Monday, January 31, 2011

Results

Tonight’s little vignette is going to be about an eclectic or hodgepodge of this and that’s, all righty now; are you ready?
The result of my MRI of my brain was given to me on the phone this morning, and yes it does appear that I do have one, a brain that is! LOL! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
I had called my neurologist’s office at approximately ten A.M. and after I told her receptionist where I had the MRI done she took quite sometime with putting me on hold. I figured she was looking for the report that would have been faxed Friday afternoon and I nearly felt my heart sink thinking uh oh, if all is well then why would it take this long, huh?
It seemed like forever, and I thought no with bad news they would ask you to come back into the office for a face to face, isn’t that what most doctors do?
Suddenly there was a woman’s voice on the other end of the line and she told me who she was, surprise my doctor herself! I definitely felt my heart sinking now this is not good…Dr. Mellor said that she hadn’t gotten back to me because she was waiting on my spinal report and then realized that the American Multiple Sclerosis Association only allowed the cranial MRI one, weighted and non-weighted and she apologized and then said that it showed that I had scattered moderate lesions throughout my brain, see I told you I got one! Any-who, but no active lesions were showing! YEA, which meant that the Copaxone was working and then I asked about the optic neuritis and she said that the damage is irreversible and that at his point that the cataract repair would not help. All right, but NO active lesions!
This is great news! I thanked her and said goodbye.

Now on to a bit of bad news but with a happy ending…
Hubby went to get into our elderly car yep it is going to be ten years old this August, but only has less than 36, 000 miles on it and we bought it new!
Anyway, Hubby was going to go to get a few more yard supplies some more garden ties and a few more bags of mulch and when he took out my scooter so that they could fit and then he went to start her up and she did nothing!
Now that battery was bought only a little over two years ago in September of 2008, and so Hubby charged it found our receipt from the Sam’s Club and he went there straight away and they tested it and found out it was a bum battery and replaced it for basically free except for a dollar something charge, but so what TA DA!
So he went from there to the home store…
And that is one of the reasons I am writing this so early since Hubby and I decided on angel-hair pasta with white clam sauce for dinner and that takes no time at all for me to make! So here I am doing this blog thing before my dinner, wow, what a concept!
But I am giddy with relief!

So on that positive note I would like to be the first to say happy good night to all and to all kindly count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, ya hear!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Take Off!

Has anyone but me realized how many different meanings those two words can imply?
We all know the expression to ‘take off’ to leave from somewhere, or to fly away in a plane, sort of the same thing.., and to ‘take off’ those nasty LBS. Our English language and expressions are sometimes misunderstood by others who may not be that familiar with their meanings and us with theirs too, huh?

In Australia, ‘Glad’ is a nickname for Gladys and so that song, ‘I’m feeling glad all over’, is somewhat not right for that market but if they have a sense of humor I suppose it was popular or for any of those horny peeps too. LOL! Did I just shock you?
A ‘fag’ (Please excuse the expression but it is not meant to insult only to explain) and is NOT being used here as a derogatory name for a gay person but for the slang term for a ‘cigarette’ in England.
To ‘ring someone up’ is to call them on the phone, also England, and a ‘lift’ there is not a ride in the car, well I guess it is but this car would be in an elevator, got that?
And ‘chips’ are the same as our French Fries and ‘bangers’ are not wildly sexual oriented people; they are sausages! Get your mind out of the gutter!
Oh there are so many more and just in the modes and ways that we speak English all over this world that keeps getting so tiny daily.
Sometimes you wouldn’t think it was the same language!
Oddly enough I am still learning interesting words in English although I did study French and Spanish in high school one year for the first and two for the latter. But I laughingly call English my first! Yes, I am second generation American and I was taught English in school and of course it was spoken at home, but there is still so much more to learn and I truly feel I am only half way done, do you?
We who take this language for granted tend to misuse it, I think.
At least at times I wish I were more articulate and that would be beneficial for this continuing project of mine…
Although, none of us know how much time we have left on this planet.
Think about the shocker when someone is so healthy or young or I don’t know unexpected just drops… you know that 'D’ word that we all fear to say, dead.
And so when you have a known ill and deal with it daily it is nothing that much different than anyone else who could be hit by a truck or have a horrendous accident or whatever and so to harp on these things is downright FOOLISH!
Got that my friends?
Everybody’s got something, right. And yes that was rhetorical, since we all know that is a big truism.
And so I am now declaring, except on special occasions, to speak only about fun, joyous or silly things as often as I deem possible, what do you say peeps and what do you think?
Enough horrors in the news/life to make us have our emotions go rampant with concern fear or worry… we need each other to escape at times.
And perhaps you think that my lack of mentioning these things in the news means that I do not know or am not interested it is actually quite the opposite I want to shout ‘Calgon, take me away!’ But boy do I know... I watch the news four times a day! For those who don’t know what Calgon is, let me explain… it is a bath salts that softens the water been around since 1933, which I understand now would be illegal to use since kids are trying to smoke bath salts, huh?
See I knew that.
And what can I say about Cairo that won’t inflame what is already going on there and so I won’t, you see?
The world can be very, very, scary at times and I think that I would much prefer to keep calm in here, in my little 'word haven' and send positive uplifting messages that are sometimes light and trite but as we all know I am not that smart, correct?
Nah, don’t answer all I need to know is that you are there reading this stuff and thanks once again…
And so on that somewhat positive note I would like to be the first to let you know that I would like you to have a very happy good night and to kindly count all your blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

Next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Sanctuary

A sanctuary is a place to feel safe and warm and fuzzy, nah happy and homey and that was H-O-M-E-Y, not H-O-M-E-L-Y, boy how just one little letter can change the entire picture of what I am trying to say… and carefree… home is where the heart is…how many clichés shall I spew?
Teasing but don’t we all want that from our houses, lofts, condos, apartments, boathouses or wherever you hang your hat? Anyway you put it, it is your home.

And since we all love our personal spaces as we should then we should try to better them periodically as we usually try to do with ourselves, since our homes are just an extension of our ids, correct? (For those who were wondering:In Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the ID is a part of the psyche that is unconscious and the source of primitive instinctive impulses and drives. The other parts of the psyche are the ego and the superego.) Some designers believe that our homes should come up to meet us, huh?
Does that sound bizarre to you?
It would if you only take it literally as if in an earthquake or tsunami.
But I am sure you understand that being that our homes are our havens, but in some cases they are also our work stations where there is no reason why they should not exude our true expression of our likes and dislikes in color and substance.
And so we should all be as happy as we can be in that designation of design or maybe our destination would be more appropriate on how we get to what we actually care for when we are considering how to make our abodes what we so much desire on a daily basis…joy?
Some prefer a peaceful setting but go with me here… if your home makes you smile daily what’s wrong with that?
In other words try to attain a joyful environment for you to have your daily smiles in; got that? Ours does.

In truth when we are happy in the one place where we can totally be ourselves then we can truly call it our refuge from the harsh realities of the outside world.

Hubby began several projects again today; I might also add self-imposed Hubby-dos.
He went to the home store and picked up mulch, garden ties, weed and feed and more paint etc. to make our home even lovelier than I already feel it is, sorry about that but I speak the truth about our little gem, at a cost of $112 for this project. Oddly enough his pension check came early and was automatically deposited and so I paid all our bills that were due next week online as well and saw that we could spend the monies for whatever we so desired to do, and we will still be getting the social security check next week too! That is a great feeling to be able to pay your own way, you know? That is called peace of mind, huh?
Any-who, there is no price on any of that since it adds only to the good feelings that all does for us with less worries.

Update: MRI results have not been revealed yet or I would have shared that with you too and I will when I find out. Apparently, my neurologist office closes early on Fridays and I forgot and so when I tried to call they were already gone for the day.

On that less than informative blurb I would still like to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night to all and to mention to you kindly to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Friday, January 28, 2011

Label

Cholesterol 0mg, now anyone who knows how to read labels would see right away that there is ‘none, zero, zilch, nada’ Cholesterol in the product that it was on, but for some stupid reason I was thinking how if anyone didn’t know that 0mg meant zero milligrams not OMG, Oh my G-d or is it goodness; I get that mixed up, but you all know me it doesn’t take much, ha!
Yes, labeling can be confusing and now you see why?
There are so many things in our lives that we have become accustomed to that would have seemed peculiar or odd years ago, that are common place now; don’t you think?

Just our over use of acronyms alone… LOL, laugh out loud… TMI, too much information, TTYL talk to you later, no I will now, LOL! You all know those I am sure and use them frequently or did at one time…There are probably over hundreds, no thousands of such minimalist uses of our multifunctional vocabulary. As you all know I seem to prefer the longer form of dialogue writing…Corporations started the trend I believe, and many started the use in commercials if I recall correctly, print, radio and TV.
Boy, it sure wasn’t long for the rest of us to catch on, was it?

