They're Back

Well, so much for thinking that with the change of seasons, comes the decrease in neighborhood crime. I really don't have time for this now. I have a test in Criminology next week but this wasn't how I had planned on studying.

Contrary to the title of this post, this is not the same gang. This is the 18th Street Gang. According to the police, this is a rival of the Gangster Disciples that tagged the same retaining wall this summer. They are a Hispanic gang that have tagged the areas from Minnesota Ave to Western, and as far south as the 2100 block of South Duluth, to who knows how far north. Funny that when I was speaking to an officer about this on Thursday evening, our new drug house had some activity and I believe it may have been "caught on tape" by the patrol car and the officers followed the people. It seems to me that they are not residing at this apartment building, but dealing drugs out of it. DCI is on it as are the local patrols. Stay tuned as the plot thickens.

By the way, my commitment to the 'hood is such that I missed most of Grey's Anatomy. The one show I watch now that I don't have my Bill Maher to turn to.

TaTa

Baby Sister's Birthday

So hard to believe. I forgot my sister's birthday. Reba is 21 today ( As of 10/17, that is). Right? I remember the day she was born. Renee, Eric and I awoke to find no parents. Mom was giving birth in Waukegan. Becky ended up with meningitis and stayed in the hospital too long. I held her when she got home and never wanted to stop. We almost lost her so many times. I still wish she were here. I miss her immensely. My baby sister is all grown up! I still want to hold her. She will always be my baby sister.

Shingles Outbreak in Children in the Sioux Falls Area

A few weeks ago Mirabel told me about her son. He had a rash and was running around screaming in pain. She took him to the doctor and the doctor diagnosed him with Herpes Zoster, otherwise known as Shingles. I thought this was odd. This usually manifests in older people. Last week, Jennifer said that her daughter seemed to have a bug bite that was growing and getting more sore. She didn't take her daughter to the doctor because like all kids, her daughter had a tendency to scratch them until eventually they would scab over and go away. Friday she took her daughter in because her daughter was crying that it hurt so much and it had gotten so much redder. Diagnosis: Shingles. Her doctor said that was the third case of Shingles in children that he had seen in the last week. I went on the CDC website to see if there was any information about it. Although Chicken Pox is a reportable virus, Shingles is not. The CDC didn't have any news about unusual outbreaks of Shingles. So, I contacted Jaine Andrews at KELO. She does the Healthbeat feature on the news. She also felt this was unusual and is checking into it. Hopefully she will find some answers. This seems very odd that we are having a sudden outbreak of Shingles in children. Both children have had the Chicken Pox. Unfortunately, until further research comes up with better treatments or preventions these children will probably be dealing with this for the rest of their lives.

Coming Home

When I was around 8 or nine, we were lucky enough to live on a wooded acreage on Cedar Lake Road in Lake Villa, Illinois. I don't think that I was the normal type of kid. My sister Renee and brother Eric were more active and got a long so much better. They played and watched TV and shared many more of the same interests. I was a kid that loved to read and learn things and, even at that age, wanted to know what made people tick. I was so sensitive and couldn't understand why other people weren't. Renee would throw my stuffed animals and I would cry because she was hurting them. To me, everything and everyone had feelings. I took it upon myself to try to make everyone happy or at least not cause any problems.

We didn't have friends out there on Cedar Lake Road. Our closest neighbor was the Sons of Norway resort and we knew better to go over there. Life at the house was often tumultuous. Even at my age, I felt deeply the tension around me. I wandered around the "yard" and liked to go out into the trees and create my own world. Sometimes in the fall, I would take the fallen leaves and arrange them into "walls" of a house. I would lay down in my "room" and look up at the trees. The wind would blow lightly and the top of the trees swayed and whispered reassurances to me. I would sigh and feel safe. Maybe that is why I like the Northwoods so much.

The Great Northwoods September 29, 2006

Psyche Monster

Okay, so I have put this off forever because I am a busy mother of two teenage boys, working full-time, going to school part-time, Neighborhood Watch Coordinator, mother of 3 demanding dogs, stepmother of one angry teenage girl and roommate to her father. Other than that I don't have a whole lot going on.