Monday, November 30, 2009

Dear Tiger Woods:

Hello Mr. Woods, you don't know me but I have been somewhat of a fan of your sport’s abilities since you began your career at that very young age.

As a mother of two young adult men, one older than you and the other one not much younger than you, just about two months; I have always been impressed with your love of family, and your natural ability to play golf with perfection and to choose wisely in all that you have accomplished professionally.

That is why your recent automobile crash, unfortunately in the public’s view made me terribly surprised that you felt it necessary to allow the stupidity of tongues to wag relentlessly when with one short interview with you that could all be put to rest.
You see, most everyone believes that you are a public figure, which is true, you do know that.

Coming forward to explain and waylay any foolishness could very easily be rectified with you just telling everyone what actually happened, not all are curious with an agenda; I truly believe many just care about you and your welfare, as I do as a fan.
I’m sure that once you and your family have discussed it that is what you will do, but the longer you wait the more than likely more speculation will be causing you more grief.

I think that your honesty is expected as you have proved to always speak your mind.

I lost my Dad at the age of 35, and he to me was also a great man like your Dad was to you, and so whenever I have a dilemma I wonder what he would do in the situation, and I try for that. Maybe that could help you now with your decisions? Let’s put it this way; it couldn’t hurt.

That is all I want to say, as a mother I wish you a speedy recovery and as a fan too!


Take care be well,
Sincerely,
T

Sunday, November 29, 2009

SHUT UP!

You heard right, I said “SHUT UP!”
Now in the old days if I said that to anyone especially a parent I would be in way big trouble; to them it was like using expletives and showing strong disrespect!
But today people use it conversationally to express they're emotion in not truly believing what you may have just said; as simple as that.
In the old days those two simplistic words expressed disgust in someone speaking about something extraordinarily too long or with too much unnecessary information and telling them to stop, but in a very rude way.

The reason I used those two words in my title was to perhaps shock you a little and get your attention; did it work?
If you are reading this I suppose it did!
Any-who excuse all the mistakes that I have been making lately, there have been a wee bit more than in even my recent past, you see my eyes are slightly worse, vision wise and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
“Pity the fool” that’s how that ridiculous saying goes, but I am no one’s fool and I want no one’s pity, you betcha that is true, true, true!

Now on with other matters of the today’s day it was pretty quiet as you probably have figured out from all this filler nonsense that I have written. But I did accomplish a few loads of wash while goofing off and playing an online game.

Hubby even made the turkey marathon of eating disappear temporarily by offering to pick up burgers from the golden arches; am I a queen or what? LOL

When he left on his mission I turned to say goodbye, but rolled this computer chair over my left tootsie’s big toe, and got it caught under it, and I could hear that Hubby was already electronically putting the garage door down from within the car! I took a deep breath and said to myself I can do this, and I stood up while holding onto the desk, and jostled my unglamorously injured big toe from its entrapment. I waited for the pain and blood to ooze and it came soon, and did not disappoint at all.
Once over the initial miniscule shock I hobble into the bathroom, found the peroxide, antibiotic cream, and the band aid box and began to issue emergency aide to myself.
See, I am still capable! No pity here.
So long as no one moves my stuff from where I originally put it I will be doing just fine; you betcha!

New topic our lovely neighbors loaned Hubby some books written by an author that we both enjoy, but guess what the topic in the one Hubby chose to read first is, it starts out with a plane crash, not too good a choice for someone who will be flying this week and was never that fond of the idea! Oh well, he laughed after telling me.
Let us all (pray, hope wish or whatever you do in these cases, and thanks upfront), that all will go smoothly for him and his Mom on his short trip up and back from cold country!

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Brrrrrrrrr, and brrrrrrrrrrrr, and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

I do know that the above expression is not grammatically correct, but even so it is accurate. Here in the Sunshine State it has become temporarily very cold!
Last night it was actually in the fifties, and today it never ever made it up into the seventies, would you believe? I know…that isn’t supposed to happen here, we even put the heat on!

You aren’t too sympathetic though I bet, huh, all of the rest of you people are lucky if you get our lows for your highs, am I right?
Well, that would explain the lack of concern for us fellow Americans the southern branch.

It was all of your choices to be up there in that cold, mine on the other hand was to be here in the southern belt in the warmth and sunshine, and right now I feel gypped.
Do you all know that expression that you get what you pay for?
Well, that doesn’t apply here, LOL!

If that were the case we would have tons of sunshine and warmth always after twenty-three plus years that we have been paying to live here!

Gosh, just think about it if we could pay for our weather like we do everything else, do you think we could special order perfection?
No hurricanes, floods, snowstorms, ice storms, windstorms, mudslides, tornadoes you name it everyday the same beautiful weather day in and day out, wow, wouldn’t that be something?

Maybe it would be a bit boring, huh?
Yes, and we all would have nothing so-called uncontroversial to discuss at family gatherings and the like, when all else causes conflict and arguments, we must have the weather to talk about.
If it was always the same day after day that wouldn’t be much fun would it?
So the powers who be, who make our weather be it the weather genies, deities if you so believe, or the mystical weather gurus who dance the forecasts into our lives or whomever; they are apparently there for our amusement and entertainment to be able to also discuss non fighting material to be presented at any and all social events for opening conversation starters.

So now we know the true reason for the differences in the weather and regional discussions to take place hopefully without any menacing from those differences, OK?

I am so glad that we could clear that up for all of us through deductive reasoning, and who of you thought that Arthur Conan Doyle was dead?

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

Friday, November 27, 2009

Ordinarily I am too outspoken, and today was no different...

Many of you must have noticed by now that I am no shrinking violet in the opinion department, and so when my Bro-in-Law called today it took all my gumption to speak softly, not too loudly to be heard over Hubby’s and his conversation. Shocker that he called at all and an extremely rare occasion, are you all wondering why? Well, he called Mom, yes I know. And according to her this also doesn’t occur too often, but he did, and Mom told him that Hubby was going up there to help her straighten out her things. Bro had his alarms go off and needed to know specifics apparently, and so hubby spilled the beans about what Sissy had said and done and that some of it implicated him, Bro too, in her conspiracy!

He was upset and so Hubby sent him the email from Sissy that spelled it all out. He called back to say that he did say much of it but it was all taken out of context.
Boy, what a tangle web we weave when we practice to deceive!
But he might be telling the truth, but who knows at this point, actions speak louder than words.

And he did nothing, while Sissy created havoc for Mom all over the place and in every avenue of her life, removing furniture, her car, money, stocks and bonds, even drugging her to believe she could have something wrong with her! But we have been down this road before, so sorry that I seem to be revisiting this arena nightly.
Until it is all fixed, it will be on my topic list as a priority.

Hubby’s priorities will be many.
He will try to organize all of her confusion, and then make her safe with some type of alert system, and get her long distance phone service so she can make calls to us as well as receive them, and set up her laundry to be more accessible. Right now it is in her basement and she does have some balance issues and those steps are so dangerous she has to be driven to a Laundromat. There has to be a better way for a nearly eighty-nine year old to accomplish everyday tasks. Also to see if there are some adult services to check in on her through her local counsel on aging or granny nannies, just so she feels safe always, and can still maintain her home and lifestyle.

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

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Turkey days come and turkey days go... and this one went...

As Thanksgiving comes to an end for this year this one we can put down in the record books as being… all right; when all was said and done.
Not that we had an enormous bunch of people over for guests or anything of the such, but the miniscule dinner that was prepared fortunately nothing at all went wrong; which in my book is somewhat of a blessing in its own right.