How many of you in the business world remember what K.I.S.S. means? Sure you do… ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’; oh no, I wasn’t being mean that IS what it means for any living under a rock who did not know!
Life has a way of becoming more interesting with these small nuances to make it that way, huh?
How many more have hit the recycling boxes of using catchy phrases for advertising? They sometimes appear to dust oldies but goodies off to reuse, but isn’t that what this generation is all about, conservation and trying to use things that seem new again?
Of course there is a whole generation who think wow that is great and clever, never heard that one before or what-have-you?

And then we wonder why this crop of children have difficulty spelling, oh we all know why that is… don’t we?
Reading comprehension I understand has taken a downward turn too; unless it is on a Kindle or other electronic device, sad again for the book sellers, huh?
But instantaneous is what most are about who are technologically astute.
Nothing wrong with that, but I have had communication with young adults, college grads who are younger than my own sons where their spelling and grammar were even worse than mine and I am sight and cognitively challenged!
I must admit that when we communicate so quickly we all do have typos, including me and I am the biggest one for those types of mistakes. Although, when I have a few moments I do copy and paste whatever I am sending to the spell and grammar checker if I remember to do it before I send it on to my recipient.
There are many times that I don’t though and they must think that I have no grammar skills at all, well, haven’t I proved that nightly here? LOL!
Sadly, some nights are better than others… but tonight was another fun look at labels and acronyms once again… I do know we have visited this topic before but it has been quite awhile.

That said I hope we did get somewhere tonight in this discussion, and if you know where that was please tell me, ok?

And now I will thank you all for being here when you take that time out from your busy lives and I perhaps don’t thank you all enough for that but I really do appreciate it… and let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and kindly ask you to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

PS I teased Hubby about bringing me flowers, I used to have a friend/neighbor back in the 1970’s in Lakewood NJ when we lived there from 1972-1978 in our little townhouse condo, whose husband used to bring her a bouquet every Friday night and I was always a little bit jealous of that but never ever said anything to Hubby but for some strange reason tonight I did, and my dear sweet man went out into our wild flower garden which is mixed in with our veggies and he picked me a bouquet, how about that! I almost cried with joy; now how nice is that? Not much different when our sons would pick those daisies and dandelions when they were small and give them to me…ah memories…how I sometimes truly miss those good ole days…

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Brain?

Now tomorrow we shall find out if I have one or not?
Today, actually this afternoon I had my cranial MRI with and without highlights. (Interpretation with contrast dye)

You know that this new security thingy that we are all being told about to keep our personal whereabouts to ourselves prior to leaving is making me slightly paranoid.
But I do know it is a logical idea to not announce that your abode will be empty at such and such a day and time, just common sense really.

Back to my head shots, ha!
Yes, this one was just of the noggin for that is the headquarters, good choice of word, huh, of most ills and I suppose for a reality check to know if anything is going on up there; good or bad. According to what my previous experiences have been with probably fifteen or more of these little snapshots over the years you either have something going on or not.

Any-who… most all of us have no idea why any of this happens to us, MS, Optic Neuritis and such and even the docs don’t know either or the cure would be pretty darn soon… but it’s not here yet.

I think I should once again clarify where optic neuritis occurs, well; it is in the brain, the optic nerve in the brain to be more precise, not in the eye itself, got that? And that is why a corrective lens cannot help or any type of surgery to date; got that?
And so I am hoping that the MRI will show that my optic neuritis has subsided with my treatment of those three days of IV Solu Medrol 1000 MG of last August, and that my blurriness is caused by those fixable cataracts! Wouldn’t that just be ducky, huh?

Moving on…
When we arrived home we had quite a few emails which have been flowing rather splendidly, more than a thousand in the last two months, yes that is right I said ONE THOUSAND, and although on occasion we get that one annoying one that fools you into thinking gee this is rather nice and then it all changes, you all know what I mean, right?
This particular one was a little patronizing from the onset since it was telling me astronomic things, Halley’s Comet and about the planets and such… that I already knew since we went to school and also lived near the space coast of Florida for nearly nine years and would go there often and to Washington D.C. to the Air and Space Museum when we lived in good ole NJ and other spacey things like Planetariums of that nature; we did raise two very smart sons after all, but then I must admit it hit upon a few things that I didn’t know. Who knows everything, but then it went on to be way too preachy but when you get it from some people that you have lost touch with over the years and assume since you are younger that you are NOT worldly it gets a wee bit on my nerves, if you know what I mean, Argh? Oh well I fought off the urge to write back anything to the affect of what I thought and so I am very proud now of that; I believe that is called self control?
Sure that is one trick this old dog/gal will learn!
If not now when, ha!

And so on that note of being a wee bit more mature I would like to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you all to count those blessings and to kindly share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Rumors

Have you ever wondered what germ of an idea spreads an untrue rumor?
Logically there would have to be some bit of truth in a concept for it to spread as wildfire and to be believed, right?
You are all yelling, “SO WHAT?”

Calm down friends… I will bring you to my point slowly with much care and with not too much disappointment, OK?

People from all over the world have felt the misery of untruths being said about them whether being a part of the celebrity club, politics or sports or even of royalty or any other imaginable form of who we all wonder about and want to hear, read or see more about.

And so when commoners, which in reality in America is impossible since we have no class system here, ha, but when someone says something not entirely true it does not warrant that same notoriety, but can still be a sting to that persons reputation and feelings.

Many countries in this world feel that living well is spending more than you have and owing ridiculous amounts to creditors.
But when a person lives within their means and has the ability to pay all their bills with monies left over monthly enough to enjoy their idea of fun, why should that be misunderstood?
You know that we all are way too much into each other’s business at times.
Recently I bumped into a neighbor while at the grocery with Hubby when they walked frowning up to me to say hello and began shaking their head ( I could hear a tisk, tisk in my own head with their disapproval, just imagination but that is what I heard) with her saying that they are retired from the military and all their medical bills are taken care of and I said I knew that from my brother and son, and that they felt sorry for me that I didn’t have such coverage and that her next door neighbor from another country felt bad enough to mention it to her!
Until I left the store and thought about it I was not insulted, but now I am!
How dare anyone not understand our situation that is not that bad since we pay all our bills! And still have monies left over monthly to use however we please!
But due to my health issues we don’t go dancing or to amusement parks since we have done all of that before and travel is not something I care for but did plenty when I could and was well enough to do!
We do all right, we are not rich by any means, but pay all our bills and that is just great!
I suppose by some standards we are poor since we do not make six digits income but we don’t need it because we live within the means we have, got that?

Don’t feel sorry for me since I was a volunteer all those years and know how to get what I need for myself and I do know how to access anything that is beyond our ability to pay for, and it is not welfare it is from the non-profit organizations who are part of the people I fund raised for all those years ago and now I am utilizing a minute part of those tens of thousands I did help many to attain from the private sector not the government! Yes, there is some irony in all that... That’s not to say that some government agencies have not been there for help as well, but for years we paid taxes from working hard for those services which some never tap into but now I do.
You see Hubby has Medicare that he paid from out of pocket of his paycheck for nearly fifty years of working (I did too) and also he now has Universal Healthcare an insurance company that we pay for from his Social Security payments. He also has a state pension from being in law enforcement, which most that have been lucky enough to work for who also might have when they worked for someone who planned ahead and didn’t lose it to the last horrendous depression we are finally come out of! But we were totally unaffected since our income was not touched at all!
And so no we are not on anyone else’s dollar especially. I think it may just be a border misunderstanding from one country to the other not totally getting how it works here…who knows…
Please people all I can say is with this world with real problems why be mean and start untruths about others… we all do have feelings you know?
PS we did our taxes today, all done!
And yes we did hear back from the IRS about that five hundred that they mistakenly gave us last year on the sixteenth of this month and they are still working on it and at the time of that letter they said they will be getting back to us within forty-five days and so we are still waiting... to hear back and once they figure it out then it will be taken care of, ok?

Updates: Hubby has completed another honey-do actually I must admit it was a Hubby-do since he chose the project himself and he used our pressure washer to clean the surfaces and then painted all our paths, driveway and patio the white we did after we moved in since someone had painted everything blue! Yes, our house, the garage ceiling and floor (then just a carport) all the paths, the driveway and patio were all painted blue when we bought it twelve years ago. Now I do love blue and it was a pretty shade of sky blue but way too much of a good thing! Fortunately the deck paint seems to hold up fairly well since it has been years since it was last painted.
My personal update has to do with my MRI it was approved and will be done shortly plus I am now over a month into my daily exercise program and up to….. Drum roll please….

25 REPS for each exercise!

Thanks I needed that folks, you are all too kind… I can hear your cheers, oh no, you didn’t… now I have egg on my face, but that is OK I am doing this for me; not you! (I just stuck my adult tongue once again out at you!)…I am a long way from my goal of two hundred reps for each but I am on my way!

