Saturday, April 30, 2011

Busy Day Home and Garden Show and Save the Ta-tas, Decorate a bust or bra contest

“EVENT: THINK PINK ON THE PIER, an all day breast cancer awareness event featuring Memorial Survivor Walk, "Save the Ta-tas, Decorate a bust or bra contest", Stiletto Sprint, Cocktail "Cool Down" and live entertainment. Come support participating merchants providing Pink on the Pier merchandise! Registration forms available at Merchant stores or register on line now for each event: images/THINK PINK Walk registration1.doc. images/Think Pink Decor. reg...doc, images/THINK PINK Stiletto registration 1.doc. Call 941 575-3067 for details.”

After we went to the obligatory Home and Garden Show that has become a bi-annual tradition with us and realizing once again we wanted and needed for nothing that they had to offer at this time. Foolishly while there I once again registered for junk mail and phone calls that have proven in the past to annoy us, but at least this time I gave our home phone number which does not have voice mail or any other way for us to know if they missed us when we went out, yep I fooled them!

Any-who, it was one of those famous companies offering a fifty thousand dollar home makeover contest and if we did win it that would price us out of this neighborhood because the last house across the street sold for, get this… twenty-five thousand dollars! Although, it is not on the water like we are and another home across the canal just sold as I was told via email this morning from its next door neighbor for a whopping seventy-five thousand! I must admit before all hello broke loose the house three away from us also on the water sold for nearly four hundred thousand and the empty lot that had a home on it next door to us before Hurricane Charley hit in 2004 as vacant waterfront lot status got it sold for one hundred and twelve thousand, but whose keeping track these days; not me…
It’s crazy the real-estate market as many well know.
And so I spun the wheel sort of like a Wheel of Fortune wheel, but with objects that you could win and I won a …. Wait for it…. A bottle opener!
And now they have all my information for the big drawing and I happened to facetiously say “now how much junk mail will I be getting?” And the one woman said do you know how to unsubscribe? And I thought that was rather an insult and I let her know that!
And again stated my savvy years onboard this computer train; well, one of my qualifications I find myself spewing these days is that I even write a blog, and so she ran after me and wanted to know it’s title and therefore its address!
Dummy here gave it all to her, uh oh, darn what could I have been thinking?
You got that right, I wasn’t.
Thus I felt the necessity to NOT mention the company's name which by the by is out of Fort Myers and has showrooms that offer discounted prices, when you become a member, and it is not a warehouse club, their repertoire includes kitchens, baths and furniture! If you guessed Direct Buy, I won’t tell you if you are right or wrong.

Totally finished our browse through in less than half an hour at the local convention center on the water in River City AKA Punta Gorda and so we looked for some more desirable entertainment and it was nearing toward lunch time …we soon found ourselves at Fishville once again and they had pink ribbons lining the entrance since today's first paragraph was what I copied from their events program and somehow I ended up with a pink rose:

I guess it is more red than pink. The reason I believe they gave me one is because I mentioned my Mom had had breast cancer and she really did have a radical mastectomy and that I had had three lumpectomies and they were giving them to all the survivors and families of them although my Mom died two years after from a stroke, a week before her seventieth-first birthday, way back in 1982. After we received the rose I felt terrible because my lumpectomies thankfully were all benign and I almost gave it back, but even then they said you’re a survivor. Oh well, I still feel like a fraud since I know too many who are now going through it who are true survivors and stalwart and amazingly so, but they never ever seem to let me tell them but…MINE WERE BENIGN! I get the three lumpectomies out and it seems everyone assumes they were cancerous and so now I am coming clean, so far I have been very lucky as far as breast cancer goes…I HAVE BEEN BENIGN! I suppose I coward out due to their situations and me wanting to be so understanding, but that is true people believe if you have been through it you know better than someone who hasn’t been…oh I am so ashamed.

I know now that I am fortunate since so many have not been as lucky as me. Cancer is a two way street you either survive it or you die from it; sadly, no really gray territory.
And yet many I know like my first cousin, Audrey, who had bi-lateral mastectomies survived for years but with lymph edema, a swelling of her arms, she did live to the ripe old age of eighty-four, but in spite of her torturous experience never ever complained.
Some people are just too good too be true and she was.
And others are like me.

We did prepare for the heat with a cooler filled with my icepacks for my cooling vest; we thought today that we might be taking it out for a test drive, but the village had a nice waterfront breeze and of course the convention center was air-conditioned.
I don’t know why I did what I did but now it is out in the open I feel more awful than ever.

On that curious confession, I need you all so much and I know I profess to always tell the truth and omission is dishonest and so it seems that I am not unlike the many, and not perfect ever… but who is?

On that weird logic let me be the first to tell you to have a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly to count your blessings and share your overages and we will too!

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

Friday, April 29, 2011

Standards

Principles and values define standards.
I love our human race that feels that we all know the right way it is going to work for all people from a very young age. Sure, logic tells us our children learn by example and if we do everything right and true they also will become right and true too, correct?
Sadly though, by some undefined interventions of others in their life and the fact that they do have brains and are not confined to only your own home and therefore are of free choice and ability. The best laid plans and all just sometimes doesn’t work out!

Sure we should all presume to teach our children daily what is a loving understanding family and hopefully when they grow into those men and women that we hope for that they too will be loving and caring and tried and true etc, etc, etc…
Oops! It doesn’t always work out that way though...

This always amazes me, oddly enough if you have two children in the same family who have the same parents they will become so different as adults and that’s the same with five or more siblings too, all different with very dissimilar personalities.
When I hear parents saying that because they do this or that it will assure that the child will be this or that way…sorry folks; it doesn’t work that way!
Thinking for themselves and decision making oddly enough becomes a part of their lives early on. Sure if you want them to be isolated from others and not able to think or decide for themselves then and only then will you possibly produce a parrot or even an Eddie Haskell. Anyone who grew up in the nineteen-fifties knows who that is; for those who don’t, in the Leave It To Beaver TV Show he was a friend of the Beaves older brother, Walley. Eddie was nice to all the adults being oh so sweet, saccharin sweet actually, to all parents and evil to the Beave and other kids he wanted to get even with; he was a conniver and trouble maker while all the time smiling at the grownups like a little angel! Very two faced. A trivia fact is though the actor who portrayed the character of Eddie did grow up to become a Los Angeles police officer and I understand quite an angel in the city of angels.

Crazy as it may seem sometimes the worse parents seem to produce some of the best kids who turn into responsible capable productive loving adults. Believe it or not I have seen it happen and I do believe it is because they look at those people and learned from them what NOT to do. Now this is just an observation. But I have seen neglected children go completely the other way with their own children. And too loving parents produce selfish bratty horrid people. It’s a shame they don’t come with a handbook, because raising them is definitely a crap shoot.
My own two sons are very independent well educated capable responsible loving adults and yet one is more family oriented and caring than the other, same parents treated the same way.
Although, it would be unjust to say that when they grew to a certain point of a changed behavior we as only humans can honestly say react to that behavior accordingly. And some children are more strong willed than others with their own ideas and concepts.
But in truth right from wrong is taught by all parents to their children by the age of three.
And the other thing is true to almost everyone that anything anyone needs to know in life you learn in Kindergarten.
Mostly interpersonal relationships and when to talk and when not to, and of course when to nap, LOL!
Thanks for allowing me to discuss what I have been observing all these years and even though I did take about two years of abnormal child psychology it doesn’t work in the real world and so my recommendation from raising two smart men would be to use your instincts since they are usually more than right when it comes to your own little loves…
For that is what we must let them all know each and everyday that no matter what, WE DO LOVE THEM UNCONDITIONALLY!
That’s all…

On that tried and true method of child rearing I would like to be the first to say to you to have a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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

PS Congrats to the newlyweds, Kate and Will, some kids turn out just great, huh?

Thursday, April 28, 2011

600

Fuigita Scale for tornadoes is similar to the Sofer Simpson Scale for hurricanes.

