Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Last hurrah, nah...

Kid here! I am pointing to my chest while saying that, and what a massive chest that is. (Hopefully a temporary situation, but I can remember many a time that I wished for these great thirty-eights when I was still at my scrawny fighting one hundred and three pound weight and flat-chested, irony.)

You see, right now I am still a fifty eight year young woman, and tomorrow I will be another year older and fifty nine ( if I recall the natural progression of such things, since, as we all know the memory is one of the first things to go in these later years.) Hopefully, that is if I am lucky enough to awake again tomorrow to attain it!

I don’t get it, I mean the problem everyone seems to have with stating how old they are; it seems to me it begins as early as the age of thirty these days. I have been not true to form for my baby-boomer generation, even my hubby cringes at the thought of his almost being sixty this November that is, a true seven and half months older than me; lucky guy, and I never ever let him forget it.

We should all celebrate these milestones, each and every year since we all in our hearts truly know that the only alternative to not getting any older is…dying young, still with your looks…

NO, it is not living any longer, and so party (responsibly, since we have maturity on our side) and make merry (responsibly, since we have maturity on our side, didn’t I just say that? Repeating ourselves is another not flattering aging sign.) and enjoy each and every day, because in reality we are not immortal and now I will take a big chance of being very corny… so in my opinion you should make the most of each and every sunrise and sunset, and all that space that falls in between.

On those positive notes I wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Monday, June 29, 2009

You gotta love the guy!

Our Commander-in-chief had an enlightening idea for saving more energy and consequently more money for us citizens, more efficient light bulbs. I thought we had that one under control?

No, I’m serious all the stores are selling those new fluorescents and incandescent bulbs, the only problem and this they say is because of their longevity is the much, much higher price, and of course the disposal is more delicate due to the innards being hazardous, due to the mercury inside. But I really thought we were gaining on that one.

Why even we have quite of few of those new fluorescents in our own home.
We have been slowly replacing the old fashioned kind with the new more efficient ones that in the long run are supposed to be more cost effective.
So of course we would, anyone would.
It’s initially a few dollars more, but not like so many of the other cost cutting new fangled ideas like the cost of solar hot water or total solar heat and air or windmill for the home which the upfront costs run into the tens of thousands, and so why not buy a few new light bulbs we can manage that!
Actually, the other green ideas are great when building your home to be green, adding it into that first mortgage.
Conversions are extremely costly.

Now, the tankless water heater is a fairly new but somewhat cost effective idea, but for us a little too dear at this time with costs in the several hundreds to around a thousand for a whole home one, not including professional installation, they say that you will save anywhere from 10% to 30% on your utility bills. I do imagine though in the future that price too will come down, we can only hope.

We go green on things that we can handle like the rain barrels, simplicity, and cost cutting on water use for our garden, which we have not seen any lower bills yet but they are consistently the same, which means that our veggie garden that demands water regularly is not creating a surge expense, since we use the barrels to maintain their need when we are lacking nature’s aide.

Now another topic of interest to me and an update so to speak: you may recall that I was going to follow-up with a final call to the neuro this morning, well I did.
And this time I took my good old time and made the call after my shower, which I took first! Any-who, interestingly enough the doc is not writing me off or ignoring me, you see my third call produced the answer to why I had not been called back, finally…
She is out of town on personal family business that’s why they were so vague I suppose. And here I thought that she was taking the side of that billing woman who was so crude and rude in my book.

On that enlightened note I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sorry I'm a little late...

Tonight I'm a little late writing this Blog that is, whatever did you think I meant? After all I'm nearly 59! I only look ‘Prego’, but I’m NOT!

We have just gotten back from our wonderful afternoon and evening of card playing with great healthy snacks and pleasant conversation and dinner along the Gulf shore with zesty breezes listening to the melodious sleek clink of metal drums, a Caribbean flare musical accompaniment as a soulful background! So I will be brief since I find myself pleasurably exhausted.

The day was all and more than I had hoped for; our gift was well received and so was our card as well.
Those two things alone can make one concerned, since acceptance is something that any human being could hope to accomplish, and we appeared to have succeeded it that arena.

Unfortunately, though, the birthday girl was still on a very sad downer, but periodically attempts to regain her smiles were attained, and temporarily all was well again, but it was sporadic to say the least. She ate well for the first time in weeks we were told, which I suspect is a very good sign, and I will take it! The food was of good quality and quite tasty so why not?

We all chose things we liked, but when the check came my cousin took it and would not allow us to see it or pay, the only glitch in the day! He was too clever to allow my trying a diversion to gain a gander, and so we were not to make a scene in public, and determined the best way to get even was to treat the next time. And hubby stated that when we got to their home.

Being as tired as I earlier mentioned I will now bid you all a goodnight and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Easy distractions

The home-front has its moments of trivial distractions and today I created one. If you all recall I mentioned that tomorrow, Sunday, we will be going out to dinner with our two cousins to celebrate jointly our birthdays that is his wife’s and mine. And so I felt that with the way things are these days I would succumb to my creative side and hand craft a gift for said cousin that I feel would be to her liking. You see, she is an artist and when she fell and broke her hip last October she was in her art class, and when her hubby had his heart attack she began to worry severely, so severely that she told us that she has not been able to paint.

Well, that is just awful in my book, and so my little crafty idea was to make her a sign for her studio in her home in the medium of what she loves ever so much design-wise. And so I tried my hand at finding her a background in the Harlequin style (this took searching the internet for a few hours) and I decoupage on the ten by twelve inch piece of wood we had left over from my blackboard project of weeks ago (my hubby was kind enough to cut it to size, again and will be attaching the hanging wire too), the mostly black and white diamonds with other muted tones and additional geo shapes included in a linear design is behind my letters that I found the translation for her to be in her original language of French stating: Studio de L’art de YSM, her initials and signature on her artwork.

I decorated it with acrylic painted bold bright and colorful letters as well to stand out from the background. At first I just had them, the letters, in a burnished red color but then I thought polka dots would be nice and cheerful in yellow, and it took off from there with a total of three colors embellished on the original concept that was way too plain, but now has personality and shouts happy!

My cousins’ home is much like an art gallery with many collections from all of their travels and it is difficult to find the right gift for them at anytime. My theory about the sign is that this might be the encouragement that she needs to start her artistry again with the claim of that room as definitely set aside for such things and is now tangibly designated as her studio! I hope she likes it, giving a creative gift to someone so artistic is probably asking to be doomed that is because I am more crafty than artistic. I will cross my fingers that it will be well received.

On that hopeful note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Dilemma where to go from here?

Well, it is Friday and nearly 6 P.M. here and still no call back from the doctor. You would think by now with two initial calls, one with her receptionist and one with her service I would have heard something. I am very disappointed.
I guess I will try one more time on Monday, and then I don't know what to do.

This begs the question for the public, what good is health insurance with soaring premiums that only are a partial payment when it is a fact that you hear people losing everything (such as their homes) due to horrendous lethal ailments that are not fully covered by their insurance anyway? What good is it, really? The news is rampant with parents who have health insurance that are gainfully employed but they still have to raise monies for their child’s organ transplants, and they do have health insurance, what’s wrong with this picture? It’s wrong and obscene in my opinion. Should this be the case with us living in one of the richest countries in the world, and that’s in spite of our economy, we are still a very wealthy country!
Even when we were covered by health insurance it was an 80% /20% split, us having the mere 20%, which when I needed six months of physical therapy at that time even our out of pocket expenses were several thousands of extra dollars. This idea of our health insurance program stinks if you don't mind me saying. We do need a reworking of our system from nothing less than a logical standpoint. I know that our leader- in-chief is trying very hard to make a standardized government program, but we need all health programs to work for all people. I wish I was smarter to come up with the answer it is definitely a frustrating situation, brain fodder.

