Thursday, June 30, 2011

End, what a provocative word, but not really, or is it?

End: finish, conclusion, closing stages, last part, stop terminate, finish off, halt, finish, extremity, edge, side, tip, top, bottom, base, purpose, aim, result, outcome, objective, goal that has been reached, and that is my point, which also means the end!

When we say an end of an era we mean that times are a changing.
Or when we say that the day has ended it usually means that the sun has gone down and the moon has risen.
When we end a relationship it usually means that it is kaput, over!
But when we end our lives we are hopefully very old; more than one hundred these days.
Too many end theirs too soon as we all know from ills or accidents and those ‘ends’ are not comforting or good.
Trials end when both sides rest their case, the defense and prosecution, and the decision making goes on to the jury or judge.

Some days I feel that my end is near.
Oh no, not my life since I have hopefully years of battle left in me, but with writing this blog on a nightly basis.
Is it worth the effort when you don’t pull the great numbers every night; just an introspective rhetorical question of writing/thinking out loud, so to speak or not.
My readership is not unlike a cardiogram whose patient is have an atrial fibrillation or perhaps a comparison of a roller coaster ride might be more apropos, and yes it has happened before, many times…hmm…so it has to my blog; relief...

The other ‘end’ I was going to bring up, don’t worry, not the rear, derriere, bum or tushy one, that is in many ways just plain silly and I don’t even know if I should even mention it but you promise you won’t laugh at me, with me is OK, I guess… Oh go ahead it’s good for all of us, to laugh that is… Tomorrow, as many know is my birthday and it begins the four and half months out of the entire year that Hubby and I are the same age! I told you it was silly! You see, he is only seven and half months older than me, and starting tomorrow, as in every previous year, at this time we become the same age for those too long four and half months!
And that age is what Jack Benny said his age was for too many years plus twenty-two, got it? This is one of those times that I am hoping that you’re not a math whiz! LOL!
Verbally astute people aren’t always, different side of the brain; you know, of course you all did, since you are brilliant.
Only a few are and I used to be; right and left brain-ed that is and am proud to say on occasion, at times, I still am!
Not being a genius is not that bad though.
It hasn’t stopped me as you all know all too well…
But stop me from what?
Why that’s a ridiculous question, since everyone who reads this know that nothing can stop me from SPEAKING MY MIND.
To whoever will listen or not…nightly as I blow off steam or ideas of silliness without an end…I hope and you should never ever end either that is unless you have no other choice… and that is a relationship, a court case or a job or …you get my point or even your own BLOG!
Be an energizer bunny for yourself and reactivate that joy in you to continue as always…
On those words to scratch your head over let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you 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 and let us not ever forget the best things in life… that end, perhaps too soon… a great book, incredible movie and a song that causes chills or wonderful enduring memories…

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Daily we come across dips in the road...

And how we handle them is what we would all like to consider as having class in referring to refinement or character, meaning integrity.
Perhaps to some they are different things and in reality they are but they do go hand in hand when we all know that our reactions to some of our most difficult dilemmas in life are all telling on how we adjust to life’s curve balls with grace and patience and what we end up doing about them does determine our true character.
Frustration can bring out the best or worst in a person and at times we may fly off the handle, as the expression goes with what that really means.
Today, late this afternoon, we received a phone call from our homeowner’s insurance company agent, Terri who is actually with State Farm, which underwrites our policies with Citizens homeowners; wind therefore hurricane and our FEMA Flood insurances. She called around four thirty to tell us that Citizens will be sending us a letter stating that they would be canceling us due to our roof.
Further explained was the fact that she in the interim found out online in the city documents the permit and company that had installed our new roof in October of 2004 approximately two and a half months after Hurricane Charley ripped it off of our home and let us know that all was well since she had already contacted Citizens and yes we were reinstated and no harm no foul was ever able to be begun, whew!
Now I was shaken by her initial statement of them trying to cancel us, due to now being in hurricane season once again and you all can well imagine how scary that was?
But to be frank as long as we don’t have any hurricanes awaiting to come ashore here homes can be sold with new written insurance policies without any problems.
If a storm is eminent then you must wait.

And yes it is true that in the gulf there is a storm heading due west of us here in southwest Florida towards Mexico and she was named last night at seven P.M., her name is Arlene; our first of the season. I do hope that she will not cause too much upheaval there, but notoriously most storms have proven to not to be good for anyone.

I had interesting thoughts when I heard that the first storm was named ‘Arlene’. You see, that was my niece’s name, the one who passed away from a long battle with colon cancer back on October the 13th of 2006 also a Friday like Hurricane Charley was but only he was on August the 13th of 2004. She was only five years younger than me, my half brother’s daughter he was nineteen years older than me. You might remember me saying how bright she was and that her degree from the University of North Carolina was in physics and she also went for her MBA later on in life, and worked for nearly twenty years for the GE in their aerospace division, she was a trouble shooter for them and would travel all over the world to do her job!
She had had many boyfriends throughout her life but never married until just a couple of years before she passed away…

I think being a science geek all of those years she would have found the naming of a hurricane after her rather interesting. If anyone wants to know what she looks like she is posted in my wedding pics on my Facebook page, she was one of my bridesmaids; her only at the tender age of fifteen.

I do know that I am a character with honesty being occasionally my flaw, which in some people’s books means that I have NO class in handling trying situations and I suppose they could be right, since I express my true feelings whether they want to hear them or not.

Is that considered bad?
So when Terri, our agent, began to tell me what had transpired my heart dropped!
And I told her that.
It might have been better to wait until she finished, but I heard that Citizens was dropping us and after we got our direct hit from Charley they were the only ones who would cover us and so I was rightfully concerned, true?
Any-who, she was great and understanding and we thanked her for taking care of it so promptly, now that is a wonderful agent one who intervenes before it gets out of hand.
The reason for the call was to let us know that we would be receiving the letter from Citizens saying that they wanted to drop us and to just file it and not to worry since all was well!
Whew!
With our recent medical issues causing quite a bit of concern and with all the talk about the government problems on today’s news I do think that very few of us are not waiting for the other shoe to drop in our lives these days, if it hasn’t dropped already! Many already have.
Still waiting on Hubby’s test results of the three more he had just this week and he has one more test (heart) next week and a follow-up doctor’s appointment next week too…
And so, I guess most of you can well understand why we are a wee bit stressed, huh?
Nerves are shot.

On that note of trying to think on the bright side whenever possible let me be the first to ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all you overages and we will too!

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

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I knew you were wondering...I bet...

I was gleefully surprised that my monosyllabic expressions are not as simplistic as one may think…did you know that, really? Sure you did, why aren’t we all full of ourselves, hmm?

Huh is an expression of surprise or disdain: used to show surprise, inquiry, disdain, or lack of interest, an invitation to agree used to invite comment, especially agreement, after an expressed opinion, as in “ Great shot, huh?”

The Canadian connection, which may interest some of us…
Eh, (1) (interjection)
Eh [ ay, e] (formal)
1. pardon me?
used to ask somebody to repeat something
2. what?
used to express surprise at something that has been said
3. isn’t that so?
used to invite somebody to respond to something that has been said, especially to
agree with it or confirm that it is correct or accurately sums up a previous
statement
4. aren’t you with me?
Canada used to maintain or regain a listener's interest or to establish that what is
being said is understood


eh (2) (abbreviation)
Western Sahara
(used in Internet addresses)

Are you still also learning the language of your birthright?
No, well I am.
Yep, I am proud to be an American! And the more I learn the more I know I don’t know, but isn’t that the American way?
You see, but dang, I am still not sure from whence they all came from; in other words, ha, their derivations.
What I hope I mean is from where and why they made their way into our American vintage verbiage their origin their genealogy of whom they actually are, got that?
Don’t we all have some type of pedigree or history of our family, yes some of us are mutts. Which I say lovingly to the world since as my cousins look closely into our history of us it appears more and more that we are from many eastern European countries not just the one that grandpa used to say and so according to the standards of who knows who that would make us all mutts, huh?
But let’s not forget all beautiful in our own way…unique individuals why that applies to everyone, doesn’t it?

Sadly, I feel at times that I get complacent in my journey of trying to get to know more, have you ever felt that way?
It’s not that I ever think I know it all; I do realize at times I may come across that way, but no I never if I live to be one hundred will know everything, no one will!
That’s why as caretakers of this earth I feel so responsible to attain some knowledge while I remain, and you? How do you feel about that aspect of your responsibility?

As I have said before I have way too much time on my hands…to ponder things…
Many which I have mentioned here.