FO is minor damage with winds 42-72 MPH,
F1 is 73-112 MPH winds with moderate damage,
F2 is 113-157 MPH winds with considerable damage,
F3 is 158-206 MPH winds with critical damage,
F4 is 207-260 causing severe damage,
F5 261-318 MPH winds with total destruction,
And lastly an F6 is a theoretical category with immeasurable damage.

Anyway, you look at it and think that the ‘F’ should stand for what it really is… that word I will NOT say it here… but you betcha that you would be, but not only that, that to date there is still no good warning system for these ‘acts of nature’ in that fact alone that no one has the know how, and that FAILURE to get the word out in a timely fashion still has not been achieved or considered even possible, which makes it even more frightening. Alarms are always discussed after this happens, but to date not many places have them.
All I know is that basements and storm shelters below ground level should be a part of all home construction, safe rooms if nothing else is possible. I don’t mean a fancy camera thing like in that movie with Jodie Foster, no I just mean one that has NO windows, like a walk-in closet or a bathroom or some other facsimile will do in a crunch.
Even our hallway with doors closed worked for Hurricane Charley 2004, but I doubt it would for a tornado below ground is what I understand is more efficient, but I suppose in an instant of choice it would have to do, also bathtubs with mattresses saved some lives after Hurricane Andrew hit back in 1992, when we saw apartment buildings sawed in half and people survived those by the mattress tub method; who knows… whatever it takes get to somewhere safe, take a class or something.

You see, we as a world seemed to be doomed to have nature have its way with us and the least we can do is know of a way of surviving the inevitable, huh?
Scared and devastated by all those horrendous tornadoes coming without warning during all times of the day and night and all those deaths. It makes you think of what if… yes, what if I were in that situation what would I do? Most say, nothing, since there is no warning and no way to give you any, but what if there were?
Then what, we should all plan, we do get watches and warnings and I would suggest that is when we should go into our safety modes and take our radios or TV’s with us into our safe places to keep us posted on when it is safe to come out, how about that for an idea?

Listen folks we have to keep aware and up on all these natural disasters for the next one could be yours. And for the six southern American states that have gone through this latest devastation our hearts and concern for all of you is more than you could ever imagine and our condolences goes out to all those who lost loved ones; it was more than anyone should ever have to endure. And we mean that sincerely.

People if you cannot go physically there to help in the aftermath send money to the Red Cross or any other legit organization telling them where you want it to go this time… seems like it never ends these days… huh?
Sadly and fearfully I do worry if this is all not a prelude to another hideous hurricane season for us here, and unbelievably most of the states recently hit with those tornadoes also have been previously in the line of fire for hurricanes too…SCARY, why is someone testing our human resolve; I mean the entire world not just us. Gosh if the crazies of the world who hate any of us, our enemies, couldn’t have planned it better to harm us… what an absolutely horrible thought on my part. We are all good people on this planet; at least 99% are!
I hear you dad, that’s what he would say!

Let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

OH BOY HERE I AM TONIGHT AND STILL LEARNING THE ROPES OF...

MS, Multiple Sclerosis, I had a bad night with low blood pressure causing my dizziness in upright positions thus my inability to write here last night and sitting, and of course by the time I got to the medical office it was all very normal blood pressure wise. I suspect since I take most of my meds in the morning, ha! And to be honest the dizziness seems to be not getting any better, but comes and goes… what to do what to do? I do know I have Ataxia, which does cause this along with everything else. But it has always been mostly when I zigged when I should have zagged while using the walker and turning thus the zigzag motions, got it?

Any-who, all my other issues were head shook into a statement of it’s your MS, cervical stenosis, high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart etc. of course.

You see, I have seven types of arthritis out of the more than one hundred different ones there are. Just to put a name to mine here I go…had Osteopenia now Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, Basilar joint arthritis, Spondylosis, Sjogren's Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and that cervical stenosis, yep that makes seven, right?

Interestingly enough I was told that my belly protrusion was more than likely caused by having lost about four inches in height thus the belly outing and the Osteoporosis pushing it out due to degeneration of my spine that it causes; that sounds yucky, huh? Well that’s a great excuse, but now does that also mean that my tummy crunches are all in vain? I sure hope not and even this morning I did them to a sixty count along with my other floor exercises of sixty reps each, I am determined!

Any-who, Hubby took me out to lunch to the Cracker Barrel, since the medical facility is nearby Highway I75 and so, is the restaurant. I had broiled trout since it was a low carb fare and came with a choice of three sides all vegetables also of the low carb variety, but still it was way too much and I ended up taking one veggie home. Hubby had the hot roast-beef open-faced sandwich and his usual black coffee with sugar and I had my unsweet iced tea with extra lemons.

It feels good to be ‘back in the saddle again’ as the expression goes, cowboy song title… by Gene Autry and Ray Whitley circa 1939. In my case it is just a metaphor for doing my blog, but you all knew that, silly me, TMI Tobi at it again!

I guess I am back in that saddle writing to you all once again that is. My joy of this is a significant reason for me to look forward to something that makes me happy, especially when I get feedback. Oddly enough Hubby’s note about me not feeling well enough to write last night got a few more hits than my usual blog has received to date, and again I was slightly jealous,.

Moving on…
Hubby just announced that so far our tomato garden has given us a yield of 100 tomatoes and more to come, WOW! Last night he did give over a dozen away to that nice neighbor who gave us those lovely gifts Sunday the lily plant and candy and Skipper treats, more to be distributed soon I sure hope so, since our cup runneth over. I wish some of my Facebook friends lived closer like that one gent who gave us the concert tickets boy wouldn’t that be great to be able to give back something healthy and tasty! So small a reciprocating idea but would be done with true appreciation and not a lot of monetary ability. Well, lately the price per pound of tomatoes is nearly as high as our gas prices so maybe if I gave him about ten pounds it would be more even, huh? Did you know that the tomato is also considered a natural anti-inflammatory, how nice; I must eat more?

On that note or realization let me please be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask 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?

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Hubby Here…..

Tobi is not feeling very well tonight so she won’t be writing tonight.

She should be back tomorrow night to fill you all in on this and other things.

Hubby

Monday, April 25, 2011

Pleasant Exhaustion

Are you wallowing in the afterglow? How many of you ran yourselves ragged doing what you love yesterday?
I bet you were taking care of family and making sure they had a wonderful time at your home and I bet they did, and now have memories for a lifetime.
Enjoy it now and never ever forget these hectic times, why you ask?
I will tell you why; because for some of us they sadly end way too soon.
Moving too faraway or people passing on or children growing up and moving away too or anyone of number of reasons or excuses can be the cause of it all coming to an abrupt end.
Illness of not being able to do what you used to love and everyone respecting that you can’t. And when traveling to them is also not possible on your to-do list; causes people to stop asking. It is just the normal evolution of things and part of a very miserable, at times, reality.
I guess I have what I fondly call the after holiday blues… Geez would that make a great song title or what?
Let’s try it:

I love my family and they love me but where are they now?
I love my family and they love me but where are they now?
We used to cook and bake and shake the holidays away and sing a song of happy times all the day long but where are they now?
I got the after holiday blues, and that’s not good news oh no that’s not good news and sadly I did not choose these awfully sad time holidays blues.

Oh well, I tried, sort of… you would have to imagine an appropriate tune, in my mind I imagine a slinky salty sad toned thirties/ forties-ish vintage blues song of course, to go with it and of course the refrain would be the last line. I could probably use a few more soulful verses, but you get the idea, huh?
I suppose I am not much of a song writer but I do think that jazz and blues music is timeless and when I did sing I enjoyed doing those as much as I could.
Oh that singing was around the house, by the by, not in public, but at this time I had taken up voice lessons again as an adult and was given the lyrics to shows like, ‘Aint Misbehavin’ what great songs by Fats Waller and others! The only reason I gave you the site from Wikipedia is because it has both acts' songs lists and I am pretty sure you will remember many of them just copy and paste: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_Misbehavin%27_(musical)

The show was on Broadway in 1978 and won many awards, although those iconic lyrics are from the 1920’s.
I thought since I sort of started out with my Pitiful Pearl complaining lament that I should try once again to turn it all back into lemonade from those lemons that I served up, huh? How did I do?