Last night I got a lovely call that I ruined with my blurting out my aggravation at that moment with trying to resolve my problem with straightening out my frustration of my bill with the doctor’s office, poor dear heart attack/retired teacher survivor cousin called to invite us out to dinner on Sunday, boy did I give him an earful! I went on and on so much he offered to treat us to that dinner, and I said no we will go Dutch. You see it is his wife’s birthday Sunday and mine is next Wednesday so it would be lovely to celebrate together and besides a friend of theirs will be the entertainment (sounds mysterious and intriguing) and the restaurant that we haven’t been to in a few years. It had burned down and then been rebuilt, a lovely place on the water and not too dear in price either, and so I said yes.
Since my cousin is also a magician, I wonder if his friend is too should be interesting.
And to be honest I am getting cabin fever; it has been over a week since I left these digs, at least I think so.

On that positive note I will wish you all good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sad news of a few more familiar people's deaths...

Today was a sad day for all who enjoyed watching Farrah Fawcett in any venue that she appeared in. Her portrayal of Jill Monroe a Charlie’s Angel will be for most her most memorable, but in actuality she had been a nominee of a few Golden Globes as well as Emmy Awards. She was sixty-two years young, and she died with her long time companion Ryan O’Neil by her bedside.

Right now we are waiting on news how Michael Jackson, the King of Pop is; he was rushed to the hospital having gone into cardiac arrest. TMZ is reporting he has died at the age of fifty at UCLA Medical Center.

For me it was an aggravating day. One of the bills I was trying to negotiate went south, and now they are saying if I pay the whole thing within thirty days I will be given a discount, it is a very large bill for us to pay all at once and after the billing clerk just Monday asked me to work out the payment plans and with either a 25% or 30% discount with a good faith fifty dollar check payment towards the bill and then she would decide which way to go. And so like the fool that I am, apparently believing her I did what she asked and even sent a partial payment as requested as well. I went ballistic and cancelled my doctor’s appointment with the neuro when she told me that it is not their policy to give a discount unless in the case of full payment within those thirty days. The horrible part is that I still need to know the results of all my tests and her evaluation of me with my past doctors info that had been sent to her. It was her office and she knew our financial situation and said in the hospital that she would work with me; I am an idiot I guess for believing that. After I blew off my steam I called the customer service department at the hospital to help me try to figure out what to do now. They suggested calling back and speaking with her, and so I did call back and request to speak with her, and consequently stayed out of the shower all day thinking I would miss her call. Well at six thirty, me the idiot again called her office and got her answering service, and the woman who took my message I made sure that it would not be misconstrued as an emergency medical call, I definitely wanted her to know that I had a difficult time with her office billing personnel, and the woman just said that she would leave my name and phone number stating that the doctor should call me at her convenience but it was very important for her to get back to me.

Please tell me this is not that unusual for most people to get crazy from trying to make ends meet when things start getting a bit overwhelming? I need to know I am only temporarily loony. To think that this would be a permanent behavioral mode would be way too much to consume, and I am stressed enough!
You see, I am the type of person that when a problem arises I try to immediately take care of it. In my mind letting it go on just makes it worse. And so in life I always have been known to face any good or bad situation head-on and try to find a solution. Why is it that sometimes honesty and logic does not always prevail?
It’s that darn idealism again, damn; it always gets me in trouble.

Tonight is actually the beginning of my second year of this Blog and what a last year this has been!

Being a bit exhausted and so I will now wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Pain and the need to know what else to do

How are we as human beings in describing verbally how we feel when asked by someone who really needs to know, like the doctor? I am sure that you as well as I can come up with quicker answers with anyone who asks, “How you doing?” Most who know that people just are saying that as a polite hello when asked that loaded question, for me anyway, and so the masses that are generally just as polite have a natural instinctive reflex to give an answer of, fine or good, and you? In reality I am still working on that. I always argued why ask it if you don’t really mean it and want to know every detail. So I begin to tell people (the truth) and you know what happens when you do that?
They usually walk away, quickly, LOL. I suppose I am still slightly childlike in my desire for people to idealistically to mean what they say, and I believe that, that inquiry for sheer politeness is way over-rated and a waste of time.

And so when I go to a doctor’s office and I am asked that question I have a tendency to be rather bold by saying, “If I were fine; why would I be here?” And that usually provokes a laugh from the asker, and that is OK, but could be misconstrued as rude by some. Not by me though, since I believe we are all conditioned by rote in many ways no matter what situation we may find ourselves in; we react how we have been trained to. That’s why I find it odd that doctors who attend college for 8 years then residency for many after should know better than to ask that question so off the cuff, so to speak. I find myself asking them how they are, but they are getting paid to ask me and I am not. Although, if you try it you will be surprised at the response you may get. I have gotten some whoppers over the years. Any-who, you get where I am going here?

The doctors have a system to find out how you really are, did you know that?
If you say you have been in a lot of pain, they not unlike the physical therapists will ask you on a scale from 1 to10 with 1 being almost no pain and 10 being horribly excruciating pain; where is yours? Here we go again with obligation, you know what I mean, and why in the world would you be wasting their time if you weren’t in excruciating # 10 pain, right? Anything below a level 5 you can deal with at home and why bother them with it? After all their time is money, right? Well, I like to be honest, mostly because when I go to the doctor it is after I have taken any medicine that I had been prescribed and so I may only be a 7 or 8 by the time I get to them, and I will tell them that, the truth. I wonder at times if they realize that most of the answers they get about that pain level thing are not at all that accurate. You see, pain, like so many other things in life is a matter of perception, not a true indication on how you are, because some of us have a very high pain tolerance while others do not, it's as simple as that. So when this professional medicos ask that provocative question how can it help them to help you? That’s all I’m saying is that wouldn’t it be more beneficial to ask you to be very specific in describing when, where, why, which and even who makes that pain come or go, don’t you think? Personally I think we should all walk in the door of the doctor’s office with our script in hand with full documentation, and of course a copy for the doctor to keep on file. Wouldn’t that be more advantageous for telling and or diagnosing?

I bet you’re wondering what brought this vein of thought out of me tonight, well, it’s my pain and spasticity it appears that I am now under the control of my Baclofen since I have now been taking it according to the direction for the last two days, due to my uncontrolled spasms. Today they were like those muscle pulls most people get in their calves, but mine are in my back, not good.

And so I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Just two more days...

In just two more days it will be exactly one whole year since I started writing this Blog, and what an amazing feat that is for me. You see I have not in the past few years had what you would call someone who has stick-to-itiveness. Don’t get me wrong, over my nearly 59 years on this planet I have spent many long periods with being involved in things that I really cared about, for example: my relationship with my husband will be 42 years old this August, although we have only been married for about 38 and a half. I did take dancing lessons for 12 years, voice and choir for 7 years and piano for 5 years, not too bad, huh? My education has been diverse in many areas but I took the basics for about fifteen, but then more classes over many years in all different interests from creative writing to law to medical issues, which gave me educational credit units through my volunteering all those years, since I stopped working for money when I became ill. And far as my working history goes it has been many different types of jobs from credit managing for a major department store to co-owning three businesses with my hubby to working in promotion and for an International company, all those for on and off for 32 years.

Any-way, last night was a miserable night for me. My spasticity returned with a vengeance! I awoke stiff and in extreme pain, fortunately I remembered I still had my Baclofen, my anti-spasmodic, that I had avoided taking, but I took it this morning at 8 A.M. and by 11A.M. I was able to put my walker back in the closet. I had taken it out feeling that I needed it to help me get around the house, I hate it, but it does help when need be. I much prefer using the walls and furniture to hold onto when at home and my scooter for outside and long excursions. But right now the pain is returning so I guess I’m not out of the woods yet. The directions on the medication say that I can take it three times a day, but I was going to wait until bedtime to take another dose. I guess that idea is shot to heck, and so I just took another while I am writing perhaps I will get some relief.

