Live Forever or Die Trying

Since so many smart folks read our blog, I hope to tap into some of that gray-haired wisdom:

First, every time we run our washer, all the lights in the house flicker to the beat of the drum — the washer drum that is. Why is that, how can we stop it, is it a wiring issue, a washer issue, or an electric company issue?

Second, there is a plastic grocery bag stuck in a tree about 25 feet up and every time the wind blows, it drives me crazy! We do not have a ladder that high, and if we did I would not climb it. I don’t have one of those long poles with the clippers on the end, nor is any of our brooms long enough. I thought about throwing rocks, but it is a shared tree and I don’t want the rocks in the neighbors pool. I though about a lasso method, but I don’t even know how to a) make one b) throw one or c) even have a rope.

Any ideas on either question would be greatly appreciated! I love having our own home, but I must say it is a very stressful event! Every time I hear thunder I worry about getting hit and burning down!

The Associated Press February 13, 2008, 7:51PM ET
Court overturns Texas sex toys ban
By ANGELA K. BROWN

A federal appeals court has overturned a Texas statute outlawing sex toy sales, leaving Alabama as the state with the strictest ban on such devices.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by up to two years in jail, violated the Constitution’s 14th Amendment on the right to privacy.

Companies that own Dreamer’s and Le Rouge Boutique, which sell the devices in its Austin stores, and the retail distributor Adam & Eve, sued in Austin federal court in 2004 over the constitutionality of the law. They appealed after a federal judge dismissed the suit and said the constitution did not protect their right to publicly promote such devices.

In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between gay couples.

“Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct,” the appeals judges wrote. “The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence.”

The Texas Attorney General’s Office, which represented the Travis County district attorney in the case, has not decided whether to appeal, said agency spokesman Tom Kelley.

Phil Harvey, president of Adam & Eve Inc., said the 5th Circuit Court’s decision was a big step forward. He said his business plans to expand to sell in stores and at home parties, something company consultants had been fearful to do because of the Texas law.

“I think it’s wonderful, but it does seem to me that since Texas was one of three states in the country — along with Mississippi and Alabama — that continued to outlaw the sale of sex toys and vibrators, that it was probably past time,” Harvey said Wednesday.

Alabama is in the 11th Circuit. But now it’s unlikely that the law in Mississippi, which also is in the 5th Circuit, will be prosecuted, some legal experts said.

Virginia’s law barring obscene items is different from other state laws and does not seem to apply to sex toy sales, said Harvey, whose company distributes nationwide.

Louisiana, Kansas and Colorado had laws barring obscene devices, but courts have since struck them down, the 5th Circuit judges wrote in their ruling. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Georgia law banning the advertising of sex toys, which can be sold under some approved circumstances.

The 5th Circuit Court’s decision is encouraging for Sherri Williams, who has been fighting the issue in Alabama for a decade. Williams, who owns Pleasures stores in Alabama, sued in 1998 after state lawmakers banned the sale of sex toys there. A year ago, she lost her fight again when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a lower court decision upholding the Alabama law as constitutional.

Williams hopes that lawmakers will take notice of the recent Texas case and support a newly filed bill in the Alabama Legislature to overturn the ban on adult toy sales.

“I think the courts are finally listening to the people,” Williams said Wednesday. “You have ..Sex and the City,’ ..Desperate Housewives’ and other shows promoting what society is doing. I think the courts have finally opened their eyes and looked around, which is a miracle in the South.”

Texas is going to start making a redesigned license plate in January 2009, and they’re letting us vote for our favorite of five possibilities.

So if you’re a Texas resident and don’t want a license plate with stupid bluebonnets or crayon and Photoshop outer glow filters all over it, go vote! Personally, I picked the “New Texas” option since it feels like the cleanest and least-cluttered to me, and it doesn’t have the stupid all-caps block font for Texas.

Thanks to Phil for sharing this with us!

While most of the nation was talking about the very recently ended Super Bowl, I was at work closing down. It was 8:45 and we close at 9pm, so i only had a few minuets to go before I could lock the door. I just finished counting my drawer, a little early, but I had only had one sale and that was hours ago. I pulled out the nightly paperwork and was about to get started when the door opened.