Let’s say OK, OK? On that note of; I said what? I would love to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all of your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The day proved that we can have peace in our lives and good friends too!

“We don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change.” A fortune from my cookie that came with our Chinese food delivery, Hubby’s was, “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” How prophetic and insightful for both of us; and I am sure you all think that having Chinese food delivered on Easter is not right, or perhaps you are sorry you didn’t think of it?
We did have a lovely surprise earlier today our neighbor from across the street unexpectedly brought over a lovely Easter lily plant with some Easter candies, jelly beans and Reese’s peanut butter eggs, and even treats for Skipper, but wouldn’t come in for a while since she wasn’t feeling well and was concerned she might be contagious, too sweet and unexpected. When asked why and me also insisting that she shouldn’t have all she said is because she loves us! Wow, that was way too much. Here’s the beautiful lily plant.

See isn’t it just incredibly beautiful?

Let’s get back to those fortunes how amazing are they with being so on target with all that has been going on in our lives, crazy as if there were a hidden camera here.
Truer words were never said. Tonight Hubby and I chose a slightly different fare and went with LoMeins, his pork and mine was lobster and the small ones that we both have enough for another meal were only $3.75 each and then we also got a large egg drop soup for $2.75 and they deliver, isn’t that terrific? And almost every year they have been giving out wonderful calendars for our kitchen.

Last night Hubby overwhelmed me with bringing in an additional abundance of tomatoes from our garden, and the count as of last night was up to ….drum roll please… 87 and still counting! And here is a bowl full:

Beauties, huh? After we share as much as we can with our neighbors we will be freezing most of the rest; I would really hate for them to go bad it would be obscene in this day and age!

We spent most of the day relaxing and watching old movies like Ghostbuster 2, and last night we finally saw the King’s Speech, excellent!
Friday night was 2010 version of Gulliver’s Travel with Jack Black a little unorthodox but cute in a raw twenty-first century way. A far cry from the original one they used to show us along with the Swiss Family Robinson on rainy days at Penner’s Lake day camp in Upper Saddle River, NJ, in the early 1960’s!We have an eclectic taste to say the least; you must admit.

“Happy Passover to anyone who celebrates that and Happy Easter to any who celebrate that too! We as a nation must learn to respect all of our commonalities as well as our differences and then we can consider ourselves the leaders that we once were in this world; hate does NOT cut it! G-d Bless America! Hate has no place in our country!”

This morning I wrote this on my Facebook page and took a tremendous chance on how or if I would hear about it with positive or negative ramifications. In reality it is Not at all controversial. I suppose many who did not agree said nothing and only three men came forward to be kind enough to show a form of approval and for that I thank them and you all know who you are.
And that is how I will leave you all tonight with a bit more food for thought and so let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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

PS Happy Easter PEEPS! I hope yours was everything you expected it to be.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Nike 3!

Here’s the deal a Portland Oregon man named Dan Wieden penned the ‘Just Do It’ campaign for Nike for the 1988 Olympics, how about that, nearly twenty-three years ago.
More info on the true story of whence it came is here, copy and paste this site: http://blog.oregonlive.com/playbooksandprofits/2008/07/nike_celebrates_just_do_it_20t.html

My reasoning for playing the Nike card once again is not only since it acquired my most impressive response ever; it is because it has shown to have the resiliency of the test of time.
The meaning can be quite obscure or quite poignant; most will agree, and when we use it indiscriminately most everyone knows what we mean, how truly odd?
Its affect is international, amazingly wonderful, don’t you think?

People in the game of teaching people how to be effective in business may very well use the phrase in their arsenal of catchalls verbiage, perhaps?
I would think that to ‘Just Do It’ would be a good way to accomplish any important task at hand.

Motivational speakers always use the power of positive thinking in their training others to get to where they want to be, correct?
And so ‘Just Do It’, would not be that farfetched a lament for them as well?
Come on folks how many times a day do you try to reach for that logical phrasing of how to get someone you care about to take that final step and getting their job done?
Now you’ve got it, oh but I am sure you already did.

Parents of ornery children have their end all refrain too, “Just Do It”, see how versatile it can be; just try tomorrow incorporating it into your own daily conversations, nothing to lose and please get back to me with the results, just do it, OK?

Any-who, moving on…
Today was another gorgeous day in paradise, but alas too hot for me to leave the home-front. I did find things to do within our palatial manor.
Hubby cut from a piece of plywood we had purchased for the repair of the shed doors a waving flag for me, he primed it and penciled the thirteen stripes for me to paint red. I had found the blue and white star section in my clip art and enlarged it to be decoupage on the stripes in the proper location. Hubby even cut into the flag a pole which I painted with my gold acrylic paint too. For additional treatment of my latest folk art piece I found more clip art to accompany my homage to the summer holidays, starting with Memorial Day, next Flag Day, then the Fourth of July, and lastly Labor Day, with a nice Glorious Summer right in the middle. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words and so here I go once again:


This particular door decoration, which is what all my others are too will go up next month, and yes I do know that June 21st is the first legal day of summer, and Memorial Day is on the 30th of May this year but why not I say, and here I go, I am just going to do it! So there I am saying with my adult tongue sticking out once again.

On that silly note of a spoiled child attitude but with definite decision capabilities 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, ya hear?

Friday, April 22, 2011

Earth Day!

Earth Day is a day to celebrate the earth and its natural environment, is that not redundant? We started to honor this place we all call home on April 22, 1970! Gosh the same date as today, wow, that has to be some type of anomaly or something? Oh wait, it is one of those holidays that kept its date even if it doesn’t fall on a three day weekend, how about that, interesting and frugal and conservative too, huh?
Of course the earth is natural since it is made up of dirt, rocks, water, floras, oil, minerals, coral, and such, correct? And we should celebrate all that daily, right?

Oh that’s right; we all dirtied it up with building stuff on it and using up its natural resources and so one day a year we should pay homage to that?
I’m confused but as we all know it doesn’t take much to confuse this gal.
You see, I thought that we, as a human race, are trying to undo what we have done, by recycling, reusing and reducing, sounds noble and like a really good idea.
Aren’t we all supposed to be doing that all year long though?
Gosh, am I the only one who tries to do that daily?
Nah, I know you are all out there too….HELLO?
Yep, you are there I can feel you that was just an expression my dear paranoid readers, kidding, LOL!
Any-who, we as a people of this planet that we need to be on to exist must become better 'stewards' as the saying goes, and no they are not just a plane or ship attendant, property manager, hotel or club manager, or shop manager or guide… all important but not in this reasoning, bud dump bum.

Stewards are the keepers, warden or park rangers, hmm, yes this planet would look more park-like if we took better care of her, and yes I used the female pronoun since I do know most of you have heard the term, MOTHER EARTH, correct?
Soot, chemicals and nasty fumes pollute our air and hurt our ozone layer which causes us to get skin cancer, and not recycling fills our waste plants with too much garbage that adds to those fumes and soils our soil, got that?
Slap us all silly it has been forty-one years since we became aware and started to do something about it all, but why is it taking all of us so darn long to get the job done?
And perhaps since we did that we did buy ourselves a few thousand more years but who really knows and what then I ask?…Landfills are dwindling even so we are trying and it is proof by the air pollution is diminishing in many cities and cleaner waters inland that are showing some improvement but there is so much still to get done and we must tell ourselves everyday to think that way. We must not slack off!
Remember the simple three ‘R’s’ of Earth Day’s daily concept: RECYCLE, REUSE, REDUCE!
I know I sound like a broken record but we all know the drill and we are so responsible for our own doing better in all things in life, true?

Hubby reminded me of another new acronym, actually a paddle board company that has been mentioned twice to us most recently, once in the Randy Wayne White novel we both read called Night Vision, and our Southern Living magazine that we just received yesterday, YOLO and you should all think about incorporating it into your repertoire too of initial use and now for what it means and I know you will all laugh since it is so simple and logical…. Drum roll once again please…. 'You Only Live Once!' Sorry Shirley Maclaine and all others who believe we return in any other form; I do apologize but the sentiments are honest, and we all must admit that reincarnation is quite resourceful and would be one of the three ‘R’s’, and I do hope that was not sacrilegious?

