Friday, August 31, 2012

Trivia and coincidence seems to fascinate most people

With that said, tonight’s blog is going to mention some interesting to me coincidences.

Today, on the anniversary of the death of Princess Diana; and also today would have been my brother's 81st birthday.
The coincidence or what have you is that Diana was born on July 1, 1961 and I was born on July 1 as well, but not the same year. Now many will think that's ridiculous, but to me it is an interesting twist of fate. Here I am a not too healthy woman in her golden years and Diana was in her prime and well and suddenly is killed in a horrific accident, at way too young an age. My brother, on the other hand who lived to an age of approximately 70+ a few years, which here is considered a fairly decent life span, the Princess was only 36. Does this seem fair?

I know that life is not fair, I can hear you all screaming at me! Stop that!
Kidding, but one must admit that is an interesting tidbit of trivia for me.
We all miss Princess Di. And I think it's important that her sons know exactly how much she meant to us as a world.
She was giving and caring and honest about all that she did.
For such a young woman she touched so many people, with her kindness and gentle demeanor. Her sons should know this about a woman, called mother who was loved by the world in her short existence. Not many know people of this quality and although I did not know her personally and her being younger than me she was someone to look up to and try and emulate. She set into motion a world where women knew that they could do anything and still be kind and decent while doing it.
The world will have a long wait until there is anyone at all like her.

Moving on…
I am still a beginner at this Dragon program that I am still not there yet.
Well, I played hooky today from learning more about the program.
I received a phone call about the trial for that new medicine that I was going to get involved in, but sadly I finally got on the scale and told the nurse my weight. My worst fear has happened I gained more than I ever, ever weighed in my entire life, even more than when I was expecting our sons. And now I am out of the trial due to being 8 pounds too fat bringing my BMI over the limit.
Am I to be a failure in all my current ventures? I sure hope not.
I would exercise but as you know if I get overheated I end up on IV steroids, which just causes me to gain more weight ironically.
I challenge my readership to help me to figure out what I can do. The heat is my enemy; since I have to wear cooling vest over 80°. I already eat healthy foods, lean meat, fish, chicken, fresh vegetables and fruits, also low-fat or no fat dairy products, whole-grains with portion control.
My medications are too many, I need my 18 pills and one shot a day to keep me going health-wise, and due to them I have the metabolism of a sloth.
Someone, out there has to have some type of idea.
Oh, and yoga is out; since when I was in healthier times I took it for two years, but now with spondylosis and cervical stenosis, twisting is no good. PS: remember that I am an Aquacize instructor and with weather permitting I still do range of motion exercises in the pool, except they do not help in losing weight.
HELP! PLEASE! Please!
And thanks for listening or reading.

So on topics that are interesting to many or were just to me, allow me the first to wish you a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Tonight I was ready for the use of my new

But it, as most things in life needs to be read more thoroughly to be able to understand its intricacies.
It’s not like getting behind the wheel of a car and just turning on the ignition and going after reading that manual, kidding of course. And so when the day comes I will definitely be, well maybe be, sure I WILL BE better informed and capable.

Oddly enough, the program kicked in all by itself.
And I am sitting before you using for the first time my Dragon, it's miraculous!
I think I am going to love this!
Still getting the hang of it just tried to paragraph, but it doesn't seem to understand.
I will have to read some more information before it does everything I need it to do.
It appears to be capable of allowing my manual intervention to vary it and prevent it from totally taking over.
Reading some of the literature that comes with the program's functions is numerous and until I access that particular information I will intervene in the writing of this blog tonight.
If any of you out there have this program and can give me the Cliff notes on it I will take them.
"You're reading", I said, hubby was reading this over my shoulder and being a backseat driver, Gotta love the guy.
Guess he's getting even for all the years that I had been doing that to him, more often now that I don't drive.

Tonight I was more interested in writing about other things than this program and I will begin to do that now.

Sadly, the news has been keeping us abreast of what's going on in the northern Gulf, and horrifically the pictures being sent back are all to reminiscent of the same pictures when hurricane Katrina hit seven years ago nearly to the day.
We here in Southwest Florida seem to be way the luckier than them and lest us never forget when we weren't. Our hearts and prayers continuously are being sent as well as our volunteers from all walks of life and monies are being collected with the devastation trying to alleviate at least the monetary overwhelming horrors that even a category one hurricane can bestow on an area.

I discovered how to paragraph, simply by saying the words go to the next line twice. I get it confused by just using those words, it wasn't sure what to do and so I have some heavy reading to do and I hope my eyes “pulled out Mrs. Bettis AutoCorrect” this sentence was supposed to be “I hope my eyes hold out” and then I said “this is as bad as AutoCorrect”, ha! Have I got a few for you, Ellen DeGeneres…?
It politely says things like, “please say that again”.

It is very case-sensitive if you say one word wrong it does something entirely different from what you're hoping for and so as I said earlier I will have to study up.

Meanwhile, I will try my hardest to continue with other topics…

Last night, I had a very bad night that is sleep-wise I kept getting these horrible headaches that are on the top of my head and I find myself having to put my neck brace on during the night or getting up entirely. I do have cervical stenosis and brain issues due to the MS, but I have no idea if others experience this sensation; it is quite unsettling. For something so painful to wake you out of your sleep can be frightening. Now Googling these issues have come up with several possibilities and most are disconcerting and others make me realize that the length of time that the problem has existed means it's not so serious after all.

Wonderful techno marvel we have here, all of our computers are capable of being beneficial to our lives and how we use them and use their access to the Internet can be quite interesting. Information is a wonderful thing and again 'knowledge is power', as we all know and have heard redundantly all of our lives but when we misuse it we can get in trouble and so although it is available we must consult actual professionals in all the fields by phone or in person when concerned with health issues. Of course they're very, very legit sites: the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland clinic, Johns Hopkins, Harvard medical, Columbia medical, etc. you get the idea. Anyone of these can be accessed easily by using the name with .com. And that is where I went to/searched the Mayo Clinic, one of my favs. But not being a medical professional, assuming anything is dangerous, as we all know, as smart as we are, with total access, there are times when a little knowledge is a bad thing. I prove that to myself daily, sadly.

On that realization that everybody already knew, including me, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

PS I have many friends that take care of animals and love them all and I do so much respect what they do and I am somewhat jealous that I am no longer capable of doing that which I love too...I and speaking of one Gal who has never ever been a plain Jane, since she is way too artistic for that! She knows who she is...and you do too...for I just said her name. I was giving her I suppose a bit of hard time, but it is unfortunately the way I seem to communicate these days…SORRY!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

LOTSA STUFF OTHER THAN WEATHER HAS BEEN GOING ON

I know people who were a little like Nero, the Emperor who fiddled while Rome burned…and there were people who celebrated making it not to the finish line of the contest of the highest office of the nation but to the convention to decide, since he was the only one left, that perhaps he would do…at a cost to us tax payers of just eighteen million bucks! But wait, that amount is a twofer, not only the RNC, to be fair, so does the National Democratic Convention get that exact sum too for their party for the incumbent; is it me or does it just seem like everyone just wants to spend our money in a rather awful economy, an understatement, to prove that, what, so they know how to PARTY?
What are they trying to prove that they are both the candidates?
Jeepers, Misters of us little guys protecting our needs that you both claim to want to help according to your nightly commercials, what’s up?
And this is not the first year for this, why I posted the info on my Facebook page but apparently, NO ONE READ IT!
To this day I do believe that US News and World Report have a legit, reliable, and excellent reputation and that is where this information I have reprinted a portion of it below in quotes. But we have footed the bill on these things for years, it stated and perhaps most didn’t bother to read it, since they already knew it?