Like...
Why a man who is so ill robs a bank for one dollar to get arrested so he will have proper medical care because he was at his wits end on what to do and this was his only idea to get what he rightfully needed?
Why a young woman dies in her car in a busy shopping center parking lot because the police have their hands tied and no one is nosy enough to check the car there for days and nights at a time?
Why does a woman have to plant her dead husband’s body in her garden due to not having enough to pay for a funeral and needing his social security checks to survive and dies before she is found out and is discovered by her mail carrier…?
Why a terminally ill ninety-five year old women in a wheel chair is asked to remove her adult diaper at an airport, what’s with that?

We live in the greatest country in the world is how I always think of 'our' America but sometimes I just wonder why… and I bet you do too… some things are just beyond our control, but should they be? I think we should all wonder why.

On that thought to ponder prior to our nations and my birth weekend let me please be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share your overages and we will too!

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

Monday, June 27, 2011

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Tonight I would love to thank all the others with chronic ailments that have offered their ideas in what I should do to help myself! And to tell me that attitude is everything! The power of positive thinking and all that…
Not that I am ungrateful but seriously folks haven’t you been reading anything I write? I know that is rather harsh and self absorbed of me to think that you all have nothing better to do than to read this drivel nightly… but in reality I could write a book on what we all should be doing and in reality isn’t this sort of the same thing?

Here’s a brief recap, any-who:
Yes, I have more than covered what we should do and how I have done it all from my physical therapy, occupational therapy, neuromuscular massage therapy for fourteen times in fourteen years, and going to the gym for five years for an hour and a half a day five days a week, becoming a certified Aquacize instructor and teaching for four years, two years of yoga classes, twelve years of ballet, tap and acrobatics not to mention some ballroom, modern and jazz too and a short stint as a cheerleader too. And let’s not forget I am also qualified by the state health department to teach a self help course that pertains to all chronic illnesses even been taught to write grants pertaining to whatever ails you with CEU’s included! Not to mention my past fundraising, being a board member and co-president of a local support group, but that’s enough of me tooting my own horn!
Why does everyone insist that I am not doing enough to help myself or that I have given up?
Huh? Huh? Huh?
That’s enough of that; it would seem that I have to go through my own personal explanations of why… every six months or perhaps every three so it seems?
Sure physical deconditioning is harmful to anyone sick or well!
And the truth is no one should let it ever happen no matter what, got that?
To be fair, though, in all these blogs that I have been writing now for just over three, count them three years I have mentioned my exercise programs that have also been enthusiastically self inflicted!
Just this past December I started my floor exercises on my yoga mat daily with my free weights and then incorporated into the program after getting up to myself using my five pound weights and sixty repetitions for all six exercises, I added in my pool exercises and then the unbelievable happened once again… all with me now… I went into an exacerbation! So here I sit, taking it easy, until I feel well enough to begin all over once again!
Whew, that feels so much better!

Haven’t I told all of you to walk, swim or bicycle if you can get approved by your doctors and also mentioned that 90% of you should get the OK! I have also said eat more vegetables and perhaps garden them like we do and fruits too, and yes we are in Florida and so we do have fruit trees but many all over the world do too, and for that I am very sure.
Eat lean meats, chicken and fish a variety with incorporating whole grains of multi-grain breads and brown rice etc. but in moderation, and watch your portion controls.
And don’t forget to access online low fat, low sodium diets, and not too many sweets, but as a treat only occasionally!
All common sense ideas that everyone knows by now, ME INCLUDED FRIENDS!
I love you all… and no this does not mean that you cannot tell me anything or share your great ideas too… oh no… it's just that I want new, fresh ones, okay?
Not the same ole, same ole one, all right?

PS I still do online advocacy and help others that ask me to pass on their messages about their own causes and earlier this evening I received the below email and since I live in Florida I did share it with others online since Multiple Sclerosis Association of America as of yet does not have a Facebook access or page I suppose. But I did call their toll free number to let them know I was unable to go there and that I would post their request here and on Facebook for them and so if you live there or plan on going there contact that nice person with that unbelievable enviable last name…

MS Volunteer for the summer in Cherry Hill, NJ
(Received via email) Mon, June 27, 2011 4:29:00 PM
Can you volunteer to help at MS Association of America in Cherry Hill this summer?
From: MS Association of America Add to Contacts
The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) seeks two personable volunteers to help in the mail room at our Haddonfield Road, Cherry Hill location up to twice a week through the summer to fit your schedule. One of the opportunities will include data-entry, for which training will be provided.
Would you be available to help?
Please reply to me directly by phone or email. Respectfully would you include, a day-time contact phone number in your reply so I may follow-up on your interest and discuss this assignment in greater detail by Friday.
If you are not in a position to help on this occasion, please help MSAA by forwarding this email to anyone in the area who you consider has the qualities and availability we seek on this assignment.
Thank you for considering our request.
Malcolm Friend,
Director of National Volunteer Services
Multiple Sclerosis Association of America
Malcolm@MSAssociation.org
PH: (800) 532-7667 ext 117.
Multiple Sclerosis Association of America
National Headquarters
706 Haddonfield Road
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002
(800) 532-7667
And on that DOING SOMETHING, which I like to think is the true me let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to please help anyone who truly needs it and count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Eureka I have an idea!

Sometimes I do think that life throws us all horrid experiences to make us stronger.
We all know the expression that “G-d doesn’t give anyone anything that they can’t handle”, and yes daily we are all being tested.
Many might feel that it isn’t fair.

My mind sometimes works with facts and sometimes just wishful thinking but I do believe this time I really do have a way to make the lives of all the people who have had their lives destroyed by Mother Nature’s wrath recover more quickly.
Modular homes are well becoming the way to get green, well built structures to the sites of devastated areas fully completed in four to eight weeks.
And no I am not talking mobile homes or those tiny little thrown together with spit and a prayer ones that you see in infomercials for twenty bucks a square foot but strong, hurricane strong, green fully overly insulated, Energy Star quality with all healthy materials dwellings at about eighty dollars per square foot!
They look like any home in any custom neighborhood and there are that many floor plans, but all major construction is begun in the factories.
And no, I do not own any stock or any of them, but boy I wish I did!
Here’s one site, just copy and paste, since their info is more elaborate, plus design info: http://www.breyerwoodhomes.com/ModularHomes.htm (Ohio)
Some take as long as three months to complete:
http://www.modularsinc.com/homes/faq.php (North Carolina)
Here’s another to get you started:
http://www.superiorhomesllc.com/index.php (South Dakota)
Now if the insurance companies would cooperate with all of us consumers our neighborhoods could be rebuilt that much quicker after these horrendous things happen!
And people can get back to what they should be doing enjoying life and not worrying so much.
I have an old friend that actually had a three thousand square foot cedar contemporary complete with a spiral staircase and her mom’s home was a conventional bi-level in all done modular built on ten acres for her home, and this was gosh over twenty-five years ago!
Gorgeous homes and well built.
People are confused on what they are.
In Europe and Scandinavia they have been building like this for decades, and we are fortunate to have factories in our country for decades now too!
My goodness this could be the answer to so much devastation once they get the rubbish cleared away.
People need to get back to work and feel productive, being a veteran of the devastation wars I know what it feels like to feel so helpless, but doing something makes you feel so much better.

I know that I am not that smart, but I do have a lot of time on my hands and don’t forget all those years that Hubby and I have been do-it-yourselfers, gosh since before we were married since we rented a basement apartment that we had to reconstruct before the wedding! But we physically built our five bedroom bi-level in NJ and put on additions on many of our other homes, renovated kitchens and baths and not to mention Hubby was an apprentice plumber while going to college for Aeronautical Engineering at LaGuardia in NYC. And both our grandpas were in the building game I suppose it’s in our blood.
And many of you know how green we try to be with our veggie garden, rain barrels and compost, as well as recycling etc.
And so after much thought and consideration I do think it is not just a pie in the sky type of ridiculous idea, do you?
Nah, don’t answer if you’re going to say something negative, but if you have a positive feedback suggestion go right ahead.
But below is the surprising array of styles available:
http://www.newstylehomes.com/index.php?/custom

Now I have done it; gotten you to do a bit of research too!
I truly think that you will not be disappointed and perhaps a bit surprised too.

On that note of sharing not such a bizarre brainstorm of mine… 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 share your overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?
Thanks again for reading.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Ideas, incidentals, and insignificant...

To have any ideas about anything is to have thoughts or dreams, simple enough.
But incidentals are only something ‘minor’, secondary, a subsidiary, supplementary, accompanying or an attendant.
While anything insignificant is unimportant, irrelevant, not important, of no consequence, immaterial, inconsequential, not worth mentioning, trivial and here we go again ‘minor’ would you believe?
Overlaps in our English word meanings; no wonder anyone trying to learn what we know about in our American English vocabulary would or could throw in the towel during that process, and fast in all the confusion!

How many of you enjoyed your weekend so far?
I do know that we are only halfway through it, that’s why I asked, so far?
Mine has been an up down sort of happening with my neck and head not behaving much at all.