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

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

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Three strikes and I am not out...

Yet! Although, subliminally I am sure that is why today again I forgot to take my Copaxone shot. I called the support nurse to confess and she said that I could take it now; at the time it was about four thirty in the afternoon. I usually take my injections in the morning, but it was OK to do it then. I guess my schedule is more flexible than I thought, darn. Sorry to sound like such a kid, but if you didn’t know when I asked my neurologist at my last visit on the eleventh of this month, if I could take a break from this MS relapse repellent juice, she said that it is working and that I should continue with it.
I had mixed emotions and almost argued that since the January MRI showed that I was stable with no new active lesions that I thought it would be just hunky dory to take a six month absence without leave this coming July, huh?
But she said basically if it’s not broke, don’t fix it or something similar and besides the logic with this shoot ’em up junk is to prevent exacerbations not a cure-all, there still aren’t any…oh well… My new provider is no longer NORD but now ASSIST RX, and I applied on 4/12 the day after I saw the doc and so I should hear back soon about the next grant for my shots which are finished in July if I don’t…hmm…

Any-who today was rather quiet with doing this and that not too much; I did make homemade clam chowder and it made for a tasty lunch with the nice baguette from the bakery. Dinner was a disaster as far as my original plan went I was going to put a chopped lean beef and rice concoction into a rather large squash that we purchased last week and after starting the thick tough gourd in the microwave before filling it with the beef mix to place in the oven to finish it, I noticed it had white pearly stuff coming out of it, which did not look too Kosher, and yes, I do know this is not a typical Passover Seder meal! We are not always so religious, food-wise, us of three faiths between us!
Any-way, Hubby and I both decided, thankfully before I filled it that it would be better off added into our composter instead, the vote was unanimous. Heaven knows what that was…Fortunately, the rest of the meal was still clean since it never touched the squishy squash, not really it was still quite tough, and the meat and rice was jazzed upped with stewed tomatoes, a bit of tomato sauce and some Texas Pete, hmm good! Dinner was saved! I had originally sautéed the lean beef with onions and chopped whole garlic cloves and a bit of ginger, sodium free beef bullion and soy sauce the additions including a bit of brown sugar added to the flavor base, not half bad.

Meanwhile, Hubby just came in with another load of our own tomato crop so far the total brought in is …. Drum roll please…53 and counting!
The types are beef steak and plum, hmm.
When we get so many at a time I do a little bit of Martha Stewart to them, a fancy sort of oven prep. Here it is, slice the tomatoes thinly by whatever means you have hand, device, or machine then spray a large glass or nonstick container and lie the slices in drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar, garlic slivers or powder, basil fresh or dried,teaspoon of sugar or artificial sweetener packets and then slide the concoction into a preheated 300 degree oven for one hour then lower the temperature to two hundred and continue to heat all tomatoes until they appear almost freezed dried looking, flat and thin, most liquid will remain and is excellent for dipping any Italian bread or baguettes. Jar-up the tomatoes and use in soups, salads or sauces for pizza or pasta! They should keep for a few weeks in the fridge.

On that idea to heat up your home and to get a delish dish! Let me be the first tonight to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count those blessings and we will too!

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

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Nearly a normal beginning to my morning although a wee bit more so since I awoke earlier than I have been...

I check my email every morning after I turn this thing on, how else?
I have two addresses that I use, one more than the other.
My older one is where I got a slightly at first unpleasant surprise.
I found the so-called ‘cute’ Easter e-card that I received rather insulting and not that funny, but then again I suppose I may have sent, on occasion some of a similar caliber.

Any-who, the surprise was due to whom it was from… my X-best friend of forty-one years that for I don’t know why I did it but I wished her a happy birthday last month on the Ides of March. And during all our friendship years she would warn me to beware of that day!
I honestly for years I must have had my Norm Crosby ears on because I thought she was saying be aware of the Ides of March, as if I should know about it for our English class? LOL! Yep that was a joke friends.
So I never took it as a warning of not trusting her; until our falling out in June of 2004.
That is one topic that I will not delve into too specifically to protect all involved, but it was her taking the side of one of my family members and not understanding what was actually going on that caused the stalemate and I suppose years may have somewhat of a healing affect, sometimes a little bit but not entirely.
I still have mixed emotions about what transpired after, I wrote back to her and gave her too much catching up info, including a copy and paste of what I wrote as info for my Facebook page and access to this blog.
Oh well, that’s me an open book.
We had many good years as friends and confidants, but somehow things changed and sadly I truly feel they may never ever be the same again, so why bother reuniting?
To the good of conversation and the net we were able to catch up on both sides of the northern and southern exposures of our sunset of our lives.
Life is too short to not try a little to mend some fences and wouldn’t that be nice, since in recent years I have burned down so many of mine, but she doesn’t know that yet.

For me to change my life for the last quarter down, to make it mean something it would be a wonderful challenge to try to get back that joy I once had of having so many people I could pick up the phone to count on for being there. Not to be physically there at this time and distance that would be too frivolous of me to expect, but emotionally; that’s all any gal needs and isn’t that what friends are, sounding boards for those major decisions in life and they will not be critical or judgmental just there to listen and be there for you as your cheering squad?

She had mentioned visiting possibly, but I did not say one way or another to do it, since these days we are not the host or hostess we used to be when more able and not as much fun either consequently. And so I rather have people just drop by for a hello than too much pomp and circumstance that drives us all crazy with preparations. Is that so wrong?

Moving on…
On that additional glimpse into my heart and my dark soul of yore let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to please count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

And so we went over to the library and to the social security office for my replacement social security card, after that to the tax collector for my new I.D.…

Boring to some but productive to others, especially for me!
At our first stop Hubby got out to return two books at our local library branch and picked up a book that was on hold for him, one I had recommended and already read, but had to be returned weeks ago due to it being a newer one.

Next stop was the social security office just up the highway 41 the Tamiami Trail about four miles.
Due to the fact that I had not been able to locate my card, I do believe my social security card was in the rubble from the hurricane since so much was damaged by water.
Any-who, but the original copy of the card from when we married and from when I went for the name and address change duplicate, which is good for nothing, was still stapled to the oversized green and white poster board quality paper saying that would you believe it was, ‘NO GOOD FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES’?
It was forty plus years old and was still in tack like our marriage certificate and even my ancient birth certificate. Gosh, how in the world do people in their eighties and nineties manage to gather all this stuff when they are requested to renew a license of even just for an I.D.? The young man in the social security office was efficient and fast and on this Tuesday believe it or not it only took a total of twenty minutes from in to out! We only had three people ahead of us when we picked number 65; they were already on number 62, perhaps that is why. I received a receipt for my application and will be receiving the actual card in about two weeks.

My receipt enabled me to acquire my new picture I.D. that would replace my lapsing driver’s license this July, and yes, I do know I have a few months left before it was up, but I like to do things before I forget to, got it?
As you may all know now you have to give them all these documents for absolute identification of yourself your birth certificate, marriage license or licenses if married more than once, divorce decrees, bills with your name and address on them oh, passport and social security card if your passport has been up like mine has been thirty-four years, since I haven’t been out of the country since the late 1960’s! This is all due to 9/11 we are told.
Well, now I am a legal (Was I not legal before? Oh yes, I have proof … my BIRTH CERTIFICATE! Take that Mr. Trump! I am sticking my adult tongue out at him.) And yes I am a legal American with my new I.D. (for a little over thirty one dollars, call ahead since they only accept certain forms of payment like cash, check (And I forgot the check book, so used to using the debit card, a VISA, and only in our case our MasterCard not our VISA); with my chubby smiling face on my new picture I.D., all I can say is that I gave an incredibly enormous ridiculous smile because all I could think of is maybe then no one will notice how fat my face along with the rest of me has gotten? A distraction, oh well, and most of my teeth are still good, ha!