Our day of thanks was marked by tiny ness in the quantity of guests, besides Hubby and myself we at the last moment invited the single person from across the street when we both noticed that she was home and there were no other cars there to celebrate this auspicious occasion with her.

Hubby and I ate early around three, and were wondering where our guest was.
About five-ish she called to say that she had fallen asleep and asked for our forgiveness, of course we could forgive and we had quite a bit of leftovers anyway. Come on over I said whenever for we are here for the duration, and after all isn’t that a big part of what this day is all about being thankful and forgiveness too!

Mom was enjoying her Thanksgiving way up in Pennsylvania with her neighbors too, and number one son was spending the day with his girlfriend who made dinner way up where they are about two and half hours away.
So all was right with the world and all was happiness individually or with family and friends what more could anyone wish for?
Being realistic that is all any of us can be happy for each other no matter where or with whom.

And so to my readership I too wish that you too had a very pleasant celebration today and even if it wasn't what we used to think as the way it all should be, hopefully that it was happy and calm and with people you had some fondness for.
That’s the way we should all think happiness is not to be dealt in one certain form or consistency it should be flexible, and then we will all know what it truly is… acceptance of not always the usual and ready for anything!

On that note I will once again bid you all a very happy good night and to all of you tonight would be a great night to start count those blessings if you haven’t been and we will too!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Events have changed...

Hubby has now made airline reservations for his big trip to his Mom’s, and he will be leaving next week for a week. He has found a reasonable rate to go from Southwest Airlines, and will drive to the airport in Fort Myers and leave our car in long term parking there. I don’t drive so it doesn’t matter to me, and it will be there for him when he arrives home. And Mom said she will be putting the insurance back on her car for him to drive her around to accomplish whatever needs to be done while there.

We will be putting our heads together briefly to compose a to-do list for what needs to be done in the week that he will be there.
Mom has complained about her junk-mail piling up, so that should be gone through and appropriately disposed of.
Next: is her personal papers and assets that needed to be filed and checked for their appropriate dating and where it all goes more than likely into a new filing system that Hubby will probably be getting for her while there.

Her neighbor will be picking Hubby up from the airport.
That also will be very helpful.

I suppose it is a big relief knowing Hubby won’t be driving all that way by himself.
But if you know me I will still be worrying about this and that anyway.

Please understand that the last time I was all by myself was quite a while ago, and so that in itself is a bit scary, but I’ve got you all there, right?

Time passes and life goes on but growing up is hard to do when you basically have never lived alone. I commuted to college from my parents home, got married from my parents home, thus never have lived alone!

And so I will look at my week as somewhat of an adventure with challenges…fortunately I do still have somewhat of a brain, although some may argue that point.

More questions: what will Sissy do now that Mom has changed the will successfully and has made Hubby in charge and more than that, but if I tell you I would have to kill you! (Mom’s decision, by the way! All Hubby said to her is that she should do what she WANTS, not what somebody else does!)
Hope Hubby knows how to call the authorities, what am I crazy? (Sissy probably does think that I am and that everyone else is too who doesn’t agree with her, LOL)
Hubby’s a retired cop; of course he does! Just in case, it’s 911! (Kidding of course)

All of this cloak and dagger prospects makes me wonder though… going in stealth and leaving the same way. I feel like telling him this is his assignment if he wishes to complete it he should destroy this file once he has read it. Sound familiar? I believe Mission Impossible, although I hope his is possible to complete within his allotted time period, we can only HOPE!

On this note of mystery and suspense I will acknowledge that you should be bidding good night to all and to count those blessings and we will too!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Mom cancelled her lawyer gig but rescheduled for tomorrow!

And the reason Mom cancelled her lawyer will appointment was... she couldn't find the will she read to her son, my Hubby, on the phone only less than two hours before!
Hubby didn’t find out until last night, and reminded his Mom where it was and for her to put it in a place he knew she would remember. It apparently worked since today she rescheduled with confidence to get the job done.

Hubby still insists on him going up there, but not by plane, by driving, I know with his back? He said he will go slow and take two days instead of the overnight that we did in our healthy younger days; after all it is nearly 1200 miles, to be exact 1167 miles. And I bet you are all wondering why I’m not going… two reasons Skipper (the dog,) Charley( the cockatiel), and a pond full of fish to feed and care for plus I have no truly warm clothing, or even any layers that would fit this new enormous me. But oddly enough Hubby still has his down jacket, and a few others too from twenty-three years ago that still fit as well as sweaters, socks, T-shirts, jeans, nice pants and blazer etc, even gloves!
It’s cold up there, and when it does that here we can stay inside until it’s over but there he might not have that choice. Even with gas expenses it would be cheaper because once there he would have had to have rented a car for more than the plane fare. You see Mom has her car back from sis but had taken the insurance off because she no longer drives it. It is a newer small Chevrolet with only three thousand miles on it.

We are both suffering adverse reactions to this situation in the ways most anxious depressed people do, Hubby is smoking more and I am eating more; both not good at all for either of us!

He’s worried about his Mom and me fending for myself while he would be gone and I am worried about her too, as well as him driving all that way alone! Health wise we aint what we used to be, but even though he’s flown before his fear of flying has resurfaced, and also the expense issue as well as how to get around when once there as you can see it is all a vicious cycle; and on and on…etcetera, etcetera, etcetera; you all know what I mean.

Back to reality, Hubby is preparing the fish pond for his journey by cleaning it completely since there was an algae build up and our little friends were gasping for air!
The filters had been cleaned daily because of debris caused by our recently windy days, and so this process was really called for. He recycles the water from the pond by watering our bushes and trees, and then refills it slowly with unfortunately city water, but we have no choice our rain barrels contains roof debris, which our veggie garden handles better and that is where that water goes.

The wild birds outside may not be fed so often, he took over when I could no longer raise my arms to fill their feeder, and was too off balance to do both at the same time. But I have considered letting him empty the birdbath and using that lower vessel to fill with seed, they have the pond fountains and waterfall to get their water from and they do anyway now. I will still need to use my walker for that stuff, and for getting the mail from our roadside mailbox. Where there is a will there is a way I always say!

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

Monday, November 23, 2009

Fell asleep fairly early and awoke early too...

I suppose that going to bed early and waking early is a normal for most.
We all know the old adage,” early to bed early to rise makes a man, healthy, wealthy and wise.” But not once do they ever mention women, doesn’t that seem odd to you?

I suppose not too since that quote is one from Benjamin Franklin and from the mid 18th century that would be a good reason why it was so sexist, women were not yet considered significant, not to mention that old Benny was somewhat of a womanizer! Oh, you didn’t know? Just watch the John Adam’s history series on HBO or rent it as we did, very interesting about those founding fathers.

Moving on… we did go out for groceries for the holiday today. We are prepared for a quaint small Thanksgiving for two or a few more…We purchased a small nine pound whole turkey. I had thought that a turkey breast would do just fine but believe it or not it was quite a bit dearer in price so we went with the whole one instead. And we are going healthy too, real sweet potatoes without marshmallows or too much brown sugar, frozen French cut string beans (no sodium) and healthy choice mushroom soup (now on sale), minimal amount of crunchy canned onions, fresh cranberries (again for sugar control), and really easy to make as the multi-grain stuffing from bread I will toast, cut up and add sautéed in extra virgin olive oil onions to as well as the sodium free chicken bullion. We have frozen corn, and fresh asparagus, and for dessert pumpkin pie minus the whipped cream, but I will probably make a lower fat and less sweet topping myself, not too hard to do… but a secret for now.