Last night, or I should say in the wee hours of the morning Hubby said it was around three A.M.; I let out a horrible shriek of pain!
Between my neck and my head I truly thought that something horrendous was happening.
I had tried those iced packs again and it was a no go for that help, and then I tried just cool moist washcloths with a dip of alcohol, rubbing that is, on them across my far-head and neck, my netty-pot was next, since I thought that my sinuses too were acting up, and all this was done before I had tried to get back to sleep and let out that chilling screech from the bathroom.
Since I have high blood pressure medications there are no sinus medications that I found that would help me or that wouldn’t interact with all my other medications and so non invasive ways to help myself is what I try diligently to do.
But no it was not my sinuses it is my neck and my head which had that definitely worrisome headache that wakes you from a deep, deep sleep and you know in your heart and soul that this is not at all normal. The reasoning is that it puts me into a numbing situation that scares the heck out of me!
Trying to lie down I do have a cervical pillow that my orthopedic physician recommended years ago when first diagnosed from one of my many MRI’s with the cervical stenosis on it, but I have been using it as a lumbar pillow and so I did switch and put my normal pillows for that use and took back the neck one for my neck, got that?
I also have a soft collar that they told me to wear when I was diagnosed, that doc said to wear it whenever it acted up, but wouldn’t you just know it that I have gotten so damn fat it is too small now!
Hubby was great and wanted to know how to help me, but I really had no idea what either of us could do. And I told him that I already tried everything I could think of short of going to the hospital on a weekend emergency room. Honestly I thought it was overkill anyway, but it has been in my recent history when I have called those 24/7 ‘ask-a nurse’ medical personnel with the local hospitals that is usually their response to my questions or call my doctor, now I ask you is that helpful, really?
I know they can’t prescribe but gosh they know more medical stuff than I do and should have some other ideas up their sleeves to try, wouldn’t you think?
Any-who, the day was not a total waste since Hubby and I did get that curbside chair find finished, and yes he did end up painting it with a new product from Rust-oleum a spray for wood, done in the garage, they have come out with an amazing array of new products you should check them out and yes I did do the actual cutting of the fabric and stapling of it onto the wood and so I was helpful too! And although we bought a new foam pad we both agreed that the original wasn’t that bad after all and so Hubby threw into the slop sink in the garage in Lysol and after two days it was good to go and is under the new fabric.

So would you like to see it? I can’t hear you and so I will take that as a yes…here it is from its humble beginnings to finis!




On this little happier note of not totally wasting the weekend and a feeling of accomplishment… let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly to count your blessings and to share all those overages and we will too!

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

PS I suppose you might be wondering what my mysterious secret I hinted at from last night was, hmm? Crazy gal that I am… I had my anniversary date mixed up, actually tonight is the third anniversary of this blog, how embarrassing! Another BIG OOPS from the gal who’s middle name is that!

Friday, June 24, 2011

WISH ME A HAPPY THIRD ANNIVERSARY!

I am so proud I could burst, well not burst, but explode, nah not that either, oh well, help me here…I know… I am as proud as punch and I am going to continue punching out this poppycock as long as I have the ability to entertain myself! TA DA! With a great big sticking out of my adult tongue, so there!

You do know that is rather funny though, because when I was a young mom the theory was that if your toddler was able to entertain themselves for a decent amount of time then and only then they would be considered more intelligent.
I am happy to say both our sons passed that so-called test.
But little did I know that I would self impose that particular test on myself at this advanced age to see if my noggin was still functioning in the realm of the norms of my own peers…HA!

Relief!
Therapy that is what all of this is, but you all knew that, for that I am sure.
You see most people would continue in anonymity without allowing the world to know the real person behind these overexposed honest renditions of nightly poop and my own scoops of happiness and disdain for this or that.
Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately many do know the real me, or better said who I am as in my actual identity, but in reality I don’t even think at this stage in my life I know me all that well, since on many occasions I have surprised myself and that is rather nice too!

Right now I am hiding a little secret that I feel I can trust you to allow me to divulge, you think?
Oddly enough, if you go back to the last paragraph to the word ‘therapy’ I had to go lie down due to my neck creating havoc in me and then my head also went berserk!
I went to lie down and my noble pooch, Skipper followed me closely by my side and jumped on the bed next to me to rest his head on me and listen to what I said… I said go get daddy and you know what he did, since Hubby was outside he jumped on our sunroom door and came back to check on me then went back to the door a total of three times before Hubby knew what was up, he was outside watering the plants with rain-barrel water, yep they are full again. He came in took care of me, which I feel so guilty about but he brought me an ice pack wrapped in a towel that has temporarily helped for me to be back sitting here. But I will be calling it quits since for some strange reason it seems to be wearing off the short term help of the ice.
You see besides everything else I do have cervical stenosis and that too acts up on occasion and I think this could be one of those times and so I will like to say happy good night to all and ask you all to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?
PS I have another secret to divulge tomorrow night so stay tuned, ok?

Just one more thing… rest in peace Peter Falk one of our favorite sleuths of all time; you will be sorely missed by all who enjoyed your iconic Columbo.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Rain it finally came...

After I was all done with this post last night we finally did receive our much needed rainfall.
You see, we were beginning to think we were the red-headed stepchild of the rest of Charlotte County Florida.
And so now the games begin, the rainy season in all its glory has officially begun here in the unincorporated non-city across the river from the true city River City AKA Punta Gorda, got that?
And yep, I suppose we are chopped liver since we rarely get our recognition or due in the publicity wars of known ability to the masses. When asked where Port Charlotte is I either say between Sarasota and Ft. Myers, or next door to Punta Gorda, and then people say, oh alright.

It appears that we are the forgotten ones when it comes to the fame of the area; sure we have the Charlotte County Sandcrabs that are our local baseball team that play at our stadium, across from our county fairgrounds, north of our home, down Route 776 going west, which is in the realm of Port Charlotte a non-city. And oh yes I nearly forgot we do have the one true indoor mall at Murdock Circle and it is one of those Simon Malls, called The Town Center Mall; what a misnomer geographically incorrect when we are neither a town or the center of one! Englewood, Lemon Bay, which are west and north of us and others that are east and south of us in other areas in our county are considered non-incorporated and so we are of the moniker of non-cities…After nearly twenty-five years, this August 19th, I still don’t understand any of that!
We do not have a mayor, but Punta Gorda does but it is also governed by a council, where they might take turns being the mayor if they care to, I think? Although the one they have currently seems to commit quite a bit of controversy on occasion with his own neighbor wars making the local news and papers. I guess he is not my problem since I don’t live there, huh?
Although, for a short time of four years we did live in the fancy-pants city of Punta Gorda were we rented while waiting for our east coast home to sell. I still did not get it while we were a few of those city dwellers. This December we have been in this particular home thirteen years in Port Charlotte a what, non-city seems so wrong, but it is out third home that we owned in Florida, don’t forget we lived in Ormond Beach for nearly nine years and we owned two homes there and our restaurant too.

We do vote in all elections, but being northerners a bit longer we still have that mentality I suspect. There were villages, towns and cities, usually determined by populations.
We were never city dwellers, we were suburban dwellers but lived in towns with not very large populations and even one very tiny village of only a three hundred population called Bamber Lake where we actually did move from to come down to Florida back in that summer of 1986, here those same size ‘towns’ are considered cities here, how odd.
People think of New Jersey as mostly one city after another.
Why Hubby’s town that he grew up in had less than ten thousand people and still does to this day, Oradell. And my first home of Paramus that I remember was very large compared to his with twenty-five thousand I do believe, but when I moved to Emerson it was less than ten thousand too and think still is!
Even when we moved down the shore, first to Lakewood it was a big town to us I think its population was probably double of Paramus’s.
But our last stop as I said Bamber Lake was really only three hundred but part of Lacey Township which consisted of Forked River as well as Lanoka Harbor and in total I think was about twenty-five thousand but I am sure grown quite a bit since it had plenty of room to that being in the notorious Pine Barrens of New Jersey!

Oh why we were in the Pine Barrens, notorious, well first of all because of the Jersey Devil and then of course due to the so-called bodies being dumped all over them by, dare I say; THE MOB?

Yes, that was the mystique of our area, and yes there were bodies found periodically, but we never found any ourselves. But according to the news we were told that it was the bad killing the bad and so sympathy was not very common with those true stories every once in while on our nightly news that we got from New York or Philadelphia since when we lived there we were pretty much in the middle of both.
Just right, but don’t get me wrong we love Florida warts and all…we wouldn’t have stayed permanently all these years if we didn’t.
Heat, hurricanes, far from cultural centers,not including our arts center that are here on a smaller scale, of course, but its ours and our little piece of paradise or heaven, can’t beat our waterways, sunsets, sports, beaches and you name it we live where most envy and chose to go when they vacation!

