Outing

As I previously mentioned we do have a cultural center that has different programs, clubs, classes, thrift shops,live theater, gym, library, on some weekends a farmer's market, and on other occasions vendor displays. All in one location and just a stone's throw from our home, maybe 3 miles.

This weekend was the annual Christmas in July Bazaar, and we went.
There were more than 70 tables that ran the gambit from arts and crafts to non profit organizations.
We did manage to visit each and everyone of them, and chat, anyway I did with most, but not my husband so much.
I didn't buy anything, but looking is always fun.
Although, I did have the nerve to ask one of the professed knowledgeable jewelery artists about my antique sterling silver bracelet that I had on; it was once my late Mom's. (If she were still alive she would have been 97 this past February 22, but unfortunately she passed away in 1982.)
He recommended having him professional clean it and then he might be able to tell me more. I politely took his business card and thanked him. He had verified that it was sterling, which it said on the latch and that it was an antique, which wasn't hard to tell from just looking at it in spite of needing a good cleaning. Don't get me wrong he was very pleasant, and appeared capable.

The bracelet was actually an amazing find it was in with some of my Mom's costume jewelery in an old tin box that was hers. I would look at those semi-precious specimens in that box, and to me that was what they were, because they were my Mom's. No other real reason, but I could never find the right outfit to wear with any of those pieces.

In reality the bracelet I had not remember seeing ever before this past spring. And that is an odd mystery in my book, since I most likely had it for 26 years!

It is very unusual, and difficult to describe but I will try... it has a beachy shell like embossed design with flat bone shaped multi links attached to the embossed sections. I took it out to wear for the first time when we went to Siesta Key for their yearly sandcastle competition that my cousins were judging. It seemed appropriate for the occasion. (My cousins are retired school teachers, and know how to enjoy their retirement. In the future I will tell you more about them.) That was this past spring, and I did try cleaning it with silver polish and then when that didn't seem to help much I tried Glass Plus, and it worked about the same.

We came home after, I was quite exhausted due to it being my first outing since my sick day, and we walked around for a few hours. Good exercise, right?

Updates: Our Sears MasterCard's came yesterday in a pretty plain white envelope, and we weren't at first sure that it wasn't just junk mail, hard to tell from the outside. (Must be the new way to prevent mail theft?) They have been signed and activated, all is well again.

Rats, no sign of any in traps (live and or snap) and the poison outside had not been eaten for today.
My husband asked if I secretly called in the Pied Piper of Hamlin.LOL
I hope they are really gone!
The only downside to living on the water is that above problem, and we must work on it somehow more now that we have an empty lot next door since the hurricane.

Sick

Ever have a day when you thought it was going to be your last?
Today wasn't it, yet, but pretty close.
Horrible is how I felt over night and a good part of this morning.
My head, ears seemed that they were full of some gawd awful fluid that only filled something distasteful.
My stomach was gurgling and groaning and making every impolite noise imaginable and I thought that our 80 degree home was riding right on top of a glacier in the Arctic!
Yuck is how I was and how I could only be described.
So I took some of that non aspirin reliever, drank chicken soup without any flavor at all, since it was the healthy stuff, ate gelatin dessert, and drank plenty of fluids and Voila I was once again whole, in record time! By noon I was over compensating and making my own homemade soup, and salad.
For a while there I thought my over indulgence of tomatoes finally caught up with me.
I also accomplished finishing the book Sail by James Patterson that we picked up just yesterday and even finished the nearly 400 page fascinating page turner before lunch, and passed it on to my hubby who is devouring it too.
But today was okay to stay in bed till I felt better and to be not dressed for the world I never went out to see anyway. I was sick, ill, under the weather, or whatever you say in your own little world.

But to quote the late, Gilda Radner from SNL fame, "It's much better now". I think she said that, but I could be wrong, been before, and will be again.

Have a great end to your day, and I will too!

Short one

Skipper is our canine son, a Bichon Frise that is four years old.
Today he has his yearly doctor/vet appointment.
Thankfully, as he has gotten older we have not had to go as often.
Loving pets are much like your children far as health issues go.
Until we learn their vibes or body clocks for things, like minor ills we have a tendency to over react, and contact the professionals at the drop of a hat, totally guilty here!
Each one is unique in their own way.
We have always had these four-footed friends living within our homes. Without them it has been way to quiet. Also finned and feathered friends too!
Many have lived to ripe old ages with our care and love.
None of them have ever been treated like anything other than a family member, which I think helps in their longevity.
Unfortunately, serious illness can come to them even with inoculations; no matter how much you love and care for them. And we lost 5 senior pets in a 12 year period.