Hubby is following up on his Mom’s situation and found out that in September, she, under apparent duress signed away everything to her daughter in her will, but leaving him a small time share in the Fort Myers area, which for years has been impossible to sell and is worth a tenth of what it cost her to purchase more than thirty years ago, before we moved to this state. Any-who, he had followed up by speaking with her attorney that had helped return her to her home and had gotten her power of attorney back, but Mom gave it away again, this time to her neighbor. This attorney also said he acted on Mom’s behalf to get sissy to return all other properties, like Mom’s car, deed to her condo, stocks, bonds and 15 thousand dollars in cash. But Mom has barely received most of the property, and this attorney also recommended that she change her will back to who she wanted to have what, with an appropriate will attorney which he was not. Mom procrastinated so Hubby told her that she should take care of that now and she went today at 3 P.M.! Finally, we hope that she will get everything else back real soon. Hubby’s not comfortable with practically a stranger in charge but we are so far away, although he may have to figure on going up there after the holiday, we will see.

Turmoil is not easy at any age.

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Muscle spasms in strange places, lack of a proper bedtime...waking too early

Welcome to my world. It’s no wonder my concentration has once again shifted to nearly lacking at all.
And P S: the strangest place that I had gotten a muscle spasm was last night in my throat previously it was in my upper arms.
I couldn’t fall asleep, and so I was up until late, and woke many times during the night as well, finally getting out of bed at five A.M. and up for the day.
Around noon I laid down for a nap with not putting too much stock in the prospect, since I haven’t been able to nap for months, but to my pleasant surprise I did sleep for almost an hour and a half!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have too much of an effect on me, since at six P.M. I am still rather groggy, with a bellyache to boot that has been with me all day long.

The elderly gentleman across the canal is unfortunately still hospitalized, but now they are going to test him for bladder cancer, hope he does not have that!
I lost a dear elderly gentleman from the arthritis foundation association last March from that. Could it be in the water?

Mom update: we spoke again with her last night and she still sounds good and she will be spending Thanksgiving with her neighbors that have adopted her, and she them, at least she has someone to count on close by.

Consequently since or perhaps because of my ills surfacing once again today there is not that much to write, and so…

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

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Frustrating morning started off the day today!

Let me explain...how many of us know that we are truly addicted to our computers?
I hear you all screaming at me, me too!
Well, then you will realize where I am coming from when I say this morning it was downright frustrating not having ours available.
It didn’t even crash again, thankfully, but what it did do to me was a wee bit more ominous since it was like a nasty tease from an evil being!
Everything appeared to be working fine audibly I could hear it, but the monitor refused to go on no matter what I did.
And believe me I tried everything.
Jiggling the mouse, shutting down, unplugging and replugging in all the connectors, and when that wouldn’t work I shut down again and vacuumed out every inch of dust I could or couldn’t see!

And Hubby slept through the whole thing, although I did close our bedroom door out of concern from waking him since I have been getting up at ungodly hours, like four and five A.M.; truthfully I don’t recall when I started trying to get it all working.
And I was a very good patient gal too; I waited until after eight A.M. to start asking him when he was going to get up out of bed.
But I started softly and just for an added touch I made my side of the bed.
He arrived on the scene around eight twenty or so, grabbed a cup of caffeine and proceeded to manhandle the technological center of my exasperating small universe of communication and ascertaining unit of knowledge.
After about five maybe ten minutes he said yes it is a goner.
Or some words to that affect, maybe not exactly.

Any-who, I smiled and said nothing but got out the phone book, and started looking up the local computer monitor stores, four in all, and proceeded to get a price from all of them. Two had identical prices for the same thing. But one was geographically closer; we had a winner! One of the other ones did not have the price range that we wanted and the final one didn’t have the size.
I enjoy letting my fingers do the walking, but more so on the computer than by using a heavy phone book.
And so Hubby shaved, got dressed and headed out, and returned oddly over an hour later. For what ordinarily should have been half that, being that the store was less than four miles away.

He said that they treated him badly in the store; first they tried to give him the wrong monitor, a larger more expensive one, which was rather odd since he had handed them the ticket for the correct one with the code on it! And the man who should have taken care of him left him, and seemed more anxious to help a person buying printer paper than him; very strange.

When all was said and done I am back on the Internet speaking with you on our new monitor that is so different from our five year old one that came with the computer, this one is wide and narrow. The other one was tall and narrow, but this new one is supposed to be larger, but the other one looked much larger, perception.
We never know what we have until it is missing… and that could be just about anything you can think of!
Good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Finally the delivery we were waiting for arrived, and my wayward Cus contacted us with a very good reason why he hadn't...

Most people get sad from memories of people who have passed away or through their lives, which I do as well. But I also get depressed from my pets passing, and I do know that I am not alone on that one either. Even belongings from our two footed or even my four footed loves make me feel gloomy from seeing any of their property that they left behind. That sentence was odd, how on earth could they take any of it with them? Whew, strange saying that, that they left it behind like they only forgot it and may some time at a later date come back for it and pick it up!

The point I am trying to make is the fact that when I may have sounded rather cavalier about closing up the hole for Casey the cat’s litter box entrance, I really didn’t mean too.
Well, as of today the litter hole has been closed permanently with the matching solid cabinet door and you would never know it was ever there. That was the delivery we received, the final touch to the new reuse of that specific location. Seeing the hole made me feel sad daily, and I do hope now that it is no longer there that I will be able to heal better. Hubby had made a slide out drawer from some more of the cedar fencing and painted it white to co-ordinate with the rest of the decor, and all my craft material is now there; in its own place in baskets for use whenever I so desire; much better than spread hither and yon, all over the garage.

Cus called today he had emailed first stating that he would be. He had been away visiting his father, my mom’s brother, my uncle in Las Vegas where he has lived for years, but unfortunately at ninety-four he suddenly took a turn for the worse ( my cousin’s words, not mine), a wee bit senile and needing a cane, not driving anymore. I still think at his age that isn’t too bad! Well Cus decided to ask if he wanted to move to Florida, and unc said yes, and so Cus was busy taking care of that, finding a house for him in his gated community. And sure enough he found a 2000 square foot bargain that had no one living in it for over a year; he didn’t say if it was a foreclosure or anything but that he had to set if up for his Dad, who would be arriving the second week of December, and that his Vegas home would be put on the market right away. Sounds like he has everything under control, good for him!

A young man of thirty was found after four days lost in the Everglades, a thirty year old hunter named Jamey Mosch; he is tired, dehydrated and he remains in a local hospital for observation. Good news is hard to beat!

Good night to all and to all count your blessings and I will too!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Valuable information attained, an errand and new and different place to eat...

This morning we were out bright and early, well, not too bright and not too early; it was nine A.M. and the fog was still rather evident. Earlier in the morning visibility had only been less than two miles.
You all know why that occurs, right?
Contrast in temperatures in case you didn’t, and in our case being on the water it appears more likely.

Oh, you want to know where we went.
We went to a center that was trying to access information for me to get the medical surgeries or whatever else that I may need, a non profit organization.
And I came home with a bundle of computer papers that were run off by the very nice woman there.
The Hill-Burton Act, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill%E2%80%93Burton_Act ; which is for all types of medical aide for low or free programs created by the law and grants from our government.

Legitimately you can also receive more information on this and other interests if you just call 211, which is a hotline to additional information for just about anything and it is run by United Way.