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

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?
And thanks for reading, OK?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Hubby's Result Show, So Far...

YES! I had made an escape today…with Hubby of course…
Wow, what an exhausting day and here I am not at all viral or germy or icky or sickly with any additional microorganisms so far.
We left the compound at exactly 10:45 A.M. for Hubby’s doctor’s follow up visit which was scheduled for 11:00 A.M. And yep that’s how close we live to the doctor’s office we got there with a couple of minutes to spare and that’s including Hubby putting my scooter together and us taking the elevator to the third floor and travel the winding corridors to the doctor’s new office! This was our second time there. The first time it was difficult for me to maneuver the longer never ending seemingly hallways. So that this time, since it was after all my first outing in weeks, we both felt it more advantageous to use my scooter and sure enough it was the right call.
Hubby’s doctor got his reports of all the tests on Hubby were all back and so far it appears that his adrenal glands showed an elevation in the blood work. And his chest was listened to and the doctor has warned of possibility of COPD which is the one in partnership/forefather of Emphysema. His echo ultrasound showed the beginnings pulmonary disease all due to the smoking. I do hope that Hubby finally will quit his smoking which he had done over a year ago but went back to with inhaling cigars, scary, he insists that two a day is his limit, but that is still not a very good idea! He smokes outside so I could not help answer the doc’s specific questions on that topic, and I felt at a loss.
I do know that I personally had to be told that I had TIA’s, mini strokes on my MRI before I realized that I had to stop and next month it will be five years that I quit on July 11th.2006! But it is true no matter how many times I have asked or nagged Hubby about quitting it hasn’t worked, one can only hope that the doctor finally got him to rationalize that it is now doing severe damage!
But even so it is still possibly reversible, if he stops!
A couple of new tests were called for to investigate further his adrenal issue and a PSA for what all you men know what that is for; consisting of more blood work and urinanalysis. He also gave him an additional prescription for a smoking cessation medication.

From there Hubby wanted to go to lunch and so we did at Bob Evans not even a block from the doctor’s office, he had a grilled chicken sandwich and cole slaw and NO fries!
And I had a cup of soup and salad, I had my usual unsweet iced tea with lemon and Hubby had raspberry lemonade.

The next stop I suppose could be a bit embarrassing to mention, but Nate Berkus would be so proud! Hubby and I saw that a neighbor had tossed this lone chair out on the curb for pick–up a few weeks’ ago garbage collection. It did have great bones it was all wood painted white with an oval/round cane back on it, even its cushion from a far did not look bad and it was neutral color off white swirl textured. From a glance I said go get to Hubby and sure enough he did.
He took to our side courtyard and checked it thoroughly for foreign matter or perhaps insect/termite damage and it was quite clean in that respect and so he brought it into his workshop behind the garage and washed it down with Lysol disinfectant.
And on closer inspection there were marks in the fabric that we thought might be washable and so I did try to do that with it in the machine but even after Hubby put the stain remover on the spots they would not come out. And so today we made a side trip to Joanne’s Crafts and Fabrics and purchased just enough in an exterior striped pattern, Wedgwood blue, white, apple green and a mellow yellow; quite cheerful!
The foam was shot too and so we got new of that as well.
Hubby had enough plywood left to make that all new too.
And so this is a project that I am looking forward to, and the chair has the coloring combination of three of the rooms in our home and so it could be used as extra seating in any of those rooms, as an accent piece.

Then we went to Publix for few missing grocery items and for our newest Hubby prescriptions and one of my refills.

And then home.
Dinner was leftovers or whatever we helped ourselves with; without formality.

On this non exciting but enlightening day for both of us let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to please count all your blessings and to share your overages and we will too!

And next time please be here of be square, ok?
And thanks.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Solstice?

Did you know that the “Dog Days of Summer” actually refers to Astronomy and the Dog Star which is Sirius the brightest star in the sky “and it does rise and set with the Sun at some times during the year - when it does this it is said to be in conjunction with the Sun. The Dog Star came from the ancient Egyptians who called Sirius after their god Osirius whose head and pictogram resembles a dog.” Thanks to Cornell University Astronomy Department at: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=178
In Egypt as well as ancient Rome the Sun and the Dog Star were up in the sky the same time as summer thus the expression the ‘dog days of summer’!

Can anyone else but me remember when this date was the one we all waited for to start having real fun? It meant summer vacation was very soon. Up in New Jersey we did go to school well into the month of June towards the end; if I recall. And always went back the day after Labor Day, everyone always had 180 days of school no matter where you lived in these United States and I do believe that has not changed.
But our sons were ten and fourteen when we moved to Florida and except for that very first year here they would start in August and get out in early June or even I think one year in May and all these schools are air-conditioned but none up north were; if I recall.

Nasty hot days would start in May even in good ole New Jersey.
Here too most recently but previously years we did not have it this bad and this year oddly enough we started this heat-wave in March, would you believe? I can even remember times when we first moved to Florida having cooler temperatures than New Jersey in the summer; we had eighties and they would have nineties, how odd?
But since March here it has been in the nineties and very dry, causing many forest fires and so even though officially today is the first day of summer I feel like saying…. You have got to be kidding!
Those ancients seem to dictate all of our seasons and holidays too.
I think perhaps we should rethink their decisions for us, what do you all say?
Why don’t we rename the seasons by what they really are? Since we have strange seasons like tornado, hurricane, fire/ drought, mudslide/ flood and snow/hail, or freeze your butt off or some such thing! That would break it up nicely, huh? Wait a minute nah, no can do, winter, summer, fall and spring we all must admit sound much nicer, but the truth is they don’t tell it as it really is; do they? Power of the word or title makes for more positivity, hmmm.
All right another of my logical ideas shot to heck… let’s sweep our realities under the rug…
Living it all is bad enough.

Did I wish you all a happy summer yet?
Please feel free to enjoy it whatever way you feel the need to; after all the idea is free to all… but may I beseech you to pray for cooler weather and then I too will jump on your bandwagon, how about that?

You are getting a bit of break from me tonight with this shorty of a composition, sticking with my school theme. How nice to have a shorty on the longest day of the year, hmm?
Yes, you know that is true sunrise was at 6:34A.M. EST and sunset will be at 8:25 P.M. EST, that’s over fourteen hours of sunshine!
Actually, sunshine is so beneficial to good moods and health and so let’s all welcome the season of summer with a big cheer!
“Hot, Hot, Hot, Not, Not, Not!
What else have you got, got, got?”

On that trying to lighten all of our loads with a bit of flakey oddity from my soul, 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, OK?

Monday, June 20, 2011

I got your back!

The world appears to be going to hell in a hand-basket!
She said what?
Yes, if every night you still hear how the bargain retail world (Wal-Mart) is still discounting women in the work force, and murders are a dime a dozen in our second safest city in Florida AKA Cape Coral! And when the heat is still killing us here without any rain in our near future forecast and it’s pouring where they’re still getting flooding; I would definitely say so!

Also in Cape Coral that is discussing cutting watering their lawns to only once a week, like the rest of us have been doing for years, due to the drought that we are all going through! Can their too obscene green lawns survive? Also Cape Coral did not have a clue where one million dollars worth of fuel for city vehicles went and so they performed an audit of the records; and do you know where all that fuel went? To lousy bookkeeping on archaic computer systems and the lack of just knowing how to file the proper paperwork! Uh oh, sounds like they need a grant to buy new smarter employees and state of the art equipment to make sure they can keep track…oops!

Tornadoes are still coming where they shouldn’t; like anywhere!
And funny, weird not humorous, hail the size of baseballs is falling also where it has no business being in June! A firefighter (Also Cape Coral) is committing domestic abuse, while he should be fighting fires instead! And I thought all firefighters were pyromaniacs/arsonists at heart, sorry; NOT FUNNY! (PS Hubby is a retired Fire Chief.)
Forest Fires are burning there and everywhere!

The Republican Party looks like the candidates for this next election could be posted on the show, “Americas Most Unwanted” list, and they are dropping off of it like flies with bad publicity. To the good I think… yes, in my book… better now than later; as we all know impeachment doesn't work!
“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln how did you enjoy the play?” Sounds like a plausible question these days, hmm?

All not kidding aside we have major problems that should be addressed, but by whom?

Do you have the answers?
Do I?
Well, I have a few possibilities or vague ideas… would you like to hear them, sorry I mean read them?
I can’t hear you! That’s because you would have to write what you want me to do… oh well … that never stopped me before…
So I’ll take that as a yes and continue.

Let’s take them in order of importance.
Murders, in the second safest city in Florida: drop Cape Coral to last place and then they might keep their bad news to themselves, OK? Now that that’s out of the way…but seriously folks why not just try to hire more police officers and have them stick to those neighborhoods where those nightly horrors have been happening! Problem solved.