A few upsetting pieces of news today: the train wreck in D.C. claimed 9 lives according to the last information from our news.
Another item in the news is that Ed Mc Mahon passed away today at the age of 86, what a personality and he will be sorely missed by all.
Sadly, Farah Fawcett is back in the hospital today and not doing too well, but still giving it her all to fight her anal cancer. Ryan is ready willing and able to marry her, and he is also trying to get their son, Redman released from prison to see his mother. We wish the family well.

It is time to wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Anybody out there need to contact family?

Have you ever felt that you were banging your head against a wall? Our family members are spread throughout the United States, literally from coast to coast, Pennsylvania to Washington state.
And so it’s not like we can run over and see how they are doing or even drive over in a short time period, right? So the only logical choice/way to communicate would be by snail mail, email or the good old fashioned landline, right?

This just in: a 5.7 Earthquake just hit Willow Alaska, now I see where Governor Palin got her younger daughter’s name from. No other news yet. I will break into this Blog if any more comes in. LOL, no really!

Any-who, so when I called my Mom-in-law, in good old PA who lives five miles from my hubby’s baby sis, to see how she was doing and just to really check in this past Saturday I asked her how my husband’s brother, her eldest son, was doing way out in WA, and she said that she didn’t know since she hadn’t heard from him in quite some time. His is the largest of our contingency, family-wise since he has three adult kids and they too have families. And so I told her I would call him and said maybe she should too. That was Saturday and I did leave a message on his answering machine when no one answered, saying to call or email us back to let us know how they all are. Today, I emailed his eldest daughter when I still did not hear anything and asked her to contact me by email; still waiting. You see my brother-in-law’s wife, our sister-in-law had been very ill last year with cancer, which we had been told that she had, had a complete recovery from, so maybe they went away on a vacation; I hope! That would be so nice to learn eventually!
I am a worrier by nature; unfortunately genetic, on my mother’s side.

This just in: two railway trains collided in D.C., I will give you any new developments as they come in, really! Just in: sadly two deaths have been mentioned as of now.

Now we are in for it, up until yesterday we were one of the few counties in this state without any H1 N1 Flu cases, although we do have more then five hundred cases with one confirmed death, well today we have three confirmed cases here in our county, and two more possible! I should have kept my big mouth shut, it was just this Saturday I told Mom we didn’t have any; Pennsy has nearly seven hundred though, and no deaths that I know of and let’s hope it stays that way.

As you can see my day has been full with anxious moments. We also received additional medical bills today to add to all that. Negotiating payments is a weekly chore that perhaps we may eventually get good at?

On that note of personal responsibility I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings I will too!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day!

(Hum to the tune of the Beverly Hills Hillbilly’s theme song for this one)

Sit right down my child to listen to a tale, a tale of how Father's or Fathers' Day began.
The info coming down the pike could make you want to jam.
You see my dear offspring it is like this I have read that no one knows for sure how it reached into my head. The knowledge of the celebration really is not lore; the one thing that I know for fact is that there is quite a bit more.

You see that we are possibly into a century of having us determine that we cared enough for he; Fathers that is. To set aside just one special day to let them know we care no matter what or who your daddy is or the color of his hair. The story goes that many mothers felt that it was unfair to have only a Mother’s Day and nothing for him here. So they asked the powers that be to give them one day that was free…. To tell the man who we love that they are as good as any Mother’s Day for me!

And so we have a Father’s or Fathers’ Day celebrated today in 52 countries! For more and actual information you can go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father's_Day

Upward and onward, this day is not once what it was, since both our dads have passed away, and our sons are far away, but it is time to remember those past times of happiness of our special days with them.

As I huddle in my air-conditioned home today due to another day of ungodly temperatures, and as I watch the news and other forms of squawk-box entertainment I am amazed at the rain and cool temperatures that I see in our northern area that we so long ago called home. What I do remember is that even up there by the first day of summer, which is today also…So happy first day of summer everybody, longest day of the year, Summer Solstice, any-who that it was usually much warmer, and I lived there for thirty-six years, exactly twice as long as I have been living here! But of course you have heard the want-a-be meteorologist in me report this oddity before, and not that long ago if I recall.

As you may know we watch golf occasionally here, in this southern exposure place with the most golf courses and lightening in the country; odd how those two seem to un-relentlessly collide at times. Well, our adopted son, Tiger is playing in the ‘Open’, in Farmingdale NY, and not doing his usual superb, but he is catching up, and the weather there has been just dreadful, rain-wise. And we caught them complaining about the heat, not him, but someone, he never does complain, and I checked and it is only in the seventies! If it were in the seventies here we would all be getting out the woolies! I had to laugh! They forgot what warm is I suppose.

On that cheerful note I wish you all a good night, and a Happy Fathers Day, and a happy first day of summer, and don’t forget to count all those blessings and I will too!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I bet you didn't know...

This I found interesting today, did you know that when you give a small donation to a nonprofit organization that you are their client?
I did not know that, I thought my couple of bucks was just my way of helping them help people with a certain illness or need, and this one happened to be one of my own ills.
I almost made a fool out of myself, because I nearly wrote back to dispute it explaining that I thought that when you were a client that was a legal term between you and your relationship with a for profit business transaction on a regular basis, I guess I was wrong and I decided to let it go.

You see, they emailed me a survey and called me a client making me feel so obligated to fill it out like we had this long history together. I wrote back questioning that relationship of client and what…
In reality I never signed any contract, in my opinion we aren’t betrothed to one another, did I really have to fill it out because I was their ‘client’?
Answer: Oh, no you don’t, I told myself, and I didn’t. I belong to no one that hasn’t wined and dined me first, so there! And I pretty much hate surveys, so there is my justification, and this is America and I am part of our free society and I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to unless it is unlawful to not do it, and it isn’t, I think.

Obligation should be a four letter word; you know why I say that because it makes a person feel so dirty to have to do something…not because they want to be nice and they desire to feel happy to do it, but because it is expected of them as an obligation, ugh! See, say it slowly and it even sounds like a dirty word; ob- li- ga-tion, even the definition fringes on being a debt, another negative term, and oh so much a sign of the times.

Did you know that in some cultures that an obligation could be considered as illegal as Blackmail?
Yes, when someone holds the ‘OBLIGATION’ over your head to be their friend or for a favor to be repaid?
Parents were the first to stumble on this way of keeping their children in check; another name for it which we all may know is the unspoken marvel that makes grown men and women shake in their shoes…it is called GUILT. You tag-team the two together and boy what a pair, how many of you out there have been back ended by the two and found yourself pleading to do whatever anybody asked of you?

On those little pearls of wisdom and concern for our human beings just being, I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Friday, June 19, 2009

What do you all think about our future?

Yes, you heard me right I want to know your opinions as a country and even the world. What do you think is the future of this planet, economically and also including your feelings about Global Warming, and all those other daily horrors we as a human race must endure?

How much more can we take?
Do we really know how this will all turn out?
I would love to get some real feedback; I personally love open discussions.
They create brainstorming and on occasion come up with solutions that are realistic.

Then we could include our leader-in-chief in our constructive conclusions and generate some more ideas, he is so open-minded to our opinions as a nation. I was sad to see that his popularity poll dropped ever so slightly. It couldn’t have been the fly incident; I knew when he did it that hearing from PETA wouldn’t be that far from coming. They tend to be, in my opinion, a little over the top with their over-reactions to things, but actually I thought he would have heard from the religious order that believes in re-incarnation first. I am not that fond of flies myself, and I do understand completely what he did, and I too have mercilessly killed a few in my day! But my hubby tries to catch them alive and release! I don’t get it. The little buggers are some of the filthiest critters on the planet. They cruise feces, garbage must I go on.
Any-who, Mr. President I have two words for you, GOOD JOB!

All around our home this evening we are getting a thunderous symphony of weather threatening to do something, but so far not a thing has happened. As we all know here and in most all places how soon that can and will change. Although, my hubby is now watering our tomatoes with the rain barrel water, and you all know what that means? We are in for it, a torrential rainfall! Oddly enough, unless the rain goes on an angle those particular southern exposure leftover, but abundantly full plants don’t always get hit by the rain, since they are mostly under the overhang.