The other information, which I do believe I have given out here before is the prescription assistance program, http://www.pparx.org/.

And lastly was the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation Homecare Grant Program, http://www.msfocus.org/Homecare-Grant-Program.aspx.

These sites, all you have to do is just for you to copy and paste them to your browser to navigate there, OK?

We also managed to accomplish something that is near and dear to me…repairing my two favorite jewelry pieces, name necklace that is forty-four years old as well as my heart necklace that was Hubby’s gift to me for our twenty-fifth anniversary nearly fourteen years ago. The chain was one of those herring bone types that always tangled, and so the jeweler with my idea switched the name chain which was the shorter one to the heart and then we only had to purchase one new one for my name to make it hang longer since the name was wider than the heart, got it? They both mean a great deal to me and I missed having them on, really! Otherwise I am pretty low maintenance, and I only want what represents importance of family when it comes to the expensive stuff. Like when my Mother’s rings (her engagement and wedding band that I wear on my right hand) needed repair that was a high priority too. PS my name necklace was a gift from both my Mom and Dad for my fifteenth birthday!

The reason we found the new unusual deli restaurant was because of those necklaces they wouldn’t be done for over and hour so we decided to catch some lunch since we were way over in River City AKA Punta Gorda.
The décor in the restaurant was architecturally utilitarian in a modern but charming way, and the name was mysterious. At first we thought it was some type of a grocery, the tables out side threw us, but we were surprised to find out that actually it was a nouveau Irish cuisine bakery/deli restaurant, but with a touch of Americana, got it?
It was bright and cheerful, and nothing like any big city deli we had been in NYC, Philly or Chicago or even our own that we had on the east coast here. The ambiance was very conducive to enjoying the menu, which also was not the conventional either. It started out with the basics pastrami, smoked salmon and the like but both of our choices with a twist, and I must add a very tasty one! And the prices were not too dear at all, and plus they cater. When in the area you too may enjoy Hendricks Food Vault, the link here will tell you more, http://www.hendrickstogo.com/ just copy and paste, and they are so far truly one of a kind! I think that it would make a great franchise.

Good night to all and count those blessings and I will too!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The most excitement today was...

Today we did go for our H1N1 flu shots, yes, you heard me right Hubby finally agreed to get one too!
What relief, but actually getting them for some reason created a slight short-lived worrisome situation.

Let me explain… I looked for trouble and I got some.
I really don’t know what possessed me to call a hotline prior to going, oh yes I do remember now…I called to see if you needed any proof of your ability to meet the criteria, and the unknowledgeable person on the other end of the line seemed to think that she was going to make it even more difficult to take advantage of this free program by saying that you needed a prescription for proof since they didn’t have too many vaccines and they could only give them to the truly needy, severely ill or others who met the standards and that she seemed to think that a person with an autoimmune disease such as Multiple Sclerosis was not necessarily in that category!

And so I called the hospital that initially told me when and where the shots were to be given, sounds logical right? And I was reassured that no proof was needed.
For some stupid reason I called her back to tell her, and she argued but the health department says what she told me was the case, and so…

Yep, I called them and got the direct scoop from the top, and no, you did not need a prescription but if you had one, they would honor it, huh?

OK, let’s go I said to Hubby and we went; it was after one thirty P.M., after our number one son left on his journey home.
Being slightly concerned if there would be any shots left since they had started earlier in the day around ten A.M. we were expecting an enormous packed parking lot and lines going around the building out of the doors, but no there wasn’t a line at all, and all in all the whole process took only about ten, maybe fifteen minutes surprise!

Hubby while waiting for me to be done he did speak to some of the volunteers working there and they said yes, early this morning the lines were all the way around the building from about six A.M., and here it was going on 2 P.M. and there weren’t any and still had many shots left, and the news said they continued giving them out until four P.M., without any problems what-so-ever!

I also talked Hubby into hand delivering his cake slices to last night guests and he did what a guy!

Good night to all and to all sweet dreams and count those blessings and I will too!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hubby's Birthday!

60 years and counting! Today was Hubby’s milestone… his sixtieth year on this planet!
What a lovely evening we had with all of our neighbors and our number one son!
Pizza was on the menu with antipasto as well as a veggie platter … with beer and wine…oops! Guess who forgot the most important thing…the cake!

It wasn’t that we didn’t have one; why it was as snug as a bug in a rug, but in our freezer, and brilliant person here just plum forgot about it!

So now just three are left, Hubby, me and number one son who is staying over and so we are each having a piece of the special marble strawberry butter-cream delight!

Dishes are done, leftovers are all put away and I am very pooped, so I will bid you all a very pleasant good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Monday, November 16, 2009

What a family!

Geez… Sis finally chimed in with her version of the, ‘Mom Story’, and of course it was all her Mom’s fault! The newest version is that the four foot nine a hundred and twenty pound eighty-eight year old assaulted her, a fifty-six year old around two hundred and fifty pounds at five foot six inches! I know it; sounds crazy to me too!
But here’s the rub…Sissy states that after taking care of her Mom for four whole months that this so-called assault happened out of nowhere and for no good reason…huh?
Besides this whole drama started in August as far as we know; we had spoken with Mom in both her hospital stay and nursing home too, and Mom’s been home a month, according to her stable intelligible self who we had the pleasure of speaking with; now count with me people… August to September is one month, and September to October is … let me see, duh…2 MONTHS! Plus Mom was warehoused in the hospital and the nursing home, as well as her brief stay in the funny farm residence check-up, two or three times as far as we know.
Another lie sissy! OK, Mom it is true has had a history or sort of a reputation with her children for being difficult to get along with over the years at times, but… some Moms just do have that contrite perspective with their youngins, and that is just a fact of life, which at times most parenting can be a crap shoot at best and at worst some may end up in jail.
Bro on the other side of the country suggested to sis to call the cops on Mom, (shame on you Bro; on your own Mother!) due to the assault; but no, Sissy says she didn’t, and Mom says different…not only were the cops called but an ambulance too to take her to a funny farm testing zone, and….Mom passed all the tests and was allowed to go home!
Sis insists it was Mom’s neighbors that suggested it all and now they have decided that Sissy is not the one to be considered a friend, and have given her the cold shoulder and are on Mom’s side once again.
Ooops, talk about backfiring ideas.
Any-who, wonderful daughter and sister has divulged all these informative facts in an email to us, in which she also solicits her desire for us to call her after all these months of no follow-up access as she promised, never ever calling us or sending us any information what-so-ever. I bet you can guess what Hubby has said we should do, no? Yes, he said no emails or phone calls to this person who is supposed to be family.
PS She says she’s not done with the prospect of having her Mom committed!
We all know who should be… don’t we?
I am so disgusted with all this baloney!

But I will wish you all a good night, and just remember that you cannot choose your relatives only your friends! Hint here to couples thinking about marriage, always ask to meet the family first, and temporarily move in with them!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Sorry folks!