Next: why logic doesn’t just take over: Wal-Mart, this is the year 2011, what are they crazy; you Ozark Hillbillies? (Now that that’s out of the way I feel so much better) Get with the program please, women won equality nearly two centuries ago, and now treat us that way! Equal pay for equal work! Gosh, I am all fired up and I don’t even work there!
Why was it shot down? Too many stories in the class action law suit and so get your act together why confuse all those legal superiority minds and see now, Goliath won?

Our drought, Native Americans founded this land and I know we have treated them horrifically, but we all know that they have the ability to make it rain, or was that just another white-man’s lie? I cannot tell our truths from our lies about that whole time period, got to get me a program I guess…
Any-who, I do know it’s not making millions from those Seminole Casinos that only you have the right to make big bucks from, after all from what we did to all of you, well not me and not really my ancestors since mine didn’t get here until the late 19th and early 20th Century, but all those other bad white people who brag about coming over on Columbus’s ship. And by the by they only held maybe four hundred people on each one that would make twelve hundred on all three, right?… Then why do I meet all these people who insist their families came over on them…hmm? You know the ones, right?
Anyway, it is the least we owe you and can do, but hasn’t a decent amount of time passed allowing for some forgiveness by now from you good people?

If not, just dance for me then, I love you crazy guys and gals with those retro-lavish be- feathered costumes, oh so much… and who knows in the process of that well choreographed all sizzling suggestive hot, hot, hot expressive gyrations we might get a bit of a drizzle with the tizzle? Now wouldn’t that just be too wonderful? Got your back… will tell the world… how great you all really are change that western image, huh? (Nothing was meant as an insult in any of this and this is my disclaimer of trying for pure silliness, and besides I am not well, so forgive me? No harm no foul, all right? But I do love everyone.)

Forest fires: solution: don’t smoke, don’t camp, in other words no campfires and prevent lightening with lightening rods, you hear me? Simplicity at its finest!

Tornadoes are scary and all I can say is that I have not experienced one first hand and so all I could think of that might work is having basements and safe rooms as part of all new dwelling construction and to install better early, LOUD, warning systems!

Now this last one is not lesser in importance why it is damn well very important might be one of those too important and covers the first and this other one too, got that?
The woman who was abused by that fire fighter her X, after one date if they are jealous or possessive or nasty or violent or even kid about insulting women as lesser beings than; then GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!

On those words to live by…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 ask you to share those overages and we will too!
And next time for my own selfish sake, please be here or be square, OK?

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day!

With that said to all of the people who celebrate this date as a way in honoring our male counter-parts in the parenthood wars I for one salute you all!
It’s a tough job but when we take the time to have the fun; in why whatever does she mean… point blank and blatantly exacting… why of course, making those little darlings, i.e. having unprotected sex, my friends! Then we must take on the responsibilities of the job! Now that you all remember how you became fathers we can move on… With in retrospect of how it goes from that instant of thoughtless behavior! LOL!

Thankless at times, but the early years are when the rewards appear to be the greatest, when we all have those magic lips to kiss those booboos and solve all the daily woes of baby hood and toddler hood… But as time marches on so does the job description grow all the more challenging with involvement with school, homework and all those extra curricular activities and scheduling time to get the children where they have to go and to still get you to where you have to go too, like work! And on and on into their teens and twenties and forever if fortunate enough to be included in that part of the continuation of their lives; which really is the reward for a job really well done.

And of course then being lucky enough to enjoy their children and lovingly spoiling them as much as you can in short spurts and sending those lil beans home to those marvels that you created with love and care. And then you handing back theirs to them with your wisdom exposed into their nimble capable modeling brains that you have the ability to teach whatever for the short time that they are there all alone with just you…
Yes, throw a bit of difficulty into your grown-up children’s lives let them realize that it wasn’t all that easy for them to become the fine upstanding adults that they are now. Tell their wee ones how they were and why they have this or that difficulty still as an adult …

Oh, where was I, nah, I was kidding, be kind and treat the babes of your babes with as much love and patience that had been used on them as they tried our patience’s daily for years and years and years! And we were so happy when they got into that college across the state or the military basic training way up north! Just far enough away for breathing room and for the suffocation to stop! Oh yes! I can tell you stories of some days… but they were so adorable and way too good and always behaved so well… NOT! Ours were sooo normal as yours are too or were as small ones…
But they were mine and his, the dad, the Hubby and we shared the responsibility and the good and bad times and the best of times the ones where they would whole heartedly say to us, “I love you!” And yes it went way too fast and so to all those fathers and mothers out there with young ones that you can still mold into PEOPLE that will make you and THEMSELVES proud, which ours do daily… the easiest part is what we all know in our hearts is to give them your time, your ear and the most important part is your unconditional love forever, and then you may get a phone call or a card or email on birthdays and holidays or a surprise visit like our eldest did for me for Mother’s Day!…But those babes are only on loan and I truly think this expression applies, ‘if you love them set them free and then they will come back to thee…”
Remember if you taught them right, by the time they are thirty or beyond, like ours are you must trust their judgment to do what’s right! LOL! Of course they do learn it all much earlier, but this is all tongue in cheek I hope you know…
On those parting words I would like say to all that I hope you had the best day ever with more to come to us all on the horizon…stow this one right where all those best days memories are kept, since with all these acts of G-d no one ever knows, does one if photos will endure, but thanks for those mind memories that no one but dementia can steal…

Oh heck, write it all down on this techno marvel like I have with pics too and keep the memory back up stick in safe place! Take those photos and catalogue them in waterproof rappers and films on discs and cluster them In safe places and hope for the best! Or do what I do nightly tell the world! And I am sure someone out there might remember what I said … if only…

On that somewhat odd end to another HOT ONE (weather day i.e., not me, I thought you might need me to clarify with my stream of consciousness way of writing); let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count your blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

And be well and happy and may peace and joy come to you and yours and next time please be here or be square for my own selfish sake, OK?

Saturday, June 18, 2011

My Dad

Iconic is how I think of this memory of my father:
Yep, that's my Dad although, he, at times was mistaken for Arthur Murray
his dancing ability was not that much different than his singing one, which if the truth be known even he would have had to admit that he was quite tone deaf! But he still loved music and in his place of business as he called, The Eclipse in Hasbrouck Heights New Jersey where he tended his own bar it was plentiful for three decades, 40’s, the fifties and halfway through the 1960’s!
My Dad was born in the winter of 1907, January 27th and grew up in Hudson County New Jersey and he was one of six children sort of in the middle, but evenly split three girls and three boys, but you knew that. His dad was a house painter and his mom was a mom, but of course, in those days most moms were.
Sadly, the eldest brother died at an early age he was just one years old of an illness that was not easily treated in those days, I think it was called consumption, or TB, which is as we know these days as tuberculosis, which caused Dad to become the middle child after all was said and done. All the remaining siblings continued to thrive into adulthood and beyond, in fact his youngest sister and the last remaining of the siblings just passed away a couple of years ago, she was well into her nineties!

As most little girls would tell anyone who would listen is that their daddy was their first love and they could do no wrong and mine was no different in my book!
But mine was more special since he was older and wiser and funnier than most, yes he was forty-three when I came into his life.
That first image of me dancing at a block party at the ripe ole age of seven that made the front page of the Bergen Record circa 1957 was due to him.
He supplied the town of Paramus New Jersey with all the soft drinks and chips for all those block parties as long as I could remember.
And so we were all sort of celebrities in the fact that daddy helped with making good times for our community!
He worked hard and harder still and as I grew I knew the only way I would get to see him was to ask to work at his bowling alley, cocktail lounge/ restaurant that fortunately had a snack bar too that faced the alley portion and when I turned fourteen I got to burn hotdogs and hamburgers and fries and sell them to the kids league he had every Saturday morning.
It wasn’t my first job, but it was my best because I could be with my father!
I had been babysitting from the age of twelve and had a few regular jobs even at that time, but they were at night and this was only on Saturday mornings, and so it all worked out!
He taught me how to measure and the beef for the burgers and we even had a press to make them with, portion were exact for fries and hotdogs were the easy part!
Little did he realize how much it all meant that time with him.
But I was not supposed to go behind the adult bar, which was a bit of a problem since the soda machine was there where you had to squirt it into the glasses to serve to the customers, no cans and we did not sell bottles in those days… in New Jersey ABC was the Alcohol Beverage Commission, in Florida I only know it as a chain of liquor stores, but I think they took the name from that one in NJ.
I was always a bit of devil and I think that you all know that, and so when dad was busy I would go behind the bar to mix a weird concoction of all the different flavors of soda, oh what fun, but only for myself!
Dad would catch me periodically and warn me that he could lose his liquor license if the ABC guys were to come in. I am proud to say it never happened but it did add a bit of intrigue into my sneakiness and my getting my customers some beverages when the other bartenders were too busy to notice.
My Dad is the reason I took figure skating lessons at the Rockefeller Center ice rink at the wee age of four. All he asked was simple question as we looked down from above at the rink of skaters whirling and twirling and dancing all over the frozen floor; simply: “Do you want to keep watching or would you prefer to try it?”
I looked my daddy in his bright twinkling hazel eyes and said “oh daddy I want to do it!”
Or some such thing, gosh that was a long, long time ago and who can remember exact words or much of anything from nearly sixty years ago!