As I am writing sure enough the rain has arrived! It is light at this moment and my observations are due to our swimming pool being right outside of this sunroom and the glass door gives me quite a view. The drops are becoming more numerous as I continue to write this, and soon it may very well come down in sheets! Not so, it is tapering off slightly, and the gentle drops have seemed to pick up a mellow rhythm that tinkles opposing the harsh drumming of those roaring noises called thunder. The best part of the rain returning to this state is that it enables the growth of all floras to thrive and burst blissfully into radiant harmonious splashes of colors! And to be more practical to help feed the reservoirs and our ever so dry aquifers.

It is time to wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

PS Walter Cronkite feel better!
PSS Just in: GM has called back 900 workers

Thursday, June 18, 2009

How is it possible...

Have you ever wondered how some creatures for example: like my cat and dog have been able to keep their sleek trim bodies while being able to consume food all day long and sleeping too?

Well, I have. We have never ever had an overweight animal and they sleep contentedly most of the time and eat whenever they want; in our household we keep their bowls filled all of the time, but with excellent quality dry food.

Metabolically it amazes me, perhaps that is what those weigh-loss doctors should study, our animals in our home.

Personally, I do mostly what my cat does who is a handsome 12 and half year old specimen long haired orange Tabby with beautiful golden eyes, which is quite affectionate, his name is Casey. He has one of those gravity fed feeders always full of his indoor cat kibbles and water all of the time, and he weighs less than 12 pounds and he is an indoor feline, the same as all of his predecessors, which were female felines. He sleeps almost the whole day and night. Our Bichon Frise Skipper at age five, has basically the same food and water situation, and still is quite slender at only fifteen pounds the average for his breed. He does run around on occasion but not everyday and he too is quite an avid napper, but to be honest he does enjoy a good game of fetch. Geez that is over in minutes though!

But somehow even if I mimic my pets’ behavior by grazing most of the day without much movement it does not seem to have the same affect on my short frame or figure. And I would like to know why that is?
Maybe I am doing it wrong, I haven’t been napping lately, could that be it? I do believe that this is relevant and should not be taken lightly.

Although, some believe that obesity is caused by a virus and now they are studying that. Wouldn’t that be great to have an inoculation to prevent excessive weight gains, I would definitely be the first on the line for that one. The magic pill concept, but hear me out if I didn’t have all those meds that put the initial 30 pounds on me and then since I did quit smoking (3years next month; thank you very much) when it showed up on my MRI as not good, and that put an additional 50 lbs. on me I wouldn’t have high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, or even pre type 2 diabetes hanging over my head! And slender can maneuver better with my ataxia, ms, and not hurt all those many different types of arthritis in my body, and so that thin is a win for me! I do know when I am at my fighting weight I feel healthy and younger. But alas my body no longer will co-operate with hips needing to be replaced and shoulders too, balance off, and on and on… and so a shot to make this ugly fat on me go away would definitely be great! Why not? I say that would be just what the doctor ordered.

And on that self serving wishful note of a dreamers non reality I bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Triple digits and low humidity...could this be Arizona?

With temps training towards the triple digits and below normal moisture in the air; what’s going on? This is definitely not the South Western Mohave Desert states. No, this is Florida! And we are known for our ungodly humidity and summers filled with 80’s and some 90’s with our afternoon of an hour of showers, but where has normal gone? Living in this state for nearly 23 years I can’t remember not having humidity yet, it is June, right? But I also know how fast things change and I will not glean this unusual as our new norm quite yet.

The whole country is mixed up, weather-wise that is, although, also in many other ways, but I won’t go there tonight. Seattle had been dry for nearly a month; it's been fifties and sixties in the northeast, and tornadoes in Colorado, what? Some are questioning Global Warming, and others are just trying to figure it all out.

Well, if this crazy weather keeps the hurricanes away from here I am all for that! I just wish that the other parts of our country wouldn’t be getting those ghastly tornadoes that caused some horrendous deaths, no warning with them, tornadoes that is.

On the silly side did you know that when you wash your car, it will rain? Yesterday, we found that out, that old wives tale applies to filling your pool and pond to bring them up to where evaporation brought their levels down below where their filters will burn out, and so both were filled last evening. And then the storm that was supposed to just miss us hit after midnight and dropped about an inch of water and filled both rain barrels! We are not psychics, but I do have one friend who is or at least that is her unofficial title, but that’s another story.

As you might be able to figure out from tonight’s topics that again I did not accomplish or do very much today, this is starting to get annoying; but I did receive a bunch of emails today! The first large quantity in quite some time, and you know something I did miss them, even the ridiculous ones. I do love the clever ones immensely though.

I forgot to tell you all that Monday originally I was scheduled to see the neuro at 10:30 A.M., but believe it or not at 8 A.M. her office called to ask to reschedule because, now get this…she was sick! And like you I didn’t know that was allowed, doctors getting sick? (LOL, its OK, it was nothing serious I was told, since they were told to reschedule us all) But sure enough she was and I am now set up for the 30th of this month for 4 P.M., I really hope she’s better by then. Unfortunately, I forgot that is the day before my birthday, but at least it is not on my birthday. Who knows maybe I will get some good news from her?

On that hopeful note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

In my opinion some dilemmas are as tough to decipher....

A problem as difficult as any calculus problem would be for someone like me who never ever took a class in calculus. The complicated arduous situation I am referring to is the side effects of prescription medications, even those administered in the hospital by medical professionals. Just tonight another one was taken off the market, and it was not as dangerous as some, this was a nasal spray that side effect removed your ability to smell, just horrible but not a life and death one. I suppose that sounds rather cavalier of me, it would be so sad not to smell perfume or flowers or brownies, and even possibly lethal gas, which would be life and death, although I have been told it, is odorless.

Any-who, most of these drugs that I am referring to will cause things like ulcers, cancer, stroke or heart disease which to me sound just dreadful! And most do have the warnings on the labels or in their commercials on the TV, have you noticed? I suppose most people who need these medications will take the chance with that negative knowledge to control or make better whatever ailment it has been prescribed for that may have terrible affects on their medical well being. I assume most of these people have informed consent, I think that is the legal term anyway.

But then there are people, not unlike myself who do not know anything about what new or even established med has brought to the world of not so great side affects, and then what do you do? Personally, I found out the hard way that I was not a good candidate for two medications while hospitalized way back in 1983 when they nearly killed me. Fortunately, I am here to tell the tale, and now they are prevalent in my medical history, acknowledge as allergic reactions, but were they?
You all must know me pretty well by now that when I want to know something about anything I try real hard to find out everything I can about it, knowledge is power! And even way back then I was the same way, and so I bought a PDR (physician’s desk reference book, my first and only one the new edition for 1984), and there it was under the two culprits that caused me so much grief that what I went through was a possible side effect of each one of them, but only in 1-2% of the population, I guess that meant me.
So it was the common but small chancy side effect, not an allergic reaction, ah so, interesting!
This information has created the leeriness in me all these years, and so what happened to me recently made me delve further into why?
If you have been keeping up with this Blog you would know I am speaking of just one thing…my diabetic reaction to the steroids given to me in the hospital.
Well, being committed to the truth and informing myself about all quizzical interests in that vein I found myself searching for why I was still having symptoms of something that I was told was only temporary.
Mmm, now I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not a correlation that most medicos want to make, that high doses especially IV administered steroids, in latent diabetics, nearly three months later; it may very well cause a permanent disorder.
Hopefully, I will be proven wrong over the next few months, but I am not that sure that will be the case.

On that ominous note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Monday, June 15, 2009

The last word

You know the type, you start to leave after a conversation and the person you were talking to has to say something evocative or even provocative to drag you back into it, and if you fall for it you feel the need to give them that final word. But oh no that just sets them off to continue. And mind you this is just a general discussion not an argument or disagreement.