For a few confusing moments there was a chance that I might have been getting just my license renewed but then I had to take the eye test… As you all know lefty can see OK, but righty is long gone… and oddly enough I thought for a second that I had aced it since they said all I needed to do was to be able to see out of one eye, and with lefty I could see the first two columns of line five which is what Kim the nice woman asked me to read, but for some reason column three was not there, and she kept asking me… what was that all about nothing was there?
Well, that’s why I decided that for the betterment of all woman and mankind on the roadways I will accept the I.D. and wait to see what the August eye surgery might be able to accomplish, and if my exercises strengthen my legs to push the gas down to over twenty miles an hour I may be back out there with the rest of you road warriors, who knows? I had to stop my exercises for a couple of days since I must have done something funky to my shoulder and hip since it was just making it worse. But for the last two days I have been back at it and even increased my reps to 60!

On that positive note of hope and well being wishes for myself and I do wish for you all as well, let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Monday, April 18, 2011

Furniture placement, latest seasonal trends in your wardrobe of five thousand years of history behind it, which VS. eight to ten marriages per TV diva with split personalities, illegitimate children long lost loves coming back from the dead for over forty years and so much more... water cooler, dorm, even in your den or nursery conversations… Will America conform to what they think we really want?

We only think we know what we want to see on our home entertainment systems; where are the true tests of time going?
Who wasn’t slightly depressed with the ending of all our previous shows like Gunsmoke, which held the title of longest running night time show and I do believe still has it till this day, but some had parties for M.A.S.H.’s finale and Cheers too, not us personally, but I’m sure many did.
Can anyone forget the Newhart Show ending where Bob wakes up with Suzanne Pleshette in his bed back in his Chicago apartment, where he had been a psychologist on his previous show; when his current ending show he had been in Vermont for all those years running an Inn with his TV wife Mary Frann? Is this confusing to anyone else? LOL!
Boy was that an ending or what? One of the truly great ones!

Well, back to tonight’s title at hand…
Apparently, ABC who’s parent company is Disney has decided for us viewers that we need a change after forty ought years of viewing two of their channels most successful Soap Operas, and I say it with love in my heart and soul.
Because I am a fan of both, but really only have watched One Life to Live faithfully I must admit, for gosh on and off for nearly forty years, since I was pregnant and on maternity leave with my eldest son who will be thirty nine next month!
All My Children is on just before it and that is also getting axed this fall, OLTL will get theirs in January 2012, so far they have not suggested my beloved General Hospital is going to have the same fate, but I so do worry!

I know change is hard, and we all deal with it daily but some things have been left alone for the betterment of all woman-kind, and yes some men too, even if they won’t admit it!
I am so sure that in five years all sadly, all soap operas will be leaving the air-waves then where will all the great actors of today be going back to Broadway to get that same daily training that being a soap star gives to them? I would list all the stars that started on the soaps but the list would take up most of my tonight’s blog oh OK here are some more recent ones that you all might know, Demi Moore, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, James Earle Jones, Hayden Panettiere, Melina Kanakaredes, Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore, Meg Ryan, Leonardo DeCaprio, Brad Pitt, Lindsay Lohan, Susan Sarandon, Josh Duhamel, Kelly Rippa, Eva Longoria Parker, David Hasselhoff, Tom Selleck, Vivica A. Fox and John Hurley to name a few, but there have been many more.
Most of my readership knows that soaps actually began on the radio in the 1930’s and originally got their name from the soap products being sold on the air and they were considered an entertaining continuing story line that kept all waiting tentatively for “what will happen next and so join us next time…”
Ah, a bit before my time that form of radio listening but I am certainly sure it was the best type of in-home nighttime entertainment with the family all huddling around that faceless box to enjoy!
They all seemed to go away with the advent of TV popularity and then they reappeared on live TV daily for about a half an hour of programming!
Who knows where all these long running shows could go, to movies or Broadway in snippets of the best moments of it all? I suppose you can compact just about anything with the where-with- all, of the know-how?

Gosh who knows where we may see Vicki or Erica turning up on our phones or computers or on TV land or wherever old shows go to …but do not ever really die…?

On that note of perhaps not too distant future for us avid soap watchers a loss with a bit of a turn around of hope… let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you to kindly to count those blessings and we will too!

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

Sunday, April 17, 2011

How are you dealing with the rising gas prices?

A loaded question I am sure.
But as most of us know as time marches on we all seem resigned to the higher prices and forget our pledges to only go here or there when absolutely necessary.
Drive higher mileage per gallon cars, or hybrids or crossovers or what-have-you to try to be more green and then all of a sudden prices at the pumps drop a bit and we go berserk with the possibility that wow, all that worry for nothing…
When will we ever learn, huh?

I suppose we are a few of the lucky ones our older car still gets not too bad mileage per gallon, less than fifteen MPG that is, and it still has less than thirty-six thousand miles on it, and it will be ten years old this August and we bought it new, but it is paid for.
At the time it was quite expensive nearly twenty-seven thousand dollars, which we though was ridiculous but that’s what most SUV’s were and ours was not a big model, one of the smaller ones and not even four wheel drive. But in Florida there is little use for them unless you like off-roading or you go back up north where mountains and ice is during the winter.
But for us it was needed to tow our boat, which in the long run we hardly ever did.
Now it is just roomier for my scooter that has its home in the back inside of it, since it breaks down to four manageable pieces that Hubby puts together within minutes wherever we go and I need it, and that’s nearly everywhere.

Ironically, I can remember in the early 1980’s when our neighbor in NJ told us about his new Toyota Camry costing him ten thousand dollars, we thought he was crazy to spend that much on a vehicle! Funny how things change that’s what I am reflecting on.
Same with gas I suspect that will happen too.
With us since we are both retired and don’t go too many places even with that not optimum MPG for some peoples' idea, we are still not gas guzzlers since we are extremely frugal with how we choose to go from point A to point B. Logically, we go to the furthest location and work our way back, but we also are fortunate that most everything we need is within a five mile radius of our home.

When I had the good fortune to go to Europe while in college back in 1969 the gas/petrol over there was, if I recall, what we are paying now or even more so; I believe we at the time we were paying less than a dollar a gallon in NJ, but that is why Europeans caught onto the smaller more economical autos years ago. PS When I got home from Europe I only had enough money left to fill my gas tank and I believe it was about five bucks!
We keep forgetting when our prices fluctuate so often, could we be in denial?

Out of all the problems out in the world today this one is the least of all the other evils, except for the need to hunt for a job via auto, but most I understand do it online, true?
I see in our futures that perhaps we will all live within walking or bicycling distance to our jobs or at least not hour long or more commutes, and of course public transportation should become more accessible to us all and that would be a tremendous aid, you betcha!
We should address these possibilities, because until we seriously find a greener way for fuel we must improvise in smart ways not to be so dependant on foreign oil, since it appears that is one of the reasons for our involvement in some of the wars, of course I know injustices of freedoms of peoples’ rights is our first priority but that is also another underlying cause, we all realize that; for I am very sure!

On that heavy thought of reasoning let me please be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Fun project ideas

The above photos are pictures of the pineapple we planted less than a year ago, just the top and here and now we are getting a new one, how about that?
The flower mixed into the pot that is growing there keeping it company is a snapdragon adding to a very multicolor in its display.
A neighbor thought that it would take seven years for it to fruit and so I sent him the photo and showed him our proof that it hadn’t.
He wrote back maybe that he had male plants and I suppose that could be true.
I kiddingly wrote back that perhaps ours was just precocious?
And suggested that the pineapple plants should maybe go out on a date?

All silliness aside gardening is always fun with your children, vegetable gardening or whatever type you yourself prefer. It is tangible evidence of doing something for a worthwhile purpose, for food or even just to beautify a space in the yard.
I think it makes kids want to help with something that gives back.

Our sons were little veggie and plant gardeners from I suppose about the age of three that seems to be a good age for such things, the helping mommy and Daddy age.
It is our rainy season as you all must well know by now June 1st through November 30th, not the best time for us to plant certain types of veggies, many flowers are fine and herbs, and lawns but here you have to be always diligent and check with your local nursery or home store where we go, online too, knowing your zone is quite helpful.
Our grapevine is growing quite extraordinary; we bought it back in 2005, and planted it on an arbor that goes to the side courtyard by our garage.
And when they turn purple then they are ripe; they are Muscadine grapes! Actually, they are better wine than eating grapes, and Hubby has been collecting them and freezing them to possible try to do that?