And that began my journey of me and the ice, skating that is, my teacher was, would you believe, now some of you won’t but it is the truth the same man that taught Lucille Ball in her TV show!
He told my father that I was a natural since he had me doing little jumps and skating backwards by the end of the first couple of days!
To my benefit I was already in dancing school, ballet, acrobatics etc. at home in good ole NJ by then and so I think that might have helped, although the Olympian who won Dancing with the Stars said it hindered her, that one I never understood.

Good grief, Dad I am nearly at a thousand words and I am no where done with this essay on my dear old sadly departed dad, circa May 11 1986 at seventy-nine years young, a newlywed to his third wife, for just one year, so you see its never too late!
I am so sure you all have had loving people in your life that would make you laugh when you were not in that frame of mind, well my father was the best at that.
Especially, in my teen years when everything was too serious at times in my mind, he would just start to laugh at me getting angry unnecessarily, and sure enough within moments I would begin to laugh too, and forget why I was so hopped up!

Isn’t this something… the rain has finally come here to our drought ridden area that we have only gotten sprinkles before…shoot its stopping oh no don’t! What a tease!
Yes, it seems to have stopped…
Oh well, my father was one of a kind and I do know yours was too… but mine was the best of all the rest and I always knew he loved me like I loved him no matter what!

I hope your memories are vivid and etched forever as mine seem to be… since we lost so many pictures in our hurricane and for that I am very miserable, but Dad would be happy that even so I do remember what is important to any child in the world that they were loved by who really matters in their life, their first loves their parents!
And so tonight I will leave you too with those memories which I hope are so wonderful for you too…and count those blessings, my dad used to say that and he also thanked G-d each and every night of his life…he had no regrets, what a guy!
And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Friday, June 17, 2011

Whining, wining and winning!

I know that to many of you I have been not spending this time wisely and much of what I have been saying out loud to all of you might be misinterpreted as being a bit of WHINING. In other words, droning on, humming not with any musicality to speak of or purring not at all catlike or perhaps just an annoying buzz in your ear, and for all of that I am somewhat sorry! Sure I do know that I have been an enormous complaining B---H! (It rhymes with witch)
All right, that wasn’t a complete apology, but you must remember I am not a well person… But to be fair … who is absolutely sure that all is perfect at this point in their advancing age; after all everyone has something, even if it’s just a hangnail, hmm?
And although I know that can be painful, I wish for you all to have that to be your only medical disorder, a hangnail, got that?
The rest of this stuff is no fun and I wouldn’t wish any of it on my ‘worse enemy’.
That’s another thing; is there such a thing as a ‘best enemy’, I wonder?
Nah then they would be a friend, correct or not, confused, always?

Life is difficult enough without complicating it with deluging strangers with your own misguided unrestrained consistent lament of poor me, why me or what have you?
But, go with me here… if any of this sounds familiar to the world at large then you have a community of understanding and to me that is always a good thing, a commonality, never ever a bad one! TA DA! And so I have done my job, which is yet to be determined by a bunch of Monks in a faraway land…waiting…

And so after I diligently posted this blog wherever the world would allow me to, I did get some positive feedback, which made it more than worthwhile!
Yep, a person with a site for trying to actually find a Cure for Multiple Sclerosis wrote back to me that he felt my blog was a ‘good read’!
Nicer words have not been heard from someone new in quite some time and to say I was elated would be an understatement!
You see, I finally got a bit wiser and posted it where it should go when I stick on the MS topic, which to be honest has been of late more often than usual as you all know, but brilliantly to post it on MS sites it was an Oprah, aha moment!

Whack! That’s me hitting myself on the side of my own head!
Well, not literarily, more like metaphorically, since why didn’t I think of that before, nearly three years I have been writing this drivel and it never occurred to me before… boy, am I slow on the uptake or what?
Friends, don’t answer that or enemies either, be kind…
We all know that the disabled are sensitive, sorry, that’s just plain baloney!
Everyone is if you hit their particular nerve!

Next I mentioned WINING, as in wining and dining, well oddly enough my request about the length of time it takes to be safe from harming your liver with a bit of the grape after steroid treatment, never was answered…
I am declaring a no fault situation here, since officially it is the weekend and has now been a few days since stopping the step down pills and the hard stuff the IV Solumedrol infusions, I do believe that a goblet of Cabernet Sauvignon would not only be beneficial but luscious! Too late if you want to send feedback, since I am determined to join the living well good people tonight! Even if it is just a wee bit of symbolic, being it a fine wine from a well renowned California vineyard. Back to reality, the year is probably this one, sadly that is not on the corked bottle, and so I am not so high-brow after all…hmm… of course, you all knew that!

Fantasy, WINNING was the last of my entitled words to discuss this evening and for fear of not wanting to be thought too crazy, but admit we all are a little bit, that’s what makes us fun people, as if the steroids caused that or due to my choice of that particular word. Or heaven forbid a follower of the notorious Two and Half Men actor/star, Charlie Sheen, who used to be rather likeable until he fell from our graces…with his deeply concerning recent misbehavior.
I just wanted to say that anytime we awake and are breathing and can move from here to there we can consider ourselves, winning the war against any illness.
The expression for my particular ill is that “I have MS but it doesn’t have me!”
A very pleasant mantra…and for all of us with any chronic ailment we must incorporate that into our daily lives; use it often, for it is free splurge!

On that upbeat note of trying to take the weight of the world off your shoulders one blog at a time let me be the first to wish a very happy good night and to ask you kindly count your blessings and share those overages and we will too!
Now, take care, and be happy and well and make sure peace comes to you and yours and next time for my own selfish sake please be here or be square, ya hear?

PS the wine is sublime

Thursday, June 16, 2011

FEAR

Most of my adult life I have been pretty brave; at least that’s what some people have told me.

I have adjusted to life’s curve balls, its ups and downs, what-have-you, and all that might be considered going with the flow… Who has a choice, really, when it comes down to the truth be told…?
And believe me when I say we have had enormous hard times, with other illnesses, deaths and economically/financially and gosh with you name it, we have had it pretty much all, not unlike all of you for that I am more than sure…
Oddly enough my Mom was not good at handling things anymore than myself, but experience is the best teacher in the long haul. And Dad used to say when you reached the bottom the only way is up from there, right? In the day I thought Dad was so profound in his common sense but I was still very young, in my mere thirties even then.

Why we even had one six month period when we were robbed and we nearly walked into the robbers still in our home. I miss-carried a four month pregnancy right after that, Hubby had a job layoff due to leaving work abruptly for me calling him about it the burglary I think but he said no, and to round out the horrible circumstances within those six months with my Mom dying from a stroke in less than twelve hour period a week before her birthday and a day after our anniversary, Dad died on Mother’s Day a few years later!

Yep, that was way back in my youth from August of 1981 to February 15th of 1982…and Dad was in May 11, 1986.
Something’s do seem as if they just happened yesterday, huh?
Tough times, and so when I started getting a bit worse this time with the Multiple Sclerosis I thought sure I can do this, just another bump in the road, right?
Fear is defined as terror, dread, horror, fright, panic, alarm, trepidation, worry concern, anxiety, apprehension and or phobia…
And so this is what I do feel might be happening to me; agoraphobia: a condition characterized by an irrational fear of public or open spaces.
You see, in my case it is not that irrational since the heat here these last few months has been ungodly with little or no relief! Actually, we did finally get a sprinkle of rain last night but even though the temperature went down into the mid-seventies the humidity went all the way up into the eighties, still not a time to turn off the air and open the windows, oh no!
And we all know that for MS, heat is one of the main causes of exacerbations and so here I sit, unable to leave my home once again…with an enormous, rightfully so dose of FEAR!
But to put it into a more of a dire perspective of my perhaps skewed reasoning, after anyone has had these high voltage IV infusions of steroids they are more susceptible to contagion; logical not crazy, right?
Our immune systems are more compromised but that is all of the time anyway since Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disease which there are many others including AIDS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus and the like.
And so we are always in jeopardy of getting something from anyone who unthinkably wishes to share their germs…please be cautious peeps since you know not whom you may be dealing with…

Why that’s why smarty pants here gets her yearly flu shot and two years ago got an pneumonia shot too it is good for five years, and yes I do know pneumonia is not contagious that it develops, yes after being bed ridden or exposed to someone who has some nasty microorganism that they unknowingly share…

I can hear you all saying so; what’s the problem?
Just stay put for now.
My concern is how long?
When will I know it is safe to come out into the world without fear?
And I used to be a people person and I am so in my glory when talking to people…
And my physical limitations are becoming more difficult for me to do what I want, in the respect things are getting harder to accomplish and I can’t read as I used to, my eyes go in and out, and sitting here or anywhere for any length of time can be most painful or numbing or spastic or you all know the rest…
I used to read and do crafts but those are limited now, and to be honest, sorry about that terminology, but it does fit, this is my highlight of my day; writing this and talking to you all!
No one knows in truth how important this one thing has become or could even possibly imagine how connected I feel with my own thoughts and that you are really all listening to me! It is such a wonderful more than you can ever know that you are hearing me…
I really feel this is all I got.
Rambling is my best ability right now.
And I just want you all to know that I thank you for being here.
My cognitive ability is sporadic and my sight is in and out and so I do apologize for my grammatical errors, which I know are abundant, but please forgive.
Yes, I do know we have visited my odd writing abilities before.
Passion should be the main requirement in anything we do well and if that is true this is mine. All right some of us don’t do it well, but we still have the passion!
And as I have said before what I lack in grammatical correctness I make up in being quite verbose, HA! PS once again I proved my point!