What I want to know is that considered a character flaw?
Does anyone know for sure?

Going the TV route, Columbo used to say that unforgettable line, oh, and just one more thing… when he would appear to be leaving the crime scene and had completed his interview of the witness/ possible perpetrator, he would act like the idea just came to him. Who didn’t enjoy that last minute after thought question of his? But that wasn’t reality and we all know that he was a sly individual who always got his man or woman who committed whatever crime he was going to solve by the end of the hour or on occasion two hours of programming.

How many times have we seen the news magazine interviewers do the same thing? Hasn’t Barbara Walters done it even with the celebrities she has had on her specials, but with something like that we do know that they are very carefully edited and more than likely not dissimilar to the drama programs; although, it does add to a bit of intrigue with the politicos also on those specials who are not quite as predictable as most movie or TV stars.

Journalism is based in truth and honesty of getting all the information you must by asking the questions with, who, what, why, where and when or the five W’s as you are taught in class. Consequently, anyone who has ever taken a journalism course could be considered nosey, curious or just a plain pain in the ass. It has to be born in your nature to be interested enough to ask, but not all of us know when to stop asking and when we may have gone over the line with our constant unrestrained questioning with the need to delve further and know more. Perhaps that is a flaw of personality, or just perhaps it is in the makeup of ones inner being? I have been accused of nosiness and always having to get that last word in no matter what…I guess I am flawed, but aren’t we all?

And so to all of you last word-ers (another made up one from me!) Take it from this old nosey-body annoying one…don’t stop being interested in everything and everyone around you, and keep inquiring, as that TV show used to say…inquiring minds need to know or was want, whatever, just ask and see what comes of it.

On that note of probable troublemaking I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!


Oh, just one more thing… Kidding, gotcha!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Movie for the older dysfunctional crowd

Today I watched, all by myself, a movie my husband had no interest in, (he read a book, and it was lethally hot outside today) it was, Last Chance Harvey, a rental. The cast was incredible Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson and to my keen non professional critic eye the flick was done quite well, although I had heard it had not done too good in the theaters. Hoffman plays the long divorced fifth wheel father of the bride; his X is remarried to dreamy James Brolin for many years, Dustin is Harvey Shine, going to see his little girl get married in London. Thompson plays Kate Walker, who he barely meets at the airport when he doesn’t stop to answer her questions from her survey when deboarding his in-coming plane from New York. The story evolves into a surprisingly charming romantic turnabout of not letting those high-quality last chances really pass you by. As you can tell I did like it, and you probably would too if you are at all interested in fine acting and real dialogue for grownups without any car chases or special effects.

Other than that I didn’t do all that much today. I had, had a bad night probably caused by my overly concerned obsessive thinking the worst about my glucose number that I took two hours after dinner last night, it was 167, my highest since I have been home from the hospital. I thought I ate healthy, homemade corn-chowder soup, fat free cucumber salad (fat free sour cream, canola oil, artificial sweetener and apple-cider vinegar) with multigrain homemade (I can’t believe its not butter lite, garlic powder, sprinkle of parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil) garlic bread. But there it was a bad higher reading and I was wondering why? So I looked over everything literature wise I got from the medical pros, and there was not one thing that told me what to do about it, except either, eat more leafy green vegetables or take insulin, which I am not on since I do not officially have any diabetes, thank goodness! All I had was the leafy greens, and so I ate. This morning, in spite of or because of all my unnecessary worries (actually stress can cause it to go up so I’ve read.) I took it again and it was down to 101 for a full night of fasting, and that aint bad! I am done now, until next week taking it; I was told only twice a week and I did that already, and so I am done! Not even any curiosity will cause me to deter from that medical prescription, so there.

Wow! I almost forgot to wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Would you believe...Boom! A GREAT WHITE off of my roof!

Yep, that is how my morning started while at this technological marvel called the computer a Great White Heron jumped down from our roof top in front of our sunroom window directly across from me, what a true wake up call, good morning… Instinctively, I thought he was after our treasure of gold…fish, that is, in our pond, and so I went to go out the door next to me to chase him (that’s a joke in itself, I can barely move and chasing him/her was just a wild, in your dreams type of expression), and realized it was locked! (That was a good thing for me, cause then what would I have done?) Apparently, the jiggling of the handle was enough to frighten him/her, and he/she flew away hastily. Then once calmed again I looked slowly towards the pond to reassure myself that he had gone before doing any true harm, and noticed our plastic tacky pink Flamingos still doing their sentry duty, and I felt stupid.
Why had we placed them there if not to suffice for that very job of protection; I was not needed at all or if I were I wasn’t about to find out today, that beautiful creature reacted more scared than I was. He/she more than likely will not be back for quite some time now.

As anyone who has been reading this Blog for any amount of time must realize today is Saturday my laundry and PBS, how-to shows day. I guess it all started when I was still working; doing the laundry not the how–to shows per se on my Saturdays off. The two combined became a unit except for planned activities or excitement and interest about the time I stopped driving about a year and a half ago. Now I am a burden in some ways, not unlike a child I must ask to go here or there, unless scheduled on our calendar of events. It’s just as well I am not driving or going outside that much according to my ACE inhibiter it too causes dizziness, not unlike my Ataxia, and my blood pressure medicine says do not stay out in the sun too long, but doesn’t say why, not to mention that my cholesterol medicine is the one that says NO GRAPEFRUIT or its juice!(And never mentions why either, just don’t!) Oh, I forgot, not a problem that tree is long gone; there’s a birdbath there now, a number one son gift, very pretty!

On that curious note, I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Did you all convert comfortably today...

Today was the big day for all you analoguers (another made up word by me) to convert to digital!
A landmark in technology; bah, humbug.
I am still wondering about the better picture thing, since we have had this new equipment, one of the firsties (another made up by me word) in February!
As for freeing up the airways for emergency agencies, we will see, but so far if the no signal thing that I am getting when we are already on it is an example of how that works…I’m not sure what that glitch is about, but I thought the emergency radios, phones and the like were using what we freed up? But I’m not that smart.

The current United States population, as of last year, early 2008, was 303,500,000, and supposedly now there is only 1 million of you that are getting snow today on that glass fronted box in your living-room, den, or kitchen or wherever it is now not doing too much entertaining. Where have you been, under a rock? They gave out coupons, dropped the price to half, and you still didn’t listen? And you without cable or satellite shame on you.

Sadly, they forgot about the people really in dire straights having to make that horrible decision whether to buy prescription drugs or food, pay the bills or loose the roof over their head and such. There has to be someway to help the fall through the cracks people, I’ve been there, I can relate, sort of, I am there in a small way…with health coverage that is.

This morning we went to my medical appointment, and I brought with me the information I was told to collect: my daily morning fasting glucose numbers, and the average for the ten days taken was 114.1. Apparently, it was enough to warrant a further non invasive test that is new to me but apparently not my neighbor from Canada, she had mentioned that she had to watch hers when she was given her number of 6.7, but she brought that down to below 6, it confused me, and so unlike me I did not ask for an explanation.

You see, I was only familiar with the glucose tolerance tests of days of yore. This one is meteorologically eons away from that in quickness and some form of true accuracy it’s called the A1C Test, a stick in the finger blood test, and believe it or not it measures your average blood glucose levels over the past 2-3 months! Wow! An A1C level below 6.5 or lower is good, but mine was 7.1.

Now, wow, this doesn’t mean that I am a diabetic with type1, you see it also encompassed that little weekend splurge I took back in April at the hospital while under the influence of Solu- Medrol IV 1000MG for three whole days causing a diabetic reaction and me needing low level injections of insulin. Well, now I am back to square one, and I will be taking my glucose levels for the next three months, but only twice a week, once fasting, the first thing in the morning, and once two hours after my biggest meal of the day. But it does mean that I am more than likely pre-type 2 diabetic or even more than a possibility on that road to type 2 if I don’t follow what I was told with low carbs etc., apples are carbs? Who would of thunk it? Whew, I really wasn’t liking those stickings that much, and I hope this proves it won’t have to become a natural occurrence in my jazzy lifestyle; it would sure put a glitch into that!

