Friday, May 31, 2013

Guy Harvey, repeat how sweet, and tailored to suite you...


I will explain the one in the middle first, since it is oh so simple… my gym/rehab day went as it should with my sweet repeats of the reps that I am doing.



Lastly, the tailored to suite our guest-room full sized bed, it has the white tailored skirt that I had so had wanted to go with its white bedding ensemble, light weight scalloped Matelasse coverlet and shams that I put on not too long ago for the summery look from Bed Bath and Beyond with my 20% off quite some time ago. Their bed skirt, at the time, I do believe was more than I wanted to spend… and when I went back online I didn’t see it there; and so I Googled it and to my surprise Target had the exact one I imagined, actually shown in the picture with the coverlet, but at all different price points from wicked cheap to more expensive and all on sale, mine was only $14.23, including tax!



Then we caught another quickie lunch at the Food Court, since we were heading to Beall’s for me to spend the rest of my gift card and they had 30% off today too. This time we ate at Subway, I had a salad and Hubby had a cheese steak, both happy with our waters with us.



Since I had determined three slacks at this size were plenty for working out, black, navy and Kaki. I have decided to mix it up with blouses, and I have gotten them from all different locales and price points, even from the thrift store, but mostly the Beall’s Outlet but now a total of three from Beall’s with my gift card, two just today which polished it off although they were very good blouses at $32 each, my out of pocket was $11.29.

You see, they were Guy Harvey’s painted blouses: And with your purchase a donation is made to the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation (GHOF) with every Guy Harvey sportswear item. Each year more than $200,000 is collected for the GHOF to support marine research efforts.

And when I lose the weight I do believe they will make gorgeous pillows!
And my designs are one of fish and the other of herons as you see above, in spite of herons eating and trying again and again to eat our pond fish, we have replaced them several times… I do love them. Why we have one in our dinette a mural by the Robins





And oh yes, even a statue one on top of our breakfront/entertainment center in the living- room.
On that note of once again that a picture is worth a thousand words or in my case, at least five hundred... allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear! 
PS If you look through the back door you will also notice in our backyard the dual herons holding up our bird bath, a gift from number one son about fourteen years ago, Geez, I almost forgot! Actually I did!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

"Sharing little joys offers great hope to others."



Who guessed that came out of a fortune cookie?
If you did, you would be right!
But wait there’s more… “Everyday in your life is a special occasion.” And more… “On attachment: The tighter you squeeze, the less you have.”

When I return to this planet after, I want to comeback as a fortune cookie saying worker or Confucius, and where is he these days?
Do you remember when it always started with “Confucius says:”?
They are always so positive and know just what is right to say for anyone, amazing!

Yes, Hubby and I cheated again on a so-called homemade meal and went with comfort food, Jewish joke, for us of that persuasion; we do consider it just that!

The first message is so sweet and sincere and should be how it should be, can’t touch those thoughts and who would want to, really?
Same for the second, wow, could we be looking at a trifecta?
Nah, oh well, number three message is more complicated to make sense of for my simple brain, and yes, they gave us three again and we only ordered two meals and one small soup to share, egg-drop!
Any-who, now if that last one was talking about toothpaste it would make sense to me, or even with those Tiger Moms and attachment, although I do believe attachment had to do with nursing your child too long or some such thing, like to ten years old or something…, you see, is it just me again or are you confused on this one too?
If it is just me, don’t bother saying it, but if you too are confused too, by all means go on ahead! I’m waiting… I can’t hear you?

Oh well, since the people writing these things are usually so happy-go-lucky, let’s try to come up with some positive motivation for those words of wisdom, gotta be, they always are, right?
The toothpaste idea of mine does work, but could be considered ridiculous to some, but logical to me…failure to be wise though, hmm, mysterious…

How about, bathing suits?
You know with the season here, could it just mean that if you should happen to get all of you in a smaller suit than the LESS YOU HAVE!
Now it makes sense, wow, I figured it out, it had to do with bathing out on the beach, how thoughtful of them to come up with that generous concept, sort of like Spanx, sure doesn’t it make sense to you too?
TA DA!

There goes my deductive reasoning working full force, thanks Sherlock!
Having been a voracious reader of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories of that truly amazing sleuth I might have picked up some ideas from the master, hmm?
Plus I must admit I am junkie of every movie about the guy from Basil Rathbone to Robert Downey Jr. and even the fellow that plays him in the TV series we like to watch weekly, called Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes, and very well changing our minds about Dr. Watson persona, with modernizing it with a Ms. Watson, but former doctor played by Lucy Liu, both actors making the show surprisingly well done; intelligent and tantalizing.