On that wee bit of silly, let me be the first to wish you all to take care, and to be well and happy and to make sure that you and yours have peace. And let us never forget to count those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

And next time for my own selfish sake please be here or be square, ya hear?

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Expressive constraints or restraints or constrictions or alas limitations in verbalization of communication?

I have been considered by myself and others to be verbally challenged at best and at worst, pretty much a functional illiterate but I digress…
You see I don’t let any of my challenges in this particular literary world stop me, because I really do so love to discuss weighty verbiage and overused expressions on this planet that we all live on, and aha, so why not; I will…
“That’s what I’m talking about!”
“You know what I’m saying?”
“Awesome!”
“Absolutely.”
“These people…”
“Huh?”
“Now.”
“Sure.”
“I totally understand.”
Come on folks I showed you mine; now you show me yours, ha!
Which do, if any, repetitive clusters of words get to you?

In the processing of tonight’s writings we hit a short glitch with a staccato miniature power outage, one of those slight surges that we are all thankful for our surge protectors doing their jobs by preventing any real damage, huh?
Oops that’s me huh-ing all over the place, not unlike a Canadian’s eh, eh?
Where ever did I acquire that annoying expression is beyond me? Gosh, my parents never ever would say anything as monosyllabic as that. Oh that’s right anyone who knew them knew they were far more articulate than that. Well to be frank I do recall a few no’s in my teen years, but not many!
Oddly enough though most ways or constraints of forms of speech are developed in the earliest days of our lives
When we as children hear speech patterns and many people will influence that part of our early development mostly of course our parents will be our first. And your boyfriend or girlfriend according to how you roll will be your second…bud dump bump…
Soon our friends and their families and then teachers can be blamed for our syntaxes, now you can see where I am going with this… Good!
Because, to be honest, I was bluffing and I have no idea what I meant or even where this may be heading, did you? Gotcha!
No, ‘seriously folks’, oh no this could be included in the above aforementioned annoyances as well as ‘to be honest’, damn I’m good! LOL!
‘You see’, another one, ‘I’m on a roll’, now isn’t this fun?
NO, I hear you!
Well, actually I don’t but you think that I do, huh?
Sadly, ‘I do believe’, oh no another one!
Listen chillin and you will hear redundancy gone wild, oh is spring break over?
Kidding with another ridiculous one…
Susanna, if you are reading this, this evening I sure do hope this is just a bit of the residual affects of all those steroids and all I want to know is does anyone know if when I may be allowed to re-imbibe in a glass a wine? The point is this was my third of my IV infusions and my second step downs and this is the first time I had a silly reaction adding into that nasty diabetic one of all the rest, but that one is thankfully all gone.
I finished the last step down pill last night and wouldn’t mind ‘a bit of the grape’?
There I go again; I break myself up, ha!
Any-who, please get back to me on anyone of those questions, ah I might beat you to it and look it up on this techno marvel that I so do love. ‘Thanks anyway.’
On the tails of all this what did she say moment let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count your blessings and share your overages and take care, be well and happy and try for peace with you and yours and we will too!
And next time for my own selfish sake please be here or be square, ya hear?

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Death, Dream, Ducks...

Have you ever awaken in a nasty cold sweat?
I had the weirdest dream ever…
Do you know in those sci-fi movies when they stop the people meandering around in a normal day’s setting of behavior, let’s say for argument’s sake a quiet summer’s day in the center of a town with a Gazebo type bandstand in the middle, yes one of those all American Fourth of July’s; everyone’s concept of how things looked in the 1950’s and then without warning they all, the people, stop in their tracks and become as stiff as statutes? Not unlike, The Day the Earth Stood Still, circa 1951, although they remade it in 2008, which the first comes to mind, the original is more accurate in what I saw last night, but mine was just a wee bit more different since they were all under water and so was I…
The entire stop action moment appeared to be like I was drowning but unable to move up or down and I was about to call out but I saw everyone else and realized that it would be for naught and so I jerked myself awake for fear if I did not I would be dead, yea, that’s right, dead, how odd, and frightening is that?

And so I lowered the air-conditioning thermostat again and this is not a very good thing since I never ever turn on the light since my concern is with waking Hubby up. You see, it’s in the hallway and instead of closing the bedroom door to see what I am doing I just wait and listen for the air to turn on again. One morning I awoke to it set on 64 degrees Fahrenheit, didn’t know it could go down that low, huh?
My reasoning for lowering the air and to cooling me is that it is supposed to be more healthful and enable MS people to sleep better; actually live better, but we all know in Florida that’s why we are here for its warmth... how ironic. This is truly what makes us stronger, temperature dilemmas? Well, when all is said and done it will come down to that I bet? (Anyone hear of Global Warming? I rest my case.)

Any-who, after all was done to my advantage it turns out my bedtime would not continue no matter how hard I tried and so at approximately five thirty A.M. I got out of bed and into this room to start my day… in front of my old buddy here.
I had time to absorb what had happened to me and my conclusion was that it truly did throw me, for a while, during that experience, I did think if I did not leave the bed I would die in my sleep, quite unnerving, huh?
I would say most definitely so!

Now, I am not totally crazy just yet, which I do know is debatable, but go with me here anyway, OK? And what I did discover on a short snap of research is that steroids have been notorious for causing all sorts of mental contortions and even hallucinations and so I finally gave in to that as my ghastly causal effect of night terror.
As we all know that many medications legal and non legal can alter brain waves and it’s not like my first time too.
Oh no, I never ever took illicit drugs even back in the 1960’s, which I think some may not believe but that is very true. You can ask Hubby he was there too…
I was given pain injections for a back injury in 1983 in a hospital setting that caused that horrendous effect induced by medical people, nurses while I was in traction in a well renowned NJ hospital, scary!
The so-called needed meds caused hallucinations and also the same two medications caused me to be coded, yep just like in your favorite TV medical show where they were zapping me!
Those two meds have been on my allergy list ever since then.

It took me a year and half after that to even take a non-aspirin pain reliever; it had scared the heck out of me and Hubby and our sons who witnessed that strange behavior, for them it was traumatic to this day for that I am sure!

And so I have been very nervous to say the least with the volume of medications that both Hubby and I have been given, and I suppose that alone could have caught up with me in my dreams/nightmares of last night… who knows?

Oh I had ducks in my title too and yep they were NOT in my dream or a hallucination they were those parasitic not so lovely looking breed that is much better eaten then to view, no cute little yellow duckies here, they were Moscovy ducks, molted and lumpy bumpy rather ugly. I suppose not unlike what I have evolved into, hmmm, interesting when we can relate what we perceive as beauty or not beauty to a human form in an animal, huh? They were two to be exact that decided to take a morning swim in our pool, yuck and quite odd since we live on a saltwater canal, so why?

I suppose that was unkind of me but I do have a tendency to call as I see ‘em when I can that is...PS those two waterfowl did not want to leave either Skipper tried his darnedest to wrangle them from the pool but they ducked under, excuse the redundant rightfully so term, and swam beneath the water to all our dismays. Hubby even tried to use the skimmer net pole as a Shepard’s crook would be used too but alas getting Skipper inside and waiting patiently finally was all we could do, oh well… sometimes doing nothing is better than something, huh?

On that note of resignation on duck rearing practices let me be the first to ask you to take care, be well and happy and may peace come to you and yours and kindly share all those blessings and we will too!

And next time for my own selfish sake please be here or be square, ya hear?

Monday, June 13, 2011

I'm MS'd out, how about you?