On that note of silliness again, thankfully I can still make fun of me… Please allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and kindly share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Headlines

All I can say is that I am relieved that Hubby is retired from being in law enforcement now.
The world is just one dynamite keg away from imploding some days I truly feel and I so worry about it too!
Too many people forget that there is hope after they commit a crime…sometimes, anyway… or help at least.
The two police officers who were killed last week in Miami were serving a warrant on a domestic dispute suspect and the two who were killed in St. Petersburg up by Tampa were just trying to serve that warrant for a guy to register as a sex offender, he had forgotten to do that; it would have been just an overnight stay in the jail; so Hubby says … all so unnecessary! But is murder ever anything but unnecessary.
People are going off the deep end and are way too desperate when they feel they have been backed into a corner, therefore my 'no hope' conclusion.

Gosh without hope we got nothing, no reason to go on…perhaps that is all we all need is a reason for going on and that would solve all the world’s ills!
Sorry my idealistic naiveté is showing once again… John Lennon knew it too with his song ‘Imagine’… his hope for us all... how I love those lyrics.

The worst of it is the culpability factor of the young perpetrators; there seems to be none, no remorse, which is so frightening! Just this week in Collier County, Golden Gate Estates from Palmetto Ridge High School, and two teens got into a fight one a fourteen year old and the other sixteen and the younger one killed the other by stabbing him to death. Although, most times when they are so young they do not show them on camera this young person was as cold as ice in his expression or maybe I am wrong it could be shock, we can only hope so…
Right here in Port Charlotte there was a murder at a motel not more than a couple of miles from here, but it was a drug deal that went bad… don’t they know a drug deal can never go right? I don’t like that expression you see I almost used that, ‘H’ word oh all right the ‘hate’. But somehow it fits here, correct?

I almost didn’t address this topic due to my concerns with not giving it the justice it deserves. I know you are saying interesting choice of words, huh?
“And justice for all!”
I can hear Al Pacino screaming, what a great movie, circa 1979.
Something’s just stick in your head, you know?

Any-who, people are still supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty in this country, and then there is suicide by police officer, people who commit crimes to be killed by a police officer.
Are they mentally ill or just too scared to commit suicide?
Which in my book is a cowardly act, since most who do commit this obscene act never ever take into account all who love them and what it will do to them, and therefore it is so very selfish.
Please if you feel there is no hope call the suicide hot line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255): or online, just copy and paste: www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org , CALL THEM!

We all get down or sad at times and should be made aware that there is always someone who feels that way too and talking with another person is most advantageous. If not for yourself for someone you care about.

Please do not judge me when I feel all people who commit crimes are innocent because that is NOT true! I just think we should not in the public rush to judgment.
Of course many criminals knew what they were doing was wrong when they did whatever heinous crime they committed I am just saying we should let our system work.
And that all law enforcement officers are there for is to uphold the law, so let them!
Ask questions before you do something you will be sorry for later if there is a later, OK?
Leave options for yourself and the other guy or gal that’s all!
Rushing to judgment never ever works on either side of the law.
Give peace a chance…

On that positive note of my teen years lament please allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all ask you to kindly count those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Clarity

I didn’t know that I have a real problem.
It appears when I received emails that have to do with people talking down to me that I want to shout back you don’t know me at all!
I suspect it has to do with the fact that these last few years I have been quite reticent as far as my involvement goes with anything public in nature!
The yearning to set people straight has been most frustrating to me at times since I know that I have had an incredible attitude about life and was totally unselfish and lived life to the fullest for a large part of my existence… but some people feel the necessity to tell me to do all those things that will fulfill my somewhat empty existence they ( here we go again with ‘they’ who are ‘they’ really?), somehow feel that I have! And they don’t know how much that hurts my feelings… and so below you will find my bio on my Facebook page … in all its glory! Hang on it could be a bumpy ride for all you newbies! HA!

“Over the thirty-two years I did work I had been co-owner of three businesses, a wicker store in Toms River NJ, one restaurant in Ormond Beach FL and underground sprinkler business which was the second largest in NJ, plus I worked in promotion and advertising as well as being a district manager for an international environmentally safe products company, as a department and credit manager for Lord and Taylor’s in Ridgewood NJ, and a sales and floor manager for Ohrbachs in Paramus NJ. Not to mention nearly forty years on and off of working with non-profits as a volunteer. Almost any ill you can think of fund raising, as a board member, teaching classes, advocacy and co-president of support groups. Also with my husband with Boy Scouts when he was scouting co-coordinator for Ocean County NJ and assistant soccer coach and Fire Chief in NJ too. And if anyone was wondering I also had the privilege of visiting 40 US states and eight countries all before I married.

I have recently been informed since I am not in business anymore that this is just my personal Facebook page not a business page and I am retired actually real-tired, and NOT a realtor or a life coach or in marketing and do not need to sell my home in a short sale and have no authority to sell anyone else's that way either! LOL So now I have put my lack of ambitions right out there for all to see...this is purely for my selfish entertainment of learning about new and different people and their lives from all over the world and here at home in the USA! PS if I wanted to have someone tell me to be positive in life I would do it to myself in the mirror, where I would actually see and hear it! And so as much as I appreciate the goodwill you all seem to have in a jar from that stockroom called never ever give up, and all is always going to turn out all right...I have been there too, and from personal experience which my sixty years have given to me! So there! Please stop preaching to us in the choir gals and treating most of us like we don't know a thing. And if I wanted to be a millionaire don't you think that I would have done that by now? That is not the only answer to happiness... peace and quiet, good honest loving friends, and family that you actually care about and they about you are worth more than all of that moola!
Now you are all informed and this is my disclaimer to any other thoughts you may have had about me... so there! I just stuck my adult tongue out at you too!
I'm getting older and not much better and "disabled" with MS and arthritis, half blind and barely can walk, but otherwise, OK, now but still thinking, although some may question that concept.
I did also attend Paramus schools from kindergarten through my sophomore year of high school, but moved to Emerson and graduated from there in 1968 in NJ; then on to LIM. But have been living here in Florida since 1986, nine years on the east coast in Ormond Beach and then almost four in Punta Gorda and the last twelve in Port Charlotte.
I write a nightly Blog: see below for the link...
It is me at my best and worst! And it's all I got these days to feel really good about! That is that I can still think; I think! LOL!
PS: Now my Blog is called Speaking My Mind! The link below is my blog:
http://tobi-adayinthelife.blogspot.com”

OK, so perhaps it is a wee bit verbose although with a touch of tongue in cheek humor for any who can see it, but we all know that is me; it is all true too!

Listen I love my readership and have no qualms about you all since you have been there listening and I do believe you really know me…it’s the others who, oh dear here we go again… ‘Assume’ ( making an ass of you and me) that I am this or that!
Also that I do not care for soldiers why my dead brother was in the Air Force as a Medic during the Korean War since he was nineteen years older than me and my own younger son was in the Navy for six years and was in their nuke program and an officer and now is a nuclear engineer in the private sector for nearly ten years, and it is war that I hate not the soldiers! Let’s get this straight, and I also do not like people to tell me that their religious beliefs should be mine, sorry that is just me! No more Zealots please!
I am not anti-religion I just do not like people to ‘assume’ that I believe what they do, ok?

Boy this rant felt good once again…
Sorry if I am boring you, but I am sure that you would also love a forum for setting others straight with their assumptions of you too!
Not to be mean only to remove the unsettling feeling of being so misunderstood is what I am saying…

And so on that elongated concise, strange to some, reasoning of mine I would love to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all ask you kindly to count all those blessings and share all those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Homework?

Have you ever wondered enough about something that you felt the need to investigate further that would be nearly as time-consuming as homework for high school or college once was?

Although, at this point in our lives, for most of us that is a choice that has very few ramifications, since it is us who can only decide how important that search would be and we have the luxury to do it whenever we so desire.

Yes, if you are a newspaper journalist or on camera for news stories daily then you must do all that with deadlines (excuse the expression) included.
Why we the consumers of your daily or nightly product/production are deserving of that!
And any of you worth your grain of salt, “A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a ‘grain of salt’ with everything he says to her,” Helen Rowland who was an English-American writer is where that quote originated, 1876-1950, and due to the era this is from, perhaps I should rethink my use of it, since it appears a wee bit sexist?
Nah, it is what it is.

So many of the writers and authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were either racist or sexist, bet you never thought about that with any of those classics we were made to read in school, huh? And some were even considered to this day amazing; today we would shrink away and wince at the passages if we were made to read Mark Twain or many other famous and renowned authors of that classic sense when we were young.

Do we all know now how sensitive our language has become to being aware of others tastes, feelings and needs, which I am so happy to know that we have managed to all grow from these irreverent prose’s that used to be common place but are still great works of art? I know that sounds hypocritical but most things in life are.

Sadly though that was a different time and what was the norm then was so different too, and no one meant any harm to anyone or so that is what was told to anyone who cringed at the wording of certain phrasing or words themselves and at that time they would have been in the minority to say so, since so few were brave enough to speak up or out or even knew it was wrong… or could it be blamed on just that a lack of knowledge; something to think about, true?

Oh well, as I said before we have come so much farther along then those times of words being so prevalent clashing with our now current mores of our times, right?
Oh no? Hmm that is so true many feel certain politicos have the ability with harsh words to insight to riot? Well, we as a nation has come of age knowing the differences what that exactly means, right?
Oh no?
Personally I am still so confused but I am not that bright.
I suppose it is for the rest of you to decide and I will try to deduct from your reasoning or what you conclude if that is what I will abide by…or not.