On that more than you want to know ending to my info I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

We should all weigh in on our controversial opinions

I don't know about you but when a fourteen year old male teenager steals a stuffed dog animal head mascot making the punishment fit the crime’s suitability of him wearing that costume in 90 degree+ weather does seem to me like an appropriate action, what do you think?

You know that when teens misbehave these days that the above mentioned incident is mild compared to most teen crime on today’s news.

Gosh, oh gee, oh mighty darn; why can’t life be that simple anymore?

Even when our thirty something sons were growing up the times weren’t as difficult as it appears today, with drive bys; or if they were I don’t remember that being the case.

In my day, a drive-by was to look at a boy we had a crush-on’s place of residence to see if he might be home, and to the boys I think it was similar meaning at the time. Although, I do remember my male cousins cruising, not exactly driving by, but looking for girls while driving in their cars, since if I was with them they would ask me nicely to duck down so the females they were interested in wouldn’t think I was with them, huh? Weirder still I would do what I was told, but to my good I was a mere fifteen or so at that time, and besides they always took me for pizza and bowling after!

Just in: I just got another one of those fake winning lottery e-mails, be careful and wary, and contact your local fraud agencies!

The news does get to all of us sometimes, but with that said for some reason I have not stopped watching it, and it is a good thing too. How else would I know that today we internationally are in a Pandemic! But we are being told not to panic since this Swine Flu Pandemic, or just plain Pandemic Flu, which is what they are now calling it; no more H1N1, well now I am back in the loop I guess, any-who they are saying that it is NOT as deadly as the previous Bird Flu or the Pandemic of 1918, whew…what do they mean? I suppose we should all be checking with the CDC, but they don’t have what we need to be informed I just checked (maybe I looked too soon, keep checking, http://cdc.gov/) but this site does: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ or here: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.htm, more important information that you can use.
But as they (whoever THEY are) say…. Don’t PANIC!

Do most of us not think the news is real these days? I mean, have we become so thick skinned that when we hear what’s going on with wars, in the big cities, do we think it just won’t happen here, where we live? They say that apathy is rampant once again. I think it may just be numbness from an overabundance of true horrors occurring worldwide and being bombarded nightly with too much in your face authenticity and as defense mechanisms we all put up walls or filters to self protect ourselves from these harsh realities.

Some more to think about… I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Scams, feeling icky and painful movements

I am listening to the news about how the elderly are being taken by something for nothing schemes under the auspicious of being sweepstakes winners if they just send in the processing fees. Oh, come on our older and wiser generation, you should all know better most of you have been through hell and back during your lifetimes!
Why now forget that some are not so honest. Many of the ones in the news segment lost thousands of dollars for the so-called processing fees, and one lost as much as 70K. I suppose this horrible situation is a wake up call for all those seniors who forgot that some people are just not nice!
On a personal note we have been receiving this hogwash in e-mails as well, and up until recently I was forwarding them to our states attorney general’s office on fraud, which is what everyone should do, when they receive something that seems too good to be true and they ask you for money to process!

My day has been nasty since my stomach has been misbehaving and causing me grief. How can I put this nicely, whatever goes in has been coming out through different orifices, got that?

The pain situation has been unyielding and hard to deal with to get any relief too. I did try the usual for me extra strength Tylenol and moist heat, since I have so many other meds in my ingestion schedule. But not much compensation was allotted to me, and since the pain is continuing as I write this I will be cutting my Blog short tonight.

Sadly, last night we had a glitch with the computer and that when we had tried to fix it, it set our hits on this site back to zero when it was nearly up to 3500, what a disappointment having to start all over again. I sure wish I knew of a way to fix it?

Horrors at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. today with a security guard being killed by an eighty-eight year old white supremacist that was shot and is in critical condition; how could someone at that age be so full of hatred? How could anyone hate so much? And why, would be a better question…crazy I suspect! But if he pleads crazy he will go into a hospital instead of a prison… not fair, he should get his due, a death sentence appropriately, nah too easy for him.

On that horrible realization that our civilized world still has far to go...something to think about... and I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

PS seventy-two year old great grannies should listen to the law as everyone else should too! That is when they are trying to prevent you from getting hit by traffic!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The beginnings of the crops are already sprouting!

How many days has it actually been? We are now in the reality of crops sticking their tiny little heads from beneath the earth; at least the radishes and mixed lettuces are!
We are now farmers in the truest sense of all that entails, which is a huge responsibility!
Yes, we will be feeding ourselves and perhaps with our overabundances of veggies we may even feed a small portion of the masses, friends, relatives and neighbors; who knows. The possibilities are endless! At least I believe that it would be so nice to have enough to have it all spill over to be able to do that.

Any-who, we are not as generous as we once were. Perhaps over the years we have become jaded, due to people being people and not always doing what you expect them to do.

Years ago, about thirty odd, we offered our home to a homeless person, not a vagrant, a person my husband worked with and he was homeless due to a spousal fight, and he robbed us. I even offered my car to a neighbor that used it relentlessly and therefore I wasn’t able to when I needed it; I found myself negotiating my own use of my own car.

Too trusting we were, but we did stop for awhile but foolishly we forgot about those incidences and again did silly things in the name of generosity and trust in others good nature, but unfortunately again we were taken, and so even though we are not that old and have been volunteers for many organizations in a nearly over forty year period we are cautious who we allow to come into our sanctity and open bigheartedness. As my Dad always said I would rather believe in the goodness of mankind than to think that people are bad, and he would say that 99% were good. And so I too would like very much to think that way.

This veggie thing may turn into not much, but if it does I would like to think that sharing would be a large part of our agenda, better that than to let fresh food go bad. We used to share our fruit from our trees with the seniors that I taught Aquacize to, and my husband brought quite a bit to work, and even one of his co-workers had cattle that took the overripe fruits, but harvesting them became quite difficult as we got physically unable to. Due to the hurricane we don’t have nearly as much as we once had, we lost our orange tree and the grapefruit tree didn’t do too well, the lemon finally came back but our Key-lime is still not there. We replaced our orange with a tangelo, and we also put in a Crape Myrtle and Verbena, but they are not fruit trees, purposely, fruit trees are too much work. I have a new respect for migrant workers from all the harvesting we initially did when we had all those fruited ones.

Now on that enlightening note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Flying the chicken coop, more seeds and bumb meter sticks

Our eldest and the countrified son has done it again he is now a mini chicken farmer. It appears that he and his girlfriend have built a chicken coop to contain their newest additions to their family, four Rhode Island Red hens. He lives on a mere acre in the upper middle part of this state, but to him it’s the country since he works in Tampa about a half hour from his home, and how he does love it there. When he bought his home many years ago it did come with an entourage of feral cats and many loose chickens and a few roosters running loose all around. At the time it was not that great an idea for him personally to contain the wild and not so wildlife, and so unfortunately nature did what nature will do it devoured the freebies that were just left behind by the former owner’s son. But to be fair they all had been living free flowing for quite some time before our son took over the property; without shelter or fencing of any kind.
It seems that his friend, of the female persuasion has encouraged this behavior to have fresh eggs, thus the no rooster rule.
When he visited us he did seem to respect our return to the land with our new veggie gardens; perhaps he was inspired too?
He is a plant kind of guy; he grows fruit and bamboo of all different types on his land and even in his home itself.

The first thing this morning I tried taking my glucose reading with the meter that we had purchased since I had been told to take it all week when I get up to keep track of the numbers for my doctors office visit on Friday to determine whether or not I should get that glucose tolerance test. But I had been taking it periodically just to keep an eye on it and even took it yesterday without any problems, but this morning I had nothing but trouble!