This evening I felt that I should move on…
Sure it has been a rough day, but patience has never ever been my strong-sooth.
We all know this to be a truism in just the mere fact in knowing that steroids take their time to work, as research tells us it can be anywhere from three months to a year. I guess I better find something else to keep me busy for as long as my attention will hold, ha what a joke.
Everyone here knows that my attention span is shorter than most hyper active kids!
But thankfully when in business I was a multi-tasker before this bum gig took hold which I am still adjusting to, and that is a plus in my many management and entrepreneur positions that I did have over a thirty-two year time span, while raising our darling sons.
Even with my volunteer years which did overlap, on and off for forty years, I had to do many things at the same time, from fund raising to being co-president of a support group and teaching a class here and there as well as being a board member and let’s not forget advocacy, on and off line. Most of my readership already knows all this, sorry for being so redundant, but that’s me… consistently repetitive!

Any-who, the point is for tonight that I am still not any better but I do have hopes that time, will be the answer, since I got nothing else to count on, and one can only try to outlive the waiting period, bud dump bum! LOL!

Hell, is not probably much different than this… sorry, just one more thing before I really do move on to something more interesting to the masses, OK?
This banding thing and the numbies that I have been getting in amplification are going to go away, right? (PS all explained in detail last night) I should know this since I have had them for years but not so intensely…
Spasms are rampant too, only more so than usual and my eyes are truly doing there part to create havoc not to mention my left ear clogging up like a trouper to get into the act too! I suppose like I have said before feeling is better than not feeling, even pain.
And anyone with MS knows why I said that, since we have all gotten up when our leg acted as if it wasn’t there and we fell, or reached out for something when we lost our gasp since we couldn’t feel the item in our hand.
And so yes, I do welcome the pain with the knowledge that I can still feel, even if it’s not good.

And so as I promised here is me moving on…
A Facebook friend of ours was on The View today as a guest, Robert Scali, yes the ABC all women discussion show with hot topics and guests to boot. He had been involved in a discussion on men having plastic surgery done, he is a former Green Beret and so although he did have his chin done he said his buddies from Fort Bragg did not put him down or tease him in anyway for his choice to better his appearance. He had tried the workout regime etc, and nothing had helped change the chin that I felt in both pictures was not that bad looking, but we only see what we see when it comes to ourselves, hmm? He is a forty-nine year old divorced man who might very well be re-entering the dating market and it did sound a little bit like Barbara Walters perhaps was willing to play matchmaker for him, hmm? Not too bad an idea she does know a wide variety of people in every walk of life… PS he resides in the Boston area for any of you gals that might have seen him on-air, very cute! As a married older lady I do try to do my part to make others that way too! LOL!
All in all the two men there who were willing to come-out in this realm of full disclosure I believe was quite brave, since unfortunately like too many other things this too has been considered a gender oriented decision and therefore rather bias!

On that note of trying to clean up the singles world, one person at a time and so please take care, be well and happy, and may peace come to you and yours and please share those blessings and we will too!

And next time for my own selfish sake please be here or be square, ya hear?
Thanks folks.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sensitize?

Tonight, I am going to try something quite different.
I have been considering how to explain what some Multiple Sclerosis persons may be going through daily, although each one of us that have MS have their own unique perspective on how we handle the symptoms. And their level of how they feel is totally different from one to the other, OK, got that?

Optic neuritis is misunderstood as being not that serious and so I will start with that.


The one on the left is what I see with my right eye since having optic neuritis last summer that the infusions still have not helped. Not bad you say, get a corrective lens like the rest of us do with nearsightedness and all will be well or eye surgery like they have for cataracts or now Glaucoma and it should be just okey dokey! This is neurological and the optic nerve goes to the brain not within the eye itself. And so no, not yet, since there is no corrective lens that has been made for this yet and no surgery either and so here I am with one eye legally blind, which is non-corrective. That is why when I say when my left eye is playing tricks on me I am concerned, because we all know when two don’t work…you got BUPKISS!

Now I will continue to try to get on with this visual demonstration.
It was quite challenging to try and explain what those bands or hugs that we get feel like since they not only encompass our limbs but our bellies and chests; the worst is the one that I get thankfully not too often around my neck, but I think I found a couple of examples of how that would be pictorially expressed;

Yes! That is what it feels just like!

Having numbness causes a whole bunch of social non-acceptable problems, like clumsiness, in other words dropping things and unfortunately as a diner guest this could happen:

And so many will stop asking you to even come over.
Your hearing may come and go too, not because you are deaf, but it is also part of the CNS or central nervous system to some extent, and for me at times it feels like the fullness in the ears you get when going on an airplane and also temporary earaches for me that come way too frequently. Neck and back pain and also hip pain are nasty indicators that you are in for it. The spasms feel like the worse muscle pulls charley horse that you could ever imagine and they come in everywhere, toes, neck, back, calves, arms you name it wherever you have one that is, muscle i.e. NO fun!
But alas here are some sites that you can copy and paste and get more information that is helpful if you too have MS!
http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/features/when-ms-attacks
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm226755.htm
http://my-ms.org/sensory.aspx
http://www.sharedsolutions.com/



My daily injections
Our daily oral medications:

Hubby and I Thanksgiving 2005:
before medications.
And me are you ready for it... drum roll please.................................................................................................................................






TODAY!I suppose the mystique is dead now...oh well all good things don't always have to come to an end; close your eyes! Too late,LOL!

On that note of hopefully not frightening you too much; you see in my opinion medical aid can sometimes help and sometimes hinder and I just want to say right now I am wondering… which is happening to me.
If not or even if so, take care, be well, be happy and may peace be with you and yours and count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

PS Hubby stills looks the same as always that is why no current photo was necessary in the publishing of tonight's blog

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Adjusting to doing what should be done...

We all have to live, right?
That is, I mean, if we are still within the realm of a viable body; which thankfully I still am and for that I am sincerely happy! Let’s face it though, its usage for all practicalities is limited by its restraints of my inabilities.
As miserable as all this is I have come to terms with the realization and reality of it all that this is what is what and there is absolutely no reason to think that I cannot allow myself to figure out how to handle this situation any differently than others that I have been in before…Now you tell me who in this lifetime has not found themselves in any type of tight circumstances on occasion, hmmm?
Besides Jack Kevorkian is dead now; sorry folks… I was sickly kidding!
As awful as I feel I will not allow that possibility to enter this strange brain flow of mine for the next decade at least.
Many are worse off than me I do know.
But, when things are going numb and your body parts are unwilling to co-operate it’s got to make you wonder…what if?
Yes, what if I was my old healthy self?
The one that is beginning to become a vague memory of my current self…
That’s right the person who went outside for fun and enjoyed the sun and surf and all outdoor games, fishing and crabbing, bicycling, boating, horseback riding and swimming and even race walking at a mighty speed of three miles in a forty minute time period!
Gosh, where is that girl, woman?
I miss her, me.
Not to be too morose but this is not who I thought that I would be at this stage in my life while so many of my cohorts are none the worse for wear.
Sure I am jealous, with each person who is my age or older than me when I see them walking or jogging past my home in the mornings…and all I can do is stare: I know that’s not polite but they can’t see me in my air-conditioned home sitting in my recliner since I can only long to be them from afar…
Heat is the enemy for all of us with MS, Multiple Sclerosis, and can be the prime cause of exacerbations of the illness.
Little did I know being out even in short spurts would cause me to have such a negative reaction and to screw up what I was trying for, to recondition my deteriorating body with a healthy regime of an exercise program.
All I can say is how can one person be so wrong.
That is actually rhetorical.
We all know when we come to ourselves and determination sometimes we don’t think all things clearly through, hmm?
I was a wee bit too Gung-ho in that I felt it was my passion to try to better myself, nothing ordinarily wrong with that concept at all...
But I must admit I do not have the team of professionals around that I did have many years ago, but that is not fair this is all my own undoing and no one else could or should be blamed for my own stupidity!
No one can know everything even about their own specific needs and deficits.
I am still learning so much, although I have been studying for maybe forty years about any ills that have historically befallen me or my family.

Curiosity, is a wonderful thing and learning should never ever stop and I am sure you all agree.
And so as long as this muscle in my head is not totally lost to cognitive misbehavior I will try harder to become a better student of my own fate. And that of the medical fate of others and make myself respectable in the thought of reasoning of not giving up and determining ways to conquer all difficulties in my life and continue with that same intensity of desire to help all others! Well, not all but as many as I logically can help, OK?

Gosh, that was refreshing to think about out loud, yep just to think with some positivity.
It gets tough thinking along those lines as many of you can relate to, too.

And so without hesitation let me leave you this evening with some more words of my wishing wisdom for all of you… take care, be well and happy with peace to all of you and yours and count those blessings and share all of those overages and we will too!

And for my own selfish sake please be here next time or be square, OK?
Thanks.

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...