Back... we went to Pet Smart too, since we had coupon on dog food, and Skipper could go to.
He got all his shots at his doc, and was given a clean bill of health!
What more could an owner/parent hope for.

That's it for now...take care... talk more tomorrow.

Life's plans

Yesterday, I caught up with an old friend that had had surgery, and found out in spite of her extremely serious procedure she is doing well. Her only problem is that she was anxious for her recovery to go faster, and hopes to drive again in September!

She is an amazing person, and often forgets that she has gotten older and that these things, especially these things take a lot longer to happen. After all she is a little bit older than myself, twelve years my senior. But of all people she should know.
This was her 29 th surgery! She has had Rheumatoid Arthritis since her early twenties, and all those surgeries were joint replacements.
This time it was major, major, since her head was falling literally into her shoulders due to her vertebrae giving out having now a combo of Osteoporosis with the Rheumatoid, and being on steroids all these years. They were the only thing available with aspirin, and gold shots when she was diagnosed those many years ago.This particular surgery, which I am not quite sure of or totally understand is that they had to install a pole/bar to her spine from her cervical(neck) region to take the place of eleven of her vertebrae that weren't able to do the job any longer. The dilemma here was that they had to attach it to her skull since nothing else was viable. OUCH!
My friend was also my mentor because she is a volunteer with the Arthritis Foundation for nearly 35 years, which for her part entails setting up programs and self help courses for our entire state. She was my teacher in one of her self help courses about eleven years ago, and that's what got me involved in becoming a volunteer in this particular organization. I did volunteer with other ones since I was twenty. But this was personal, now I was one of them, having been diagnosed with seven types of arthritis, out of the one hundred ones that exist, I was 44 years old.

I did teach Aquacise,and was trained to teach the self help course, became co-president of the local support group, and a board member, and had a few fund raisers to help the cause. Proud to say I was volunteer of the year in 2000.

Sadly, the last few years I have not been so involved; since Hurricane Charley, in 2004 destroyed our home, and then my definite diagnosis with MS, those things threw me, I guess. Thinking about the above friend I should be ashamed that those slight inconveniences should be responsible for my not doing what I did love. I also used the excuse for quitting my writer's group due to the high calorie desserts they serve once a month, and my lack of will power to not eat them.

My husband has also retired in these last two years too, and I do enjoy spending time with him.
At one point I was on seven prescription drugs and a couple caused drowsiness, so I stopped driving out of fear of causing a possible accident. But I do believe my insurance agent was more responsible and caused that concern when she was surprised that I was still driving since I use a cane due to my Ataxia caused by the MS. Ataxia is just a balance issue, not a coordination one. And I never fell over in the car seat! I do drop things, but never ever the car.LOL

And since I have weened myself down to only two medications I do drive occasionally.
Everything is so close here.
Shopping is within a five mile radius, and that includes the mall (movie theaters here),theater(live shows, not movies), cultural center, art galleries, libraries, and groceries.
Our event center is also in that realm of mileage, but is still under construction. All new since the hurricane!

We pretty much have it all here!

Everyone enjoy the day!
And I will too.

Words that come back to bite you

Be careful about what you say (or write, in my case) out loud (or publish to the web)...
My blog from yesterday actually came to be as far as misunderstandings go.
I was concerned about family and friends having access to this blog so I decided to ask one family member and one friend if they were able to get into this blog for reading or commenting purposes.

Our son said that he never received the link although it was sent four times to him. While the friend said that she wasn't interested in reading the blog because it took away human contact. She preferred emails!
I begged to differ with that reasoning I seriously believe that blogs are just as interactive as emails when utilized properly!

Anyway, if I though this was only a one way street I probably would have had second thoughts about starting this.

But I did commit, and in my heart of hearts I did make a promise to myself to write a little something each and every day; so far so good.

In the process of my writings I did try to contact some friends that I had not heard from in literally years with the thought that this would be somewhat of a catch up on my side, and same on theirs promoting an open discussion. (I don't know for sure that I still had the right email addresses.)

Nothing in that realm either.

I'm beginning to sound a lot like a Seinfeld Show with so much talk about nothing, sorry! LOL Or maybe that is a good thing; it was highly successful.

