The swimming pool calls to me...

Finally the temperature of our swimming pool is where it should be in the mid eighties, and for the last week I could only stare at it with my annoying UTI but now this weekend I will definitely think about taking the plunge since I finished my last Cipro last night!

The day had been interesting with adding new friends to my Face book page, and reading their profiles has been nothing less than amazing!
Most all of them have become quite successful in many different types of professions, another lawyer, nurse, CEO of his own company, and a graphic artist so far impressive to say the least.
And imagine these are people I mostly knew from kindergarten, and a few from toddler-hood, fascinating, and I am proud to be called their friend. Everyone is married and many have grandchildren too, I am a little jealous of that. Always thought by now I would be a grandparent actually about fifteen years ago, since we did have our sons while still in our twenties, and we are now pushing sixty, not that far off.
I always looked forward to grandparenthood without any of fear of that age thing. My idea of being one would be just like my parents were, they were really great; in their eyes our boys could do no wrong, and they would happily spoil them lovingly and send them home! No set of second parents there with foolish discipline; love is all they felt they needed and did not ration that one bit or gifts either.
I miss them both terribly quite often.
It is a few days early but this time of the year is difficult since they are both gone and with Mother’s Day right around the corner and the fact that my Dad died on Mother’s Day, that year it being on May 11.1986 doesn’t make it any easier. Last year it fell right on that date, so it was real bad for me.

I do know there are many who probably feel as I do with missing their own parents and having their own children far away. We should support one another and make each other not feel so sad. Knowing we are not alone sometimes helps.

I also know many who opted not to have children and miss their parents severely at this time and to me I get it, really I do! We all need to not feel bad about feeling the way that we do when we do. As human beings we have that right to grieve in whatever way we wish to without being told to buck up or get over it that is what separates us from the lesser creatures, although in reality I think they feel emotions too.
They have that power to grieve for us or for one of their loved ones too, I have seen it first hand.

On that grist of fodder for the brain or whatever … please know as during the Christmas/ Chanukah time of year Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can produce that same type of sadness for some of us. The best one can do is to be there for the ones you care about and let them have those feelings without criticism.

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Amazing those contacts from way back when...

Yes! I did not remember the fellow who asked to be my friend on Face Book but I agreed to allow him to become my friend after several interview questions that I hope did not annoy him too much.

The truth is he is an attorney and accountant who had graduated the same year I did from my old high school, but I moved two years before graduation and I had actually graduated from another high school just a few towns away. We had even gone to the same junior high, but I still didn’t remember him. I Googled him to find out about him and he did definitely seem safe. Oddly enough since I agreed to allow him to be, ‘a friend’, many other people I once knew from growing up in that town appeared on my list with him as the common denominator of knowing them too; interesting.
And so I spent most of today, on and off checking this all out, and deciding just who I would ask to join me as a friend; so far no takers. We will see.
I am one of those very selective type people with a little fear mixed in. After all I had a stalker on Yahoo. He really couldn’t do too much but annoy me when I tried playing Dominoes, he would follow me from table to table. He did ask personal questions, which I of course did not answer and always wanted to chat which I didn’t I just wanted to play dominoes. Not so serious.

I read where one of my old buddies had flash flooding at her home with pictures and films just awful! It brought back the horror of going through Hurricane Charley August 13.2004, a Friday, and being stuck in our hallway with our puppy,cat and bird for four hours as our home was destroyed around us! Natural disasters are the worse because they are so unpredictable. Charley was supposed to hit Tampa 100 miles north of here, but it took a sharp right turn the last minute!
I find it difficult looking at pictures from any disasters since that fateful day, and when Katrina hit I think it triggered post traumatic stress syndrome.
Our home had to be rebuilt, and we had to do most of the work since we were under insured at that time, 80K insurance payment is all we got when we had more than 100K damage. Now we are insured for more than twice as much with the premiums to go with it. Living on a saltwater canal has advantages like being 5 minutes by boat to the harbor, fish pond, and with our pool some would say we have everything and we think we do too, but for a price. Our little retirement home is all new now (actually since five days before Christmas in 2004) and just perfect for us. It’s petite, but with my physical challenges these days it is just my right size, and we love it! We have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a sunroom which is where our computer is with giant windows to the backyard facing the canal, pond and swimming pool, very nice view, a garage with a 10’X12’ workshop in the back of it plus a couple of well built sheds of stucco that match our home’s design.