On those notes of some upbeat ones I hope, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all of your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

PS I did my free weights again today, but this time twenty-five in each direction, moving up!
PS why do they call them free weights, they cost something when I bought those years ago, but I don’t recall, now how much… LOL! (Hush, I do know because they are not attached to anything and they are free!)Wow, could this be those un-attachments that when you use them you get smaller? Dang! I could have something here! Never mind… JUST KIDDING!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Back in the saddle again, yippee!



Nothing earth shattering, but it’s nice to know that I know my own body and what it needs when it needs it, TA DA!
G-d that sounds a bit narcissistic, but when it comes to health it is an absolute to know what works for you.
And some, not unlike me, have to learn by trial and error, hmm?
Not that much fun, but a necessary way to find out how to handle the ups and downs of life with Multiple Sclerosis.
Some people like to share what works for them and that is fine…and on occasion it can work for you too, but not always and that is when with your own personal experience you learn from your own tried and true methods of dealing with pseudo exacerbations or just the illness itself doing what it so rudely does daily to all of us with it…

This is an elongated way to say that I was well enough to continue my gym workout today and I did! You see, my lying horizontal for a few hours did work last night, with of course my medications prescribed by my docs! I did not cut back at all on what I was doing previously and maintained my reps utilizing both machines and realizing that I have exceeded my expectations for myself to this point of working out for over a half an hour and with the ambition to do this for the three day a week commitment for as long as it takes and beyond!
Of course, I will try in my near future to go longer with reps and time on both pieces and eventually try other equipment that appears to meet the criteria that my neuro set and recommended of not injuring my neck or back. I enjoy what I am doing and Hubby does enjoy the time we actually spend together, although, I am trying to goad him into joining me in the effort to feel better. So far no dice, but we will see what we will see… and that is one of the best parts even if for any horrendous reason my left eye were to go too, you don’t need sight to do this just an assist and a trainer like my Hubby!
I swore when I lost the weight in a year or two at this rate, ha, I would rejoin a regular gym that is my goal…do you know here they are less expensive than where I go?
Crazy! Only ten dollars for a month’s membership and even this is el cheapo too, at fifteen dollars for fifteen days!
I hope if any of you couch potatoes are still sitting around out there, don’t, if a half blind gal in a wheelchair can go do, so can you!
Repeat after me, “can go do, so can you!”
Or not…
But wouldn’t it be something an older aged person with some inconvenient issues shamed the couch people off their couches into the gyms?
If I could only do that…wouldn’t life be worth living, oh no, shame on me!
No one should shame another into doing anything, bad Tobi!
Even if it is to make them healthy and change their life for the better?
NO!
People have to do things because they want to…but showing them that sad sacks like myself even, “can go do, so can you!” Ain’t such a bad refrain, but some may think it a bit lame, nah too tame…just the same…

On that note of no more rhyming notes, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count all of your blessings and share all of your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Bloated?



Pacing, yourself much?
Eating is one thing we should all manage better.
Not unlike, our energy levels.
Healthy or ill we all must know when enough is enough, age be damned if you are in great condition than go for it, but not so much if not...
Unhealthy recently or in wonderful blissful denial look out!
That is why we in the chronic disorder groups know go for it by finding your own specific pace, and listen to your body for G-d’s sake!
The old expression, of ‘no pain no gain’ is utterly ridiculous and DANGEROUS!

And oddly enough, here I sit with my cervical collar back on with no exercise today or yesterday due to the holiday and they of course were closed and I am planning on going tomorrow as usual and Friday as my also new usual... guess I will see how things go now… but as always I am hopeful and determined, since things change frequently with this thing called Multiple Sclerosis…
Agony ensued about a half an hour ago with my back giving out as well, make that sick not well, and my neck too, and so as much as I love this time together with my best position being probably not vertical, but horizontal right now… and so I will make this quick since I just gotta…
As my arms and legs get those darn numbies, that nothing seems to help and in spite of my Baclofen and Gabapentin just taken a half an hour ago after dinner with my Nexium at the usual time, second doses for those two anti-spasmodic meds, up to the fifty MG. of Baclofen, two more tens to go and 1200 MG. of my Gabapentin one more six hundred to go of that; both at bedtime. My spasms are in a crescendo and my pain level has been in trills of staccatos so let me just say…  I am OK!
But not how I want to be.
With that said, I do believe it is time to head for an early to bed thingy and so allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day



This is a somber day of a remembrance of our fallen soldiers from wars and those who arrive home and die after, POW’s and MIA’s, as well as those still serving.
Services were held all over these United States to commemorate this day.
Let us never forget any of them.

With that said; we shall also remember those who come home and are severely wounded physically or mentally and never allow any of the others to wander the streets as homeless people… These people should also be remembered and never ever forgotten and who need our help and should receive it...
All soldiers should be embraced with patience, care, love and understanding for we know not what they endured or saw or did and all in our name to maintain all of our freedoms.

