Three Trips to IHop

As most of you know my grandparents eat dinner every evening at IHop with some friends of theirs. They meet at 5:00 every weekday. There have been times that my grandmother isn't ready until 6:00 (so their friends were waiting on them for an hour!) so my grandad made the rule that if she wasn't ready at 5:00 they would eat at home. (some of you may remember this from the 'horn honking' episode)

It all started one beautiful Monday afternoon....

My grandad called my mom about 5:25 and said

Grandad:"Well, your mothers gone..."
Mom: "What???"
Grandad: " She wasn't ready by 5 so I told her we were eating at home. I didn't see her for a minute and got to looking for her and she was gone! She took the car and went to IHop!" (TRIP #1)
Mom: "you stay there we'll go check on her"

We go to IHop to see if she actually made it there...the whole way arguing about who was going to go in and talk to her and attempt to get the keys....saying things like "you're her daughter, you do it", "she likes you more", "lets rock, paper, scissors for it!". Either way I lost and had to go in. The plan was that I would go in and get the keys from her and see if their friends would take her home.

(TRIP # 2)As I go in my grandmothers back is to me, she is sitting in a booth by herself, and she is talking to the waitress

grandmother: "where is everybody?"
waitress: "Jo, no one has been here in 2 days.... Where is Tommy?"
grandmother: "He said he was going to stay home and eat a PB & J sandwich, and i told him I was going out!"( in her sassy little voice!)

I walk around and sit in the booth across from her...

grandmother: "HE sent you didn't he"(with an evil glare...)
me: "yes...you know you shouldn't do this, right?"(as sweet as i could sound...)
grandmother: "do what?"(as if she had absolutely NO idea!)
me: "Drive! Remember that you don't have a valid drivers license!"
grandmother: "hmmmfff" (you know...the way a 2 year old says it when they don't want to do something!)
me: "you can't drive home. give me the keys and I'll come back and get you when your finished eating"
grandmother: "I wont drive, trust me" (accompanied by a big shit eating grin)
me: "please give me the keys, it's illegal for you to be driving (Not to mention HIGHLY unsafe!!!)"

grandmother: "I'm a big girl and I'll face ALL the consequences!"

....more begging...more NO's....I finally walk out telling her that if she wasn't going to give me the keys that I would go and get the extra set from their house.

We get to their house to pick up the extra set of keys. when we pull up we notice that the small trailer in the driveway has been moved several feet across the driveway into the bush.....a light goes on...'that explains the LARGE scratch on the bumper'...she hit the frappin trailer!!!

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We head back to IHop with the extra set of keys (TRIP #3). My mom decides that it would be easier not to be confrontational and just get her home safe so she unlocked the car and waited...and waited...and waited.

Did i mention that she was sitting in there without her oxygen tank. She did have her purse though...but it had no $ in it! We're not sure how she got out of there without paying...

When she got in the car she was chipper as could be...Commented on the flowers, with a big smile! She finally asked "is the whole family mad at me?"..."yep"...."hhhmmmppphhh" ( back to the 2 year old attitude!)

The End.

P.S. The next morning (well, really around noon...) she got out of bed and walked into the kitchen where my grandad was sitting at the table paying bills.

grandmother:"That's right where Dan Rather was sitting!!"
grandad: "Really? Dan Rather was here?" (wondering what kind of response he'd get!)

grandmother: "Yep, we talked for a long time!"

...and off she went to sit in her recliner....and to my grandad...it's just another NORMAL day....

YFZ Ranch

Yes, we live near the YFZ Ranch. You got it, the one where the 416 children have been removed because of suspected sexual abuse. The women claim they are "normal" but it seems to me they have all had a lobotomy. They can hardly carry on an interview much less a conversation. The children don't know who their mothers or fathers are. They force the girls to marry at a very early age to older men. Male teenagers are tossed out by their parents, on the request of the higher ups. They are just dumped with very little education, no money, nowhere to go. They are referred to as the "lost boys". One of the detectives involved in the raid at the YFZ said the bed they found in the temple, sometimes referred to as the marital bed, had twelve chairs surrounding it. So they all watch? That is so sick.