On that food for thought or not I would love to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time to please be here or be square, ya hear?

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Advertising

Did you ever notice how we as people have this thing not unlike the ole town criers of yore that we love to tell the world something, anything, especially when we are happy or even when we are angry or I should say very angry?
Human nature again; we have been doing this thing called advertising whether it be for our wares or our cares, how did you like that gem friends?
The announcements are extremely anxiety driven at times or filled with elation or just plain damn enthusiastic but we are our own source of new, better than ever, just what you needed or didn’t know that you needed fluency of information at our fingertips that will make your life the best right now or definitely at a time in your near future! But I bet you all knew that, huh?
And wow some screechers are over the top, but feel the need to succeed!
They let us have it from whatever medium we prefer written or visual/audio, even just audio too.
We are their target for their whatever, and for some of us it may be the only human, and I use that word loosely, contact that we have in any day of our week.

I personally have felt the need to shout to my friends or relatives when I thought that I had useful information, totally guilty here…and sometimes I am commended and other times I am held to task for divulging such useless crap.
Let’s face it who hasn’t on occasion also suffered from foot and mouth disease, why that at times has been my Mantra…yes! That is to try to keep your foot out of your mouth again, one mo time; PS that is me speaking to myself.

And so this morning I felt I was doing a neighborly thing, which I on occasion have done before, I announced to my local peeps by emails and on my Facebook page about the Arts and Crafts Show at Fisherman’s Village in Punta Gorda. Well, to say that it was a raging success would not be up to me, but I must admit there were a lot of people there, not unusual on the weekend though. The show goes on into tomorrow and the thing that got me was that this time they even made room at an adjacent parking area for their overflow, which was not present when we were there the need for any overflow space that is; we found a handicapped spot up real close.
To be fair we did go rather early shortly after ten a.m. when it opened, but it was a bit disappointing since there were not that many vendors, not more than ten, I bet but I did not count them and they were spread throughout the complex, so I could be wrong.

One vendor that had a unique product to me was Glass Bottle Art out of Newport Richey Florida he will be there again tomorrow his email for more info is: corky4811@yahoo.com, he had melted looking glass bottles to be used for cheese boards, crackers and other food related displays for that wine and cheese party. He explained that he has a computerized glass high heat vat/kiln system that keeps the temperature just right for the process. Personally I sort of collect unusually shaped blue glass bottles, I just love that deep dark blue; don’t you?
I have just eight now in total, is that considered a collection? And they are displayed currently atop one of my high kitchen cabinets thanks to Hubby.

Any-who, we left fairly quickly since we saw it all in a very short period of time, and so we went for a short drive to the Historic Park and nothing was going on there and then we were home in time for lunch!
We had our darling canine and noble pal Skipper with us and this time again it was too cold, brrr in the low sixties but with a chilling wind, to eat outside for us no blooded Floridians and that is why we came home.

And that is it for tonight’s yelling of my doings…
Please allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and kindly ask you to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Friday, January 21, 2011

Tantalize

Is it underhanded, teasing, tormenting, ingenious or perhaps just desperate to know what works?
Now go with me here…
Some nights I have people reading this thing by the masses what I euphemistically call my beloved drivel.
And then some nights it appears I would have to sell my young to get your attention, what gives?
Don’t you all know that this is FREE ENTERTAINMENT!
Not unlike non-cable or non-satellite TV or if you spied on your neighbors, not that I would ever do that or think you would either, ha!
But you must admit some are more than interesting, the neighbors, that is …when you casually glance out the front or back picture windows you had installed to capture those great Florida views, right?
Any-who, this is all coming from someone who has much too much time on her hands, ha!
Silly has worked before with most of your tastes and so maybe that is what I should do, huh?
Let’s step it up and put it up for discussion; what makes you read anything?

Interest in the topic I would assume, but we all know what A-S-S-U-M-E means, oh you forgot? Nah, I won’t go there, ask someone you trust.
That being said that your interest is based on that what actually gets your attention; I think my tonight’s title may have fit the bill?

“Only time will tell…if it was time well spent”, “If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane.” a couple of Jimmy Buffet quotes., apparently my kindred spirit, on alternating days that is; I forgot that we were on the same wavelength, how wow, ya think?
Or perhaps all my thoughts are caused by the subliminal teachings and listenings from my teen years during the nineteen sixties ( hey wait a minute, Jimmy was there too!), so many of us Baby Boomers are…indirectly or directly a product of those times, which if you ask any of us they were the best and worst of our lives.
So many of our personas are shaped by our environment, no one would argue with any of that.

Ah memories… we all have them… did you know that when I was just sixteen years old that I was a Go-Go dancer? Is that tantalizing enough for you? Well it’s true, with a couple of bands from high school and we did it totally dressed, in mini dresses and boots, if I recall my friend and I, and it was at a couple of churches too! Wild times they were!
Oh how cute we were, her mom was the seamstress and so you have to know the mini dresses were short, but only a couple of inches above the knees but tasteful and in bright reddish Asian prints with black satin ribbon trim, rather exotic. Considering we were both blondes it was a unique look. Do you have any secrets in your closet?
I am sure you do… you devils out there!
For the younger folks who may not know what Go-Go dancers were I shall give you all a brief definition: They were started with the discotheque scene back in the early 1960’s and many were considered the exotic dancers that were scantily clad, but I have revealed our fully clothed costumes to you; and the dancers would be the decorations for the bands either dancing on either side of them or there to encourage the people to dance or for their entertainment with their own unique steps to teach the crowd. I suppose that is about as good or as close to it I can get. The actress/dancer Goldie Hawn ( Kate Hudson’s Mom) started her career as one of them at the Peppermint Lounge on route 4 in Paramus, NJ (where I was raised and lived then too) and then she later became a regular dancer/comedian on the 1960’s TV show, Laugh In.

On that ending wee bit of trivia I would like to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you all to count those blessings and kindly share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Confusion

How many people do you know know anything about medical disorders or even care?
I suspect most healthy people do not unless they work in the medical field.
But many who are associated with different non-profits in any capacity or have family members who are ill but not necessarily themselves then they too would want or care to know something in order to help their loved ones or even the strangers that they are volunteering to help, correct?
That said and not ever being a medical student unless the fact of reading about things that I need to know about for myself or others I have been able to glean information on many topics that have effected my family or myself.
I believe my interest was spurred by the sudden death of my mother when I was thirty-one and married with two sons, not that young but traumatic to anyone who loves their parents, my father died also from a stroke four and half years later.
Yes, within eleven and half hours my mom only seventy at the time, a week from her seventieth-first birthday had a major massive stroke that killed her instantly but machines kept her alive for those additional hours. One thing I was relieved about was that my father was still here to make that final decision of shutting down the machine, with a DNR, ‘do not resuscitate order’; I was off that horrendous decision roster.
To this day I wonder if I would have been ever able to make that choice for her.
Anyway, my mom had rheumatoid arthritis and survived breast cancer when this occurred, both her knees needed to be replaced and she used a walker and refused anymore medical intervention although my parents had excellent medical insurance Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NJ.

And so with my devastating loss of her; I wanted to know why?
My mom’s good girlfriend suggested “why do bad things happen to good people”, but I never ever did read that…I knew it just does but the physiological part is what I wanted to know, you understand that?

So I started reading about medical issues, which also took me in many other directions in that realm, and so for thirty years now I have been an avid reader of such material and that is why, but now it is so much easier with the internet and legit sites like mayoclinic.com and the clevelandclinic.com, and don’t forget cancer.org, nmss.org, arthritis.org and the like…any of these places will give you answers you can trust.
I suppose having bad genes is another reason for my interest.
Today though thankfully the medical field has made much progress!
And a lot of ills that we used to die from are being treated or even cured daily!

My optic neuritis though was baffling to me, since so far there is no cure even when it has been treated like mine with IV infusion therapy of Solu Medrol 1000 mg and that so far has not helped. Even on the news they are finding a way to help people with blindness and other eye disorders such as macular degeneration which is nothing short of miraculous! And I was confused by the initial blurb on the news that the story was going to be about a whole bunch of eye disorders and I was trying to listen intently but unfortunately I must have missed it! Or it was just a brief segment.
But I am hopeful, I keep thinking the treatment I had could take as long as six months to work and next month it will be six, even though my doctor was not so sure; so we will see…GOOD CHOICE OF WORDS HA!


My confusion nightly is also at issue here. In the respect of what enthralls you to read my blog? Some nights I meet your reading needs and desires and other nights I seem to fall short. I suppose it is like the flavor of the month club only mine is nightly…
Any-who I guess not everyone can hit it out of the park every night but I sure would love to try!

