My mother's father died on June 27th, 2005. Roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes before his 96th birthday. The last time I saw him alive was his 95th birthday. That's what this LJ tells me if I check the tags, but I can only remember anything as recent as his 94th birthday.



The last time should have been the 2005 Battle of Lewisburg Living History and Reenactment that was held in his honor but that ended up being the same weekend I was put into Crossroads for the first time.

Right now I just wanted to repost the tributes.

My cousin Opal woke up Thursday morning to find that she couldn't walk very well.  She called her best friend Betty who rushed straight over and realized that she was having a stroke.  Betty took her over to Pocahontas Memorial and after evaluating her they sent her to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.   It was Opal's choice and most likely because Betty works there.  I figure her other option would have been Charleston.

She worked all day Wednesday at Pearl Buck and helped feed 50 tourists and then came home and canned 12 jars of beef.  Also missed taking her blood pressure medicine for two days...and had quit taking her aspirin because the doctor had put her on some other meds and she said "I thought I was taking enough without the aspirin"..

She is in good spirits....but pretty frail.   Facial paralysis (left side).  Struggling with movement of her left arm and hand, and her leg just won't 'listen' to her.  This most likely means the stroke affected the right side of her brain but we haven't seen results of a CAT Scan yet.  She's mentally sound and easy to talk to and understand which is a good sign.    Another good sign is that the hospital wants to get her started on rehab.

Friday I drove up to NoVA after group. I went to Starland first, and I can now officially say I didn't know anyone working. But there is a Starbucks in Bradlick Shopping Center now. That would have been so bad (oh so good) if it was there while I was working at Starland. Dave met up with me and we went to eat at Fuddruckers. They totally repainted otherwise it's the same. After that we surprised Abdulhadi and Badre. We had to rush to Target before it closed because (A) No one wants to go to Kingstowne Wal-Mart, NO ONE and (B) I left my phone chargers at home.

GJ right? srsrly.

We dropped Badre off then went to Starbucks, because Dave and I needed our fix (because caffeine is like crack for white people). I saw what was left of the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

We dropped Hadi off then Dave drove us to Solomon's Island in Maryland. Ya it was late at night but we're like that. I took him to Lewisburg, West Virginia one night so fair is fair. (Although I took Georgia there once, but she had no idea where we were going). We listened to Iron Otaku on U-POP. I just want to say that it sucks that there, and NoVA you can see the Moon but no stars. I kept trying with no luck.

Hopefully I will post the rest later, it just seems harder lately.

I finally got this ripped and uploaded the other night and I thought I would share it with you all.

William A. “Bill” Dysard was born in 1909 at Lewisburg, in Greenbrier County, WV. His father, Asbury K. Dysard, fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. His son was born when he was 65 years old, and as Bill puts it, “that’s why I’m still here today at the age of 95.”

William Dysard passed away in June of 2005, just one day shy of his 96th birthday. He will be remembered by his many friends as West Virginia’s last living “Real Son.”



Part 1 Boyhood Memories (3:52)

Part 2 Boom Days (3:52)

Part 3 Lewisburg Memories (3:19)

Part 4 A “Real” Son (3:05)

I will probably be in West Virginia for the rest of the week, just FYI.

My second home is Blockbuster.

I am now eligible and signed up for insurance through Blockbuster. In order for me to get these benefits I have to work 35 hours every week. Which equals 2 days off a week, which are always random.. My schedule is never the same but that's retail...

I don't think I ever talked about her but the bitch manager Jen is gone. She walked out on us.. Her boyfriend, who used to work at blockbuster as well turned her keys in last Tuesday.. She was already leaving Thursday, but I guess Monday night was so bad that she couldn't handle it.. She just couldn't handle BBV IMO. Monday sucked. I worked from 1PM to 12:30AM. Since she walked, Will, Mark and I have had to work all week long. its not cool. We're all so tired. But we have someone from Roanoke transferring....

I have about 12 hours of vacation time that I have to use before the end of October. That's only about 1 and a half work days, but Mark (my boss) said he could work it so I could have a full weekend off. I want to use that to go see Jay.. I haven't seen him in forEVAR.

My grandfather's 95th birthday was this Monday. We had a big celebration Sunday. Catherine drove down here to Staunton, and I drove us to WV. I talked with her, and I don't think she's doing so well... but better than before I guess. She's heavily medicated, trying to get by day by day. I think I may have already told some of you that she called my parents saying she wanted to kick Mark (her husband) out and needed financial support. Well I dont know if she will still do it. She changes her mind every day... because they still love each other or whatever. BLAH. There's also something she told me that bothers me ...that I dont feel like posting... If you ask me maybe i'll tell you.. =/

I traded in my Toyota and Honda and got a Volkswagen... So now I have 2 bills instead of 3...

I named her Blue Mary....

Apparently I slept through an earthquake, Catherine called to inform me. More like confirm, but I had no clue.

Jessi called. Pizza party Thursday night from 7 to 9. Secret Santa/Breakfast next Wednesday morning at 8. I still have to buy Jeremy something..