A man wearing a ski mask came in. My first though was, “oh he must ride a motorcycle” then that was followed by, “wait it is not cold enough for one of those”.

Then I saw the gun.

With his gun hand cocked to the side he told me in a disguised deep voice, “give me all your money, I am not kidding I will use this”.

I froze. There was a white hot flash of adrenaline and it paralyzed me for what seemed like an eternity. I walked to the register and reached under to grab the bank bag with the register cash. I gave it to him and he left.

I did not move for a minuite, or so it seemed. I wanted to run to the door to see if there was a car, but could not. My self preservation got in the way. I did however have to concentrate very hard to control my bowels. It was an effort not to shit my pants.

I slowly walked to the door and locked it without even trying to look the way he had gone.

I ran and hit the panic button, grabbed the phone and ran to the office where I locked the door and called 9-1-1.

Feeling somewhat safe, but expecting the door to burst open any second, I allowed myself to cry. The 9-1-1 operator asked me my address and I had enough presence of mind to grab one of our business cards on my way to the back so I would be prepared for this answer as I do not know it yet by heart. She asked for the number I was calling from and I could not see the card through the tears. I wiped them away and read them to her.

She asked what had happened and I answered “A man with a gun came in and took the money”. Saying it out loud made the event real. The crying began anew.

She asked if he had touched me, “no”. She asked if I need an ambulance, “no”. I wanted one, I wanted to go to the hospital so I could get counseling, but I know that ambulance bills are not cheap, so I declined. She asked if I was okay, “physically, yes”. She told me that she would stay on the phone with me until the officers got there, and right after she said that she told me they were out front.

Scared as hell, I left the office. I almost panicked because I did not see them, but then I caught the movement of one. I do not even remember getting off the phone with her. The door was opened. Several men came in all asking questions:

When did it happen?
Two minuets ago
What was he wearing?
Blue hoodie, black ski mask, maybe blue jeans, black cotton gloves, over 6ft, over 200 lbs
How many people has touched the door?
Only a few, it was cleaned at 5:30 and we only had a few customers, but he was wearing gloves
How much money did he take?
Exactly $50, I had no cash sales today
What denominations?
22 ones, 2 fives, a roll each of quarters, nickels and dines, less than 50 pennies, other loose change
What did you give it to him in?
Blue bank bag with “92″ on in (store 9, drawer 2)
What did he look like again?
What did the gun look like?
What did he say?
What did he look like?
When did it happen?

I felt like I was the guilty one, I felt like I had done something wrong. I know they were doing their ob, I know they had to ask the same questions over and over again to make sure my answers did not change.

All the right people in the company were notified, all the right people come. Dean was called, Dean drove 40 miles to come get me. Sad attempts at jokes were made with nervous laughter following. People tried to make me feel better.

All I could this was I was 2 seconds from having a bullet in my head. All I can think now is when is he going to come back because he was pissed he only got $50. What if it was a regular, what if this person knows me?

Dean does not want me going back to the store, ever. I do not want to go back either, but I have to. If it was just a job, then no biggie, but I have a future with what this company is offering me — a career.

Maybe I can talk to the owner and see if I can get transfered to the office. Maybe they can pay me to get the non-profit up and running, maybe I can just do the home parties. I love working with the people and I get so much from it, but last night has changed me.

Last night I was going to die, but I learned something about myself that I had always wondered. Do I believe in a god?

After the ordeal, I ran the events over and over in my head thousands of times, and I noticed something. At no point did I even think about god, no point did I pray, no point did I wonder -at that instant before I thought he was going to shoot me- if I was going to heaven or hell.

All I was worried about was if I was going to shit my pants or not. I learned that I could control my bowels against all odds and that I was really an agnostic. Because I really just don’t know.

I left a message for the office that is on my case asking about victim counseling. All cities offer it free to victims of violent ordeals and I really need it. And if I do need extended counseling, I can get up to $50,000 for the services from the state victim fund.

I wish I could say I am alright. I am physically, but every time I hear a noise it is the gun firing into my head.