On that note of mystery to me… let me be the first to wish you a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and kindly share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Reliable

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have the ‘work ethic’, down pat and others have what I like to call the ‘Mañana Attitude’?
You all know what I mean, right?
Nothing is that important to them that can’t wait until tomorrow or in some cases indefinitely!
Well, anyone who knows in business that can’t work most days because we all have to get things accomplished and not doing some things on time are paramount to losing out on your businesses efficiency and reputation.

I was a very work oriented person when I was working for the buck and would never gold brick I felt that daily I was there to earn my keep!
And make no mistake that is what anyone is doing whether working for someone else or themselves it must be with a mission to produce whatever you are told or know that you must do for your customers, because even we entrepreneurs answer to someone and it is all our clients as well as our potential ones. And they have the power to let us know by not dealing with us!

And so I must admit I would very much like to let Tanya at my local State Farm office on Kings Highway in Port Charlotte know that we are happy to know that she did her part by keeping her promise to me and Hubby by getting back to us with a much better manageable legit value to our home for our replacement and flood insurance. Now we hopefully will not see that ridiculous increase adding on to our monthly bills! Thanks to you, Tanya Yont!
Relief! She is originally from Virginia, which I have found to be a producer of good workers with that work ethic I mentioned; many other states have it too!

When I was in my last work position as a district manager I recruited and hired constantly, either they didn’t meet the initial requirements and produce or had no concept of what we were trying to accomplish. And I did train many for hours and some for a couple of days and I did have the top five sales people in a worldwide environmental safe products company monthly!
That was hard, I mentioned it before.
Having to change the guard so often….

Moving on…
So even in these years which I occasionally call my bum years since I haven’t worked for the last few even as a volunteer which is so unlike me; it’s mostly the vision eye thing and not walking thing. And I do love the public at large and so I don’t want to endanger them on the roads with the driving thing!

If any of you read my blog a few nights ago entitled ‘Edit’, you may have an idea what I go through just to do this nightly and not being grammatically correct is sad and I am so sorry! On that one I did not apologize, but I should have. I made many excuses for my inabilities but the worst is so many typos that constantly have to be redone, which I find sometimes months later. Fortunately, this spell and grammar check seems to work erratically, and uses bright red underlines to let me know when I have goofed!
I think it helps a little.
I did try one of those online grammar ones but it seemed a bit complicated for my not too bright mind and I gave it the heave ho!

Anyone out there know of one compatible with this older Microsoft Office Word program, vintage 2003?

On that note of a small update that really is a big help to us financially! And again begging for your kind understanding of my desire to get this better and right, I think I owe you all that.
Let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and kindly share those overages and we will too!

Next time please be here or be square, ya hear?


PS One of the most reliable people I do know is my Hubby for he said he was going to cut back our palms and weed our front gardens and he did it all yesterday!
And he was still tweaking all of that today too.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Jackson!

After months of trying hard to determine what our dear sweet Haley’s baby boy’s name was going to be and when exactly he was going to get here, today was the day for both!
Jackson is her baby’s name, John her Hubby and she and their BIG Baby Boy are probably over the moon right now, or more than likely exhausted. Jackson is at eight perfect pounds and 21 inches long and he and his parents are doing just fine according to
Haley's colleague and good friend Jamie Yuccas who reported this earlier today to all her Facebook friends!
And we are all elated with the news!
But nowhere near what both the happy parents must be, but for us just knowing all is well is more than terrific!
And thanks to Jamie we did.
Our joy is now named Jackson, hip, hip hooray!
And an enormous hug to the entire family with a boatload of congrats too!

Moving on…
Sadly my mind shifted to not so nice thinking today, I took a short trip to my dark side when I spent some time on the phone for a few different reasons. I received a wrong number from a local senior home, but here’s the kicker they were trying to reach someone I knew.
My old chum from the Arthritis Foundation and how they got MY NUMBER is beyond me, when they had hers as well.
So I did tell them that the second number they had was correct, but they did take me aback when they at first thought I was her daughter who wouldn’t allow me to speak with her and since my friend had, had so many joint replacements due to her Rheumatoid arthritis and the last one was having her head literally attached by a rod and so she had to use a speaker phone which made none of my calls to her private. Her daughter was known to listen in.
The whole conversation brought up old horrendous feelings, since her surgery I said how she shouldn’t drive since she could no longer turn her head from side to side, but later on she did get one of those back-up cameras. And that’s when her daughter came down on me for saying that! I felt since this forty-something child moved in that perhaps now she could drive her Mom where she needed to go. But she was going back to school on her Mom’s dime which was extremely thin…and I also foolishly felt that was wrong too…this was maybe two or three years ago, I think.
The Mom also was the first one I called when I found out that both my niece and brother had died, but she was at work, ha, as a volunteer, (only recently did she become staff after I kept saying they should pay her after her volunteering for nearly forty years) and she could not listen to me since her latest medical bills were her priority! (In retrospect that was her worries and it should have been her first priority, but she appeared to ignore what I was saying and at the time it hurt quite deeply!) But her daughter wouldn’t even work while going back to school! Too difficult and then she didn’t even know what she was going to do! We all worked when in high school and college that’s including our sons and they both had academic scholarships and hubby had student loans, which we paid off years later with our wedding money and my parents paid for my college but I was eighteen and I still worked!
You see, I have come a long way since then… now I know it is none of my business after all I was just a friend not family, no business of mine at all…boy then why was I so darned pissed by the mistaken identity!

Any-who the other call was to our bank that decided that all our insurances and taxes were going to increase substantially to over one hundred and thirty-five more dollars a month, yes you heard that right, a month… and so I felt that they made a mistake and thus a call to our insurance company who is working diligently on the problem and has assured me that it will be cleared up by tomorrow. Our homes value went down like most everyone else’s in the country and the value to rebuild should not have gone up to tens of thousands more in one year? As I keep saying it is a tiny house, plus we are DIYers and we know what things go for, we have built homes renovated added on etc…
Well, who knows what will happen but I am hopeful.

Good news for my payment plan for my eye and tooth surgeries those will stay completely interest free with the amount that I determined to pay a month on both of them, until both are paid off in June of 2012! That is with Care Credit a GE company apparently, not a hospital or doctor or ambulance company who are not allowed to charge interest, and who I am still paying off too. I sure wish it was a health insurance premium instead but as you all know. Gosh, I don’t know what to say but the news today said that us pre-existing peeps are 129 million strong, well not strong, because most of us are really ill and no one wants us, and we are not at all insured so I guess it is safe to say I am not alone…

You see, this is why I question everyone’s wanting more of the pie, and feel guilty every time I do this or that, no way to live, huh?
I suppose I am not cheap just being careful.
I am more than willing to pay what I owe but not anymore than that, am I so wrong?

On that note of not escaping my Debby Downer persona, so sorry!
But let me still be the first to wish you all a very happy good night to all and to all count those blessings and kindly share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Monday, January 17, 2011

King!

In a world where our surnames are determined by our heritage or in the case of us old fashioned women by our spouse’s family names; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a man whose family had no idea that he would grow into his with such a worldwide dynamic of what the name stood for and that he would become a ‘King’ among men in the sense of his leadership, and bring to our family of men and women a legacy that any of us folks could be proud of from whence we came.
And so today we honor that man of our history who brought about a unification of all races to know that we as a unit of beings will be better at working and accepting one another and freedom should ring true for all.
A blessed person loved by all except for the one lunatic who cut him down way too soon in his prime of life.
Thankfully our children and grandchildren have been taught to continue Martin Luther King Jr.’s bequest of liberty for everyone no matter what the color of their skin.
I do believe that we have made quite a bit of progress on this forefront but have a ways to go, you see, we still hate too much here in this country and until that stops completely his words will not be fulfilled!
And so I beg of all Americans and all people of the world to listen closely to what this man’s words were, you can copy and paste this site: http://www.mlkonline.net/quotes.html for he knew what we all should do and felt we had the capacity to accomplish it all…and now more than ever we need to try harder!
Thank you Mr. King we all have much to thank you for!
His actual birthday was Saturday the fifteenth when he would have been eighty two years old.

Today is actually my mother-in-laws ninetieth birthday and sadly she more than likely has no idea that it is, and she is in a nursing home up north by her daughter who no longer communicates with us. You see, Mom has extreme dementia and cannot remember anything or anyone, but it is not Alzheimer’s since there are many other forms of dementia.

Also on this glorious day of renewal of the soul and of all mankind’s promise to one another to be kind and just Hubby due to our showers watering our flora to keep it colorful like nature asked for…he took it upon himself to chose an indoor project which he scheduled for himself a repair and repainting job of our closet doors.
He drove the car out onto the driveway to get washed by nature’s gentle touch and set up his saw horses in the space where our car would normally be parked, got that?
You see, since we went to tile in our bedroom a few years ago from the carpeting which had been replaced after the hurricane but how should I put this, Skipper was still a pup and learning to control himself and stupidly I had chosen white carpeting, our closet doors which are the shutter wooden style needed to have the bottom notched to fit into the space which is larger than before, and due to my walker that when I park it alongside my bed I suppose I nick the paint on it on occasion, but now it looks like all brand new. And the best part is we still had the semi-gloss white paint and so it was another freebie job!
I did laundry but even Hubby helped with that. Some days we are a better team than others, what can I say?