I had to go into the new box of strips and when placed in the meter they consistently came up with the symbol for not enough blood on the strip or that the strip had been used previously! Well, after several tries and sore fingertips that had been stabbed numerous times, so many that I must have caused anemia to myself since I take aspirin regularly and blood coming out has never been an issue with me, thank you very much!

Any-who I asked my hubby to help when I abruptly awoke him a half hour earlier than he usually arises. He basically was my validity that it was the strips not me. And so we called the toll free number and complained and they at first were insistent that it was the way I was doing it and walked me through the process on the phone, which I did arguing all the way and again it did not work! My husband was put through to, I suspect their supervisor because he, the new person changed his tack and went with our reasoning that it was the strips and he seemed sympathetic. We did call the pharmacy where we got them and they were willing to take them back, return them, give us different ones that I tried right there in the pharmacy, and they worked! The company strip person also called us back and offered free strips to be mailed to me, and I said yes.

After the pharmacy stop we went for gas at our warehouse store where their prices are usually several pennies cheaper than the others, and theirs was.
Our last stop was to the home store for a few more seed packets and we are now the proud awaiting parents of twelve different crops, eleven which are seedlings.

On that scrumptious future concept I will say to all good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

And the rain continues...

Nasty and wet is the way it seems to remain here in the, hah, dare I say the Sunshine State. Well, we are definitely not living on a desert; don’t we all need this moisture to make our plantings thrive? And so I will thank the rainmakers of the world for their generosity of this dampness and politely accept this as nature’s gift.

Today was one of quiet non creativity physically but in a learning mode type of day and therefore the lessons were erudite from the PBS station’s programming of how-to shows, which I readily enjoy on a weekly basis. Although, I did find myself deviating from that realm for a few hours to watch a surprising movie called, ‘Return to Me’, circa 2000, about a widower who by accident falls for a woman who just so happens to be the recipient of his dead wife’s heart. The cast was all stars, with, David Duchovny as the widower, and Minnie Driver as the heart transplant woman, Carroll O’Connor as her grandfather with David Alan Grier as the widower’s friend, Bonnie Hunt and Jim Belushi in the supporting cast. I was enjoying the film until our TV told me that it no longer was receiving a signal, huh? This is what DTV is all about? It has happened frequently, mostly on the PBS stations though. Our state went digital in February on the original date that had been established. I know the rest of you are switching on the 12th of this month, good luck with that! Consequently, I sadly missed the end of the movie, but I do think it had a happy ending, or not?

Any-who, we did get reception on our local CBS station which had our adopted child, Tiger Woods winning his 67th tournament in Dublin Ohio, how we love to watch him play the game! He is something else.

Oh, the adopted child thing, let me explain, you see the phenom is two months older than our youngest son, who is also a phenom in our eyes. Excellent student in school and also in sports, and so we would tease him why he wasn’t bringing home the seven digit paychecks like our adopted son at the ripe old age of twenty-one. We also teased our eldest son about Shaquille O’Neill, another adopted child figuratively of ours, who is his similar age twin, and super child and salary star as well!
Just good harmless fun, we have since, in recent years, have called a meteorologist, a young woman who impressed us too as an adopted sibling to the others, our weird sense of humors I suspect. Don’t worry we are the only ones beside our children that know of this appreciation of amazing children and that wouldn’t it be great if they were all ours too?
Of course I am kidding, unless they wanted to support us in our old age, still kidding!

On that ridiculous note I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Life goes to the animals!

After our morning storms that trailed off around 11:A.M. we went out to our predesigned designation for the day, Fisherman’s Village in River City, Punta Gorda. Most weekends they have something going on, but today it was something near and dear to us a Wildlife/Animal Awareness Expo and mobile display from Mote Marine Laboratory.
The wildlife on display was indigenous to Florida, a panther and a young alligator about two months old. Mote Marine had water life displays in a tank, everything from sharks to crustaceans in celebration of Charlotte Harbor National Estuaries Day.

More importantly some of the other aspects of the displays were adoptable pet type animals, which consisted of everything from dogs to parrots that had been saved from some disastrous negative untimely outcome.

We had our own pup in tow; he was not on his best behavior at first. He tugged and created havoc with my hubby’s patience with his high pitched barks and pulling lunacy. My husband was ready to quit and leave, but I insisted it was his first time out in such a long time he needed his socialization to continue. I really thought after a while he might calm down, and he did. We had all his necessities with us his full water bottle, a towel, his spray medicine for his irritated skin if need be. Along the center of the village besides all the other things I mentioned were veterinarians, including his who was giving $15 chip inserts for your pets. My hubby thinks it is harmful, and so to this day we still have not had it for either Skipper our Bichon Frise or Casey our Cat, I personally don’t feel that way, but there is no reasoning with him. Any-who they were also people hawking their all natural pet food products and doling out samples of such, we politely took them.
We ate al fresco at one of the many café type restaurants there, Skipper is always a welcomed guest as all doggies are, previously they have brought him water and on occasion a food snack, but today we had both already with us.

When we got home I was extremely tired and so I took an hour long nap my first in quite some time, and of course Skippy was right along side of me.
After I awoke my husband was drawing a sketch of our prepared gardens and along side of that were the packets of seeds. He said he was waiting for me to help decide where to put them in the plan, and so we began deciding, and he soon took them all out and planted each and every one of them including the onion, garlic cloves and piece of potato that had some roots on it.

The third leg of the Triple Crown just ran at 141st Belmont Stakes in New York and Summer Bird was the winner who is the other bird from the same sire as Mine That Bird.

On that surprising note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Rain, rain go away but come back when we need you, OK?

We had a bit of rain today, most of today.
But its days like this that I try to remember when we were all doing rain dances because it was so, so dry and we had a severe drought, wow; wasn't that only a month or so ago?
How soon we forget.

In spite of the weather my husband performed his mix-ology of the soil sweeteners/amenities by pouring them, then using a pitch fork to blend them in and last raking it all together to make it smooth; he had taken many breaks in between. Hubby had decided that whenever the sun would go behind a cloud that he would go to the side garden where this all is, and accomplish the merge of Pete moss, topsoil, and high test famous maker (what the heck, Miracle-Gro), pre-fertilized veggie-flower soil.
His next step of the project is to install the watering system (update, completed), fortunately, the second rain-barrel was hooked up to the original one for overflow purposes before this last rain fall, and so both have filled now, a total of 104 gallons, wow! The compost container’s top was removed for nature to water it down as well.

I imagine that the seed planting is not that far away, within days I suspect.
Sounds like we are not far off from picking those veggie bounties; our grape vine on our other trellis to our other side courtyard is blossoming with an overabundance of fruit; viniculture may also be in our future?

Update: on my FEDEX delivery…when I still heard nothing back from them I went online with my tracking number and found out, much to my surprise that my package had been delivered, again, this morning, but to where? Not here! And so my darling called and when all was said and done apparently someone misinterpreted the street number to one around the other side of our block, and so my husband went over there and although two vehicles were in the driveway no one answered the doorbell.
Now FEDEX will have to retrieve the mistake, and we have been told they will by tomorrow? Huh, this didn’t seem that difficult a task. If all else fails I can always call the store I ordered from and tell them and then they will cancel the order and re-order my order and resend! Geez, is it really worth it? Annoying and aggravating, should have wasted the gas and gone and picked it up!

On that slightly frustrating note I bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!


Addendum, update on FEDEX package: Neighbor around the corner just delivered it, and you know what? The label was just fine and readable, what a shame that a reliable company like FEDEX has liars in their workforce!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Back to basics...

Today, things slowed down to a snail’s pace again. But that is not to say that we did not accomplish, we did. We left early to go grocery shopping and yes this time I did go.
And we were back before eleven A.M., but apparently not soon enough for our FEDEX delivery; although online it stated that they delivered my package at 11:38 A.M. (two front opening bras, I am no longer able to try them on in the stores and the front ones I was hoping will be easier to put on, due to my shoulders I have not been able to do my back closure ones, and I am too fat these days to really go without) to our front door.