“Despite their diminished influence, political conventions inexplicably still receive taxpayer funding. While our military faces $55 billion in cuts each year, the Democratic and Republican parties accepted $18 million each to fund their 2012 conventions. Over $220 million of taxpayer money has been spent on party conventions since 1976.”

http://t.usnews.com/a2B26B

Something to think about, hmm?

Moving on…
I have made a purchase from a company called Tiger Direct, which sells online all technological stuff for lack of a more concise word, computers, TV’s etc… loss my train of thought, oops!
I know many of you have high tech phones that allows you to acquire a freebie app called Dragon Dictation or at a low cost… well, I have been keeping my eye on this item since I only have the use of one eye and my hands go numbies way too often, you get my drift and this system is hands free gadget and so, when I received the email from them, apparently we bought something from them a few years back… Any-who, they had this expensive, even in Sam’s Club, for over one hundred bucks but than went on sale and so we went to check it out and the case was empty they were stolen out of it and of course it was the last one, similar problem at Best Buys or none left, I might have gotten the two stores mixed up with their issues, but you get my drift… Well, when Tiger sent me the sale page from them with a sixty buck discount making it only thirty-nine ninety-nine, I thought that was great!
But wait there’s more; yep it had a forty dollar rebate too!
That would mean they owe me a penny, but no, I did have to pay for shipping, but really at $5.25 I couldn’t fill out the forms quick enough and so I did!
Today it arrived.
So far it looks great, but we have not installed it yet; it does even come with the ear phone and microphone speaker part too… The rebate we had to go back online for and print out and there are all different ways to get it sent to you, you have three choices and we opted for the usual a several week wait for the check way. It is a nice hunk a change but its not going change our lives that biggy so we can wait.
PS a few days ago we received another check from the insurance company Progressive, we had opted a while back to have that snapshot thing they advertise on TV, well it does prove to work well, and Hubby has lightened up his old cop heavy footed driving to a softer gentler stance, and for his careful excellent driving we now have a 30% discount on our already reasonable auto insurance policy!
Just thought I would mention two companies that we found to be A’OK!

On that somewhat informative sharing of what we have been really up to…allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

COMPASSION HESITATES HERE...

For the last week I had been in short communications with a woman who sounded that she was sincere…aha!

I will allow all of you to be the judge, although you should know I have already asked more knowledgeable people in these matters than, well, that’s the rest of the world I hear you saying…Any-who, I have decided to publish the correspondence, omitting all the names involved including my own real one…well, actually I only responded once… Here’s her message to me via the Facebook messaging:

• August 19

7:11am
Hello beloved
I'm Mrs. XXXXX XXXXXXXX suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I was married to Mr. XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX a Malaysia base shipping tycoon. My husband died after a protracted illness on October 7th, 2010, as our life as couple only lasted for 29years without a child. When my husband was alive, he invested in stock the sum of Forty Million United States dollars ($40,000,000.00), which he derived from his vast investment in capital market with a Security Company here in Malaysia and named me as the sole beneficiary of this trust funds upon his demise (all records are kept with my family lawyer). Just yesterday, my Doctor told me that I have limited days to live, due to the Leukemia problems that I have been suffering from. With this hard reality that has befallen me, i have decided to donate this funds to you before i pass on, and I want you to use the funds to establish a charity Foundation in my family name.
There are other details I cannot divulge right now, because i do not know how secure Facebook can be, Hence i advise that you send me your private E-mail address, so that i can give you a complete details on how to go about this noble task. Hoping to hear from you soon.
With Love,
Mrs. XXXX XXXXXXXX.
• Thursday
6:23am
Please take care XXXXX, and thank you so much for the offer, but you must have family that will do it as you wish. (My only communication to her)
• Today

Dear Beloved Tobi. (I am using my alias here, she wrote my actual name)
Thank you for your love and care shown to me in your email to me above, and thus i am indeed very happy to know that my heart lead me to the right person, even when i know that i haven't meet you before and sincerely do not know you from adam. I personally did sent you my previous email, because I do not have any child to inherit my late husband wealth, and also because of the fact that, my late husband relatives are bourgeois and very wealthy persons that will misuse and invest the money into ill perceived ventures if willed to them, instead of helping the poor in a worthy manner.
So I want you to please Contact my family lawyer Barrister XXXXXXXXXX (XXXXXX@gmail.com) and tell him that I have willed the funds to you by quoting my personal reference number Law/chamber/solicitor/rt/cfd/WILL/my/983/7520212, been that I have yesterday authorized him to issue a Letter of Authority in your favor to the Security Company handling the stocks as soon as you contact him. He will also endorse my WILL, where you will be named as the sole beneficiary of the trust funds. Please ensure to provide to him, all that he may require to finalize the arrangement, and make sure you maintain a confidential and cordial relationship with him even in my absence, because he is a very trust worthy and caring person.

My happiness today is that, my life is worthy of emulation and I want you to do the same too, by been kind hearted all through your life. Please, remember to put me in your daily prayers, because it is what i needs the most right now.

With Love,
Mrs. XXXXX XXXXXXX

Now not to sound heartless, but does any of this ring a bell with any of you as being a wee bit familiar?
A too good to be true for you, of course not for her!
Well, Hubby being a retired law enforcement officer I read it all to him and he suggested I call our local office involved with detecting fraud here, and so I did, and they concurred with my gut feeling that it was sure enough, a CON.
And so I am posting this here and on Facebook to hopefully make sure that no one gives away their personal info and ends up with all their accounts emptied. For that is what these sweeties do!

The local authorities have been notified, but it is still a job for Interpol.
So there is nothing more that I can do.
Most lose their small fortunes before they know exactly what is going on, and sad tales have been told about some innocents even insisting it is their monies and so they can do whatever they want with it!
Sadly, they lose all their savings too.

So as much as I care about the world and all the horrors in it we must all be weary when we hear from COMPLETE STRANGERS their tales of woe…

On that trying hard to help in this world that I love so much, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you to count your blessings and share those overages, but not with unknowns, ha, and we will too!

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

Tonight I felt that I would give us all a bit of a break from hurricane ISAAC now bounding horrifically down on New Orleans on the Eve of Katrina’s seventh anniversary!
Please all of you in the northern Gulf States should know though I said we were taking a break our prayers and thoughts are with you tonight and always!

Monday, August 27, 2012

CAVALIER!