On that note of keeping my public informed, ha! I would like to be the first to wish you all a happy good night to all and to all kindly count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Edit

To speak without encumbrances is divine, but not always grammatically correct in my case.
My longtime dissertations have not had the advantage of an editor, as anyone who knows their stuff can easily tell.
Sadly, I am not that smart to edit my own works that well since I do not have a degree in English literature or any of the other dynamics that have to do with writing; none at all.
As far as formal writing education goes I had a few semesters of journalism in college and one creative writing workshop!
But all you true wordsmiths know that by now, no fooling you!
In reality I have never ever said that I knew what I was doing would be accurate, but not doing it properly grammatically be assured that is done without doing it on purpose. Or if I ever did meet with the real people who do this work daily as journalists, in print or visual media capabilities or knowledgeable abilities that for me to claim as my own would be unjust and a complete unadulterated lie and so I have never ever done that either. Although, the local newspaper did allow me three by-lines and whenever I write any editorial comment it has been printed, but they are extremely liberal with that sort of thing allowing everybody I think, and since I have been writing this I have hardly written to them. So it may have changed. I also have five murder mysteries that were never edited properly and were almost published back in the late nineties all five as a series, by a publisher in Michigan, Gardenia Publishing, I think, but unfortunately I asked the wrong people about the company and blatantly told her what they said, oops! Later they were proven wrong and I was black listed I believe, if there is such a thing. (Oh, the devil in me…)
I truly believe I have never ever misled any of you and this is by no means an apology.

And so even though I feel the need to make that clear to all of you, my reading public; I somehow feel guilty that I am not providing the quality of workmanship that you all deserve. The only thing I do have going for me is my perseverance and prolixity, ha!
I do know myself and have my own number, so to speak, when it comes to this, which I do know at times goes on to nowhere significant. Remember me constantly referring to the Seinfeld Show, huh my logic?
Blabbering is a habit that I had acquired as a small child.
But isn’t that from where great story tellers come from?
Talking in some cultures is considered an art form, correct?
And for that logic here I am for any of you who so desire to try to figure any of this out nightly...

Any-who…
Today we did get out once again!
Boy are we exciting or what?
And we also treated our little darling Skipper to a trip back over to River City where there was an antique and classic car show riverfront.
Again our weather here in southwest Florida gave us bragging rights with Robin’s egg blue skies and temperatures in the mid seventies with very low humidity!
Haven’t I told you before that we live in paradise?
So come on down!

This time it was across the Tamiami Trail at our waterfront park called Laishley, which was named for the prominent family who donated the land and own the many marine shops in our area.(Correction:just one observation/correction to offer -- Laishley Park was named for a former mayor of Punta Gorda (Phil Laishley); the family never owned the land, thus didn't donate it. The entire waterfront was designated for public use back in the 1880s when Isaac Trabue had the settlement platted (as the town of Trabue); that piece has always been public land. (And, btw, the Laishley family didn't start out in the marine supply business -- they had a farm and feed store on Taylor Road. When the agricultural industry went downhill, they closed that business and began catering to recreational boaters and sport fishermen).All above information thanks to Lynn Harrell a native Punta Gordian and friend. At this area there is a marina and Crabhouse restaurant, ice cream parlor, and offices and a fairly new shop called Creator’s Touch (which is privately owned by Larry and Audrey Freshman) their saying is that “Talent is a gift”, gee I wish for that nightly …moving on…it appears after speaking with the owner that most all of their wares are creations of our incredible pool of local talent of artisans.
Their physical address is 150 Laishley Court (no surprise there, ha!) Laishley Marina (Ha), Unit #16, Punta Gorda Florida 33950, Phone number 941-575-0022. But let me just say for ease of finding them they are to the left of the entrance of the Crabhouse!
You will not be disappointed for they carry everything from paintings to sculptures to jewelry and for us physically challenged peeps they are ADA accessible, which is great and so I breezed on in, in my electric blue motorized easy rider who I will soon come up with a nickname for, any ideas? Yep my mobility scooter, to get a gander while Hubby took Skip to the car! Unfortunately, he would be a little like a bull in a china shop so I suggested they wait elsewhere, but they did have two comfy looking Adirondacks chairs outside for just that sort of thing, but Hubby chose the car to wait and so I tried not to take too long.
My reasoning for naming my assisted living necessities is then they don’t seem too intimidating, what do you all think, it is just a theory and if you have any ideas for naming it let me know, OK?
I do know that when we were teens, back in the 1960’s we thought naming your car was a cool thing to do, huh, who remembers that?
Oddly and suppose a wee bit bittersweet many of those so-called antique autos were younger than us! Thus the elderly sensation taking me over but nostalgia too, ha I caught myself!
Whoa that was scary for a second…

Before I descend too far where I cannot come back from let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and ask you kindly to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Saturday, January 15, 2011

How?

If any of you recall how I mentioned that I was looking for my joy; well I think I am trying to find it and looking in the right direction.
Mingling with living breathing people and going out into the world!
Simple enough, I hear you all saying, why most of you do that daily for this I am pretty darn well sure.
Since I am sure that most of you are gainfully employed… it is inevitable that you are out and about, correct?
How I do miss so much the ability to just go here or there whenever my heart desires to go…
But alas I no longer drive; it is for the safety of the world, at large; that is!

Any-who, fear of a ‘Debby the Downer babe’ falling off my wagon, tonight’s blog’s journey is making me check my words more carefully tonight…is that a good thing or not?
Well, let’s move on to what Hubby and I actually did do…after accomplishing all of our normal morning chores we left the homestead before eleven a.m. and moseyed on down to the riverfront and River City and into our event’s and conference center for their bi-yearly Home and Garden Show and from there to the street fair and farmer’s market, which started across the street from the center but went on for several blocks! The weather was just perfect then; not too hot or too cold just right to really get out for the best of our day and have plenty of fun!

Quite a full morning and early afternoon too since we didn’t get to eat any lunch until nearly two p.m.! It was difficult with all the crowds at the street fair to find a place that we would enjoy eating at since the lines were extraordinarily long! And so we chose to get back into our car with my scooter and go over to Fishville to eat where we knew we would take pleasure in our meal. I suppose the multitudes spilled over to that arena as well since Fishville too was packed, and so we had to park around the corner where we seem to find our perfect spot when all else fails and is filled, shush, don’t tell anyone, it’s our little secret.

We ate at our favorite seafood restaurant and I had a crab salad and an iced tea un-sweet with lemon and Hubby had a seafood casserole with onion rings and coffee.
It had cooled off by the time we arrived and so without our noble canine pal Skipper with us, (you see, the event center does not allow dogs) we ate inside instead of on the decking facing the harbor. But we were seated in front of the window inside, facing the water! Just right, warmth and a wonderful view; what more could anyone ask for?
In reality it had gotten warmer according to the digital computerized thermometer in our vehicle, but apparently the sun had gone in making it feel colder.
And Hubby went back to the car to grab our jackets to mull around the shops at Fishville and to see if anything was new or different; once convinced that we saw it all, we left.
Hubby stopped at the grocery for only two items, milk and a refill for our Dawn dish detergent and so I waited in the car.
We arrived home just after four p.m. satisfied with our day’s journey and exhausted from all that fresh air.
Our canine son was not wasting anytime with his usual enthusiastic greeting!
Don’t dogs make you feel so terrific with their joy of whenever you come in, even when you might have only gone out the door and came right back in?
Ha, that’s what we all need is that kind of unconditional love…

On that more than truism I would like to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Joy

How does one go about finding their joy again?
Harping on my ills has chased the world from me for that I am sure and I am also so afraid of that realization!
Why does my body remind me daily of what I would much rather forget, and why do I forget what I much rather or would prefer to remember!
CRAZY!
I love to be with people and yet I appear to have become a ‘Debby Downer’ when I am.
Partially, I believe, it’s because I do not go out enough to have happy joyous things to talk about. I used to read voraciously but not anymore, which is another topic for discussions.
I used to be way more fun than this, why you can ask my sons?

We used to make sure they had fun too with dinners and movies out weekly when we both were working (and them too); it was a renewal of our relationships with one another.
And we went camping and to museums, on trips to here or there, fishing, swimming and took them out on our boats water skiing and watched as they would surf on the ocean across the street from where we had lived!
They both played instruments, the piano/keyboard and guitar; our younger son even had a rock band called Sound Seduction, and he was in school plays.
I miss that type of joy.
They now live far away, in two different directions from us and each other and have private lives and we hardly get to see them anymore.

Hubby and I are too careful with our money and health, maybe too much so.
And I believe that we must still have some fun and I am on a mission to find it wherever it is or could have gone.
Suggestions from you all would be lovely.
You all do know what our health issues are and I am sure the area here has been well defined by me and others.