Being the sister of one and the mother of another who served, I personally have seen what can happen to any who give their lives over to be heavily responsible for our protection.
And that is why we most all know how dear that unselfish plight can be and overwhelming to some, to too many.
Sadly some do not understand that, but we must.
Too many, young people are committing suicide who have served, as many as 31% of all the suicides, 69% are over fifty years old and that is twenty-two each day, more than ever before...we have to feel their pain and not be cold and unresponsive to these service people…they must be validated and helped before the end result happens!

Sure it’s bad and who has the answers to stop this hemorrhage of human life when they manage to return home from, ‘the war’, looking okay!
We as Americans have to do something and honoring these military and supporting their families is as absolutely important as the ones from who their scars are visible.
Please, I implore us as a nation to do something.
It is truly obscene how we treat the mentally ill, as if in the dark ages at times.

Let me suggest something to all of you, will you who have people you love serving overseas think about how after they comeback, when they come home to you, in that euphemistic, ‘one piece’, even if not in one piece, injured or maimed, talk to them and see if they want to talk, many won’t, but some will and those you listen to, the others that won’t get some help for, even those who talk way too much, them too… the signs of PTSD are not always blatant they can be subtle and not even all medical personnel can tell if they don’t deal with the mind or they have to get them back into the midst of it all…
Oh I don’t know, study and learn and listen to know what to do and then hopefully your very dear one will live with you forever…more.
And this is said with love and someone with knowledge of such things…
That is my gift to you on this major day of remembrance…
On that note of something of hope, allow me to be the very first tell you to have a very  happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

PS we did have a barbecue with the usual suspects, burgers and hot dogs and homemade salads including fruit salad, now don’t look too closely into that! LOL!
Hope yours was one of the good types of memories we all strive for, that’s all.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Okay... I stayed happy for as long as I could and by all...


True and right concepts of how that helps you fool your brain, no matter what, to be HAPPY! But, I had another bad night last night… My head awoke me once again, and again I administered my cervical collar and caffeine in the form of coffee at 5:11 A.M., which appeared to help somewhat.
Interestingly enough, our darling canine pal, chooses to sleep next to me whenever I am not as good as, let’s just say, I would like to be and so he cuddles nearly nightly these days…
Two cups of java later my head seemed to be relenting, and also with a fear of weakening of my neck muscles even more, made me test the waters of going commando, I hope its okay to use that term when speaking of nakedness while referring to, going without a cervical collar? LOL!
Any-who, my neuro said it was a good idea to wear the collar when it happened, now there are three ailments of mine that can be causing what I think is a really weird anomaly of my too many chronic conditions, my cervical stenosis which causes something called, ‘Cervicogenic Headache’, that can cause this issue, and L’Hermittes sign, which occurs with MS and cervical stenosis and also TN,  Trigeminal Neuralgia, which is also quite common with MS, and even both my neuro and my ophthalmologist thought I had those too… but really, who wants more? REALLY!
Below are site that describe each fairly well in laymen’s terms I think, at least I thought it was and I am NOT a medical person only an impatient patient. PS I go to these sites to see if I can learn what to do to help myself on a holiday weekend when my doctors are only available for emergencies and rightfully so! Ask- A- Nurse lately has only said go to emergency, not that helpful, hmm?

To be honest, at these early hours in the morning when you have been awoken out of sleep with a severe headache on the top of your head you gotta know what’s causing it, hmm?
Most would think the very worst, a tumor, and I giggle when I think of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop circa 1990, when he tells the noisy kids that they are giving him a head ache and one of the children says “maybe it’s a tumor?” Or something like that.

Any-who, not so funny anymore, since too many have them, but I know with all my cranial MRI’s yearly I don’t, as of this past February anyway! LOL! I hope not anyway…
No, of course not, I have this problem before that and since.

Worrying will give you a headache one expression goes… but what if you already have one, HUH?



Too much thinking is not a bad thing, but can be… oh where did I put my denial?
Let me redirect my thinking to others in need or better yet, did you all notice how lovely the Jersey Shore is looking… with much to do though… it all takes time...And the people in Moore OK, are handling another horrendous tornado hit with dignity and grace…so many fascinating stories from there of heroism.

On that much more positive note of regular people also becoming heroes, allow me to be the very 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 with you know who and we will too!

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

PS We watched the prequel, Star Trek 2009, last night, apparently we had missed it, and it was pretty darn good. I seem to recall not all the critics were so kind then and maybe that’s why we opted out… silly, to listen to any one else’s opinion, better to form your own, hmm?

 



Saturday, May 25, 2013

Saturday is here and nearly gone...



