to mom, he's not only pissed off for signing an affidavit getting him to do something but now he's more pissed that I hung up on him. Reminder here, dear readers, he's dealing with dementia and Alzheimer's. As it turned out, he seems to have called my fax number and got the fax machine, which clicked off the call when it didn't get a signal back from the calling fax machine. Apparently, he can't realize that there's "Lee's fax number" right next to the number he called on the card nor can he figure out that the loud annoying high-pitched noise coming over the handset is NOT me. And no, I haven't called him back yet. No plans for it. I've NO need to have a possible obscenity-laced guilt trip monologue screamed at me.

On a more pleasant note - Joel Derfner's new book Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever is now officially on sale.