The news just had the fact that a proposal for a water park to come to our county is under consideration not too far from our home only about five or six miles!
Not that I would be going to it but it could mean many more jobs for our residents and something for the kids to do! Not to mention the taxes that would come from that and better roads and infrastructure, more hotels and restaurants, this translates into more of more jobs!
And that alone could lower the crime rate or raise it…no, if people have gainful employment they are usually happier thus do not commit crimes and instead will spend more money, which adds to the tax base and creates a much better economy!

Wow, I am pumped and now very excited with the possibility of the concept and I will probably not have too much to do with any of that… but the fallout could improve the value of our homes or lower it, or raise or lower our taxes. I’m just saying that it could go either way. Many areas in this country have amusements that do help with the local economy and with us already being a vacationland we will be just creating more for people from all over the world to come down to, yea I’m happy!

You see now that could be something that people will want to talk about I bet?
Not so controversial, huh?
I doubt that many will find fault with this idea, but who knows… there could be ‘Debby Downers’ for water parks too; I sure hope not, they would have to sink mighty low for that, really!

On that note of hopeful optimism I would like to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and ask you kindly to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hate

Did you ever notice what a nasty word, ‘hate’ is?
But unfortunately some beat around the bush and use double entendres but we are smarter than that and do understand the undercurrent they try hard to cover-up.
I have been inundated by meaning well people who may love me and my faith which is oh too sweet not to be humbled by, but they ruin it for me when they compare one religion to another or its people with one having to be all good and the other being all bad.
You know what I mean … oh you don’t?

Hypothetical again let's just say that I am of the Blue faith and another person is of the Green one and many, actually most in the world, other are of the Purple faith and for some reason these people have all been around for ages since before the Purples became the majority. Let’s say for arguments’ sake that the Blue ones were the scholars and Green ones were the warriors who also professed to be peace loving, but the Purple ones were the most religious and saintly; again just for argument’s sake.

And someone sent you an email that said that the scholars were great and had given the world much in progress and knowledge and all good things due to their outstanding accomplishments but had been taken advantage of and were hated for their abilities and jealous ruthless monster-like people destroyed many during an enormous world event of a reign of terror; which is an absolute truism that we all know about. But then for a comparison the Green people who were of another faith of duplicity in their realm of peace lovers and warriors who hate and those few did terrorize and as a union of people gave very little worthwhile to the world, and the Purple ones who were not discussed except for their feelings about the Green ones, and had also been slightly diminished by the reign of terror also felt that the Green ones were filled with evil. What would you do?

I constantly, nightly try hard to not accuse one group of people for the horrors in the world and to me passing on anything that resembles me hating in anyway would not be true to my self respect and diligence to try and make this a better place for all of us!

Consequently, I think it said, since it was a chain-letter that something bad would come to me or if I didn’t spread the word no one would know that I agreed with what it said?
Who knows really since it stopped with me in my tracks, and I didn’t have the guts to tell the sender; it was a few different ones. Since even though my faith was of the one they revered my European heritage was of the monster one as well as my hubby’s, but neither of us care for a country instead of a political regime being held responsible for what actually did happen. I know that is as clear as mud, huh? You see many of the country were also of the faith that was massacred, and not all country men and women believed politically as the evil doers, got that? RE: Sound of Music, sort of…

It does seem that every time I do forward these vehement notes of spreading the word (Which I never do when I try to read them carefully; I may have had a few ooops over the years; and no one lets me get away with that!) or if so subtle that is not too obvious but subliminal so much so that I was also taken in, boy do I hear about it!
It seems these Green ones are the ‘hate’ topic of the era.
And I ‘hate’ to say this folks but just because one egg or even a few are rotten it does not mean they all are! Numerically by stats it is impossible; ask any statistician?

But all groups have been over the times in history the brunt of someone’s stone throwing or metaphorically speaking and many for ridiculous ideas brought upon by one or two others who just didn’t like how they looked, dressed, talked or for any other reason your mind could imagine.

Did you ever know that when ‘hate’ gets watered by public opinion it grows into a substantial monster of its own? Same can be done with love, I hope...

I keep thinking back from my teen years those years of my bratty childhood which unfortunately peaked by the age of fifteen and that is when I was the most passionate with expressing my feelings about hating this or that!
My wonderful decent funny gracious father ‘hated’ that word hate more than any curse word in his book. He said that it made him cringe when I used it and as a teen I hated inanimate objects or even some person at school (and not because of any of the above reasoning’s; just because) or things that I was told to do, some days almost anything!
Difficult teen years amplified.

Any-who, my dad’s words stuck in my brain that hating anyone or anything was horrid and that he didn’t want me to think like that about anyone or anything, and so dad; how am I doing?
Being judgmental and critical of others I am still working on and anytime I feel the urge to be that way I again realize like with that nasty word ‘hate’, how would I like anyone to hate, judge or negatively criticize me?
But we are all works in progress, aren’t we?
And so I beg of us all to stop with all our hate, judging (except in contests of non-violence) and try to see the good in people, which is what my dad used to say.

On that note of telling you all what I know you already know I want to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night to all and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And please next time please be here or be square, OK?

PS our noble canine, Skipper is well once again, hooray!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Only

For once it is absolutely wonderful to be called the, ‘ONLY!’
What’s that all about you ask?
We are the ONLY state in these United States of America that has the claim to fame of NOT having ANY SNOW!
I don’t know about you but I bet I will think that, that gives us amazing bragging rights to all of us Floridians!
Sure it will be cold tonight and even freezing in some places but we still don’t have that cold fluffy white stuff that loses its pretty fairly quickly when it turns brown or yellow by many unmentionable means! Pretty is our sunsets and our breezy palms swaying, flowers of every variety, colors, shapes and sizes, not unlike people that’s why I love them, all at different times of the year and velvety green lawns to run your toes through! They all have longer staying power that we want and don’t ever try to get rid of; if anything we go for more abundances of all the above!
Sorry but I see no reason to be quiet with all this beauty that surrounds us daily in our true paradise.
And most all of you are just a short plane, car, train or boat-ride from all this!
Oh that’s right; sadly you are snowed in…
Well, maybe when they defrost the different modes of transportation you can come on down; we will be here, ya hear?

Moving on…
Anniversaries can be joyous or sad and today is a sad one of the earthquake that killed a quarter of million people in Haiti. Unfortunately, when it hit I was not glued to my TV since on that same day and time I was in surgery getting my left eye cataract lens put in.
Horrifically I also found out much later that more than an acquaintance, a woman I knew from the Arthritis Foundation dropped dead that same day!
So much can happen when we are so unawares.
But how we handle the aftermaths of these significant events is relevant, we donated to the Red Cross, not a great amount, but what we thought we could afford. I called to get the particulars of that woman’s family information, which sadly was not available I had seen the blurb in a newsletter so that is who I called, and no one had that information because I did ask and the least I wanted to do was to send a sympathy card, but couldn’t. I even tried the newspapers obits, and got nothing again, which was unusual for that sort of thing, but we do know not everyone sends them in.
An update, a time to think of how this last year went, Haiti has not come back as quickly as some people feel it should have, but it was extremely devastated and had a poor infrastructure before the worst hit, and so it will take time. People are still receiving artificial limb replacements to this day, two thousand lost their own limbs due to ruble falling on them, and still a million are displaced without solid homes just tents. Fortunately the hurricanes that we did get this year missed them, but Cholera did not! Another few thousand more are now dead from that avoidable sanitation horror. It’s caused by human waste going into drinking or bathing water I think. Living in tents and close quarters without plumbing is why I am sure this has happen, water irrigations system engineers and plumbers and construction people should go down there to help!
Still no information on that woman who passed away, I basically gave up with trying with the newspapers.
Far as my cataract surgery of my left eye goes it still is my singular window on the world at large, but has lately been trying trickery on me by going in and out on occasion with its own brand of blurriness! I am a wee bit scared about that…
Had my neurologist appointment Monday and I know I mentioned that the doc said I needed another MRI and for any people like me that fall through the cracks and have MS, the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America: just copy and paste: www.msassociation.org helps with those who qualify to get you one weighted and not weighted cranial MRI! And we did, and it needs your neurologist’s information and signature and prescription and there you go, it can be mailed or faxed and my neuro faxed for free! See as I always say where there is a will there is always a way!

Horribly our dear sweet noble canine Skipper fell ill yesterday with what we have taken to calling it his wormy squirmies, and no he doesn’t have worms but he does squirm with a colicky like pain that he gets every several months, and he’s had blood-work ultrasounds, X-rays you name it and the best we can come up with is some type of irritable bowel, yes like what people get! He had to have two shots one of Dexamethosome and the other Buprenorphine one a steroid and one for pain. Thankfully this doesn’t happen too often but when it does it wrenches at your heart, consequently we played tag team with staying up with him over last night and that is why I have been up since four thirty A.M., haven’t done that in quite some time! Oh he does have anti-spasmodic medication from his last bought of last May, but this time after three twelve hour’s a part doses; it still did not work. Since the shots though he does seem like he is in much less pain actually none at all! Yet even though he was sleepy for a while he is much more alert and still appears pain free; tonight will tell! Last night was his squirmie wormies all night long with heavy panting too, very scary! It reminded me of colic from my eldest son as an infant and my own stomach problems that have been many over the years! And so I feel his pain and OUCH, BIG TIME!