How is your weekend going, so far?
I truly hope that it is all that you thought it would be.
For us, ours is what we felt it would be, nice and quiet.
Fortunately, when you live a wild and crazy, go here, go there lifestyle that we live 24/7, quiet is nice.
Whoa, who am I kidding, am I in a time warp?
Although, in our long ago past we did have crazy days, many, but it just goes with the territory of working and raising children and enjoying all of that…as we all should.

Our lives, these days are never ever hectic in the sense that that means, oh no, our days are calm and at times not that exciting, ordinary, but that is not to say we don’t care for that?
We relish it.
The days that nothing bad happens, means it is all good!
More often than not we like to think that is the case…and counting.
And we wish the same for you, after.

Being of a certain age and not too, let’s say as energetic as we once were…doing laundry, bathing our little snuggle bundle, Skipper, our Bichon, is a very nice way to spend the day, while watching LWN, Live Well Network and PBS with our favorite shows, Motion, Lisa Quinn, Sweet Retreats, This Old House, Ask This Old House, P. Allen Smith, etc., so all is good. Tonight, we have choices of three movies or all if we are up for them, Life of Pi, The Impossible, Star Trek 1, all rentals via snail mail.

Sure we had warm, sunny and clear weather here in Florida today, but for us a wee bit too warm, our indoor/outdoor thermometer read 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside, better to be in cool air-conditioning at 77, than out. To be fair this is unusual for us to be this warm at this time of the year, and so I still recommend to everyone to come for a visit to Florida! It is a very large in area state and many areas were much cooler today than we were.

We checked all the local venues and none had indoor happenings going on, and so home is where we felt was the best venue for us today!

Moving on…
The reason it was quiet, I bet is because the actual holiday isn’t until Monday and that is when all the memorial services will be, and picnics and all those other great ways to commemorate the true meaning of the day. We did fly our flag on our measly stubby holder up front, next to our door by the garage, not as majestic as a flag pole, but does the job just fine, you decide...


It is best never to feel that what you do is not exciting, since as with all things it is a matter of perspective as I have found, and to some what we did may have been quite special or extremely exciting, aw, who am I kidding, and who really cares what is most important is that you do what makes you happy and we will too!

On that note of some note, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Friday, May 24, 2013

The 'Weekend' is here!



‘Weekend’, let’s examine the meaning of the word: the end of the week, from Friday evening, or sometimes Saturday morning, until Sunday evening; simple enough.
Than I ask how we came upon the term, ‘three day weekend’?
You see, logically it doesn’t fit, but we like it just the same, hmm, perhaps even more, ha?

Now, if we really want to tear the concept of ‘week’ and ‘end’ apart we might go a bit further and ask, why not ‘weak’ and ‘end’?
‘Weak’, meaning feeble, frail, puny, scrawny, weedy, pathetic, fragile, tired, faint, anemic, exhausted, drained, enervated, limp, shaky, delicate, insubstantial, flimsy, fragile, brittle, inadequate, vulnerable, defenseless, helpless, unprotected, unguarded, exposed, ineffectual, powerless, ineffective, cowardly, spineless, fainthearted, weak-willed, irresolute, easily led, corruptible, vacillating, faint, low, dim, soft, imperceptible, pale, watery, diluted, unconvincing, uncertain, halfhearted, implausible!

And that is why the other week worked.
Anyone interested in the meaning of ‘end’?
I can’t hear you! Oh well, I will take that as a yes...
‘End’, and what it truly does mean…Goal, objective, outcome, result, aim, purpose, base, bottom, point, top, tip, side, edge, extremity, finish, halt, close, finish off, terminate, stop, last part, closing stages,  conclusion, finish, last part!

So we have what we call our weekends, that not many share unless they have jobs that are truly from Monday through Friday, but few are. Some people have tried to make up their own weekends with calling any two days off in a row ‘their weekend’, how dare they!
Is there a precedence for genuine ones, except those ‘three day ones’, will we as speakers of the English language ever get to the point of conformity?

And as we all know that our holiday of, Memorial Day, is always the last Monday in the month of May, when we fly our flag, one of many of the days we should.
We used to have a tall flag pole that we flew our flag daily from, but the hurricane eventually took it down and it was just as well, since we had a grouchy neighbor who insisted that the wind playing with the flag’s metal attachment was too noisy for his ears, since he slept with his windows open. We do not ever sleep with our windows open and rarely open our windows at all, due to my inability to handle the heat or cold, or humidity, and so we never heard it, and consequently we took the flag down to appease the neighbor who eventually moved away, anyway… As many as fourteen different families have lived next door with about five actual homeowners, the rest were all renters. And since the other home blew away on our other side it is still an empty lot owned by a family in Europe who claim that when they retire will build there.