I must always remember not to harp on that horrible day, but every year we have to deal with that threat, although we had been living here 18 years when Charley hit us directly. We had lived in Florida when Andrew hit back in 1992 but we lived five and half hours north of there, and we did go down to help after. That devastation was horrendous too, but then we could go home, this time we were home, big difference!

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Tonight it was much easier getting connected than last night

I don't know if it was our computer here in the house or our online service or even Google, but last night it was quite a hassle getting to my Blog. Shutting down three or four times seemed futile at first but number five seemed to work. I don’t know about the rest of you, but by the time I began writing I was exhausted.

Face book gave me a similar agida today too, and I finally gave up and will try again tomorrow. I had someone ask to be my friend that I do not know or remember, perhaps? I want to ask how he knows me.

Any-who, this morning was that famous trip to the Neurologist follow up and evaluation; and the nurse practitioner that saw me was pleasant, efficient, and professional with a touch of compassion. Good qualities in any medical professional. I am glad I didn’t chicken out due to cost which was also not that extravagant at $65 for an hour and a half exam. I really thought it was going to be more than $100. The most amazing thing is that my appointment was for 9A.M. and that is exactly when I was seen! Being punctual is unheard of in this day and age for most all the medical offices that I have dealt with in the past. I have been asked to come back on the fifteenth of June at 10:30 A.M. for an update on the information accumulated from all previous doctors and today’s info, etc. to come to a conclusion on my mode of treatment. I will be there.

The presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan met with our leader and chief today…I say good for all of them, a united front may get those terrorists after all, and wouldn’t that be great!

The young woman who died from the flu in Texas, our first citizen who was only 33, a teacher, and had just given birth by C-section, but had a underlying condition that they still have not revealed, odd, but interesting. Maybe in the future they will let us know.

My chills have stopped today, and so I did not ask the new medical people that I had contact with. I am thinking that my infection is finally being beaten with my arsenal of Cipro?

On that positive note I will bid you good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Things change and we must go with the flow...

The elementary school that was closed last Friday in Bonita Springs for this week will be opening this Thursday after three school days of closure. All due to the new CDC recommendations that schools will not have to be closed due to the H1N1 Flu since it fortunately is not that severe even with confirmed cases. This announcement comes after we lost one American citizen from the flu, huh? Well, it appears this person, a woman, was unhealthy to begin with so it was expected, and so that is why, why? I’m unhealthy to begin with so if I die from the flu that’s OK? I sure hope that is not the case but the attitude says something different to me. Does that mean that this lighter or lite strain that seems to be not that sickening to most? The average/mean age has been sixteen years old for getting it apparently, and they can handle anything, if healthy enough, but if not…it is expected that they won’t?

I’m confused as usual I suppose.
What happened to the weak will inherit the earth….oh that was the meek, sorry!
Damn! I guess the rest of us, feisty but disabled groupies are just out of luck, oh well…

Housing market in some areas in Victorville, California it is so bad that a developer destroyed his half finished development with the logic it would cost over a million to finish and it takes only a 100K to tear it all down.
But some areas of our country have actually seen a recent increase in sales of homes, but at those bargain basement prices, of course…glass half full or half empty however you see it.

I am getting strange symptoms that could or might not be associated with the current infection still within me, although I am continuing to take the Cipro until it will be finished this Thursday I am getting periodic chills and then sweats, but my temperature registers normal. I did run a fever for over five days in the beginning of this nasty UTI. I looked first in the pamphlet that came with the medicine, and this is not a symptom that has anything to do with it. I even called the one who diagnosed me and she hasn’t a clue either. Well, tomorrow I will be seeing the Neurology personnel at the office maybe they will know, or perhaps it will be gone, but it has been coming and going, so weird.

A mystery…mmm I used to like to read them and write them too when I still could think coherently.

On that note good night to all and to count those blessings and I will too!