You see, when Hubby was still working we took a short day trip and went to one of the thirty vineyards in our state and that is when we brought the little vine home and it was small it came in a six inch pot. We had this silly romantic concept to visit all of them, and we would have but with all those hurricanes threatening so much that year too, we decided to give the idea sadly a long rest. Our married version and less colorful ‘Sideways’ circa 2004, jaunt. Any-who the one we went to was only up in Bradenton Florida not too far from us, and it was the Rosa Fiorelli Winery Inc. We had been to one years before probably in the 1970’s this one was by where we used to live in NJ,it was in Egg Harbor, Renault Winery est. in 1864.

Also if you see what looks like a gutter coming out of the arbor/vine, you are right it is going into our rain-barrel which collects water from our roof gutters and behind that is our additional one and behind that is our composter! Well, aren’t we green?
Yes, we do try to be.

This picture is before we got our second twin rain barrel each one holds fifty five gallons, and those are my concept of flowers that I did try to paint on it; in an attempt to make it more beautiful? LOL! That black pot belly stove shape, it is plastic, thing behind it is the composter. This whole project started years ago, but the additional barrel was purchased when it was on sale for a third of the original’s price just about a year ago.

I thought tonight I would have some fun with thoughts with greening up ideas for the whole family! And so on that note of trying to help others not to hinder my readership let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to kindly count those blessings and we will too!

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

Friday, April 15, 2011

What bugs you?

I know… bugs; bud-dump bum.
In reality there is good in even them, and many natural scientists would get more specific on their use in the overall scheme of things in our world.

But really, have we all become numb or complacent so much so that we are not willing to put our sanity on the line and let someone know how we truly feel about this or that?
I know nightly on the news people are still picketing for what they believe is some form of injustice, and who hasn’t been involved in showing their support in some race for the cure or Gala, or other fund raiser for a more than a worthy cause?

What I’m getting at is those day to day minutia annoyances that we sometimes overlook and consequently endure.
People are basically crazy, yep you heard that right.
A few days ago Hubby and I went out to the doctor’s office, that’s right it was Monday and we have one light when we turn onto route forty-one, onto the Tamiami Trail to go left or north to her office. And at the light, there are two lanes one in either direction, a truck was parked waiting for the light to change in the far left one, which is actually not a lane for that, since it is for the oncoming cars coming from across the intersection coming the other way! Crazy! This is not a British colony! What was HE thinking and they say women are bad drivers!

And this morning we had a visitor from the Sheriff’s Office ring our doorbell with a handout, apparently we have another sex offender that has moved into our neighborhood. But to his good he has paid his dues and is out on parole living with family just a little over a block from our home! Hubby, out of curiosity more than anything else went to the state list of these offenders, and yes anyone can to see how many you have in your own neighborhood, http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender and we did, well within less than a mile of us, we have only eleven, ONLY! I used to walk this neighborhood when I had that ability to do it, and if I recall I counted at least three school bus stops! And don’t forget these are ‘only’ the ones who complied and registered, I want to know how many haven’t?
And these are all child molesters, pedophiles and the like, scary!
It’s true I do not fit their criteria but they’re many children in this transient neighborhood who more than likely do to those sick minds.
PS Hubby checked and one lives on the other side of the circle that we live on!
Should I be calmer since they paid their dues and are out on parole and I don’t meet their idea of what they frighteningly may crave, no I say!
I am not a happy camper, since none of this type of criminal has been proven to ever been able to be rehabilitated, even when sterilized!
Sincerely I don’t know how these people of this criminal background should be dealt with but some of the sentencing I think may be way too short a period to have us at large feel our children are really safe!
And sadly I have no suggestions of what to do, oh sure I do, but I might shock people.
You see, in my mind what child molesters and pedophiles do is a crime that should be punished no differently than murder and rape is in the courts at the very least!
And these people, who are especially repeat offenders as is the one we received the print out on, should be incarcerated for life without any hope of parole!
But that’s just me. This is an outrage I suppose more than the minutia I mentioned but how many have thrown those circulars away or didn’t really read them or did not realize how close that street is in comparison to where they are now living since as I said this is a very transient neighborhood and they just might not know! Oddly enough this person that was on the flier his family has lived here since 1993, five years longer than us in this particular neighborhood, how about that?
Does that give him an advantage? I sure hope not!

On that more than something to think about… Let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask 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?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Do you know your neighbors?

The days seemed to have past for the leaving your door unlocked at a time when there was no fear of anyone coming in to do anything nefarious to you or yours.

Sadly, with this working or needing to have two income homes to survive these days, many folks don’t even have the time or desire to get to know their neighbors.
And unfortunately many have no idea why havoc ensues in their particular neighborhood, could it be that we are all becoming more clueless about our surroundings?
I think that perhaps that could be true…
Go with me here.
Has anyone but Hubby and me noticed that when horrible crimes occur all over this country and neighbors are interviewed they all have a stock answer for their fifteen seconds of fame, the interview on camera, “But they seemed like such ‘NICE’ people.” Ha, and that they were totally unawares that the couple was running a human slave market or growing weed or having a meth lab, or burying all those people in their yard!
You get my point, are we all too private, polite and NOT nosy enough to wonder why all those cars at the wee hours are pulling up to that home, or why small children go in and don’t come out?
OMG! What is wrong with us?
That ‘Network’, circa 1976, line is coming into to my fingers for printing uh oh here I go… once again! “I AM AS MAD AS HELL AND I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!” That was Peter Finch as Howard Beale, all ‘us’ oldies remember that line vividly.
The latest upset of a bizarre understatement of knowing your neighbor is this young mom who drove her van with three of her four children into the Hudson River yesterday. A quote from her neighbor was, “She was always such a good mother.”
Maybe I am being too harsh and psychopaths are known for evasive ‘acting normal’ behaviors, and none of these people, ‘neighbors’ were in the mind game of psychiatry of course or soothsayers or medical professionals or profilers or in law enforcement in any way shape or form, but yet I do wonder how they can make such blanket ‘nice’ statements on behalf of these perpetrators who were their neighbors too?
And then I had an ‘AHA’ Oprah moment perhaps they were just being polite but afraid of ramifications since most of the live perps do make bail, not so stupid after all, huh?
Then that does make sense, but also makes these people look very unawares of what might lie in wait in there side, front or backyard, hmm.
It reminds me, now this is a bit of a stretch, of early WW2 when people in Europe looked the other way wanting or hoping that what was happening was NOT really happening.
On second thought it is NOT that big of a stretch really; their neighborhoods were too becoming infiltrated by untrustworthy lethal evil people who eventually showed their true colors by what they did, it took the annihilation of eleven million people to make the world to finally notice!

As responsible adults with many of us having children or grandchildren the time has come to knock on some doors and make an effort to get to know who lives by you and befriend them or at least talk to them.
To me this is just another obscene evolution of our human race that we here in America cannot take that time to get to know who is where and where they are from and what they do and would they need our help or you theirs some day. In a perfect world I suppose that would be a given, but I also believe fear is what prevents most of us from doing it, and from what I wrote above, ha I DON’T BLAME YOU!
NEVERMIND…
Take care be safe and do whatever you want but be more cautious when you say, “But they were such nice people”. Either say you never knew them except to say hi, or I can’t remember meeting them or, perhaps, ‘who were you talking about?” Might all be more honest answers? And get the truly ‘NICE’, people off the hook for being profiled for all of these crimes! Something to think about that’s all that I am saying…

On that bit of silliness, with a BIG grain of truth thrown in allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count those blessings and we will too!

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

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

I'm confused... but it doesn't take much these days, now stop that laughing!