Moving on…
Today, I was back at the gym/rehab and completed my two pieces of equipment with not too many problems… Although, oddly enough I had a few back spasms in spite of just taking all my appropriate medications prior to leaving home. And so when this happens I must stop and regroup in the fact of taking a break and deep breaths with a bit of a rest. Hubby felt I might want to call it quits, but I said no, I need this so bad; my lament through all these last several weeks, not weaks.
I am strong willed if nothing else!
And so with a few sips of my club soda in my stainless water bottle and a wee respite I did complete my fifty reps with a short break and fifty more on the slant board. The arm cycle had been first again with my seven and half minutes each in each direction totaling my fifteen!

We stopped by the Cultural Center again for a reasonable lunch, I had their small salad and soup, today lobster bisque quite good and yes it did have real lobster for would you believe $4.95 for both, and Hubby had seafood salad and we drank our own brought along beverages his water and mine club soda and all for $10.59 including tax!
Hubby pushed me through the complex to look for that item in their Trash or Treasure shops that might ask to be taken home, but there were none for us today…

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

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

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Sorry! Tonight, I am sounding off on things that irk me.



Have you ever wondered if the bank that you have been dealing with since… forever, ever talks to itself?
Or if people actually read what you post?
And I don’t mean just this blog, but other stuff you see online that looks interesting and may be of benefit to everyone besides just you?
I mean if they had it wouldn’t appear that they have no reading comprehension what-so-ever!
A couple of cases in point, our famous and at sometimes also considered by the news media to be notorious bank, Bank of America, did it again, just over the last few weeks…
And yes, they are the bank we refinanced with and saved a couple of percentage points with and a few months from our past one with, off our now newer mortgage that we will be saving us just over $77 a month as well. They had someone send us a congratulation that we paid off our mortgage, huh? We refinanced with them and I wish that were the case… any-who that’s not all… since Hubby was a deputy from 1995 and we did a direct deposit of income and continued all these years with his pension and his social security and now mine too, which entitles you to free checking, which we have not had to pay for forever … I checked our account earlier this week and there was a charge of $25, which stated it was a monthly service charge for our Advantage Checking account, which we get a small amount of interest on, literally pennies a month!
And thankfully, I am on our online accounts that is all of them daily, and so I called and questioned the charge… and the young woman started to say something about it being our only account with them and I said oh really we have four different ones with you and I rattled them off, plus we have direct deposit!
She said, oh I see that here… and then she apologized, hmm? And stated it would be removed immediately, and it was!
If I wasn’t so diligent and checked so obsessively, would I be told or would they go merrily on doing this sort of thing?
Makes one wonder, hmm?
Apparently, if we did not have the refinance with them they wouldn’t have given us the benefit of the doubt, since she started to say you no longer have your mortgage with us, huh?
The closing was on April 22 and everything is electronic and they had not entered that info by this past Monday, May 20?
Someone there needs to make their system more efficient… in reality I have told them that since they absorbed every bank that we have been with since moving to Florida, starting with Barnett Bank back in 1986, I say that is why we have been with you all these years, and not necessarily by choice.
Every-time, we thought of changing we were still going here or there, traveling and they were the only ones whose ATM’s were everywhere and free!
And so, we plodded along and here we are nearly twenty-seven years later with the monster who swallowed the little guys and they still can’t remember squat.
Oh well…

Moving on…
Okay, I too have been not reading all the posts by my Facebook friends either and have been known to comment on them with just reading the titles, oops, did I say that out loud? And my commentary has been embarrassing if I caught the training flow of the comments after not having to do with anything I thought it was about… I do try to rectify what I said or delete it, easy, breezy and not entirely honest…Oops, coming from a person who prides herself on taking honesty too far at times, all of the time, the get me in trouble times!
Well, now you know, since I confessed, still honest to a fault, hmm?

Now with that said, this time I think it could be dangerous because I posted an article about dangerous lead found in green tea coming from China, (So much from them has lead in it, amazing that their population is so high, you would think it would cause too many deaths there way too often?) yep, it’s in their ground there, any-who, I do believe that the commenter that left a response was not aware of what the article was getting at, the toxicity of some green teas.
The other thing is a comment about how gloomy it is when a home is shuttered if you are closing up for a possible hurricane hit, well, we close them up and sometimes evacuate, and if we do stay we uncover them after the danger has passed! Either way, eventually within hours the homes are opened, unless a person is a snowbird and they are not in them anyway, so who cares how gloomy they are, hmm?
Is it me?
Or is the world odd?
Don’t answer that unless it is a no for the first question and a yes for the second one…


On those off my chest pronouncements allow me to be the very 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 with all who need you to and we will too!

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

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

One blog begat a question of significance that does deserve...