Steve is pissed at Jessi because she doesn't want to do Winchester so she won't, but she's now on the shit list with him.. So we'll all stay one happy family at Staunton..

Will pointed out that Buffy Season 5 came out today. He bought it. I don't have the funds to at this moment. And as hard as this may be to believe, I haven't even watched my Season 4 DVD's.

My parents are in Lewisburg.

Aly and Alexis got married this past Saturday and now she has her own Sitcom in the works with NBC. Go Aly!

Moving on to another beautiful former BtVS star... The commentary for Wrong Turn is excellent. Eliza and Desmond banter and she has lots of cute things to say about herself and the movie. This quote from Rob Schmidt, the director, makes me laugh for some odd reason: We had a lot of trouble with the movie trailers... Once we cut the necrophilia out of the script we really didn't have trouble with the ratings.. We put - it's a gory movie, it's supposed to be gory, you know...

Meridel posted that she saw Hikaru Midorikawa credited as Pretty Rikki in Kill Bill, but didn't see him in the movie. I didn't either.. The only thing I can think of is maybe as a seiyuu, and not as an actor.. I don't know about you guys, but just considering how the anime sequence was..I wasn't paying attention to the voices. I haven't had any luck finding info.

I had my fill of Daryl Hannah this weekend, viewing Kill Bill and Casa de los Babys. I really love the cast for both movies. I feel like talking about Casa tho. Rita Moreno rocks, always has always will. Still has a beautiful singing voice too. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays young woman from NoVA whose marriage is rocky.. All the women go out to eat and she asks about the time difference for Virginia, and that made me so happy. She gets asked where she's from and replies "Washington DC." Her husband is a prick and complains about how she's still waiting...You never hear what he says, but she is upset and says something to the effect of "No, you don't need to go to the Koreans." It was so great, yesh I'm a geek. But what a sad movie... It also had a similar feel to it like Dancing at the Blue Iguana did. Now Daryl is in that as well, but it's a totally different movie.. (About strippers). They both seem to be ad-libbed. It's awkward and uncomfortable and I really think the actresses came up with their own stuff, which was how Iguana was done. It feels real, and rough. I like that.

My granddaddy. The one I talked about here. He turned 94 this past Saturday. Cathy drove down here to the house and then I drove us over to Lewisburg. We hadn't been there in years, so it was kinda trippy. Open house was from 2-4pm. The birthday cake was from Walmart, and it had a picture of him on it. It was just so wrong, because mom cut him him half. Clear down the middle. Very Buffy of her... Actually I thought of Kung Lao first. There were so many people there I didn't know. Juanita, her sisters and nieces have gorgeous long flowing hair. So beautiful. I kept trying not to stare at her 19 year-old niece. I failed miserably. I think.

Everyone kept debating if Cathy looks more like Mom or Dad.... And I'm just standing there thinking "WTF?" I'd get like the once over and then they'd go back to looking at Cathy. Apparently I'm not old enough to look like either of my parents yet.. pffft.

Speaking of Cathy... She and Mark have been married 7 years. Holy Crap I didn't even realize how long it's been. That just means to me it's been 7 years since I 'graduated' from Poe Middle School. Well, that and she got married at my current age, 20. Mom and dad got married when they were 19. I can't even imagine myself getting married.. ^^;;;

^^ Apparently Granddaddy kept going on about wanting grandchildren. Later, Cathy and I were like "Shit, at least we don't have all the pressure, cuz there's our cousins Suzanne and Chris." Dad joked about bringing him our kittens though..

For those of you who have seen Wrong Turn. I would just like to state that my mother is from Greenbrier County. Lewisburg in fact. We've been visiting my Grandparents there ever since I was a baby. The only thing accurately portrayed about Greenbrier in that movie was that your cell phone does lose all signal. Everything else, not so much. Yet, I still highly enjoyed this movie. In fact I made Jay and Pern watch it with me. Granted I was the only laughing when the subtitle "Greenbrier County, WV" showed up on screen....

It's Fall Break, and of course I didn't go home, because I'm already home. Isn't this fun? I'm sure all the people who get to stay in the dorms are feeling the same way. My parents went to Lewisburg, West Virginia to visit my grandfather. I didn't go, because hopefully Eddie will be coming down to see me tomorrow morning. He wanted to come after het got off work tonight, but his dad said no. That's a good idea, because I don't think he'd be able to do it tonight and I would prefer Eddie here in one piece. I'm still supposed to be cleaning my room.... which I should go back to doing now... -_-

2nd day of work went well. I was up front all day. After work I went to visit my friend who works at AP, she's doing a great job there. I picked up a Megumi Hayashibara VCD for 3 reasons. A) that's all I could afford right now. B) My buddy has been asking for Megu music videos and C) Shes so damn cool. I don't really like how she looked when she was younger, but she looks great now. Maybe it was that whole 80's look or something.. ...nah. I like 80's J-Pop, like I love Kanako Wada. Look her up if you don't know her. Any ways I'm in a great mood right now, my parents just got back from WVA about an hour ago. All's well fer now...