Sadly, my heart breaks for those who have no sympathy or realization of what anyone who actually went through a disaster knows. I suppose those of us, who have, you can say that we all have insider information.
People all day long have been making jokes about our being lucky over here in Charlotte County and that ISAAC did not cause many problems or any devastation and for that I too am very thankful, but that all the warnings were in the end for no good reason, merely hype. Oh I dare to say those protocols were met and needed!
To that I say BOORAH!
People, who have not been through the horror of having your home ripped from you as you stand within it, are lucky for sure, and I do not wish any of that on them…
But to have the lack of understanding or caring for that possibility or understanding for any of us who did experience it and how that affected us forever, must have a real mean bone in their body, I think.
Post traumatic stress disorder is no joke, and many of us have that.
Is it only acceptable for soldiers, no is not for any of us, no matter how it befalls us!
Why, even my own brother had PTSD from being a Medic in the Air Force until the day he died, when he had been stationed in Seoul Korea during the Korean War, he was nineteen years older than me, and he lived to seventy-six and all those years he was in and out of VA hospitals all of his life. I started visiting him in the D.C. when I was only five years old my parents took me, not a good idea in the long run. It was not any different than the movie Born on The Fourth of July that Tom Cruise was in… horrors for a young child…perhaps that explains some of why my childhood was really rough.
Thus my hatred of wars, but never ever soldiers, and I do also hate weather systems that cause people to die or suffer as well!
Many people know all this about me, since I spew all of that nightly here.
Handling things, difficult circumstances are not my strong suit; I had no one to teach me. My mom flunked that too.
I know no excuse, but let’s just say that at one time I knew a little how to make the best of a bad situation, but not anymore… Why I made coffee on a tenting trip to the Delaware Water Gap, when our matches were soaked and still raining on me as I worked so diligently so Hubby and I could have a daily dose of Java, I used the Girl Scout in my memory by rubbing two sticks together and some flint was involved and whoosh fire! I think…gosh, folks that was like forty years ago!
But I needed something and I was able to do it, and that felt really good, and also for years helping others…
But put me in the heat these days with my heat sensitivity and other health issues and you would much rather be stranded on a desert island with no sunscreen, no water, and no food than me!
Complaining so much that you would either kill me or yourself to make it stop!
And so fear of no utilities and all that devastation is really what makes me scared these days… so sorry!
And my heart is already crying with worry for those other Gulf Coast people!
Yes, I am happy that not too much happened here, although some areas south and east of us got more did get some thing more, and it was not good, you fools!
Think, before you say what you have, it’s nice to be happy for your good luck but be a little bit more sensitive to others who may have not been as lucky, that’s all I am saying and try hard to think and put yourself in their position and learn a little compassion!
And grow up!
It’s those stupid jokes about death or racial horror ones that I can’t stand either!

I am an old BITCH, and don’t you forget it! (OOEEE MY CRINGED FACTOR IS IN OVERDRIVE!)
Hope you all heard that!

On that telling it as I see it once again, allow me to wish you all a very happy safe good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

PS cavalier in the sense I was using it means: "careless, nonchalant, blasé, flippant, negligent, arrogant, haughty, cocky, inconsiderate, disdainful"
Thanks to the below site:
http://vocabulary-vocabulary.com/dictionary/cavalier.php

Sunday, August 26, 2012

GO WEST GO WEST, YOUNG MAN!

Then disperse you babe of nature’s wrath and murderous immoral, sadly the count of seven is in Haiti, this betrayer of human life who’s name is ISAAC!
Yes, being only a few days old is considered an infant.

My incantation seems to be working though, have any of you noticed?
The only thing that worries me is where ISAAC will go to next.
Let’s all pray, as I said in my opening above line is the best he can do is to disperse and diminish before harming anyone else!
And yet, they insist, meaning, the weather folks, meteorologists peoples, say that he will increase in size to possibly a category one or two hurricane, before he destroys more lives in our Florida panhandle or further westward towards New Orleans, neither they nor us need anymore of that!
My only resolve is that he, ISAAC, has proven to not do what he was thought to be doing and hopefully this will continue to be his MO!
WE CAN ONLY HOPE SO!

Moving on…
Here I sit with full power on and our home boarded up, just in case…
We never have had to get sandbags; although, they were available for free, for a twenty count, in River City AKA Punta Gorda.
If we should happen to get a storm surge:
“Storm surge noun an abnormal rise in the level of the sea along a coast caused by the onshore winds of a severe cyclone.” Or in our case a hurricane. Thanks to:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/storm+surge?s=t
With us being at just a nine foot elevation from our saltwater canal, it would be a first for us.
Sure we have had water come up over our dock and on to our lawn, our home is not anymore than fifty feet from the water, but it has never come up as far as our home…Now I shouldn’t have said that, tempting fate!
Nah, we’re good, yep we’re good, YES, WE’RE GOOD!
Got that ISAAC?
The rain totals now too have been revised from close to ten inches, previously predicted, now down to one to three; all in all we appear to be rather lucky! YES WE ARE! SHALL I CHIRP OUT A TUNE? Not yet, still want to get through the night and tomorrow…
Yet we will be experiencing tropical storm winds of thirty-nine mph or more in gusts.
So far our winds for us around are only nine miles an hour!
Sure hope the house shutters hold!
Kidding, I make bigger rushes of wind when I pass people on my scooter at ten miles an hour indoors!

“Disperse and Diminish, Disperse and Diminish, Disperse and Diminish and leave us all alone ISAAC!”

Well, now we wait to see if it worked.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
If just doing that?

Many of you out there are true believers of all things of that nature, that one word has many meanings and so do your thing and take on with enormous caring help yell my incantation above in quotes, as loud as you can!

Who knows stranger things have happened…
On that note of positivity, allow me to 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, ya hear?

Saturday, August 25, 2012

ALL THAT WORRY AND...

Hopefully it will be for nothing!
Although, ISAAC, take that, seems to be heading a wee bit further west, but it don’t mean a thing till the fat lady sings!
Ooops what’s the tune; could you hum a few bars…bud, dump, bum… I meet the bill.
Any-who…the weather system that is presently coming off the coast of Cuba, is still only twirling around at 60 mph with gusts to 70 mph, and the millibars have dropped below one thousand, and he is sprinting at 17 mph forward motion, which could mean only one thing that ISAAC is considering going into a faster circular pace.
The weather people though seem to feel that ISAAC now will not become a category one hurricane until it is across from us here in Southwest Florida, but by then the cone of uncertainty will be brushing our coast line.
Now, most would let out an enormous WHEW!
But nah, not so soon folks, the meteorologists seem to believe that we will be on the side of quite a bit of wind!
Now I am getting angry, my hopes were so high, and Hubby worked so hard battening down the hatches most all of today!
Why couldn’t they let us know before he went through all that!
It’s dark in here, well not totally dark since some glass coverings were left open until that fat lady sung!

But this is gotta stop, there’s gotta be a better way!
Emotionally it’s a roller coaster ride too for every one involved.
Since most of us have been through really bad hurricanes and we never ever want to be complacent or cavalier about any major threats.
There has got to be another answer.
Oh don’t get me wrong I am so happy that Hubby made us storm ready, after Hurricane Charley it wiser to err on the side of being prepared for the worst and hope for the best, Geez where have I heard that before, hmm?
If ISAAC fizzles that is just fine with me!

My anger is aimed at the fact that in the twenty-first century we still have no better ways to predict this elusive thing called weather!
I can’t be upset with people, since we are all just human… mere mortals.
But we are brilliant at creating things, techno thingy things and so why have we not pursued more accurate machines to handle this little thing that can control nations more so than their populaces, and governments!
We are still under a tropical storm warning, which means winds of around forty miles or more, seventy-four is a category one hurricane, now also possible tornadoes, ISAAC is moving forward at 21 mph from Cuba into warmer water once again; hurricane warnings are currently from Bonita Beach through to the Keys.

A few people are not too worried in certain areas here our neighborhood speaks volumes to that.
I suppose some are not remembering the destruction so much, or weren’t here then, or were lucky enough not to have any!
Whatever their reason is, I still believe that we should all prepare here and keep watching or listening to the news and weather reports.
No harm in being safe, ever!

I sure hope that I didn’t add to the confusion with our locals here… many are doing whatever they have to do in their particular area, which is the smartest way to handle it all!
No arguments here.