The question was how we Floridians prepare for the upcoming hurricane season? And I felt it did deserve an answer.
After I wrote about the tornadoes and horrors of our previous disastrous hurricanes, where we personally received a direct hit after living here for eighteen years back in 2004, we know that every year there is always the possibility of a hurricane and also one that could hit us.
But to be honest with my husband being trained, while a Fire Chief in New Jersey in emergency management back in 1984, we have an in on knowing a bit more than the general population. Plus as a deputy here, in Florida he was trained to be in the First In Team in the advent of such emergencies as hurricanes, tornadoes (not as common here) etc, or other major events that nature has caused with enormous devastation as the end result.
With that said, when we did receive the direct hit from Hurricane Charley 8.13.2004, no preparation was done and that is because it was told to us by all the types of machines that forecast these things that it was going towards Tampa, one hundred miles north of where we are in Port Charlotte! But as history recorded the last minute it decided to hang a right hand turn, going into our Charlotte Harbor and us within in five minutes of there by boat and so we received a direct hit!
Thankfully, I watched and listened to my battery TV and the weather people warned to get into a room without windows and if you didn’t have one close the doors in your hallway and hanker down in there and so that is what I did with our three pets, our cat, long-haired Tabby, Casey in his crate, our Cockatiel, Charlie, in his cage and Skipper, our Bichon, a five month old pup at that time, on his lead. Hubby was at work as a deputy then warning people of the change to the trajectory of the hurricane, and we stayed in phone communication as well as with our eldest number one son who lived north of Tampa the original hit sight. I was relieved for him, but concerned about Hubby making it home to be safe with me in our hallway! He came home just before the thirty foot oak tree fell down across our front door and driveway just missing the military vehicle he was driving to remove the Marine Patrol boats for the water and put them in a safer location and yes, at that time, he was a marine patrol officer for the sheriff’s office.
So what that little vignette that I have just told now and before and on the anniversary yearly, but this was the condensed version… any-who, no matter what we know the point is who knows what Mother Nature has in store for any of us…
That was a fairly large mistake by the machines although, who knows better than a woman that any of us could change our minds in a nano second and that is exactly what Charley did…
Back to that question… so we go yearly to as many hurricane conferences as we can to learn the newest and the latest and the projected seasons storms and about shelters and new ways to protect out homes with the latest windows and doors and shutters etc. and we take home the yearly published magazines about all the info so we don’t forget.
First and foremost we who have mortgages all have to have insurance with the usual coverages of homeowners, wind, mold, even sink hole, and a separate flood one if you live near or within a certain distance from a water area it is required for all homes! And we pay for it with very high premiums even with proof our homes are protected with shutters etc…
And then we make sure that if we hunker down and have not been told to evacuate that we have the supplies to stay in our homes without power for at the minimum a week, can goods, food, water, batteries etc…, but two weeks is what most will have and in our case we have two generators… one for the things we need to run and the other for the air-conditioning, due to my MS…which is not so great anymore since they are gas driven and much more expensive to run these days. Although, temporary and FEMA did reimburse last time so keep your receipts, and sign up with them even with insurance that is how they get their counts and is recommended, call your insurance companies, have one old-time wire-line land-line to call the insurance companies right away, since most all cell towers go down.
But if told to leave we will and you should too and hopefully go in the direction that is not where the hurricane might go!
Tricky business… we would more than likely leave if a storm surge is expected, since our elevation is only at nine feet above sea water and we are in an evacuation area that is designated to be one of the first to leave due to that. Charley was a wind event not a water one, we maxed our insurance out that time and this time with our premiums our coverages has increased too.

I will be here all week, actually for as long as I am able… if anyone needs more info, contact your local emergency management facilities or go to your conferences in your area.

On that note, with OK’s disaster now give your $10 or more to them via the American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/ This site is wonderful on preparedness ideas too.
Money is always better than clothes when nothing exists anymore they get destroyed with no where to put them, but the Red Cross could tell you if they have definite locations for other things...just ask!

So as we note that we have noted before, take care, be safe and always ask questions when you’re not sure, don’t be shy… and allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with a wide swathe of people and we will too!

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



Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Three pounds and three stops...



