Phil,
I'm sorry, somehow I missed this post when you originally sent it.  I 
believe you about the nice dopers.  Chris really can pour on the 
charm.  I hope that he's a bit baffled about why it doesn't work on 
us any more.  by the way, the bike that we gave him has been 
trashed.  He said the brakes gave out.  He could be right, but I 
don't know.  Fortunately, we knew that it wasn't a very good bike to 
begin with so we really don't care.
           He has been hired at Burger King now.  Also, he is 
beginning to hand out our phone number on job applications that he 
fills out, which means that I'll probably hear  from him every day 
for a while.  That will keep life interesting.
Kathy

At 08:19 PM 8/1/2006, you wrote:
>Kathy,
>
>I know everything seems to happen at once, or mighty close together, and now
>isn't the time for money to be cut back either.  We never paid for any of
>Gretchen 4,200 dollars of drug classes in this diversionary program she is
>in and she still has probably more than half left to pay.  They can drop all
>but 3,000 dollars, if they want to, but the 3 grand is a federal payment
>because of the intent to distribute felony part of the arrest.  She finally
>has turned her paycheck over to her younger brother, that's who she is
>employed with anyhow, and he dibbies out her money as she needs it to pay
>for UAs, classes, rent, and whatever.  That has helped her some, too.  So
>she seems to be finally making an effort and she is spending more time with
>her children.  Unfortunately, for dopers, selling to make money, and selling
>to make money to buy your own dope, is very commonly practiced.  One of
>Gretchen's boyfriend, he was coming to church here, kept missing his drug
>classes so the judge sent him to prison, real prison and not county lock up,
>for six months.  He got stoned two days after getting out.  We have heard,
>but haven't confirmed, he is back in prison already but this time for a
>couple of years.  You know?  I have never met a doper I didn't like.  They
>are all nice people, some born again Christians, but the dumb government
>programs just don't work for a damn and I do mean damn this time.  If I were
>a warden, and running a prison, I'd make everybody listen to unshackled
>programs around the clock.
>
>Phil.