On that note of you gotta do what you gotta do; allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and don’t forget to count your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Friday, August 24, 2012

TONIGHT'S TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF ANDREW IS SHARING THE LIMELIGHT

Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida on 8-24-1992; it was a very strong Category 5 storm system. He was responsible for destroying more than 28,000 homes and displacing more than a 250,000 people and killing fifteen.

We heard the news daily where we were living in Ormond Beach; the personal stories were horrific and broke your heart. At the time I was working in promotion and Hubby was self employed and our sons were very mature for their ages and trustworthy.
And so we decided to go once we were sure that our young men, at 16 and 20 were able to know that neighbors and we were only a phone call away. We all would have gone but at that time, school had already started, oh yes, this was September around Labor Day, less than ten days after…
And at the time we had two dogs a cat and a cockatiel, so they said alright go… PS we let them go down a few weeks later for a long weekend with a couple of good also responsible friends…For our younger son it was a good thing for his college future to know he cared and the idea that they so wanted to especially with all that we told them about daily and the pictures we showed them when we got home…
Here’s the pictures in order of our arrival in Homestead, Florida, ground zero:

In the Humana building not safe for people but Okay for animals.


I’m in the hat and Hubby was sporting a mustache in those days!
That's why since clothes are nixed for donations, give money instead!
We brought a couple of cots, coolers with our own food,even a porta pot with our Jeep and landscaping trailer. You see, we didn't want to be a part of the problem but we did want to help; so we came prepared. We delivered the two tons of dog food and several pallets of sunscreen! Compliments of the Greyhound Pet Association and Hawaiian Tropic!

Our wonderful military veterinarians that took care of the larger animals at the Crome location.
We were invited to eat with the military and did eat one meal with them in our week there, and that is how I learned all about MRE's, meals ready to eat, just add water or in some cases just open!
I thought that I would close tonight's homage to a horrendous happening in our state's history of storms...but before we left...

And since they came back quite wonderfully with a racetrack and even our youngest son has chosen to live and work there!

And so with all those memories that taught us about what truly was important in life, not things, but people... it was a real harsh test to know that you should value each other more than any toys you think you need...and that truly all the money in the world cannot stop any of this from happening and so live your lives to the fullest each and every day!
And tell your loved ones that you love them as often as you can.
That's all...
And here I sit with the news discussing another shooting this time a person laid off from his job killing his boss, near the Empire State Building in New York with a gun he purchased here in Florida years ago, he was killed by police but many were wounded during the action.
And on the lighter side, not too lighter side, but odd side ok just plain weird, the NRA will lay claim to this wild news story a seventy-something woman bludgeoned her husband to death with a coffee mug. Whoa, guns don't kill people; coffee mugs do? That to me, just proves that she must have been really, really angry! Not so funny...

Alright than allow me to 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?

PS ISAAC IS COMING CLOSER AND HAS GOTTEN FASTER!
PSS I have over forty pictures of those days we went down to help after Andrew and it was quite difficult choosing.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

ISAAC, DAY 2

Gosh, guys it’s been a roller coaster ride, mostly all day long!
Every three hours we get our allotted reports from the National Weather people, which relay that info to our local stations, about the journey of ISAAC.
He’s, ISAAC, is still only a 40 mph wind with gusts to 50 mph, a minimal tropical storm and his forward movement has alternated from slow to not as slow speeds, breaking no records at 15 mph, in a forward north western direction…
He, that is ISAAC, is still in the Caribbean giving the islands a long large rain event.
The five o’clock latest information confirms that the two o’clock was right on target as, ISAAC, is moving slightly more in a north westerly direction…and yep, I and others cannot wait until the eight o’clock update! We are all on the edge of our seats…
Geez is this, what watching paint dry is like?
I can only relate to if it is similar to watching grass grow; since I used to do that, seriously on the first lawn I planted bluegrass on, in good ole NJ… We had built that home too, to me it was like giving birth to the beautification of the total project, see I told you DIY gives me thrills! I’m easy, bud, dump, bum… enough already! And so sad of me to even admit that!

Meteorologist, Robert Van Winkle on our local NBC station, out of Fort Myers, again just chimed in my background that a thunder storm in Hendry County is having them get a warning since that storm has 50 mph winds and folks that one is already here, take that ISAAC you WHIMP!

Oh no! The last thing I want is a bunch of dueling storm systems! I better watch what I say over the next few days with this danger hanging out there threatening us all here in the SUNSHINE STATE! Perhaps if we say that three times real fast we could banish ISAAC?
Now there is something to mull over, how in the world can you WATCH what you say?
My words, except on here are most always invisible, aren’t yours that is your speaking words to you too?
Heaven knows I have never in reality watched my words come out of my mouth, mine just seem to do it by sound waves or some other scientific/ medical explanation, but I’m no scientific/medical person or speech pathologist whomever would know those things, no seeable notations are ever there, do yours?
Inexplicable, hmm?

To be fair though, I am back discussing the all important star for the next few days here in FLORIDA that is MR. ISAAC, he appears to have the pros all saying he will be turning into a bit more substantial storm a category one hurricane, not unlike Rita.
You northeastern states know what the remnants of a cat one can do, don’t cha?

Hubby’s on CBS now with Jim Farrell, their meteorologist and what he’s getting is the facts about storm surges, because of the angle of it come up the coastline there will be a minimal storm surge.
WOW, now we are getting somewhere!
We live near the coast and that means a lot to us, no flooding, or maybe a little.
Better than a lot, I’ll take it!

Today, I decided to store a bunch of pet friendly hotels/motels in ‘my favorites’ online.
To make reservations now I would have to be psychic, since we don’t know exactly where ISAAC is going…right?
Saturday would be our deadline.
The earliest now he, ISAAC, could get here is in the wee hours of the morning of Sunday into Monday … I think.

Now, before I close up for the night, you may have noticed that when I spoke of this guy named ISAAC, I yelled his name, since it isn’t like Beetlejuice, and this ISAAC has to know that I mean business and perhaps I might be able to scare him away with my YELLING!

Oh, now, one more thing, they keep telling us that the hurricane planes keep flying into all of these storms to get the info…I have a suggestion, since we know scientifically that wind shear makes nice neat mince meat of these things, like ISAAC, so why can’t these hurricane hunter planes have wind guns on board that could cause significant wind shear to them… just an uneducated thought, you see they are there anyway, hmm?

Well, now again, oh dear too many nows, than allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too!

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

PS Kerry Sanders with NY’s NBC, but here in Florida most all of the time, just said something via the mayor of the city there, that in my opinion is just asking for trouble that Tampa has not had a hurricane in over ninety years! Isn’t that a no, no, and a little like tempting fate?
RNC, Republican National Convention is going on with their plans so far, unless the wind shifts literarily towards them… and nobody wants that, even me, really!
Oh, I am a clever one, get my drift…

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

ISAAC

Now most men are usually quite memorable I found in my experience; especially when they make a raucous in a known situation.
Tonight’s above entitled title refers to a man’s name for a tropical storm with a potential to turn into a hurricane, but to what strength is not yet known to the meteorologists, but it does have the probability of becoming infamous, for it is the latest in our string of tropical storms named, this one is number nine, that they alternate back and forth bestowing handles on them from female to male and back again…

For years storms were only named for women, thankfully the realization that men can take the blame for these anomalies of nature too was back in 1979!
Or perhaps it was changed just to make it fairer, hmm?
And so it was proclaimed years before, any truly destructive storm name would be retired and used no longer, and sadly there have been many.