On that TMI I will like again to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

PS Everyone stop picking on Sarah Palin, you see it is backfiring, excuse the expression, if you read all the media coverage online her picture is all over the place and it has brought out every type of human being from the wacko to the sublime! No news is sometimes a good thing, huh? We all could use a break! If we stop she will!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Entitlement

We as a people of a democracy in the free world have the ability to have an opinion that is our very own. And no one would ever disagree with that!
But along with our opinions goes a certain amount of responsibility to not be derogatory to our fellow human beings with hurtful comments or behaviors belittling them for who they are.
It’s just good common sense, don’t you all think?
I know I know this appears to be a continuance of last night’s discussion, but not really…
Go with me here, you see we of the almighty pen feel that gives us power to say things that can change the world for the better, how great would that be?
Yes, but didn’t we all learn as children that the, ‘PEN WAS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD’?
When did we forget?
I propose a settlement or let’s say an agreement to use all the media waves for good and not to be mean or to the detriment of others!
CRAZY, you say, and I say hogwash!
Who doesn’t want peace and goodwill towards all men, didn’t we just go through the holidays?
Was that just lip service?
We as a world argumentatively is becoming smaller each and every day with the ability to speak within seconds all away around this world like I did this afternoon with my buddy in New Zealand who called me once again at 4:35 P.M. on 1-11-11 here in southwest Florida and while in her country it was our tomorrow 1-12-11 at 10:35 A.M. way over there, wild huh?
Am I the only person in this small sphere that we call earth that is still amazed by that?
I suppose it impresses me only because I was never an international business person, although the company I last worked for was international, got that?
My management responsibilities were here in Florida, but in five counties with five stores thus the need for me traveling by car three thousand miles a month in our state. I remember that position with fond memories.
I was still that multi-tasker self that made me a ‘dynamo’ by some standards at least that’s what many called me and I wore it with pride. Never a bossy boss but always had my sale personnel in the top five of an international company!
Ahhh memories… doing something that you are good at are always a plus; sadly they went under or is that belly up, but not due to me; thank heavens and that is the only reason I stopped working for them or I would still be there doing what I loved.
Well, maybe not in this delicate condition.
Any-who, I am determined to not be in my last hoorah!
There is much more going to come out of this woman; mark my words…
My exercise program has been daily no matter how I feel since I am so determined!
Let’s face it we are pretty incredible works of mastery, aren’t we?
And that alone makes us capable of hitting the bottom and rising again to the top!
So to be honest with you and myself I am not by any means done with any of this yet, I will come back as I have before.
Why you could call me the comeback kid!
No stopping any of us when we are on a mission of self improvement or helping others; I think there are little elves or maybe angels that get on board with that! HA!
Whatever the case I hear my dad in my ear saying when you have reached the bottom the only place is up from there, right?
Only you can stop your own recovery from not thinking positive and trying your hardest to do what you know you can accomplish! There are no limits when you have good on your side.
So world let’s all be the best we can be and humane and caring and loving and whatever it takes to make this a world one we all can be proud of, after all it’s the only one we got!

On that note of cheerful suggestions please let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Monday, January 10, 2011

Venomous

I can remember when that word above only referred to snakes being poisonous.
But now we use it for the way human beings talk about and treat each other, how sad that our times have changed with that meaning being so casual and unfortunately turning up way too often in our news casts nightly, huh?

It makes me want to scream: "PLAY NICE EVERYBODY!"
Gosh and I was a bit of a bratty child.
But thank heavens my parents stuck with me and taught me right from wrong which did sink in!
What is going on in this world when us grown ups act more like rotten kids than kids do, although that is questionable from the nightly news reports?
Come on folks we are supposed to set an example for them, and I mean a good one not a VENOMOUS ONE!
Not so funny peeps this is serious.
Someone kiddingly suggested that we should become licensed before becoming parents and some days I wonder if that was not such a bad idea.
Dear Sarah Palin is being somehow held responsible for being way too gun-ho with her colorful speech patterns and artwork of discussing people she apparently has a dislike for being in the crosshairs of whatever her weapon of choice is of the week.
Well, Sarah some of us gals still prefer those cute panties with the days of the week printed on them, but ohhh excuse me that would be too sexy we know that the word ‘sex’ is verboten in your household or is that ‘sex education’, but ‘reload’ is music to your ears!
Funny how some of us girls of the older variety still have an issue with weapons as the final accessory to any well dressed Ex-governor's evening wear or our own for that matter, but we are a wee bit different; most of us anyway. Although, I am pretty sure there are many women out there in AMERICA, PS my land too, who do feel as you do. Why I have an old friend who also loves to hunt as you do, but she lives all alone in the mountains of NJ, bear country!

I don’t know what influenced that monster of a young male to do what he did, but if during his interrogation he at all mentions that he was hearing the hate mongers spew their hate from every form of media that would listen due of course to free speech, but had the right to congregate too in different in-person venues I would think that any of those involved should rethink their negative passions being excreted all over the land that we all do love…Since we DO HAVE TRIGGER HAIRED TEMPERED PEOPLE OUT THERE,YA HEAR?
Not everyone is stable and able to differentiate from what is just political rhetoric and horrendous mob mentality creating venom!
So be careful with those words that you seem to feel so strongly about folks remember you have no idea who is listening, and yes become a wee bit paranoid it is good to check those hatred mean words before they go forth and pollute our airwaves, and air in general. That thing you learned as a child about, “sticks and stones may break your bones and names may never hurt you”, well it is a bunch of BULL S--T, and you better believe it!
The recent suicides prove that with all those bullies and remember to think clearly before listening too much to anyone who purports that you should not like this person or that thing… THINK FOR YOURSELF! Keep always believing in the good of mankind and womankind too! And read about anything you need to know about and be voracious in informing yourself to get the vastness of the information available to you if you do your own homework and research from many of the sources, don’t be lazy, really care. Weak minds are lazy; inquiring minds never are.
I am so sorry for this rant of talking to intelligent men and women as if they don’t know a thing and I do know that my readers are too smart and know what to do in any situation, since free thinkers love to read these things, right?

Any-who please don’t take offense my reach, was to those who probably never ever read this sort of thing, oh well… I did try.

For you, the good people who do read this blog please know that I want to be the first to wish you all a very a happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Defining

Is one of the ways that can be used to describe a person’s character by this or that in the sense that how they act in tight situations; it is defining.
If anyone has become backed into a corner and had to make a decision on their way out of handling that sticky problem with smart choices would therefore be considered the right alternative and positive behavior.

And so when someone does something in spite of or because they are not happy with another’s behavior than that is quite defining too and I would go as far as saying not too good, huh?
It’s a daily thing with most of us living our lives, those choices…
Bad or good some would say everything in life is either that or black and white; too simple I ask where is the gray?
I seem to always see the gray.
Except when it comes to telling the truth in life that for some reason I am stuck in needing to be around honest truthful people…
And when anyone takes advantage of my trust by lying I go berserk!
Does anyone else?
Some people believe not telling the truth or all the truth unless asked specifically that it is not a lie, got that?

Here’s a hypothetical problem for you all… Someone you know when asked if they smokes cigarettes says no, and then weeks later when again confronted due to an odor of smoke emanating from them admits to smoking only cigars!
Is that considered lying?
You see here is where I am confused.
Are partial truths lying or not?
Any-who, to me it is always disturbing to not be able to trust someone who does not have a clear cut objective of knowing the difference between what is true or not, got that?
Some say it is a flaw of inheritance; another question of nature over nurture.
Others would say more the latter and that would be if they see a parent lying and getting away with it then they think they can too?

Hmmm, I would have to think back hard to try to remember all those years ago when my sons were small if I ever was that blatantly dishonest in front of them or even behind their backs. And I am coming up empty, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do it. I really hope that I didn’t.
Now I suppose I can see that gray with lying too.
Many don’t realize when doing such a thing how its ramifications may affect others, really?
Hibernating to come through perhaps years later, oh I don’t know but it still hurts when you catch someone you care about in a lie!
This lying to protect thingy gets me the most confused.
Doesn’t the bible say the truth will set you free?
Well, that’s rather hypocritical of someone who hasn’t picked up a bible in I don’t know how many years like myself!
You see that?
I am the one who is guilty of too much information, not too little!
It must seem to most people as if I am always confessing, huh?
I may be for fear of something dreadful going to happen if I don’t tell the truth and to everyone, wow that’s scary!
But that would explain a lot of this exposé that I try not to leave anything out that might be relevant for the Almighty’s wrath coming down on me, I guess I am not that Agnostic after all, ha.

That would prove to be something most definitely defining of my own character, huh?

A preponderance of an idea for us all to think about when we regain that time we are always running out of, well isn't it worthy of your reflection, but that’s me TMI Tobi?


On that note of a challenge to all of you to try to be first honest with yourselves and then with everyone you care about and so now I will wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and please share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

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...