How soon we forget… this afternoon I received an email from Facebook reminding me that two of my so-called friends’ on that venue are having birthdays, which are next week and that I should send them a gift or some other form of recognition of the occasion. They are people who I barely know, and personally I would prefer to call them acquaintances, since one of them I had only briefly known in high school and the other is just a friend of a friend, and besides when I had my birthday this past summer I didn’t hear from either of them about it at all!
Ok, maybe that is a wee bit harsh, but you got my point.
Perhaps, it’s the fact that I don’t like being told what to do, aha!
Yep, the mother of the world telling all of you what to do nightly…doesn’t like to be told herself what to do!
Shame on me!
Somehow that one short email annoyed the bejeebers out of me.
And so tonight I have decided to watch my own P’s and Q’s, is how they say it, yeah like a hundred years ago they used to say that! But you all do know what I mean; I am quite sure, how do I know that you ask?
Because none of us really appreciate being told to do most things, am I right or what folks?
Adulthood has many benefits and one of those many is the fact that we should know what to do whenever we need to know what to do, is that clear? I betcha it is; as clear as mud that is.
Lectures are for teachers in classrooms where we actually seek out knowledge on topics we are unfamiliar with and so we can learn whatever we feel that we desire, correct?
But, learning is a never ending part of life as much as breathing and when we stop one the other is sure enough to follow, don’t you think?
I suppose that is my rationale.
When I was a child, before computers, BC, and before the Internet, IT, whoops that one isn’t as funny!
Any-who, there used to be encyclopedias, you remember them 20 something volumes of heavy paper and cardboard, and as that child I would find myself looking up one specific thing, but then moving onto some other thing within the pages of the original thing, go with me here…and so I find myself doing that today with the Internet, and boy am I glad. Even with only one good eye, and a brain, fortunately that hasn’t quit on me yet I still have an inquiring mind, ha! That used to be the tag line for the Philadelphia Inquirer, inquiring minds need to know! But that referred to aliens from outer space landing here or there or multiple headed footed animals and such.
I am interested in it all, not just animal oddities but our worlds oddities that is and everything in between!
And whenever I get a chance I do read about them in whatever form they appear, be it books, magazines, or even here on the net.
And so I apologize to all others of the world that I may treat without that thirst for knowing that I have, but that my friends is assuming and we all know what that means…

Good night to all and to all count your blessings or not, but I may very well might, may be doing it!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Usual here, but not everywhere...

Our weather appears to be back to what we like to call normal; in the balmy eighties, and right now at this evening hour of six P.M. it is just around seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit! Our only problem is that fire season is not yet here, and we are so very, very dry!

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the country is having weather unrest! Stormy weather or cold temperatures, but that’s what you get when you choose to live where seasons are a priority.

Page Field, Fort Myers had an air show today, and a father and son took a $20 plane ride, and the small plane crashed….but thankfully they all survived, even better they were all treated, including the pilot and released at the local hospital there. I sure hope that pilot refunds their money!

Now I could be wrong, I have been many times before, but don’t most places in the civilized world have a seatbelt law? You see, the reason I’m asking is we do have one here in Florida, but I still hear nightly on the news whenever there is a traffic crash and there is a fatality they sadly say and they weren’t wearing their seatbelt! How many times do we have to hear that horrible lament? People, put them on! It’s the law, almost everywhere, even if it isn’t; be smarter than that!

We no longer drive gas guzzling tanks like in days of yore, when we boomers were children or even if your own were born in the nineteen seventies like ours. Yes, I would say we drove tank like vehicles, but gas was cheap and we didn’t know any better. I can remember our eldest, lovingly nicknamed ‘Houdini’, due to his ability to escape from his very well strapped in toddler self from his car seat, and yes we did have them and tried using them too! But, number one son often would magically escape his confines of the mess of spaghetti straps and joined me in the front seat of my 1966 Chevelle Malibu while in transit from here to there! One time in particular sticks in my mind all these more than 35 years later, when a patrol car, yes police vehicle suddenly pulled out in front of me without benefit of any warning like a directional light flashing! I slammed on my brakes, and cursed under my breath to my small child’s unknowing being of what it meant (I HOPE, at least he says he doesn’t remember) who had just banged his beautiful little towheaded topped noggin on my rear view mirror, but fortunately without a scratch or even a cry. But boy was I mad! At the cop, of course, so mad so that I cut him off while using my indicator light and hand motions for him to pull over and he did and I gave him a piece of my mind! He apologized and thanked me, huh? Yes, that’s how I remember it, and I was maybe twenty-four years old or so at that time. I hope that peace officer was more careful after that, but who knows… One can only hope you get through to some people.

So now in this day and age where the seatbelt and car seats have evolved into true protection for us and loved ones and so use them so you don’t become another statistic! Ya hear?

Tobi’s orders, please! I wear mine all of the time.

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Millions for Mammograms fulfilled, free diabetes A1C testing, and Viet Nam Memorial...

Today definitely made up for yesterday; it was an action packed busy day!
Do any of you remember that I applied for a low cost mammography program locally, and was willing and able to pay at a discounted price?
And the program I seemed to finally qualify for was the Millions for Mammograms program? Well, that’s where I went today, and it was for free at the hospital, wow and this year it went digital, I know… but not anything like our TV’s that have been all too often losing their signals or turning into pixel puzzle pieces when its trying to find itself, oh no, this was clear and precise with immediate results, and I am good to go for another year! Although, it was a bit scary there for a few moments when they had to retake my left one; that bad girl has already had two of my three lumpectomies, and I got worried. Fortunately, they alleviated that when they said all was well on the retake, may be I forgot to smile? LOL

Did you see it? Walgreen’s is becoming our medical outpost for this and that well I just found out that besides giving seasonal flu shots like we went for weeks ago for $24.99, they also offer, once a year A1C diabetes testing, and so I went there to get the freebie and I went down even lower on the test to 6.0 from the 6.2 three months ago, and the 7.1 nine months ago, which is really great! Now I know there’s really nothing to worry about, peace of mind is priceless!

While at the hospital I also got a handle on when they will be FINALLY giving the masses the H1N1 flu shots and where, our convention center next Wednesday from 10A.M. to 3 P.M., but you still must meet the criteria, being a child, young adult, pregnant or a person with a chronic illness or a care giver of some one who is chronically ill. Please don’t stand or sit in line if you aren’t of these people, most at risk who must get them first please.

Did you know that the initial chicken fast food place is asking too much for there meal deals? Well, neither did we, and we left and ended up going to the golden arches and paying half of what the other wanted and received two meals! Now that’s a deal.
Any-who, Hubby went in and picked it up and we drove over to the park by the waterfront where the Viet Nam Memorial is on loan and would you believe…they had no picnic tables, just benches…I know… so we ate in the car!
And then we ventured out and was saddened impressed and overwhelmed with the shear enormity of the quantity of names, all from our era that were killed in the war that wasn’t called a war, it was called a police action. The realization and memories that it invoked in us are difficult to express, but it’s like most things with this magnitude of screaming witnesses you had to be there.
Many children don’t understand that it was the first televised nightly war, and the remembrances are chilling.

You see? I told you we were real busy today. We packed utility into fun and adventure, and that’s a good thing, don’t you think?

Good night to you all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

PS the weather here was perfect today in the mid seventies most of the whole day!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

As days go...

This day was quite uneventful.
Thinking and writing and reading in glimpses seemed to be the trend with this crazy weather that we are having…COLD! (Let’s put it this way … it was in the sixties for a good part of the day and only hitting seventy for a short period of time, maybe an hour or so. That’s COLD for here in southern land!)
Comfort food too, and so tonight we ate the pressure cooker pot roast that Hubby and I made together, mostly me but he did help a bit with the potatoes and squash peeling and chopping.

What is it about the colder weather that makes most human beings think about small comforts? Food, socks, sweaters etc. all give one a fuzzy feeling of perhaps childhood when Mom would say things like: take this, do this, or eat this. Yes, that does sound right. Moms, weren’t they always the ones who set things right when the world would occasionally go spinning out of control? They would be the leveler, the even keelers, and the ones who knew how to set things straight and make everything all better once again.