Now, to be hopeful that Isaac will pass by us with a whimper instead of a roar is unknown by even the professionals even at this time in this technological extreme era. So far it does appear that he will be heading right at us once again, yes, we have all been there and done that.
And we are here to say we have survived, and our personal experience has been documented right here yearly.

This Friday is the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Andrew that we were living five and half hours north of at that time, August 24, 1992 a category five hurricane.
But the news coverage was so heartbreaking, not unlike looking at the destruction of Katrina that most of you all remember since that was in 2005… it broke our hearts and due to those heartfelt emotions Hubby and I knew that our sons at sixteen and twenty were smart and capable and trustworthy enough to hold down the fort at our homestead for us to go to Florida’s Homestead city,(PS we had a bag cell phone at that time that we called them nightly too) that is for about a week to help… and so we did. We took many pictures of all that happened while we were there as well as our work there. We did have the good fortune to be able to do triage with the veterinarians with all the found and injured animals. And we had been given two tons of dog food from the Greyhound Pet Association. The fellow was a fork lift operator for Hawaiian Tropic Suntan lotion in Ormond Beach where we lived at that time the man who gave us the dog food. I had worked with them since I had been in promotion at that time, and Hawaiian Tropic also gave us sunscreen for the people of the area since it was still hot and they were exposed to the elements, several pallets we were given and delivered of both the dog food and the sunscreen the night we arrived. The original idea was to help the Red Cross, but many were there to help them distribute food, and we found ourselves waiting on line to scoop food that others were already doing.
And so that is how, when we delivered the dog food ended up working with the veterinarians who were different daily, and we were the only constant. It was not dissimilar to a MASH unit in the army, or the TV show, where the worst injuries were decided to be taken care of first.
We got the hang of it pretty darn quick; having had pets forever and being parents it was instinctive…I suppose.
I was interviewed then by the Washington Post and the Orlando TV news stations while we helped feed kittens formula, who were motherless or pups in the same situation…We reunited owners with missing pets, and found foster care for the pets of the people who lost their own homes, all in all it was an incredible experience!
And hugs and the words thank you were the best rewards and when I think back on all of that it still gives me chills and thrills to be able to do something so worthwhile…
Friday, I am going to try and post the pictures from the album I made all those years ago, but please remember it had also gone through our own Hurricane Charley, a cat 4, and so the pictures do have water stains on them…but I do believe the pictures can say more than I about what really happened…

Frightening as it seems to be as I write this tonight I can hear in the other room, where Hubby is watching the news while I do this, our local TV meteorologist on NBC Fort Myers station, Robert Van Winkle, telling us that we may have a category 1 hurricane directly hitting us by Monday, mistakes are good in this case and I hope that Isaac will go out into the Atlantic and hit no one no where and no body at all… If hoping were the answer to all these problems than all my wishes would be fulfilled, ha!

Tampa, one hundred miles north of us is concerned too, since the GOP, Republican Convention is scheduled for this Monday and so they are preparing for a possible cancellation of the whole shebang! Then I guess they will quit? Nah, I guess they will have to reschedule.

One could only hope… nah, bad Tobi!

The days before a major weather system’s attack on an area can cause an anticipation so thick you could cut it with a knife. With that said, the best way to handle this major stress is to calmly prepare as we all have been taught… Why Hubby and I were at the grocery today stocking up on water, we took inventory of what we had such as batteries, a good radio, coolers and foods that are healthful and can also be opened with a can opener, caned tuna, salmon, sardines, oysters, pastas and sauces that are heart smart. Oatmeal that can be heated on the barbecue burner and that reminds me, and don’t forget the propane. We have two bottles and a full tank of gas in your car. Know where all insurance policies are and put them in water proof envelopes or bags. And this is one of the most important, besides all medications and pet inoculation info and their meds too if applicable, take those inside outside PICS of all the before of your home, and so when you might have to take the after your insurance company will know what’s what!
Listen to the news to know when you have to board up, which is usually a day or two before or longer if you are older and it is difficult for you to do… without any help, and if you might have to evacuate.

Anything I may have forgotten you can go to: http://floridadisaster.com/

Don’t be shy, now is the time to get ready, not panic, just with a cool calm head, prepare.

On that Ma Tobi caring for all of you chillin please allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

BIG OR SMALL I LOVE THEM ALL!

Projects! Yes, doing anything from DIY remodeling to crafts to general minimizing clutter in a drawer or a closet… It gives me a thrill, but you all knew that I was easy…bud, dump, bum…
Tonight’s not so interesting but amazingling having great tangible evidence in quick time of what a little rearranging and organizing is capable of doing. Gosh, I have so much/too much time on my hands; don’t I?
But I digress… here’s a before picture of the nasty embarrassing disaster…:


WOW, sorry that I did that to you! Please forgive?
Well, as we all know in order to achieve order we must purge! And here is my purge:


Nah, I needed some, well most of that stuff, but we all have to admit it was way too stuffed!
So here’s what I did I borrowed baskets from my crafts' drawer that weren’t being used as advantageously as one may think. Seriously, my slide out drawer in the laundry is very large and can be organized fairly easily with all my paints, brushes, hot glue gun and glues etc. not that big a deal, and so that is how I left it for now. After all it’s not like it has a glass window like this latest project does, hmm? I will eventually get back to it… someday! I promise.
Any-who, you will be amazed as I was how fast this little morning project took to accomplish. Sifting through outdated offers, and silly card envelopes from cards that Hubby and I gave each other and never wrote anything on the envelopes thinking that we would find a use for them and never ever did…, even discs with special offers that bit the dust a year or two ago, shame on me!
Don’t worry they all went into the recycling bin, mostly.
Other things were relocated to new and happy homes/locations, so all is well, really!
Well, here’s the finished mini project:


Not too bad but you must realize those baskets are old and wiggly stretched out a wee bit, but I must admit and you must admit too, it does look a whole lot better, hmm? A place for everything and everything in its place!
Now that basket in the center section to the left of my project could use a bit of thinning out of papers, and so next time I will attack that. Meanwhile, the reference side is okay!

Most of these were my text books, yes even the law and psychology; I did study both…but you knew that. Our scaled down bookcase is kept in the guest room but there it takes up most of the wall…Most of our books were distributed between our sons and others are still stored and some were even destroyed by the hurricane…

Speaking of which it appears that we are to stay tuned due to a possible hurricane in the Caribbean that most likely pass over Cuba and could be heading towards Florida by next week a Hurricane Isaac!
Stay tuned; I know we will!This Thursday we could be in that cone of uncertainty!

On that bit of possible excitement coming our way, who needs any of this, really? Anyway, allow me to be the first to wish you a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all those overages and we will too!
And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Monday, August 20, 2012

DON'T DELAY TODAY IS THE DAY!

