Craig Chatten speaks at his Drug Court
graduation ceremony on Thursday.
(H-W Photo by Philip Carlson)

Craig Chatten had a birthday last month. He came home, and his two little girls met him at the doorway.

"You can't come in, dad," they said. "Play basketball with us, dad!"

Something was up. So Craig played with Jule, 9, and Jasmine, almost 3. But it was after a long day of work and he was tired and wanted to come inside.

"No dad!" his girls cried. "Not yet!"

With one daughter clutching him around the waist and the other grabbing his legs, Craig made his way inside. He walked toward the kitchen, and he could see the glow of the birthday cake candles and his wife, Kandy.

It brought a tear to his eye. And it dawned on him that in years past, when he was using meth, there would be no birthday celebration, no cake, no candles.

"In past years," he says, "they would have been standing there waiting for me."

Chatten, 45, graduated from Adams County Drug Court Thursday. He's been using substances since age 12, graduating from booze and pot to cocaine. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 1993 for a cocaine charge. When he got out, he started running with the same old crowd, and he used meth for about 10 years.

The end came on Easter Sunday 2007, when he was arrested and charged with meth possession. He got into an in-patient rehab program at Recovery Resources in Quincy, and was accepted to the Drug Court program.

He went from the brink of facing prison time to getting another chance. This time, he made it work.

"I think something just clicked," he said Thursday, standing in the Adams County Courthouse hallway while his fellow Drug Court graduates celebrated with cake and punch. "In rehab, I learned what meth does to the body and brain."

Relief flooded through Chatten when he got into Drug Court, but he realized it wasn't going to be easy. In the first months there were constant urinalysis tests, weekly court appearances and group sessions.

But it was better than being in prison.

"There's a lot of structure," Chatten says. "But for the first time since I was 12, I was thinking straight."

His life slowly came back. And on Thursday, he was one of seven Drug Court graduates. He says he's been clean and sober for almost 600 days.

He thinks of his little girls, and his eyes begin to mist yet again.

"In past years, I'd be too busy, I'd just blow them off," he says, remembering his birthday and his daughters hanging on him as he went into the house. "Not now. They knew I'd be home.

To read more about Drug Court, cick here.

So I'm walking through our graphic arts production department this morning when I hear one of the all-time worst songs coming through our Muzak … "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone.

I often joke with graphic artist Jason Mullins about being subjected to Muzak, but this song evoked painful childhood memories of listening to AM radio and bad hair.

Did we really listen to this stuff?

Judge for yourself.

What songs make you physically ill when you hear them?

In my column today about pet insurance, Brian Iannessa of Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) points out pets can have unexpected accidents.

The company sponsors a monthly award for the most unusual claim called the Hambone Award, in honor of a VPI-covered dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to find him. The dog was eventually found with a clean-licked hambone and a mild case of hypothermia.

October's winner was a Labrador retriever who threw up the same sock twice. It cost the owner $2,500 for surgery to remove the sock, and the procedure was covered by the owner's VPI policy.

Honorable mentions for most unusual claims in October included a chinchilla with bad breath from an abscessed tooth, a dog that was bitten by a skunk, a dog that had trouble swallowing a starfish and a dog that ingested several DVDs. All pets made full recoveries and received insurance reimbursements for eligible expenses.

September's winner was a Belgian sheepdog that crashed into a wheelbarrow while chasing a squirrel. Honorable mentions went to a bulldog that ate an entire nativity set, a mixed-breed dog that swallowed a diamond wedding band, a Lab that ran into barbed wire while chasing wild turkeys, a boxer that ate two pounds of raspberry cream chocolate and a golden retriever that tried to eat a porcupine.

Ouch!

I was invited to go ghost-hunting last week with Travis Yates, Brother Ed Arambasich and their investigative team at Woodland Cemetery.

In Tuesday’s edition, you’ll read about a disappearing ping pong ball and other stories. To see what they’ve been up to, click on the video at right.

Spooky stuff!

The best part of my job is interviewing fascinating people for stories.

You can read about two of them this weekend. Saturday we have a story about Hazel Mills, an amazing bundle of energy at age 82 who was recently honored with a prestigious state award for volunteerism.

Sunday we have a story about Pat Clow, who served in the Navy and witnessed history at Pearl Harbor, later surviving Japanese submarine torpedo attacks in the Pacific.

The coolest part of talking to Mr. Clow? Watching his granddaughter, Anna McNay, who listened intently to Pat's stories and experiences.

Good people make for good stories.