And so why is it so many adult children (a very real oxymoron), treat their parents like children when they still have all their faculties? I can somehow understand that mean well behavior of reverse roles when parents do have some form of senility, but why when they do not? Unfortunately, my parents both passed away when I was still in my thirties years ago so I have no one that I can treat either way, but my husband’s Mom, who we see quite infrequently, since we live so far from one another, and I do try to treat her more as a friend than anything else. I suppose there is no handbook on how adult children should behave when dealing with their parents in any situation that may arise, but there should be. I know, I know, we really weren’t sent home with one, and for that matter of fact neither were they when we all had our own children! Trial and error was how it worked in the raising process. I do know there are many doctors who presume to know what to do in each and every situation, but do they really? No one is perfect, a revelation to us all, I know that is written somewhere in stone, but go with me here… What about the Golden Rule? Why can’t we just treat people how we want to be treated? Simplicity at it’s finest, what do you all think?

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

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Rain came and went but left our rain barrels once again full to the brim!

The remnants of Ida accomplished what we had hoped for, a very good dosing of water on our lawns, gardens and filled our 110 gallons worth of rain barrels!
So we are good once again for now…

Last night we were notified that our elderly neighbor, in his early eighties, across the canal had been hospitalized once again with congestive heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver, and remember; even that is an illness friends! He is a very fine gentleman and we wish him a speedy recovery, and yes, he can recover from the congestive heart failure he has before. So did my step-mother’s sister; she did it for years, she had congestive heart failure on and off and outlived my Dad that died just five and half weeks after his stroke at seventy-nine years young, and she was still hanging on, again, and well into her nineties! Another person we know was also diagnosed with cirrhosis in his thirties, and is still alive nearly thirty years later today!

Today was Veteran’s Day and we had the where-with-all to put the flag out, but stupidity kicked in and we also put that Get Well card out into our mailbox to go to the above mentioned neighbor, what’s wrong with this picture? No mail today, a legal holiday; silly us!

I failed to mention that this week also marks the fortieth anniversary of Sesame Street, which had been a mainstay in our home with our sons when they were toddlers. I believe it was very responsible for their social awareness besides being the usual alphabet and numbers teaching. My favorite quote from the show is, “People are like flowers they all come in different sizes, shapes and colors and are all beautiful in their own way!” Don’t you just love that? I do. Acceptance for differences has shown through with both of our sons who were born (respectively 37 and 33 years ago) just in time to enjoy the best children’s show ever!

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

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Local ties to Fort Hood, and we have a famous memorial on loan too!

Justin Johnson, a 21 year old local military fellow from right here in Port Charlotte, was one of the injured at Fort Hood. He had a visit today one on one from President Obama! Perhaps nationally you may have heard about him, he was on the phone speaking with his Mom when Hasan shot him, his mom thought he was playing a video game and she told him to lower it. She flew out to see him. He is on the mend and should make a full recovery thankfully!

Right now we are finally getting a bit of rain from the remnants of Ida, and it sure took her long enough to bestow her drizzle upon us. Boy, did we need it we are way down inches wise.

Now we are lucky enough to also have a woman who won one of the Publisher’s Clearing House $10, 000 prizes too today, Gladys Neville!

Last but not least in the recognition for a small town department…We received the traveling Viet Nam Memorial Wall and it went up today and will be locally displayed at our waterfront park in Punta Gorda until Sunday!

Today Hubby and I went to the craft store and picked up some baskets, ½ price sale, for the slide out in the laundry room, but although we measured them they proved to be too large and so they now hold our necessities above me in this computer cabinet, which looks more like a breakfront. I did have smaller baskets in the cubbies above but now they have been given the task of holding my crafts in the slide out in the laundry, three of them fit perfectly and the last one I put in the top of my closet for anything I may desire!

Locally again, Collier County, Naples, 77 children have gotten the wrong flu shot not the H1 N1, but to the good it shouldn’t hurt them since it was just the seasonal flu shot.

Good night to all and to all take care and count those blessings and we will too!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Small miracles, anniversary of a wall coming down, and Ida's track

My Hubby’s Mom answered her own phone in her own condo today!
We had been calling for weeks and getting no answer, sending cards and letters etc., and nothing, so this is quite a happy unexpected relief!

Perhaps you recall that Hubby’s sis had taken over Mom’s life saying she (Mom) had lost it, and even when we spoke with her she had not been too coherent, and so we did believe somewhat that senility may have moved in on the eighty-eighty year old. And his sis felt it was up to her to take over, even though she has two older brothers but they both live far from mom and sis who are in Pennsylvania, us being in Florida and the other oldest brother in Washington State. So phone communication and writing were the only way to keep in contact and for over a month neither had any response, scary! You see sissy would not speak to us, and so we kept trying Mom at home and only got her machine, and sent letters and notes etc.
So when she answered her phone like nothing was wrong today it was an odd but very pleasant surprise. She said how her daughter tried to commit her and take away all her possessions and had taken over power of attorney. Even said that the grand-daughter, her daughter’s daughter would be taking over the condo with her boy-friend!
Mom got her own lawyer and fortunately took back her power of attorney, and moved out of her daughter’s home and back into her own condo home nearly a month ago!
But never called us or her other son, and told us her answering machine is not working right. She also had to get her locks changed since her daughter had keys to both the condo and its mailbox! If we only knew, I feel awful. But one lovely thing is Mom is trying to make arrangements to visit us soon, possibly by Thanksgiving, and we will be very happy to see her, you betcha!

And the wall comes tumbling down! Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin wall coming down. Wow, was it that long ago? Another miracle that keeps on giving, freedom to all people!

Ida the storm seems to have budged slightly a wee bit more to the eastern projection instead of the straight on Gulf one, which means that our panhandle, Pensacola, and our capital Tallahassee will be getting quite a bit of the storms wind and rain. It may very well mean that Louisiana maybe in the clear this time, whew!
Truly they have had enough for a millennium, and us too!

Good night to all and to all take cover, be careful and don’t ever stop trying when it comes to people! Count those blessings when and where you can.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

900 Venders One Venue , a Flea Market!

For a few years now I have wanted to go to one of the attractions that somehow I had missed in this overly attractions wealthy state in all of our over twenty-three years of living here. A major flea market just south of here, I’m not going to mention it by name because my critique of it is not going to be very favorable.
It hawks itself as being the largest of its kind with being on over fifty acres.
But that is not what I have taken to task, for that much is true, thank heavens for my scooter and all those benches for Hubby to sit and rest on while he caned his way around this truly enormous place!
The problem is not necessarily with this particular place, but the concept of the flea market itself, why we even have two of our own locally that we have tried as well.
Even while still a northerner I am sure we had been once or twice to those up there.
And I seem to always come home with the same feeling, why did we bother?
You see now here’s my problem, and it comes from a bit of experience with retail since that’s what I did on off for many decades and also went to college for.
I never find a bargain and feel that the venders are just using this location with a very low overhead to make a larger profit. Now nothing’s wrong with that; this is America and capitalism is alive and well, but for some possible naiveté on my part I almost always look for the deal, but never ever find it or this time even what I had made on my mental list of a couple of baskets in wicker (not one in the place, the storage type that is), large tropical decals that look like etched glass (yes but three times the price of the home store, huh?), and a reasonably priced Buddha garden statue (not a one) for a reflecting sitting area in one of our gardens, no luck what-so-ever. I am stuck when I do this. I surely cannot change my mind on my objectives, once my desire to get something I want or need, I am like a dog with a bone, and nothing else will do. And so consequently we came home with nothing but full bellies from our lunch there (also not that cheap, and lacking in ambiance) , oh, all right we did come home with navel oranges, five in a bag for two dollars, and they were the size of an infant’s noggin!