Today, I received a postcard request for me to renew my driver’s license, which to most of you out there must be wondering whatever for, since this gal doesn’t drive these days! Besides the fact that it is up in July on my birthday like everyone else’s is up on theirs, nothing like giving you plenty of time to assemble your history of life on this planet, and boy I am certainly NOT kidding this time! (PS I could not renew online, you see if you did it ever you cannot do it again and last time I did! I tried it and it stopped me in my tracks!)
Well, I don’t drive, not for the last two and half maybe three years or more you see I have lost track, since I truly believe with my compromised eyesight and weakness in my legs that it is a safe choice for me to protect the well being of the general population at large.
And gosh this dependency thing is getting old, bugging Hubby to go here or there, but I know what I don’t do is for the betterment of man and woman kind. Oh if only we had public transportation here!

Any-who, I have given in to the fact that I will be just going to the tax assessor’s office that is where our DMV is, to only ascertain an I.D., but what I said in that first paragraph is totally true for these days you must have at least three pieces of information from your birth, marriage and working in this fine U S of A!
I have to prove that I am an American, and that my name was changed to Hubby’s last name due to legal matrimony, since they said holy doesn’t count. And that I have worked in this country via a social security card or 1099, and that we live here via a few utility bills!

Just before I came on to write tonight my cousin who lives right now outside of Cincinnati emailed saying that she will be moving soon her cat- n caboodle and all and asked if I knew any houses for rent in the eight hundred dollar a month or less category I said sure we have many!
Stupidly I did forget to tell her that I would love that; her coming down here i.e.
She’s my Cuz with MS too, in her youth she was a dead ringer for Farrah Fawcett, a college grad that worked for the airlines for many years and they wanted her to do their commercials, but she was too shy I was told by my mom, her aunt, and she’s an animal lover too, and would need a home on one floor with access to a yard. If anyone knows of one send that info through my comments here or email please. It would be much appreciated.

I did a search for a free spinal MRI and the company that I contacted said they would have some one get back to me in twenty-four hours, but alas they did not.
It was the Spine Institute coincidently the one that advertised last night on my blog; how truly odd! I think not so coincidently, do you?
Who knows…?

Any-who, today was a weird kind of day yesterday Hubby picked up a book that I was waiting for from our local library branch; the whole process from reserve to being told it had come in was done online, how great is that!
Oh, you might want to know the name of the book, huh?
Well, it is a Randy Wayne White, a local author in Sanibel who’s also a restaurateur with a few Rum Bars named for his main character 'Doc Ford’s', but he is world renowned and this is his latest called, ‘Night Vision’ and it is spellbinding and hard to put down, gee great authors hurt my good eye! Why, you ask? Well, just for the reason I mentioned, you cannot put the book down it holds your attention that well and you must continue to that next page…that’s what makes a great novel in my mind, how about yours?

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

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

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Does anybody know what plant this is?


For the last several years, at least more than a decade we have been trying to find out what the name of this plant is. We have even stumped the county extension, since I did send them pictures and they too guessed but none of the information was correct once gone to, and the nice elderly couple who originally gave it to us did not know the name either. It is in the cacti family but its thorns are not sharp and therefore do not hurt, its flowers are small star-shaped and purple velveteen in appearance, and it is a prolific reproducer.
To gain more all you have to do is stick a piece of it in dirt, and over the years we have shared many with friends and neighbors.
But not knowing what it is has always made its value not quite complete although an interesting unique attractive flora specimen it is somewhat mysterious.


Yes, what you’re seeing is a Manatee in our own backyard saltwater canal. On this particular day it was a cow and her two calves. That’s why I so love living here, wildlife abound. We have had stingrays and even a dolphin, but my least favorite is the one below.

Yep, that’s an alligator, not a crocodile, across from our dock on the other side of the canal, odd in saltwater, but not really, just not so many, so often. They have very nasty reputations for grabbing, drowning then eating whatever they can reach!
So we all know better than to feed them to make pets out of them, in fact all wildlife should be just to look at not to domesticate, but you all knew that I am sure.






Some wildlife that people fear is above, but in actuality they are not all bad this is a black racer or rat snake and that is a water dwellers friend, since it does just as the name states eats rodents, thus the sign that Hubby and I made, he cut the wood and stake and I decoupage and painted it. He did those arrows in the background for our own round-a-bout that goes around our Honey Tangerine tree, which oddly enough I have just found out that that type of tangerine is a great aid in losing weight, how about that?
It is a young tree, only three years old now and hasn’t to date been a very large producer but this year it does appear to have quite a few youngins on it so we are hopeful!

This PIC speaks for itself and this is what paradise is all about, and that is why I am proud to call this home

On that little bit of ‘I bet you didn’t know’, information allow me to be the first to wish you a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count all those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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

Monday, April 11, 2011

Who doesn't remember the idiom, “It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice?"

Some things just make memories come rushing in.
When I was a young woman in business my dad used to tell me that “it’s nice to be important but more important to be nice” and he was a very successful business man for nearly forty years with employees and customers all loving, laughing and respecting him. And so when I worked in management or as a business owner myself I always would hear those words resonate in my head and I would work hard to work well with my employees or co-workers; thus making for a much better work environment for all. The nicest thing anyone ever told me was that I was not a bossy boss and that we would be the top producing teams, which did happen.
But in life in general it is an idea that works well when teaching our children to share and behave in all that they do in the world; it teaches them to have compassion when you can put yourself in the other persons place too.
That simple sentence means so much to so many.
Equality is important more so than anything else in life, why it could be the modern version of the Golden Rule by treating others how you want to be treated, huh?
Interpretations are a dollar an explanation, but this has simplicity of definition.
Just being nice is an easy request and that should mean to think of others before ones self, correct? I would say that is quite straightforward.

What brought this on was rather silly since I was just watching, ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ this afternoon and one of her guests was Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson and he said the quote and Geez right now I forgot in what context he used it, but contrary to his muscular and ruggedly handsome appearance he is a college grad and intelligent in my opinion.
Any-who, lately when I hear something it occasionally triggers a memory in me, and I am sure you all know what I mean and I bet it has happened to you too.
Déjà vu feelings and happy recollections to me, and this time it was my dad’s words and his using of the same expression.

Last night after I completed my blog on occasion I do hear back on Facebook from some of those friends too with comments and last night that nice man who is the Chorale Director for Charlotte County said another thing that sounded as if my dad had been channeled too and I even told him that, Lee Stein; not my deceased Dad, if only.
My father was a wonderful, funny and decent man and the first to tell you that school and he did not get along that well and even though he did set out to become a lawyer after about six months of college he realized he wasn’t going to be able to do it and so he, one of six children made the decision to make sure that his younger brother would become one and sure enough his brother, my uncle did! With that said, dad was not an academic whiz but a smart man just the same and was always upbeat never mean, sad or angry that I can remember and he would always say such positive things.
Today as an adult, alright an older adult, yes nearly a senior and in some circles, yes a circle, a circle of life, Nah. Why in AARP I have been a senior for nearly eleven years!
Anyway, my point is that now I know that as much as I loved my dear old dad, and I can say that since he was forty-three when I was born…he ‘may’ have plagiarized those cute, positive and happy go-lucky idioms that we all love to use and in many of our lives have turned into our favorite clichés! But that’s OK since now it has been a part of my journey to find these bits of my history’s histories and the origins and my journey has taken me all over this net and that is so cool! Dad passed away on Mother’s Day May 11, 1986 at the age of seventy-nine and if he were here today he would have been one hundred and four this past January.
Gosh he was one of the greats in the history of men and I do miss him and ‘his words of wisdom’ that he would spew to me daily, what a guy.

On that happy thought of joy in my heart let me be the first to wish you a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, L7, ya hear?