Howdy folks! I see that you only react to someone yelling at you?
No?
And so now that I have your attention… let me say that…
It sure seems that way to me…does anyone but I know that writing on this thing in all CAPITAL LETTERS denotes yelling?
Come on, you all knew that, are you sure, sure?
See, now you tried to fool me… I heard that!
Nothing like an old fool…gosh, I am psychic and a big
“HA, HA”, to you too!
I had to try it again, what, you so boldly ask…oh you didn’t, well if you had, and this is what I would have said…
“THE ALL CAPITALS IN THE WRITING IN MY TITLE IS YELLING AT YOU!”
And you thought that I was just another smarty pants with a
pretty face, hmm?
But more importantly, last night's entitled blog made you all stand up and take notice and read, read, read, like you haven’t done in a really, really long time! To me it was a very, very, very mild success to prove a point, sometimes kids just need to hear you raise your voice! And some adults too…bud, dump bum…
So there you go, you so-called child psychologists!
Kids get easily distracted but that is alright since that prepares them later for the all important multi-tasking later on in life, that’s all I am saying…
And that’s why we as parents have been known to yell!
It clears the adult’s lungs, besides getting their offspring’s attention; another twofer.

Moving on…
And so I thought it important to do a little bit of experimentation… GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER!
Now I do know that you got that; right? Insert Big Smile Here.
No, kiddies, Ma Tobi was trying to find a way to make her ‘Blog’ more, well, let’s just say a little bit more tantalizing (again read above enlarged statement) to the general population of the FB cast of characters, oops, did I say that out loud? That should have been FRIENDS, yep, FRIENDS, FACEBOOK FRIENDS! Gotta love ‘em all!
But let’s face it, and you all gotta admit… that we are all a teensy weensy bit of a motley crew, true?
And so distractions not unlike kids with their stuff can occur without too much notice, right?
Are you still there? Hello? Hello?
Gotcha!
Oh, this is so much fun, playing with you all…
And wow, yelling served its purpose, and to think I have been trying for these last few months to find what was my purpose in this delicate condition of mine to accomplish before it was all over but the bon voyage party!
I am a jokester, wow!
Who would have thunk it?
Serious as a heart attack Tobi gal; is occasionally FUN-NY!

Any-who, something not so funny is that Phyllis Diller, although she was very, very funny! Another of the old guard of humor sadly bit the dust, that is died for you youngins; she will be sorely missed by all who saw her stand up comedy or routines incorporated into her guest spots on TV shows or her movies with Bob Hope. No matter what she did she was herself and in turn gave joy to all who watched her. She was ninety five, but in reality timeless/ageless, a trail blazer for many women in that field, called comedy.

On that note of a little bit more interesting to note, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share your overages and we will too!

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

PS My yelling, perhaps was just another advertising ploy, Gosh, I hope that doesn’t catch on, we will all go deaf within six months, forget this whole thing…speak softly and carry a big stick, oh no, I deplore violence… try this instead, hush children, love everyone and talk in your inside voices at all times, there you go! Ta DA!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!

Did that make you stand up and crane your necks to try and see and to also try to figure out exactly why you have to act now?
Gotcha!
Sorry, but I couldn’t resist.
Too bad the political candidates can’t act more like wholesome truthful TV commercials, okay another oxymoron, but we must admit that for most products that we do enjoy having them nightly in our homes… Now who am I kidding?
Too much advertising has caused many of us to mute those darn commercials!
I don’t care what pay TV says they have them too, and you all know that I am right, even PBS!

So any-who, why would the guys running for a job that we all know is temporary that is compared to some of those products that have already celebrated their centennials and even those we know well enough to not want to have them constantly bombard us nightly with a reminder of their newest and best one of that product that most have been using as a third or fourth generational family legacy!
Whew, did you get that?
Sure it’s important to know who is running in these temporary positions and what they will be doing for us once they get in, if we allow them to….but as I have reiterated before, K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) for those who may have not worked in any business situations in the last century, kidding!
Plain speak minus the barbs, and stick to on-topic info which means that presentation should be exact with a blueprint of what you will do and so we can use it in our decision making!
All else is just Gobbledygook, and totally redundant gibberish, am I right voters or what?
I can’t hear you….I still can’t hear you!
Oh, that’s right at times I forget this is a one Way Street with me just talking at ya. No response is necessary, since I can feel your confirmation! Halleluiah folks!
Sorry this is not a meeting of that nature just an old gal speaking her mind and thinking that we all might feel similarly about these vague issues of how it is done or should be done, what-have-you, sure?
Are you sure, sure? That catch line lasted longer than the game show it came from, hmm?
Hubby and I tease with that when we are in our own decision making on household nuances.
Gosh, there we go… maybe if we asked the candidates before they blow any of their allegations too far out into the water someone, preferably a bi-partisan person could ask the necessary question to make them realize that there are consequences with their own decisions of what they spew out into the media realm… yep a ‘sure-sure’ interrogator.
An impartial human being not unlike a judge and we all know how honest they are…hmm… how about a fifth grader, yep let’s have a fifth grader do it, and that smart guy who does the show with them, that Redneck, no maybe Alex Trebek, YES!
Now who doesn’t trust him?
That’s the answer make them all stand in front of Alex Trebek and in the form of question answer an entire prevalent America question board, and televise it instead of those dumb debates which just continuously proves how rude they all are.
Although, there are only room for three players at a time… perhaps Joe Biden should wait in the wings, since I do believe that Barack can pretty much hold his own, and with the Romney and Ryan battling amongst themselves on who is actually running for the top slot, I think we all have a pretty good idea who will come out with us all knowing better if they can handle that temp position with integrity and values that we can all live with, whatcha say folks; an idea, or not?

On that much to ponder, again… allow me to 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?

If there was such a thing as a renaissance woman, I would like to be her… I take you from here to there to there to here and back again, in every which way I can, from medicine, to ideas to do crafts, to gosh who knows where, studying this fun language I fracture nightly…WHAT A CRAZY RIDE…WEEEE!
Scare you? Sorry, just kidding or maybe not...but you’ll never know.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Everyone does blogs about...

Their heart’s desire and so tonight I am taking it one step further… I am using a heart to show you a great recycling project, okay?

Now I hear you all worrying, my hearing is not too good, but this I can sort of feel…I assure you that I am not crazy enough to use a real human heart or even a cow’s or chicken’s, no this one is one that will hold up way better… and did not come off of anything stiff although it is very, very stiff… in fact, it is nearly steel-like, but no I do believe that it is made of tin, think of it as if the Tin Woods man's was on steroids!
Nah, nothing that bold or literary, but a bit romantic and loving and who says that there is only one time of year for any such thingy of that nature… Why even I hear tell that someone started Christmas in July a few years back; and so now with open minds I want you to understand my reasoning and resolve for this project of mine, understand from where I am coming from, please with a cherry on top?

