Just call me the queen of the strangest phone calls...

I work for my state's smallest public university. It's a great place to work but...

We have emergency phones in strategic locations on campus. You've seen them; phones inside gray boxes that say 'emergency' or in booths that resemble pay phones. They have a button to connect and the call only goes to the public safety department.

When something goes wrong with one of the phones, they will often make a call in an attempt to fix themselves. The result is we get a call with no one on the other end.

Yesteray, I got one of those calls. Caller ID told me the location of the call, one of our parking lots, and I made a run to check and make sure everything is all right. There was no one around.

About an hour later, I got another call from the same phone. I identified myself and asked how I could help and got... a seagull.

Honestly.

There was a seagull on the other end of the phone. It made that distinctive seagull cry three times and then I was left with an open line.

So...

First the dog calls me...

And now the seagulls are calling me.

I gotta stop answering the phone.

Stories from my childhood...

I grew up in a family that included six kids - four girls, two boys, and an age span from 1951 down to 1962. Three of us, my brother, sister, and I take up three years - 1957, 1958, and 1959. My sister and I are the same age for 16 days and then she gets to be older again, a fact I rarely let her forget.

Large families are unique. The dynamcis are fluid, tempers are often volatile, and there never seems to be enough space or privacy. Yet, I wouldn't change my childhood for anything. I once envied my friends with small families but now, looking back, I think how lonely it would've been to be an only child.

My mother got married at 29 and had the six of us, the last the year she turned 40. She raised the six of us on little money, discipline, and a lot of love. Once my youngest sister entered kindergarten, she went to work because she had to; we needed the money.

My father, ten years older than his wife and once divorced, was one of those bedrock guys; he'd do anything for anyone simply because it needed doing. He was quick to laugh, worked hard, and expected a great deal out of us - usually without telling us. We always seemed to know what was expected of us and, for the most part, we behaved accordingly.

Dad's opinion counted but Mom's word was law. That's all there was to it.

One winter's night, while my mom was fixing dinner, us kids (none yet in those teenage years) were in the 'back room'. This was the room off the kitchen that acted as a catch all; the washer and dryer were back there. So was an extra fridge and a huge freezer. We got to play back there at times, especially when my Mom needed some quiet time.

On this night, we were playing blind man's bluff, which is a game where one person is blindfolded and tries to catch one of the other players. For us, however, a regular blindfold wouldn't work; you could peek and that wouldn't do.

We used the hood from a winter jacket. You wore it backward, completely covering your face and there was no cheating possible. We took our games seriously.

My brother was 'it' and we were having a grand time; laughing and yelling right up until my brother tripped on a corner of the plywood floor that was sticking up. He fell and hit his head. I don't remember on what any more but I do remember when my mother took the hood off to make sure he was okay.

His forehead was split and bleeding copiously, as head wounds do. My Mom, being a stoic Finn, sat down with the butterfly bandages and adhesive tape and went to work to fix him up. We all gathered around, fascinated.

My dad, of course, came home in the middle of it. He took one look at his son, turned to my mom and inquired: Don't you ever watch these kids? (His language was a bit saltier, I think).

My Mom's reply was short and to the point: Yes, I do. I watched him fall.

As I get older, times like those come back to me with completely different meanings, hence the point of this trip down memory lane.

Isn't that the sum of a parent's job? You raise your kids, you teach them to the best of your abilites and then...

You watch them fall.

Once they have, you pick them up, dust them off, patch them up and let them go and do it all over again until one day...

They get up on their own.

I've done my share of falling in my 51 years here. But, thanks to my parents, I always manage to get back up again...

Thanks, Mom and Dad. You done good.

Oh, good grief...

The dust is so thick in here it'll take me a week to clean it all out.

I haven't posted in over a month!

How did that happen?

No idea. Well, yeah, I do have one excuse. I've been writing obsessively and have such a good time doing it. I'm completely in love with the characters I'm working with and their antics that I seem to spend almost every free minute I have with them.

My current cast of characters include a demon, a cop, a Knight, and a bumbling (sort of) college professor.

If anyone would like to read them, let me know at cinjinn at hotmail dot com. I'm looking for feedback.

So, other than that...

I found a new series that I devoured - the Magic series by Ilona Andrews. Excellent books with an interesting take on vampires, shapeshifters, and the lot.

I was slightly disappointed with the last book in Kelly Armstrong's Darkest Powers series. I'll hopefully get a review up soon.

And I realized something today. I was reading a book. The first book in the series by PC Cast (House of Night?)... and I stopped. I didn't mean to stop but I did and then I forgot all about the book until yesterday when I was at the bookstore. I've never had that happen before. I've given up on books but it was a conscious decision. This just happened. Should I pick it back up?

I'm also reading the first Jack Reacher story by Lee Child and I'm enjoying it a great deal. Or I was. There are, however, holes in the plots big enough to drive a semi through and they're starting to bother me just a tad. Not to the point where I want to put it down, however.

Anyway, that's a snapshot of my month.

Now, time to get the place cleaned and spiffed up...