Finally, farewell Dom DeLuise who passed away at 75 today; he will be sorely missed...

Numbers on H1N1 Flu deaths has certainly changed

Originally, am I crazy or what… wasn't the original death toll in Mexico from the Swine Flu, 159?
Now all of a sudden, thankfully, it has gone down to 25? How did that happen and where was I?
We had one death here, a toddler in Texas that had travelled from Mexico, correct?

I must have missed a big news story, and I feel just awful about that.
Unless…Mexico has a way to revive the dead, nah sorry, that was totally inappropriate!
Please someone tell me how this happened and I will listen wholeheartedly.

Any-who, moving on… the federal government is trying to find Americans hiding their money abroad,
it seems that they also have been avoiding paying their rightful piece of the pie of the tax burden, shame on you!

The one I do like the best, also our government’s idea, and it is very simple, concise and oh so logical is giving tax breaks to the ones who actually create jobs right here in the dear old US of A, wow what a concept? I know it’s been tried before and then they outsourced, well we as Americans if willing to work will have to rethink what we need to make ends meet, and to prevent the jobs going back across the border or oceans.

Updates: Today was a much calmer day for my hubby, even though no major death defying ills were diagnosed they did find out he had a sinus infection which they prescribed a Z-pack for, and he felt OK enough to go to the pharmacy to pick it up; he is now medicated, also.
Far as I go… my head thing continues; it’s sort of like if there was a weight in it that throws you off in one direction periodically making it difficult to sit in an upright position for too long.
I hope it can all be attributed to the Cipro I am still on until Thursday, yea!
Hope it goes away then.
My MS hugs were quiet for a while but have returned today.
Not fun, especially the neck strangling one, and the tourniquet thigh one.
Tired too, sleep is being affected by pain again…getting comfortable is difficult, hips and shoulders behaving badly.

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Hubby got even...

Yep, my hubby got his all inclusive ambulance ride to the hospital this afternoon after he had what was definitely giving off the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.
Better safe than sorry!
Fortunately, his heart is fine and it doesn’t look like a stroke, but they gave him the option to stay or go and after careful deliberation with himself, he went, so we are now home and pooped.
Our neighbor was kind enough to give us a lift home.
A few good things did come from this is one, he had a CAT scan, and we now know that he too has a brain!
The other was a few chest X-rays which determined that so far he has not destroyed his lungs.
Whew, they said that they have an open door policy there if we need them.
Hope not!

On all this tizzy of a day, am I old or what? Tizzy, who says tizzy?

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

The underdog...horse wins the Kentucky Derby!

Mine that Bird, DOB 5-10-06, wearing #8, a $9500 horse with 50 to one odds just won the 135th Kentucky Derby!
Calvin Burrell, from Louisianan was the jockey.
That’s what makes America great, nah, but does make it a quite bit more interesting with these little pearls of hope for the rest of us to succeed beyond whatever obstacles come our way … a true rag to riches story.

Why is that something that makes us all enjoy life?
Don’t we all get that smidgen of expectation from our own trials and tribulations watching the underdog win?
Compassion and understanding for what anyone has had to go through to achieve something just past their reach is so honorable, and who can’t agree with the refreshing warmth of that knowledge gives to all of us.

More than likely that’s why so many enjoy films about sports figures that all have come from behind.
Now we are in another great depression in our history, and hope is needed and becomes tangible when seen in these ways. It’s the only thing many still have.

We need more inspiration on TV and movies, not necessarily religious, but showing where people have come from and how they pulled themselves up from their bootstraps.
Good old fashion stories with moral issues that we as a nation/world can relate to.

As heartwarming and cliché as all this seems to you I want to ask you fellow world residents…why not?
I know Slumdog Millionaire just won many Academy Awards, and It’s A Wonderful Life plays yearly over and over again, but doesn’t that sound like there should be more?

If these epitomize what we really want, I say why not?
Pound out those scripts people we need your input, quickly I must say, even TV and the movie studios are running on low finances!

On that thoughtful note, but perhaps slightly negative I will bid you good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

PS H1N1 case confirmed in the state of Florida have grown to several counties