Odd, there was nothing there. Right away I thought I knew what happened, you see we live on a circle street named with a ‘P’ name and the adjacent street has another similar ‘P’, named street and those people with the same house number as ours over the years have received our new computer, and one day someone tried to deliver their reupholstered chair to us, but I told the driver where to take it. Unfortunately, they did not with our computer and we had to wait for the delivery truck to bring it back to us! For some reason they don’t think that it’s necessary or neighborly to take our misdirected items back to us, which I think is truly rude. Every time we get something or someone has tried to deliver their property to us I set them straight and redirect them to the right address, to me it is just proper etiquette.

Any-who, this time it appears that I may have been wrong since my hubby went to their home to check, and nothing, was on their porch and when he rang their bell and no one appeared to be home. (But them being like they are they could have been there and pretended they weren’t there, who knows.)

And so this time my hubby did the follow-up with FEDEX by calling their 800# to let them know. They were apologetic and said they would look into it and get back to him and took his phone number. But by nearly six P.M. we still had no word, and so I called again and got an update. They had put a trace on it, they gave me that number and they said they were now in the wait mode to hear back from the driver, and we should know something in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Now we wait. I am happy that it is not a serious life and death situation, but I really do not think people would have those items delivered that way.

I will now bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and wish our Pres. a productive visit to the middle-east, I know I will. And I will count those blessings too!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Today was a slightly slower pace than yesterday but not by much...

Our son did spend the night and oddly enough he awoke before I did, just after seven. My reasoning about the getting up thing is because all of my men had previously been notorious for sleeping-in late.

Any-who, we did get in some alone chat time, which I must admit was rather nice.
By 8:30 A.M. I decided to hop in the shower and told our offspring that I would make breakfast when I came out, which I did. Shortly after we finished our eggs, home-fries and toast; dear old Dad had arose too, and he had a nuked version of his eats.

The men collaborated after and our progeny then offered his carriage, a pick-up truck with a good size bed in the rear of it; for the use of retrieving the remainder of the accoutrements of the additional soils, Pete, and nutrients for the veggie garden remedy for completion before plantings begin. What a project this has become! But it was good to have some help for my hubby, and the best of it is that it was our son doing the helping.

The male forces to be reckoned with completed their task and arrived home with grub, not bugs, hot dogs from the vender just outside the home store’s exit doors. What a nice treat!

Not too long after another exciting thing happened, my female teacher cousin married to my male teacher cousin called, and asked if they could stop by since they were in the area, I said of course! It was one of their first outings in a long while. And we were chosen for that stop, how truly nice to be thought of that way. These are my cousins that one had a hip broken in three places and had to have major surgery, and a transfusion, he is the one who just had a heart attack and stent surgery, and wow it was so very good to see them both! And aside from looking a little tired and thinner they looked surprisingly well. It was good that they came when our son was here so he could see them again too, which he really felt happy about.

They stayed not too long but we did promise to come up soon to see them once their new tile floor in their family room’s furniture was all put back together.
It is so hard to not be pushy about how to see people, who have been through so much, but we have been trying hard to be patient and now it seems to have paid off. They have declared the timing of when they would be ready, and we are good with that.

Our eldest left a little while ago for his journey back up north two hours away.
Sometimes it seems like eons away he’s so busy with his job and the last few months his girlfriend we hardly do get to see him, but I asked him to promise to come back sooner than this most recent visit that was over six months from his last. I miss him so much, and he doesn’t seem to realize that.

On that note I wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

What a day...exhausting!

Our son finally did come for his visit and we all went full steam ahead with our busy plans. And I must say it was somewhat of a whirlwind day. He arrived from his over two hour trip slightly earlier than he originally planned. His Dad, my hubby took him for a quickie scouring of our entire latest projects that had been completed outside and I did the inside tour guiding. Oddly enough, he had been sent photo (PICS) emails with them all, but that’s just the way we roll, live and in person is how we more vividly want our children to remember these creative endeavors of ours, after all they are their legacies. LOL

Any-who, we left for our adventurous day onward to Muscle Car City where we had lunch in their retro diner, then went on to visit all the antique, classic, and muscle species that filled their showroom, a converted major discount store with plenty of room for this newest transformation for its use. We spent many hours of enjoyment there amongst the touring cars, muscle jazzed, classic refurbished and trucks from numerous decades of the Chevy/GM automotive history. Both of my men seemed to not have their fill, and said at the end that they did enjoy all of it and would do it again. So the day was a success!

After a short ride through our waterfront park to check on the progress of our new Crab-house and retail shop buildings that will be opening on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Charley, August 13 th; moving right along as far as we could see. Interestingly enough, we found out that they are all connected, those shops and restaurants are related to our Fisherman’s Village, Muscle Car City: http://www.musclecarcity.net/index.html, and John Hall’s Goal Post restaurant, one family has the monopoly on it all! Well, good for them I say! The car museum will be having their monthly Cruise-In on Saturday June 20.2009 from 4-7 P.M., go to their above site for more info. The last on that list, John Hall’s Goal Post Restaurant, is where we went for our dinner! None of any of the above mentioned places are at unheard of prices; they are family oriented and family friendly.

On that note of unadulterated sales pitching, which I must admit, I am NOT being paid a plum nickel for, and so I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Whoa on those posts that doesn't mean that I wrote...

I goofed, but it wasn't the first time. Two nights ago I wrote that I had accomplished writing 400 of these posts, and that might be true but it couldn’t possibly mean that they were all published on my Blog.
You see, there are drafts that do not always get final decisions to get to that finished state, and are not always deleted. And so once I had a chance to think I counted and realized that it hasn’t been even a full year that I have been writing this Blog. I believe I began on June 25.2008, a week before my 39th birthday…oh who am I fooling? It was a week before my 58th! So allowing for the normal number of days in the year of 365; there was really no way that I had published 400 Blogs to the web yet; a clear case of confusion. I have been there before and I will more than likely be there again!

Today, I gave in to my husband’s desire to have me join him on his errand run. I really wanted to get the house in order and do a little laundry because our eldest is arriving tomorrow for a short visit. I did go though and we picked up a can of spray chalkboard paint ($3.64) for another idea project I had. I brilliantly came up with the idea of making a narrow chalkboard alongside our wall phone in the kitchen, but the space is quite slender and they don’t make finished black boards 9’X 17”, and so with me watching all those how-to shows I noticed that granny’s were decorating kids guest-room with the paint so their little ones could have some fun writing on the walls without causing any damage!

Well, I don’t have any of those cuties just yet, and so I felt it was a practical move for remembering what we needed to pick up on our shopping trips.
We were out of smooth wood boards, but the local home store had plenty and not too expensive at $4.97 for one that if we wanted to we could get a few out of; if we ever so desired.I had left over wooden letters again and this time went the international route and spelled out, Bon Appetit, the French version which did not require an additional ‘E’ like the American version of appetite would. I painted the individual letters in the muted shades that my kitchen contains, blue, tan, and apple-green alternating with each letter. My hubby cut the board to size and smoothed the edges as well as sprayed it with the chalk paint. I really haven’t done too much of my own project, but I do get great ideas?

Also while at the home center where we went we had a ten dollar off coupon on purchases up to $50, and so we got the sweeten soil, etc. for the gardens, and couldn’t resist getting another rain-barrel since it was less than half the price of our first one at $35.66. It too was discounted by nearly five bucks. The first one cost about $80, and this one is identical and holds 52 gallons too, what a deal, who could resist! So now we are all set! Here come the veggies, here come the veggies, watch out we are going to be bumper with our crops that is!

On that healthful note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go? :   My eyesight is going again... in case you missed it... Netanyahu snaps back against growing...