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So—a funeral right before Christmas. NOT exactly what was hoping for.

Some of mom’s friends have been supportive, of course, including her best friend Sylvia, her coworkers and my “sister” Laurie too. Laurie talked to mom Tuesday night, to try and comfort her, and this was BEFORE Marie died. She does know what happened—and said she will send mom a card of sympathy.

I'm sorry for your loss. We lost my grandfather six days before Christmas in 1966 but I was only 5 months old so I don't remember but losing a loved one around Christmas was hard on my family. Foe me, Easter is a tough time, I lost my grandmother during Holy Week in 1997, my aunt close to Easter in 1995 and one of my beloved cats passed away a day before Easter in 2006.

To make matters worse—my boss Patty, whom seems “upset” that I do not consider her “a friend to me like Laurie”,— (Laurie is VERY special to me...and I do not consider ANYONE to be the kind of friend she is...nor have I EVER)— Well Patty WENT OFF on me a couple of days ago like NEVER before,or for that matter, like few people EVER have. Over a misunderstanding regarding the cost of a repair of a tv of a woman who did not want to pay much—she said some VERY cruel things to me, including that “she did not feel we were as good of friends as she wanted to be”, that “I would cut her throat at the first chance” and that “she could not trust me”. Since that time....we have had VERY little to say to each other. Ironic,. as it is usually her husband Ray, who gives me a hard time. but he has been “ok” during this period, and he NEVER said ANY of those things to me before either!!

what brought it on?? I don’t know..I think Satan is VERY upset at me, because a couple of days before—I did some HEAVY DUTY witnessing to Patty, as “the door opened to do so” and I did not miss the chance. She has been hurt VERY badly by a church, basically, one would NOT baptize her grandson(IIRC), because Ray was “not a christian” and that HURT Patty. I let her know of some of the “nice things” that happened to me over the decades in church, such as being labeled a drug pusher, lied about and kicked out of doing sound TWICE in 2 different churches, having parents tell their children that i was a “bad influence on them” and to stay away from them or destroy friendships with me , and so on...BUT I am STILL involved in church, in fact , I am now doing sound AGAIN, at Dayspring, where we are now “firmly grounded”. I tried to convince her to go to some Bible-teaching Church before the end of the year, hopefully for Christmas..and she seemed “open” to the idea. Now..she has said some things that will NOT be easy to “take back”...but I WILL forgive her, if she “comes around”...It is a PATTERN, that when I witness to someone who REALLY needs it...something BAD happens soon after, usually between me and that person.

She must have some issues internally or with family. It's a shame that she is cranky with you. IIRC, you said she voted for Obama, well, tell you the truth, I keep asking the question, "if a person has a business, how in the heck can they vote for him?" I'm just scratching and shaking my head on that one.

Politics aside, I guess you can try saving her but if she turns really nasty, I'd look for another position although that is very tough to do right now. One good thing about Pittsburgh, we are not affect as bad as most of the country although we are hurting here too. I'm working in an auto parts store, very busy, then again people are keeping their old jalopies.

I've had less than stellar experience working for small businesses, my grade school buddy (we've been together since 1976/77), now my boss too, has even worse experience, he prefers to work for big, corporate entities, they have better benefits and ability to stay alive through good and bad times. In the past, we both worked for a small business and let's say we have a lot of war stories and wounds to prove it. I think that would make a good topic to keep this conversation going. In your line of work, I think it would be harder, I don't know of any regional or national appliance/TV repair chains. I'm pretty much going on the experience I've and my buddy had.

I'm glad you have a good friend in Laurie like I do with my buddy, next time, we might take a night and go "cosmic bowling."