Now one might ask what that has to do with anything.
Our day away from the devastating reminders of horrors that bombard our brain etchings for evermore…
Finally, I spoke with another regular human who years ago I would have considered a cold S.O.B., but times change and so must I.
She, when asked a few weeks ago about the bombing in Boston and I found myself updating her on the latest, she cut me off, saying she shuts the TV off when the repetition of the horrendous incident replays over and over…
At first I thought, how could she not care to know?
But then, with yesterdays, horrific tornado touching down in Moore OK, I thought as the news played the footage over and over, not unlike the explosions in Boston or the trajectory of the shots that hit President Kennedy that I as a child of thirteen had watched, and of the planes hitting the Twin Towers over and over and us staring at our neighborhood with the news showing the flattening swathe of Hurricane Charley… and the people wandering lost in the aftermath of Katrina and on and on… we all care too much and we have to do something!
If it is healthy or not to see all this over and over again is a very good question, we today protect the children from it, but what makes any adult believe that the affects of seeing it too doesn’t affect us too?
It does!
That is what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder could be based on, seeing horrendous events or being within them over and over again…
After our home was destroyed with us in it after our Hurricane Charley in 2004, I too was diagnosed with a case of PTSD and treated when it took a year to kick in after watching the news footage of Katrina 2005 and having that helpless feeling once again.
Of course being bombarded with films coming out of Hurricane Andrew 1992, we were novices with natural disasters and it was only five and half hours from where we were in Ormond Beach Florida at that time, it was in Homestead Florida and so we were pulled by our emotion to help and we did…and went home after…
But when you have your own hurricane that we couldn’t go home from that is oh so different, since you are home, and so you get it!
And that understanding makes each one after that much more personal and so today we left after having a media information overload… although, the TV is back on in the living-room while I am here in the sun-room not that far away…listening to the discussion on shelters and basements, and hindsight always hindsight, like blaming the victims in so many other things we as humans don’t get, but think that we do…
Any-who, we went out today after I increased my at home weights to three pound ones from the twos that I was doing just last week on my off from the gym days, reps are the same twenty one direction than switch to the other.
The three stops were, Walmart for Hubby to get the bicycle handlebar extenders for the wheelchair which until yesterday I did not realize that it was harming his already bad, bad, back problem since it was too low, that is my wheelchair and very poor body mechanics for him to push me all this time… He brought the correct tool and fixed the extensions in the parking lot and then we went to Beall’s to spend some of my Mother’s Day gift card, since today was 15% off for over fifty year olds and then even on sale items and my blouse was 50% off plus the 15% off, my lovely turquoise one to go with my Kaki slacks for gym, a new lettuce spinner 25% off plus 15% off, sadly I am on my third, the spinner mechanisms keeping breaking!
Lastly we went to Chili’s for lunch, soup and salad for $6.49, Hubby’s was more and not so healthy, anyway we were both happy with our choices…oddly enough we arrived home and usual programming was back on, and not until we put the news on ourselves, since even though I speak a pretty game, I still have to know how all those people are and if they found some more in the rubble alive and I thought it was better knowing that the original death toll was wrong and only nearly half as many as first thought…24, still too many!

On that truism of how we all feel about this… allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to all count your blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Monday, May 20, 2013

Weather!



Oklahoma! Moore City, next door to Oklahoma City, devastated, people’s homes, schools, fires, lives, nearly a two mile swathe of utter demolition; from EF5 tornado, the strongest, over three hundred miles per hour whirling monsters!
Third graders are being pulled out of the ruble, nothing said about their conditions. Approximately seventy-five kids trapped in the rubble of the school.
As many as eight thousand homes could have been flattened. This is the worst tornado destruction since 1999, an EF4, possibly an EF5 like the one in Oklahoma City at that time.

Here, in our neck of the woods we too are having some nasty thunderstorms with boomers and lightening, but thankfully no tornadoes but some strong winds as high as sixty miles an hour.

Sure we needed rain, but no one can ever seem to get our order right, for a gentle drizzle.
Either we get dry noises or nasty ones including at times hail?
Yep, here in warm country, it even reached to one hundred today!

Fortunately, I took care of my gym/rehab visit earlier today, elevenish.
My reps have once again increased, now to two sets of fifty on the slant bench, and two sets of seven and half minutes in each direction on the arm cycle!

I do believe that it is going to be a shorty tonight, due to our weather dictating the feeling of a possible electric outage. Take care, take cover, be safe, be well and be smart!

On that note of concern for my readership and ourselves too please allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Sunday, May 19, 2013

The latest trends...



Have you ever noticed that when there is a headline about the latest trends in home innovations that many are geared for ridiculously higher priced larger homes for the one per-centers. I’m speaking double digit thousands or greater square footage. Since the biggest one we had was just short of four thousand square feet and that was plenty big for the four of us and all our company we used to get too!
Most regular Joes and Janes don’t have twenty by twenty bathrooms to have multi-fixtures of vast sizing, enormous soaking tubs with twenty jets, and walk through showers, and dual sinks of much depth, now that’s the latest too, no more glass above bowls and all under the umbrella of…the latest in home trends and definitely a must have!
Most kitchens are not wide enough for five lanes in a bowling alley with room for the latest six or eight burner Viking commercial grade stoves with griddles and grates for barbecues too with pot fillers above in the imported Italian tile wall with a hood large enough to cover a small city with the Carrera marble counter-tops surrounding it all or the floor to ceiling wall recessed commercial grade freezers and refrigerators or locations for two sinks one for bar use and one for decoration with  faucets that have motion detectors so you don’t have to worry about soiling them. And have I mentioned the lower more convenient microwaves built into the perfect height island with, food warmer insets, with two dishwashers one for tiny loads and one for larger family ones right next to your case of wine specific cooled refrigerator for when you bring a bunch up from your wine cellar! Never mind that most who have those fantastical baths and kitchens have help to keep them clean and probably with those kitchens help to cook and clean that up for you too!
I would, wouldn’t you? And since I don’t I won’t have any of it!