In closing, on this watch, I must admit if nothing else I am back writing again. Something that I was slowing down on doing due to... no good reason at all! I guess you could say a block, but I am not a pro on a deadline with an editor for a book or an article, so that really doesn't fit.
I guess I just needed an outlet to get me fired up about something again, although I could never be considered apathetic.
Perhaps slightly jaded would be more accurate, and fearful, not quite right, I guess cautioned would be a better adjective from expressing myself due to ramifications, which seem to follow me everywhere!
I have often said that I suffer from foot in mouth disease. But I really thought I would think more before I spoke as I got older, but no that hasn't seemed to come into being.
This is a little cocooned here where even if I do get a response to these pearls of wisdom it would be delayed and enable me to have protection and time to think about my response or retaliation.

On that note, I guess I will close for today. Have a good one for yourselves and I will try to have one too!

Talking into the wind?

Hello again world?

Feedback, anyone out there reading any of this?
My reasons for starting this blog are dubious to be sure.
Although, I must admit my actual hopeful intent was to hear back from people I care about. That does mean all of you that I have sent this link to.

So far either no one has read any of it or perhaps they are being too polite to comment. Anyway, us, artistic types (a reach, even for me, LOL) are highly insecure and need approval!
In truth no one enjoys criticism, even constructive. So high praise is what any of us are about! LOL

Pitiful, the world is a mess and my ego is on the line... ha only kidding!
I do understand everyone has their thing going on, and hopefully they would ask for my help if they thought I could be of benefit to them. I am willing to reciprocate, really!

But this venue was chosen for me by me to air my thoughts diplomatically, and that is what I think I have accomplished. :-) That sounds so self centered, sorry!

As you may have already figured out today I had nothing to say day-wise.
My life is utterly mundane, and on occasion could be considered boring.

Perhaps that is why I do enjoy reading and writing, faraway places, ideas, and all that, but isn't that the reason most of us read?

This is not to say that I have not previously had excitement in my life.

By the age of 19 I would have been considered well travelled by most standards.
I had been to 40 states and 8 countries.

I have had some pretty interesting jobs too.
Way back in the early 1990's I was an entertainment manager for a promotion agency, and worked with MTV, NASCAR, and Grudge Match TV show. Not to mention booking bands for hotels, colleges and race car drivers parties. I also was lucky enough to cast an Old Milwaukee beer commercial, also local commercials, and worked on a music video. Exciting!

In partnership with my husband we had three businesses, a wicker store, a restaurant, and an underground sprinkler business, which we were the third largest in the state we resided in at that time!

So now in my golden years if quiet and boring is what I am...OK!

But I do sometimes wish that life were more exciting; in a positive way that is.

Unfortunately, at our ages, life occasionally gets negatively exciting. LOL

On an upbeat note that has not occured for a while now, and that is a very happy thing.

Most of us do eventually have too much sadness and tragedy in our lives if we live long enough... both of my parents passed away while I was still in my thirties. Now that was over 20 years ago, but that was truly a very, very, sad thing.

And in fact I have heard from two people who have read this, one told me to have a happy birthday. The other told me to light candles for all our loved ones who have passed, at least that's what I think they meant, or maybe they just like candles and told me to light them too?

I guess writing can be interpreted in so many different ways we must be careful with what we write.
Even speaking has it's downside and misunderstanding.
Ever think about that?
WOW life can be so complicated, and I guess that is interesting, but dangerous too... does that qualify as fascinating?

So I guess I'm not out of the old provocative non boring lifestyle, I can write and speak, and that can be dangerous and oh so exciting too!

Asking for help

Today I am asking for help with something that has been my desire for over ten years; to be exact, eleven now.

I have had journalism courses, writing seminars, and even belonged to a local writing organization.

As I have mentioned before I do enjoy writing, and have been published in the newspaper having had three times my own by-line items of interest. Once I was even given a photographer to use for the story I was about to write.
I am also published in a few books about writing, and our local storms.

Being one of strong ideas I have also written many opinion pieces that have gone on to become published editorial comments, but I have been told everyone gets to do that!

So here I am asking for some help with editing my five novellas consisting of approximately 900 pages, and from my twisted mind's sight. This is due to the topic being murder mysteries. They are five in the series.
Anyone who is willing to do this for nearly no money, but a share in possibly the publishing royalties would be the person for me to collaborate with.:-)
Thanks to anyone who is willing and able.

New topic... I am proud to say that my exercise program has gotten underway!
Over the weekend I was back in the pool for hours of enjoyment both Saturday and Sunday.

Today is an errand day, so walking indoors is on the agenda, which has passed for exercise by both amateurs and professionals alike.

You too have a great busy day!

Blogger's note: On occasion these writings will pop in and out due to me finding mistakes that I feel are worth trying to remedy, edit.