Hurricane Ida is heading for the United States, well, so much for meteorologists knowing the future too! Louisiana, Governor Jindal has already declared a state of emergency for his state!
We here in southwest Florida are supposedly not going to get it too bad from just its outer rims, some wind, and some rain, but they also said Ida wouldn’t become a hurricane again, so we will keep our eyes and ears tuned to the boob tube, by gosh! Who knows it could make a sharp turn like Charlie did!


Good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

1974, 1998, 2009 do you know what they all have in common?

The years 1974, 1998, 2009 are all representative of a commonality, and that commonality is those were the years that they made the movie Taking of Pelham One Two Three and put it out there for human consumption. Unfortunately, each year was not as successful as the previous one, so the critics say. And not because of the casts which were all top notched.
1974 info and cast: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072251/
1998 info and cast: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taking_of_Pelham_One_Two_Three_(1998_film)
2009 info and cast: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1111422/

I think sometimes the powers that be in movie land won’t let well enough alone, some things should not be remade.
What do you think about that?
I’m sure you do have an opinion.
Notice how some of the truly great films have not been made over like ‘It’s a wonderful life.”, “Gone with the wind”, “Close Encounters”, E.T.” I know, I know those two you may not put in the same class as the first two, but in my opinion they are great in their own right. There are so many more I just can’t think of right now. Wait here’s a few more: In Cold Blood 1967, To Kill a Mocking Bird 1962, To Sir with Love 1967, great movies not remade so there! And yet they are timeless!

The reason I mentioned the first of the movies in my dissertation tonight is because the 1998 version is on the TV right now as I write this.
And we, Hubby and I thought it might be interesting to see this one, and so we are.
This cast has familiar TV personalities in it.

New topic: Just thought I would let you in on a new project that Hubby began a sliding drawer in the laundry room. Sadly it is going in where we used to have Casey’s litter cut out, but the new unholy door has been ordered from the same company that initially put the cabinets in the laundry and should be here by next week. Meanwhile Hubby is preparing it for the slide out for some baskets to utilize for a craft container closet.
Some may think that we are a wee bit heartless to do this less than a month since Casey’s demise, but it was blessing in disguise he was so very, very ill! And so I am as reckless as the parents that made their college bound offspring’s rooms into an office or home gym, please forgive. PS we went with the office. Life goes on…

On that note, good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Friday, November 6, 2009

The killer is still alive and we are certainly in the cone of uncertainty. Go Yankees yea to their 27th win!

The psychiatrist, (aren’t they all crazy usually?) that went berserk at Fort Hood in Texas yesterday and on that rampage and killed thirteen people is still alive although he had been shot four times! The only good that could possibly come of this man’s survival is to perhaps find out why he did it?

Yes, we are now entirely, as a state not just a portion of a state, in the cone of uncertainty for whatever becomes of Ida, they are not sure what she’s going to be when she comes closer to us as a weather front and at this writing she is still only a tropical depression. The weather peeps still believe she will not become a hurricane again, now I’m worried.

You would have to live under a rock if you didn’t know that the Yankees won their 27th World Series and the parade was today! CONGRATS TEAM!

Unemployment pay will be extended 20 weeks. The 8K tax credit for first time homebuyers also had been extended until June!

Today, we here on the home front finished the valance project both sunroom doors have their beautifully striped awning valances, if I do say so myself they look great! But then again I can’t see too well, strangers will have to comment.

I had to wait until after lunch but I did manage to get an hour in the pool for exercise once again today in November! The water was a lush 86ish degrees, and the air warmed by afternoon too well into the eighties!

It is 5:52 P.M. as I write this and the sunroom is darkening; I so hate this when the days grow so short. Oh for an endless day lightening with our warm weather. I know that Alaska has that, but there it is way too cold!

Orlando had their own shooting tragedy today, a man, an engineer had been fired from the company he shot up, one dead, five injured there.

Count your blessings and if depressed get some help please!
Don’t ever let your emotions control your logic.
Now I will wish you all a peaceful uneventful night and take care, ya hear?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Fort Hood tragedy, utility building explosion, and uh oh stormy weather may be coming our way!

@ 13:30 CT today, Soldiers were killing soldiers and a few civilians too; the death toll is now at 12 with 31 others injured all on the base at Fort Hood in Texas that is still in lock down mode at this hour. The shooter was killed; he was a soldier and two others that were suspects that were soldiers too have been taken into custody. FBI is helping in the clearing of the scene. Shooter was from Virginia and a Major, Nadel Malik Hasan M.D., a psychiatrist in drug rehab in the army. Ironically, that is where the shootings took place in the Post Traumatic Stress Center to examine that medical illness.
Governor Perry of Texas is now speaking about the fact that the fort is still on lock down, over fifty thousand people, and he has old information about deaths and injured. Information has been coming in slowly.

The utility building, lift station, methane gas ignited with a flash fire, in Bonita Springs three were injured, but not thankfully with life threatening injuries.

Well, folks the tin can hotline is burning up the wires! News is all over the place, but now we are also getting some more bad news locally from the weather mavens; this storm called Ida that had made it up to hurricane strength earlier today but receded over land to storm worthy now may be strengthening again when it gets back into the Gulf it could possibly be heading towards southwest Florida by next week! Stay tuned friends we may have another interesting tale to tell. We are in that cone of uncertainty. The highs may be our downfall by pushing in between and then Ida towards us!

Local news again: We have no H1N1 flu shots here in Charlotte County Florida, but the surrounding counties do! I was on the horn today trying hard to find when we may be possibly getting them and I got the run around. Each agency felt that the other would know before them! Exhausting, I do hope that your area has more intelligence on that info! We are lacking that state secret. Hey, Governor Crist where’s our doses, the all important stuff to prevent our children and Mommies from dying along with health care workers, not to mention us chronic ill peeps, perhaps they are with our stimulus monies that were forgotten to be put in for?
Bitter? You betcha, what’s up with the doling out process?
Everyone should have access.

The Pilar Rodriguez search was called off today they found nothing after three days searching for clues to the ten year cold case of the missing three year old.

Good night to you all and get all your shots that prevent all those ills, ya hear.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Yes woman goofs!

Did you ever say yes to something that in less than twenty-four hours you were sorry that you did?
Sure, who hasn’t?
But with that actualization did you also say to yourself that you would never ever do it again?
Most I suspect.
Yesterday, while at the home store we were sort of accosted by a vender salesman within the confines of the lumber department.
He started by saying, “How would you like your water tested for free and receive a twenty dollar gift card?” It was for the store that we were now in and do frequent.
Now, most who are normally savvy would say to themselves, something for nothing…not going to happen I know better, there is no such thing!
And I would say over the years that I would also like to think that I have learned from so many previous mistakes of naiveté; but who among us hasn’t had a few, really?