My particular heart came to me this winter as a gift… are you getting it now…okay, I will continue, and it had the added ability of being one that its previous predecessors had not been, since they were mostly cardboard and fairly disposable/recyclable but for others, not me. This particular loving enduring item of much desire needed to be used forever! Although, its contents were swiftly utilized and I must say quite delish!
Have you guessed yet?
Here’s my enormous hint, it contained chocolate which Whitman’s has been making for generations…
Now here is the rub, as we all know over the years during most holidays we receive tins of cookies from companies and homemade from friends or relatives and most all are just unique and lovely, which make you want to save them for a very long time or share them with your own cookies and pass them on, hmm?
Well, since I am not an often candy maker and a heart filled tin is way too personal to share, I came up with another idea of utilizing this never goes out of style loving reminder of a gift well given.
Since love is always something that has no season, true, I decided that this enormous heart tin would make a wonderful book end for my cook books, why not?
You see, though the only problem was that empty or filled it was not a very weighty object and all these months that it was placed in front of my books it would fall over…
And so with putting on my thinking cap I figured out a weigh/not way to make it stay where it is put… and so I thought that I would share my freebie solution… Now remember it is not like a sandbag soft object that you can fill with beans or some other such thing, it is hard and if you fill it with something to counter set the weight the objects will move and make nasty noises and it still would probably fall, not so simple, hmm?
But alas I came up with a great idea, Ta Da!
With my hot glue gun and some stones from the additional pad out front for out boat trailer… Hubby stole some stones and bleached them and then we dried them and after that I thought all I would have to do is hot glue and stick them on to the innards of the stiff heart, but OH NO!
The glue cooled as soon as it went on; thus no sticking to anything on that anywhere, anytime, anyhow…Hubby and I came up with the need for some type of insert to be installed, cardboard or as Hubby told me corrugated plastic coated board that he just happen to have some of, more recyclable material… Next was tracing the heart and cutting the board to fit, I still thought it would have to be glued but that proved not to be the case, it fit so snuggly it would not come out, no matter how hard I tried and believe me, I really tried very hard!
Next was the actually, hot gluing and stoning, and on and on and on…sounds so simple but it is bit more difficult when you are not so capable and coordinated as you once were, and minor burns were many, and yet I did finish my project and I am very proud my theory worked… and it stands sentry over my few cooking books, since many were destroyed in the hurricane, but to be honest, I go online and print if I want to save any recipes…And here is the pictures, step by step of the entire process:





And with so much to think about… I sure hope that I gave some of you an idea, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all those overages and we will too!

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



PS The other thing that came in today’s mail was another you guess thingy and so I will be leaving you with my end and the closing of…




The latch, the latch, the latch!
BIG SMILE HERE!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Fighting weather appears to be what us Americans have had to do more often than not these last few years...

Who would think that when it came down to another dilemma or problems in life, its name would be, ‘Weather?’
We all understand people as enemies, countries, or just about anything else, and with those we have been able to figure out a simple or not so simple way to deal with them, and either cure the problem by facing it or ignore it, whichever is most desirable, hmm?
But not with ‘WEATHER’, its there in your face, causing everything from floods, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms of all dimensions and just plain trouble for any place it so desires to erupt in, and yes, that’s another thing it being the cause of volcanic reactions too.
We as human beings still have no idea what to do about it?
It gets the best of us more times than any of us care to want to realize… it just doesn’t play fair!

You see even the meteorologist can predict where these systems are going and warn us about them coming, but no one can stop them…how truly frustrating.
How many of you out there wish there was a way to prevent these devastations too?
Sure, we all do.

And yet we must have weather here on earth since the rain and sun are responsible for our plants growing and therefore our crops, and animals to eat and get nectar from those crops and of course us too.
In my calculations, I believe that not all weather is bad, although, these days/years it does seem that way to many folks throughout this country and the world.
Today and yesterday I had a slight inconvenience with thunder causing me yesterday to think that a storm was imminent, but no, it was a false alarm, but the roaring thunder made me think to wait until today to try again to go into our pool for my exercise program… but today the noisiness of the growling thunder and darkness of the sky made me only dip in the refreshing wetness for a mere twenty minutes, while I usually do two sets of thirties.
But this time I was right, sort of, the storm started while I was in the shower after my short dip.
Hubby said the lightening had come in, whew that was close!
Us laymen have a flaw of only being able to use our instincts when it comes to the, ‘weather’, but when one is a mother too, that amplifies that ability, hmm?
And since I am a woman too, wow, those instincts are two-fold, ya think?
Must be, I made it out before the bad stuff got me…and so in closing...
All meteorologists should be women who are mothers and that would solve the weather issue… just thinking… it could work, maybe?
Us gals seem to have that sixth sense more than most men though, think about it…Revelation, weren’t the first TV weather people all WOMEN or girls or pretty empty headed cutesy dressings for the news to not bore our not so interested minds in those days? Ooops did I say that out loud?

Any-who, why you do that guys; that is think about all I suggested, that is why women really do make better meteorologists than men these days when well educated too in the field, allow me to 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 all our friends all over this country dealing with horrendous weather, droughts, and fires etc. please know that our hearts and concerns never stop and that we will always have you in our wishes and prayers for everything to turn out alright, sooner better than later. XOXO!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Receiving a note from the person in charge that gives the impression of leaving the door open...

Actually in the last couple of days I received two notes.
The first was from the director of the clinic very nicely stating that she felt that I shouldn’t have had to go through what I had and that I also must have found their confined space rather tight with all the clutter. The last part was consistent with her phone call about keeping all my information and contacting me once they are in their new location this fall.

The second note came in today. Hubby and I had had it with the people at the local health facility where I go about not getting back to us with information on the proper amount of the bill and what it was for at that price. And so late last week Hubby contacted Tallahassee and the main people of the state health department and he wanted to know what we should do, since we want to resolve this bill, and we felt that it was more than we had ever paid before at $130.40. The last statement came in and it included in it that at our last visit previous, in February, the one way before the May one, our bill was just $38.03. And Hubby told the Tallahassee people that, and so she said pay them that and when they see it they would perhaps return our call, since it wasn’t what they claimed what we owed them and perhaps it would get settled if they called back…. Well, the idea was not a bad one, but it didn’t work totally, it worked partially…Today, I received a note attached to a bill, updated with the amount I paid via a check subtracted from the so-called balance of now, $92.37. Basically it says that the person writing the note spoke with this other person and now their new nursing administrator will be contacting me with a final decision. They/we, I suppose they meant me too, are awaiting her response. Thank you, such and such the billing department person…GOOD GRIEF!
High finance, all I wanted to know is WHY was my bill so high this time when we have been paying full price for the last few years and it wasn’t this high ever before, since our income does not allow for any discounts!
Can no adults make a logical decision anymore to explain why something is what it is?
Lunacy is rampant, and I appear to awake it in my wake.
Some feel questions asked are stupid, but I am of the school that there are no stupid questions only stupid people who won’t answer them…curious minds and all that, true? This has been going on since May and it is now August!

Why our own sons would not be as bright as they are today if they didn’t ask questions and if we didn’t know the answers, which of course we don’t know everything, still learning (I hope), we told them to look it up. In those days it was in books called encyclopedias and or dictionaries, depending on what they needed to know, a bit archaic, but those were the days, dare I say with…no Internet, yet. Yes, we had computers and even modems, but not the Internet.

Nobody said that even retirement would be easy.
No one sold any of us a bill of goods, and I do know all that in theory.
But why do some days make you feel as if you are the bad guy when you just want to pay your fair share not a fee that is made up off the top of ones head…
All doctors usually write down what an office visit is for, gosh I have been going to enough of them.
Or they quote you a price for that comprehensive office visit; since I am uninsured I found this out. And my last neuro visit’s price was $60.40 in July, and I go there every six months. This is not a co-pay this is what Medicare would have been charged, or so I have been told by my neurologist, as well as my ophthalmologist. Anyway, it seemed fair and budgetable.

Now our power company is looking for an approved statewide increase in billing us. And so is our home-owner's insurance company, the fellow that did our inspection said he did not have access to our attic, perhaps because we don’t have an attic? The other inspector all those years ago found our hurricane straps/L brackets in the garage rafters which is fully exposed and he also took out a few of our soffits and saw them in there and this guy wouldn’t even go into the garage and ours is neat, since we can fit our car in it, and so today Hubby got on here and accessed a site for comparison of policy premiums called: http://challengemyrate.com/
And each company that popped up, Hubby Googled, as per my suggestion to find out if they were legit. Well, you cannot do a sweep on that so quickly but what did happen was he found their local brick and mortar locations in our two bordering counties, of Lee and Sarasota.
The extra mile you may want to go, with the attorney general for the state or with some other known honest agency to verify them… remember, as we all know when it sounds too good to be true; it usually is!

