Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2003. Mattie was about a year and a half old by that point. It was then that we started to take him to Fall festivals. We practically went to one festival every weekend in the Fall. It was a great activity for Mattie, as it involved being outside, sometimes meeting farm animals, games and of course pumpkins. There of course was always food at the events, but Mattie wasn't motivated at all by food. This was the one area we were totally different! In any case, this photo is priceless. I just love the way Mattie was checking out his encounter with the goat.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- number of people diagnosed with the virus: 7,268,298
- number of people who died from the virus: 207,605
Things are challenging enough in California for my parents, but their landlord is complex. Or plainly put, DIFFICULT. Today I received a text message from the landlord letting me know that my parents broke his dishwasher. That shards of glass were found inside the machine, and broke the motor. I checked with my mom and she reports that she and the caregivers broke nothing. Likewise, Peter and I never broke a glass while visiting. So we are at a standstill, as he feels we owe him a new dishwasher for his property. To me it is a matter of principle and integrity. We would freely admit if we broke something, and we are reporting that this never happened. Of course we have no proof that the machine was broken before we moved in, nor does he have proof that we actually broke it.
Given my prior interactions with this landlord in both June and August, I feel he is slowly making his case to get my parents to fix every broken thing in his house. I am not sure why he wrote to me. He may have thought I was going to be more reasonable than my mom, or that I could help speed up the disagreement process. However, in all my years of living in DC, anytime I needed something fixed, it was fixed. NO ONE in our complex ever blamed us for breaking something. So I am truly irritated by this landlord's accusations. Since I have lived in our unit, I have had maybe four dishwashers! All replaced the day the washer broke. My mom has been without a dishwasher now for weeks. Which is unfair.
Needless to say, I wrote a dilly of a message to the landlord. He says he got every appliance inspected before my parents moved in. Great, I said I want to see that documentation, because moving forward we will not be paying anymore for his defective appliances! I wasted more time today with his foolishness and I do not care for people challenging our integrity.
Meanwhile, I began a 12 hour continuing education class today entitled, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) Intensive Training Course. I got through the first two hours today and at first, I wasn't sure I was going to relate to the two instructors. But they grew on me, and despite being leaders in their field, I appreciated their humbleness. Within their training, they discussed the neurologist, Viktor Frankl, who was also a holocaust survivor. Under the worst of circumstances Frankl still found joy, peace, love, purpose, and meaning while living in Auschwitz. This speaks to the human spirit and the inherent hope within Frankl. As having this inner hope, provides the courage to evolve from incredible horrors and focus on what we can control in our lives.
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