He stood waiting for our response with clipboard in hand. I looked at Hubby and Hubby looked at me and we both said OK. Then he promptly took our, name, home address and phone number. Let me tell you why we said yes without too much thought, I know we shouldn’t make excuses for stupidity, but … we recently called our local utilities department asking if they would do the water test and it used to be for free, but now they were asking for more than one hundred bucks! We said no thank you to that. You see our water leaves pink stains on our pet’s water bowls and the toilets as well as the fact that without using any bleach I put my thumb through one of our towels! So we were more than curious in what could possibly be in that clear liquid coming out of our pipes, which are connected to the city system. And so we agreed the price was better than all right and so was the little benefit. But we were not totally fooled I asked for the salesman’s information too, and he handed me a brochure from a water softening company my alarms went off but I still did nothing.
Within moments from arriving home yesterday from all our errands a person from the offer called to make an appointment for the next day, which was today!
Today is my pool day in the morning and so we agreed to have the ‘test’ at one P.M. after lunch. But while in the pool I began having regrets and mentioned them to hubby how we could get out of this so-called for free test visit.
I got into the shower made lunch after and still was not clear on what to do, since we really had no contact number for the ‘tester man’, and when he did finally arrive I blurted out to Hubby’s chagrin, the truth. That all we wanted was a free water test and that we more than likely would not be interested in anything he would be trying to sell us.
He went into a very quick synopsis of what he would have done if we allowed him to go on, an hour spiel about how that the system (water softening) would more than pay for itself with all the savings he would give us of coupons and discounts etc, but he also made it clear that the “system’ would not cost a few hundred, oh no, it would be at least six or seven thousand, but with all our savings we wouldn’t feel it! Hmm… I said “sorry we wasted your time and we aren’t interested”, and he did leave. But why do I still feel a little bit bad about the whole thing?
I’ll get over it! Resilience isn’t just for kids, you know.

New topic:
Do you remember that tropical disturbance in the Gulf?
You do, good for you, it has turned into Tropical Storm Ida at 65mph way down by the Yucatan, and it is supposed be held away from us here in Southwest Florida by a high pressure system…wish us luck!

Good night to all of you and I will count those blessings with you too!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Cold case, murder and mayhem...and slight overcharge of taxes ...

Price and Poe are being held in possible connection to a local 58 year old man’s slaying next door to an old neighbor of ours but in a different area when we all lived elsewhere next door to them then, got that?
With those names what else could they do in life, those two possible suspects? Too many macabre associations with those two names, Vincent Price (actor who acted mostly in Poe movies) and Edgar Allan Poe (the famous author)...

The other case is local too; back in 1999 a young girl of around four years old, Pilar Rodriguez, was taken by her babysitter on vacation to here, and her boyfriend murdered the child, but no body was ever found. Today, Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office apparently got a new hot lead on this quite cold case, and so they have been excavating an area east of Punta Gorda called Cleveland, (We lived over that way from 1995 to 1998) Florida that is, off Duncan Road AKA route #17. So far no new information or I would have told you, but you know that. They have stopped for the night but will be back out there tomorrow at 7:00 A.M.

Charlotte County tax office did a booboo they collected 500 thousand more bucks in our taxes than they were supposed to, but get this… we are not getting any of it back in nice little stimulus checks! What, you barked? Nope none of it; just wondering what they will be doing with it…maybe they will now hire back some librarians and let them return to normal hours of operations? I was told by a reliable source that they were in the hole only 200K, for a county’s budget that’s not too bad, but now they have some found money, Nike it (just do it!) , PLEASE, Please, please!

Today we did get some errands done at the home store, had a healthy lunch at the healthy lunch restaurant then on to the super big discount store, all accomplished before 2:00 P.M.

For some strange reason I was pooped by 8 P.M. last night and so I went to bed, and guess what… now I have been up since three thirty would you believe?
And I am trying my darndest not to make a repeat of last night.
In other words I better find something capable of entertaining me to the point of waking me silly!

On that note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings, and I better not do that since that might put me to sleep too early again. Sorry! As great as that concept is you know what I mean, no offense.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Hurricane season isn't over ....yet!

That is so true. November 30th is the official date that hurricane season ends.
And the weather man just said there is a tropical wave in the Gulf maybe…we will see!
Hope not.
We have been very lucky again.

Did you see it?
The USS New York a ship built from seven and half tons of metal from the Twin Towers that came down on 9/11. It is in the Hudson River Harbor now but its new home will be in Norfolk VA, it creates welling up in my eyes, how about yours?

Now to the sublime… today I swam for the first time that I recall, outdoors in November even since being here in good old Florida! The water was a toasty 87ish, and so was the air, truly lovely!

I did some good deeds this morning I notified the paper they had no lead story and that the editorial page was not coming up at all. But oddly this time I did not receive any indication that they were aware, happy or thankful, odd?
I also submitted an editorial comment again for this month, but this time about the libraries reduced hours and I do hope they can find it in their budget to readjust them, somehow.
Below is basically what I submitted:

“In these hard times it is somewhat reassuring that some things that create joy in our lives are still free. Love of family, friendships, suns rises and sunsets and access to your public library where dreams and imagination can be had for just an entry card!
Fortunately though our other joyful freebies come without restrictions, but not our library hours!
Slowly the joy of dreaming has become restrained to minimalist hours of some ones non knowing idea of frugality and causing young minds and old to have to reschedule their lives within those restrictive perimeters! Not all can do it.
Many lack transportation or the consistent memory to know when; it seems as if every month lately the hours have changed when we can have that access!
We all know life goes on, and there are so many worse things happening in our daily lives, housing, jobs, health matters, but access to determine how to handle those things for free should not be!
Many rely on that reference material to help in those other situations, and so I truly believe that removing that ability is a wicked slap in the local people’s faces! Please the powers that be rethink your restricted devices and re-crunch those numbers so we all can benefit.”

I do believe these early closures and lessened days are a national problem not just a local one, how truly sad I say!

Please people in-charge of such things take another look to get the money or time from somewhere somehow and think of all that would be accomplished with this joyous access not strained. People could go on adventures for free, get educated better, take out movies and tapes, utilize the computers and use reference material that will make them more capable of figuring out what needs to be done in almost every situation!

On this important ‘Epiphany’, I would like to wish you all a pleasant good night and to all count your blessings and I will too!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

It's not that easy being green...

It’s not that easy being green...

Unless you go solar, recycle, compost, and use rain barrels.
Hey, we do all that!
We even bring our canvas bags to the grocery!
And don’t drive unnecessarily.
And even with all that we went to the ‘Green Futures Expo’, at our convention center way down the road a piece to River City, AKA Punta Gorda.
Did we learn anything new, yes!
We learned that we are pretty darn savvy on the topic of green.
But it’s always nice to see if we are still educable.
And I am proud to announce, yes we can and are!
Definitely with all the paper literature we came home with and pens that were all made of recycled materials or least that was what we were told. We have pens made of corn and cardboard, would you believe, fascinating.

We met people we hadn’t seen in quite some time, and ones that we have just spoken to on the phone.
The news media was all over the place print and TV, even FOX, not an Obama friend.
They did interviews with 4H, and solar panel people and soy insulation sprayers, poured form people and you name it, if it made your domain stronger, less expensive to live in utility wise, cleaner, neater and truly greener they were there and were being given the third degree by anyone who thought this was totally dandy! And not one singsong stated that it’s not that easy being green, everyone there insisted it was very easy and downright foolish if you didn’t become green too!
Well, OK Kermit, I’m with the others while you struggle with your greenish the rest of us are going there without reckless abandonment.
What will you do Froggy pal when we all join the green race?
It will be a lot easier for you, won’t it?
Then you will have to change your tune…

Good night to all and to all be a lot of silly and a lot of green too!
Count those blessings and I will as well.

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...