As everyone knows there are not too many things that are that sure in life, except for death and taxes, but the dates on each going down are anomalies and never ever that certain…hmm?

On that given notation by all the world… allow me to be the first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages and we will too!

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

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

100 YEARS!

Although, unfortunately the birthday girl is not here to celebrate it, but that’s okay, since everyone seems to be celebrating it for her, and that is more than likely how she would have liked it, Julia Child, that is.
The many faceted persona who actually passed away, two days before her ninety-second birthday on August 13, 2004, oddly enough our Hurricane Charley Day, which would have been on August 15, 2004.
Did you notice the date of her demise…?
I did immediately the first time that I saw it a few years back.
I think I might have Googled her while finding out about that wonderful movie about her if she had been in that imaginary situation with Julie and her…circa 2009 movie and of course another iconic portrayal by Meryl Streep, who again captured to perfection her subject. The young woman, Julie, who was played fairly newbie by the name of Amy Adams, it was a cute little ditty of a marathon cooking spree with the aid of Julia’s first book, another Nora Ephron wonderful guided tour that made us all learn that much more as it went from possibilities to some historic facts and teased us with more poignant potentials that we had the rights to assume were real; probably for today a very happy rental property.
I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

Julia, had been born a McWilliams, her husband was Paul Cushing Child from 1946-1994, where the Child surname came from, she was a California girl. During WW2, she had joined the OSS, Office of Strategic Services since the other military branches felt that she was too tall. To read more of her bio go to by copying and pasting the below site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Child

But in reality, although Julia left us in body and soul, she has never ever left the airwaves and most any of us can watch her melodious way of expressing her recipes on most all PBS stations at all times of the day or night. She made wine a must while cooking and with all meals, butter was never ever a no, no…and folks she lived to past ninety! Maybe she knew something others don’t…

We have been left with the legacy of the moving picture shows, allowing our favs to survive… as long as they are properly preserved and by now it appears they have come a long way with knowledge on how to do that.
Years ago there was a mad rush to save the motion pictures I seem to recall.

She was great at what she did entertained taught and left us all feeling refreshed no matter if we tried her recipes or not… we felt good too.

And I am so very sorry that you are not here to celebrate but the world has not forgotten you and isn’t that what most of us really want…to be remembered for the joy, or cure, care or love etc. or some other wonderful legacy that we left in our wake?
Sure we do, if you cut us do we not bleed, nah, we are tough but you have got to admire how even when you’ve been gone for over eight years and not a relative to any of us or a political figure or actor or any historical person it is really nice that so many cared enough to celebrate a woman who is still sorely missed by many…and that’s a great big wow!

On that idea of making a difference even when you probably don’t realize you are, which the really good people usually do, allow me to be the first to wish you a very happy good night and kindly ask you to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

A little bit decorating and a little bit of going to the right source...

Not too long ago I had mentioned that we were very fortunate to be able to acquire free paint from Morton’s Ace Hardware in Port Charlotte as part of a promotion having to do with making your life more colorful or some such campaign.
And within the last few days after making a few minor purchases at not exorbitant prices from Home Depot we were ready. Actually, three glass tile 12 inch sheets @ $5.97 each, usually there is a number one before the five, but the saleswoman Bobbi said that they were placed far in the back away from the other tiles of similar quality and therefore appeared not to be popular, and so when something doesn’t sell in a certain period of time they mark it down! What luck for us; since one of the sheets of four different boxes and styles of glass tile coordinated beautifully with our Sea-mist paint that Hubby had already put on the bead-board and installed.
We had gone to the home store for chair-molding and to see if the glass tile was a cost effective decorating possibility. My concept was to create a spa affect, and get rid of the only two bright colors in the room my two frames with fun women ideas, one was ugly gals during prohibition talking about drinking, saying that if you drink your lips will never touch ours, sent by an old friend as a joke via email quite a while ago and the other was a rather Victorian looking woman, but really a modern gal dressed that way from the cover of the local Harbor Style magazine discussing/entitled something about successful women, both copied in black and white on card stock placed into those brilliant green frames, but they are both now behind the new pictures that I this time utilized my clip art but again copied onto card stock and this time I repainted the frames more subdued in the sea-mist made paler by adding white, which just so happens to be an exact match to one of the tiles in the new glass back splash: Here is the before and after



A plain white wall before!

My seashell art are in the two soothing mellow sea-mist colored recycled framed pieces, the one in between is a shadowbox with real seashells that has been there for the entire seven years this bath was gutted and redone after the hurricane, by Hubby. And above the clapboard storage unit on the tippity top of it are two bears and a sailboat. The one bear is wearing swimming attire including a life preserver, and the other is adorned in a sailor suit, and the moisture in the room causes the smelly bears to exude a scent of bubble gum, weird, I know, but that’s me. I acquired the pair at a craft fair a few years back at the Cultural Center towards the end of the show, if I recall correctly; they were about five bucks for both or each I can’t seem to remember that, oh well.

Since I do believe I have shown the tub surround before and that it is all white subway tiles, eh what the heck I will show it again:


All done a few years ago after the original medium failed brutally, vinyl sheeting, and a very big mistake! Mold had to be removed cautiously and a real big yuck, not worth saving the bucks! The new tile installed by Hubby and our neighbor helped with the underportions at the time,he, an out of work contractor and since with Habitat for Humanity, cement waterproof cement 2’X 2’ by ¼ inch thick was first reinstalled when the yuck was removed and then the tile done wonderfully by my Hubby! Actually, his first wall, but he had been doing all our floors since the early 1970’s!
This is what we have been up to for the last couple of days, plus a few dips in the pool for me Sunday and today, have to work with my body sensors and weather too!

Moving on…
The last part of this is rather odd and silly on my part since I have been dealing with this slight inconvenience for months, the latch to this desk that I love does not stay closed when I bid it good night…It was also an after hurricane purchase and bought at Office Depot, an item from the Shore Collection of Christopher Lowell, the credenza, hutch and matching file cabinet, all antique white distressed with a cherry wood top on the credenza and the file. Here’s another picture:

Yep, this is where my semi-greatness, pearls of wise-cracking-dumb comes from nightly, if you believe that one I got some swampland in the Everglades, kidding, if only! As you can see the latch was not closed there then either…hmm, since February!
Any-who, so Hubby checked with Home Depot, Ace and Lowe’s and no one had the lovely latch of full disclosure…and so my odd but accurate idea was to try from whence it came, Office Depot, and voila almost… they had a toll free number to their office who had an email address that I sent them our dug out from the matching file across the room, doubling as a TV stand, the original December 2004 sales receipt including the lot number of the credenza! See that is what they needed and I emailed the all important number with the PIC of the latch, and the next day received and emailed back stating that they do not take care of the product parts the manufacturer does, duh, of course they do!
But you see I was Googling the designer not the manufacturer of Sauder, and they included the toll free number too, wow!
And so I called that little ole sucker and you know what, within
three to four days it will be arriving at no charge! Hip, hip, hooray! You see, after waiting so darn long I was willing to pay…and so I asked and they said it is covered forever or some other such marvelous policy!

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

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

PS that bath is mine, Hubby’s is all masculine with oak and fish etc., just saying.

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...