PS I did go to my neuro’s appointment today and apparently I am a stupid gal since my neuro tells me that I should get the cataract surgery that it could help my right eyesight and that I may have misunderstood what she said, oh well…I do have cognitive problems! Well, at least now I know there is hope for righty after all! And in September I will see what she has to see, got that? And no to going off the Copaxone, since it IS working! Figures! And my cooling vest arrived this afternoon and validation of the IRS payment plan too, since we had to call when they sent the wrong info once again!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sports watching

When I was a small child I was a participator in many physical games from softball to tossing around a football, kick ball, figure ice-skating, swimming, canoeing, bicycling and the like.
You name it, I would be out there to play it and hopefully not get injured, and yep I was the one. I enjoyed being the catcher for soft ball since I always would be the one to see the action and be part of it first hand. But even with that I got a nasty one right to the throat and got the wind knocked out of me by my fifth grade teacher, Miss Mion, wow was she scared. And sure I was alright I was young and those things don’t hurt so much then.
When tossing a football around with my good buddy Mary I caught it wrong and sure enough I broke my right middle finger and just wearing the splint was embarrassing due to its location and me being a wise gal at the age of twelve and all; I annoyed everyone by showing them my war wound and subsequently not realizing what I was doing was bad, come on I was twelve! Ah my unsuccessful Tom-boy days.
Scraped knees were the norm and bruises and nasty ouches were my second cousins. I remember one time trying a flip over jump while figure skating that landed me flat on my back at the ripe old age of thirteen while on vacation and ended me up in bed for a few days but I survived that too. And the time I was on that road trip with Mom and Dad going across country the summer of 1965 when I dove off the diving board at a hotel in Amarillo Texas and felt a strange reaction in my back that seemed to make my legs not work for quite a few minutes but I used my arms to paddle my way to the side of the pool, Mom and Dad were none the wiser until I reached the side and my voice came back, it wouldn't come out either and I told them!

As a teen after that summer of Dad’s first vacation in forever, he had owned his own businesses for over thirty-eight years by then, and we had visited forty states in eight weeks, when my older father, he was already fifty-eight with a fifteen year old, had retired he took up his joy of having the time to watch on the TV every sport that he enjoyed. Which was all inclusive of the one he played as a kid, basketball, my short dad was actually the captain of his high school team, at only five foot eight, but in those days it was a popularity contest more than anything else he told me not due to his ability, but I really think that it was due his to wonderful sense of humor and for that I am sure.

And so each weekend night that I would arrive home from a date, Dad would be watching this game or that and I would join him on the sofa he would get my details of the date during commercials and I would learn the games from his perspective. After all at this time I had been a cheerleader, only a short stint in junior high really, but this was after that. The same year I had gotten myself into a car accident with a neighbor her aunt was driving and I was a passenger but we got t-boned on my side…. Jinx here, what can I say! But that pretty much ended my cheerleading career; I was out of school that time for a few months.
To this day the only sport that still confounds me is football, not the points but the positions and hold that line reasoning and stuff of that nature. When it came to the cheer I was pretty much monkey see monkey do type gal, a copycat.

Now to the point of all this being a spectator from the comfort of your own home is rather nice when you think about it whether watching NASCAR, believe me I had been to the Daytona track for the 500 and sitting in air-conditioning beats it all to heck plus the camera angles are much better and if you miss something instant replay is just wonderful! I even had the pleasure of going to a Yankees game at the age of ten being a safety-patrol kid we all received that privilege. But being small seeing over and around people is difficult. Sorry folks nothing beats the recliner in the living room with a great temperate climate to be just right!

Today’s choice for Hubby and I was the 75th Master’s Tournament out of Augusta Georgia, and it was just won in an amazing upset by Charles Schwartzel, just twenty–six years old from South Africa with a -14! A Nike guy too!

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

And next time please be here or be square L7, ya hear?

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Obligation

Obligation is a compulsion, duty or responsibility or requirement, a commitment, debt or a contract.

That sounds easy enough.
Being responsible is what Mom and Dad told us to do and paying all debts is what the people we owe and life tells us to do too, and honoring a contract is just a good business practice, compulsion is a little manic, a duty is to G-d and our country but commitment it appears to be confusing to so many in the love wars, huh?
Yes, commitment is an obligation, but hopefully when anyone makes it; it is a joyous decision and a happy, loving one when you do it to another person, commit that is!

We as a race of mankind and I would be amiss not to say womankind too, are a difficult bunch when it comes to dedication to one party in the little thing that everyone wants but has trouble finding at first and then maintaining when they get it or just let it go too easily I think sometimes when it gets too tough or rough, but then you should let go; tough is one thing but rough (let go if abuse is involved) is definitely another, got that?

Any-who, as a married woman of forty plus years I do feel I have some honest perspective on this whole thing called interrelationship communication and contact.
Notice I did not say as a happily married woman of forty years?
Of course it has been happy for many of those years but also many have been TOUGH years and quite challenging ones also, and that is the way all things go in most peoples lives. And sadly, it is the ones who don’t realize that it will be on occasion a roller coaster ride that and for that reason alone they should be made aware of it upfront, but who knows if its worth telling them because if they think that the afore mentioned is the way it ‘should be all of the time’, then they have been living under a rock with stars floating in their eyes over it or some such idiom or is that idiot and won’t get it anyway! Sorry but it had to be said friends.

In my mind though if a person thinks from the git-go that a relationship will be always smooth sailing then I would tell them to go get a dog or another unconditional loving pet where they might have more control over than human nature! Pets are nice to have anyway and I strongly feel everyone should have at least one, but even they have minds of their own and they should have! And so why do people think that a partner would always be agreeable? When even a pet won’t be?
Come on folks wake up and get logical!
Of course I do love my other fellow and gal human beings but let’s get real; nobody’s perfect and if you really want an obligation of commitment for the long haul, think out of the box with a reality check and imperfection may have to be on that mental list of pluses and minuses that many have made, some actually on paper!

All anyone can say to anyone else about commitment or obligation is nothing, nope, I should have said NOTHING!
You see, as friends this is where we get ourselves in trouble.
And so when it comes to your personal relationships my dear friends out there; I WILL NOT SAY A WORD ABOUT YOU AND YOU KNOW WHO, OK?
Those choices in life are for the people involved, not for anyone else.

On that note of trying to mind my own business, hmm… I will definitely like to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

PS Does anyone besides me and a few other Baby Boomers get the L7 reference?
Look at the juxtaposition of the ‘L’ and then the ‘7’; you see together they form a SQUARE! Got it now?
Ha, I thought you would!

Friday, April 8, 2011

What do you see out your windows?

Below are a few of the things that I enjoy seeing out of my windows in my own backyard…


One of our Gardenia bushes in bloom, we have another in the front yard that replaced the mighty oak tree that Hurricane Charley took down in 2004

this next one is a collage of beauty in bloom alongside our fish pond

, and that’s my door by my computer in our sunroom with one of our two Bougainvilleas in full bloom, the other is down by the canal, but this angle is looking in on me, of course and I look out! The decal is of a heron in sea grasses and it is there because birds have, in the past, flown into that glass door crashed and died, the decal is a deterrent to help prevent that so they can tell it is not a thruway.
You see we have placed wind chimes over the other windows but since this door is opening and closing all of the time and so we were not able to do that, and the other way to help prevent birds from crashing into your windows according the site I went to ages ago suggested leaving the windows dirty, but nah, we couldn’t do that, we enjoy looking out too much! Now the birds DON’T hit our windows and we can admire them eat from our feeder and bathe in our fountain and bird bath instead of picking up their carcasses… what a horrible thought, huh? But sadly true.
As they say beauty is all around us just take the time to smell the roses or in our case our Gardenia blossoms and Hubby brought a handful in to float in my glass shell shaped bowl vase, oh that aroma is heavenly! You know that I loved the fragrance so much I found cologne in it that Wal-Mart sells by Jōvan called Island Gardenia it is less than ten bucks but intoxicating and I suppose with my less than hefty social calendar it lasts about six months!
Color is so important in our world in our lives to give us joy and hope and beauty, don’t you all think? I love the expression that I so vividly remember from Sesame Street, that people too are like flowers they come in all different sizes, shapes and colors and are all beautiful in their own way! That one stuck all these years, wild when you think my youngest is thirty five-years old! I hope they still tell the world that one it was so poignant. I am pretty sure that Sesame Street is international. It did promote all good things for our children to grow and live by.
On that thought of the past of hope and a happier time…let me be the first tonight to wish you all a very happy good night and kindly ask you to count all those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!
And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

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...