That’s another thing, what’s with all those commercial grade stainless appliances? We had a restaurant and we had to have stainless everything due to it being a health department issue here and that’s what they make/ made then… and the last thing I wanted in my home was for it to appear like a kitchen in a restaurant too; too cold looking for me, sorry for all you diehard stainless lovers!  My own kitchen is full of color, but on a white and blue background and I love it!

Whew that felt good to express my feelings… thanks.

Moving on…

Dangerous weather is on the move all throughout our United States with deadly, life threatening tornadoes going through our heartland once again.
The season of heavy rain, horrendous tornadoes are rushing through Oklahoma City as I write this, just the other day they were in Texas, causing six deaths there.
Over the weekend in Kansas and Nebraska were hit; all part of our tornado alley!
Minneapolis Minnesota, as well as neighboring states are on the watch out for tornadoes too tonight!

With all that has been happening in the news with Obama’s problems with having to fire his idiot IRS director and with the unending Benghazi inquisition as well as all the other items that his administration has had to take charge of; I am at a loss without any clear-cut answers yet.
People always are quick to rush to judgment and appear to be armchair quarterbacks with any politically sensitivity topics.
I prefer to wait and hear and read all the info from either side and then rush to judgement, my own.


Our hearts and prayers go out to those who were injured in that head-on commuter train crash in Connecticut.

In other news… our number one son lives the next town over from where that winning Powerball ticket was sold and we all do have a habit to buy our tickets at Publix our local grocery stores, we did. He hasn’t called yet…
For us, we did not win, unless; are two matching numbers worth anything? LOL!

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

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

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Busy and interesting day today!









We are now less than two weeks from our ‘Hurricane Season’, which begins officially June 1.2013 and ends November 30.2013, but this is a yearly event. And yes, Florida is the location where 40% have been known to occur, and yes that makes our state the most prevalent to have them…but in the 27 years that we have been living here we only once had a direct hit! And the fact that Sandy horribly hit the northeast last October is a dreadful anomaly!

No, we don’t want anymore here either, but we have no desire for anyone to have them and to date there is no way to prevent them. “Has the government tried to stop hurricanes? Project STORMFURY failed. The government has tried to drop silver iodide into the rainbands of a hurricane. They tried this with Hurricane Esther in 1961, Beulah in 1963, Debbie in 1969 and Ginger in 1971. They hope the silver iodide would cause supercooled water to freeze. They thought it would create new rings of clouds and weaken the storm. It didn’t.” Thanks to the Sun Newspapers Hurricane Preparation Guide 2013.  I was one of the many that were always wondering about that.

We spent about an hour there talking to the 60 or more venders that were there.
WINK TV is our local CBS affiliate and they were all accommodating in allowing me to take a group shot of their news and weather crew.


 





From the Coast Guard’s mascot tug to fun for the children with Juggles the Clown A.K.A. Jeff Lovett, available for parties and other events; I am more than sure…to contact him: JugglesClown@aol.com or just call in North Port, FL: 941-426-4018








Call them in Ft. Myers Beach @ (239) 463-5733 or www.keywestexpress.us www.youtube.com/thekeywestexpress



Wilma Manhardt Studio, features not usual award winning hand painted porcelain gifts and collectables. To reach Wilma to purchase her beautiful and unique items call: 941-637-9662 or 941-637-0114 or wilma@porcelainstudio.com or www.PorcelainStudio.com, did I mention she also teaches her lovely technique?



Two women were at this table Maralyn Belliveau who is the designer and decorator of the Sun Country Décor, bright cheerful at home designs… come on all you northerners; you moved here for the sun and so why not enjoy it inside and out!  941-766-1244 phone number, fax 941-766-7237 or goto: www.suncountrydecor.net, or suncountrydecor@comcast.net  Maralyn’s associate, Pam Bunderman, designer who has a BA from U of F, University of Florida, Gainesville also our younger son’s alma mater, any-who she is there too; as she likes to say, “To Bring a Sense of Calm… Out of Disorder Through Creative Design and Organization… To Make Rooms Work!”
To contact Pam call: 941-414-7647, or pbrunderman@msn.com or www.pamelabrunderman.com



Finally, unknown artist, no one manned or woman-ed the site, but pretty!

On that note of very many notes, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go? :   My eyesight is going again... in case you missed it... Netanyahu snaps back against growing...